Publications

The effect of rare earth addition in the structure and magnetism of melt spun nanocrystalline Finemet-type alloys devitrified from amorphous precursor ribbons is discussed. Starting with the initial composition Fe73.5Cu1Nb3Si13.5B9 an amount of 5 at% Gd is introduced into the primary alloy. The purpose is to enable after appropriate recrystallization the occurrence of hard and soft magnetic, suitably dispersed, exchange-coupled nanograins and to determine the transformation sequences of the crystallization process and the obtained crystallization products. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The influence of Zr and Ti substitutions on the formation of a nanocomposite magnet was studied by high-temperature X-ray diffraction and magnetic measurements. It has been shown that Ti and especially Zr additions favorably change the crystallization temperatures and the sequence of phase transformations which leads to an exchange coupled magnet, even in a composition range that promotes the precipitation of the detrimental Nd2Fe23B3 phase. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The influence of oxygen and carbon impurities on the concentrations of defects in silicon for detector uses, in complex fields of radiation, characteristic to high energy physics experiments, is investigated in the frame of the quantitative phenomenological model developed previously by the authors and extended in the present paper. Continuous irradiation conditions are considered, simulating realistically the environments for these experiments. The generation rate of primary defects is calculated starting from the projectile-silicon interaction and from the recoil energy redistribution in the lattice. The mechanisms of formation of complex defects are explicitly analysed. Vacancy-interstitial annihilation, interstitial and vacancy migration to sinks, divacancy, vacancy- and interstitial-impurity complex formation and decomposition are considered. Oxygen and carbon impurities present in silicon could monitor the concentration of all stable defects, due to their interaction with vacancies and interstitials. Their role in the mechanisms of formation and decomposition of the following stable defects: V-2, VO. V2O, C-i, CiOi, CiCs, and VP, is studied. The model predictions cover a generation rate of primary defects between 10(2) pairs/cm(3)/s and 10(11) pairs/cm(3)/s, and could be a useful clue in obtaining harder materials for detectors for space missions, at the new generation of accelerators, as, e.g. LHC, Super-LHC and Eloisatron, or for industrial applications.

Hydroxyapatite (HA) thin films for applications in the biomedical field were grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and radio-frequency magnetron sputtering (RF-MS) techniques. The depositions were performed from pure hydroxyapatite targets on Ti-5Al-2.5Fe (TiAlFe) alloys substrates. In order to prevent the HA film penetration by Ti atoms or ions diffused from the Ti-based alloy during and after deposition, the substrates were pre-coated with a thin buffer layer of TiN. In both cases, TiN was introduced by reactive PLD from TiN targets in low-pressure N-2. The PLD films were grown in vacuum onto room temperature substrates. The RF-MS films were deposited in low-pressure argon on substrates heated at 550 degreesC. The initially amorphous PLD thin films were annealed at 550 degreesC for 1 h in ambient air in order to restore the initial crystalline structure of HA target. The thickness of the PLD and RF-MS films were similar to1 mum and similar to350 nm, respectively. All films were structurally studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) and white light confocal microscopy (WLCM). The mechanical properties of the films were tested by Berkovich nano-indentation. Both PLD and RF-MS films mostly contain HA phase and exhibit good mechanical characteristics. Peaks of CaO were noticed as secondary phase in the GIXRD patterns only for RF-MS films. By its turn, the sputtered films were smoother as compared to the ones deposited by PLD (50 nm versus 250 nm average roughness). The R-F-MS films were harder, more mechanically resistant and have a higher Young modulus. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thin films of BaTiO3 doped with 5.5 mol% CeO2 have been deposited on Pt/Si substrate by pulsed laser deposition. These films crystallize on the tetragonal BaTiO3 structure without any preferential orientation. Ce-doped BaTiO3 films deposited by PLD at 675degreesC in 30 Pa ambient oxygen exhibits a smooth surface: mean surface roughness (Rms) of 48 nm, mean size of grain of similar to40 Angstrom, average size of aggregates of similar to 315 nm. Thin films as prepared presented good dielectric characteristics: dielectric constant and dielectrics loss ( tan delta) at a frequency of 1 KHz were 220 and 0.2, respectively. The temperature dependence of dielectric constant exhibited a diffuse ferroelectric to paraelectric phase transition at about 0 - 10degreesC. The ferroelectric nature of Ce-doped BaTiO3 film was confirmed by the hysteresis of the C-V curves. (C) 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

