Thin films infrared spectroscopy

Whereas ATR spectroscopy is most commonly applied in obtaining infrared absorption spectra of opaque materials, reflection-absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) is usually used to obtain the absorption spectrum of a thin layer of material adsorbed on an opaque metal surface. An example would be carbon monoxide adsorbed on copper. The metal surface may be either in the form of a film or, of greaf imporfance in fhe sfudy of cafalysfs, one of fhe parficular crysfal faces of fhe mefal. 

Some of the techniques included apply more broadly than just to surfaces, interfaces, or thin films for example X-Ray Diffraction and Infrared Spectroscopy, which have been used for half a century in bulk solid and liquid analysis, respectively. They are included here because they have by now been developed to also apply to surfaces. A few techniques that are applied almost entirely to bulk materials (e.g.. Neutron Diffraction) are included because they give complementary information to other methods or because they are referred to significantly in the 10 materials volumes in the Series. Some techniques were left out because they were considered to be too restricted to specific applications or materials. 

Infrared spectroscopy, including Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, is one of the oldest techniques used for surface analysis. ATR has been used for many years to probe the surface composition of polymers that have been surface-modified by an etching process or by deposition of a film. RAIR has been widely used to characterize thin films on the surfaces of specular reflecting substrates. FTIR has numerous characteristics that make it an appropriate technique for... 

In order to understand RAIR spectroscopy, it is convenient to model the experiment (see Fig. 4). Consider a thin film with refractive index n =n ik and thickness d supported by a reflecting substrate with refractive index ni = ri2 — iki- The refractive index of the ambient atmosphere is o- Infrared radiation impinges on the film at an angle of incidence of 6 . The incident radiation can be polarized parallel to or perpendicular to the plane of incidence. 

Novotny et al. [41] used p-polarized reflection and modulated polarization infrared spectroscopy to examine the conformation of 1 -1,000 nm thick liquid polyperfluoropropy-lene oxide (PPFPO) on various solid surfaces, such as gold, silver, and silica surfaces. They found that the peak frequencies and relative intensities in the vibration spectra from thin polymer films were different from those from the bulk, suggesting that the molecular arrangement in the polymer hlms deviated from the bulk conformation. A two-layer model has been proposed where the hlms are composed of interfacial and bulk layers. The interfacial layer, with a thickness of 1-2 monolayers, has the molecular chains preferentially extended along the surface while the second layer above exhibits a normal bulk polymer conformation. 

Infrared (IR) spectroscopy and elUpsometry are used to measure the thickness of thin films with angstrom resolution. Ellipsometry has proven to be very useful in studies of dy-... 

The objective of the present work was to determine the influence of the light intensity on the polymerization kinetics and on the temperature profile of acrylate and vinyl ether monomers exposed to UV radiation as thin films, as well as the effect of the sample initial temperature on the polymerization rate and final degree of cure. For this purpose, a new method has been developed, based on real-time infrared (RTIR) spectroscopy 14, which permits to monitor in-situ the temperature of thin films undergoing high-speed photopolymerization, without introducing any additive in the UV-curable formulation 15. This technique proved particularly well suited to addressing the issue of thermal runaway which was recently considered to occur in laser-induced polymerization of divinyl ethers 13>16. 

To evaluate the reactivity of model compounds III-VIII in photoinitiated cationic polymerization, we have employed real-time infrared spectroscopy (RTIR). Thin film samples of the model compounds containing 0.5 mol% of (4-n-octyloxyphenyl)phenyliodonium SbF - as a photoinitiator were irradiated in a FTIR spectrometer at a UV intensity of 20 mW/cm2. During irradiation, the decrease in the absorbance of the epoxy ether band at 860 cm-1 was monitored. 

Emission infrared spectroscopy is used for thin films and opaque polymers. The sample is heated so that energy is emitted. The sample acts as the radiation source and the emitted radiation is recorded giving spectra similar to those of classical FTIR. In some cases, IR frequencies vary because of differences in the structures at different depths and interactions between surface and interior emissions. 

Gonzalez-Elipe, A.R. (2000 a) Iron oxide thin films prepared by ion beam induced chemical vapour depositions. Structural characterization by infrared spectroscopy. J. Vac. 

Horn, A. B., M. A. Chesters, M. R. S. McCoustra, and J. R. Sodeau, "Adsorption of Stratospherically Important Molecules on Thin D20 Ice Films Using Reflection Absorption Infrared Spectroscopy, J. Chem. Soc., Faraday Trans., 88, f077-f078 (1992). 

Infrared spectroscopy. Infrared spectra of thin PU films were obtained using a Perkin-Elmer 983 infrared spectrophotometer. 

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