National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

This paper presents a study of some functionalised copolymers thin films prepared on silicon and quartz substrates by matrix assisted pulsed laser evaporation ( MAPLE) method. Two polymeric structures have been synthesised by the copolymerisation of maleic anhydride and methyl methacrylate, respectively, maleic anhydride and vinyl benzyl chloride and their subsequent functionalisation with 2,4-dinitroaniline. UV-Vis, FTIR, Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy have been used to investigate the influence on the properties of the films of different substrate temperature ( 150 degrees C and 250 degrees C), background N-2 pressure (5-30 Pa) and polymer concentration in target (2% and 3%). We have evidenced that this deposition process does not damage the chemical structure of the polymers. SEM investigations revealed the droplets type morphology of the polymeric films with thickness between 41 nm and 105 nm calculated from ellipsometric measurements. (C) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

We study the differential conductance in the Kondo regime of a quantum dot coupled to multiple leads. When the bias is applied symmetrically on two of the leads (V and -V, as usual in experiments) while the others are grounded, the conductance through the biased leads always shows the expected enhancement at zero bias. However, under asymmetrically applied bias (V and lambda V, with lambda>0), a suppression-dip-appears in the differential conductance if the asymmetry coefficient lambda is beyond a given threshold lambda(0)=3 root 1+r determined by the ratio r of the dot-lead couplings. This is a recipe to determine experimentally this ratio which is important for the quantum-dot devices. This finding is a direct result of the Keldysh transport formalism. For the illustration we use a many-lead Anderson Hamiltonian, the Green's functions being calculated in the Lacroix approximation, which is generalized to the case of nonequilibrium.

Thin films and crystalline powder of PbI2 intercalated with ammonia or pyridine have been studied by optical absorption, Raman scattering, photoluminescence, FTIR spectroscopy and thermo-gravimetric analysis. Ammonia intercalated PbI2 shows an increased optical band gap, of about 0.6 eV, with an intense broad emission band peaking at about 2.3 eV as signature in the photoluminescence spectrum. The intercalation of PbI2 with ammonia is noticed in the Raman spectrum by the appearance of new lines situated in low frequency range. The D-3d coordination geometry of Pb2+ in the PbI2 crystal is reduced by compression to orthorhombic one, the distribution of the electronic states in valence band is also changed. Thus, the top of the valence band undergo a deformation inducing a weakness of the interaction between the lead and iodine ions within a layer. Also the PbI2 intercalated with pyridine is featured by optical and vibration properties different that of pure crystalline powder. Finally, the intercalation of PbI2 with different molecules changes the basic semiconducting properties of the crystal. Thermal analyses and infrared absorption spectra have been used to study the desorption of guests species from PbI2 in order to evaluate the stability range and morphological changes with temperature.

This paper presents a study of two monomeric structures containing functional groups with different electronegativities [NH/NH-NH and NO2] and two different polymeric structures prepared by the copolymerisation of maleic anhydride and methylmethacrylate/maleic anhydride and vinyl benzyl chloride, and subsequent functionalization with 2,4 dinitroaniline. Thin films have been prepared by Matrix Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (MAPLE) and UV-VIS, FTIR, Raman and Photoluminescence Spectroscopy have been used to comparatively investigate the properties of the synthesised compounds. We have evidenced the second harmonic emission (SHG), process sustained by the asymmetry of the chemical structure, which is correlated with the crystallization in non-centrosymmeric structures.

ZnO:Co thin Films are prepared by electrochemical deposition at different overpotentials and investigated by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Kerr magnetometry (MOKE). Increse of structural disorder and crystallite re-orientation are observed for cobalt doped samples (especially for those obtained at - 750 and at - 800 mV overpotentials). MOKE magnetometry revealed room temperature ferromagnetic behaviour only for ZnO:Co deposited at - 850 mV. These are the samples with the less cobalt content and lowest structural perturbation of the ZnO matrix by cobalt.

