The development of the optical bio-chemical sensing technology is an extremely important scientific and technological issue for diagnosis and monitoring of diseases, control of industrial processes, environmental detection of air and water pollutants. Owing to their distinctive features, chalcogenide amorphous thin films represent a keystone in the manufacture of middle infrared integrated optical devices for a sensitive detection of biological or environmental variations. Since the chalcogenide thin films characteristics, i.e. stoichiometric conformity, structure, roughness or optical properties can be affected by the growth process, the choice and control of the deposition method is crucial. An approach based on the experimental design is undoubtedly a way to be explored allowing fast optimization of chalcogenide film deposition by means of radio frequency sputtering process. Argon (Ar) pressure, working power and deposition time were selected as potentially the most influential factors among all possible. The experimental design analysis confirms the great influence of the Ar pressure on studied responses: chemical composition, refractive index in near-IR (1.55 µm) and middle infrared (6.3 and 7.7 µm), band-gap energy, deposition rate and surface roughness. Depending on the intended application and therefore desired thin film characteristics, mappings of the experimental design meaningfully help to select suitable deposition parameters.

• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH

Pulsed laser deposition technique was used for the fabrication of Ge-Te rich GeTe-Sb2Te3 (Ge6Sb2Te9, Ge8Sb2Te11, Ge10Sb2Te13, and Ge12Sb2Te15) amorphous thin films. To evaluate the influence of GeTe content in the deposited films on physico-chemical properties of the GST materials, scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, X-ray diffraction and reflectometry, atomic force microscopy, Raman scattering spectroscopy, optical reflectivity, and sheet resistance temperature dependences as well as variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements were used to characterize as-deposited (amorphous) and annealed (crystalline) layers. Upon crystallization, optical functions and electrical resistance of the films change drastically, leading to large optical and electrical contrast between amorphous and crystalline phases. Large changes of optical/electrical properties are accompanied by the variations of thickness, density, and roughness of the films due to crystallization. Reflectivity contrast as high as ~0.21 at 405 nm was calculated for Ge8Sb2Te11, Ge10Sb2Te13, and Ge12Sb2Te15 layers.

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• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH

Amorphous thin films from Ge-As-Te system were prepared by pulsed laser deposition to study their intrinsic photostability, morphology, chemical composition, structure and optical properties. Photostability of fabricated layers was studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry within as-deposited as well as relaxed (annealed) layers. For irradiation, laser sources operating at three wavelengths in band gap region of the studied materials were employed. The results show that lowest values of photorefraction accompanied with lowest changes of band gap values were exhibited by Ge20As20Te60 thin films, which are therefore considered as the layers with highest photostability in relaxed state. The structure of the films is discussed based on Raman scattering spectroscopy data.

• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH