Positron annihilation spectroscopic studies on Nd-doped ceria

We report a new result on the characterization of Nd-doped ceria, Ce_1−xNd_xO_2−x/2 (x=0.075-0.675) using positron lifetime spectroscopy (LTS) and coincidence Doppler broadening (CDB) measurements. A systematic increase in lifetime that is attributed to formation of Nd-oxygen vacancy associates is seen from x=0.075-0.4 followed by a sharper increase up to x=0.5. The change in profile of lifetime around x=0.4 suggests drastic increase in the concentration of these associates. Discontinuity in lifetime around x=0.5 is ascribed to ordering of oxygen vacancies. Coincidence Doppler broadening measurements indicate reduction in the overlap of positron wavefunction with oxygen core electrons due to trapping of positrons. Low-temperature (50-300 K) lifetime measurements indicate the presence of Rydberg-like positron states associated with Nd³⁺ sites.     

A rhodamine-based chemosensor that works in the biological system

A new rhodamine-based reversible chemosensor (L1 ) is reported, which could bind Hg2+ and Cu2+ in aqueous methanol solution with detectable change in color. Cu2+ and Hg2+ ions responded differently toward the fluorescence output signals on binding to L1.L1 could also be used as a selective probe for monitoring Hg2+ adsorbed on bacteria using an optical microscope.     

Low and moderate dose gamma-irradiation and annealing impact on electronic and electrical properties of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors

To understand the effects of ⁶⁰Co gamma-irradiation, systematic studies were carried out on n-channel AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors. Electrical testing, combined with electron beam-induced current measurements, was able to provide critical information on defects induced in the material as a result of gamma-irradiation. It was shown that at low gamma-irradiation doses, the minority carrier diffusion length in AlGaN/GaN exhibits an increase up to ～300?Gy. The observed effect is due to longer minority carrier (hole) life time in the material's valence band as a result of an internal electron irradiation by Compton electrons. However, for larger doses of gamma irradiation (above 400?Gy), deteriorations in transport properties and device characteristics were observed. This is consistent with the higher density of deep traps in the material's forbidden gap induced by a larger dose of gamma-irradiation. Moderate annealing of device structures at 200°C for 25?min resulted in partial recovery of transport properties and device performance.     

Synthesis and structure of transition metal complexes derived from a novel polynucleating oxaza macrocycle having diazine and phenoxo bridging components

Novel Co^II, Ni^II, Cu^II and Zn^II complexes of the polynucleating oxaza macrocyclic ligand (LH₄) derived from the 2:2 condensation of pyrazole-3,5-dicarbohydrazide and 2,6-diformyl-4-methylphenol have been synthesized. Ligand and complexes were characterized on the basis of elemental analysis, IR, ¹HNMR, UV–Visible, magnetic susceptibility, ESR and conductivity measurements, FAB-mass and thermal analysis. Present Zn^II and Cu^II complexes are binuclear in nature with octahedral geometry, where as Co^II and Ni^II complexes are tetranuclear with square-planar geometry. Cu^II and Co^II complexes are paramagnetic whereas Zn^II and Ni^II complexes are diamagnetic. Only the copper complex has shown redox property in the applied potential range while the ligand and other complexes are found to be electrochemically innocent.     

Zn(II) based colorimetric sensor for ATP and its use as a viable staining agent in pure aqueous media of pH 7.2

Selective colorimetric detection of ATP in physiological conditions by a Zn(II)-based receptor is reported. This reagent was found to be non-toxic to the living cells and could be used for studying the growth of the yeast cells.     

