Whilst substantial empirical experimental investigation is available in the literature on amorphous Boron phosphide (BP) coatings, there is not much information about the scienti¯c properties exhibited by this material in var- ious applications such as in infra-red imaging systems. Also a great deal of the industrial application of amorphous BP coatings is in the area of infra- red imaging systems. This thesis is based on an attempt to understand the underpinning scienti¯c basis for the properties of amorphous Boron phos- phide coatings, using a range of surface, chemical, physical, electrochemical, computational (quantum mechanics) and mechanical characterisation tools. The results of this investigation has not only helped in unveiling the scien- ti¯c basis of some of the current empirically derived properties of amorphous BP coatings, used in the infra-red imaging industry, but has con¯rmed that amorphous BP is a potential coating for engineering substrates used in var- ious industries if the PECVD deposition process is optimised. This inves- tigation also establishes the link between the properties of amorphous BP coatings and the bonds in the different stoichiometric composition of the coatings.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:545797 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Hellwig, Thomas |
| Publisher | University of the West of Scotland |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0016 seconds