Optical studies of lithium sulfate thin films deposited by electron-beam evaporation.

Fabrication of lithium sulfate (Li2SO4) thin films has been successfully attempted using the electron-beam evaporation technique, and the deposition conditions were systematically optimized to get stable Li2SO4 thin films. Thin films have been prepared under the pressure of 8×10−4 mbar on glass and quartz substrates. The thin film deposited on quartz substrates was used for optical studies. The optical properties of the fabricated films were investigated using optical transmission spectroscopy measurements. A transparency of 80 % and a lower cut-off wavelength at 320 nm were measured from the UV-vis spectrum for Li2SO4 thin film. Further, the band gap value of the thin film is compared with that of Li2SO4 powder, which was obtained by DRS measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]