Publications

Electrochemical deposition from a solution containing zinc and samarium ions, leads to a samarium oxide/zinc oxide sandwich-like structure with an intense, visible, broad luminescence peak centered at 550 nm. The successive deposition of the two materials is related to the bath composition and overpotential, taking place for values higher than a certain threshold. The zinc oxide film, first one to be deposited, presents typical hexagonal prism morphology while samaria coating films present a porous, nanowall like structure. The photoluminescence emission is at least 10 times more intense than in the case of typical electrodeposited ZnO films of similar thickness and does not appear in Sm2O3 films electrodeposited from solutions containing only Sm ions. Samples prepared in different conditions were characterized from the point of view of composition, structure, morphology and optical properties. The characteristics of the emission spectra of the films make them interesting for solid state lightning applications. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Arrays of microlenses have been created on the surface of thin amorphous films of As2S3 by localized photoexpansion induced by femtosecond laser pulses. The profile of a typical microlens has been mathematically described. Ray-tracing analysis has been performed to determine the focal points in the red and near-infrared spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. These lie at distances of 1.21m at =650nm and 1.33m at =1.5m above the top of the microlens. It is suggested that the microlenses could be used in two-dimensional optoelectronic circuits or in fibre optics.

The aim of this study was to obtain a novel hydroxyapatite-based material with high biocompatibility. The structural properties of the samples were well characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The X-ray diffraction studies revealed the characteristic peaks of hydroxyapatite in each sample. Other phases or impurities were not observed. The scanning electron microscopy observations suggest that the doping components have no influence on the surface morphology of the samples, which reveals a homogeneous aspect of the synthesized particles for all samples. The presence of calcium (Ca), phosphor (P), oxygen (O) and silver (Ag) in the Ag:HAp is confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray (EDAX) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy analyses. Nanocrystalline silver doped HAp stimulated viability and potentiated the activation of murine macrophages. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In this work, ZnO films, nanorod and nanorod/shell arrays were synthesized on the surface of PET-ITO electrodes by electrochemical methods. ZnO films with high optical transmittance were prepared from a zinc nitrate solution using a pulsed current technique with a reduced pulse time (3 s). The X-ray diffraction pattern of ZnO film deposited on PET-ITO electrode showed that it has a polycrystalline structure with preferred orientations in the directions [0 0 2] and [1 03]. ZnO nanorods were synthesized on electrochemical seeded substrate in an aqueous solution containing zinc nitrate and hexamethylenetetramine. In order to increase the stability of PET-ITO electrode to electrochemical and chemical stresses during ZnO nanorods deposition the surface of the electrode was treated with a 17 wt% NH4F aqueous solution. Electrochemical stability of PET-ITO electrode was evaluated in a solution containing nitrate ions and hexamethylenetetramine. ZnO nanorod/shell arrays were fabricated using eosin Y as nanostructuring agent. Photoluminescence spectra of ZnO nanorod and ZnO nanorod/shell arrays prepared on the surface of PET-ITO electrode were discussed comparatively. By employing the 1.5 mu m-length ZnO nanorod/shell array covered with a Cu2O film a photovoltaic device was fabricated on the PET-ITO substrate. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A new phenomenological approach describing the dependence of the strain diffraction line breadth on direction in both crystal and sample is presented. For a negligibly small dependence on the direction in the sample, these models reduce to those for anisotropic strain broadening that already exist in the literature and which are implemented in popular Rietveld codes. The new model is appropriate for implementation in the Rietveld programs able to process simultaneously diffraction patterns recorded in multiple directions in a sample.

The aim of this study is the preparation and characterization of dense cubic zirconia ceramics and zirconia nanocomposites (reinforced with 5 wt% alumina). The powders were obtained through sol-gel methods and densified using classical sintering and spark plasma sintering (SPS) methods. The obtained ceramics were characterized through X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and impedance spectroscopy at room and high temperature. The average grain size of cubic zirconia particles was found to be approximately 8 and 2.5 mu m for the classical sintering and 99 nm for SPS. The alumina particles in composites have an average grain size of 0.7 mu m for classical sintering and 53 nm for SPS ones. The total conductivity for nanocomposites sintered through both methods was also determined. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.

We investigated the temperature (T) variation of the normalized magnetization relaxation rate S and of the corresponding normalized vortex-creep activation energy U* = T/S for YBa2Cu3O7 films containing BaZrO3 nanorods, with the external magnetic field H oriented perpendicular to the film surface. It was found that by increasing the film thickness and using nanodot decorated substrates the high-T S(T) maximum appearing at low H is substituted by a minimum in S(T). As revealed by the analysis of the current density dependence of U*, this behaviour is due to the inhibition of vortex excitations involving double vortex-kinks and superkinks formation in the investigated thick films, owing to the large nanorod splay and pinning energy dispersion.

The electronic and magnetic properties of Ti2CoSi Heusler compound are investigated using density functional calculations. The optimized lattice constant is found to be 6.030 angstrom. The compound is a half-metallic ferromagnet with an energy gap in minority spin channel of 0.652 eV at equilibrium lattice constant, which leads to a 100% spin-polarization. The obtained total magnetic moment from spin-polarized calculations is 3.0 mu(B)for values of lattice constants higher than 5.941 angstrom. The half-metallicity is spoiled for a compressed volume of 4%, suggesting a possible application as pressure sensitive material. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

Laser induced ablation of solids situated in liquids (LAL) was used in order to produce nanoparticles. Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) surface analysis correlated with the process of nanoparticle production by LAL was applied to explain the composition of the obtained nanoparticles as determined by Electron Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS). In the case of aluminum rods placed in distilled water irradiated with pulsed laser radiation (355 nm wavelength, 6 ns pulse length) we have obtained spheric nanoparticles with dimensions lower than 100 nm. Quantitative EDS analyses on the obtained spheres showed the presence of, Al, O, and Si. This indicates that probably the composition of the nanoparticles is an aluminum silicate. LIBS analysis on the aluminum target have shown the presence of a Si line with low intensity indicating a small quantity of silicon in the first ablated layers. The LIBS spectra for a sequence of pulses evidenced also that the intensity of the aluminum lines after a number of pulses decreases. This means that the quantity of ablated material becomes smaller due to the ablation depth decrease.

The possibility to do surface measurements on sample containing Eu-151 by detection of Auger electrons delivered in the decay process of the Mossbauer nucleus is briefly presented herein. The test measurements have been carried out on Eu2O3 powder sample. A higher resonance effect and a lower line width have been obtained in backscattering geometry compared with transmission geometry.