APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 87, 163123 共2005兲

Semiconductor gas sensor based on tin oxide nanorods prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition with postplasma treatment Hui Huang,a兲 O. K. Tan, Y. C. Lee, T. D. Tran, and M. S. Tse Microelectronics Center, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Singapore

X. Yao Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

共Received 20 June 2005; accepted 12 September 2005; published online 14 October 2005兲 SnO2 thin films were deposited by radio-frequency inductively coupled plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Postplasma treatments were used to modify the microstructure of the as-deposited SnO2 thin films. Uniform nanorods with dimension of 쏗7 ⫻ 100 nm were observed in the plasma-treated films. After plasma treatments, the optimal operating temperature of the plasma-treated SnO2 thin films decreased by 80 °C, while the gas sensitivity increased eightfold. The enhanced gas sensing properties of the plasma-treated SnO2 thin film were believed to result from the large surface-to-volume ratio of the nanorods’ tiny grain size in the scale comparable to the space-charge length and its unique microstructure of SnO2 nanorods rooted in SnO2 thin films. © 2005 American Institute of Physics. 关DOI: 10.1063/1.2106006兴 SnO2 is an important conductance-type gas-sensing semiconductor material. Surface modification and microstructure optimization of SnO2-based sensor materials have been demonstrated to be an effective way to obtain high gas sensitivity and selectivity.1–3 The recent research focus on microstructure modification has been devoted toward nanostructured gas sensors and many new sensing paradigms originating out of nanoscience and technology, particularly from bottom-up fabrication, were reported.4,5 Due to the reduction in grain size of the nanostructured sensing materials, it allows a very high surface-to-volume ratio and great surface activities, and the reactions at grain boundaries and complete depletion of carriers in the grains can strongly modify the material transport properties. Most recently, onedimensional 共1D兲 nanoscale materials for gas sensors have stimulated great interest because of their unique sensing properties. Wang et al.6 found that the SnO2 nanowires prepared by a solution-based route exhibited both high sensitivity and reversibility to ⬃6% ethanol, 20 ppm CO, and 500 ppm H2 gas in air, even under ambient conditions. Kolmakov et al.7 illustrated a functional and sensitive SnO2 single nanowire sensor for detecting CO and O2. Kind et al.8 used individual SnO2 nanoribbons as small, fast, and sensitive devices for detecting ppm-level NO2 at room temperature under ultraviolet light.8 Comini et al.9 reported that SnO2 nanobelts were sensitive to environmental polluting species, such as CO and NO2, as well as to ethanol for breath analyzers and food control applications at 400 °C. However, the 1D nanoscale materials are too small to handle in the preparation of sensor devices and the reliability of these sensor devices is also a problem. In this letter, plasma treatments were used to modify the microstructure of the SnO2 thin films deposited by plasmaenhanced chemical vapor deposition 共PECVD兲. After plasma treatment, uniform 1D SnO2 nanorods grown from the twodimensional 共2D兲 films were observed in plasma-treated SnO2 thin films. Enhanced gas sensing properties were a兲

Electronic mail: [email protected]

achieved in the plasma-treated SnO2 thin films. The deposition system was a custom-designed PECVD system, and details of the system are shown in Ref. 10. Inductively coupled plasma was used as the plasma source and it was generated by a 13.56 MHz 1.2 kW radio-frequency generator coupled on a copper tape circled outside the cylindrical quartz deposition chamber. Dibutyltin diacetate 共Aldrich, 98% purity兲, 共C4H9兲2Sn 共OOCCH3兲2, was used as the precursor. The precursor temperature was 90 °C. Inert Ar gas was used as the carrier gas at a flow rate of 100 sccm, and 100 sccm O2 was used as the reaction gas. A 4 in. SiO2 / Si wafer was used as the substrate and it was put in the downstream of the plasma for the deposition of the thin films. No further substrate heating was performed. After deposition, the as-deposited SnO2 thin films were treated in the plasma for 20 min. The x-ray diffraction 共XRD兲 analysis was performed using a Rigaku x-ray diffractometer using Cu K␣ radiation. A Leo 1550 field emission-type scanning electron microscope 共SEM兲 was used to observe the morphologies of the SnO2 thin films. The microstructure of the plasma-treated SnO2 thin films was studied by a JEOL JEM-2010 high-resolution transmission electron microscope 共HRTEM兲 and corresponding selected area electron diffraction 共SAED兲. Au was deposited on the films by electron-beam evaporation and was patterned into interdigital top electrodes by photolithography for electrical measurement. The gas sensing properties were characterized using a computer-controlled gas sensing characterization system. The test gas was 50–2000 ppm CO in dry air with a total flow rate of 500 sccm. The gas sensitivity S is given by the relative resistance, S = Rair / RCO, where Rair and RCO are the resistance of the sensor in air and in CO gas, respectively. Figures 1共a兲 and 1共b兲, respectively show the XRD patterns of the as-deposited SnO2 thin film and plasma-treated SnO2 thin film. It indicated that the as-deposited thin film was well-crystallized rutile SnO2, even without substrate heating during the deposition. After plasma treatment; the intensity of 共110兲 peak decreased while that of 共101兲 peak

