National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

The chemical deposition of palladium on n and p-GaAs from an aqueous solution of PdCl2, in strong acid medium can be an alternative technique for contacts on GaAs. This paper presents the variations of palladium films thickness (measured by an interferometric method) as a function of solution concentration, reaction time and substrate conductivity. There are presented data concerning the adhesion of palladium films (measured by a mechanical method) related to the film thickness. From a comparative study concerning the adhesion of evaporated films such as: Au/n-GaAs, Ag/n-GaAs, AnGe/n-GaAs and Pd/n-GaAs, it results the conclusion that the adhesion of palladium films are of the same order of magnitude as the metallic films evaporated without an annealing procedure.

We have succeeded in growing nanocrystals of Ag structured like fractals in several solid matrices (NaG, KBr and KCl). These are shown to be diffusion-limited aggregates when fractal dimensions were evaluated. Depending upon the crystal in which the fractal structures were obtained, the fractal dimensions of the Ag nanoclusters were found to be between 1.73 and 1.81. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Tl-0 (6 p(1)) irradiation centers are proposed as new paramagnetic probes for structural phase transition investigations. The P2(1)cn --> C1 c1 phase transition in Rb-2 ZnCl4 single crystals is monitored using the Tl-0 and the well-known Tl2+ (6 s(1)) paramagnetic probes. The anomalous temperature dependence exhibited by the EPR spectra of both types of centers in the C1 c1 phase was analyzed considering a soft mode contribution.

Polyaniline-fullerene (PA-C-60) composites have been studied by Surface Enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. They were obtained by mixing solutions of polyaniline-emeraldine base (PA-EB) and C-60, as well as by chemical synthesis from aniline, sulfuric acid and potassium dichromate, with addition of C-60. The Raman bands peaking at 1330-1370 cm(-1). associated with a protonated structure Were used as indicative for changes of the PA-EB phonon spectrum resulting from C-60 doping. The two types of compounds show different SERS spectra, also dependent on the metallic support used (An or Ag). Variation of the SERS spectra with the type of metallic support is related to a chemical interface interaction between composite and metal. In mixture samples, a doped polymeric chain (with ionically attached C-60(-)) was evidenced by an increased fraction of quinoid rings. The SERS spectra of the chemically synthesized PA-C-60 reveals the existence of two polymeric structures: a doped PA (doped with C-60(-) ions) and an undoped one, the latter with a structure of 'pendant chain' type. Structural (XRD) data reveal the presence of C-60 nano-zones, with a lattice parameter increase of 0.3-0.6%, attributed to slight oxidation. Detailed analysis of the fcc(111) line asymmetry suggests, in mixture samples, a boundary zone with an 'expanded' lattice. induced by ionic interface effects. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

The proposal of coherent electromagnetic processes as the engine for biological dynamics and biocommunications suggest that the quantum macroscopic coherent phenomena as Bose condensation and laser threshold could be present in living cells. A possible correlation between environmental primordial cosmic background radiation and Josephson experimental evidence is discussed.

A straightforward and cheap method for creating extended defects, strong pinning centers, in superconducting thin films is proposed. Clearly, by very short time (3-5 s) rf sputtering at suitable substrate temperatures, we deposited Ag nanodots on SrTiO3 substrates prior to the growth of superconducting thin films. The nanodots were studied by atomic force microscopy. Due to the lattice mismatch and/or chemical poisoning, on top of the nanodots the superconducting phase does not form, creating in this way extended and effective pinning centers which increase the critical current density of the film. The method was applied to (Cu, Tl)BaSrCa2Cu3Oy films grown by amorphous phase epitaxy. Thin films grown in similar conditions, with and without nanodots, were characterized by x-ray diffraction and ac susceptibility. The results show that the nanodots increased the critical current density more than one order of magnitude. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.

We consider a two-dimensional electron gas in the presence of a monochromatic linear polarized electromagnetic field, within the Floquet formalism. The Floquet states have a simple relation with the energy eigenstates in the absence of the field. Therefore the single-particle and the two-particle Green functions of the many-body system with Coulomb interactions, in the radiation field, can be formally calculated by the standard diagrammatic techniques, as for the conservative system. We derive the elementary excitations of quasi-particle type, the plasma dispersion relation, and the ground state quasi-energy, and we relate them to the corresponding results for the conservative system.

A detailed analysis of the electric field-current density (E - J) characteristics of YBa2Cu3O7-delta films across the putative thermally induced elastic vortex-glass-vortex-liquid transition predicted by the E(J) curve scaling reveals that the expected increase of the collective pinning barriers with decreasing J is cut off in the low-J region, signaling a dissipation process which involves the plastic deformation of the vortex system. The temperature and magnetic field dependence of the pinning barriers at low J does not change across the scaling-predicted glass transition line. For the investigated magnetic field range (0.5-7 T), over a relatively large temperature interval, in YBa2Cu3O7-delta films there appears a continuous crossover in a pinned plastic vortex assembly, rather than a thermally induced elastic vortex-glass-vortex-liquid transition.

Pigments based on cadmium selenide sulphides and cadmium sulfides were analysed as regarding their structure and stability against the laser irradiation, a new technique for cleaning the painted surfaces in artwork restoration, The pulsed Nd:YAG laser radiation determines the effusion of some sulphur from the red pigment Cd(S,Se) and significant decrease of the average size of the crystallites. The color turns to dark red. For yellow pigment (CdS) no change of crystallite size was detected after laser irradiation.

A broadband dielectric study of the dispersions of silica spheres (Aerosil 380) in octylcyanobiphenyl (8CB) with densities between 0.083 and 10 g of silica per 1 cm(3) of liquid crystal (LC) is reported. High values of silica densities were achieved for the rst time to observe the behaviour of the LC monolayer on the surface of the silica particles. The relaxation characteristic of the bulk LC is noticed especially for the samples with low silica densities. Additionally, a slow relaxation was detected, even at temperatures for which the bulk LC is in the crystalline state. It was assigned to the surface layer of LC molecules. Remarkably, the temperature dependence of the relaxation rates for this slow process shows a behaviour typical for glass-forming liquids.