Process for depositing optical thin films on both planar and non-planar substrates

A process for forming a thin film on a substrate in a vacuum chamber, comprising:

• rotating the substrate about at least one axis and through processing zones within the chamber;
• at a first processing zone, sputter depositing onto the substrate a thin coating of material;
• at a second processing zone, providing a locally intense reactive plasma and chemically reacting substantially the entire thickness of the deposited material with the reactive plasma, the chemical reaction step being sequential in space relative to the sputter deposition step;
• and repeating the deposition and chemical reaction steps to form an optical thin film on the substrate.

A process for forming a thin film on a substrate in a vacuum chamber, comprising:

• providing a substrate support;
• mounting a plurality of substrates on the support;
• rotating the substrate support about at least one axis and through processing zones within the chamber;
• at a first processing zone, sputter depositing onto the substrates a thin coating of material;
• at a second zone, providing a locally intense reactive plasma and chemically reacting substantially the entire thickness of the deposited material with the reactive plasma, the chemical reaction step being sequential in space relative to the sputter deposition step;
• and repeating the deposition and chemical reaction steps to form an optical thin film on the substrates.