Publications

The growth and thermal stability of textured iridium thin films used as bottom electrode in electronic devices based on ferroelectric materials were investigated. The thin films were grown using the dc magnetron sputtering technique. The Ir layers directly deposited on SiO2/Si substrates present a mixed (111) and (200) orientations, while the films grown on Ti seed layers exhibit a strong preferred (111) orientation favoured by good matching with the titanium lattice. The substrate temperature during the growth of iridium/titanium stack has a significant effect on the surface morphology of the iridium layer and its thermal stability. The as-grown surface of 20-nm-thick Ir films is smooth, having a root-mean-square (rms) roughness of 0.7 nm. After thermal annealing the Ir film shows an increased surface roughness due to the formation of agglomerations. The change in the surface morphology of the Ir layer is due to titanium diffusion and its oxidation. Thicker and better crystallised iridium thin films annealed in oxygen atmosphere at 700 A degrees C show a good thermal stability with only a slight modification of the surface morphology. Within the limits of experimental error, there is no change in the electrical resistivity before and after thermal annealing. The rms roughness has not varied significantly and the XPS investigation shows no traces of titanium oxide on iridium surface. Ir/Ti stack deposited under the optimum conditions could be successfully used as electrode in devices based on oxide thin films.

The inhibitory and antimicrobial effects of silver particles have been known since ancient times. In the last few years, a major health problem has arisen due to pathogenic bacteria resistance to antimicrobial agents. The antibacterial activities of new materials including hydroxyapatite (HAp), silver-doped hydroxyapatite (Ag:HAp) and various types of antibiotics such as tetracycline (T-HAp and T-Ag:HAp) or ciprofloxacin (C-HAp and C-Ag:HAp) have not been studied so far. In this study we reported, for the first time, the preparation and characterization of various thin films based on hydroxyapatite and silver-doped hydroxyapatite combined with tetracycline or ciprofloxacin. The structural and chemical characterization of hydroxyapatite and silver-doped hydroxyapatite thin films has been evaluated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The morphological studies of the HAp, Ag: HAp, T-HAp, T-Ag: HAp, C-HAp and C-Ag: HAp thin solid films were performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In order to study the chemical composition of the coatings, energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GDOES) measurements have been used, obtaining information on the distribution of the elements throughout the film. These studies have confirmed the purity of the prepared hydroxyapatite and silver-doped hydroxyapatite thin films obtained from composite targets containing Ca10-xAgx(PO4)(6)(OH)(2) with x(Ag) = 0 (HAp) and x(Ag) = 0.2 (Ag: HAp). On the other hand, the major aim of this study was the evaluation of the antibacterial activities of ciprofloxacin and tetracycline in the presence of HAp and Ag: HAp thin layers against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli strains. The antibacterial activities of ciprofloxacin and tetracycline against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli test strains increased in the presence of HAp and Ag: HAp thin layers.

Density dependent growth and optical properties of periodic arrays of GaAs nanowires (NWs) by fast selective area growth MOVPE are investigated. As the period of the arrays is decreased from 500 nm down to 100 nm, a volume growth enhancement by a factor of up to four compared with the growth of a planar layer is observed. This increase is explained as resulting from increased collection of precursors on the side walls of the nanowires due to the gas flow redistribution in the space between the NWs. Normal spectral reflectance of the arrays is strongly reduced compared with a flat substrate surface in all fabricated arrays. Electromagnetic modeling reveals that this reduction is caused by antireflective action of the nanowire arrays and nanowire-diameter dependent light absorption. Irrespective of the periodicity and diameter, Raman scattering and grazing angle X-ray diffraction show signal from zinc blende and wurtzite phases, the latter-originating from stacking faults, as observed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy. Raman spectra contain intense surface phonons peaks, whose intensity depends strongly on the nanowire diameters as a result of potential structural changes and as well as variations of optical field distribution in the nanowires.

