Flexible strain sensor devices were fabricated by depositing Pd nanoclusters on PET membranes patterned with interdigital electrodes. The sensors responded to the deformation of the PET membranes with the conductance changes of the nanocluster films and were characterized by both high gauge factor and wide detection range. The response characteristics of the strain sensors were found to depend strongly on the nanocluster coverage, which was attributed to the percolative nature of the electron transport in the closely spaced nanocluster arrays. By controlling the nanocluster deposition process, a strain sensor composed of nanocluster arrays with a coverage close to the effective percolation threshold was fabricated. The sensor device showed a linear response with a stable gauge factor of 55 for the applied strains from the lower detection limit up to 0.3%. At higher applied strains, a gauge factor as high as 200 was shown. The nanocluster films also demonstrated the ability to response to large deformations up to 8% applied strain, with an extremely high gauge factor of 3500.
Ultraviolet irradiation was used to tailor the surface plasmon band of the densely distributed aluminium nanoparticle arrays fabricated by gas-phase deposition. We showed that the broad surface plasmon resonance band of the as-prepared sample could be tuned to a sharp and strong resonance band in the deep ultraviolet optical range, with a large blue shift of the peak wavelength. The evolution of the surface plasmon resonance properties was attributed to the ultraviolet irradiation-improved surface oxidation of the nanoparticles, which eliminated the near-field couplings between the closely spaced nanoparticles by increasing their interspacing.
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