Nitriding molybdenum： Effects of duration and fill gas pressure when using lO0-Hz pulse DC discharge technique

Molybdenum is nitrided by a 100-Hz pulsed DC glow discharge technique for various time durations and fill gas pressures to study the effects on the surface properties of molybdenum. X-ray diffractometry （XRD）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM）, and atomic force microscopy （AFM） are used for the structural and morphological analysis of the nitrided layers. Vickers＇ microhardness tester is utilized to investigate surface microhardness. Phase analysis shows the formation of more molybdenum nitride molecules for longer nitriding durations at fill gas pressures of 2 mbar and 3 mbar （1 bar = 105 Pa）. A considerable increase in surface microhardness （approximately by a factor of 2） is observed for longer duration （10 h） and 2-mbar pressure. Longer duration （10 h） and 2-mbar fill gas pressure favors the formation of homogeneous, smooth, hard layers by the incorporation of more nitrogen.     

Origin of Electric Field Dependence of the Charge Mobility and Spatial Energy Correlations in C60-Based Field Effect Transistors

We report on the influence of the lateral electric field on the charge mobility in organic field-effect transistors (OFET) based on C₆₀ films with multigrain morphology. The experimental data were quantitatively described using a recent analytical model by accounting for the strong local electric fields in a multigrain transistor channel and for the energy correlation effects. To rationalize the presence of a correlated disorder in a non-polar C₆₀ material, we show that randomly oriented permanent dipoles in organic gate dielectric layers can generate a significant dipolar disorder in an adjacent nonpolar semiconductor layer.     

Fingerprint image enhancement using multi-scale DDFB based diffusion filters and modified Hong filters

The main task of a fingerprint image enhancement is to enhance the image in such a way that it not only remove the noise but also enhance the reliable minutiae points. For this purpose, in this paper we propose a multi-scale decimation-free directional filter bank method for reliable orientation estimation. This reliable orientation is used in coherence enhancement diffusion and in Gabor filter based enhancement, which overcomes the drawbacks of these two methods. Experimental results show that the proposed method not only enhances the images but also facilitates the minutiae algorithm, by enhancing the true minutiae points.     

Optoelectronic Properties,Elastic Moduli and Thermoelectricity of SrAlGa： An Ab Initio Study

Half-Heusler compounds are an impressive class of materials with a huge potential for different applications such as in future energy, especially in the fields of thermoelectrics and solar cells. We present ab fnitio total energy calculations within the modified Becke-Johnson generalized gradient approximation （mBJ-GGA） to obtain the physical properties of SrAlGa compounds. The structural, elastic, acoustic, electronic, chemical bonding, optical, and thermoelectric properties are calculated and compared with the available calculation data. The SrAlGa is found to be a small-band-gap （0.125-0.175 eV） material, suitable for thermoelectric applications with a relatively high Seebeck coefficient. Also, SrAIGa has the potential in the optoelectronic applications due to high optical conductivity and reflectivity in the infrared and visible region of electromagnetic spectra.     

Molecular Mobility of Crude Oils Via Electron Paramagnetic Resonance of Organic Free Radicals

Journal of Applied Spectroscopy - This study aimed to investigate the molecular mobility of crude oils using the linewidth of the free radical electron paramagnetic resonance signal (EPR) as a...     

Effect of layer sliding on the interfacial electronic properties of intercalated silicene/indium selenide van der Waals heterostructure

Methods capable of tuning the properties of van der Waals (vdW) layered materials in a controlled and reversible manner are highly desirable. Interfacial electronic properties of two-dimensional vdW heterostructure consisting of silicene and indium selenide (InSe) have been calculated using density functional theory-based computational code. Furthermore, in order to vary the aforementioned properties, silicene is slid over a InSe layer in the presence of Li intercalation. On intercalation of the heterostructure, the buckling parameter associated with the corrugation of silicene decreases from 0.44 Å to 0.36 Å, whereas the InSe structure remains unaffected. Potential energy scans reveal a significant increase in the sliding energy barrier for the case of intercalated heterostructure as compared with the unintercalated heterostructure. The sliding of the silicene encounters the maximum energy barrier of 0.14 eV. Anisotropic analysis shows the noteworthy differences between calculated in-plane and out-of-plane part of dielectric function. A variation of the planar average charge density difference, dipole charge transfer and dipole moment have been discussed to elucidate the usability spectrum of the heterostructure. The employed approach based on intercalation and layer sliding can be effectively utilized for obtaining next-generation multifunctional devices.     

Ionization Processes in a Carbon Aerosol Upon Exposure to Long Laser Pulses. I

Russian Physics Journal - The interaction mechanisms of low-energy long-duration (~1 ms) laser pulses with dispersed particles in air are considered. The basic equations describing the mechanisms...     

Theoretical investigation of the mechanism of primary amines reacting with hexamolybdate: an insight into the organoimido functionalization and related reactions of polyoxometalates

The functionalization of polyoxometalates (POMs), especially with an amino group to yield organonitrogenous derivatives of POMs, is an efficient approach to the enrichment of their structures and the diversification of their properties for various applications. The mechanism for the formation of organonitrogenous-derivatized hexamolybdates was explored by investigating the monofunctionalization of the [Mo(6)O(19)](2-) ion with methylamine using the density functional theory (DFT) method. The calculations show that the direct imidoylization of hexamolybdate with methylamine is both kinetically and thermodynamically unfavorable. However, this imidoylization was found to take place readily in the presence of dimethylcarbodiimide (DMC), for which the free-energy barrier was calculated to be +32.5 kcal mol(-1) in acetonitrile. Moreover, various factors controlling the efficiency of the imidoylization were examined. The calculations show that [W(5)MoO(19)](2-) has a relatively lower reactivity than [Mo(6)O(19)](2-), and that the imidoylization of [W(6)O(19)](2-) is an unfavorable process. With respect to the effect of carbodiimides, it is found that the catalytic activity is directly proportional to the electron-withdrawing effects of the substituents. As to the reactivity of R-NH(2) , the computation results indicate that the free-energy barriers of the substitution reactions are linearly correlated with the basicity constants (pK(b)) of the amino groups. It is noteworthy that the introduction of the proton dramatically decreases the free-energy barrier of the imidoylization of [Mo(6)O(19)](2-) catalyzed by DMC to 24.3 kcal mol(-1) in acetonitrile.