Ayan Roy Chaudhuri | Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (original) (raw)
Papers by Ayan Roy Chaudhuri
Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science 2022 (FIO, LS)
Linearly polarized excitons in anisotropic semiconductors like ReS2 pose intriguing possibilities... more Linearly polarized excitons in anisotropic semiconductors like ReS2 pose intriguing possibilities in photonics and condensed matter physics. Here, we stack multilayer ReS2 on a dielectric mirror, creating anisotropic exciton-polaritons which show tunable light-matter coupling.
ACS Applied Nano Materials
![Research paper thumbnail of Erratum: “Superior dielectric properties for template assisted grown (100) oriented Gd2O3 thin films on Si(100)” [Appl. Phys. Lett. 104, 012906 (2014)]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/88533340/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Applied Physics Letters, 2015
Impact of oxygen supply during growth on the electrical properties of crystalline thin films on S... more Impact of oxygen supply during growth on the electrical properties of crystalline thin films on Si(001)
Nanoscale, 2022
Nanocomposite metal oxide thin films exhibit promising qualities in the field of gas sensors due ... more Nanocomposite metal oxide thin films exhibit promising qualities in the field of gas sensors due to the opportunities provided by the heterointerface formation. In this work, we present the synthesis...
Frontiers in Physics
A great deal of interest has grown in both academia and industry toward flexible multiferroics in... more A great deal of interest has grown in both academia and industry toward flexible multiferroics in the recent years. The coupling of ferromagnetic properties with ferroelectric properties in multiferroic materials opens up many opportunities in applications such as magnetoelectric random access memories, magnetic field sensors, and energy harvesters. Multiferroic materials on a flexible platform bring an exciting opportunity for the next generation of consumer electronics owing to their unique characteristics of wearability, portability, and weight reduction. However, the fabrication of flexible multiferroic devices is still a great challenge due to various technical difficulties, including the requirement of high growth temperature of the oxide-based multiferroic materials, their lattice mismatch with the flexible substrates, and the brittleness of the functional layers. In this review article, we will discuss different methods of fabricating flexible or even freestanding oxide film...
Nanocomposite metal oxide thin films exhibit assuring qualities in the field of gas sensors becau... more Nanocomposite metal oxide thin films exhibit assuring qualities in the field of gas sensors because of the collective opportunities provided by the heterointerface formation. In this work, we present the synthesis of nitrogen doped mesoporous In$_2$O$_3$-ZnO nano-composite thin films by simple wet chemical method using urea as the nitrogen precursor. SEM investigation suggests formation of mesoporous nano-composite thin films, where the uniformity of surface pore distribution depends on the relative proportion of In$_2$O$_3$ and ZnO in the composites. HRTEM investigation suggest formation of sharp interfaces between N-In$_2$O$_3$ and N-ZnO grains in the nano-composite thin films. The nano-composite thin films have been tested for their ethanol sensing performance over an extensive range of temperature, ethanol vapor concentration and relative humidity. Nitrogen doped nano-composite thin film with equal proportion of In$_2$O$_3$ and ZnO exhibits excellent ethanol sensing performance ...
Frontiers in Physics, 2022
A great deal of interest has grown in both academia and industry toward flexible multiferroics in... more A great deal of interest has grown in both academia and industry toward flexible multiferroics in the recent years. The coupling of ferromagnetic properties with ferroelectric properties in multiferroic materials opens up many opportunities in applications such as magnetoelectric random access memories, magnetic field sensors, and energy harvesters. Multiferroic materials on a flexible platform bring an exciting opportunity for the next generation of consumer electronics owing to their unique characteristics of wearability, portability, and weight reduction. However, the fabrication of flexible multiferroic devices is still a great challenge due to various technical difficulties, including the requirement of high growth temperature of the oxide-based multiferroic materials, their lattice mismatch with the flexible substrates, and the brittleness of the functional layers. In this review article, we will discuss different methods of fabricating flexible or even freestanding oxide film...
