Abstract:
Thin films are deposited on substrates such as glass slides, silicon wafers, mica etc with the help of an in house designed Spread Coating Device. Many particle types such as titanium, silica thin films can be deposited by this device and the morphology is based on the principle of Convective Deposition Assembly. The device consists of syringe pump and two glass side holders, one is inclined at an angle of 40 0 and the other is moving at a user defined velocity. Different volume fractions of solutions varying from 0.01-0.4 are prepared suing TiO 2 -960 (3.9 g/cm3) at different velocities from 1 um/sec to 300 um/sec at room temperature. Thickness, assembly of particles, roughness and optical properties are measure using SEM, AFM and UV-VIS spectroscopy. Our experiments show that as the spreading velocity is increased the films become progressively more uniform. Concomitantly, the transmittance of the films decreases. The method provides a versatile way to fabricate thin films with a variety of microstructures with different properties.