Graphene oxide thin film coated quartz crystal microbalance for humidity detection

In this paper, we demonstrated that chemically derived graphene oxide (GO) thin film as a humidity sensitive coating deposited on quartz crystal microbalances (QCMs) for humidity detection. By exposing GO thin film coated QCMs to various relative humidity (RH) environments at room temperature, the humidity sensing characteristics of the QCMs such as sensitivity and linearity, response and recovery, humidity hysteresis were investigated. The experiment results show that GO thin film coated QCMs exhibit an excellent humidity sensing performance. Moreover, the possible humidity sensing mechanism of GO thin film coated QCMs was also investigated by monitoring the crystal's motional resistance change. It is suggested that the frequency response of the QCMs is dependent on water molecules adsorbed/desorbed masses on GO thin film in the low RH range, and on both water molecules adsorbed/desorbed masses on GO thin film and variations in interlayer expansion stress of GO thin film derived from swelling effect in the high RH range.     

ZnO Thick Film Based Opto-electronic Humidity Sensor for a Wide Range of Humidity

Sensitivity of zinc oxide film to humidity is studied using prism based opto-electronic sensor configuration. Film is deposited on the base of the prism by screen printing. The film is crystalline in nature and has micropores on its surface which is suitable for humidity sensing. The sensing mechanism, here, is the modulation in emergent light intensity with change in ambient humidity. Response of the sensor configuration is repeatable and the configuration is found to be sensitive to relative humidity (RH%) ranging from 5 to 90 RH%.     

利用Ag@SiO_2纳米粒子等离子体共振增强发光二极管辐射功率的数值研究

金属纳米粒子利用其局域表面等离子体共振效应(LSPR),可以增强附近荧光分子的自发辐射速率,因而在光学传感、光电器件等领域中具有潜在的应用价值.金属纳米粒子的LSPR与其自身的材料、形状、尺寸以及周围环境介质密切相关,这影响着纳米粒子在具体器件中的应用.本文利用三维时域有限差分法,研究了相同体积的球形、椭球形、立方形与三棱柱形银纳米粒子对薄膜发光二极管辐射功率的影响;计算了不同形状银纳米粒子对偶极子光源辐射功率和薄膜器件光出射强度的增强,并结合LSPR效应讨论了辐射功率变化的物理机理.研究结果表明:银纳米粒子自身形状尖锐程度的增加有利于提高LSPR的共振强度;同时纳米粒子的形状影响了LSPR共振电场与薄膜器件中偶极子辐射电场之间的耦合作用,其中立方形纳米粒子因为能实现最强的耦合作用而对器件的辐射功率增强最大.在此基础上进一步讨论了不同薄膜材料对LSPR共振及光源辐射功率的影响,发现较高的材料折射率有利于增强金属纳米粒子的LSPR与器件的耦合作用,从而改善发光二极管性能.     

Tunability and linewidth sharpening of plasmon resonances on a periodic gold nanowire array coupled to a thin textured silver film

We theoretically study the plasmon mode spectrum of a multilayer structure consisting of a periodic gold nanowire array and a spatially separated thin silver film with periodic slits. Results show that the plasmon mode spectrum of the multilayer structure depends sensitively on the relative lateral displacement of the Au nanowire array with respect to the textured silver film. This is due to the interaction between the localized surface plasmon (LSP) of the nanowire array and the plasmon modes, including the horizontal LSP and the antisymmetric short-range surface plasmon polariton (SPP), of the textured thin silver film. The strong coupling between the LSP and the antisymmetric short-range SPP results in a redshifted plasmon resonance with a significantly narrow linewidth and a large electromagnetic field enhancement. Moreover, the lateral displacement also has a great influence on the spacer layer controlled dipole-surface interaction. Therefore, this relative lateral displacement provides an efficient way to tune the optical properties of the multilayer structure, and this kind of highly tunable nanostructure can be used as a tunable plasmonic filter or a substrate for LSPs sensor.     