This study presents a novel method for the oxidative polymerization of aniline (ANI) by employing fullerene C-60/cadmium selenide (CdSe) quantum dots, as promoting agent of the polymerization system. The polymerization initiation mechanism is based on the difference between the HOMO-LUMO energy levels of the components which permits the formation of a continuous donor-acceptor exchange. Both the polymerization reaction evolution and the molecular weights of the obtained polymers have been characterized. The novelty of the paper consists in the synthesis of a novel nanocomposite material through a novel polymerization technique. The resulting material containing PANI, CdSe quantum dots and C-60 has been characterized by UV-Vis, NIR, fluorescence, TEM and GPC analyses.

By combining the electrospinning method advantages (high surface-to-volume ratio, controlled morphology, varied composition and flexibility for the resulting structures) with the electrical activity of polyaniline, a new core-shell-type material with potential applications in the field of artificial muscles was synthesized. Thus, a poly(methylmethacrylate) solution was electrospun in optimized conditions to obtain randomly oriented polymer fiber webs. Further, a gold layer was sputtered on their surface in order to make them conductive and improve the mechanical properties. The metalized fiber webs were then covered with a PANI layer by in situ electrochemical polymerization starting from aniline and using sulphuric acid as oxidizing agent. By applying a small voltage on PANI-coated fiber webs in the presence of an electrolyte, the oxidation state of PANI changes, which is followed by the device color modification. The morphological, electrical and biological properties of the resulting multilayered material were also investigated. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The degradation of thin-film transistors (TFTs) caused by the self-heating effect constitutes a problem to be solved for the next generation of displays. Aluminum nitride (AlN) is a viable alternative for gate dielectric of TFTs due to its good thermal conductivity, matching coefficient of thermal expansion to indium-gallium-zinc-oxide, and excellent stability at high temperatures. Here, AlN thin films of different thicknesses were fabricated by a low temperature reactive radio-frequency magnetron sputtering process, using a low cost, metallic Al target. Their electrical properties have been thoroughly assessed. Furthermore, the 200 nm and 500 nm thick AlN layers have been integrated as gate-dielectric in transparent TFTs with indium-gallium-zinc-oxide as channel semiconductor. Our study emphasizes the potential of AlN thin films for transparent electronics, whilst the functionality of the fabricated field-effect transistors is explored and discussed. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The adsorption of L-cysteine from ethanol solutions on GaAs(1 0 0) surfaces has been studied by XPS and density-functional theory (DFT). XPS data reveal that the formation of the adsorbate involves preferentially the As-sites for p-GaAs(1 0 0) and the Ga-sites for n-GaAs(1 0 0). The adsorbed species show different orientations of the functional groups to the surface for the different substrates. DFT calculations performed for both Ga-dimers and As-dimers terminated surfaces show that the adsorption is energetically favourable on both substrates. However, the adsorption energy is more negative on top of Ga-atoms. Here an important contribution for the stabilization of the adsorbate is the interaction of the functional groups with the surface. The parallel orientation found for the Ga-bound species by DFT calculations is in good agreement with the shift in the binding energy of the NH2/NH3+ species observed by XPS analysis.

Spectroscopic properties and self-frequency-doubling laser performance are presented for Yb:YCa4O(BO3)(3) (Yb:YCOB) crystals oriented for type I second-harmonic generation in the ZX plane. In a plane-concave cavity 10 cm long, up to 330 mW of green light (544.5 nm) is obtained for 14.7 W of laser diode incident pump power. Broad emission bands and weak anisotropy in the 1060-1100 nm range between the two eigenstates of polarization may explain the instability of the self-frequency-doubled output power. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America

In this study, we followed the biodegradation of ultra-small superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles injected intravenously at clinical doses in mice. An advanced fitting procedure for magnetic susceptibility curves and low-temperature hysteresis loops was used to fully characterize the magnetic size distribution as well as the magnetic anisotropy energy of the injected P904 nanoparticles (Guerbet Laboratory). Additional magnetometry measurements and transmission electronic microscopy observations were systematically performed to examine dehydrated samples from the spleen and liver of healthy C57B16 mice after nanoparticle injection, with sacrifice of the mice for up to 14 months. At 3 months after injection, the magnetic properties of the spleen and liver were dramatically different. While the liver showed no magnetic signals other than those also present in the reference species, the spleen showed an increased magnetic signal attributed to ferritin. This surplus of ferritin remained constant up to 14 months after injection.