M. Fried

Hungarian Academy of Sciences | HAS · Institute of Technical Physics and Materials Science

Energy-effective smart windows, mirrors, display devices, and automobile sunroofs have been considered as applications of electrochromic materials. This chapter focuses on the electrochromic behavior of Ti-based mixed metal oxides. Transition metal oxides such as Titanium oxide (TiO2) have been used as promising electrochromic material for this pur...

We developed and applied a new calibration method to make more accurate measurements with our multi-color ellipsometric mapping tool made from cheap parts. Ellipsometry is an optical technique that measures the relative change in the polarization state of the measurement beam induced by reflection from or transmission through a sample. During conve...

We performed an electrochromic investigation to optimize the composition of reactive magnetron-sputtered mixed layers of zinc oxide and tin oxide (ZnO-SnO2). Deposition experiments were conducted as a combinatorial material synthesis approach. The binary system for the samples of SnO2-ZnO represented the full composition range. The coloration effic...

We developed and applied a new calibration method to make the measurement more accurate with our multi-color ellipsometric mapping tool from cheap parts. Ellipsometry is an optical technique that measures the relative change in polarization state of the measurement beam induced by reflection from or transmission though a sample. During the conventi...

Electrochromic measurements have been performed to optimize the composition of reactive magnetron-sputtered mixed layers of Zinc oxide and Tin oxide (ZnO-SnO2). A combinatorial material synthesis approach was applied throughout the deposition experiments, and the samples represented the full composition range of the binary SnO2-ZnO system. The Colo...

Electrochromic measurements have been performed throughout the full composition range of reactive magnetron-sputtered mixed Titanium oxide and Molybdenum oxide (TiO2-MoO3) to search for enhanced Coloration Efficiency (CE). Optical parameters and composition have been determined and mapped by using Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE). Scanning Electron...

Thin films of mixed MoO3 and WO3 were obtained using reactive magnetron sputtering onto ITO-covered glass, and the optimal composition was determined for the best electrochromic (EC) properties. A combinatorial material synthesis approach was applied throughout the deposition experiments, and the samples represented the full composition range of th...

Handling of picoliter-to-nanoliter-scale volumes and objects has increasing importance in life sciences. This is the volume scale of cell extractions and individual living cells. Here, we introduce a method of generating a picoliter-scale device by direct writing of picowell arrays on a ZEONOR™ copolymer surface with high-energy medium-mass ion mic...

We determined the optimal composition of reactive magnetron-sputtered mixed layers of Titanium oxide and Tin oxide (TiO2-SnO2) for electrochromic purposes. We determined and mapped the composition and optical parameters using Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE). Ti and Sn targets were put separately from each other, and the Si-wafers on a glass substra...

Ion implantation has been a key technology for the controlled surface modification of materials in microelectronics and generally, for tribology, biocompatibility, corrosion resistance and many more. To form shallow junctions in Ge is a challenging task. In this work the formation and accumulation of shallow damage profiles was studied by in-situ s...

We determined the optimal composition of reactive magnetron sputtered TiO2-SnO2 mixed layers for electrochromic purposes. We determined and mapped the composition and optical parameters by Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE). The Ti‐ and Sn‐ targets have been placed separately, and the Si-wafers on glass substrate (30 cm× 30 cm) were moved under the tw...

Ion implantation has been a key technology for the controlled surface modification of materials in microelectronics and generally, for tribology, biocompatibility, corrosion resistance and many more. To form shallow junctions in Ge is a challenging task. In this work the formation and accumulation of shallow damage profiles was studied by in-situ s...

Plasmonic AgAl/Si3N4 sensor layer structure was deposited on a fused silica glass slide by dual DC magnetron sputtering. The composition of the AgxAl1−x layer was laterally graded in which x linearly changes from x=0 to x=1 over a distance of 20 mm. The Si3N4 layer serves both as a resonator and a protective layer providing homogeneous chemical pro...

