Organic/SiO2 chemical vapor deposited nanocomposites as templates for nanoporous silica

Two different organic/SiO2 nanocomposites, one by remote thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method and other by rf plasma enhanced CVD method, both as potential templates for the formation of nanoporous silica, are presented. The index of refraction, extinction coefficient and thickness of each film are compared with SiO2 grown by the remote thermal CVD method as a function of post-deposition anneals in oxygen. The poly(chloro-p-xylylene) (PPXC)/SiO2 nanocomposite forms a very low index film with an extinction coefficient of zero after post-deposition annealing in an O2 environment. Since the organic possesses a low oxidative stability and is bonded to the SiO2 network by the weak van der Waals forces, the method is a high potential for depositing.