Journal of Applied Physics, 2021
The impact of device operation condition and ambient moisture on the interface-type resistive swi... more The impact of device operation condition and ambient moisture on the interface-type resistive switching (RS) characteristics of a non-stoichiometric polycrystalline tungsten oxide (WO3−x) based metal–insulator–metal device with an Au top electrode and a Pt bottom electrode has been investigated. The device exhibits rectification and stable bipolar RS characteristics without the need for any forming step, where the switching is primarily dominated by the Schottky type Au/WO3−x interface. DC conduction characteristics of the device have been investigated at different temperature, bias stress, and relative humidity conditions. Current conduction through the active layer has been found to be dominated by Schottky emission at low electric field and Poole–Frenkel emission at high electric field. An increase in current and a strong reduction in the rectification characteristic have been observed on subjecting the device to DC bias stress of appropriate polarity as well as increasing ambien...
Physical Review B, 2021
A spark-plasma sintered GdCrO 3 (SPS-GCO) is found to stabilize in its ferroelectric phase beyond... more A spark-plasma sintered GdCrO 3 (SPS-GCO) is found to stabilize in its ferroelectric phase beyond room temperature. The intrinsic nature of this room-temperature ferroelectricity is established using ferroelectric positive-up-negative-down measurements and supported through piezoresponce force microscopy measurements. The SPS-GCO undergoes antiferromagnetic ordering at much lower temperatures, only below ≈170 K. Thus, any role of magnetism to the observed room temperature ferroelectricity in SPS-GCO can be ruled out. This is contrast to the concomitant antiferromagnetic and ferroelectric ordering observed below ≈170 K in GdCrO 3 (GCO) (prepared using standard solid-state synthesis technique). Using detailed Rietveld refinements of room-temperature x-ray diffraction patterns, SPS-GCO is found to stabilize in the noncentrosymmetric orthorhombic Pna2 1 space group (the reported low-temperature ferroelectric phase in GCO), while GCO stabilizes in the centrosymmetric Pbnm space group at room temperature. Using first-principles calculations, we investigated the relative energies among various possible structures of GdCrO 3 and found that the orthorhombic Pna2 1 and Pbnm space groups are the most stable structures. The ferroelectric Pna2 1 phase of SPS-GCO (stabilized at room temperature using the high-pressure and high-temperature spark-plasma sintering process) undergoes transition to the paraelectric centrosymmetric phase upon heating beyond ≈450 K (as confirmed using dielectric and calorimetric measurements), which on subsequent cooling to room temperature does not undergo a transition back to the ferroelectric phase and remains in the centrosymmetric Pbnm phase.
Optica, 2021
Light-matter coupling in van der Waal's materials holds significant promise in realizing Bosonic ... more Light-matter coupling in van der Waal's materials holds significant promise in realizing Bosonic condensation and superfluidity. The underlying semiconductor's crystal asymmetry, if any, can be utilized to form anisotropic half-light half-matter quasiparticles. We demonstrate generation of such highly anisotropic exciton-polaritons at the interface of a biaxial layered semiconductor, stacked on top of a distributed Bragg reflector. The spatially confined photonic mode in this geometry couples with polarized excitons and their Rydberg states, creating a system of highly anisotropic polariton manifolds, displaying Rabi splitting of up to 68 meV. Rotation of the incident beam polarization is used to tune coupling strength and smoothly switch regimes from weak to strong coupling, while also enabling transition from one threebody coupled oscillator system to another. Light-matter coupling is further tunable by varying the number of weakly coupled optically active layers. Our work provides a versatile method of engineering devices for applications in polarization-controlled polaritonics and optoelectronics.
The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2021
Ferroelectric (FE) materials usually possess very high band gap (∼3–4 eV) and extremely poor elec... more Ferroelectric (FE) materials usually possess very high band gap (∼3–4 eV) and extremely poor electrical conductivity, which renders them unsuitable for photovoltaic applications. Here, we demonstra...
Journal of Materials Research, 2021
Nitrogen doped Indium oxide (In2O3) thin films have been investigated for their suitability as a ... more Nitrogen doped Indium oxide (In2O3) thin films have been investigated for their suitability as a potential sensor for the detection of ethanol vapour. With urea as a precursor, N–In2O3 thin films of various thicknesses have been synthesised by sol–gel technique. The response transients of the films have been found to follow Freundlich adsorption isotherm from the conductance transient analysis. The heat of adsorption (Q) and adsorption activation energy (Ea) have been estimated for the films. Further, ethanol sensing performance of the N–In2O3 films have been found to depend strongly on their microstructure. A significantly large sensing response (Ra/Rg ~ 313 for 300 ppm ethanol) have been recorded for ~ 250 nm thick N–In2O3 film for which the heat of adsorption has been the highest. Two leading factors, namely the modification of surface electron distribution and effective surface areas, have been suggested to regulate the ethanol sensing properties of N–In2O3 thin films.