Two methods were proposed and implemented for the fabrication of channel waveguides in an Er-doped Tellurite glass. In the first method, channel waveguides were fabricated by implanting 1.5 MeV and 3.5 MeV energy N+ ions through a special silicon mask to the glass sample at various fluences. Those waveguides implanted at a fluence of 1.0 × 1016 ion...

Reactive (Ar-O2 plasma) magnetron sputtered WO3-MoO3 (nanometer scaled) mixed layers were investigated and mapped by Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE). The W- and Mo-targets were placed separately, and 30 × 30 cm glass substrates were slowly moved under the two (W and Mo) separated targets. We used different (oscillator- and Effective Medium Approxim...

Thin films covering large surfaces are used in a very wide range of applications from displays through corrosion resistance, decoration, water proofing, smart windows, adhesion performance to solar panels and many more. Scaling up existing thin film measurement techniques requires a high speed and the redesign of the configurations. The aim of this...

Regular monitoring of arsenic concentrations in water sources is essential due to the severe health effects. Our goal was to develop a rapidly responding, sensitive and stable sensing layer for the detection of arsenic. We have designed flagellin-based arsenic binding proteins capable of forming stable filament structures with high surface binding...

We designed a Bragg mirror structure with an SiO2 top layer to create a resonance in the ultraviolet wavelength range, near the absorption peak position of various proteins. We demonstrate that the wavelength of enhanced sensitivity can be adjusted by proper design of the 1D photonic structure. The possibility to design the wavelength of enhanced s...

Ion implantation has been a key technology in microelectronics and generally, for the controlled surface modification of materials for tribology, biocompatibility, corrosion resistance and many more. In this work in-situ spectroscopic ellipsometry was used for accurately tracking and on-line evaluating the accumulation of voids and damage in crysta...

Mid-infrared (IR) ellipsometry of thin films and molecule layers at solid–liquid interfaces has been a challenge because of the absorption of light in water. It has been usually overcome by using configurations utilizing illumination through the solid substrate. However, the access to the solid–liquid interface in a broad spectral range is also cha...

The optical parameters of hydrogenated amorphous a-\(\hbox {Si}_{1-x}\,\hbox {Ge}_{{x}}\):H layers were measured with focused beam mapping ellipsometry for photon energies from 0.7 to 6.5 eV. The applied single-sample micro-combinatorial technique enables the preparation of a-\(\hbox {Si}_{1-x}\,\hbox {Ge}_{{x}}\):H with full range composition spre...

Environmental monitoring of Ni is needed around the WHO threshold limit of 0.34 µM. This sensitivity target can usually only be met by time consuming and expensive laboratory measurements. There is a need for cheap field-applicable methods, even if it is only used for signaling the necessity of a more accurate laboratory investigation. In this work...

Accurate reference dielectric functions play an important role in the research and development of optical materials. Libraries of such data are required in many applications in which amorphous semiconductors are gaining increasing interest, such as in integrated optics, optoelectronics or photovoltaics. The preparation of materials of high optical...

Biofunctional coatings are key elements of biosensors regulating interactions between the sensing surface and analytes as well as matrix components of the sample. These coatings can improve sensing capabilities both by amplifying the target signal and attenuating interfering signals originating from surface fouling (non-specific binding). Consideri...

Planar optical waveguides were designed and fabricated in an Er-doped Tungsten-Tellurite oxide glass and in a KDy (WO4)2 crystal by swift heavy ion irradiation. 12.5 MeV Au⁵⁺ ions were used in the first case and 10.5 MeV N⁴⁺ ions in the second one. Irradiated fluences were very low: 7·10¹⁴ ions/cm² in the first experiment, and 4·10¹⁵ ions/cm² ions/...

Substrate properties might significantly influence the scattering spectra of supported plasmonic nanoparticles due to different damping mechanisms. In this work ITO substrates are modified by the combination of nanosphere lithography and ion-bombardment to create a nanopattern with sharp boundaries between the irradiated and masked regions. The sin...

The project sets to develop a new energy autonomous system based on electrochemical sensors for detection of different ionic species in natural water sources and ultra-thin solar cells (UTSC). It focuses on three directions: high efficiency, new materials in solar energy harvesting and fabrication of small UTSC and the power stabilizing device able...