0003-6951/2005/87共16兲/163123/3/$22.50 87, 163123-1 © 2005 American Institute of Physics Downloaded 23 Oct 2005 to 155.69.4.4. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright, see http://apl.aip.org/apl/copyright.jsp

163123-2

Huang et al.

FIG. 1. XRD patterns of 共a兲 as-deposited SnO2 thin film and 共b兲 plasmatreated SnO2 thin film.

increased, and the plasma-treated SnO2 thin film showed a 共101兲 preferential orientation. It indicated that the microstructure of the plasma-treated SnO2 thin film was restructured during plasma treatment. Figures 2共a兲 and 2共b兲, respectively show the SEM micrographs of the as-deposited SnO2 thin film and plasma-treated SnO2 thin film. The as-deposited SnO2 thin film was granular and the grain size was about 20 nm 关Fig. 2共a兲兴. After plasma treatment, SnO2 nanorods in uniform size of 쏗7 ⫻ 100 nm were observed on the plasma-treated SnO2 thin film 关Figs. 2共b兲 and 3共a兲兴. Figure 3 clearly illustrates that the SnO2 nanorods are rooted in the SnO2 thin film matrix and grow outwardly. Therefore, the plasma-treated sample could be described as a hybrid microstructure of 1D SnO2 nanorods grown on a 2D SnO2 thin film. The clear lattice fringes of HRTEM image of the nanorod 关Fig. 3共b兲兴 indicated a singlecrystal structure of the nanorod. The observed interfacial spacing was 3.387 Å, corresponding to the 共110兲 plane of the rutile SnO2. The HRTEM image was recorded along the 共101兲 zone axis. The 共101兲 direction was parallel to the long axis of the nanorod, indicating the 共101兲-preferred growth direction of the SnO2 nanorods, which was in agreement with the XRD results 关Fig. 1共b兲兴. From the XRD characterization and HRTEM observations, we believed that the nanorods on the plasma-treated SnO2 thin films were formed by the sputtering-redeposition mechanism. During the plasma treatment, the films were sputtered by the bombardment of heavy ions in the plasma, then generated by the sputtering redeposited, and rearranged on the films. As the sputtering effect and deposition of the films occurred simultaneously, the nuclei grew along their preferential growth orientation, 共101兲 in our films, and formed SnO2 nanorods. More evidence on this growth mechanism of the nanorods would require further investigation. Figure 4 shows the Rair / RCO versus operating temperature of the as-deposited SnO2 thin film and plasma-treated SnO2 thin film. The testing gas was 1000 ppm CO in dry air. The sensitivity, Rair / RCO, reached its maximum at optimal

Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 163123 共2005兲

FIG. 3. 共a兲 HRTEM image of the plasma-treated SnO2 thin film. Inset is the corresponding SAED patterns. 共b兲 HRTEM image of a selected typical SnO2 nanorod.

operating temperature, and then began to decrease with the elevated temperature. The optimal operating temperature of the as-deposited SnO2 thin film derived from Gaussian peak fitting was 330 °C, which was slightly lower than the value of 340–450 °C reported by other research groups.11–14 The maximum sensitivity of the as-deposited SnO2 thin film achieved at 330 °C was 3.9. After plasma treatment, the optimal operating temperature of the plasma-treated SnO2 thin film decreased to 250 °C, while the maximum sensitivity achieved at 250 °C increased to 31.7. It should be noted that the optimal operating temperature of the plasma-treated SnO2 thin film with nanorods decreased by 80 °C, while the maximum gas sensitivity increased eightfold. For SnO2-based sensors, the changes in resistance are mainly caused by the adsorption and desorption of gas molecules on the surface of the sensing structure. It was reported that the sensitivity could be exponentially enhanced when the grain size was reduced to a scale comparable to the space-charge length.15,16 As grains size decreased, the optimal operating temperature also decreased remarkably, and roomtemperature detecting CO gas was reported in the SnO2 nanowires and nanoribbons gas sensors.6,8 For the asdeposited SnO2 thin film with particles in nanoscale, the surface-to-volume ratio, although high, is still relatively less than plasma-treated SnO2 thin film with nanorods. Furthermore, only a thin layer close to film surface can be activated during gas detection. For the plasma-treated SnO2 thin film, the diameter of the nanorods was 7 nm, and was very close to the space-charge length 6 nm of SnO2. Furthermore, the nanorods were rooted in the plasma-treated thin film in one end and randomly stretched outward in the other end. This generated a highly porous structure and enabled both the analyte and the background gas to access all surfaces of SnO2 nanorods as well as the SnO2 thin film. In this case, both the 1D nanorods and 2D thin film could contribute to

