Enhanced gas sensing of Au nanocluster-doped or -coated zinc oxide thin films.

We demonstrated that doping or covering with Au nanoclusters boosts gas sensing effectiveness of optical metal oxide sensors. The sensing response of pulsed laser deposited ZnO films as sensing element was tested by m-line technique for low concentration (1000 ppm) of butane in environmental N2. The optical interrogation was performed for three types of coatings: undoped ZnO, undoped ZnO structures partially covered with Au nanoclusters, or obtained from Au (0.5 wt %) doped ZnO targets. Nanocluster coating tripled the sensitivity, while doping resulted in an increase of up to 45% as compared with simple structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]