Gas Sensor Arrays by Supersonic Cluster Beam Deposition

Abstract

Supersonic cluster beam deposition was employed to produce nanostructured thin films of transition met al oxides to be used as gas sensors. Due to high nanoparticle beam collimation, patterned deposition was easily obtain ed by using hard masks, achieving sub-micrometric resolut ion. To exploit hard mask patterning micro-machined substrates having an array structure were developed in order t o deposit materials with different properties on each single element of the array. Results on the deposition of nanostru ctured TiO 2, WO 3, SnO 2 and on the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and gases related to environmental pollution (such as NO x) are reported.