Investigations of reversible optical transmission in gasochromic (Ti-V-Ta)Ox thin film for gas sensing applications

Principle of operation of most gas sensing devices relies on detection of changes of electrical signal upon presence of specified gas. In this work, the changes in optical properties of thin films based on mixtures of selected transition metal oxides under ethanol vapor have been outlined. The test thin films were prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering from mosaic target containing Ti, V, and Ta. Gas sensing properties were investigated through observations of the change in optical transmission. Dynamic optical response recorded in proposed optical gas sensing system shows relatively fast sample response/recovery times under different air/ethanol vapor environment. All measurements were collected at room temperature and no additional catalyst was used to activate sample dimming. Based on performed measurements construction of a simple optical detection system of ethanol vapor was proposed and tested.