Lead-free oxide thin films for gas detection
Résumé
In view to develop gas sensors, a first generation of lead-free thin films was deposited by different techniques on commercial Si and Al2O3 substrates. During our research project, the correlation between the micro structure of films, the structure of the embedded sensors and the applied temperature range, is being studied. In the first year, doped and undoped BaTiO3, KNbO3 and ZnO thin films have been deposited by sol-gel and PLD techniques. BT and BST films have shown a polycrystalline structure with very fine and regular grains, while disoriented grains with an average size ranging from 50 to 200 nm were observed on the KNbO3 film surface, and ZnO films exhibited a columnar growth. All films were characterized and finally embedded to make semiconductor gas sensors which have been tested under different gases. In this first generation of sensors, ZnO sensors have shown encouraging preliminary results under CO and H2S gases.