Smart Materials & Structures

Transition metal oxides (TMO) is an interesting group of solid materials with a wide variety surface structures which affect the surface energy of these compounds and infl uence the chemical properties, optical, electrical and magnetic properties. Th e unusual properties of these oxides are due to the unique nature of outermost d-electrons. Th e general formulae of transition metal oxides MnO2n±1 where M represents the transition metal. Th ey have two dimensional vander Waal’s bonded layered structures (Ex:V2O5,MoO3--) or three dimensional frame work tunnel structures (Ex:WO3, LiCoO2----) which lead the materials for their applications in the fi eld of Electrochromic and opto electronic devices. Th e combination of solid state materials science with thin fi lm technology has signifi cantly reduced the size of component and leads to miniaturization of display devices in the emerging technology.
 

TMOs can be deposited as thin fi lm by Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) like thermal, electron beam , sputtering, so on and chemical vapour deposition (CVD) techniques like sol-gel, spin coating, spray pyrolisis so on. Th in fi lm deposition in  PVD technique consists of three major phases. In the fi rst phase, the material should be in the proper form to deposit. In the second stage, it is transported through the medium and in the third stage it should deposit on the substrate to form a continuous fi lm. Depending on the deposition parameters such as oxygen partial pressure, substrate temperature etc., one can deposit amorphous, polycrystalline and nanocrystalline thin fi lms for their eff ective utilization in devices. Th ese fi lms will be characterized for their composition, structure, morphology, vibrational and optical studies by using X-ray photo electron spectroscopy, X-ray Diff raction, Atomic force microscopy, InfraRed Spectroscopy , Raman Spectroscopy and UV-VIS Spectroscopy.