Relative humidity sensor based on SMS fiber structure with polyvinyl alcohol coating

A novel relative humidity (RH) sensor based on single-mode–multimode–single-mode (SMS) fiber structure is presented. The sensors are created through coating a thin layer of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) on the multimode fiber deleted the cladding trough HF solution cauterization as the sensitive cladding film, whose refractive index varies as a function of humidity level. Due to the SMS fiber structure's sensitivity to ambient refractive index, the transmission spectra of SMS fiber structure coated PVA film are modified under exposure to different ambient humidity levels ranging from 30% to 80% RH. The related numerical simulations of transmission spectra of SMS fiber structure with different surrounding refractive index are also proposed. The sensitive of the RH measurement of 0.09 nm/% RH in the range from 30% to 80% RH is experimentally achieved. Meanwhile the intensity of wavelength at 1543 nm is decreasing as the humidity increasing. The experimental results obtained are consistent with the conclusion obtained by numerical simulating.     

涂有半导体气敏薄膜的长周期光纤光栅气敏传感特性理论分析

首先利用耦合模理论研究了长周期光纤光栅LPFG折射率敏感特性,数值计算了长周期光纤光栅透射谱谐振波长与环境介质折射率的关系。其次分析了半导体氧化物气敏膜光学特性机理,当气体与薄膜接触时,气体会使敏感膜的消光系数、吸收系数和相应的折射率发生变化。基于上述两点,提出可将气敏膜涂于光栅表面,利用气敏膜的折射率随环境气体成分和浓度变化而变化的特性,从而影响LPFG透射谱谐振波长的变化,通过检测波长的变化达到探测气体成分和浓度的目的。由于长周期光纤光栅对环境介质折射率的灵敏度高于光纤,且其传感信号属于波长调制,测量信号不受光强波动及光纤损耗的影响,因此其灵敏度比强度型光纤气体传感器高。     

Study of electrical field distribution of gold-capped nanoparticle for excitation of localized surface plasmon resonance

The specific optical characteristics which can be observed from noble metal nanostructured materials such as nanoparticles and nanoislands have wide variety of applications such as biosensors, solar cells, and optical circuit. Because, these noble metal nanostructures induce the increment of light absorption efficiency by the enhancing effect of electrical field from localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) excitation. However, the enhancing effects of electrical field from LSPR using simple structured noble metal nanostructures for several applications are not satisfactory. To realize the more effective light absorption efficiency by the enhancing effect of electrical field, quite different noble metal nanostructures have been desired for applying to several applications using LSPR. In this study, to obtain the more effective enhancing effect of electrical field, conditions for LSPR excitation using a gold-capped nanoparticle layer substrate are computationally analyzed using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. From the previous research, LSPR excitation using such gold-capped nanoparticle layer substrates has a great potential for application to high-sensitive label-free monitoring of biomolecular interactions. For understanding of detailed LSPR excitation mechanism, LSPR excitation conditions were investigated by analyzing the electrical field distribution using simulation software and comparing the results obtained with experimental results. As a result of computational analysis, LSPR excitation was found to depend on the particle alignment, interparticle distance, and excitation wavelength. Furthermore, the LSPR optical characteristics obtained from the simulation analysis were consistent with experimentally approximated LSPR optical characteristics. Using this gold-capped nanoparticle layer substrate, LSPR can be excited easily more than conventional noble metal nanoparticle-based LSPR excitation without noble metal nanoparticle synthesis. Hence, this structure is detectable a small change of refractive index such as biomolecular interactions for biosensing applications.     

