Glancing angle deposition of ZnO nanostructured thin films for enhanced ultrasonic sensing and imaging applications

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires (NWs) are considered a promising material for sensors due to properties such as high reactive surface, high chemical stability, bio-compatibility, piezoelectricity, ultraviolet light sensitivity, etc. However, their integration on conventional and non-conventional flexible substrates is still a challenge. Glancing angle deposition (GLAD) has emerged as an attractive solution to produce high crystal quality ZnO nanostructured thin films (required for ultrasonic generation). This project is an ambitious investigation, aiming to further explore GLAD potential by growing ZnO-NWs directly on flexible substrates and to investigate their ability to generate shear and surface acoustic waves through an object for NDT over long distances.

This PhD will focus on the fabrication of multi-sensing wearable patches primarily for medical application purposes. The GLAD method proposed in this project not only has the potential to grow nanostructures with exceptional properties (i.e. high sensitivity and compatibility to flexible substrates) but also to make a novel use of plasma-assisted deposition techniques, taking benefit of the large-area and uniformity characteristics of such deposition method. The PhD student will investigate the sensitivity of metal oxide nanostructures such as ZnO NWs grown by GLAD method to multiple environments, including temperature variations and different lights.In addition, the PhD student will investigate suitable approaches to utilize sensors to harvest energy thanks to the piezoelectricity properties of ZnO material. That will allow the development of partially or even fully energy autonomous multi-sensing devices for continuous health monitoring purposes.

This project will be supported by the excellent research environment at Institute of Thin Films, Sensors and Imaging (TFSI) (academic host group) led by Prof. Desmond Gibson, at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS). Dr. Carlos Garcia will be the PhD supervisor in the academic host group. Further, the integration and characterisation of ZnO-NWs ultrasonic sensors will be carried out at Novosound Ltd (industry host group) -with a wide experience in the field of Ultrasonic Imaging and Sensing Devices- under the supervision of Dr. Kevin McAughey (Industry supervisor) and Dr. Dave Hughes (CTO of Novosound).