Switching devices in sol-gel hybrid thin film technology

Development of non-volatile memories based on organic soft materials is one of two main trends in industry for flash-memories. The electrical bistability of such materials makes them ideal candidates for cost-effective, fast programming switching devices. SiO₂-Rose Bengal (bis-triethylammonium) hybrid thin films are reported here together with their characterizations. The technology yields well reproducible films with good current-voltage switching characteristics. Owing to their physical and chemical stability the films are suited to standard micro-photolitography technology, rendering their fabrication cost-effective.     

Development of nanostructured ZnO thin film sensor for NO2 detection

In this work, we report on the performance of a NO₂ sensor based on nanocrystalline zinc oxide (ZnO) operating at 200°C. The sensor was fabricated using spin coating technique on glass substrates. ZnO film was characterised for their structural as well as surface morphologies and NO₂ response was studied. The XRD analysis showed formation of nanocrystalline ZnO. Morphological analysis using SEM revealed formation of a diffusion free surface. The ZnO film showed selectivity for NO₂ over methanol compared to ethanol, H₂S, Cl₂ and NH₃ (S_NO2 /S_CH3OH?=?18.6, S_NO2 /S_C2H5OH?=?12.4, S_NO2 /S_Cl2 ?=?9.3, S_NO2 /S_H2S?=?3.32 and S_NO2 /S_NH3 ?=?5.32). The maximum NO₂ response of 37.2% with 78% stability for the film annealed at 700°C at gas concentration of 100?ppm at 200°C operating temperature was achieved.     

TiO(2)/LiCl-based nanostructured thin film for humidity sensor applications

A simple and straightforward method of depositing nanostructured thin films, based on LiCl-doped TiO(2), on glass and LiNbO(3) sensor substrates is demonstrated. A spin-coating technique is employed to transfer a polymer-assisted precursor solution onto substrate surfaces, followed by annealing at 520°C to remove organic components and drive nanostructure formation. The sensor material obtained consists of coin-shaped nanoparticles several hundred nanometers in diameter and less than 50 nm thick. The average thickness of the film was estimated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) to be 140 nm. Humidity sensing properties of the nanostructured material and sensor response times were studied using conductometric and surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor techniques, revealing reversible signals with good reproducibility and fast response times of about 0.75 s. The applicability of this nanostructured film for construction of rapid humidity sensors was demonstrated. Compared with known complex and expensive methods of synthesizing sophisticated nanostructures for sensor applications, such as physical vapor deposition (PVD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD), this work presents a relatively simple and inexpensive technique to produce SAW humidity sensor devices with competitive performance characteristics.     

High transparent sol-gel derived nanostructured TiO2 thin film

In this investigation, high transparent nanostructured TiO₂ thin film has been prepared by a dip-coating method. The prepared sol was obtained through the hydrolysis of titanium isopropoxide under the selected pH. The transmission of film as an optical parameter was characterized by spectrophotometer. With respect to other experimental results, a high transmission spectrum without any fluctuation in visible wavelength region has been recorded. According to transmission spectrum of film the refractive index and extinction coefficient has been determined. Experimental result has shown that the prepared film has high transmission and good optical parameters. SEM and AFM have been applied for morphology characterization of the film surface.     

Highly ordered large-area colloid templates for nanostructured TiO2 thin film gas sensors

We report a novel process that uses highly ordered colloidal templating to fabricate nanostructured TiO2 thin film gas sensors. An O2 plasma treatment is used to decrease the contact angle of a water droplet on a SiO2/Si substrate from 46 degrees to 3 degrees. The formation of this hydrophilic surface enhances the adhesion of polystyrene microspheres to the substrate during the spin coating of the colloidal solution, leading to a large-area colloid template of closely packed monolayer microspheres on the substrates. Embossed TiO2 thin film gas sensors fabricated through highly ordered colloidal templating using O2 plasma exhibit substantially enhanced gas sensing performance as compared to those without surface treatments prior to colloidal templating.     

Fabrication and characterization of microcantilever integrated with PZT thin film sensor and actuator

The purpose is to find the potential application of PZT thin film for microsensor and microactuator. Pb(Zr_0.5Ti_0.5)O₃ thin film is deposited by sol-gel method. Piezoelectric microcantilever with two-segment top electrodes is fabricated using bulk micromachining techniques. Piezoelectricity of the deposited PZT thin film and sensing and actuation capability of the each segment of microcantilever is proved. Experiments are performed when one segment acts as an actuator or vibrator and another segment as force sensor. The results show that the proposed PZT thin film microcantilever can be used in force feedback and object manipulation simultaneously.     

