Search results for "amorphous"
showing 10 items of 790 documents
Local structure and vibrational dynamics in NiWO4
2001
Abstract Systematic studies of nickel tungstate thin film, amorphous and polycrystalline powders were performed by X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the Ni K and W L1,3 edges, X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. We found that in spite of the similarity of the local environment around nickel and tungsten ions in all three materials, there is strong difference in the Ni-O and W-O interactions for thin film/amorphous powder and polycrystalline powder. The nickel-oxygen bonding becomes stronger by going from thin film or amorphous powder to polycrystalline tungstate at the expense of the tungsten-oxygen bonding strength. Besides, in thin film and amorphous NiWO4, nickel and tungsten ions h…
Polymorphism in phase-change materials: melt-quenched and as-deposited amorphous structures in Ge2Sb2Te5from density functional calculations
2011
The as-deposited (AD) amorphous structure of the prototype phase change material Ge${}_{2}$Sb${}_{2}$Te${}_{5}$ (GST-225) has been studied by density functional calculations for a 648-atom sample generated by computer-aided deposition at 300 K. The AD sample differs from a melt-quenched (MQ) sample in essential ways: (1) Ge atoms are predominantly tetrahedrally coordinated, and (2) homopolar and Ge-Sb bonds are more common and reduce the number of $\mathit{ABAB}$ squares ($A=\mathrm{Ge}$, Sb; $B=\mathrm{Te}$), the characteristic building blocks of the material. The first observation resolves the contradiction between measured (EXAFS) and calculated Ge-Te bond lengths, and the latter explain…
Modeling non-linear dielectric susceptibilities of supercooled molecular liquids
2021
Advances in high-precision dielectric spectroscopy have enabled access to non-linear susceptibilities of polar molecular liquids. The observed non-monotonic behavior has been claimed to provide strong support for theories of dynamic arrest based on the thermodynamic amorphous order. Here, we approach this question from the perspective of dynamic facilitation, an alternative view focusing on emergent kinetic constraints underlying the dynamic arrest of a liquid approaching its glass transition. We derive explicit expressions for the frequency-dependent higher-order dielectric susceptibilities exhibiting a non-monotonic shape, the height of which increases as temperature is lowered. We demons…
Biomineral Amorphous Lasers through Light-Scattering Surfaces Assembled by Electrospun Fiber Templates
2018
New materials aim at exploiting the great control of living organisms over molecular architectures and minerals. Optical biomimetics has been widely developed by microengineering, leading to photonic components with order resembling those found in plants and animals. These systems, however, are realized by complicated and adverse processes. Here we show how biomineralization might enable the one-step generation of components for amorphous photonics, in which light is made to travel through disordered scattering systems, and particularly of active devices such as random lasers, by using electrospun fiber templates. The amount of bio-enzymatically produced silica is related to light-scatterin…
Optical Spectra and Direct Optical Transitions in Amorphous and Crystalline ZnO Thin Films and Powders
2010
Comparative studies of ZnO crystalline and amorphous thin films and nanocrystalline powders are reported. The UV-visible optical spectra were analyzed with special attention paid to the direct optical bandgap. Atmospheric radio-frequency barrier torch discharge and pulsed hollow cathode sputtering techniques for the film fabrication were used. For the crystalline films, similar values of the direct optical bandgap were found independent of the growth method used. The analysis of the amorphous films and powders revealed a pronounced Urbach-like exponential absorption tail approaching the bandedge. For the powders, the bandgap energies were larger than those for the crystalline and amorphous …
Vortex dynamics in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8-thin films in the presence of columnar defects
1996
With heavy ion irradiation we create continous amorphous columnar defects in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8-thin films. With regard to a reliable comparison of irradiation effects three of four identical striplines on the same samples were exposed to different irradiation procedures. We performed irradiations as well parallel as under different angles with respect to the film $$\vec c$$ -axis. Beside an enlarged normal state resistivity after irradiation the films suffer a Tc-reduction proportional to the volume of the damaged material. The activation energy ascertained from resistive transitions shows best enhancement for magnetic field values close to the matching field. Measurements of the transport crit…
Supported C60-IL-PdNPs as extremely active nanocatalysts for C-C cross-coupling reactions
2016
A C60-ionic liquid hybrid has been covalently linked to three different solid supports, namely amorphous silica, SBA-15 and Fe2O3@SiO2, and the resulting materials have been employed as covalently supported ionic liquid phases (cSILP) in order to immobilize and stabilize palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs). These novel hybrid materials are based on a sort of "matryoshka" system (PdNPs@imidazolium-salt@C60@support) in which the imidazolium-based moieties have not been directly linked to the surface of the support, but they are present in an octopus-like spatial arrangement on the uniformly surface-distributed fullerenes. These materials have been fully characterized and successfully employed as …
Characterization and Electrochemical Properties of Oxygenated Amorphous Carbon (a-C) Films
2016
Amorphous carbon (a-C) films with varying oxygen content were deposited by closed-field unbalanced magnetron sputtering with the aim to understand the effect of oxygen on the structural and physical properties of the films and subsequently correlate these changes with electrochemical properties. The a-C films were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, helium-ion microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis. The electrochemical properties were studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry with several redox systems (Ru(NH3)62+/3+, Fe(CN)64−/3−, dopamine an…
Inverse simulated annealing: Improvements and application to amorphous InSb
2014
An improved inverse simulated annealing method is presented to determine the structure of complex disordered systems from first principles in agreement with available experimental data or desired predetermined target properties. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated by revisiting the structure of amorphous InSb. The resulting network is mostly tetrahedral and in excellent agreement with available experimental data.
A quantitative electron-microscopic study of a linear polyethylene fraction crystallized at different temperatures
1981
Replica and thin-section electron microscopy was performed on a linear polyethylene fraction (Mw = 1.89 × 105, Mn = 1.79 × 10 5) which was either isothermally crystallized or quenched at difference temperatures. The results are numerically analyzed in such a manner so as to give the distribution of the total long spacing and of the crystallite and amorphous thicknesses. The quantitative information about the maximum and minimum values for these parameters at each crystallization temperature yields important clues as to possible molecular processes involved. Qualitative information regarding general morphology, molecular tilt with respect to the lamellar surface, and possible crystallographi…