X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterization of oxidated Si particles formed by pulsed ion-beam ablation

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is used to probe oxidation states of Si species in particles deposited using a pulsed ion-beam evaporation method. The effects of He ambient gas, ion beam intensity and post-treatments on the oxides composition and oxygen content have been studied. It is found that presence of He ambient gas led to a profound oxidation of Si species as compared to that prepared in vacuum at the same ion-beam ablation energy, i.e. both increase of SiO₂ component and oxygen concentration in the oxides coverage. The deposition in He also resulted in an increase of oxygen concentration even under lower ablation intensity, but a higher Si suboxides concentration. It is revealed that the reaction between Si and O was controlled by the ion beam intensity (temperature of Si plasma) and the gas ambient (collision probability of Si and O species). The difference in structure of oxide layers for samples obtained under various conditions is discussed based on the results of XPS analyses.     

Evaluation of fine structure of tubular zeolite NaA membrane by FTIR-ATR and FIB-TEM.

A zeolite NaA (LTA) membrane supported by an alumina porous support tube for pervaporation (PV) dehydration of ethanol was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) using a focused ion beam (FIB) thin-layer specimen preparation technique and by Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflectance method (FTIR-ATR) using a diamond prism as the waveguide. FIB-TEM clearly presented cross-section images up to about 15 microm depth from the membrane surface. FTIR-ATR monitored the Si-O asymmetric stretching vibration spectrum. The Si-O spectrum was compared with the TEM image and their relationships were discussed. By combining the two methods, we could study the thickness of surface LTA crystals, the grain boundary, the LTA/alumina interface structure and the crystallinity and density of materials inside of the alumina porous support. Consequently, fine structure changes of the LTA membrane corresponding to the hydrothermal synthesis condition could be sensitively detected.     

Aharonov–Bohm oscillations observed in nanoscale open-dot structures fabricated in an InAs surface inversion layer

We fabricated nanoscale open-dot structures in an InAs surface inversion layer using an atomic-force-microscope oxidation process. Due to its superior nanofabrication capability, small open-dot structures with the feature size ranging between 100 and 300 nm were successfully fabricated. The magnetoresistance signal measured at 4.2 K showed reproducible fluctuations and a periodic oscillation component that varies in both amplitude and periodicity depending on the dot size. We show that the period of the oscillations corresponds to that of the Aharonov–Bohm effect and propose that the possible mechanism for the oscillations is due to the formation of a one-dimensional electron channel enclosing the open-dot structure as a result of the electron transfer from the InAs oxide to InAs.     

Alternating copolymerization of carbon dioxide and epoxide by manganese porphyrin: The first example of polycarbonate synthesis from 1-atm carbon dioxide

The first successful example of the formation of polycarbonate from 1-atm carbon dioxide and epoxide was demonstrated by the alternating copolymerization of carbon dioxide and epoxide with manganese porphyrin as a catalyst. The copolymerization of carbon dioxide and cyclohexene oxide with (porphinato)manganese acetate proceeded under the 1-atm pressure of carbon dioxide to give a copolymer with an alternating sequence. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 3549–3555, 2003     

TG of polytetrahydrofuran/ isophoronediisocyanate reaction products

TG, swelling, and viscometric studies are presented for the residues, PTHF/IPDI polymer networks, and the extracts, the linear polymers and unreacted IPDI, after Soxhlet extraction of PTHF/IPDI reaction products. The products are obtained by reacting PTHF with 650, 1400, (2×650+1×2900), or 2900 of molecular mass with IPDI at various concentrations in bulk. The results on the swelling and the viscosity experiments suggest that the PTHF/IPDI reaction products have a usual expectable structure. All the TG curves are a double stage curve. The initial stage and the last stage seem to reflect decomposition of PTHF chains and vaporization of the remainder, IPDI, respectively. These are analyzed by a trial-and-error construction, supposing double event behavior. The values of ratio of mass loss associated with the initial event, W0₁, to the mass loss associated with the last event, W0₂, are smaller than the expectable those. This suggests that Event 2 involves vaporization of the decomposition products of PTHF moieties bonded to IPDI in addition to vaporization of IPDI. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Lattice path combinatorics and asymptotics of multiplicities of weights in tensor powers

We give asymptotic formulas for the multiplicities of weights and irreducible summands in high-tensor powers V_λ^⊗N of an irreducible representation V_λ of a compact connected Lie group G. The weights are allowed to depend on N, and we obtain several regimes of pointwise asymptotics, ranging from a central limit region to a large deviations region. We use a complex steepest descent method that applies to general asymptotic counting problems for lattice paths with steps in a convex polytope.     

Behavior of zirconium in the ZrOW(100) system at high temperature, studied by ISS, AES and work-function measurements

The behavior of zirconium atoms at the W(100) surface associated with oxygen adsorption at different sample temperatures has been studied by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), ion scattering spectroscopy (ISS), and the relative change of the work function (Δф) measured by the onset of the secondary electron energy distribution. The results have revealed: (i) adsorption of zirconium onto the W(100) surface followed by the elevation of the sample temperature up to 1710 K in an oxygen partial pressure of 2.7 × 10⁻⁴ induces complete diffusion of zirconium atoms into the W(100) substrate; (ii) further exposure of oxygen induces co-existence of oxygen and tungsten on the surface at 1710 K, resulting in a work function of 4.37 eV; (iii) keeping the sample temperature at 1710 K, simple evacuation of the system has resulted in surface segregation of zirconium atoms to the surface to form a zirconium atomic layer on the top-most surface, reducing the work function to 2.7 eV. The results have revealed that this specific behavior of zirconium atoms at high temperature assures, with very good reproducibility, the highly stable performance and long service life of Zr---O/W(100)-emitters in practical use, even in a low vacuum of 10⁻⁶ Pa.     

TM–TE hybridization and tunable refraction in magnetophotonic crystals

In the present work we study the photonic band structure (PBS) and the polarization state of the Bloch eigenmodes of a two-dimensional magnetophotonic crystal (MPC) with square lattice formed from magneto-optically (MO) active cylinders. The refraction of light at the boundary of the MPC is analyzed. We found that both—the PBS and eigenmodes of the MPC—are most significantly altered by the MO activity in the vicinity of the degeneracies. For this case we demonstrated the possibility of an abrupt change in the propagation direction of light by the application of a magnetic field. For the Bloch wave vectors and frequencies corresponding to non-degenerate branches, the alteration of the PBS is shown to be negligible and eigenmodes almost completely coincide with linearly TE- and/or TM-polarized eigenmodes of the non-magnetic photonic crystal.