Top-Down Processing by UV Photoirradiation

The exposure of as-deposited sol-gel films to a UV source is one of the most popular techniques to cure xerogel coatings. On one hand, this method has been widely applied in industrial production because of the low cost and versatility on the other hand, it is also one of the cheaper and simpler ways to obtain a lithographic technique that is widely used for producing patterned films and photonic devices such as strip waveguides. 

It can basically be applied to any type of composition, oxides and organic-inorganic hybrids, and can also be used to grow metallic nanoparticles within the matrix, typically gold and silver. The effects of photoirradiation are, however, very much different for oxides or hybrids. 

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