Applied Physics Letters, 2020
Journal of Power Sources, 2020
The interplay between the immune system and the microbiota in the human intestine dictates states... more The interplay between the immune system and the microbiota in the human intestine dictates states of health vs. disease. Polysaccharide capsules are critical elements of bacteria that protect bacteria against environmental and host factors, including the host immune system. This review summarizes the mechanisms by which polysaccharide capsules from commensal and pathogenic bacteria in the gut microbiota modulate the innate and adaptive immune systems in the intestine. A deeper understanding of the roles of polysaccharide capsules in microbiota-immune interactions will provide a basis to harness their therapeutic potential to advance human health.
Physical Review B, 2020
Simultaneous coexistence of room-temperature ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity in Fe doped BaTi... more Simultaneous coexistence of room-temperature ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity in Fe doped BaTiO3 (BTO) is intriguing, as such Fe doping into tetragonal BTO, a room-temperature ferroelectric, results in the stabilization of its hexagonal polymorph which is ferroelectric only below ∼ 80K. Here, we investigate its origin and show that Fe doped BTO has a mixed-phase room-temperature multiferroicity, where the ferromagnetism comes from the majority hexagonal phase and a minority tetragonal phase gives rise to the observed weak ferroelectricity. In order to achieve majority tetragonal phase (responsible for room-temperature ferroelectricity) in Fe doped BTO, we investigate the role of different parameters which primarily control the paraelectric hexagonal phase stability over the ferroelectric tetragonal one and identify three major factors namely, the effect of ionic size, Jahn-Teller (J-T) distortions and oxygen-vacancies, to be primarily responsible. The effect of ionic size which can be qualitatively represented using the Goldschmidt's tolerance factor seems to be the major dictating factor for the hexagonal phase stability. The understanding of these factors not only enables us to control them but also, achieve suitable co-doped BTO compound with enhanced room-temperature multiferroic properties.
Nanotechnology, 2019
We report the optical characteristics of relatively larger sized (~7.0 - 8.0 μm) but low aspect r... more We report the optical characteristics of relatively larger sized (~7.0 - 8.0 μm) but low aspect ratio Ge microdisks grown on a virtual Si0.5Ge0.5 substrate using molecular beam epitaxy following Stranski-Krastanov growth mechanism. Grown microdisks with a very low aspect ratio Ge islands, exhibit direct band gap (~ 0.8 eV) photoluminescence emission sustainable up to room temperature, enabled by the confinement of carriers into the microdisks. p-i-n diodes with an intrinsic layer containing Ge microdisks have been fabricated to study their emission and photo-response characteristics at optical communication wavelength of ~ 1550 nm. A strong electroluminescence at 1550 nm has been achieved at low temperatures in the device for a very low threshold current density of 2.56 μA/cm2 due to strong confinement of injected holes. The emission characteristics of the fabricated device with respect to injected current density and temperature have been studied. Novel emission and optical modulation characteristics at 1550 nm of the fabricated p-i-n device containing Ge microdisks grown on a virtual SiGe substrate indicate its potential for Si CMOS compatible on-chip optical communications.
Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 2020
Abstract Incorporation of suitable dopants in semiconducting metal oxide (SMO) based gas sensors ... more Abstract Incorporation of suitable dopants in semiconducting metal oxide (SMO) based gas sensors have been one proficient approach employed to improve their sensing characteristics. Indium oxide (In2O3), which is a n-type SMO, has been widely investigated for its ethanol sensing characteristics. For doping of In2O3, typically various metal based dopants have been considered, whereas non-metallic dopants have drawn only limited attention. In this work we have examined the impact of nitrogen incorporation on the ethanol sensing properties of In2O3 thin film. Using urea as a source, nitrogen has been doped at the interstitial site of In2O3 synthesised using sol-gel technique. Ethanol sensing properties of the nitrogen doped In2O3 thin film has been compared with pure In2O3 sensor over a wide range of temperature. Doping of nitrogen has been found to significantly enhance the ethanol sensing response of In2O3 (99.7 % at 250 °C), improves the stability of response under humid condition (change of response ∼ 4.5 % within relative humidity range 10–80 %) and offers very fast response time (1 s for 300 ppm ethanol). We discuss that modification of the electronic properties of In2O3 due to interstitial nitrogen incorporation leads to its superior sensing properties on exposure to ethanol vapour.
