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Investigating the Effect of Various Acid-Catalysts and Erbium Doping Concentrations on the Properties of Sol–Gel Silica Films: A VASE Study

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Abstract

In this study, we report the deposition of thin layers of erbium-doped silica onto silicon substrates using the sol–gel method. Deposition was performed by spin coating, followed by drying and heat treatment in the range of 500°C up to 900°C. Different acid catalysts with various erbium doping concentrations were investigated to assess their impact on the film properties including thickness and refractive index. Under the same experimental conditions, the acid catalyst used significantly influenced the thickness and shrinkage of the films, irrespective of the erbium doping concentration. The key factors for this behavior are the viscosity of the sols and the gelation time, which vary tremendously depending on the acid used and the doping concentration. Strong acids were found to produce films with the highest resistance to shrinkage during annealing compared to weak acids. From the elliposometric investigation, the interplay among the doping concentration, pore formation, and annealing was found to affect the refractive index of the synthesized film.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Khalifa University of Science and Technology under Award N. CIRA-2019-043 and the Abu Dhabi Award for Research Excellence (AARE) 2018 (Project Contract No. AARE18-064) and Abu Dhabi Award for Research Excellence (AARE) 2019 (Project Contract No. AARE19-202).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE

    Ali Abdullah, El Mostafa Benchafia & Sufian Abedrabbo

  2. Mechanical Engineering Department, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE

    Daniel Choi

Authors
  1. Ali Abdullah
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  2. El Mostafa Benchafia
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  3. Daniel Choi
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  4. Sufian Abedrabbo
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Contributions

SA: Resources, supervision, project administration, reviewing and editing, validation, and funding acquisition. ADA: experimental procedure, data analysis, writing, and editing. EMB: methodology, investigation, writing, and editing. DC: supervision, review, and editing.

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Correspondence to Sufian Abedrabbo.

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The authors declare no conflicts of interest in the work presented in this manuscript.

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None of the procedures involved human participants, and the study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Example University.

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Abdullah, A., Benchafia, E.M., Choi, D. et al. Investigating the Effect of Various Acid-Catalysts and Erbium Doping Concentrations on the Properties of Sol–Gel Silica Films: A VASE Study. JOM 75, 3612–3619 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-023-05972-7

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