光纤SPR湿敏传感器及其共振光谱特性研究

提出并研制了基于光纤SPR传感探针的新型湿敏传感器。首先研究了光纤SPR传感探针对环境湿度变化的敏感特性,在此基础上提出在光纤SPR传感探针表面增覆不同厚度且具有水分子吸附功能的PVA薄膜来实现环境相对湿度的监测。研究结果表明,增覆双层PVA薄膜的光纤SPR传感探针在高湿区具有较好监测效果,其共振强度对应的相对湿度测量灵敏度达到1.59%/%RH,较光纤SPR探针呈现显著提高。而增覆单层PVA薄膜的光纤SPR传感探针在高湿区共振波长对应的相对湿度监测灵敏度达到2.411nm/%RH。此外所提出的新型光纤SPR湿敏探针在PVA薄膜失效后经过特殊工艺处理仍可重复镀膜使用。     

Effect of the Pd-Au thin film thickness uniformity on the performance of an optical fiber hydrogen sensor

Thin alloy film of Pd and Au, formed by simultaneous electron-beam and thermal evaporation techniques, respectively, is used in the design of an optical fiber hydrogen sensor. The sensor consists of a multimode fiber (MMF) in which a short section of single mode fiber (SMF), coated with the Pd-Au thin film, is inserted. Due to core diameter mismatch, the SMF cladding guides light, allowing the interaction between the sensing layer and the guided light. When the sensor is exposed to hydrogen, the Pd-Au layer refractive index diminishes and causes attenuation changes on the transmitted light. Several samples with different layer thickness uniformity were fabricated and tested in a very simple experimental set-up. We have observed that the sensor signal change is dependant on layer thickness uniformity, since the effective interaction length between the evanescent field and the sensing layer is increased. By contrast, such uniformity practically has no influence on the time response of the sensor. The resulting Pd-Au film can detect 4% hydrogen with a response time of 15 s.     

Plasmonic enhancement of the vanadium dioxide phase transition induced by low-power laser irradiation

Nanocomposites consisting of gold nanoparticle (NP) arrays and vanadium dioxide (VO₂) thin films are noteworthy for the tunability of both their thermal and optical properties. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of the Au can be tuned when its dielectric environment is modulated by the semiconducting-to-metal phase transition (SMT) of the VO₂; the LSPR itself can be altered by changing the shape of the NPs and the pitch of the NP array. In principle, then it should be possible to choose a combination of VO₂ film and Au LSPR properties that maximizes the overall optical response of the nanocomposite. To demonstrate this effect, transient transmission measurements were conducted on lithographically fabricated arrays of Au NPs of diameter 140?nm, array spacing 350 nm, and covered with a 60?nm thick films of VO₂ via pulsed laser deposition. Both Au::VO₂ nanocomposites and bare VO₂ film were irradiated with a shuttered 785?nm pump laser, and their optical response was probed at 1550?nm by a fixed-frequency diode laser. The Au::VO₂ nanocomposite exhibited an increased effective absorption coefficient 1.5 times that of the plain film and required 37?% less laser power to induce the SMT. The time-dependent temperature rise in the film as a function of laser intensity was calculated from these measurements and compared with both analytic and finite-element models. Our results suggest that Au::VO₂ nanocomposites may be useful in applications such as thermal-management coatings for energy efficient ??smart?? windows.     

基于Nafion-结晶紫传感膜的光纤湿度传感器研究

通过研究基于荧光和可见光吸收的两种湿度传感方法,从数种湿度分子探针中优选出结晶紫为分子识别器,包埋于Nafion溶胶中,制备成基于可见光吸收原理的光纤化学湿度传感膜。该传感膜与电荷耦合二极管阵列检测器等构成的光纤湿度传感器,于640 nm波长处对30%～100%范围内的相对湿度(relative humidity, RH)具有较快的响应时间(＜2 min)、较高的灵敏度(≤5%RH)、选择性和良好的可逆性(RSD≤2.6%)。     

Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance of Cu@Cu2O core-shell nanoparticles: Absorption, Scattering and Luminescence

By co-deposition via RF-Sputtering and RF-PECVD methods and using Cu target and acetylene gas, we prepared Cu@Cu₂O core-shell nanoparticles on the a-C:H thin film at room temperature. Mie absorption of Cu cores, scattering from Cu₂O shell and luminescence that rises from carrier transfer in Cu@Cu₂O interface were employed to fit the whole range of visible extinction spectrum of these core-shells. From simulation it was found that scattering and luminescence have an important effect on the energy, width and shape of LSPR absorption peak. Shift of LSPR peak is more affected by the dielectric coefficient of shell than Cu core size particularly for Cu core diameter above 4 nm. Also, the LSPR absorption peak is damped by decreasing Cu core size and dielectric coefficient of shell. The energy of LSPR absorption peak is independent of shell thickness and host dielectric coefficient. The LSPR peak is damped by increasing shell thickness and host dielectric coefficient too. The scattering contribution in extinction spectra was affected more by shell size than dielectric coefficient. These points are important for detection techniques based on LSPR peak.     

