French coordinator and partner1: LPGP (Laboratoire des Physique des Gaz et des Plasmas) (Universite Paris Sud, Orsey, France) has an important experimental platform of six magnetron reactors, representatives of all known configuration in the state of the art. LPGP was one of the French partners for the development of IPVD magnetrons in 1998-2001. LPGP is the French pioneer which develop the HiPIMS (High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering), proposing a new plasma excitation delivering a very high power (~100 kW) in a very short time (~10 µs). Therefore, the ionization degree of the plasma is very high (up to 10%) providing significant structural changes of the deposited films. For the present project, the LPGP will use at least two magnetron reactors, which are able to operate in conventional mode, IPVD and HiPPMS. However, the specificity of the TaON thin films studied in SNON requires the precise control of the process in situ.
Partner 2: L’IRAMIS is an institute on fundamental research belonging on CEA Saclay, composed on several teams working in physic and chemistry on materials with strong inner collaborations. A Large number of project developed on CEA are centered on materials for sustainable energies. SNON will connect the EdNa team for the laser pyrolysis task, the surface physicist team for the electrolysis task and several equipments dispersed in different labs. The «Edifices Nanométriques» team in IRAMIS is involved in the control of the synthesis of nano-objects and nanostructures, their chemical and physical characterisation, the study of their particular properties, as well as the exploration of applications opened by their properties. This group was precursor in the development of the laser pyrolysis process allowing the synthesis of any kind of particles. It has develop the synthesis of nanoparticles for solar energy, especially using TiO2-xNx based systems.
Partner 3: The SCM (Semiconducteurs en Couches Minces) team at LGEP-Supélec has been involved for more than 20 years in the development of silicon based thin films for photovoltaic applications. It has been focusing in studies related to characterization and modeling of materials, interfaces and solar cells: electronic transport properties, electronically active defects, metastability of materials and devices. These studies are led both from the experimental point of view through a wide range of dedicated characterization techniques (photocurrent spectroscopies, admittance spectroscopies, photoluminescence, Raman spectroscopy, conductive probe AFM) and from the theoretical point of view through analytical and numerical modeling approaches.
Partner 4: IPARC team at UAIC; the Romanian partner has developed the synthesis of various Ti and Zn oxides and their expertise in plasma process will be an inordinate add-on for French partner 1. They develop the combination of techniques including high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) deposition of metal oxy -nitride (MON) thin films and clustered films, metal doping by co-sputtering deposition, colloidal lithography nanopatterning, and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of particulate co-catalyst metal (Ni, Cu, etc). They provide general characterization for the thin films, such as AFM, XPS, XRD, and also UV-VIS absorption.