TY - JOUR A1 - Fischer, Daniel A1 - Hertwig, Andreas A1 - Beck, Uwe A1 - Negendank, Detlef A1 - Lohse, Volkmar A1 - Kormunda, M. A1 - Esser, N. T1 - Dependence of the optical constants and the performance in the SPREE gas measurement on the thickness of doped tin oxide over coatings JF - Applied Surface Science N2 - In this study, thickness related changes of the optical properties of doped tin oxide were studied. Two different sets of samples were prepared. The first set was doped with iron or nickel on silicon substrate with thicknesses of 29–56 nm, the second was iron doped on gold/glass substrate with 1.6–6.3 nm. The optical constants were determined by using spectral ellipsometry (SE) followed by modelling of the dielectric function with an oscillator model using Gaussian peaks. The analysis of the optical constants shows a dependence of the refraction and the absorption on the thickness of the doped tin oxide coating. In addition to the tin oxide absorption in the UV, one additional absorption peak was found in the near-IR/red which is related to plasmonic effects due to the doping. This peak shifts from the near-IR to the red part of the visible spectrum and becomes stronger by reducing the thickness, probably due to the formation of metal nanoparticles in this layer. These results were found for two different sets of samples by using the same optical model. Afterwards the second sample set was tested in the Surface Plasmon Resonance Enhanced Ellipsometric (SPREE) gas measurement with CO gas. It was found that the thickness has significant influence on the sensitivity and thus the adsorption of the CO gas. By increasing the thickness from 1.6 nm to 5.1 nm, the sensing ability is enhanced due to a higher coverage of the surface with the over coating. This is explained by the high affinity of CO molecules to the incorporated Fe-nanoparticles in the tin oxide coating. By increasing the thickness further to 6.3 nm, the sensing ability drops because the layer disturbs the SPR sensing effect too much. T2 - 7th International Conference on Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (ICSE-7) DA - 06.06.2016 KW - Surface plasmon resonance KW - Spectroscopic ellipsometry KW - Doped tin oxide KW - Gas sensing KW - Plasmonic absorption PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2016.11.188 SN - 0169-4332 VL - 421, Teil B SP - 480 EP - 486 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-42692 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rosu, Dana-Maria A1 - Ortel, Erik A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Kraehnert, R. A1 - Hertwig, Andreas ED - Hertwig, Andreas ED - Hinrichs, K. ED - Beck, Uwe ED - Esser, N. T1 - Ellipsometric porosimetry on pore-controlled TiO2 layers JF - Applied Surface Science N2 - The practical performance of surface coatings in applications like catalysis, water splitting or batteries depends critically on the coating materials’ porosity. Determining the porosity in a fast and nondestructive way is still an unsolved problem for industrial thin-films technology. As a contribution to calibrated, non-destructive, optical layer characterisation, we present a multi-method comparison study on porous TiO2 films deposited by sol-gel synthesis on Si wafers. The ellipsometric data were collected on a range of samples with different TiO2 layer thickness and different porosity values. These samples were produced by templated sol-gel synthesis resulting in layers with a well-defined pore size and pore density. The ellipsometry measurement data were analysed by means of a Bruggeman effective medium approximation (BEMA), with the aim to determine the mixture ratio of void and matrix material by a multi-sample analysis strategy. This analysis yielded porosities and layer thicknesses for all samples as well as the dielectric function for the matrix material. Following the idea of multi-method techniques in metrology, the data was referenced to imaging by electron microscopy (SEM) and to a new EPMA (electron probe microanalysis) porosity approach for thin film analysis. This work might lead to a better metrological understanding of optical porosimetry and also to better-qualified characterisation methods for nano-porous layer systems. 1. IntroductionPorous materials, especially porous thin films play an importantrole in chemical and physical technology in every case where thecontact area between two media has to be maximised. From cataly-sis to photochemistry and photovoltaics, the applications of porouslayer materials are diverse and numerous [1–6].The accurate and non-destructive characterisation of porousfilms for layered systems poses a challenge. This applies especiallyfor the key parameter of porous films, their porosity, i.e. the mix-ing ratio between the Matrix of the film (host material) and thepore volume which is empty or filled with a fluid medium (inclu-sions). This parameter influences most of the physical and chemicalproperties of a porous thin film and is therefore essential for theunderstanding as well as the optimisation of this class of materials. T2 - International Conference on Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (ICSE-7) CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 06.06.2016 KW - Spectroscopic ellipsometry KW - Porous materials KW - Porosimetry KW - Multi-sample analysis KW - Thin film metrology PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2016.11.055 SN - 0169-4332 SN - 1873-5584 VL - 421 IS - Part B SP - 487 EP - 493 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-42517 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -