Elaboration at 80°C of SiO2 Layers Deposited by Aerosol-Gel Process

The aerosol-gel process is a thin film deposition technique based on the sol-gel polymerization of a liquid film deposited from an ultrasonically sprayed aerosol. SiO2 layers have been deposited by aerosol-gel process from TEOS solutions prepared using a two-step procedure. After a post-treatment at 80°C, the layers have a remarkable abrasion resistance and a high refractive index. In this paper, the chemical mechanisms involved in the formation of SiO2 layers at low temperature are studied by FTIR spectroscopy and related to the processing conditions.