Optical properties and environmental stability of oxide coatings deposited by reactive sputtering.

Refractory metal-oxide coatings are deposited by reactive dc magnetron sputtering in an oxygen environment. The optical constants and the environmental stability of silicon oxide, aluminium oxide, hafnium oxide, zirconium oxide, tantalum oxide, titanium oxide, and a blend of hafnium oxide with silicon oxide are investigated. Properties of both single-layer and multilayer interference filters are examined.