Pulsed laser deposition for improved metal-oxide gas sensing layers

Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) with nanosecond and picosecond lasers has been used to deposit novel nanostructured gas sensitive WO3, SnO2 layers, and V2O5 layers, with and without noble metal additives, on SGX Sensortech SA MEMS microheater platforms. The layer morphology has been tailored by PLD deposition parameters, ranging from different types of nanostructures including nanoparticles, agglomerates, and nanotrees with fractal-like growth on the MEMS platform. There is a clear dependency between the deposition parameters, structural morphology, and gas sensing performance. The different types of gas sensitive materials have shown excellent gas sensing performance to gases like CO, NOx and NH3 down to ppb-levels. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.