National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

Densification and piezoelectric performances of some fast fired lead zirconate-titanate ceramics were investigated in comparison with those made by conventionally sintering technique. Micro and nano PZT powders were used as initial powders for the compacts subjected to the Cast and conventionally sinterings. Density maxims of about 98 % of the theoretical density, were obtained for nanopowder compacts fast fired at 1350 degreesC for 20 minutes. The piezoelectric properties of the fast fired and conventionally sintered compacts were determined. Significant increase for d(33) piezoelectric charge constant was observed in the case of fast fired samples compared to conventionally sintered ones. The electromechanical planar coupling factor k(p) was also increased From 0.62 to 0.65 for fast fired samples. The densification mechanism was discussed in terms of a predominantly transient stresses induced during the initial stage of densification by the rather high temperature gradient of the fast fired samples.

Pyroelectric measurements were performed on pure and on L or D alanine doped TCS. Crystals were grown in paraelectric phase (similar to 52 degreesC) from solutions by slow evaporation of the solvent. Pyroelectric current was measured by, crossing the Curie point, both on heating and cooling. Spontaneous polarization P-S(T) was also recorded using the charge integration method. The pyroelectric current of pure TGS samples along with the spontaneous polarization were detected only on heating, using a poling procedure similar to those applied to ceramic ferroelectrics. The remarkable asymmetry of measured pyroelectric coefficient of D and I. alanine doped samples suggests a non-equivalent substitution of glycine in the host lattice.

The results of an in situ transmission electron microscopy study of the formation of Co-silicides on patterned (001) Si substrates are discussed. It is shown that the results of the in situ heating experiments agreed very well with the data based on standard rapid thermal annealing experiments. Fast heating rates resulted in better definition of the silicide lines. Also, better lines were obtained for samples that received already a low-temperature ex situ anneal. A Ti cap layer gave rise to a higher degree of epitaxy in the CoSi2 silicide.

It is shown that the figure of merit of a thermoelectric couple can be appreciably improved by using a pulsed current transferred from the thermoelectric circuit. In the frame of this theory un unusual drop of temperature in a thermoelectric circuit is possible. An ultrafast process of thermoelectric conduction is described, whose increased performance is realized by minimizing the effects of thermal dissipation.

We propose an improved method of thermally stimulated currents (TSC) spectra analysis in the case of diodes having a concentration of traps higher than that of doping impurities. Beside the calculation of trap concentrations from TSC peaks analysis, the method allows us to evaluate the density and the type of the very deep trapping level which, due to the contribution of leakage current, can not be detected in a real TSC experiment. The proposed method is applied to a p(+)-n Silicon diode irradiated with 1.82x10(13)neutrons/cm(2). (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.

We investigate the transport properties of quantum dots placed in a strong magnetic field using a quantum-mechanical approach based on the two-dimensional tight-binding Hamiltonian with direct Coulomb interaction and the Landauer-Buttiker formalism. The electronic transmittance and the Hall resistance show Coulomb oscillations and also prove multiple addition processes. We identify this feature as the "bunching" of electrons observed in recent experiments and give an elementary explanation in terms of spectral characteristics of the dot. The spatial distribution of the added electrons may distinguish between the edge and bulk states and it has specific features for bunched electrons. The dependence of the charging energy on the number of electrons is discussed for a strong magnetic field. The crossover from the tunneling to quantum Hall regime is analyzed in terms of dot-lead coupling.

We have studied the nonlinear current transport in Ga0.47In0.53As/Al0.48In0.52As quantum-well structures near filling factor 1. A strictly bistable switching between the nearly nondissipative quantum Hall conduction and dissipative conduction was observed at filling factors between 1 and 1.5 at the critical current. The steepness of the transitions was found to be sharper than 4 ppm (limited by the resolution of the setup) with respect to the filling factor. In contrast to thermal or density-distribution instabilities, which can lead to similar bistabilities at any integer filling factor, the effect observed in this study occurred exclusively around filling factor 1. Consequently, we attribute the switching to a feedback effect between the tunneling rate between different spin levels and the effective spin gap, which depends on the degree of spin polarization. The hysteresis of the switching is accompanied by a partially ferromagnetic memory of the spin polarization when sweeping the external magnetic field. We have confirmed this assumption by calculations applying a screened Hartree-Fock model. The calculated results are in good agreement with the data obtained experimentally for different orientations of the magnetic field. A possible conjunction of the effect with nuclear spin magnetization was excluded by investigating the response of the bistable switching to exposure to radiation at the frequencies of the corresponding nuclear magnetic resonances.

Not only (Ag-)(2) and Ag-(Na+) centres but also various Ag--Na+ aggregate centres have been produced in Ag+-,Na+- and Ca2+-codoped KCl crystals by unusual electrolytic colouration such as colouration at a relatively low temperature of 280 degreesC and a high electric field of 5000 V/cm. Absorption and magnetic circular dichroism spectra due to these centres have been investigated. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Silver layers were grown in quartz crystals by electrodiffusion from an anodic layer of AgNO3. Different experimental arrangements were employed in order to obtain such layers in a reproducible way. We performed DC ionic conductivity measurements on Z-cut and X-cut samples as a function of temperature in the heating up phase and as a function of time at the electromigration temperature. The metal structures and the quartz samples were analyzed by electron microscopy and electron diffraction. Based on the experimental results and on the observations a model, for the metal structure formation is proposed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.