Eur. Phys. J. B 26, 115-119 (2002)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e20020072

Densification and nanocrystallisation of sol-gel ZrO₂ thin films studied by surface plasmon polariton-assisted Raman spectroscopy

¹ Département de Physique des Matériaux, Université Claude Bernard Lyon1 CNRS UMR 5586, 43 boulevard du 11 Novembre, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France
² Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie des Matériaux Luminescents, Université Claude Bernard Lyon1 (CNRS UMR 5620) , 43 boulevard du 11 , 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France

Corresponding author: ^a plenet@dpm.univ-lyon1.fr

Received: 14 May 2001
Revised: 2 January 2002
Published online: 15 March 2002

Abstract

Very thin films (few nanometers) have been prepared by sol-gel process. These films were deposited onto a stack of a thin silver layer evaporated on a glass substrate for Surface Plasmons Resonance (SPR) experiments. The first aim of this work is to study the high densification of the sol-gel films followed by the refractive index and thickness accurate measurements at each step of the annealing procedure, using an optical set-up based on SPR. Secondly, SPR excitation coupled with micro-Raman experiment has also been performed to determine the thin films structure depending on layer thickness. Finally, Conventional Transmission Electron Microscopy (CTEM) and High Resolution (HRTEM) studies have been conducted to check and complete Raman spectroscopy results. A discussion compares the optical results and the Transmission Electron Microscopy observations and shows that ultra thin layers structure is strongly depends on films thickness.