Dense moisture stable titania and silica ion assisted deposited films deposited using a compact cold cathode ion source.

Considerable data has been published on the benefits of ion assisted deposition (IAD) (1,2,3). The cold cathode ion source is a relatively mature device but has generally been regarded as having limited utility in applications requiring large area, uniform ion beams or improving the oxidation of reactive processes and increasing the refractive index of deposited films. A majority of the thin film community did not regard the early versions of the cold cathode ion source as equivalents to the Kaufman gridded ion sources, end-Hall ion sources, Advanced Plasma Source (APS) or Reactive Low Voltage Ion Plating in producing high-index, moisture stable films.