Bovine fibrinogen monolayers on thin gold films and glassy carbon substrate were investigated using grazing incidence X-ray fluorescence (GIXRF) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The aim was to determine the amount of protein and to develop models and references for the SE measurement. Both methods were capable of measuring protein amount in the...

The Kretschmann-Raether geometry is widely used to investigate the properties of various biological samples and their behavior on different substrates ###citearw11a (mostly on gold surface with/without different functionalization). In this configuration the surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are used to enhance the sensitivity of the measurement. Re...

Optical methods have been used for the sensitive characterization of surfaces and thin films for more than a century. The first ellipsometric measurement was conducted on metal surfaces by Paul Drude in 1889. The word 'ellipsometer' was first used by Rothen in a study of antigen-antibody interactions on polished metal surfaces in 1945. The 'bible'...

Carboxymethyl dextran (CMD) layers were fabricated on optical waveguide sensor chips by spin coating technique. The dependence of the layer thickness on the rotational speed as a technical parameter of the fabrication process, was investigated by spectroscopic ellipsometry. Optical model for the evaluation of the ellipsometric data was developed an...

Columnar mesoporous Si thin films and dense nanowire (SiNW) carpets were investigated by spectroscopic ellipsometry in the visible-near-infrared wavelength range. Porous Si layers were formed by electrochemical etching while structural anisotropy was controlled by the applied current. Layers of highly oriented SiNWs, with length up to 4.1 μm were s...

Substrate surface damage induced by deposition of metal atoms by radiofrequency (rf) sputtering or ion beam sputtering onto single-crystalline silicon (c-Si) surface has been characterized earlier by electrical measurements. The question arises whether it is possible to characterize surface damage using spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). In our exper...

Active and passive optical waveguides are fundamental elements in modern telecommunications systems. A great number of optical crystals and glasses were identified and are used as good optoelectronic materials. However, fabrication of waveguides in some of those materials remains still a challenging task due to their susceptibility to mechanical or...

Two surface-sensitive label-free optical methods, grating coupled interferometry (GCI) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) were integrated into a single instrument. The new tool combines the high sensitivity of GCI with the spectroscopic capabilities of SE. This approach allows quantification with complex optical models supported by SE and accurate...

Plasmon-enhanced in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry was realized using the Kretschmann geometry. A 10-μL flow cell was designed for multi-channel measurements using a semi-cylindrical lens. Dual-channel monitoring of the layer formation of different organic structures has been demonstrated on titania nanoparticle thin films supported by gold. Compl...

This paper suggests the evaluation of morphological parameters of porous silicon layers (PSL) using spectroscopic ellipsometry from UV to mid-infrared optical range. PSL were prepared by electrochemical etching of monocrystalline silicon wafers in hydrofluoric acid-based electrolyte. Measuring with an optical and an infrared ellipsometer with a wid...

A semi-cylindrical lens in Kretschmann geometry combined with a flow cell was designed for a commercial rotating compensator ellipsometer to perform internal reflection spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements, while allowing the use of multiple angles of incidence. A thin glass slide covered with a gold film was mounted between the half-cylindrical...

Non-destructive analysing tools are needed at all stages of thin film process-development, especially photovoltaic (PV) development, and on production lines. In the case of thin films, layer thicknesses, micro-structure, composition, layer optical properties, and their uniformity are important parameters. An important focus is to express the dielec...

Indirect optical methods like ellipsometry or scatterometry require an optical model to calculate the response of the system, and to fit the parameters in order to minimize the difference between the calculated and measured values. The most common problem of optical modeling is that the measured structures and materials turn out to be more complex...

It is well known that the refractive indices of lots of materials can be modified by ion implantation, which is important for waveguide fabrication. In this work the effect of Ar and Zn ion implantation on silica layers was investigated by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) and Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE). Silica layers produced by ch...

