Facile non‐lithographic route to highly aligned silica nanopatterns using unidirectionally aligned polystyrene‐block‐polydimethylsiloxane films

Thin films (monolayer and bilayer) of cylinder forming polystyrene‐block‐polydimethylsiloxane (PS‐b‐PDMS) were shear aligned by the swelling and deswelling of a crosslinked PDMS pad that was physically adhered to the film during solvent vapor annealing. The nanostructures formed by self‐assembly were exposed to ultraviolet‐ozone to partially oxidize the PDMS, followed by calcination in air at 500 °C. In this process, the PS segments were fully decomposed, while the PDMS yielded silica nanostructures. The highly aligned PDMS cylinders were thus deposited as silica nanolines on the silicon substrate. Using a bilayer film, the center‐to‐center distance of these features were effectively halved from 38 to 19 nm. Similarly, by sequential shear‐alignment of two distinct layers, a rhombic array of silica nanolines was fabricated. This methodology provides a facile route to fabricating complex topographically patterned nanostructures. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 1058–1064     

Hydroxylation-induced modifications of the Al2O3/NiAl(0 0 1) surface at low water vapour pressure

STM, STS, LEED and XPS data for crystalline θ-Al₂O₃ and non-crystalline Al₂O₃ ultra-thin films grown on NiAl(0 0 1) at 1025 K and exposed to water vapour at low pressure (1 × 10⁻⁷-1 × 10⁻⁵ mbar) and room temperature are reported. Water dissociation is observed at low pressure. This reactivity is assigned to the presence of a high density of coordinatively unsaturated cationic sites at the surface of the oxide film. The hydroxyl/hydroxide groups cannot be directly identify by their XPS binding energy, which is interpreted as resulting from the high BE positions of the oxide anions (O_1s signal at 532.5-532.8 eV). However the XPS intensities give evidence of an uptake of oxygen accompanied by an increase of the surface coverage by Al³⁺ cations, and a decrease of the concentration in metallic Al at the alloy interface. A value of ∼2 for the oxygen to aluminium ions surface concentration ratio indicates the formation of an oxy-hydroxide (AlO_xOH_y with x + y ∼ 2) hydroxylation product. STM and LEED show the amorphisation and roughening of the oxide film. At P(H₂O) = 1 × 10⁻⁷ mbar, only the surface of the oxide film is modified, with formation of nodules of ∼2 nm lateral size covering homogeneously the surface. STS shows that essentially the valence band is modified with an increase of the density of states at the band edge. With increasing pressure, hydroxylation is amplified, leading to an increased coverage of the alloy by oxy-hydroxide products and to the formation of larger nodules (∼7 nm) of amorphous oxy-hydroxide. Roughening and loss of the nanostructure indicate a propagation of the reaction that modifies the bulk structure of the oxide film. Amorphisation can be reverted to crystallization by annealing under UHV at 1025 K when the surface of the oxide film has been modified, but not when the bulk structure has been modified.     

Dynamic response of permalloy/Cu/Co magnetoresistive sandwiches

The dynamic response of trilayer magnetoresistive permalloy/Cu/Co films was studied by high-frequency permeability spectra measurements. The resonance frequency is shown to depend on the interlayer copper thickness. This dependence is related to exchange coupling between permalloy and cobalt and the interaction field is estimated using the Landau–Lifschitz–Gilbert model.     

Unified theory of bound and scattering molecular Rydberg states as quantum maps

Using a representation of multichannel quantum defect theory in terms of a quantum Poincaré map for bound Rydberg molecules, we apply Jung's scattering map to derive a generalized quantum map, that includes the continuum. We show that this representation not only simplifies the understanding of the method, but moreover produces considerable numerical advantages. Finally we show under what circumstances the usual semi-classical approximations yield satisfactory results. In particular we see that singularities that cause problems in semi-classics are irrelevant to the quantum map.     

Analytic continuation and identities involving heat,Poisson, wave and Bessel kernels

In this article we use classical formulas involving the K–Bessel function in two variables to express the Poisson kernel on a Riemannian manifold in terms of the heat kernel. We then use the small time asymptotics of the heat kernel on certain Riemannian manifolds to obtain a meromorphic continuation of the associated Poisson kernel to all values of complex time with identifiable singularities. This result reproves in a different setting by different means a well–known theorem due to Duistermaat and Guillemin [DG 75]. Also, we develop analytic expressions for the heat kernel beyond asymptotic expansions. (© 2003 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Some aerodynamic and acoustic characteristicsof acute laryngitis

The purpose of the present study was to describe the effects ofacute laryngitis on some aerodynamic, acoustic, and perceptual measures. Eleven subjects with diagnosed acute laryngitis due to upper respiratory infection were recorded during a laryngitic episode and 1 week to 10 days after amelioration of the laryngitic condition. Fundamental frequency values, collapsed across the five vowels, were significantly reduced in the laryngitic compared with the normal speaking condition. The decrease in fundamental frequency associated with acute laryngitis suggests an increase in the mass of the vocal folds. In addition, aerodynamic values differed significantly for the laryngitic condition compared with the normal speaking condition, suggesting the presence of laryngeal hypofunction. Perceptual data indicated that speakers in the laryngitic condition were judged to have a hoarse voice when compared with the normal speaking condition.