Browsing by Author "Kohout M"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Effect of Substrate and Thickness on the Photoconductivity of Nanoparticle Titanium Dioxide Thin Film Vacuum Ultraviolet Photoconductive Detector
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2022-01) Cadatal-Raduban M; Kato T; Horiuchi Y; Olejníček J; Kohout M; Yamanoi K; Ono S; Selim F; Wang Y
    Vacuum ultraviolet radiation (VUV, from 100 nm to 200 nm wavelength) is indispensable in many applications, but its detection is still challenging. We report the development of a VUV photoconductive detector, based on titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticle thin films. The effect of crystallinity, optical quality, and crystallite size due to film thickness (80 nm, 500 nm, 1000 nm) and type of substrate (silicon Si, quartz SiO2, soda lime glass SLG) was investigated to explore ways of enhancing the photoconductivity of the detector. The TiO2 film deposited on SiO2 substrate with a film thickness of 80 nm exhibited the best photoconductivity, with a photocurrent of 5.35 milli-Amperes and a photosensitivity of 99.99% for a bias voltage of 70 V. The wavelength response of the detector can be adjusted by changing the thickness of the film as the cut-off shifts to a longer wavelength, as the film becomes thicker. The response time of the TiO2 detector is about 5.8 μs and is comparable to the 5.4 μs response time of a diamond UV sensor. The development of the TiO2 nanoparticle thin film detector is expected to contribute to the enhancement of the use of VUV radiation in an increasing number of important technological and scientific applications.
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    Ultrafast UV Luminescence of ZnO Films: Sub-30 ps Decay Time with Suppressed Visible Component
    (Wiley-VCH GmbH, 2024-05-10) Cadatal-Raduban M; Olejníček J; Hibino K; Maruyama Y; Písaříková A; Shinohara K; Asaka T; Lebedová Volfová L; Kohout M; Jiaqi Z; Akabe Y; Nakajima M; Harrison JA; Hippler R; Sarukura N; Ono S; Hubička Z; Yamanoi K
    Ultrafast sub-100 picosecond luminescence is vital in many applications involving ultrafast events and time-of-flight systems. Materials exhibiting fast luminescence, such as barium fluoride (BaF2) and zinc oxide (ZnO), also suffer from an intrinsically slow nanosecond (ns) to microsecond (µs) luminescence. Here, 2.2 micrometer (µm)- to 5.7 µm-thick undoped ZnO films on soda-lime glass (SLG) substrates without a buffer layer by a hybrid pulsed reactive magnetron sputtering operating in the medium-frequency range (MF magnetron) assisted by an electron cyclotron wave resonance (ECWR) plasma is deposited. The undoped ZnO films exhibited superior optical properties characterized by intense ultraviolet (UV) luminescence, unprecedented ultrafast decay times, and for the case of MF+ECWR-deposited films, suppressed defect-related visible luminescence. The 2.2 µm-thick MF-deposited film exhibited the fastest 9-ps decay time at room temperature. The impressive properties of the films are attributed to the use of advanced deposition technology with properly tuned plasma parameters, especially a high degree of dissociation of molecular oxygen together with an increased proportion of activated zinc particles, leading to a higher deposition rate, better crystallinity, fewer defects, and a lower proportion of oxygen vacancies. These films will pave the way toward the development of time-of-flight detectors, high-resolution nuclear imaging cameras, and high-rate ultrafast timing devices.
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    Ultraviolet-C Photoresponsivity Using Fabricated TiO2 Thin Films and Transimpedance-Amplifier-Based Test Setup
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2022-11) Cadatal-Raduban M; Pope J; Olejníček J; Kohout M; Harrison JA; Hasan SMR; Torres ML; De Luca AC; Mourka A
    We report on fabricated titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films along with a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) test setup as a photoconductivity detector (sensor) in the ultraviolet-C (UV-C) wavelength region, particularly at 260 nm. TiO2 thin films deposited on high-resistivity undoped silicon-substrate at thicknesses of 100, 500, and 1000 nm exhibited photoresponsivities of 81.6, 55.6, and 19.6 mA/W, respectively, at 30 V bias voltage. Despite improvements in the crystallinity of the thicker films, the decrease in photocurrent, photoconductivity, photoconductance, and photoresponsivity in thicker films is attributed to an increased number of defects. Varying the thickness of the film can, however, be leveraged to control the wavelength response of the detector. Future development of a chip-based portable UV-C detector using TiO2 thin films will open new opportunities for a wide range of applications.