In this paper, a commercial liquid phase sintered silicon nitride with Y2O3 and Al2O3 additives is investigated. The material is characterised by a large, and stable, internal friction peak near H 50 degreesC. The peak is linked with the glass transition in intergranular amorphous volumes, whose presence is confirmed with transmission electron microscopy. An estimate of the volume fraction of the amorphous phase is calculated from the difference in stiffness below and above the glass transition temperature. The procedure relies on accurate Young's modulus data, which were obtained with the impulse excitation technique (IET). The amount of amorphous pocket phase was estimated at 12.4 vol.%. For the first time, microstructural evidence supporting this estimate is obtained, using analysis of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. The rather large amount of amorphous matter explains the limited high temperature potential of the material, which was primarily and successfully developed for wear applications. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Scanning electron microscopy, Raman scattering, UV-VIS absorption spectroscopy and low temperature photoluminescence (PL) were used to examine small particles produced by the chemical reaction between Pb(NO3)(2) and KI in different liquid media: water, methanol, ethanol and acetonitrile. By stoichiometric changes in the synthesis reaction, platelets of PbI2 and rods probably of KPbI3 are produced. Regardless of shape and size, these particles exhibit almost the same PL, which consists of two intense bands centred around the 2.5 (E band) and 2.0 eV (G band), in turn similar to that of a crystalline slide or a micrometric powder, both prepared from a PbI2 single-crystal grown from the melt. Crystalline PbI2 platelets exhibit an E band with two components, at 2.49 (E-F band) and 2.47 eV (E-T band), originating in the recombination of the free and trapped excitons produced by inter-band irradiation. A close relation between the enhancement of the E-T and G band reveals that they are linked to the surface defects. For the rod-like particles, the PL spectrum is somewhat similar to that of a Pb2+ ion introduced into an alkaline halide lattice, which as for any ns(2) ion displays two emission bands, A(T) and A(X), whose correspondents are E and G bands.

We report some results of a comparison between thin films of pullulan biopolymer obtained by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE). In experiments we used a KrF* laser source generating pulses of 248 nm and 20 ns pulse duration. We demonstrate by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) that MAPLE is more appropriate than conventional PLD for transfer with high structural fidelity of biopolymers from target to substrate. In case of MAPLE, besides FTIR spectra, atomic force microscopy micrographs and scanning electron microscopy images prove that the film composition and structure strongly depend on the solvent used for the targets preparation: distilled water, ethylene glycol, ethanol, tert-butanol and dimethyl sulfoxide. Our best results for pullulan deposition were obtained using dimethyl sulfoxide as a solvent. This is the first report of successful MAPLE deposition of this material as thin films. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

AC susceptibility measurements have been performed on Bi1.7Pb0.4Sr1.5Ca2.5Cu3.6Ox (Bi-2223) samples doped with different Li-based compounds and prepared by the solid-state method. As-prepared samples and/or samples annealed in oxygen or argon, ground or unground, have been investigated in detail in order to understand the occurrence, nature and evolution of the anomalous peaks observed in chi " (T) curves versus the measuring parameters; we have detected up to four peaks instead of the usual two peaks observed in the non-doped samples. It was found that intrinsic physical-chemical properties, such as the melting temperature of the doping compound, are no less important for the final properties of the superconductor than their insertion properties into the crystal lattice of Bi-2223. Doping compounds with melting temperatures below or close to the phase formation temperature of the Bi-2223 phase can act as flux, changing the growth conditions. Intensification of some processes against others (e.g. decomposition-recovery of the BI-2223 phase, solubilization-precipitation of the secondary phases, changes in the properties of the liquid phase, etc) can lead to the formation of the Bi-2223 phase with different properties than for the non-doped superconductor. Generally, when using flux-type doping compounds, anomalous AC losses peaks are detected and the intra-granular critical current density is enhanced.

The reaction of the neutral cluster [Fe2BaO(CCl3COO)(6)(THF)(6)] with Eu(NO3)(3) . 6H(2)O in methanol affords novel tetra-nuclear Fe-Eu complex [Fe3EuO2(CCl3COO)(8)H2O(THF)(3)] . THF (1), which displays interesting Mossbauer spectra and magnetic behaviour. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.