气体团簇离子束两步能量修形法的平坦化效应

本文提出采用气体团簇离子束的两步能量修形法来改善4H-SiC(1000)晶片表面形貌.先用15 keV的高能Ar团簇离子进行整体修形,再用5 keV的低能团簇离子优化表面.结果表明,在相同的团簇离子剂量下,与单一15 keV的高能团簇处理相比,两步法修形后的表面具有更低的均方根粗糙度,两者分别为1.05 nm和0.78 nm.本文还以原子级平坦表面为研究对象,揭示了载能团簇引起的半球形离子损伤(弧坑)与团簇能量的关系,及两步能量修形法在弧坑修复中的优势.在原子力显微镜表征的基础上,引入了二维功率谱密度函数,以直观全面地给出材料的表面形貌特征及其随波长(频率)的分布.结果表明,经任何能量的团簇离子轰击的表面,在0.05—0.20μm波长范围内,团簇轰击都能有效地降低粗糙度,而在0.02—0.05μm范围内,则出现了粗化效应,这是由于形成了半球形离子损伤,但第二步更低能量的团簇离子处理可以削弱这种粗化效应.     

Femtosecond holography in lithium niobate crystals

Spatial gratings are recorded holographically by two femtosecond pump pulses at 388 nm in lithium niobate (LiNbO3) crystals and read out by a Bragg-matched, temporally delayed probe pulse at 776 nm. We claim, to our knowledge, the first holographic pump-probe experiments with subpicosecond temporal resolution for LiNbO3. An instantaneous grating that is due mostly to the Kerr effect as well as a long-lasting grating that results mainly from the absorption caused by photoexcited carriers was observed. The Kerr coefficient of LiNbO3 for our experimental conditions, i.e., pumped and probed at different wavelengths, was approximately 1.0 x 10(-5) cm2/GW.     

Magnetic force microscopy studies of domain walls in nickel and cobalt films

A magnetic force microscopy is used to examine the domain walls in nickel and cobalt films deposited by argon ion sputtering. Thin nickel films deposited at high substrate temperatures exhibit coexistent Bloch and Neel walls. Films grown at room temperature display alternative Bloch lines with cap switches. These films agglomerate to form grains after annealed at high temperatures. The film composed of larger grains behaves better nucleation implying magnetic domains of closure, while the film composed of smaller grains exhibits more defects implying alternative Bloch lines. We have also observed domain displacements and cap switches, which occur due to precipitation of particles in small grain size films. Stripe domains are observed for film thicknesses larger than 100 nm. They become zigzag cells when an external field of 1.5 T is applied perpendicular to the surface of the films. This experiment indicates that the domain sizes in thin films and the strip widths for thick films both depend on the square-root of the film thickness, which varies from 5 to 45 nm and from 100 to 450 nm, respectively.     

Development of a laser-based measurement system for evaluation of the scraping workpiece quality

A laser-based measurement system for evaluation of the scraping workpiece quality that can eliminate contact-induced measurement errors and increase measurement accuracy is proposed. The laser-based measurement system comprises a light-scattering-type triangulation laser, a computer numerical control (CNC) machine tool, and an analog-to-digital (A/D) card. The triangulation laser measures the depth of the scraping spots and the CNC machine tool locates their position. The 3D data of the scraping workpiece is then drawn using the least squares method. Cast iron and Turcite workpieces can be measured. Five parameters of the scraping workpiece, namely peak points per square inch, percentage of points, distribution of heights of points or depth of surroundings, edge shape of the grooves, and flatness, can be evaluated. The scanning rate and sampling rate of the laser-based measurement system are 100 mm/s and 10 KHz, respectively. In the future, an appliance machine based on the proposed system will be designed for the on-line detection of scraping workpieces.     

Fabrication of aligned single wall carbon nanotube absorbers for high power passive mode-locked Nd:GdVO<Subscript>4</Subscript> laser

Using the vertical evaporation technique we fabricated saturable absorbers by transferring the water-soluble single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) onto a hydrophilic quartz substrate. The fast recovery times of the absorber were measured to be 136 and 790 fs. The modulation depth of the absorber was about 2%. Passive mode-locked Nd:GdVO₄ laser using such an absorber was demonstrated. The continuous wave mode-locked pulses with the pulse duration of 12.4 ps and the repetition of 120 MHz were achieved. The maximum average output power of the mode-locked laser is 2.4 W at the pump power of 13 W. Such kind of absorber has potential to be put into practical use for high power solid-state laser mode locking.     