FIG. 2. SEM micrographs of 共a兲 as-deposited SnO2 thin film and 共b兲 FIG. 4. Rair / RCO vs operating temperature of the as-deposited and plasmaplasma-treated SnO2 thin film. treated SnO2 thin films. Downloaded 23 Oct 2005 to 155.69.4.4. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright, see http://apl.aip.org/apl/copyright.jsp

163123-3

Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 163123 共2005兲

Huang et al.

FIG. 5. Sensing properties of as-deposited and plasma-treated SnO2 thin films. 共a兲 CO gas response to various concentrations and 共b兲 response time and recovery times vs CO concentrations.

the chemical reactions at all their surfaces. Hence, the whole device could be seen as SnO2 nanorods antenna arrays integrated on the SnO2 thin-film matrix. This unique 1D and 2D hybrid structure of the plasma-treated SnO2 thin film resulted in a high sensitivity at a lower optimal operating temperature. To determine the CO gas sensing properties of the asdeposited and plasma-treated SnO2 thin films, they were cycled at their optimized temperatures; 330 °C for the asdeposited film and 250 °C for the plasma-treated film, through different CO concentrations. The response and recovery times at various CO concentrations were calculated from Fig. 5共a兲. Here, the response and recovery times were defined as the time needed for the resistance of the sensors to reach within 10% of the final equilibrium value for a given concentration. The plasma-treated SnO2 thin film with nanorods showed fast response and good reversibility at lower operation temperature. It is known that the response and recovery times of conductometric sensors are determined by the adsorption-desorption kinetics. Kolmakov and Moskovits17 reported that the average time it takes photoexcited carriers to diffuse from the interior of an oxide nanowire to its surface was greatly reduced with respect to electron-to-hole recombination times. The rapid diffusion rate of electrons and holes to the surface of nanorods allows the analyte to be rapidly adsorbed/desorbed from the surfaces, and it helps to decrease the response/recovery times of the nanorods. For the as-deposited SnO2 thin films, the response time decreased with the increase of gas concentrations as showed in Fig. 5共b兲. However, for the plasma-treated SnO2 thin film with nanorods, it has a hybrid microstructure of 1D SnO2 nanorods on 2D SnO2 thin films. The nanorods are separated from each other and are only connected at the roots by the film matrix. The carriers in the nanorods need to diffuse to the film matrix during gas detecting and thus caused some delays in setting the charge balance equilibrium between the nanorods and the film. Therefore, for the

plasma-treated SnO2 thin film, there are two competing factors, one is the fast response of the nanorods that decreases the response time of the device, while the other is the delay of carrier diffusion from the nanorods to the thin films matrix that increases the response time. At lower CO concentration, due to the predominant carriers diffusion delay effect, the response time increased with the increase in CO concentration and reached its maximum at 500 ppm. For CO concentrations higher than 500 ppm, the response time decreased continuously and began to be larger than that of the asdeposited SnO2 films at CO concentration of about 2000 ppm. However, the recovery time of the plasma-treated SnO2 thin film was not affected too much, and showed the same trend as that of the as-deposited film in the whole CO concentration range. That is, increasing with the increase in CO concentration. In summary, SnO2 thin films were deposited by PECVD, and postplasma treatment was used to modify the microstructure of the as-deposited SnO2 thin films. After plasma treatments, uniform SnO2 nanorods were observed in the plasma-treated SnO2 thin film. The nanorods were formed by a sputtering-redeposition mechanism and grew along their 共101兲 preferential orientation. The optimal operating temperature of the plasma-treated SnO2 thin film decreased by 80 °C while the gas sensitivity increased eightfold. The enhanced gas sensing properties of the plasma-treated SnO2 thin film result from the large surface-to-volume ratio of the nanorods’ tiny grain size in the scale comparable to the space-charge length and its 1D and 2D hybrid microstructure. The authors thank Ms. Guo Jun for the HRTEM observations. This work is sponsored by the A*STAR of Singapore 共No. 0221010022兲. 1

