Specular laser reflectance (He-Ne laser) has been used to monitor in-situ and in real time the growth rate and the index of refraction of oxide films during chemical vapor deposition. This technique has been implemented on an inverted vertical stagnation-flow reactor equipped with a solid-source delivery system. Yttria deposited on silicon has been chosen as a starting material to characterize the reactor and the precursor delivery system capabilities. The experimental reflectance curves have been fitted to a simple three-layer (gas/film/substrate) model allowing the determination of the growth rate and of the refractive index. The growth rate has been studied as a function of various key processing parameters: the source feeding rate, the powder packing density, the oxygen partial pressure and the total pressure. The change in reflectivity has also been recorded during pulsed-delivery growth. Nanometer-scale resolution is obtained which demonstrates that this method can be extended to the study of multilayer oxide structures.

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