Comparative Study of Structural and Optical Properties of SiO2 Nanoparticles Prepared by DC Reactive Sputtering and Sol-Gel Route

In the present work, silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) nanostructures were synthesized using two different techniques: sol-gel deposition and dc reactive plasma sputtering deposition. Amorphous structural phase of silica films was observed for the samples synthesized by two decomposition methods. The results of scanning electron microscopy indicated the nanostructural characteristic of such compounds. In addition to, the dependence of such nanostructures on the synthesis parameters in each preparation method. The FT-IR spectroscopic measurements showed the formation of siloxan bonds as well as the high content of hydroxyl groups in silica sol-gel samples compared with samples derived sputtering. The UV-Vis. Spectroscopic measurements were used to investigate the optical properties of such nanostructure films in order to select the optimum samples that can be employed in different optoelectronics applications such as scatters in amplifying media.