Title :
Sensor protection using nonlinear properties of Erbium doped Zinc Oxide (EZO) thin films prepared by sol-gel method
Author :
Mohan, D. ; Kumar, Vipin ; Purmima
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Appl. Phys., GJUS&T, Hisar, India
Abstract :
Zinc Oxide (ZO) and Erbium doped zinc oxide (EZO) thin film were deposited on corning glass substrate by sol-gel method. Concentration of erbium is varying from 0.0 to 0.2 at.%. These films were characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-VIS-NIR transmission and single beam Z-scan technique under illumination of frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser. The films developed were found to be well crystallized with hexagonal wurtzite structure having a preferential growth orientation along the ZnO (002) plane. A blue-shift in band gap was observed in the EZO film in comparison to ZO film. The films clearly exhibit a negative value of nonlinear refraction at 532 nm which is attributed to the two photon absorption and week free carrier absorption. The presence of reverse saturable absorption (RSA) in ZO and EZO thin film infers that ZnO is a potential material for the development of optical limiter for protection of sensors in defence application.
Keywords :
II-VI semiconductors; X-ray diffraction; doping profiles; energy gap; erbium; light transmission; optical limiters; semiconductor doping; semiconductor growth; sol-gel processing; two-photon processes; wide band gap semiconductors; zinc compounds; EZO thin film nonlinear properties; RSA; UV-vis-NIR transmission; X-ray diffraction; XRD; ZnO:Er; band gap blue shift; corning glass substrate; erbium concentration; erbium doped zinc oxide thin film; frequency doubled Nd-YAG laser; hexagonal wurtzite structure; nonlinear refraction; optical limiter; preferential growth orientation; reverse saturable absorption; sensor protection; single beam Z-scan technique; sol-gel method; two photon absorption; wavelength 532 nm; week free carrier absorption; Absorption; Erbium; Integrated optics; Nonlinear optics; Optical films; Zinc oxide; Reverse saturable absorption; Z-scan technique; ZnO thin films; nonlinear absorption; sol-gel;
Conference_Titel :
Defense Science Research Conference and Expo (DSR), 2011
Conference_Location :
Singapore
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-9276-3
DOI :
10.1109/DSR.2011.6026855
