Effect of nanostructuring to response kinetics of tellurium thin films by nitrogen dioxide sensing

Abstract

The work is conducted to clarify the effect of structural dimensionality of tellurium thin films on gas (NO2) sensing at room temperature. Nanostructuring of Te films has been realized via three methods (Fig.1): nanocrystalization (a), growing of amorphous Te films with nanoscaled thicknesses onto uniform Si/SiO2 wafers (b) or onto priory nanostructured (Al2O3) substrates (c). Pure Te thin films were crown via thermal vacuum evaporation but their surface morphology, microstructure and thickness were investigated using SEM, XRD and AFM respectively. The films were supplied with either Au or Pt electrodes, thus the resistive gas sensing elements have been built.