Chung Wo Ong

Palladium (Pd) film containing nanogaps of well controlled dimension was fabricated on a Si wafer having a high-aspect-ratio micropillar. The Pd film was arranged to experience hydrogen (H₂)-induced volume expansion. (i) If the nanogap is kept open, its width is narrowed down. A discharge current was generated to give a strong, fast, and repeatable on-off type resistive switching response. (ii) If the nanogap is closed, the cross section of the conduction path varies to give continuous H₂-concentration dependent resistive response. The influence of stresses and related physical mechanisms are discussed.

The palladium nanoparticle (Pd NP)-decorated LaAlO₃/SrTiO₃ (LAO/STO) heterostructure is for the first time used as a hydrogen-gas sensor with very high sensitivity and workability at room temperature. The outstanding gas-sensing properties are due to the Pd NPs' catalytic effect to different gases, resulting in charge coupling between the gas molecules and the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) through the Pd NPs by either a direct charge exchange or a change of the electron affinity. These results provide insight into the emerging properties at LAO/STO interfaces.

Hydrogen- (H₂-) induced resistive response of palladium (Pd) coated tungsten oxide (WO₃) films prepared by using supersonic cluster beam deposition (SCBD) was investigated. An SCBD WO₃ film is found to be constructed of WO₃ nanoclusters of diameters of 3-5 nm. The nanoclusters are loosely connected to form a structure of high porosity around 66%. With this structure, the film exhibits many excellent room-temperature H₂ sensing properties, including high sensitivity, broad detectable range of H₂ concentration, low detection limit, fast response rate, excellent cyclic stability (>2400 cycles), high selectivity against vapor of many organic compounds, mild ambient pressure dependence and many other advantages such as low power consumption, miniaturizability and high batch-to-batch reproducibility. These findings are useful for making new high-quality H₂ sensors for monitoring the leakage of H₂ and ensuring safe use of this gas.