High pressure X-ray diffraction experiments on NpS and PUS up to 60 GPa

Abstract

Neptunium and plutonium monosulfides were studied under high pressure up to ～60 GPa using a diamond anvil cell in an energy dispersive X-ray diffraction facility. The compounds, of cubic rock salt structure type at ambient pressure, do not show any crystallographic phase transition in the domain of investigation. From the pressure-volume relationship, we determined bulk moduli of 92 and 120 GPa with pressure derivatives of 4.6 and 4.1 for NpS and PUS respectively.     

Effect of pit formation and surface roughness on size-dependent thermal conductivity of nanometer-thick semiconducting films

In this work, the thermal conductivity variation due to pit formation and surface roughness in nanometer-thick semiconducting films has been studied. It is shown that the thermal conductivity of thin films is reduced due to the presence of these effects in the films. This reduction in thermal conductivity is dependent on film thickness. The present analysis has been done on GaAs nanometer-thick films using the available experimental data.     

Effects of γ rays irradiation on structure and property of TiO2 thin films

TiO₂ thin films were deposited on a glass substrate by the radio frequency magnetron sputtering method, and annealed for 2 h at temperatures of 550°C. Then, ⁶⁰Co γ rays with different doses were used to irradiate the resulting TiO₂ thin films. The surface features of films before and after irradiation were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Simultaneously, the crystal structure and optical properties of films before and after irradiation were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–VIS transmission spectrum and Photoluminescence (PL) spectrum, respectively. The SEM analysis shows that the film is smooth with tiny particles on the film surface, and non-crystallization trend was clear after irradiated with γ rays. The XRD results indicated that the structure of the film at the room temperature mainly exists in the form of amorphous and mixed crystal at a sputtering power of 200 W, and non-crystallinity was more obvious after irradiation. Obvious difference can be found for the transmissibility of the irradiated and pre irradiation TiO₂ films by the UV-VIS spectra. The color becomes light yellow, and the new absorption edge also appeared at about 430 nm. PL spectra and photocatalysis experiments indicate that the photocatalysis degradation rate of the TiO₂ films on methylthionine chloride solution irradiated with the maximum dose can be increased to 90%.     

Fracture of diamond coatings by high velocity sand erosion

This paper describes a study of the behaviour of diamond coatings when subjected to solid particle erosion from sand particles. The coatings were deposited by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) onto tungsten substrates and tested using a high velocity air–sand erosion test facility. The erosion tests were conducted using particle impact velocities of between 33 and 268 m/s. Examination of the eroded test specimens showed that the principal damage features were circumferential cracks and pin-holes. Comparison with Hertz impact theory revealed that the measured circumferential crack diameters were more than double the predicted Hertzian contact diameter. Moreover, a trend of increasing circumferential crack diameter with coating thickness, which is not predicted by Hertz, was found. Instead, the crack diameters showed good agreement with those predicted by the theory of stress wave reinforcement, which is more commonly associated with liquid impact damage of brittle materials. During impact, the bulk compression and shear waves are reflected at the rear surface of debonded regions of the coating to return to the front surface and reinforce the Rayleigh surface wave, which generates a tensile stress. Where this stress exceeds the local tensile strength of the coating, a ring of cracks surrounding the area of impact is created. The results from the present study therefore suggest that stress wave reflection is responsible for the formation of the cracks at locally debonded regions of the coating. This hypothesis was supported by images acquired using scanning acoustic microscopy, which showed that circumferential cracks and pin-holes were only found on areas of the coating that had become delaminated by multiple particle impacts during the erosion tests.     

Analysis of polished polycrystalline diamond using dual beam focused ion beam microscopy

This paper presents a study on polycrystalline diamond (PCD) polished by dynamic friction polishing (DFP) with the aid of advanced dual beam FIB (focused ion beam) microscopy. After disclosing a variety of wear tracks by DFP using electron imaging in combination with the ion channelling effect, a dual beam FIB was successfully employed at wear track sites to specifically create both the large cross-sectional specimen for microanalysis and thin foil for nanoanalysis. The study concluded that the polished PCD subsurface was free from microscale cracking. However, the attached debris layer on the top surface contained metal oxides and non-diamond carbon phase with inhomogeneous distributions of C, Fe, Cr, Ni, Si and O across the layer. An attached layer directly above a diamond grain was composed of essentially amorphous carbon, suggesting that a direct phase transformation from diamond crystalline to amorphous occurred during DFP.     

