Vol. 41, Issue 1, pp. 257-268

Abstract

Gallium phosphide (GaP) thin film was prepared by an asymmetric bipolar pulsed-dc magnetron sputtering technique onto glass substrate at room temperature in an Ar atmosphere. A compacted GaP powder was used as a target. The X-ray diffraction patterns show that the film is amorphous. The transmittance of the film was measured in the incident photon wavelength range of 300–2000 nm. The film’s refractive index, thickness and absorption coefficient as a function of wavelength were determined by using Swanepoel’s method. The deduced absorption data indicate that the optical transition in the film is dominated by the indirect type. The corresponding energy of 1.51 eV was obtained for the 563±16 nm thin film.