National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

The laser pyrolysis is a powerful and a versatile tool for the gas-phase synthesis of nanoparticles. In this paper, some fundamental and applicative characteristics of this technique are outlined and recent results obtained in the preparation of gamma iron oxide (gamma-Fe2O3) and titania (TiO2) semiconductor nanostructures are illustrated. Nanosized iron oxide particles (4 to 9 nm diameter values) have been directly synthesized by the laser-induced pyrolysis of a mixture containing iron pentacarbonyl/air (as oxidizer)/ethylene (as sensitizer). Temperature-dependent Mossbauer spectroscopy shows that mainly maghemite is present in the sample obtained at higher laser power. The use of selected Fe2O3 samples for the preparation of water-dispersed magnetic nanofluids is also discussed. TiO2 nanoparticles comprising a mixture of anatase and rutile phases were synthesized via the laser pyrolysis of TiCl4- (vapors) based gas-phase mixtures. High precursor concentration of the oxidizer was found to favor the prevalent anatase phase (about 90%) in the titania nanopowders. Copyright (C) 2008 R. Alexandrescu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Co-MgO granular films presenting TMR effects were prepared by thermo-ionic vacuum arc (TVA) method with the simultaneous ignition of plasma in Co and MgO vapors, respectively. The processing method is suitable for the simultaneous preparation of films of different relative content of Co in the MgO insulating matrix. Morphologic, structural and magnetic behaviors were analyzed in as prepared and annealed samples. The influence of the Co content on the magnetic properties of the prepared films was analyzed, in correlation with tunneling magneto-resistance effects. The tunneling magneto-resistance effect is maximal for certain Co content. This behavior was interpreted by the contrary effects of decreasing the average size of the magnetic grains, and hence the average inter-grains distance at higher Co relative content, and the enhanced magnetic disorder in very fine grains dispersed in the insulating matrix. This mechanism was suggested by the comportment of as prepared and thermally annealed samples.

Ba(Zn1/3Ta2/3)O-3 (BZT) ceramics were prepared by solid-state reaction and sintered in air at temperatures in the range 1550-1650 degrees C, for 2 hours. In order to improve the microwave and millimeter wave properties, annealing treatment at 1400 degrees C for 10 hours was applied. The long-range order with a 2:1 ratio of Ta and Zn ions on the octahedral positions of the perovskite structure and the vibrational modes were investigated by using XRD and Raman spectroscopy as function of sintering temperature. Presence of small amount of secondary phase, Ba8ZnTa6O24, affects Q factor even in the dense, highly ordered samples. The dielectric parameters were measured in the microwave range by Hakki-Coleman method and were correlated with structural and optical properties. Sintering temperature higher than 1600 degrees C are required for BZT ceramics in order to obtain low microwave loss (Q x f similar to 100 THz).

Defects in silicon are studied as function of the dimensionality of the investigated structures. Defects produced by strong irradiation in bulk crystals, like vacancies or interstitial defects, induce other defects, so that the irradiated devices are irreversibly damaged. Defects in nanostructures are shown to be produced mainly by surface/interface states and strains, and are therefore specific to the investigated structure. The modeling of the experimental methods allows the determination of defect parameters that are not directly measurable. The carriers capture on quantum confinement levels in OD systems has a similar behavior with the trapping phenomena.

Electrical properties of new Polymer-Iron nanocomposite materials obtained by laser pyrolysis were investigated, in order to find applications for the detection of reducing gases. The aim of this paper was to prove the necessity of complex experimental investigation in order to point out the contribution of different types of adsorption. Usually resistance measurement cannot fully describe the surface interactions. The electronaffinity changes are of real interest for in-field conditions which always involve humidity of surrounding gas atmosphere. On the other hand, the nanocomposite materials can be a solution for specific gas-sensing properties.

This paper is dedicated mainly to the study of couplings between planar resonators in multilayer structures with modified (defected) ground plane. Couplings between two miniaturized resonators are investigated, by full electromagnetic field simulation. Based on the results of this study, several models of planar microwave bandpass filters, with a single or with two apertures, are designed, verified by simulation, fabricated and measured. Compared to the classical filters, these novel structures show a good compactness and can offer some technological advantages.

In this contribution the peculiarities of the behaviour of strange quark matter in respect to ordinary ions in silicon are investigated, and a tentative to identify possible observable effects of degradation is made.

Ceramic based Ba(Zn1/3Ta2/3)O-3 materials were prepared by solid-state reaction. Studies on microwave dielectric parameters in correlation with structural and Raman investigations were performed. Sintering temperatures higher than 1600 degrees C are required in order to obtain dielectric properties suitable for millimeter wave applications.

Electrodeposition of manganese- and copper-doped ZnO wires into polycarbonate membranes, from an aqueous solution containing 0.05 mol dm(-3) Zn(NO3)(2)+ 0.01 mol dm(-3) Mn(NO3)(2)+ 0.0005 mol dm(-3) Cu(NO3)(2)+ 0.0075 mol dm(-3) lactic acid, pH = 4.7 was investigated using linear sweep voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The equivalent electrical circuits for fitting experimental results were similar to those for characterization of metal/polymer coating systems. impedance data and voltarnmetric curves showed that an increase of local pH due to reduction process of nitrate ions induces the co-precipitations of metal ions in the proximity of electrode as oxides. Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Nano-technology is a very attractive area of research and innovation because it allows the current trends in miniaturization to continue. The transition from micro scale to nano scale devices has already taken place in many applications such as electronics, magnetic recording and nano-biophysics. However, as we scale down the size of the structures and devices, it becomes obvious that the classical behavior will break down at the nano-scale and an interesting superposition of classical and quantum effects will emerge. Therefore, the validity of classical physics is questioned and many aspects of physics are now being revisited from the point of view of nano-technologies. In line with the new developments in miniaturization and nano-technologies, we propose in this letter a simple mechanism that applies the Faraday effect at the nano-scale in order to create a possible solid-state energy nano-generator device. The proposed nano-generator functionality is based oil what we shall call the Super-Paramagnetic Electromotive Force (SPEF) effect. This has the potential to produce a very small voltage on short time scales by converting directly thermal energy at room temperature to electromotive energy Without the need for external work or mechanical motion.