Microthermal machining using scanning thermal microscopy

Microthermal machining using scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) has been performed on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) materials, which are a soft polymer and suitable for microthermal machining. The probe of the SThM is heated and used as a machining tool on the PMMA material. Adjustment of the resistance can control the probe’s temperature. To obtain good machining quality, the probe temperature must be continuously controlled. The temperature of the machined area of the sample’s surface must be higher than the melting point of the PMMA material. However, a lower machined quality occurs when the probe temperature is too high. Furthermore, the adhesive phenomenon is very apparent when the contact mode is used in SThM machining. The microthermal machining of PMMA materials using SThM in semi-contact mode at a probe temperature of 400 °C has the best results. The technique can be used to process a complicated pattern and applied for use of high-density data storage.     

Investigation of thermal effects in through-silicon vias using scanning thermal microscopy

Results of quantitative investigations of copper through-silicon vias (TSVs) are presented. The experiments were performed using scanning thermal microscopy (SThM), enabling highly localized imaging of thermal contrast between the copper TSVs and the surrounding material. Both dc and ac active-mode SThM was used and differences between these variants are shown. SThM investigations of TSVs may provide information on copper quality in TSV, as well as may lead to quantitative investigation of thermal boundaries in micro- and nanoelectronic structures. A proposal for heat flow analysis in a TSV, which includes the influence of the boundary region between the TSV and the silicon substrate, is presented; estimation of contact resistance and boundary thermal conductance is also given.     

Characterization of tip size and geometry of the pipettes used in scanning ion conductance microscopy

Scanning ion-conductance microscopy (SICM) belongs to the family of scanning-probe microscopies. The spatial resolution of these techniques is limited by the size of the probe. In SICM the probe is a pipette, obtained by heating and pulling a glass capillary tubing. The size of the pipette tip is therefore an important parameter in SICM experiments. However, the characterization of the tip is not a consolidated routine in SICM experimental practice. In addition, potential and limitations of the different methods available for this characterization may not be known to all users. We present an overview of different methods for characterizing size and geometry of the pipette tip, with the aim of collecting and facilitating the use of several pieces of information appeared in the literature in a wide interval of time under different disciplines. In fact, several methods that have been developed for pipettes used in cell physiology can be also fruitfully employed in the characterization of the SICM probes. The overview includes imaging techniques, such as scanning electron microscopy and atomic Force microscopy, and indirect methods, which measure some physical parameter related to the size of the pipette. Examples of these parameters are the electrical resistance of the pipette filled with a saline solution and the surface tension at the pipette tip. We discuss advantages and drawbacks of the methods, which may be helpful in answering a wide range of experimental questions.     

Microstructural analysis by scanning thermal microscopy of a nanocrystalline Fe surface induced by ultrasonic shot peening

Experiments were carried out using a scanning thermal microscope (SThM) to investigate the ultrafine-grained microstructures in the surface layer of a pure iron sample produced by ultrasonic shot peening. The analysis of thermal properties by SThM shows that the thermal conductivity strongly depends on the grain size of the microstructure. The different contrasts on the thermal conductivity images are used to estimate the thickness of the affected surface layer produced by ultrasonic shot peening. The results demonstrate that the SThM can be used as a powerful tool for the microstructural analysis of the ultrafine-grained surface layer.     

异侧非重叠三封闭端量子波导中的声子输运与热导

研究了异侧非重叠三封闭端量子波导中的声学声子传输和热导率性质。结果表明：由于激发模的产生,总传输系数在整数约化频率的时发生跳跃;各个激发模所产生的温度条件不一样,温度越高,被激发的模越多,并且高阶模对热导的影响较小;声子传输和热导性质与不连续结构的形状和位置有直接的关系,声子传输和热导性质对量子线的温度环境相当敏感。     

Modelling of the solid–liquid interface during laser processing using an inverse methodology

This study presents a methodology for estimating the melt depth during laser processing of solid materials. The determination of the melt depth is treated as an inverse heat conduction problem, which includes the solid and liquid phases. The conjugate gradient method is applied to treat the inverse problem using the available temperature measurements. Without the inverse methodology the melt depth is very difficult to obtain with precision. The proposed method can also be applied during microthermal machining to determine the location of the solid–liquid interface and the temperature distributions of the two phases by using scanning thermal microscopy.     

含半圆弧形腔的量子波导中声学声子输运和热导特性

采用散射矩阵方法,研究了在应力自由和硬壁两种典型的边界条件下含半圆弧形腔的量子波导中声学声子输运和热导性质.结果表明在两种边界条件下声子透射谱和热导有着不同的特征.在应力自由边界条件下,能观察到普适的量子化热导现象,当结构为一理想的量子线时,在低温区域有一个量子化平台出现,而当半圆弧形结构存在时,非均匀横向宽度引发的弹性散射使得量子化平台被破坏;在硬壁边界条件下,不可能观察到量子化热导现象,热导随温度的增加单调上升;计算结果表明还可以通过调节半圆弧形结构的半径来调控声子的输运概率和热导. 关键词： 声学声子输运 热导 量子体系     

Single-molecule conductance measurement of self-assembled organic monolayers using scanning tunneling spectroscopy in combination with statistics analysis

Based on ambient atmosphere scanning tunneling microscope (STM) technique, scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) combined with statistics analysis was developed to investigate the single-molecule conductance of various kinds of molecules which were self-assembled on the Au (1 1 1). Conductance histograms obtained from current-voltage curves revealed well-defined peaks at integer multiples of a fundamental conductance and were used to identify the conductance of a single molecule. The conductances of saturated molecules like 1,8-octanedithol and hexanethiocyanate were found to be 0.072 × 10⁻⁴G₀ and 0.06 × 10⁻⁴G₀ respectively and 0.23 × 10⁻⁴G₀ and 0.13 × 10⁻⁴G₀ for unsaturated molecules like 5,5′-dithiol- 2,2′,5′,2″-terthiophene and 4,4′-dithio-tert(phenylene ethylene).     

