Publications

A study was made on the temperature behavior of the main piezoelectric parameters, namely the electromechanical coupling factor k(p), the mechanical quality factor Q, the dielectric permittivity (real and imaginary part), the loss tangent t(g) and the piezoelectric charge constants 6133 and d(31) of a soft type piezoelectric material. It was evidenced that temperatures under 150 degrees C do not influence these parameters, which means that every transducer made from this type of material may be successfully used up to this temperature. Between 150 degrees C and 250 degrees C, the piezoelectric properties undergo more or less important changes, mainly due to the depoling effect. After that, at temperatures over 250 degrees C, they degrade very rapidly, tending to zero.

Functionally graded materials represent a new class of composite type materials characterized by a continuous variation of properties through the thickness direction. Due to this they found numerous applications in aerospace, automobile, biomedical or nuclear industries. Bilayered structures made from typically hard and typically soft PZT type materials as well as plain hard and soft and intimately mixed hard and soft samples were prepared by green pressed powdersfollowed by sintering at different temperatures between 1000 and 1300 degrees C. The dielectric and piezoelectric properties of sintered compacts were determined in relation with the nature of the interdiffusion layer involved. Electron microscopy as well as X-Ray diffractometry was used to get an insight into the interfacial diffusion process. The composition and the width of the interdiffusion layer depend on temperature. The mechanism of the interdiffusion layer and materials properties were discussed in terms of the ionic diffusion coefficients and activation energies of the species which take place into the diffusion process.

Ba1-xSrxTiO3 solid solutions were prepared by solid-state reaction from raw materials. Four compositions with x = 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 0.90 have been investigated. The perovskite type and polycrystalline structure of the BST samples were revealed by X-ray diffraction data. The morphology, grain size distribution, porous structure and elemental composition of the sintered ceramics were analyzed by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) microanalysis. The temperature dependence of permittivity and of dielectric loss tangent at low frequency (1 kHz) showed decrease of Curie temperature with increase of Sr content. Microwave measurements (1 GHz) showed substantial decrease of the dielectric constant from about 1600 to 200 and also of the losses from 12% to less than 2% with the Sr concentration increase from x = 0.25 to x = 0.90. Moreover, the addition of MgO and MnO2 1 wt.% each, improved sintering process and lowered the microwave losses up to 0.2%. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thermoluminescence (TL) manifested by gamma-irradiated mineral zircon has shown a strong TL peak at about 165 degrees C which is due to recombination of electrons and Dy3+ related shallow hole traps. After they have been removed by a short preheat we have observed two TL peaks at 300-320 degrees C and approximate to 420 degrees C, which are mainly due to recombination of electrons and Tb3+ related hole traps centres yielding its characteristic luminescence. The experimental results indicate that optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) is due to luminescent emission of Tb3+ ions and [SiO4](4-) groups. The deep traps related to the 420 degrees C TL peak contribute to the Tb3+ related OSL. The deep traps related to the 300-320 degrees C TL peak contribute to OSL associated with the luminescent emission of [SiO4](4-) groups. (c) 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinhem.

Barium titanate was prepared by the advanced procedure of mechanochemical synthesis from barium and titanium oxides after 50 hours of milling. The X-ray examination of the milled powders showed the phase evolution during synthesis and the perovskite phase was initiated after 5 hours and was completed after 50 hours. Sintered samples from these nanopowders show different dielectric properties for fine and coarse grained ceramics. Samples with an average grain size of 2 mu m showed the highest dielectric constant of 5800 at room temperature. A sharp maximum of the dielectric constant with values of about 16000 was recorded at the Curie temperature.

In order to fulfil the European task for market survey in food irradiation the first Romanian laboratory for detection of irradiated foodstuffs was established at IRASM Irradiation Centre. In this preliminary study, a wide range of Romanian food samples (spices, vegetables and meat) gamma irradiated at IRASM have been studied using different detection methods: (1) DNA comet assay, (2) thermoluminescence (TL) and (3) electron spin resonance (ESR) for foodstuffs containing bone or cellulose. The results suggest that there is no general available detection method and there is no perfect detection method. In conclusion, in order to carry out a correct identification of radiation treatment of a food sample it is recommended to use at least two standardised detection methods. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The present paper analyzes the appearance of voltage percolation thresholds in the current - voltage characteristics measured on silicon-based nanocrystalline systems that present random space distribution of the nanocrystallites. This percolation phenomenon is explained on the basis of the probability of tunneling under applied bias and is related to the samples microstructure.

In the present paper, we intend to bring some clarifications related to the role played by primary defects in long term degradation, to the dependence of degradation on the orientation of the wafer, as well as on the spatial distribution of the degradation produced by low energy particle irradiation.

Optical and Mossbauer spectroscopy were used to put into evidence the morphological changes induced by the thermal treatments in the YAG:Eu nanocrystals synthesized by a sol-gel method. Both methods exhibit a drastic change of the monitored parameters (ratio of the areas of the electric and the magnetic dipole transitions - for optical spectroscopy and Mossbauer normalized area - for Mbssbauer spectroscopy) at the phase transition amorphous-crystalline, followed by a slow evolution of these parameters with the increase of the annealing temperature. This slow evolution is due to the increase in size of the nanocrystals.

A ceramic high temperature superconductor [HTS] of Y-Ba-Cu-O type has been investigated at 77 K by using a standard X-band Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) configuration. At very low microwave power (< 1 mW) the non-resonant or zero field signal (ZFS) was in phase with DPPH signal, pleading for an unambiguous absorption process, but it commutes to a typical superconductor signal (i.e. opposite to DPPH signal phase) with increasing the microwave power. At the same time, CU2+ signal appreciably changes its shape with increasing microwave power. These anomalous behaviors could be in part explained by a conventional SQUID response at microwave frequency by taking into account that the sample itself could be described by a collection of both Josephson and proximity junctions.