Electrical and magnetic properties of CoFeAlO thin films

Influences of oxygen-partial pressure and annealing on the electrical and magnetic properties of CoFeAlO thin films were systematically investigated by means of resistivity, permeability, magnetization and ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements. It was found that, with increasing oxygen-partial pressure or under annealing, the electrical resistivity of the film increased and the magnetic softness decreased, which is attributed to the microstructural change of the film. Interestingly, an as-deposited Co_45.30Fe_20.65Al_19.34O_14.71 film was found to exhibit an inverted hysteresis loop with negative coercivity, and this peculiar phenomenon disappeared upon effects of oxygen-partial pressure and annealing. It was also found that the as-deposited films owned a narrow FMR line width that increased with increasing oxygen-partial pressure or under annealing.     

Enhanced ferromagnetic properties of diluted Fe doped ZnO with hydrogen treatment

The single-phase diluted magnetic Fe-ion (5%) doped ZnO powders were prepared by solid-state reaction method. The powders were annealed in Ar or Ar/H₂(5%) atmosphere at 1200 °C. The crystal structure, electric and magnetic properties for the Zn_0.95Fe_0.05O powders have been studied with X-ray diffraction (XRD) vibrating sample magnetometer, resistance and Hall measurement. All the peaks for the XRD pattern of samples belong to the hexagonal (P6₃mc) lattice of ZnO, and no indication of a secondary phase. The lattice parameters for the Zn_0.95Fe_0.05O with an annealing in Ar/H₂(5%) atmosphere were a₀=3.256 Å and c₀=5.206 Å at room temperature. The hysteresis curve for the Zn_0.95Fe_0.05O at room temperature was enhanced ferromagnetic behaviour with an annealing in Ar/H₂(5%) atmosphere. We give an explanation for enhanced ferromagnetic behaviour with H₂ treatment by electric properties.     

Laser-sintered mesoporous TiO2 electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

Low-temperature laser sintering has been successfully demonstrated to improve the overall conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells. Mesoporous TiO₂ electrodes were prepared from a colloidal solution of TiO₂ nanopowders by a laser direct-write technique and then sintered by a quasi-continuous-wave UV laser (λ=355 nm) for the fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells. The overall conversion efficiency of the cells based on the laser-sintered TiO₂ electrodes was double that of the devices with non-laser-treated TiO₂ electrodes. This enhancement is attributed to both the removal of organic additives and the improved inter-nanoparticle electrical contacts induced by the laser-sintering process, which led to an increase in porosity and dye-absorption sites in the TiO₂ electrodes. PACS 61.80.Ba; 61.46.+w; 73.22.-f; 84.60.Jt     

High-frequency characteristics of CoFeVAlONb thin films

High-frequency characteristics of CoFeVAlONb thin films were studied. A thin film of Co_43.47Fe_35.30V_1.54Al_5.55O_9.93Nb_4.21 is observed to exhibit excellent magnetic properties; magnetic coercivity of 1.24 Oe, uniaxial in-plane anisotropy field of 66.99 Oe, and saturation magnetization of 19.8 kG. The effective permeability of the film is as high as 1089 and is stable up to 1.8 GHz, and with ferromagnetic resonance over 3 GHz. This film also has very high electrical resistivity of about 628 μΩ cm. These superior properties make it ideal for high-frequency magnetic applications.     

FMS scheduling based on timed Petri Net model and reactive graph search

This paper presents a new scheduling method for manufacturing system based on the Timed Petri Net model and a reactive fast graph search algorithm. The following two typical problems are addressed in this paper. (1) Minimization of the maximum completion time. (2) Minimization of the total tardiness. As for the problem (1), a new search algorithm which combines the RTA^∗ and a rule-based supervisor is proposed. As for problem (2), the original Petri Net model is converted to its reverse model and the algorithm developed for the problem (1) is applied, regarding the due date as the starting time in the reverse model. Some numerical experiments are carried out to demonstrate usefulness of our algorithm.     

Locating and counting bifurcation points of satellite components from the main component in the degree-n bifurcation set

The bifurcation point where a satellite component buds from another component is characterized by the existence of the common tangent line between the two osculating components appearing in the degree-n bifurcation set. We investigate the existence, location and number of bifurcation points for satellite components budding from the main component in the degree-n bifurcation set as well as a parametric boundary equation of the main component of the degree-n bifurcation set. Cusp points are also located on the boundary of the main component. Typical degree-n bifurcation sets and their components are illustrated with some computational results.     

Property changes of electroplated Cu/Co alloys and multilayers by organic additives

We investigated the change of magnetic properties of the electroplated Cu/Co alloys and multilayers caused by organic additives and high temperature annealing. When plated with a pure Cu/Co electrolyte, the alloy contained ∼25% of Cu and ∼75% of Co. The alloy was made of hcp-Co, fcc-Co and Cu(1 1 1) and was super-paramagnetic at room temperature. As we add a few organic additives in the plating electrolyte, the hcp-Co of the films disappeared. The organic additives contained in the electrolytes changed paramagnetic Cu/Co multilayers to ferromagnets. High-temperature thermal annealing increased coercivity due to the growth of the Co grains.     

Magnetic structures in Ni80Fe20/Ru multilayers

Using polarized neutron reflectivity (PNR) measurements together with associated simulation, magnetic structures of two Ni₈₀Fe₂₀ (1 1 1)/Ru (0 0 0 1) multilayer samples with Ru thickness of 9 and 21 Å were investigated under various external magnetic fields at room temperature. The results reveal the existence of layer thickness, interface roughness, magnetic moment, interlayer coupling angle and non-collinear coupling. The former three are independent of Ru thickness; while the latter two are strongly dependent of Ru thickness.     

A lower bound for the convexity number of some graphs

Given a connected graphG, we say that a setC ?V(G) is convex inG if, for every pair of verticesx, y ∈ C, the vertex set of everyx-y geodesic inG is contained inC. The convexity number ofG is the cardinality of a maximal proper convex set inG. In this paper, we show that every pairk, n of integers with 2 ≤k ≤ n?1 is realizable as the convexity number and order, respectively, of some connected triangle-free graph, and give a lower bound for the convexity number ofk-regular graphs of ordern withn>k+1.