Thin film sensors on the basis of chalcogenide glass materials prepared by pulsed laser deposition technique

Potentiometric thin film sensors on the basis of the two different chalcogenide glass materials Ag–As–S and Cu–Ag–As–Se–Te have been prepared by means of the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique onto Si/SiO2 substrates with an additional contact layer of Cr/Au and Ti/Pt, respectively. The physical layer structure and the stoichiometric composition of the deposited glass materials have been investigated by means of Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Depending on the material systems used, in a conventional “two-electrodes” measuring set-up, these novel thin film sensors possess a high sensitivity towards lead (23–25 mV/pPb), copper (29–31 mV/pCu), cadmium (23–27 mV/pCd) and silver (about 54 mV/pAg) over a measuring period of more than 60 days. The obtained results are in good accordance when comparing them to measurements performed with conventional bulk ion-selective electrodes, built-up of the same layer composition.