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2019
Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science 2022 (FIO, LS)
Linearly polarized excitons in anisotropic semiconductors like ReS2 pose intriguing possibilities... more Linearly polarized excitons in anisotropic semiconductors like ReS2 pose intriguing possibilities in photonics and condensed matter physics. Here, we stack multilayer ReS2 on a dielectric mirror, creating anisotropic exciton-polaritons which show tunable light-matter coupling.
ACS Applied Nano Materials
Applied Physics Letters, 2015
Impact of oxygen supply during growth on the electrical properties of crystalline thin films on S... more Impact of oxygen supply during growth on the electrical properties of crystalline thin films on Si(001)
Nanoscale, 2022
Nanocomposite metal oxide thin films exhibit promising qualities in the field of gas sensors due ... more Nanocomposite metal oxide thin films exhibit promising qualities in the field of gas sensors due to the opportunities provided by the heterointerface formation. In this work, we present the synthesis...
Frontiers in Physics
A great deal of interest has grown in both academia and industry toward flexible multiferroics in... more A great deal of interest has grown in both academia and industry toward flexible multiferroics in the recent years. The coupling of ferromagnetic properties with ferroelectric properties in multiferroic materials opens up many opportunities in applications such as magnetoelectric random access memories, magnetic field sensors, and energy harvesters. Multiferroic materials on a flexible platform bring an exciting opportunity for the next generation of consumer electronics owing to their unique characteristics of wearability, portability, and weight reduction. However, the fabrication of flexible multiferroic devices is still a great challenge due to various technical difficulties, including the requirement of high growth temperature of the oxide-based multiferroic materials, their lattice mismatch with the flexible substrates, and the brittleness of the functional layers. In this review article, we will discuss different methods of fabricating flexible or even freestanding oxide film...
Nanocomposite metal oxide thin films exhibit assuring qualities in the field of gas sensors becau... more Nanocomposite metal oxide thin films exhibit assuring qualities in the field of gas sensors because of the collective opportunities provided by the heterointerface formation. In this work, we present the synthesis of nitrogen doped mesoporous In$_2$O$_3$-ZnO nano-composite thin films by simple wet chemical method using urea as the nitrogen precursor. SEM investigation suggests formation of mesoporous nano-composite thin films, where the uniformity of surface pore distribution depends on the relative proportion of In$_2$O$_3$ and ZnO in the composites. HRTEM investigation suggest formation of sharp interfaces between N-In$_2$O$_3$ and N-ZnO grains in the nano-composite thin films. The nano-composite thin films have been tested for their ethanol sensing performance over an extensive range of temperature, ethanol vapor concentration and relative humidity. Nitrogen doped nano-composite thin film with equal proportion of In$_2$O$_3$ and ZnO exhibits excellent ethanol sensing performance ...
Frontiers in Physics, 2022
A great deal of interest has grown in both academia and industry toward flexible multiferroics in... more A great deal of interest has grown in both academia and industry toward flexible multiferroics in the recent years. The coupling of ferromagnetic properties with ferroelectric properties in multiferroic materials opens up many opportunities in applications such as magnetoelectric random access memories, magnetic field sensors, and energy harvesters. Multiferroic materials on a flexible platform bring an exciting opportunity for the next generation of consumer electronics owing to their unique characteristics of wearability, portability, and weight reduction. However, the fabrication of flexible multiferroic devices is still a great challenge due to various technical difficulties, including the requirement of high growth temperature of the oxide-based multiferroic materials, their lattice mismatch with the flexible substrates, and the brittleness of the functional layers. In this review article, we will discuss different methods of fabricating flexible or even freestanding oxide film...
Journal of Applied Physics, 2021
The impact of device operation condition and ambient moisture on the interface-type resistive swi... more The impact of device operation condition and ambient moisture on the interface-type resistive switching (RS) characteristics of a non-stoichiometric polycrystalline tungsten oxide (WO3−x) based metal–insulator–metal device with an Au top electrode and a Pt bottom electrode has been investigated. The device exhibits rectification and stable bipolar RS characteristics without the need for any forming step, where the switching is primarily dominated by the Schottky type Au/WO3−x interface. DC conduction characteristics of the device have been investigated at different temperature, bias stress, and relative humidity conditions. Current conduction through the active layer has been found to be dominated by Schottky emission at low electric field and Poole–Frenkel emission at high electric field. An increase in current and a strong reduction in the rectification characteristic have been observed on subjecting the device to DC bias stress of appropriate polarity as well as increasing ambien...
