Active sol–gel thin film on nanostructured plasmonic surface

Sol–gel hybrid films based on alkyl bridged polysilsesquioxanes and doped with phenol red molecules, were synthesized for sensing purposes. Doped films changes colour from yellow to orange to red when exposed to hydrochloric acid (HCl) both in solution and gas phases. The synthesis was optimized in order to produce porous films after spin coating. The porosity increases reacting surface area and chemical reactivity of the sensing thin film. Porosity, optical and structural characterizations of these films were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE). Variation of optical characteristics upon immersion of the film in the solution was characterized by UV–visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy. Moreover the same porous sensitive hybrid film was deposited on gold sinusoidal grating in order to detect variations of the dielectric film optical constant after HCl solution dip. This variation was revealed by monitoring surface plasmon polariton excitations.

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