Hydrogen gas sensing using aluminum doped ZnO metasurface

• Main Authors: Chatterjee, Sharmistha, Shkondin, Evgeniy, Takayama, Osamu, Fisher, Adam, Fraiwan, Arwa, Gurkan, k Umut A, Lavrinenko, Andrei V, Strangi, Giuseppe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 04-02-2020
• Subjects: Physics - Applied Physics; Physics - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2002.01366

Hydrogen sensing is crucial in a wide variety of areas, such as industrial,
environmental, energy and biomedical applications. However, engineering a
practical, reliable, fast, sensitive and cost-effective hydrogen sensor, is a
persistent challenge. Here we demonstrate hydrogen sensing using aluminum-doped
zinc oxide (AZO) metasurfaces based on optical read-out. The proposed sensing
system consists of highly ordered AZO nanotubes (hollow pillars) standing on a
SiO2 layer deposited on a Si wafer. Upon exposure to hydrogen gas, the AZO
nanotube system shows a wavelength shift in the minimum reflectance by 13 nm
within 10 minutes for a hydrogen concentration of 4%. These AZO nanotubes can
also sense the presence of a low concentration (0.7 %) of hydrogen gas within
10 minutes. Its rapid response time even for low concentration, the possibility
of large sensing area fabrication with good precision, and high sensitivity at
room temperature make these highly ordered nanotube structures a promising
miniaturized H2 gas sensor.