Bottom-up Fabrication of Multilayer Stacks of 3D Photonic Crystals from Titanium Dioxide.

A strategy for stacking multiple ceramic 3D photonic crystals is developed. Periodically structured porous films are produced by vertical convective self-assembly of polystyrene (PS) microspheres. After infiltration of the opaline templates by atomic layer deposition (ALD) of titania and thermal decomposition of the polystyrene matrix, a ceramic 3D photonic crystal is formed.

Synthesis and thermal stability of zirconia and yttria-stabilized zirconia microspheres.

Hypothesis: Zirconia microparticles produced by sol-gel synthesis have great potential for photonic applications. To this end, identifying synthetic methods that yield reproducible control over size uniformity is important. Phase transformations during thermal cycling can disintegrate the particles.

Facile deposition of YSZ-inverse photonic glass films.

An alternative all-colloidal and single-step deposition method of yttrium-stabilized zirconia (YSZ)-infiltrated polymeric photonic glass films is presented. Heterocoagulation of oppositely charged polystyrene (PS) microspheres and YSZ nanocrystals in aqueous dispersions created PS/YSZ core-shell spheres. These composite particles were deposited on glass substrates by a simple drop-coating process.

Solution processing of transparent conductors: from flask to film.

This critical review focuses on the solution deposition of transparent conductors with a particular focus on transparent conducting oxide (TCO) thin-films. TCOs play a critical role in many current and emerging opto-electronic devices due to their unique combination of electronic conductivity and transparency in the visible region of the spectrum. Atmospheric-pressure solution processing is an attractive alternative to conventional vacuum-based deposition methods due to its ease of fabrication, scalability, and potential to lower device manufacturing costs.

Solution synthesis and characterization of indium-zinc formate precursors for transparent conducting oxides.

A series of In-Zn formate mixtures were investigated as potential precursors to amorphous In-Zn-oxide (IZO) for transparent conducting oxide (TCO) applications. These mixtures were prepared by neutralization from formic acid and characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, and thermogravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC) measurements. Thermal analysis revealed that a mixture of In and Zn formates reduced the overall decomposition temperature compared to the individual constituents and that OH-substitution enhanced the effect.