V2O5薄膜用作SO2气敏传感器

在O2/Ar气氛中，用射频磁控溅射法在常温下溅射V2O5粉末靶得到氧化钒薄膜。在350℃热处理后，经XRD分析，薄膜的主要成分为V2O5。在不同温度下对V2O5薄膜作了对“空气和SO2”的混合气氛的敏感特性测试分析，发现在300～390℃范围内，薄膜对SO2气体灵敏随温度的升高而增大，在超过390℃后，灵敏度随温度升高而降低。在SO2气体去除后，薄膜的电阻值能恢复到初始状态，气敏过程可反复进行。文章对V2O3薄膜的气敏机理作了定性描述。     

无机薄膜电致发光器件中绝缘层材料的研究

薄膜电致发光（TFEL）技术将戍为平板显示技术的潮流和主体。简要介绍了平板显示技术的发展，同时对无机薄膜电致发光器件中绝缘层材料的选择进行了探讨。     

Novel aspects in thin film silicon solar cells-amorphous, microcrystalline and nanocrystalline silicon

The improvement of photodegradation of a-Si:H has been studied on the basis of controlling the subsurface reaction and gaseous phase reaction. We found that higher deposition temperature, hydrogen dilution and triode method are effective to reduce the SiH₂ density in the film and to suppress the photodegradation of solar cells. These results are explained in terms of the hydrogen elimination reaction in the subsurface region and the contribution of the higher silane radicals to the film growth. The high-rate deposition of μc-Si:H was obtained by means of a high-pressure method and further improvement in deposition rate and the film quality was achieved in combination with the locally high-density plasma, which enables effective dissociation of source gases without thermal damage. It was also found that the deposition pressure is crucial to improve the film quality for device. This technique was successfully applied to the solar cells and an efficiency of 7.9% was obtained at a deposition rate of 3.1 nm/s. The potential application of nanocrystalline silicon is also discussed.     

Disappearance of stress singularity at interface edge due to nanostructured thin film

The purpose of this study is to examine the stress distribution near the interface between a nanostructured thin film and a solid body. We focus on a nanostructured thin film that consists of Ta₂O₅ helical nanosprings fabricated on a Si substrate by dynamic oblique deposition. The mechanical properties of the thin film are obtained by vertical and lateral loading tests using a diamond tip built into an atomic force microscope. The apparent shear and Young’s moduli, G′ and E′, of the thin film are 2-3 orders of magnitude lower than those of a conventional solid Ta₂O₅ film. Moreover, the thin film shows strong anisotropy. A finite element analysis for two types of components with different interface edges between the thin film and an elastic solid body is conducted under uniform displacement. One has a free edge where the surface-interface angle is 90°-90°, and the other has a short interface crack. These analyses indicate the absence of not only stress singularity but also high stress concentration near the free edge and the interface crack tip. The characteristic stress distributions near the interface are due to the nanoscopically discrete structure of the thin film.     

Lipase immobilized on nanostructured cerium oxide thin film coated on transparent conducting oxide electrode for butyrin sensing

Nanostructured cerium oxide (CeO₂) thin films were deposited on transparent conducting oxide (TCO) substrate using spray pyrolysis technique with cerium nitrate salt, Ce(NO₃)₃·6H₂O as precursor. Fluorine doped cadmium oxide (CdO:F) thin film prepared using spray pyrolysis technique acts as the TCO film and hence the bare electrode. The structural, morphological and elemental characterizations of the films were carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) respectively. The diffraction peak positions in XRD confirmed the formation of highly crystalline ceria with cubic structure and FE-SEM images showed uniform adherent films with granular morphology. The band gaps of CeO₂ and TCO were found to be 3.2 eV and 2.6 eV respectively. Lipase enzyme was physisorbed on the surface of CeO₂/TCO film to form the lipase/nano-CeO₂/TCO bioelectrode. Sensing studies were carried out using cyclic voltammetry and amperometry, with lipase/nano-CeO₂/TCO as working electrode and tributyrin as substrate. The mediator-free biosensor with nanointerface exhibited excellent linearity (0.33–1.98 mM) with a lowest detection limit of 2 μM with sharp response time of 5 s and a shelf life of about 6 weeks.     