Square wells,quantum wells and ultra-thin metallic films

Abstract

The eigenvalue equations for the energy of bound states of a particle in a square well are solved, and the exact solutions are obtained, as power series. Accurate analytical approximate solutions are also given. The application of these results in the physics of quantum wells are discussed, especially for ultra-thin metallic films, but also in the case of resonant cavities, heterojunction lasers, revivals and super-revivals.     

In-situ and ex-situ study of crystallization behaviour of magnetron sputtered Ni63Zr37 amorphous thin film

ABSTRACT

The stages of crystallization of magnetron sputter-deposited Ni₆₃Zr₃₇ film with mostly amorphous structure have been investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and in-situ annealing at 300°C by use of heating stage on a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). These results have been further confirmed by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction analyses of thin film specimens annealed ex-situ at 300°C for various durations. The temperature for crystallization found by DSC has been found to increase from 371°C to 434°C with an increase in heating rate from 3°C/min to 10°C/min, and the apparent activation energy for amorphous to crystalline transformation has been found as ～260.2?kJ/mol from the Kissinger plot. Studies on HRTEM using in-situ heating stage have shown the crystallization to occur on annealing at 300°C for ～10?min. Crystallization at a temperature lower than that found by DSC is attributed to structural relaxation with reduction of free volume due to thermal activation. It has been observed that Ni₃Zr forms first due to its large negative enthalpy of formation, and is followed by the formation of Ni-rich solid solution (Ni_ss) grains. HRTEM studies have shown grain rotation with the formation of partial dislocations at Ni₃Zr-Ni_ss interfaces as well as twinning followed by detwinning with dislocation formation in the Ni_ss matrix possibly to reduce the interfacial energy.     

Air-exposure effect on the resistivity of thin bismuth films

A survey of previous studies on vacuum deposited metal films shows that in high frequency measurements, explicit reference to the effect of air-exposure is not made. The present work on bismuth films (in-situ and air-exposed) at dc and rf frequencies, carried out mainly to study the air-exposure effect, shows that in-situ dc and rf and exposed rf all show nearly the same resistivity for thick continuous films. But air-exposed dc film resistances, when compared to in-situ dc resistances, show that the grain boundary reflection coefficient, R _gin Mayadas-Shatzkes model changes from 0·2 to 0·6. This is shown to be due to the grain boundary oxidation. The result is substantiated by rf measurements.     

金刚石膜厚度尺寸对热残余应力的影响

 采用有限元方法对钼基体上不同厚度（20~1 000 μm）金刚石膜的热残余应力进行了全面的模拟与分析,得出了它们在膜内分布的等值线图,研究了金刚石膜厚度尺寸对整个膜内的最大主拉应力和界面处每个应力分量最大值的影响。结果表明：在整个膜内,最大主拉应力的位置出现在膜的表面、界面或侧面,其值随膜厚度的增加而增大;在界面处,最大轴向应力随膜厚度的增加而增大,而最大径向压应力、最大周向压应力和最大剪应力则随膜厚度的增加而减小,其中最大剪应力减幅较小;膜厚度越大时,以上各量随厚度增（减）的速度越慢。其结论对于在金刚石膜的制备中合理地选择厚度、有效地进行应力控制有一定的参考价值。     

Ba(Zr0.3Ti0.7)O3 铁电薄膜的制备

介绍了用溶胶-凝胶法(sol-gel)在Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si衬底和石英衬底上制备Ba(Zr0.3Ti0.7)O3铁电薄膜的基本原理、工艺过程及工艺特点;Sol-gel制备的Ba(Zr0.3Ti0.7)O3铁电薄膜表面平整、厚度均匀.