Tätte T., Paalo M., Talviste R., Kisand V., Saal K., Mäeorg U., Lõhmus A., Kink I.
University of Tartu, EE
Keywords: alkoxides, metal oxides, nanoOptics, oxide fibres
Recently many new technologies have been suggested for designing silica based optical devises in nanoscale. However, there are insuperable drawbacks in realizing optics based on silica (glass and quartz) because of their low refractive indexes. To overcome that high refractive index materials like transition metal oxides must be used instead of silica. But these oxides decompose at elevated temperatures rather than transform to spinnable melts. Thus, fibers drawing and shape molding of these materials is not possible. In order to shape transition metal oxides to low-dimensional fibers and needles we have recently proposed a new approach that utilizes alkoxide based concentrates as precursors. Moreover, we have shown that these precursors can be effectively used for grafting defined shape microscopic oxide lines to different flat substrates. We have successfully applied our method in preparing conductive and optically transparent tips of Sb doped SnO2 for simultaneous STM–photon imaging, which enabled 1-2 nm lateral and atomic vertical resolution in STM regime. In this work we generalize the conceptual background of preparation of transition metal oxides, and take an insight to critical aspects in particular practical applications.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 4, Technical Proceedings of the 2007 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, Volume 4
Published: May 20, 2007
Pages: 482 - 484
Industry sector: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing
Topics: Advanced Manufacturing, Nanoelectronics
ISBN: 1-4200-6376-6