Deposition of nanostructured thin films using an inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition technique

Nanostructured materials are the fundamental building block for the realization of nanotechnology. In this work, we propose a 13.56 MHz radio-frequency (RF) inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD) system for the preparation of nanostructured materials. The material we deposited is tin(IV) oxide, which has found application as the gas sensing layer in the making of miniaturized chemical gas sensors. The deposited film was characterized for its structural properties using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). For electrical properties, four-point probe and dynamic conductance temperature measurements were performed. In this paper, we describe on our novel system as a promising candidate in the synthesis of nanostructured materials, together with the preliminary results of tin(IV) oxide deposition. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.