We report the formation of stable C-70 aggregate forms in o-dichlorobenzene/N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (DCB/NMP) and o-dichlorobenzene/acetonitrile (DCB/ACN) mixtures and their characterization by UV-VIS absorption spectroscopy and photoluminescence. As NMP acts on C-70 both as a solvent and reactant due to the unpaired electrons of the amidic nitrogen atom, molecular complexes (C-70/NMP) that aggregate slowly are formed by the binding of the NMP molecule to the fullerene cage. This interaction is seen in the UV-VIS absorption spectra of C-70 in DCB/NMP solvent mixtures by a gradual modification of the absorption spectra when increasing the NMP concentration. On the other hand, DCB and ACN combined form it typical solvent/non-solvent mixture favoring an intense aggregation of fullerenes. This yields to the C-70 clusters formations, having different size, similar to a precipitation process. Their characteristic is an abrupt variation in the absorbance appearing when the ACN is used in a greater extent. This different behavior of C-70 aggregation in DCB/NMP and DCB/ACN mixtures is also seen in their luminescence spectra recorded at different excitation wavelengths. While the PL spectra of C-70 solvated in DCB/NMP solution keeps almost the same modified shape irrespective the NMP concentration, the luminescence spectra Of C-70 in DCB/ACN mixture partially regains the powder C-70 PL signature as the ACN concentration is increased.

Hybrid material based on PbI2 intercalated with 2,2'-bypiridine (BIPY) was investigated by correlated studies of photoluminescence. infrared absorption and Raman spectroscopy. The PbI2(BIPY) intercalated compound has been synthesized by the chemical reaction of K1 and Pb(NO3)(2) in aqueous BIPY solution The optical studies reveal different properties for the hybrid material in comparison with those of pure PbI2 and BIPY. In the photoluminescence spectrum of the intercalated compound. recorded at liquid nitrogen temperature a new intense hand emission with maximum at 2 07 eV is observed. The excitation spectrum reveals it broad hand featured by several maxima at 2.77, 3.34 and 3 70 eV. New absorption bands at about 1589, 1489, 1435, 1312, 1009 cm(-1) are observed in the IR spectrum of PbI2(BIPY). The Raman spectrum of intercalated compound discloses new lines at 67, 83, 127 cm(-1) and the shift of two Raman lines from 994 cm(-1) to 1010 cm(-1) and from 1045 cm(-1) to 1060 cm(-1). A charge transfer process, leading to the formation of lead-BIPY coordination complexes. is considered its responsible for the strong host-guest interaction revealed by almost all experimental data

Thin films of sucrose (C12H22O11) were deposited on thin cut glass substrates by thermal evaporation technique (p similar to 10-5 torr). The surface morphology was putted into evidence by FT-IR and SEM analysis. The experimental results confirm a uniform deposition of an adherent sucrose layer. The biological tests (e.g., cell morphology and cell viability evaluated by measuring mitochondrial dehydrogenise activity with MTT assay) confirm the properties of sucrose thin films as bioactive material. The human fetal osteoblast system grown on thin sucrose film was used for the determination of cell proliferation, cell viability and cell morphology studies.

In this paper results concerning the changes of the electric characteristics of langasite resonators irradiated with electron and gamma rays are reported. For both electron and gamma irradiations the quality factor increases significantly, presumably due to the re-distribution of the point defects. Preliminary optical investigations in UV-VIS domain confirm the modification of defect structure.

Functionalization of PbI2 with polyaniline-emeraldine base (PANI-EB) or polyaniline-emeraldine salt (PANI-ES) is demonstrated by Raman spectroscopy. Two functionalization methods were used: electrochemical polymerization of aniline onto the PbI2 modified Pt electrode and the mechanico-chemical reaction between PANI and PbI2. The functionalization induces changes in the Raman spectrum of PbI2 that consist in the appearance of new Raman lines with the peaks at 80, 144 and 170 cm(-1) The first line is the signature of the "stacking faults" that disrupt the stacking sequence of layers I-Pb-I atomic layers along the c crystalline axis by the intercalation of polymer molecules The bands at 144 and 170 cm(-1) are attributed to a vibrational mode associated to the Pb-NHR"(2) (R" = C6H4) bond.