National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

We report new photoluminescence (PL) data generated by pulsed optical excitation on the composites achieved by a mechanico-chemical reaction between ZnS in the cubic (c) and wurtzite (w) phases and polyaniline-emeraldine base (PANI-EB). Under continuous and pulsed optical excitation, powders of the (w)ZnS and (w)ZnS/PANI-EB composites display PL with different spectral compositions. Contrary to expectations, the (c)ZnS and the (c)ZnS/PANI-EB composite displayed weak PL and decay time in the range of nanoseconds. This results from the great involvement of the surface states in nanometric powders which creates efficient channels for the non-radiative recombination of the carriers. (C) 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

The synthesis of IrQ(ppy)(2)-5Cl has the advantage of a dual phosphorescence (green and red) which comes from the two ligands, phenylpyridine and quinoline. Their spectroscopic properties evidences the absorption range between 350 nm to 700 nm which is composed from the singlet and triplet states, as a result of hybridizations between Ir and the two ligands, the first one being at 625 nm. The first low energy state comes from the quinoline ligand and is responsible for the red phosphorescence at 660 nm, as results from the Density Functional Theory (DFT) analysis. The hybridization between Ir 5d orbitals and pi ligand orbitals shows strong metallic character with phenylpyridine orbitals (66% and 43%) and weak metallic character with quinoline ligand (16.8%). This fact suggests weak phosphorescence intensity in the emission spectra. Population analysis of each metallic orbital shows a small charge delocalization on the quinoline ligand for the first molecular orbital and a strong delocalization on the phenylpyridine ligands. Solvation effects induce a tuning process for the phosphorescence by changing of the matrix of the organometallic compounds which can be adjusted by the strength of intermolecular dipole-dipole interactions, using a doped guest-host molecular organic thin film system.

Barium titanate-substituted bismuth titanate ((Bi0.5Na0.5)(0.92)Ba0.08TiO3, BNT-BT0.08) nanotubes were fabricated using sol-gel chemistry, spin casting, and a porous polycarbonate membrane template. The structure and morphology of the tubes have been investigated by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The diameter and length of these tubes were about 650 nm and 20 mu m, respectively, and their wall thickness was about 50 nm. The tubes were polycrystalline with average grain size of similar to 40 nm. The BNT-BT0.08 nanotubes exhibited ferroelectric behavior as evidenced by saturated piezoresponse hysteresis loops and phase switching. BNT-BT0.08 piezoelectric nanotubes promise novel device architectures and enhanced electric properties.

The results of the studies of thin layer structures based on chalcogenide glassy semiconductors (CGS) of As-Se-S system fabrication are presented in the given paper. The possibility of of As-Se-S system thin films obtaining with the given electro-physical parameters, was shown.

[(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3](0.92)-[BaTiO3](0.08) lead free piezoelectric materials were prepared by the pyrosol method. The as-obtained powder shows spherical grains of various sizes, composed of crystallites of about 10 nm. NBT-BT0.08 ceramic obtained at 700 degrees C show rhombohedral NBT as the main phase and traces of hexagonal Bi2O3 as secondary phase. The ceramics prepared from this powder and sintered at 1000 and 1100 degrees C are single phase with good dielectric and ferroelectric properties. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.

The leakage current in all oxide epitaxial (La,Sr)MnO3-ferroelectric-(La,Sr)MnO3 structures, where the ferroelectric layer is either BaTiO3 or Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O-3, was analyzed on a broad range of temperatures and for different thicknesses of the ferroelectric layer. It was found that, although the structures are nominally symmetric, the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics are asymmetric. The leakage current depends strongly on the thicknesses of the ferroelectric layer, on temperature and on the polarity of the applied voltage. Simple conduction mechanisms such as space charge limited currents or thermionic emission cannot explain in the same time the voltage, temperature, and thickness dependence of the experimentally measured leakage currents. A combination between interface limited charge injection and bulk controlled drift-diffusion (through hopping in the case of BTO and through band mobility in the case of PZT) is qualitatively explaining the experimental I-V characteristics. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.

Metal-ferroelectric-metal structures based on epitaxial Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O-3 thin films are prepared by pulsed laser deposition on single crystal SrTiO3 substrates ((001) orientation) with buffer SrRuO3 layer as bottom electrode. Pt, Cu, and SrRuO3 are used as top contacts. The current-voltage (I-V) measurements reveal a strong influence of the top electrode interface on the magnitude of the leakage current and the shape of the I-V characteristics. The lowest current values are obtained for top Cu and the highest for top Pt. Diode-like behavior is obtained for top Cu and Pt, but the forward and reverse biases are opposite in sign. Contrary to the case of BiFeO3 layers deposited on the same type of substrates, it was found that the diode-like behavior is not switchable with the polarization reversal although the polarization values are comparable. It is also shown that the metal-ferroelectric-metal (MFM) structure based on Pb(Zr,Ti)O-3 (PZT) can be simulated and modeled as a back-to-back connection of two Schottky diodes. The diode-like behavior of the MFM structure can be induced by a slight asymmetry of the potential barriers at the electrode interfaces behaving as Schottky contacts. The study ends with a critical discussion of the MFM structures based on PZT and BiFeO3 (BFO) layers. It is shown that the switchable diode-like behavior is not uniquely determined by the polarization reversal and is not a general characteristic for MFM structures. Such behavior may be present only if the polarization induced band-bending at the interface is generating an accumulation layer at the interface. This could be possible in BiFeO3 based MFM structures due to the lower band gap compared to Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O-3 thin films. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.