Partially disordered TiO₂ nanotube photonic crystal: randomness characterization and tuning of reflected scattering light

Abstract

Introducing disorder into a periodic nanostructure can lead to specific optical behaviors. We present a method of anodic oxidation by adjusting the applied voltage and process time to introduce disorder to TiO 2 nanotubes. The surface morphology of TiO 2 was numerically investigated according to the morphologies measured with a scanning electron microscope by imaging processing and a statistical method. TiO 2 nanotubes obtained under different fabrication conditions have various tube radii ranging from 20-40 nm and wall thicknesses ranging from 20-70 nm. We also evaluated the degree of disorder of the tube radius of the TiO 2 nanotubes. The reflected scattering light distributions of laser sources were optically measured at different observing distances, which indicate that the presence of nanotubes enhances the scattering effect, reducing the scattered light intensity by more than 75%, and provide the relationship between the scattering effect and surface morphology of nanotubes. This discovery offers TiO 2 nanotubes important application prospects in optical limiting and light confinement, such as stealth coating.

Platinum and Iridium Oxide Co-modified TiO2 Nanotubes Array Based Photoelectrochemical Sensors for Glutathione

“…According to the reported anodic oxidation method [37,38], TiO 2 nanotubes arrays were prepared on Ti foil (30 mm × 10 mm × 0.127 mm). First, Ti foils were cleaned by sonicating in acetone, alcohol, and deionized water for 15 min, respectively.…”

Partially disordered nano-porous metallic oxide engineering: surface morphology controllability and multiple scattering properties

“…Thirdly, it is necessary to discuss the application prospects of partially disordered nano-porous metallic oxide materials according to physical properties. Although there have been experimental studies on morphological and optical characteristics of nano-porous materials with one-step oxidation [32][33][34], the principle of morphological and scattering properties has not been completely analyzed with the mathematical modeling and rigorous optical theory. Most disordered photonics were processed by focusing ion beam etching and chemical vapor deposition, and design methods of partially disordered materials were to introduce disorder into periodic structures [6,35], leading to the neglect of one-step processing disordered materials.…”