As a coating material with excellent optical and mechanical properties, silica films can be used as anti-reflective and protective layers on the windows and domes of sapphire. In this paper, the designed films of SiO2 have been prepared on sapphire wafers and hemisphere dome of sapphire by radio frequency magnetron reactive sputtering. Compositions and structure of SiO2 films were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The
refractive index of deposited films was measured and effects of the coatings on optical properties of sapphire have been studied. The results express that the refractive index of the films can be varied between 3.4 and 1.4 by changing the gas flow ratio. The deposited films can increase the transmission of sapphire in mid-wave IR greatly. The average transmittance of sapphire wafers
coated with SiO2 films on both sides can be increased to 96.43 % in 3～5 µm.
