Photocatalytic Properties of TiO2 Thin Films Modified with Ag and Pt Nanoparticles Deposited by Gas Flow Sputtering.

In this work, a gas flow sputtering (GFS) process which allows the production and deposition of metal nanoparticles (NPs) in a vacuum environment is described. Aim of the study is to prove the potential of this technology for the fabrication of new TiO2 films with enhanced photocatalytic properties. For this purpose, Ag and Pt NPs have been produced and deposited on photocatalytic float glass coated with TiO2 thin films by magnetron sputtering. The influence of the process parameters and of the metal amount on the final properties of the particles (quantity, size, size distribution, oxidation state etc.,) was widely investigated. Moreover, the effect of the NPs on the photocatalytic activity of the resulting materials was evaluated for the case of the decomposition of stearic acid (SA) during UV-A irradiation. The reduction of the water contact angle (WCA) during the irradiation period was measured in order to test the photo-induced super-hydrophilicity (PSH).

Sputter deposition of stress-controlled piezoelectric AlN and AlScN films for ultrasonic and energy harvesting applications.

This paper reports on the deposition and characterization of piezoelectric AlN and AlXSc1-XN layers. Characterization methods include XRD, SEM, active thermo probe, pulse echo, and piezometer measurements. A special focus is on the characterization of AlN regarding the mechanical stress in the films. The stress in the films changed between -2.2 GPa (compressive) and 0.2 GPa (tensile) and showed a significant dependence on film thickness. The cause of this behavior is presumed to be the different mean grain sizes at different film thicknesses, with bigger mean grain sizes at higher thicknesses. Other influences on film stress such as the sputter pressure or the pulse mode are presented. The deposition of gradient layers using those influences allowed the adjustment of film stress while retaining the piezoelectric properties.

Sputter deposition of silicon oxynitride gradient and multilayer coatings.

The optical properties of silicon oxynitride films deposited by reactive dc magnetron sputtered films have been investigated. In particular the absorption characteristics of silicon nitride thin films in the visible spectrum and their optical bandgap were analyzed with regard to their composition and deposition properties. It can be shown that there is a significant difference between the absorption in the visible spectrum and the optical bandgap for these layers. The influence of unipolar and bipolar pulse modes on the optical layer properties is presented. The extinction coefficient for silicon nitride single layers could be reduced to a value of 2 x 10(-4) at 500 nm without external heating. There is also the dependence of the absorption of silicon oxynitride layers on the discharge voltage. We present the resulting spectra of rugate and edge filters that consist of these layers and offer lower absorption than single layers.