Indium oxide thin film based ammonia gas and ethanol vapour sensor

A sensor for ammonia gas and ethanol vapour has been fabricated using indium oxide thin film as sensing layer and indium tin oxide thin film encapsulated in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as a miniature heater. For the fabrication of miniature heater indium tin oxide thin film was grown on special high temperature corning glass substrate by flash evaporation method. Gold was deposited on the film using thermal evaporation technique under high vacuum. The film was then annealed at 700 K for an hour. The thermocouple attached on sensing surface measures the appropriate operating temperature. The thin film gas sensor for ammonia was operated at different concentrations in the temperature range 323–493 K. At 473 K the sensitivity of the sensor was found to be saturate. The detrimental effect of humidity on ammonia sensing is removed by intermittent periodic heating of the sensor at the two temperatures 323K and 448 K, respectively. The indium oxide ethanol vapour sensor operated at fixed concentration of 400 ppm in the temperature range 293–393 K. Above 373 K, the sensor conductance was found to be saturate. With various thicknesses from 150–300 nm of indium oxide sensor there was no variation in the sensitivity measurements of ethanol vapour. The block diagram of circuits for detecting the ammonia gas and ethanol vapour has been included in this paper.     

Optical and hydrophilic properties of nanostructure Cu loaded brookite TiO2 thin film

Copper loaded TiO₂ brookite thin films were deposited on glass substrates using the dip-coating method. The crystalline structure of the films was characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to evaluate the properties of the film surfaces. The transmittance spectra of the films were obtained by the Shimadzu multi-purpose spectrophotometer. The water contact angle on the film surfaces during irradiation and storage in a dark place was measured by a contact angle analyzer. The results indicate that Cu loading did not affect the transmittance spectra, whereas it had a significant effect on the hydrophilicity of the TiO₂ film surface.     

Thermoelectric properties of boron-carbide thin film and thin film based thermoelectric device fabricated by intense-pulsed ion beam evaporation

Crystallized B₁₃C₂ thin films were fabricated by intense pulsed-ion beam evaporation (IBE) method. Electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficients of the obtained films were 1×10^—4 l/Ωm and 200 μV/K at 1000 K, respectively. These values were comparable to those of bulks. For the application of the thin films, since reasonable thermoelectric (TE) properties were confirmed for the B₁₃C₂ films fabricated, we attempted to develop ’in-plane’ type TE device using B₁₃C₂ and SrB₆ as p-type and n-type elements, respectively. With applying temperature difference to the fabricated device, thermo-electromotive force and electrical power were generated from the device we made, indicating that the device worked as a TE device. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the TE device composed of only boron-rich solids.     

Structural and electrical properties of LuMnO3 thin film prepared by chemical solution method

Hexagonal LuMnO₃ thin films have been prepared based on a chemical solution deposition method. These films were deposited by spin-coating technique and annealed at different temperatures from 750 °C up to 850 °C, based on the thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis results. An amorphous phase is observed in the film annealed at 750 °C, while a pure LuMnO₃ hexagonal phase is reached in the films annealed at 800 °C and 850 °C, along with a visible enhancement in the grain morphology as the annealing temperature increase. Low temperature magnetic analysis of the LuMnO₃ films annealed at 850 °C reveals several magnetic transitions, which are consistent with those reported for both LuMnO₃ ceramics and single crystals. Moreover, the emergence of a canted spin arrangement was evidenced from the temperature dependence of the specific induced magnetization and magnetic hysteretic cycles. No significant effect of the substrate on the magnetic properties was also sorted out. Dielectric measurements reveal the existence of a complex frequency behavior of the dielectric permittivity, which can be associated with relaxation processes arising from the interfaces film/electrodes.     

Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy for nanostructured thin film density evaluation

In this paper, we report on two fast and non-destructive methods for nanostructured film density evaluation based on a combination of energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy for areal density measurement and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for thickness evaluation. These techniques have been applied to films with density ranging from the density of a solid down to a few , with different compositions and morphologies. The high resolution of an electron microprobe has been exploited to characterize non-uniform films both at the macroscopic scale and at the microscopic scale.     

低能电子束制备硅基纳米薄膜微结构研究

本文提出了一种新颖的结合自组装技术和电子束直写曝光以及选择性化学沉积制备图案化薄膜方法。利用X-射线光电子能谱（XPS），扫描电子显微镜（SEM），透射电子显微镜（TEM）紫外可见光谱仪（Analytic Jena AG）进行了表征。结果表明该方法取得了选择性较好的图案化金薄膜微结构图形。文中对胶体金纳米颗粒尺寸的选择以及金薄膜图案的粘附性能也进行了探讨。该方法有望应用于微／纳电子工业中。