Fiber-optic humidity sensor based on an air-gap long period fiber grating

In this paper, we propose a novel high-sensitivity fiber-optic humidity sensor based on a calcium chloride thin film to be coated on an air-gap long-period grating fabricated (AG-LPG) by combining the fiber side-polishing and fiber etching methods. When the surrounding refractive index of the air-gap long-period grating is changed by a change in humidity, the grating resonant wavelength is considered varied. Experimental results indicate that humidity can be detected by this sensing mechanism and has a high sensitivity of about 1.36 nm/1%RH.     

Use of polyethylene glycol coatings for optical fibre humidity sensing

Humidity induced change in the refractive index and thickness of the polyethylene glycol (PEG) coatings are in situ investigated for a range from 10 to 95%, using an optical waveguide spectroscopic technique. It is experimentally demonstrated that, upon humidity change, the optical and swelling characteristics of the PEG coatings can be employed to build a plastic fibre optic humidity sensor. The sensing mechanism is based on the humidity induced change in the refractive index of the PEG film, which is directly coated onto a polished segment of a plastic optical fibre with dip-coating method. It is observed that PEG, which is a highly hydrophilic material, shows no monotonic linear response to humidity but gives different characteristics for various ranges of humidity levels both in index of refraction and in thickness. It undergoes a physical phase change from a semi-crystalline structure to a gel one at around 80% relative humidity. At this phase change point, a drastic decrease occurs in the index of refraction as well as a drastic increase in the swelling of the PEG film. In addition, PEG coatings are hydrogenated in a vacuum chamber. It is observed that the hydrogen has a preventing effect on the humidity induced phase change in PEG coatings. Finally, the possibility of using PEG coatings in construction of a real plastic fibre optic humidity sensor is discussed.     

Locally enhanced light–matter interaction of MoS2 monolayers at density-controllable nanogrooves of template-stripped Ag films

Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayers, such as MoS_2, possess a direct optical bandgap are useful for emerging ultrathin optoelectronics in the visible light range, whereas their thin thickness limits light absorption and emission properties. To address this drawback, one promising approach is to hybridize plasmonic nanostructures with monolayer TMDs to utilize local field enhancement effects owing to localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). Herein, we propose a strong enhancement of the local light–matter interaction in MoS₂ monolayers on naturally generated nanoscale grooves. The nanogrooves are formed at grain boundaries (GBs) of template-stripped metal film substrates that are fabricated by mechanically stripping Ag films deposited on an ultra-flat Si substrate, wherein the nanogroove densities are systematically modulated by the Ag film thickness. We observe an effective photoluminescence enhancement factor of 758 and a Raman spectroscopy intensity enhancement of approximately 5 times in MoS₂ on the subwavelength-scale nanogrooves, compared with that on grain planes, which is attributed to a strong local field enhancement of the LSPR effect. Moreover, this plasmonic enhancement effect is elucidated by dark-field scattering spectroscopy and optical simulations. Our results can facilitate the utilization of density-controllable plasmonic nanogrooves synthesized without nanopatterning techniques for plasmonic hybrids on 2D semiconductors.     

Vibrational properties of perfluoropentacene thin film

We have studied the vibrational properties of perfluoropentacene (PFP) thin films on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) substrates by high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS) and Raman spectroscopy. The HREELS spectra showed slight but clear increase in the vibrational energies with increasing film thickness as well as with decreasing temperature of the multilayer films. In the polarization-dependent Raman spectra of a multilayer film, the depolarization ratios of all detected vibrations with the Ag irreducible representation were found to be larger than 1, indicating that the molecular structure is distorted in the multilayer. Both results suggest that there is a fairly strong intermolecular interaction in PFP multilayer films.     