Y. Ozaki, S. Suzuki, M. Morimitsu, and M. Matsunaga, Chem. Senses 14, 125 共1998兲. 2 Y. Ozaki, S. Suzuki, M. Morimitsu, and M. Matsunaga, J. Electrochem. Soc. 147, 1589 共2000兲. 3 T. Hyodo, S. Abe, Y. Shimizu, and M. Egashira, Sens. Actuators B 93, 590 共2003兲. 4 O. K. Tan, W. Zhu, Q. Yan, and L. B. Kong, Sens. Actuators B 65, 361 共2000兲. 5 Y. Hu, O. K. Tan, J. S. Pan, and X. Yao, J. Phys. Chem. B 108, 11214 共2004兲. 6 Y. L. Wang, X. C. Jiang, and Y. N. Xia, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 125, 16176 共2003兲. 7 A. Kolmakov, Y. X. Zhang, G. S. Cheng, and M. Moskovits, Adv. Mater. 共Weinheim, Ger.兲 15, 997 共2003兲. 8 L. H. Kind, B. Messer, F. Kim, and P. Yang, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 41, 2405 共2002兲. 9 E. Comini, G. Faglia, G. Sberveglieri, Z. W. Pan, and Z. L. Wang, Appl. Phys. Lett. 81, 1869 共2002兲. 10 Y. C. Lee, O. K. Tan, M. S. Tse, and A. Srivastava, Ceram. Int. 30, 1869 共2004兲. 11 G. G. Mandayo, E. Castaño, F. J. Gracia, A. Cirera, A. Cornet, and J. R. Morante, Sens. Actuators B 95, 90 共2003兲. 12 N. S. Baik, G. Sakai, N. Miura, and N. Yamazoe, Sens. Actuators B 63, 74 共2000兲. 13 B. Esfandyarpour, S. Mohajerzadeh, S. Famini, A. Khodadadi, and E. Asl Soleimani, Sens. Actuators B 100, 190 共2004兲. 14 A. Rosental, A. Tarre, A. Gerst, J. Sundqvist, A. Hårsta, A. Aidla, J. Aarik, V. Sammelselg, and T. Uustare, Sens. Actuators B 93, 552 共2003兲. 15 N. Wu, S. Wang, and I. Rusakova, Science 285, 1375 共1999兲. 16 Y. Shimizu and M. Egashira, MRS Bull. 24, 18 共1999兲. 17 A. Kolmakov and M. Moskovits, Annu. Rev. Mater. Res. 34, 151 共2004兲.

Downloaded 23 Oct 2005 to 155.69.4.4. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright, see http://apl.aip.org/apl/copyright.jsp

Semiconductor gas sensor based on tin oxide ...

Microelectronics Center, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, ... (Received 20 June 2005; accepted 12 September 2005; published online 14 ...

203KB Sizes 0 Downloads 248 Views

Recommend Documents

Grove-Gas Sensor v1.4.sch
TITLE. Grove—Gas Sensor v1.4. 1. /. 1. -"I" e e h. S t r e 3 m 1. H v. II m d 0 ll. e s h -1. C U. M p. d m g 5 m M u a. II 0 n 8 m I. S w. e a. D D.

WSP2110 VOC Gas Sensor - GitHub
Email: [email protected]. Leading gas sensing solutions ... consumption,simple detection circuit,good stability and long life. Main Application. It is used in ...

Grove-Gas Sensor v1.4.sch
TITLE. Grove—Gas Sensor v1.4. 1. /. 1. -"I" e e h. S t r e 3 m 1. H v. II m d 0 ll. e s h -1. C U. M p. d m g 5 m M u a. II 0 n 8 m I. S w. e a. D D.

National Semiconductor Temperature Sensor Handbook
By sensing the temperature inside the computer's case, high- temperature conditions ... the thermistor, a comparator, and a few resistors will do the job. (a). (b).

technical data mq-9 gas sensor - GitHub
4 Heater coil. Ni-Cr alloy. 5 Tubular ceramic Al2O3. 6 Anti-explosion network. Stainless ... Rs: sensor resistance at various concentrations of gases. A向. Fig.1. MQ-9. 0.1. 1. 10. 100 ... Its service life can reach 5 years under using condition.

technical data mq-2 gas sensor - haoyuelectronics.com
When accurately measuring, the proper alarm point for the gas detector should ... 100. 1000. 10000 ppm. Rs. /. Ro. H2. LPG. CH4. CO alcohol smoke propane.