An extension of Fourier scatterometry is presented, aiming at increasing the sensitivity by measuring the phase difference between the reflections polarized parallel and perpendicular to the plane of incidence. The ellipsometric approach requires no additional hardware elements compared with conventional Fourier scatterometry. Furthermore, incohere...

An extension of Fourier scatterometry is presented, aiming at increasing the sensitivity by measuring the phase difference between the reflections polarized parallel and perpendicular to the plane of incidence. The ellipsometric approach requires no additional hardware elements compared with conventional Fourier scatterometry. Furthermore, incohere...

Re ection of light measured in a polarimetric, scatterometric and spectroscopic way allows the measurement of structures in a broad size range from large (meter) scales like photovoltaic panels down to small (nanometer) scales like nanocrystals. Optical metrology continues to be improved to measure those materials with increasing sensitivity and ac...

Non-destructive analyzing tools are needed at all stages of thin film photovoltaic (PV) development, and on production lines. In thin film PV, layer thicknesses, micro-structure, composition, layer optical properties, and their uniformity (because each elementary cell is connected electrically in series within a big panel) serve as an important sta...

For most thin film structures, by changing the wavelength range to fit ellipsometric spectra, the values of the fitted parameters also change to a certain extent. The reason is that compared with the ellipsometric sensitivity many thin films are vertically non-uniform. In absorbing films with significant dispersion in the used wavelength range, the...

Inorganic based optical transducers have demonstrated their suitability for labelled and label-free sensing of biomolecules but suffer from their relatively high cost. Photonic structures fabricated in polymer by molding techniques could drastically reduce the cost per test and pave the way for label-free screening in point-of care environment wher...

Ion implantation proved to be an universal technique for producing waveguides in most optical materials. Tellurite glasses are good hosts of rare-earth elements for the development of fibre and integrated optical amplifiers and lasers covering all the main telecommunication bands. Er3+-doped tellurite glasses are good candidates for the fabrication...

Optical techniques have been intensively developed for many decades in terms of both experimental and modeling capabilities. In spectroscopy and scatterometry material structures can be measured and modeled from the atomic (binding configurations, electronic band structure) through nanometer (nanocrystals, long range order) to micron scales (photon...

Single-crystalline silicon wafers covered with sacrificial oxide layer and epitaxially grown gallium nitride layers were implanted with high-fluence helium ions (2-6 x 10(16) cm(-2)) at energies of 20-30 keV. Thermal annealings at 650-1000 degrees C, 1 h were performed on the Si samples and rapid thermal annealings at 600-1000 degrees C, 120 s unde...

An expanded-beam spectroscopic ellipsometer has been developed and applied toward in situ high-speed imaging/mapping analysis of large area spatial uniformity for multilayer coated substrates in roll-to-roll thin-film photovoltaics (PV). Slower speed instrumentation available in such analyses applies a 1-D detector array for spectroscopic mapping a...

In this study we compare the thicknesses and optical properties of atomic layer deposited (ALD) Al2O3 films measured using table top and mapping ellipsometry as well as X-ray and optical reflectometry. The thickness of the films is varied in the range of 1-50 nm. ALD samples are used as references with well-controlled composition and thickness, as...

Irradiation with N+ ions of the 1.5-3.5 MeV energy range was applied to optical waveguide formation. Planar and channel waveguides have been fabricated in an Er-doped tungsten-tellurite glass, and in both types of bismuth germanate (KO) crystals: Bi4Ge3O12 (eulytine) and Bi12GeO20 (sillenite). Multi-wavelength m-line spectroscopy and spectroscopic...

Ion implantation proved to be a universal technique for producing waveguides in most optical materials. Tellurite glasses are good hosts of rare-earth elements for the development of fibre and integrated optical amplifiers and lasers covering all the main telecommunication bands. Er3+-doped tellurite glasses are good candidates for the fabrication...

The invention relates to an imaging optical inspection setup for inspecting a sample (5). Said inspection setup comprises a source of light (3) illuminating a specified portion of the sample surface by non-collimated light (4) in a plane of illumination, at least one pinhole (7) arranged in a path of reflected light (4′) reflected from said portion...