Physical Review B, 2021
A spark-plasma sintered GdCrO 3 (SPS-GCO) is found to stabilize in its ferroelectric phase beyond... more A spark-plasma sintered GdCrO 3 (SPS-GCO) is found to stabilize in its ferroelectric phase beyond room temperature. The intrinsic nature of this room-temperature ferroelectricity is established using ferroelectric positive-up-negative-down measurements and supported through piezoresponce force microscopy measurements. The SPS-GCO undergoes antiferromagnetic ordering at much lower temperatures, only below ≈170 K. Thus, any role of magnetism to the observed room temperature ferroelectricity in SPS-GCO can be ruled out. This is contrast to the concomitant antiferromagnetic and ferroelectric ordering observed below ≈170 K in GdCrO 3 (GCO) (prepared using standard solid-state synthesis technique). Using detailed Rietveld refinements of room-temperature x-ray diffraction patterns, SPS-GCO is found to stabilize in the noncentrosymmetric orthorhombic Pna2 1 space group (the reported low-temperature ferroelectric phase in GCO), while GCO stabilizes in the centrosymmetric Pbnm space group at room temperature. Using first-principles calculations, we investigated the relative energies among various possible structures of GdCrO 3 and found that the orthorhombic Pna2 1 and Pbnm space groups are the most stable structures. The ferroelectric Pna2 1 phase of SPS-GCO (stabilized at room temperature using the high-pressure and high-temperature spark-plasma sintering process) undergoes transition to the paraelectric centrosymmetric phase upon heating beyond ≈450 K (as confirmed using dielectric and calorimetric measurements), which on subsequent cooling to room temperature does not undergo a transition back to the ferroelectric phase and remains in the centrosymmetric Pbnm phase.
Optica, 2021
Light-matter coupling in van der Waal's materials holds significant promise in realizing Bosonic ... more Light-matter coupling in van der Waal's materials holds significant promise in realizing Bosonic condensation and superfluidity. The underlying semiconductor's crystal asymmetry, if any, can be utilized to form anisotropic half-light half-matter quasiparticles. We demonstrate generation of such highly anisotropic exciton-polaritons at the interface of a biaxial layered semiconductor, stacked on top of a distributed Bragg reflector. The spatially confined photonic mode in this geometry couples with polarized excitons and their Rydberg states, creating a system of highly anisotropic polariton manifolds, displaying Rabi splitting of up to 68 meV. Rotation of the incident beam polarization is used to tune coupling strength and smoothly switch regimes from weak to strong coupling, while also enabling transition from one threebody coupled oscillator system to another. Light-matter coupling is further tunable by varying the number of weakly coupled optically active layers. Our work provides a versatile method of engineering devices for applications in polarization-controlled polaritonics and optoelectronics.
The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2021
Ferroelectric (FE) materials usually possess very high band gap (∼3–4 eV) and extremely poor elec... more Ferroelectric (FE) materials usually possess very high band gap (∼3–4 eV) and extremely poor electrical conductivity, which renders them unsuitable for photovoltaic applications. Here, we demonstra...
Journal of Materials Research, 2021
Nitrogen doped Indium oxide (In2O3) thin films have been investigated for their suitability as a ... more Nitrogen doped Indium oxide (In2O3) thin films have been investigated for their suitability as a potential sensor for the detection of ethanol vapour. With urea as a precursor, N–In2O3 thin films of various thicknesses have been synthesised by sol–gel technique. The response transients of the films have been found to follow Freundlich adsorption isotherm from the conductance transient analysis. The heat of adsorption (Q) and adsorption activation energy (Ea) have been estimated for the films. Further, ethanol sensing performance of the N–In2O3 films have been found to depend strongly on their microstructure. A significantly large sensing response (Ra/Rg ~ 313 for 300 ppm ethanol) have been recorded for ~ 250 nm thick N–In2O3 film for which the heat of adsorption has been the highest. Two leading factors, namely the modification of surface electron distribution and effective surface areas, have been suggested to regulate the ethanol sensing properties of N–In2O3 thin films.
