Abstract:The primary objective of this study is the development of transparent thin film materials in the IR enabling strong infrared absorption of organic compounds in the vicinity of metal nanoparticles by the surface plasmon effect. For developing these optical micro-sensors, heterostructures combining gold nanoparticles and chalcogenide planar waveguides are fabricated and adequately characterized. Single As 2 S 3 and Ge 25 Sb 10 Se 65 amorphous chalcogenide thin films are prepared by radiofrequency magnetron sputtering. For the fabrication of gold nanoparticles on a chalcogenide planar waveguide, direct current sputtering is employed. Fabricated single layers or hetero-structures are characterized using various techniques to investigate the influence of deposition parameters. The nanoparticles of gold are functionalized by a self-assembled monolayer of 4-nitrothiophenol. Finally, the surface enhanced infrared absorption spectra of 4-nitrothiophenol self-assembled on fabricated Au/Ge-Sb-Se thin films hetero-structures are measured and analyzed. This optical component presents a ~24 enhancement factor for the detection of NO 2 symmetric stretching vibration band of 4-nitrothiophenol at 1336 cm −1 . 232-239 (1999). 19. L. Tichý, H. Ticha, P. Nagels, R. Callaerts, R. Mertens, and M. Vlcek, "Optical properties of amorphous As-Se and Ge-As-Se thin films," Mater. Lett. 39(2), 122-128 (1999). 20. J. Charrier, M. L. Anne, H. Lhermite, V. Nazabal, J. P. Guin, F. Charpentier, T. Jouan, F. Henrio, D. Bosc, and J. L. Adam, "Sulphide GaxGe25-xSb10S65(x=0,5) sputtered films: Fabrication and optical characterizations of planar and rib optical waveguides," J. Appl.

ZnO is a wide bandgap (3.37 eV) semiconductor with a large exciton binding energy. [1] In the bulk or in nanometer-sized form, it could be used in a wide range of applications, such as UV light emitters, spin functional devices, gas sensors, transparent electronics, or surface acoustic wave devices. [1][2][3] Various chemical, electrochemical, or physical deposition methods have been used to prepare functional ZnO materials. [1][2][3] Here, the strategy presented to design new hybrid materials is based on the chemical synthesis of ZnO organosols. Even though this ''bottom-up'' approach has been known for more than 20 years, [3][4][5][6] the preparation of innovative functional organosol ZnO materials (denoted as M@ZnO) by doping or functionalizing constitutes a recent challenge. [3,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13] For instance, (Mn, Co or Ni)@ZnO diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dots (DMS-QDs) were used to prepare high-TC ferromagnetic nanocrystalline thin films, [7,8] and highly concentrated Er@ZnO or Ti@ZnO organosols were used to fabricate planar near-IR (NIR) amplifiers, [9] and new visiblelight photocatalytic nanocoatings, [10,11] respectively. Moreover, the recently developed hybrid materials based on ZnO/ metal or ZnO/SWCNT (SWCNT ¼ single walled carbon nanotube) nanojunctions might become of particular interest for photo-electrochemical applications. [12,13] cluster units and the ZnO nanocrystals were evidenced by phosphorescence decay measurements both in colloidal and solid-state forms. Interestingly, the visible photoemission window of the ((n-C 4 H 9 ) 4 N) 2 Mo 6 Br 14 @ZnO hybrid material is very large and can be tuned from yellow to red by adjusting the excitation wavelength. For an excitation wavelength of 395 nm, the emission window ranges from 430 to 850 nm. This hybrid material represents a promising candidate for use as a

Semiconductor materials have received substantial attention as photocatalysts for controlling water pollution. Among these materials, perovskite-structured SrSnO 3 is a promising candidate for this application, whereas BaSnO 3 exhibits very low activity. In the present work, Sr 1-x Ba x SnO 3 (x = 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1) was synthesized by solid-state reaction and was applied in the photocatalytic discoloration of the organic dye Remazol Golden Yellow. The perovskite structure was obtained for all compositions of the solid solutions with both Sr The two materials appear to feature different mechanisms of photodegradation: the direct mechanism prevails in the case of BaSnO 3 , whereas the indirect mechanism appears to play a key role in the case of SrSnO 3 .