TECHNICAL DATA MQ-5 GAS SENSOR
Structure and configuration of MQ-5 gas sensor is shown as Fig. ... micro AL2O3 ceramic tube, Tin Dioxide (SnO2) sensitive layer, measuring electrode and ...

TECHNICAL DATA MQ-3 GAS SENSOR
FEATURES. * High sensitivity to alcohol and small sensitivity to Benzine . * Fast response and High sensitivity. * Stable and long life. * Simple drive circuit.

TECHNICAL DATA MQ-3 GAS SENSOR
network. Stainless steel gauze. (SUS316 100-mesh). 7 Clamp ring. Copper plating Ni. 8 Resin base. Bakelite. 9 Tube Pin. Copper plating Ni. A向. A向. Fig. 1.

Grove - Multichannel Gas Sensor v1.0.sch - GitHub
2015/3/31 17:51:14 f=1.40 E:\2015 Projects\Grove - Multichannel Gas Sensor\sch&pcb\Grove - Multichannel Gas Sensor v1.0 20150331\Grove - Multichannel ...

technical data mq-2 gas sensor - haoyuelectronics.com
FEATURES. Wide detecting scope. Fast response and High sensitivity. Stable and long life. Simple drive circuit. APPLICATION. They are used in gas leakage ...

Study of gas specificity in molybdenum trioxide tungsten oxide thin ...
Study of gas specificity in molybdenum trioxide tungsten oxide thin film sensors and their arrays.pdf. Study of gas specificity in molybdenum trioxide tungsten ...

Miniaturized Lead Sensor Based on Lead-Specific ...
Laboratory, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development. Center, Champaign .... National Instruments Corp., Austin, TX) and Labview software. (National ...

Miniaturized Lead Sensor Based on Lead-Specific ...
controlled via a multifunction data acquisition card (DAQ; ... Control of the PMT data collection ..... gave a quantitative recovery at pH 8, and the enzymatic DNA.

An Ambient Robot System Based on Sensor Network ... - IEEE Xplore
In this paper, we demonstrate the mobile robot application associated with ubiquitous sensor network. The sensor network systems embedded in environment.

A Microbial Sensor Based on Direct Electron ... - Wiley Online Library
A Microbial Sensor Based on Direct Electron Transfer at. Shewanella Sp. Drop-Coated Screen-Printed Carbon Electrodes. Kariate Sudhakara Prasad,a A. B. ...

Novel amperometric carbon monoxide sensor based on ...
chemical, which is harmful to human health. CO poisons are ..... Kalayil Manian Manesh received his master degree in industrial chemistry specialized in ...

An electrochemical sensor based on a clay-coated ...
Quantitative analysis was performed by standard addition for the arbutin content in commercial available .... bases, and soft acids prefer to bind to soft bases [15].

ZONER: A ZONE-based Sensor Relocation Protocol for Mobile Sensor ...
sensor relocation protocol, ZONER, for mobile sensor networks on the basis of a restricted flooding .... The payload part contains communication data, the thus its format is application .... Figure 2(a) is a big picture about a discovery process.

Swarm Based Sensor Deployment Optimization in Ad hoc Sensor ...
be resolved by any improvement in the onboard-sensor technology [1]. ... number of wireless sensor devices can be deployed in hostile areas without human.

Synthesis of 3,4-dihydro-2H-pyrrole 1-oxide based ... - Arkivoc
24.9 (C(2)), 30.5 (C(7)), 39.2 (C(3)), 43.1 (C(8)), 45.5 (N(CH3)2), 78.7 (C(4)), 115.2, 119.1,. 123.3, 128.3, 129.4, 129.7, 130.0, 130.3, 135.1 (arom.), 138.8 (C(1)) ...

MQ-x Gas Sensor Technical Manual.pdf
There was a problem previewing this document. Retrying... Download. Connect more apps... Try one of the apps below to open or edit this item. MQ-x Gas Sensor Technical Manual.pdf. MQ-x Gas Sensor Technical Manual.pdf. Open. Extract. Open with. Sign I

Poly(ethylene oxide)-based polymer electrolyte ...
Fax: +82 55 753 1806. .... PEs containing 0 to 60 pbw of BMITFSI are free-standing, ..... [1] P.C. Howlett, D.R. MacFarlane, A.F. Hollenkamp, Electrochem. Solid-.

Sha Tin College - Sha Tin Junior School
Apr 19, 2016 - Sha Tin College 沙田學院. 3 Lai Wo Lane · Fo Tan · Sha Tin. New Territories · Hong Kong. 香港新界沙田火炭麗禾里 3 號. Tel: 電話 + 852 2699 ...