Fabrication of stabilized piezoelectric thick film for silicon-based MEMS device

Electrical properties of piezoelectric thick films with controlled microstructure were investigated. In order to enhance the electromechanical properties (e.g. d₃₁, d₃₃) of a thick film by control of its microstructure, a mixed powder, referred to as BNP, consisting of both nano-sized and micro-sized piezoelectric particles, was employed as a starting precursor in the film fabrication process. According to a scanning electron microscopy study, it is shown that a BNP thick film exhibits the densest homogeneous microstructures. According to surface area measurements, the BNP thick film was sufficiently densified without an additional infiltration process of Pb(Zr_1-xTi_x)O₃ sol for densification. The screen-printed BNP thick film possesses a dielectric constant and a remanent polarization much higher than those of a thick film composed of only micro-sized piezoelectric particles by a factor of more than two. This suggests the potential application of the BNP thick film, in conjunction with a silicon substrate, to a micromachined monolithic PZT thick film device on the silicon substrate. PACS 85.40.Xx; 85.85.+j; 85.50.-n; 77.65.-j; 68.37.-d     

Characterization of structural irregularities in highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber using torsional acoustic polarization coupling

We demonstrate a novel method to characterize structural irregularities in a highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber (HB PCF) with high accuracy based on polarization coupling by torsional acoustic wave. Birefringence variation induced by the irregularities of air-hole structure in the fiber cross-section is analyzed via the transmission spectra of the acousto-optic coupling between two orthogonal polarization modes propagating along the fiber. The estimated maximum birefringence variation of two sections in the same batch of the HB PCF is 3 × 10^− 6 and 10^− 5, respectively, from nominal birefringence value of 4.86 × 10^− 4. The comparison between the experimental results and the numerical simulation resulted in the estimation of few tens of nm variation in the air-hole structure in the PCF.     

Long distance laser ultrasonic propagation imaging system for damage visualization

Wind turbine blade failure is the most prominent and common type of damage occurring in operating wind turbine systems. Conventional nondestructive testing systems are not available for in situ wind turbine blades. We propose a portable long distance ultrasonic propagation imaging (LUPI) system that uses a laser beam targeting and scanning system to excite, from a long distance, acoustic emission sensors installed in the blade. An examination of the beam collimation effect using geometric parameters of a commercial 2 MW wind turbine provided Lamb wave amplitude increases of 41.5 and 23.1 dB at a distance of 40 m for symmetrical and asymmetrical modes, respectively, in a 2 mm-thick stainless steel plate. With this improvement in signal-to-noise ratio, a feasibility study of damage detection was conducted with a 5 mm-thick composite leading edge specimen. To develop a reliable damage evaluation system, the excitation/sensing technology and the associated damage visualization algorithm are equally important. Hence, our results provide a new platform based on anomalous wave propagation imaging (AWPI) methods with adjacent wave subtraction, reference wave subtraction, reference image subtraction, and the variable time window amplitude mapping method. The advantages and disadvantages of AWPI algorithms are reported in terms of reference data requirements, signal-to-noise ratios, and damage evaluation accuracy. The compactness and portability of the proposed UPI system are also important for in-field applications at wind farms.     

Removal of nanoparticles on silicon wafer using a self-channeled plasma filament

The effective removal of nanoparticles from a silicon wafer surface was demonstrated using the self-channeled plasma filament excited by a femtosecond (130?fs) Ti:sapphire laser (?? _p=790?nm). The photoinduced self-channeled plasma filament in air reached a length of approximately 110?C130?mm from the first focal spot with diameters ranging from 40 to 50???m at input intensities of more than 1.0×10¹⁴?W/cm². By the scan of wafer using the X?CY?CZ stage during self-channeled plasma filament, the removal variation of nanoparticles on surface was observed in situ before and after the plasma filament occurred. The cleaning efficiency was strongly dependent on the gap distance between the plasma filament and the surface. The removal efficiency of nanoparticles reached 96?% with no damage to the surface when the gap was 150???m.     

Optimisation of a hybrid photoneutron source in a linear accelerator using GEANT4 and MCNPX Monte Carlo codes

The \(\alpha \) decay half-lives of hyper and normal isotopes of Po nuclei are studied in the present work. The inclusion of \(\Lambda \)–N interaction changes the half-life for \(\alpha \) decay. The theoretical predictions on the \(\alpha \) decay half-lives of normal Po isotopes are compared with experimental results and are seen to be matching well with each other. The neutron shell closure at \(N = 126\) is found to be the same for both normal and hypernuclei. The Geiger–Nuttal (G–N) law for \(\alpha \) decay is unaltered in the case of hypernuclei. The hypernuclei will decay into normal nuclei by mesonic or non-mesonic decay modes. Since the half-lives of normal Po nuclei are well within the experimental limits, our theoretical results suggest experimental verification of the \(\alpha \) emission from hyper Po nuclei in a cascade process.     

Electronic structure and optical absorption spectra of CdSe covered with ZnSe and ZnS epilayers

Using the first-principles methods we compute the electronic structure and the absorption spectra for a wurtzite CdSe (0001) slab covered with zincblende ZnSe and ZnS epilayers. For each structure we compute the DOS and the imaginary part of the dielectric function. We find that the semiconductor passivation shifts the ‘near Fermi-level’ states of the bare CdSe slab down to lower energy levels. The migration suggests the decrease of surface effects and energy loss. We observe the substantial reduction of the abnormal peaks in the absorption spectra of the bare CdSe slab, which seems to be a consequence of the DOS migration. This is consistent with the experimental results that a proper passivation enhance the luminescence efficiency. We also study the case that the epilayer surface is terminated with PH₃ and find the PH₃ passivation also reduces the surface state to some extent.     

Multiferroic characteristics of the strained epitaxial Bi0.9Ho0.1FeO3 thin film

We fabricated high quality epitaxial Bi_0.9Ho_0.1FeO₃ thin films which exhibited the tetragonally stained structure with a c/a ratio of about 1.04. The Bi_0.9Ho_0.1FeO₃ thin film showed a good ferroelectric property with the high remanent polarization (P_r) of about 80 μC/cm². The ferromagnetic hysteresis loop with a clear remanent magnetization was shown. The coercive field and the remanent magnetization of the Bi_0.9Ho_0.1FeO₃ film are 6200 Oe and 1.7 emu/g, respectively. The abrupt conduction due to space charge limited (SCL) was revealed in leakage current density versus electric field.     

Supercapacitive electrochemical performance of graphene-containing carbon aerogel prepared using polyethyleneimine-modified graphene oxide

Graphene-containing carbon aerogel was prepared by a sol–gel polymerization of resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) method using polyethyleneimine (PEI)-modified chemically exfoliated grapheme oxide, and its electrochemical performance as an electrode for supercapacitor was examined. The effect of PEI in the preparation of RFGO (resorcinol-formaldehyde and graphene oxide) solution on the physicochemical and electrochemical properties of graphene-containing carbon aerogel (CAPG) was investigated. For comparison, graphene-containing carbon aerogel was prepared using PEI-free graphene oxide (CAG). Graphene-free carbon aerogel (CA) was also prepared. CAPG showed the highest BET surface area (792 m²/g) and the largest pore volume (1.64 cm³/g) with well-developed porous structure. Various electrochemical measurements revealed that CAPG showed high specific capacitance (205 F/g), low equivalent series resistance (0.55 Ω), and superior capacitive behavior. The PEI-modified graphene oxide played an important role in enhancing physicochemical properties and supercapacitive electrochemical performance of CAPG.