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Aluminum oxide films were grown on (100) silicon wafers and glass substrates by pulsed dc reactive magnetron sputtering deposition. In this experiment, substrate temperatures were varied from room temperature to 500°C. Grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) analysis revealed that the resulting films have amorphous structures. Field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) was used to characterize the morphology of the films. The films’ optical properties were determined by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The results demonstrated that the deposition rate, the surface roughness and the transmittance spectra of the aluminum oxide films were strongly influenced by the substrate temperature. The deposition rate and the surface roughness of the films were higher at higher substrate temperatures. In the range between 100°C and 200°C, the transmittance spectra were found to be lower than those of the films deposited at other substrate temperatures. This was due to the sub-aluminum oxide condition in the films. The dependence of films’ optical properties on the substrate temperature might result from the change in chemical compositions during the sputtering process.

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE) were used to analyse the effect of oxygen plasma treatment on properties of aluminum oxide thin films. The aluminum oxide films were fabricated using a reactive sputtering system. The as-deposited films were treated with oxygen plasma powered by an RF generator. During the plasma treatment, the pressures were set at 1 x 10-1 to 1x 10-2 mbar, while the RF supplied powers at 100 W and 200 W. It was observed that lower plasma powers and higher pressures resulted in smoother films. The O/Al ratio of the films were found to decrease with increasing plasma powers and pressures. The thickness and refractive index of the films were significantly affected by the oxygen plasma treatment process, which could be related to the change in films’ packing density and the etching at the surface.