During electro-deposition of a TiO2 film on titanium foil, an etching agent supplies ionic species that create the desired morphology by chemical dissolution of the oxide layer. The etchant ions attack both titanium ions and the oxide film to form hexafluorotitanate complexes, water and hydroxyl species. In this study, an attempt was made to reduce the duration of a TiO2 film electro-deposition process by increasing the chemical dissolution rate. Two 127 μm-thick titanium foil substrates were anodised for different durations in an anhydrous polar organic solvent containing different amounts of an etchant. This yielded 9 μm-long nanotubes. Anodisation current density measurements for a two hour process showed slow chemical dissolution when the amount of etchant was low. In an attempt to speed-up the electro-deposition process, the amount of etchant was increased and anodisation carried out for only an hour. This yielded films (consisting of nanotube arrays) that are equal in thickness to that obtained in the two hour process. However, scanning electron microscopy revealed un-etched regions of the film between the tubes when the etchant concentration is high. These fragments are dimensional irregularities in an otherwise uniform tubular structure and hence are defect sites that could reduce charge transport efficiency. The study shows that the nanotube array quality is reduced when the duration of the anodisation process is shortened by an increased etch rate, without further optimisation of the anodisation parameters.
A spectral-domain Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) surface profilometry prototype has been developed for the
purpose of surface metrology of optical elements. The prototype consists of a light source, spectral interferometer,
sample fixture and software currently running on Microsoft® Windows platforms. In this system, a broadband light
emitting diode beam is focused into a Michelson interferometer with a plane mirror as its sample fixture. At the
interferometer output, spectral interferograms of broadband sources were measured using a Czerny-Turner mount
monochromator with a 2048-element complementary metal oxide semiconductor linear array as the detector. The
software performs importation and interpolation of interferometer spectra to pre-condition the data for image
computation. One dimensional axial OCT images were computed by Fourier transformation of the measured spectra. A
first reflection surface profilometry (FRSP) algorithm was then formulated to perform imaging of step-function-surfaced
samples. The algorithm re-constructs two dimensional colour-scaled slice images by concatenation of 21 and 13 axial
scans to form a 10 mm and 3.0 mm slice respectively. Measured spectral interferograms, computed interference fringe
signals and depth reflectivity profiles were comparable to simulations and correlated to displacements of a single
reflector linearly translated about the arm null-mismatch point. Surface profile images of a double-step-function-surfaced
sample, embedded with inclination and crack detail were plotted with an axial resolution of 11 μm. The surface shape,
defects and misalignment relative to the incident beam were detected to the order of a micron, confirming high resolution
of the developed system as compared to electro-mechanical surface profilometry techniques.
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