光学薄膜的等离子体离子镀的研究

根据薄膜沉积过程等离子体对光学薄膜膜蒸气分子或原子的作用，建立低压等离子体离子镀设备，并对常规光学薄膜、如硫化物、氧化物薄膜以及多层膜器件进行了系统的研究，对所制备薄膜样品的透射光谱、吸收、散射以及膜层的聚集密度等进行了全面的测试分析。实验研究表明，低压等离子体离子镀可大大提高常规光学薄膜的光机性能。     

一种适用于湿度传感的表面等离子微环传感器

提出了一种适用于湿度传感的表面等离子微环传感器。该传感器纵向上采用表面等离子多层波导结构,横向上采用U型微环结构,以聚酰亚胺(polyimide,PI)为感湿材料。根据传输矩阵法推导表面等离子微环传感器结构的传递函数,外界环境的相对湿度变化引起聚酰亚胺的折射率变化,从而多层波导结构的有效折射率发生改变,导致传感器的输出光谱发生漂移。重点分析讨论了多层波导结构的传输特性以及感湿部位折射率的变化对输出光谱的影响。根据计算和仿真得出：当U型波导的两个耦合点间的距离为微环周长的整数倍时,传感器的输出光谱水平漂移量较大,自由光谱范围(FSR)加倍,达到128 nm,当外界环境相对湿度从10%RH变化到100%RH时,漂移量Δλ_m在0.005～0.038 μm之间变化,相比于其他湿度传感器,灵敏度提高了10～50倍,高达0.0005 μm/%RH,并且传输稳定。结果表明：设计的表面等离子微环传感器,灵敏度较好,性能稳定,可以应用于湿度测量,并且实现了在高灵敏度感湿的同时兼顾大范围的滤波选频,为微型光学器件的制备提供了理论基础。     

Development and integration of near atmospheric N2 ambient sputtered Au thin film for enhanced infrared absorption

The exceedingly fragile nature of thermally grown Au-black coating makes handling and patterning a critical issue. Infrared absorption characteristics of near atmospheric, N₂ ambient DC sputtered Au thin films are studied for this purpose. The thin Au films are sputtered at different chamber pressures in Ar and N₂/Ar gas ambient from 4.5 to 8.0 mbar and optimized for enhanced infrared absorption. The absorber film sputtered in N₂/Ar ambient at 8.0 mbar chamber pressure offers significant absorption of medium to long wave infrared radiations. The micro-patterning of sputtered Au thin film is carried out by using conventional photolithography and metal lift off methods on a prefabricated µ-infrared detector array on Si (1 0 0) substrate. The steady state temperature response of sputtered film has been examined using nondestructive thermal imaging method under external heating of the detector array.     

Formation of hydroxyl and water layers on MgO films studied with ambient pressure XPS

To understand the interaction of water with MgO(100), a detailed quantitative assessment of the interfacial chemistry is necessary. We have used ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to measure molecular (H₂O) and dissociative (OH) water adsorption on a 4 monolayer (ML) thick MgO(100)/Ag(100) film under ambient conditions. Since the entire 4 ML metal oxide (Ox) film is probed by XPS, the reaction of the MgO film with water can be quantitatively studied. Using a multilayer model (Model 1) that measures changes in Ox thickness from O 1s (film) and Ag 3d (substrate) spectra, it is shown that the oxide portion of the MgO film becomes thinner upon hydroxylation. A reaction mechanism is postulated in which the top-most layer of MgO converts to Mg(OH)₂ upon dissociation of water. Based on this mechanism a second model (Model 2) is developed to calculate Ox and OH thickness changes based on OH/Ox intensity ratios from O 1s spectra measured in situ, with the known initial Ox thickness prior to hydroxylation. Models 1 and 2 are applied to a 0.15 Torr isobar experiment, yielding similar results for H₂O, OH and Ox thickness changes as a function of relative humidity.