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Dielectric, anti-reflective or high reflective systems consist of low and high refractive index layers. Common systems are oxides. The preparation of low refractive index MgF2-films of optical quality by means of an anhydrous low temperature solgel synthesis is presented. The MgF2-sol is prepared by spin-coating on silicon and glass substrates. Various film thicknesses between 20 nm and 435 nm have been deposited. It has been shown that the thickness increase is proportional to the number of coating steps. The deposited MgF2-films consist of 10 nm to 20 nm large nanoparticles and have smooth surfaces with an average roughness (Ra) of (1.7 ± 0.3) nm. The optical constants n and k of the films are in agreement with the literature data of bulk-MgF2.
A gas sensor system based on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect in a 44 nm Au layer was studied. The usability of this sensor system was investigated for several analyte gases and gas mixtures which are interesting due to their flammability, toxicity or greenhouse effect. The SPR effect of gold was measured in nitrogen and compared with the gaseous alkane series which caused a shift of the position of the SPR effect. For in situ measurements, the phase shift Δ at the SPR angle (ψ minimum) in the analyte gas mixtures was measured for investigated gases in comparison with nitrogen. With this method, detection limits of different gases could be determined, which lie in a range interesting for safety engineering. Furthermore the aging effect of the gold layers which leads to loss in sensitivity of the sensor was investigated.
In this work, thin iron doped tin oxide layers (3–6 nm) were investigated with regard to gas sensitivity by means of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect with ellipsometric readout. The experimental set-up was a Kretschmann configuration with gold as metal layer. The sensor system was exposed to different concentrations of methane in the low ppm range and the sensor response of an uncoated gold layer compared to a gold layer coated with iron doped tin oxide. The additional layer effects stability with regard to drift behavior of the sensor and an increase in sensitivity. Furthermore, the sensor is able to detect the toxic gas carbon monoxide in low concentration range (down to 0.5 ppm). The thin layers were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, secondary electron microscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry. The possible mechanisms taking place on the surface are discussed.
Thin films of MgF2 have been deposited on silicon wafers in optical quality with a novel sol-gel deposition process at temperatures as low as 100 °C. The properties of the fluoride layers are compared to bulk MgF2 with respect to the optical constants. By employing spectroscopic mapping ellipsometry, the uniformity of the thickness of fluoride layers is confirmed to be within acceptable limits for optical applications. The optical constants are close to the bulk data. High-quality low-index films of suitable and homogeneous thickness have already been produced on a laboratory scale.
MgF2 and TiO2 single layers and layer stacks were produced by a spin-coating sol-gel process. The final temperature treatment was carried out at 100 °C. The layers were deposited onto silicon and fused silica substrates and were analysed by means of atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, ellipsometry, and UV-vis transmission spectroscopy. MgF2 and TiO2 single layers have morphological and optical properties comparable with physical vapour deposited layers. By using spectroscopic mapping ellipsometry, a good inter- and intra-sample homogeneity was confirmed. Multiple deposition steps result in a linear increase of layer thickness. Various films were deposited with thicknesses between 25 nm and 350 nm.
It was shown that the low temperature sol-gel process results in films of optical quality. Anti-reflective and high reflective layer stacks consisting of MgF2 and TiO2 were designed and can be produced now by a sol-gel process, whereas the MgF2 layers in the layer stacks contains also traces of MgF2-2xOx.
An ellipsometric gas sensor based on the surface Plasmon resonance (SPR) effect of ~ 43 nm thick gold layers was investigated. To protect the gold layer from contamination and to improve the detection limits, the gold layers were top-coated with 5–6 nm thick layers of organic a-C:H or with inorganic metal oxides TiO2 or ZrO2. The additional layers increased the long-term stability, whereas the metal oxide layers protect better than a-C:H. Furthermore, the additional layers decreased the detection limits by one order of magnitude in case of a-C:H and two orders of magnitude in case of the oxides. It could be shown that the detection limits also depend on the kind of preparation (sol–gel process or physical vapour deposition) of the additional layers.