Photoswitching of holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystals doped with chiral dopant

Chiral dopants were added to the formulation of holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystals and the effects studied in terms of grating formation dynamics, morphology, diffraction efficiency, contrast ratio and electro-optical properties of the films. A gradual increase of real-time diffraction efficiency, decrease of droplet size and increase of diffraction efficiency of the composite film were obtained with the addition and increasing content of chiral dopant, due to the increased viscosity of the liquid crystal (LC) doped with the chiral dopant leading to decreased droplet coalescence. The contrast ratio decreased with increasing content of chiral dopant due to the difficult orientation of LC molecules caused by the formation of a helical structure. Addition of a small amount of the chiral dopant increased the driving voltage slightly, whereas the decay time is decreased significantly as a result of the high twisting of the helical structure.     

Phase transformation of Ni-B, Ni-P diffusion barrier deposited electrolessly on Cu interconnect

In this paper, we report that the phase transformation of Ni-B, Ni-P diffusion barriers deposited electrolessly on Cu, for the reason that the Ni-P layer is a more effective diffusion barrier than the Ni-B layer. The Ni₃B crystallized was decomposed to Ni and B₂O₃ above 400 °C and the Ni₃P crystallized was decomposed to Ni and P₂O₅ above 600 °C respectively in Ar atmosphere. Also, the Ni₃B was decomposed to Ni and free B above 400 °C and the Ni₃P was decomposed to Ni and free P above 600 °C respectively in H₂ atmosphere. The decomposed Ni formed a solid solution with Cu. The Cu diffusion occurred above 400 °C for Ni-B layer and above 600 °C for Ni-P layer, respectively. Because the decomposition temperature of Ni-P layer is about 200 °C higher than that of Ni-B layer, the Ni-P layer is a more effective barrier for Cu than the Ni-B layer.     

Temperature effect on deposition rate of silicon nitride films

Temperature effects on deposition rate of silicon nitride films were characterized by building a neural network prediction model. The silicon nitride films were deposited by using a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition system and process parameter effects were systematically characterized by 2⁶⁻¹ fractional factorial experiment. The process parameters involved include a radio frequency power, pressure, temperature, SiH₄, N₂, and NH₃ flow rates. The prediction performance of generalized regression neural network was drastically improved by optimizing multi-valued training factors using a genetic algorithm. Several 3D plots were generated to investigate parameter effects at various temperatures. Predicted variations were experimentally validated. The temperature effect on the deposition rate was a complex function of parameters but N₂ flow rate. Larger decreases in the deposition rate with the temperature were only noticed at lower SiH₄ (or higher NH₃) flow rates. Typical effects of SiH₄ or NH₃ flow rate were only observed at higher or lower temperatures. A comparison with the refractive index model facilitated a selective choice of either SiH₄ or NH₃ for process optimization.     

Angular and NiFe thickness dependence of exchange bias in IrMn/NiFe/IrMn thin film

Exchange biased IrMn/NiFe/IrMn thin films were studied as a function of NiFe thickness. In plane angular dependence of a resonance field distribution which is measured by FMR was analyzed as a combined effect of an unidirectional anisotropy and an uniaxial anisotropy. The unidirectional anisotropic field and the uniaxial anisotropic field were linearly varied with NiFe thickness while the films with a thicker NiFe layer do not follow the linear variation. Resonance field and linewidth variations were also analysed with NiFe thickness.     

The study of exchange coupling in NiFe/Cu/IrMn trilayer structures by MOKE and FMR measurements

The exchange coupling strength of NiFe/Cu/IrMn trilayer films was examined with both a new magneto optical Kerr effect (MOKE) method developed for the exchange coupling field determination and ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements. We found that the value for exchange coupling field obtained by the MOKE technique coincided with FMR result with high accuracy. Other peculiarities of FMR measurements due to interlayer exchange coupling such as angular dependence of resonance field on Cu spacer thickness are also shown in the article.     

Synthesis of 2H-pyrroles via the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of nitrile ylides with acrylamides

3,4-Dihydro-2H-pyrrole derivatives were synthesized by the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of nitrile ylides with acrylamides. Acrylamide substitution patterns and benzimidoyl chloride equilibration were investigated.     

Parity violation at neutron p-wave resonances of238U and232Th and related questions

Parity violation effects have been studied at 40 neutron p-wave resonances of the even-even nuclei²³⁸U and²³²Th. Of these 11 show parity violation effects larger than 2 standard deviations, making parity violation a rather common phenomenon. Parity mixing up to 10% has been found. The root-mean squared matrix elements for parity violation derived from these resonances are M=0.58 (+0.50/-0.25) meV for²³⁸U, respectively 1.39 (+0.35/-0.38) meV for²³²Th.     

Strong visible PL from the nc-Si thin film by Ni silicide mediated crystallization

We studied the growth of nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) thin film exhibiting a strong room temperature photoluminescence (PL) at 1.81–2.003 eV. The amorphous silicon was crystallized by Ni silicide mediated crystallization (Ni SMC) and then Secco-etched to exhibit the PL. The PL peak energy and intensity increase with increasing the metal density on the a-Si because of the reduction in the grain size down to 2 nm. The photoluminescence energy and peak intensity depend strongly on the Secco etch time because the grain size is reduced by etching the grain boundaries.     

Singlewall carbon nanotubes covered with polystyrene nanoparticles by in‐situ miniemulsion polymerization

This work is to make carbon nanotubes dispersible in both water and organic solvents without oxidation and cutting nanotube threads. Polystyrene‐singlewall carbon nanotube (PS‐SWNT) composites were prepared with three different methods: miniemulsion polymerization, conventional emulsion polymerization, and mixing SWNT with PS latex. The two factors, crosslinking and surface coverage of PS are important factors for the mechanical and electrical properties, including dispersion states of SWNT in various solvents. The PS‐SWNT composite prepared via a conventional emulsion polymerization showed SWNT bundles entirely covered with PS, whereas the PS‐SWNT composite prepared via a miniemulsion polymerization showed SWNT partially covered with crosslinked PS nanoparticles. The method of mixing SWNTs with PS latex did not show the well dispersed state of carbon nanotubes because PS was not crosslinked and was dissolved in a solvent, and nanotubes separated from PS precipitated. So the PS nanoparticle‐SWNT composite had lower electrical resistance, and higher mechanical strength than the other composites made by the latter two methods. As the amount of SWNT increases, the bare surface area of SWNT increases and the electrical conductivity increases in the composite made by the miniemulsion polymerization. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 573–584, 2006