Search results for "METAL"
showing 10 items of 7908 documents
Simplified feedback control system for scanning tunneling microscopy
2021
A Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) is one of the most important scanning probe tools available to study and manipulate matter at the nanoscale. In a STM, a tip is scanned on top of a surface with a separation of a few \AA. Often, the tunneling current between tip and sample is maintained constant by modifying the distance between the tip apex and the surface through a feedback mechanism acting on a piezoelectric transducer. This produces very detailed images of the electronic properties of the surface. The feedback mechanism is nearly always made using a digital processing circuit separate from the user computer. Here we discuss another approach, using a computer and data acquisition thr…
Optical properties and microstructure of 2.02-3.30 eV ZnCdO nanowires: effect of thermal annealing
2013
International audience; ZnCdO nanowires with up to 45% Cd are demonstrated showing room temperature photoluminescence (PL) down to 2.02 eV and a radiative efficiency similar to that of ZnO nanowires. Analysis of the microstructure in individual nanowires confirms the presence of a single wurtzite phase even at the highest Cd contents, with a homogeneous distribution of Cd both in the longitudinal and transverse directions. Thermal annealing at 550 C yields an overall improvement of the PL, which is blue-shifted as a result of the homogeneous decrease of Cd throughout the nanowire, but the single wurtzite structure is fully maintained.
Thermal oxidation of the intermetallic phases Al 8 Mo 3 and AlMo 3
2017
Abstract The thermal oxidation reactions of the intermetallic phases Al8Mo3 and AlMo3 were investigated and analyzed by ex-situ powder-x-ray diffraction (XRD), difference thermal analysis (DTA), thermogravimetry (TGA), and infrared spectroscopy (IR). The initial oxidation reactions in air were found to yield Al2O3 and AlMo3 in the case of Al8Mo3 (Tonset =725 °C), and MoO3 as well as Al8−xMo3 (Tonset =435 °C) for the pure intermetallic phase AlMo3, respectively. Thus, both intermetallic phases are coexisting in an equilibrium within a temperature range of 300 °C under oxidizing conditions. The formation of β-Al2(MoO4)3 followed the second oxidizing process of the respective minority componen…
Controlled thermal oxidation of nanostructured vanadium thin films
2016
Abstract Pure V thin films were dc sputtered with different pressures (0.4 and 0.6 Pa) and particle incident angles α of 0°, 20° and 85°, by using the GLancing Angle Deposition (GLAD) technique. The sputtered films were characterized regarding their electrical resistivity behaviour in atmospheric pressure and in-vacuum conditions as a function of temperature (40–550 °C), in order to control the oxidation process. Aiming at comprehending the oxidation behaviour of the samples, extensive morphological and structural studies were performed on the as-deposited and annealed samples. Main results show that, in opposition to annealing in air, the columnar nanostructures are preserved in vacuum con…
Atomic layer deposition of aluminum oxide on modified steel substrates
2016
Abstract Al 2 O 3 thin films were grown by atomic layer deposition to thicknesses ranging from 10 to 90 nm on flexible steel substrates at 300 °C using Al(CH 3 ) 3 and H 2 O as precursors. The films grown to thicknesses 9–90 nm covered the rough steel surfaces uniformly, allowing reliable evaluation of their dielectric permittivity and electrical current densities with appreciable contact yield. Mechanical behavior of the coatings was evaluated by nanoindentation. The maximum hardness values of the Al 2 O 3 films on steel reached 12 GPa and the elastic modulus exceeded 280 GPa.
Normal and relaxor ferroelectric behavior in the Ba1−xPbx(Ti1−yZry)O3 solid solutions
2017
Abstract Polycrystalline samples of Ba 1−x Pb x (Ti 1−y Zr y )O 3 (BPTZ) with x = 0.025 & 0.1 and 0.10 ≤ y ≤ 0.50 have been synthesized by high-temperature solid-state reaction technique. X-ray diffraction reveals the formation of single phase with tetragonal or cubic structure. Dielectric investigations were carried out in the temperature range from 80 to 445 K with frequencies range from 10 2 to 10 6 Hz. A broad dielectric anomaly coupled with the shift of dielectric maxima toward a higher temperature with increasing frequency indicates either a diffuse phase transition or relaxor behavior in some of these ceramics. Whatever lead content, when zirconium is substituted by titanium, T C an…
Spark Plasma Sintering of Metallic Glasses
2019
Spark plasma sintering (SPS) of metallic glasses (MG) can be quite different from sintering crystalline metallic alloys. Indeed, MG behave differently with increasing temperature, as they encounter a glass transition and devitrification. Their shaping can thus be compared to what can be performed on thermoplastic polymers. SPS is a promising way to prepare bulk parts from amorphous powders, since it allows very fast heating and cooling rates. It gives an advantage to avoid or limit devitrification of the amorphous phase upon the thermal cycle. However, diffusion mechanisms, which generally control densification, are activated at temperatures that are not compatible with MG structural integr…
Production of dense nanostructured materials using FAPAS and SPS techniques
2011
International audience
Influence of the MgO barrier thickness on the lifetime characteristics of magnetic tunnelling junctions for sensors
2016
Magnetic tunnelling junctions increasingly enter the market for magnetic sensor applications. Thus, technological parameters such as the lifetime characteristics become more and more important. Here, an analysis of the lifetime characteristics of magnetic tunnelling junctions using the Weibull statistical distribution for CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB junctions is presented. The Weibull distribution is governed by two parameters, the characteristic lifetime η of the population and the shape parameter β, which gives information about the presence of an infant mortality. The suitability of the Weibull distribution is demonstrated for the description of dielectric breakdown processes in MgO-based tunnelling…
Coupled-Cluster study of ‘no-pair’ bonding in the tetrahedral Cu4 cluster
2011
Abstract Ab initio Coupled-Cluster calculations with single and double excitations and perturbative correction to the triple, CCSD(T), have been carried out for the high-spin electronic state, ( 5 A 2 ) , of the copper cluster Cu 4 in its tetrahedral arrangement. Like alkali metals clusters, tetrahedral Cu 4 presents a bound quintet state, i.e., a situation where all the valence electrons are unpaired. This rather exotic wavefunction, also known as no-pair bonding state, is examined in detail. The influence of the basis set is also analyzed, as well as the importance of the core correlation and the effect of the basis-set superposition errors.