Hard-Templated Porous Niobia Films for Optical Sensing Applications
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Published:2023-02-04
Issue:2
Volume:10
Page:167
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ISSN:2304-6732
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Container-title:Photonics
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language:en
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Short-container-title:Photonics
Author:
Pavlov Venelin1, Georgiev Rosen1, Lazarova Katerina1ORCID, Georgieva Biliana1ORCID, Babeva Tsvetanka1ORCID
Affiliation:
1. Institute of Optical Materials and Technologies “Acad. J. Malinowski”, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Akad. G. Bonchev Str., Bl. 109, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria
Abstract
Porous Nb2O5 films obtained by a modified hard-template method were studied and their optical and sensing properties were optimized in order to find applications in chemo-optical sensing. Porous films were prepared by following three steps: liquid mixing of niobium sol and SiO2 colloids in different volume fractions, thermal annealing of spin-coated films for formation of a rigid niobia matrix, and selective removal of silica phase by wet etching thus generating free volume in the films. The morphology and structure of the films were studied using transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction, while their optical and sensing properties were estimated using UV-VIS-NIR reflectance measurements in different ambiences such as air, argon and acetone vapors and nonlinear curve fitting of the measured reflectance spectra. Bruggeman effective medium approximation was applied for determination of the volume fraction of silica and air in the films, thus revealing the formation of porosity inside the films. For further characterization of composite films, their water contact angles were measured and finally conclusions about the impact of initial chemical composition and etching duration on properties of the films were drawn.
Funder
Bulgarian National Science Fund
Subject
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging,Instrumentation,Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
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