Abstract: Nanoporous columnar ZrO2 films were deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering using glancing angle deposition (GLAD) configuration. The influences of deposition angle and target-substrate distance on the optical and structural properties of ZrO2 films were investigated. It is found that the ZrO2 films fabricated using GLAD show a tilted columnar microstructure; the width of the gap between two adjacent columnar crystals is less than 100 nm; the average grain size of ZrO2 films is about 10 nm; and the orientation of some grains can be changed by changing the deposition angle. In addition, with the increase in the deposition angle or/and target-substrate distance, the porosity of ZrO2 film increases while the refractive index and the deposition rate of ZrO2 film decreases. A larger deposition angle tends to increase the column inclination angle while a longer target-substrate distance tends to decrease the column inclination angle. The refractive index and porosity of ZrO2 films deposited at deposition angle of 75° are 156 and 417%, respectively.

Key words: nanoporous columnar, ZrO2 film, glancing angle deposition, magnetron sputtering