Simulating physiological conditions to evaluate nanoparticles for magnetic fluid hyperthermia (MFH) therapy applications

Magnetite nanoparticles with high self-heating capacity and low toxicity characteristics are a promising candidate for cancer hyperthermia treatment. In order to achieve minimum dosage to a patient, magnetic nanoparticles with high heating capacity are needed. In addition, the influence of physiological factors on the heat capacity of a material should be investigated in order to determine the feasibility. In this study, magnetite nanoparticles coated with lauric acid were prepared by co-precipitation of Fe³⁺:Fe²⁺ in a ratio of 2:1, 5:3, 3:2, and 4:3, and the pH was controlled using NaOH. Structural and magnetization characterization by means of X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) revealed that the main species was Fe₃O₄ and further showed that most of the nanoparticles exhibited superparamagnetic properties. All of the magnetic nanoparticles showed a specific absorption rate (SAR) increase that was linear with the magnetic field strength and frequency of the alternating magnetic field. Among all, the magnetic nanoparticles prepared in a 3:2 ratio showed the highest SAR. To further test the influence of physiological factors on the 3:2 ratio magnetic nanoparticles, we simulated the environment with protein (bovine serum albumin, BSA), blood sugar (dextrose), electrolytes (commercial norm-saline) and viscosity (glycerol) to examine the heating capacity under these conditions. Our results showed that the SAR value was unaffected by the protein and blood sugar environments. On the other hand, the SAR value was significantly reduced in the electrolyte environment, due to precipitation and aggregation with sodium ions. For the simulated viscous environment with glycerol, the result showed that the SAR values reduced with increasing glycerol concentration. We have further tested the heating capacity contribution from the Néel mechanism by trapping the magnetic nanoparticles in a solid form of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to eliminate the heating pathway due to a Brownian motion. We measured the heating capability and determined that 47% of the total heat generated by the magnetic nanoparticles was from the Néel mechanism contribution. For evaluating magnetic nanoparticles, this method provides a fast and low cost method for determining qualitative and quantitative information measurement for the effect of physiological interference and could greatly reduce the cost and time by in vitro or animal test.     

Multifunctional carbon-coated magnetic sensing graphene oxide-cyclodextrin nanohybrid for potential cancer theranosis

Journal of Nanoparticle Research - Over the last years, an environmentally friendly and economically efficient way of nanoparticle production has been found in the biosynthesis of metal...     

Build-up of supercontinuum in heated and unheated photonic crystal fibers using a chirped femtosecond laser

The build-up of supercontinuum in a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) has been investigated experimentally as a function of pump power using chirped 100-fs pulses from a Ti:sapphire laser. As compared with the PCF at room temperature, a new blue-shifted spectral component is observed in the initial steps of supercontinuum (SC) generation when the central part of PCF is heated to 120 °C by a hot plate. In addition, the slope efficiency of SG is slightly improved with the slightly extension of supercontinuum spectrum in blue edge at high pump powers. The change in dispersion property as well as the effective cascading of nonlinear photonic crystal fibers for heated PCF would be the main attributions.     

Characterization of long-term dose stability of N-isopropylacrylamide polymer gel dosimetry

In this study, the detailed characteristics, including spatial uniformity, dose distributions, inter-batch variability, reproducibility, and long-term temporal stability, of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) polymer gel dosimeter were investigated. A commercial 10x fast optical computed tomography scanner (OCTOPUS^TM-10×, MGS Research, Inc., Madison, CT, USA) was used to measure NIPAM polymer gel dosimeter. A cylindrical NIPAM gel phantom that measured 10 cm × 10 cm was irradiated via a single-field treatment plan with a field size of 4 cm × 4 cm. The maximum standard deviation of spatial uniformity for NIPAM gel was less than 0.29 %. The average standard deviation among the three batches of gel dosimeters was less than 1 %. The gamma pass rate could reach as high as 96.76 % when a 3 % dose difference and a 3 mm dose-to-agreement criteria were used. The long-term measurement of irradiated NIPAM gel dosimeter indicated that the dose maps attained a gradually stable value 15 h post-irradiation and remained stable until 72 h post-irradiation. The gamma pass rate could achieve a maximum value between 24 and 72 h post-irradiation. The edge enhancement effect that occurred around the irradiated region was observed 72 h post-irradiation. Thus, the results from this study suggest that NIPAM gel dosimeter should be measured approximately 24 h post-irradiation to reduce the occurrence of the edge enhancement effect.