Study of microstructured indium oxide by cathodoluminescence and XPS microscopy

In this work sintered thick microcrystalline films as well as micro and nanostructures of In₂O₃ have been studied. The results obtained by XPS microscopy show that the boundary regions of the microcrystalline films present a higher amount of oxygen, as well as a different O (1s) core level XPS spectrum with respect to the grains. CL images recorded at room temperature show that the emission is preferentially associated with the grain boundaries and the main emission band appeared at 1.9 eV in the recorded CL spectra.Core level and valence band spectromicroscopy measurements of the indium oxide arrows grown at the surface of the sintered InN revealed the incorporation of nitrogen, coming from the starting material. In these structures the N (1s) core level splits into two components, showing a higher amount of nitrogen in the pyramid surface than in the columns of the structures which correlates with an increase of CL intensity.     

Structural and cathodoluminescence assessment of transition metal oxide nanostructures grown by thermal deposition methods

Nanostructures of two transition metal oxides, WO₃ and α-Fe₂O₃, have been grown by a thermal deposition method without a catalyst and characterized by x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and cathodoluminescence (CL) in the SEM. WO₃ micro and nanorods exhibit CL emission two orders of magnitude higher than CL intensity from the untreated oxide. α-Fe₂O₃ nanostructures with different morphologies (wires, belts, rods, urchins) were grown at different temperatures on Fe substrates. CL spectra of these nanostructures show emission bands related to charge transfer and ligand field transitions.     

Generation of pure electrical quadrature amplitude modulation with photonic vector modulator

A photonic vector modulator architecture for generating pure quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals is presented. An electrical quadrature-modulated signal at microwave-millimeter-wave frequencies is generated from its corresponding baseband in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components. In the proposed scheme, no electrical devices apart from the electrical tone oscillator are needed in the generation process. In addition, the purity of the generated signal is increased, and the hardware requirements are reduced when compared with previously proposed architectures so a highly compact low-cost architecture can be implemented. A pure 1.25 Gbit/s 4-QAM signal has been experimentally generated at a 42 GHz carrier frequency.     

Photoluminescence of quenched MgO crystals

Quenching of MgO crystals produces an increase of the photoluminescence emission in the 400 nm region and often the appearance of a shoulder at 470–490 nm previously observed in CL experiments. An emission band at 560 nm which is not related to the F centre band has also been observed.     

Spatial energy estimates in dynamical problems for a semi-infinite piezoelectric beam

The behaviour of the total energy for a semi-infinite piezoelectricbeam, with uniform or variable cross-section, in dynamical conditionsis investigated. Precisely, we obtain some estimates in termsof the data for the energy of the portion of the body at distancegreater than z from the base and for its norm in L¹(0,t) (wheret is an arbitrary positive time). We obtain some estimates whichdepend on the initial data if t z/V (where V is a computablepositive material constant); if t > z/V, by using also theKorn inequality, we show that the bounds depend on all the data.Under mild hypotheses on the initial data we derive the asymptoticbehaviour of the energy as z +. All possible combinations ofboundary conditions are examined and the kind of the estimateis formally the same for all the problems whether the beam isa cylinder or not.     

Modulation of the electronic properties of conjugated polymers through design of polymer backbone

We present the results of valence effective hamiltonian (VEH) band structure calculations on stereoregular block copolymers of poly(thienylene vinylene) and poly(pyrrylene vinylene). We have examined the evolution of the electronic properties as a function of the extension and distribution of the block copolymer sequences. In both cases, the electronic-properties deviate from a linear evolution as a consequence of the localization of both HOCO and LUCO.     

Cathodoluminescence mapping and spectroscopy of Te-doped InxGa1−xSb grown by the vertical Bridgman method under an alternating magnetic field

Cathodoluminescence (CL) in the scanning electron microscope and wavelength dispersive X-ray microanalysis (WDX) have been used to assess the homogeneity of a whole Te-doped In_xGa_1?xSb ingot grown by the vertical Bridgman method under an alternating magnetic field. In particular, WDX has been used to determine the chemical composition of the ingot along the growth axis and several radial directions, while CL has been used to investigate the effective incorporation of In into the alloy, the nature and distribution of extended defects influencing the luminescence of the material and the shape evolution of the growth interfaces along the growth axis. CL spectroscopy reveals that doping with Te influences the band gap energy of this ternary compound through the Moss–Burstein effect.     

Structural and composition changes in superconducting ceramics locally irradiated by electrons

The structural changes and the cation and anion compositions of the surface of superconducting YBa₂Cu₃O_7−x and Tl₂Ba₂CuO_6+x ceramics after local irradiation for several seconds by an electron probe with an accelerating voltage of 25 kV and a current exceeding 10⁻⁷ A are investigated by secondary-electron emission and by cathodoluminescence and x-ray microanalysis in a scanning electron microscope. Morphologically altered regions are detected in the irradiation epicenter, where the structure, chemical composition, and phase composition of the original compound are completely lost. In the intermediate zone between the epicenter and the periphery a distribution of the secondary emission yield is observed with a complex character that differs for the yttrium and thallium ceramics, and anomalies appear in the cathodoluminescence spectra. The experimental data are interpreted on the basis of ideas of oxygen losses under the direct influence of the electron probe and related electronic processes in superconductors. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 452–456 (March 1997)