5348
Ahmed Ramadan Abd El-Montaleb El-Banna
Preparation and Characterization of Silver and its
Oxides Nanostructure Thin Films via Pulsed Laser
Ablation (PLA) and Inert Gas Condensation (IGC)
Silver, Silver oxide, Silver/silver oxide nanocomposite, Pulsed laser
deposition, Inert gas condensation, Annealing temperature,
Annealing time, Particle size, Photoluminescence.
This research was conducted to prepare and characterize nanostructure thin films of Ag, AgO and Ag/AgOx nanocomposite using Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) and Inert Gas Condensation (IGC) techniques by applying different starting ingot sources. A full characterization of all prepared thin films was carried out using different techniques. This includes a detailed study of the structural characteristics, surface morphology, electrical properties, photoluminescence (PL) and optical properties. The obtained results visualized that controlling the optical properties of the nanocrystalline AgO films prepared by PLD technique could be mediated for certain applications through the control of the ablation time (Tab) at fixed value of both; the oxygen pressure (0.3 mbar) and the substrate temperature (300 K). On the other hand, the films deposited by IGC technique using Ag2O powder ingot source did not provide any advantage over depositing pure metallic silver shot. Since the obtained films are found to be metallic in nature (Ag) even if the starting ingot material was pure Ag2O powder. Moreover using this technique, Ag/AgOx nanocomposite thin films, which possess semiconductor behavior, could be obtained from different ingot sources at annealing temperatures exceeding 373 K and annealing time greater than 2 h in the presence of O2 atmosphere. The PL spectra of Ag/AgOx films, prepared from different ingot sources,annealing temperatures and annealing time, showed lines of Ag. This could be attributed to the decomposition of AgOx into O2 and small metallic Ag particles/clusters by the incident PL excitation beam. This property could nominate these films for ultrahigh-density optical data storage applications. The study showed that the optical properties of all Ag, AgO and Ag/AgOx nanocomposite thin films prepared by PLD and IGC techniques from different ores could be controlled through the control of particle size (Ps), Tab, annealing temperature, annealing time and the atomic percentage of oxygen introduced in the films.
2017
M.Sc
Cairo
National Institute of Laser Enhanced Science