Bio-inspired synthesis and laser processing of nanostructured barium titanate thin-films: Iplications for uncooled IR sensor development

The Army requires passive uncooled IR sensors for use in numerous vehicle and weapons platforms, including driver vision enhancement (DVE), rifle sights, seeker munitions, and unattended ground sensors (UGSs) and unattended aerial vehicles (UAVs). Recent advances in bio-inspired/biomimetic nanomaterials synthesis, laser material processing, and sensor design and performance testing, offer the opportunity to create uncooled IR detector focal-plane arrays with improved sensitivity, low thermal mass, and fast response times, along with amenability to low-cost, rapid prototype manufacture. We are exploring the use of genotype-inspired, digitally-scripted laser direct-write techniques, in conjunction with the kinetically controlled catalytic process for the growth of nanostructured multimetallic perovskites, to develop a novel approach to the fabrication of precision patterned 2-D focal-plane arrays of pyroelectric perovskitebased materials. The bio-inspired growth of nanostructured, multimetallic perovskite thin-films corresponds to the use of kinetically controlled vapor diffusion for the slow growth of pure, highly crystalline 6-nm barium titanate (BaTiO₃) nanoparticles. This unique vapor-diffusion sol-gel route enables the formation of stoichiometric cubic-phase nanoparticles at room temperature and ambient pressure in the absence of a structure-directing template. Novel laser direct-write processing and synchronized electro-optic pulse modulation techniques have been utilized to induce site-selective, patterned phase transformation of microscale aggregates of the BaTiO3 nanoparticles from the non-pyroelectric cubic polymorph to the pyroelectric tetragonal polymorph. This paper reports on our initial collaborative investigations, including comprehensive structural characterization (XRD, TEM, and SEM) of the BaTiO₃ nanoparticles and thin-films, along with preliminary laser-induced phase transformation results.