Estimation of thermal contact resistance and thermally induced optical effects in single-coated optical fibers

In this study, a conjugate gradient method based on an inverse algorithm is applied to estimate the unknown time-dependent thermal contact resistance in a single-coated optical fiber, which is subjected to transient thermal loading. While knowing the temperature history at the measuring position, no prior information is needed on the functional form of the unknown contact resistance. The temperature data obtained from the direct problem are used to simulate the temperature measurement. The influence of measurement errors, initial guess values, and measurement locations upon the precision of the estimated results is also investigated. Results show that an excellent estimation on the time-dependent thermal contact resistance, temperature distributions, thermally induced microbending loss, and refractive index changes can be obtained for the case considered in this study.     

In situ scanning electron microscope electrical characterization of GaN nanowire nanodiodes using tungsten and tungsten/gallium nanoprobes

A lithography-free technique for measuring the electrical properties of n-type GaN nanowires has been investigated using nanoprobes mounted in a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Schottky contacts were made to the nanowires using tungsten nanoprobes, while gallium droplets placed in situ at the end of tungsten nanoprobes were found to be capable of providing Ohmic contacts to GaN nanowires. Schottky nanodiodes were fabricated based on single n-type nanowires, and measured current–voltage (I–V) results suggest that the Schottky nanodiodes deviate from ideal diodes mainly due to their nanoscopic contact area. Additionally, the effect of the SEM electron beam on the I–V characteristics was investigated and was found to impact the transport properties of the Schottky nanodiodes, possibly due to an increase in carrier density in the nanodiodes.     

An elastic-perfectly plastic model for simulating an aluminum particle behavior during plasma thermal spraying using the finite element method

It is a 2D numerical study which treats the splat and flattening of the droplet during a thermal spraying process. An aluminum particle at a high temperature is impacted on steel substrate. A perfectly elastic-plastic model is used instead of the VOF method which is exclusively used in the literature. For this purpose, the finite element method with Ansys mechanical APDL program is used to solve the governing equations. Displacement, elastic and plastic strains, Von-Mises stress, energy densities, and contact pressure are evaluated during the impact of the particle. Additionally, it is found that the initial impact velocity has a significant effect on splat behavior. This mechanical model gives a promise results that can be improved to help understand the impact and flattening phenomenon.     

Shrinking of ultrathin polyelectrolyte multilayer capsules upon annealing: A confocal laser scanning microscopy and scanning force microscopy study

Heating-induced morphological changes of micrometer size capsules prepared by step-wise deposition of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes onto melamine formaldehyde (MF) latex particles and biological cells with subsequent dissolution of the core have been investigated by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and scanning force microscopy (SFM). For poly(styrenesulfonate-Na salt)/poly(allylamine hydrochloride) polyelectrolyte capsules a remarkable heating-induced shrinking is observed. An increase of the wall thickness corresponding to the capsule diameter decrease is found. The morphology of these microcapsules after temperature treatment is characterized. The thickening of the polyelectrolyte multilayer is interpreted in terms of a configurational entropy increase via polyanion-polycation bond rearrangement. Received 20 January 2000     

Response of thermal source in a transversely isotropic thermoelastic half-space with mass diffusion by using a finite element method

The two-dimensional problem of generalized thermoelastic diffusion material with thermal and diffusion relaxation times is investigated in the context of the Lord-Shulman theory.As an application of the problem,a particular type of thermal source is considered and the problem is solved numerically by using a finite element method.The components of displacement,stress,temperature distribution,chemical potential,and mass concentration are obtained.The resulting quantities are depicted graphically for a special model.An appreciable effect of relaxation times is observed on various resulting quantities.     

Effect of thermal stratification on free convection in a square porous cavity filled with a nanofluid using Tiwari and Das' nanofluid model

Natural convection in a square porous cavity filled with a nanofluid in conditions of thermal stratification has been numerically studied. The mathematical model has been formulated in terms of the dimensionless stream function and temperature using the Darcy–Boussinesq approximation and Tiwari and Das' nanofluid model with new more realistic empirical correlations for the physical properties of the nanofluids. Formulated partial differential equations along with the corresponding boundary conditions have been solved by the finite difference method. Particular efforts have been focused on the effects of the Rayleigh number, thermal stratification parameter, porosity of the porous medium, solid volume fraction parameter of nanoparticles, and the solid matrix of the porous medium (glass balls and aluminum foam) on the local and average Nusselt numbers, streamlines and isotherms. It has been observed an essential effect of thermal stratification parameter on heat and fluid flow fields.