A novel content-based active contour model for brain tumor segmentation

Brain tumor segmentation is a crucial step in surgical and treatment planning. Intensity-based active contour models such as gradient vector flow (GVF), magneto static active contour (MAC) and fluid vector flow (FVF) have been proposed to segment homogeneous objects/tumors in medical images. In this study, extensive experiments are done to analyze the performance of intensity-based techniques for homogeneous tumors on brain magnetic resonance (MR) images. The analysis shows that the state-of-art methods fail to segment homogeneous tumors against similar background or when these tumors show partial diversity toward the background. They also have preconvergence problem in case of false edges/saddle points. However, the presence of weak edges and diffused edges (due to edema around the tumor) leads to oversegmentation by intensity-based techniques. Therefore, the proposed method content-based active contour (CBAC) uses both intensity and texture information present within the active contour to overcome above-stated problems capturing large range in an image. It also proposes a novel use of Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix to define texture space for tumor segmentation. The effectiveness of this method is tested on two different real data sets (55 patients - more than 600 images) containing five different types of homogeneous, heterogeneous, diffused tumors and synthetic images (non-MR benchmark images). Remarkable results are obtained in segmenting homogeneous tumors of uniform intensity, complex content heterogeneous, diffused tumors on MR images (T1-weighted, postcontrast T1-weighted and T2-weighted) and synthetic images (non-MR benchmark images of varying intensity, texture, noise content and false edges). Further, tumor volume is efficiently extracted from 2-dimensional slices and is named as 2.5-dimensional segmentation.     

Balancing framework densification with charged, halogen-bonded-pi-conjugated linkages: [PPh4]2{[E-TTF-I2][Re6Se8(CN)6]} versus [PPh4]2[EDT-TTF-I]2{[EDT-TTF-I][Re6Se8(CN)6]}

The ionic character of a set of two redox linkages and strong, directional halogen bonding at the organic-inorganic interface compromise to produce two materials sharing a common two-dimensional net, eventually extended in a third dimension, although two of the six symmetrical halogen bond acceptors ultimately remain uninvolved as a result of charge densification.     

Electrical properties and diffusion behavior of hafnium in single crystal silicon

Electrical properties and diffusivity of Hf in single crystal Si have been studied. Several deep level defects were found for Hf in both the upper and lower half of the silicon band gap, and their parameters were measured. Energy levels, concentrations, and capture cross sections were determined for all Hf defects. The DLTS spectra depend on the cooling rate. Analysis of electrical properties yielded a dominant deep level defect at E_C -0.27 eV, which showed field enhanced emission due to Poole–Frenkel effect, confirming its donor nature. This agreed with results obtained using CV and TSCAP. In the lower half of the bandgap, a defect level at E_V +0.24 eV was found to have a capture barrier of 0.04 eV. Diffusivity of Hf was studied using two methods for Hf incorporation in Si – ion implantation and sputtering. Analysis of broadening of the Hf profile in implanted samples, which were annealed for 168 h, allowed us to estimate the diffusivity of Hf as 1.7×10^-15 cm²/s at 1250 °C: the spreading of implanted profiles at lower temperatures was too small. Analysis of Hf depth profiles in the sputtered and annealed samples reveals that Hf appears to have a fast and slow component to its diffusivity whose migration energy was determined to be 3.5±0.3 eV and 4.1±0.3 eV respectively. The fast and slow component are ascribed to interstitial and substitutional Hf with an energy level of E_C -0.27 eV and E_V +0.43 eV respectively. The mechanism for the fast component seems to indicate a direct interstitial diffusion mechanism whereas the diffusion of the substitutional Hf seems most consistent with the concerted exchange diffusion mechanism. In addition, estimates of solubility for both, interstitial and substitutional Hf, are included. PACS 61.72.Tt; 66.30.Jt; 71.55.Cn     

Shape control of piezolaminated thin-walled structures using nonlinear piezoelectric actuators

In the present paper a 2D-shell finite element model is proposed to carry out static analysis of piezolaminated composite shells by incorporating nonlinear constitutive relations in order to describe the electromechanical coupling under strong electric fields. The present shell element has 5 mechanical DOFs and 3 electrical DOFs per node. The developed composite piezolaminated shell element is employed to study the static behavior and shaping of spherical antenna reflector laminated with piezo-patches under both weak and strong electric fields. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)