Impact of Methanol Concentration on Properties of Ultra-Nanocrystalline Diamond Films Grown by Hot-Filament Chemical Vapour Deposition

Diamond is a very interesting material with a wide range of properties, making it highly applicable, for example, in power electronics, chemo- and biosensors, tools’ coatings, and heaters. Due to the high demand for this innovative material based on the properties it is already expected to have, it is important to obtain homogeneous diamond layers for specific applications. Doping is often chosen to modify the properties of layers. However, there is an alternative way to achieve this goal and it is shown in this publication. The presented research results reveal that the change in methanol content during the Hot Filament Chemical Vapour Deposition (HF CVD) process is a sufficient factor to tune the properties of deposited layers. This was confirmed by analysing the properties of the obtained layers, which were determined using Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and an atomic force microscope (AFM), and the results were correlated with those of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results showed that the increasing of the concentration of methanol resulted in a slight decrease in the sp3 phase content. At the same time, the concentration of the -H, -OH, and =O groups increased with the increasing of the methanol concentration. This affirmed that by changing the content of methanol, it is possible to obtain layers with different properties

Influence of Heat Treatment on Surface, Structural and Optical Properties of Nickel and Copper Phthalocyanines Thin Films

The work presents the effect of annealing on the change of polycrystalline α and β phases of copper and nickel phthalocyanines. We have found that this process has a great influence on the optical properties of the vapor-deposited layers. The performed measurements showed that for various forms of MPc, the values of the refractive index and the extinction coefficient increased, and consequently, so did the absorption coefficient. The AFM images taken showed that the values before and after heating are morphologically different. Raman measurements showed that the band at about 1526 cm−1 (B1g symmetry) has higher intensity for the α form than for the β form. The intensity of this band is related to changing the form of phthalocyanine from α to β. Our measurements have shown that by changing the annealing temperature of the layers, we change their optical properties. As a consequence, we change their optoelectronic parameters, adjusting them to the requirements of new optoelectronic devices, such as solar cells, sensors, displays and OLEDs