Exploiting the dodecane and ozone sensing capabilities ofnanostructured tungsten oxide films

International audienceTungsten oxide thin films are grown by DC reactive magnetron sputtering combining glancing angledeposition (GLAD) and reactive gas pulsing process (RGPP). Inclined, zigzag and spiral columnar archi-tectures are produced with various oxygen injections during the growth. The dodecane and ozone sensingproperties of these tungsten oxide nanostructured active layers are comparatively studied with that offilms deposited by conventional sputtering process. Microstructure, morphologies and electrical behav-iors are characterized as a function of the growing conditions. As-deposited films systematically exhibitan amorphous crystal structure with a porous microstructure, which depends on the GLAD architecture.Annealing at 300◦C in air for 12 h leads to a polycrystalline structure keeping voided networks. Dode-cane and ozone sensing performances are the most significant for inclined columnar architectures butthey also depend on the RGPP sputtering conditions. As a result, the GLAD + RGPP combination provesto be a relevant strategy for the fabricating tungsten oxide nanostructured films as active layers with anattractive potential for gas sensors