The lack of on-line validation procedures for structure-embedded fiber-optical strain sensors, in particular fiber-Bragg-gratings (FBG), resulted in limited applications in structural health monitoring (SHM). Degradation under service conditions and ageing as a result of climatic influences or delamination under load were unsolved validation issues. This could be overcome by means of an auto-diagnosis procedure based on FBG-sensors coated by electrochemical deposition (ECD) with a magnetostrictive NiFe-coating on top of an adhesive Cu/Cr adhesive layer deposited by physical vapour deposition (PVD) around the FBG strain sensor. This allows at any time under service a validation of sensor functionality, stability, and reliability. For this purpose, a magnetic strain-proportional reference field is introduced. The optical read-out is realized by the measurement of the Bragg-wavelength shift. The ratio of resulting strain and exciting magnetic reference field should be constant given that the sensor is in proper function [1, 2, 3].

In principle, the magnetostrictive coating around the FBG should also work as on-line magnetic field sensor and other applications in material science. One of these applications is the in-situ monitoring of ECD processes as the deposition of the ECD NiFe-layer on the FBG revealed. Challenges are the monitoring of temperature, deposition stages/thickness, and resulting mechanical stress under given plating conditions. Monitoring problems can be solved by applying a pre-coated FBG to the electrolytic process as the shift of the Bragg wavelength is affected by both the temperature of the electrolyte near the substrate and the stress formation in the growing layer. The experimental FBG set-up and the quantitative determination of temperature- and stress-related strain are described for a nickel-iron electrolyte. The in-situ measurement of Bragg wavelength shifts of a pre-coated FBG during electrochemical deposition allows a detailed analysis of stress states due to changes in the growth morphology of the layer. The separation of mechanical and thermal contributions to this shift provides information on the individual deposition processes in terms of a process fingerprint [4].

[1, 2, 3] DFG projects SCHU 2707/2-1, BA 5015/1-1, BE 3206/2-1.

[4] A. Mitzkus, M. Sahre, F. Basedau, D. Hofmann, and U. Beck; Journal of The ECS, 166 (6) B312-B315 (2019)

The main aim of the present work is to report on the study of the combination of continuous plasma, formed by a microwave electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) discharge and pulsed plasma of laser ablation which allow studying the formation of materials in the form of thin films making use of the relatively high densities of the microwave discharge and the wide range of ion energies produced in the pulsed laser ablation plasmas. With this arrangement it is possible to deposit thin films of materials that in the usual microwave discharge require the use of pollutant and corrosive substances, as the required element is obtained from a pure solid target. Moreover, as the laser ablation process is carried out in plasma as the background gas, instead of a neutral gas, the presence of contaminants, such as oxygen can be significantly reduced. For the purpose of the present paper a nitrogen microwave ECR discharge was combined with the plasma created during the ablation of an aluminum target, in order to deposit AlN thin films. Plasma parameters were measured by a Langmuir probe, and the chemical species contained in the plasma were analyzed by optical emission spectroscopy (OES).