Highly Sensitive InOx Ozone Sensing Films on Flexible Substrates.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Sensors Volume 2009, Article ID 727893, 5 pages doi:10.1155/2009/727893 Research Article Highly Sensitive InOx Ozone Sensing Films on Flexible Substrates G. Kiriakidis,1, 2 K. Moschovis,1, 2 I. Kortidis,2 and R. Skarvelakis2 1 Physics Department, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Crete, Greece 2 IESL, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH), 71003 Heraklion, Crete, Greece Correspondence should be addressed to G. Kiriakidis, kiriakid@iesl.forth.gr Received 26 December 2008; Revised 16 March 2009; Accepted 1 May 2009 Recommended by Wojtek Wlodarski InOx thin films with a thickness of the order of 100 nm were grown by dc magnetron sputtering on glass, Si and flexible (PET) substrates. The electrical conductivity of InOx thin films exhibited a change of two orders of magnitude during photoreduction with ultraviolet light and subsequent oxidation in ozone concentrations from 2370 to 15 ppb, at room temperature. Optical transparency of over 85% for all substrates was maintained. Film structural and ozone sensing properties were analyzed. Surface morphology investigations carried out by SEM for films on PET substrates showed extended surface cracking for bending angles beyond 40◦ . Optimization of growth conditions has led to films with extremely low detection levels for ozone down to 15 ppb at room temperature, demonstrating the wide prospective of utilizing these metal oxides as gas sensors on flexible substrates for a variety of automotive and air-conditioning applications. Copyright © 2009 G. Kiriakidis et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original wo