Applied Physics Letters, 2020
Journal of Power Sources, 2020
The interplay between the immune system and the microbiota in the human intestine dictates states... more The interplay between the immune system and the microbiota in the human intestine dictates states of health vs. disease. Polysaccharide capsules are critical elements of bacteria that protect bacteria against environmental and host factors, including the host immune system. This review summarizes the mechanisms by which polysaccharide capsules from commensal and pathogenic bacteria in the gut microbiota modulate the innate and adaptive immune systems in the intestine. A deeper understanding of the roles of polysaccharide capsules in microbiota-immune interactions will provide a basis to harness their therapeutic potential to advance human health.
Physical Review B, 2020
Simultaneous coexistence of room-temperature ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity in Fe doped BaTi... more Simultaneous coexistence of room-temperature ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity in Fe doped BaTiO3 (BTO) is intriguing, as such Fe doping into tetragonal BTO, a room-temperature ferroelectric, results in the stabilization of its hexagonal polymorph which is ferroelectric only below ∼ 80K. Here, we investigate its origin and show that Fe doped BTO has a mixed-phase room-temperature multiferroicity, where the ferromagnetism comes from the majority hexagonal phase and a minority tetragonal phase gives rise to the observed weak ferroelectricity. In order to achieve majority tetragonal phase (responsible for room-temperature ferroelectricity) in Fe doped BTO, we investigate the role of different parameters which primarily control the paraelectric hexagonal phase stability over the ferroelectric tetragonal one and identify three major factors namely, the effect of ionic size, Jahn-Teller (J-T) distortions and oxygen-vacancies, to be primarily responsible. The effect of ionic size which can be qualitatively represented using the Goldschmidt's tolerance factor seems to be the major dictating factor for the hexagonal phase stability. The understanding of these factors not only enables us to control them but also, achieve suitable co-doped BTO compound with enhanced room-temperature multiferroic properties.
Nanotechnology, 2019
We report the optical characteristics of relatively larger sized (~7.0 - 8.0 μm) but low aspect r... more We report the optical characteristics of relatively larger sized (~7.0 - 8.0 μm) but low aspect ratio Ge microdisks grown on a virtual Si0.5Ge0.5 substrate using molecular beam epitaxy following Stranski-Krastanov growth mechanism. Grown microdisks with a very low aspect ratio Ge islands, exhibit direct band gap (~ 0.8 eV) photoluminescence emission sustainable up to room temperature, enabled by the confinement of carriers into the microdisks. p-i-n diodes with an intrinsic layer containing Ge microdisks have been fabricated to study their emission and photo-response characteristics at optical communication wavelength of ~ 1550 nm. A strong electroluminescence at 1550 nm has been achieved at low temperatures in the device for a very low threshold current density of 2.56 μA/cm2 due to strong confinement of injected holes. The emission characteristics of the fabricated device with respect to injected current density and temperature have been studied. Novel emission and optical modulation characteristics at 1550 nm of the fabricated p-i-n device containing Ge microdisks grown on a virtual SiGe substrate indicate its potential for Si CMOS compatible on-chip optical communications.
Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 2020
Abstract Incorporation of suitable dopants in semiconducting metal oxide (SMO) based gas sensors ... more Abstract Incorporation of suitable dopants in semiconducting metal oxide (SMO) based gas sensors have been one proficient approach employed to improve their sensing characteristics. Indium oxide (In2O3), which is a n-type SMO, has been widely investigated for its ethanol sensing characteristics. For doping of In2O3, typically various metal based dopants have been considered, whereas non-metallic dopants have drawn only limited attention. In this work we have examined the impact of nitrogen incorporation on the ethanol sensing properties of In2O3 thin film. Using urea as a source, nitrogen has been doped at the interstitial site of In2O3 synthesised using sol-gel technique. Ethanol sensing properties of the nitrogen doped In2O3 thin film has been compared with pure In2O3 sensor over a wide range of temperature. Doping of nitrogen has been found to significantly enhance the ethanol sensing response of In2O3 (99.7 % at 250 °C), improves the stability of response under humid condition (change of response ∼ 4.5 % within relative humidity range 10–80 %) and offers very fast response time (1 s for 300 ppm ethanol). We discuss that modification of the electronic properties of In2O3 due to interstitial nitrogen incorporation leads to its superior sensing properties on exposure to ethanol vapour.
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2019