National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

Ag/Ga were incorporated into resorbable orthopaedic phosphate bioactive glasses (PBG, containing P, Ca, Mg, Na, and Fe) thin films to demonstrate their potential to limit growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli in post-operative prosthetic implantation. Dual target consecutive co-sputtering was uniquely employed to produce a 46 nm Ag:PBG composite observed by high resolution TEM to consist of uniformly dispersed similar to 5 nm metallic Ag nano-particles in a glass matrix. Ga3+ was integrated into a phosphate glass preform target which was magnetron sputtered to film thicknesses of similar to 400 or 1400 nm. All coatings exhibited high surface energy of 75.4-77.3 mN/m, attributed to the presence of hydrolytic P-O-P structural surface bonds. Degradation profiles obtained in deionized water, nutrient broth and cell culture medium showed varying ion release profiles, whereby Ga release was measured in 1400 nm coating by ICP-MS to be similar to 6, 27, and 4 ppm respectively, fully dissolving by 24 h. Solubility of Ag nanoparticles was only observed in nutrient broth (similar to 9 ppm by 24 h). Quantification of colony forming units after 24 h showed encouraging antibacterial efficacy towards both S. aureus (4-log reduction for Ag:PBG and 6-log reduction for Ga-PBG approximate to 1400 nm) and E. coli (5-log reduction for all physical vapour deposited layers) strains. Human Hs27 fibroblast and mesenchymal stem cell line in vitro tests indicated good cytocompatibility for all sputtered layers, with a marginal cell proliferation inertia in the case of the Ag:PBG composite thin film. The study therefore highlights the (i) significant manufacturing development via the controlled inclusion of metallic nanoparticles into a PBG glass matrix by dual consecutive target co-sputtering and (ii) potential of PBG resorbable thin-film structures to incorporate and release cytocompatible/antibacterial oxides. Both architectures showed prospective bio-functional performance for a future generation of endo-osseous implant-type coatings.

Zr0.8Sn0.2TiO3 (ZST) powders synthesized by solid-state reaction were subject to processing by spark plasma sintering (SPS). A single-phase ceramic with a high relative density of 95.7% and 99.6% was obtained for sintering temperatures of 1150 degrees C and 1200 degrees C, respectively, and for a dwell time of 3 min. In order to reduce the oxygen vacancies, as-sintered discs were annealed in air at 1000 degrees C. The dielectric loss of the annealed samples, expressed by the Q x f product, measured in the microwave (MW) domain, varied between 35 THz and 50 THz. The intrinsic losses (Q x f ~ 60 THz) were derived by using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS).

Fe (acceptor) and Nb (donor) doped epitaxial Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O-3 (PZT) films were grown on single crystal SrTiO3 substrates and their electric properties were compared to those of un-doped PZT layers deposited in similar conditions. All the films were grown from targets produced from high purity precursor oxides and the doping was in the limit of 1% atomic in both cases. The remnant polarization, the coercive field and the potential barriers at electrode interfaces are different, with lowest values for Fe doping and highest values for Nb doping, with un-doped PZT in between. The dielectric constant is larger in the doped films, while the effective density of charge carriers is of the same order of magnitude. An interesting result was obtained from piezoelectric force microscopy (PFM) investigations. It was found that the as-grown Nb-doped PZT has polarization orientated upward, while the Fe-doped PZT has polarization oriented mostly downward. This difference is explained by the change in the conduction type, thus in the sign of the carriers involved in the compensation of the depolarization field during the growth. In the Nb-doped film the majority carriers are electrons, which tend to accumulate to the growing surface, leaving positively charged ions at the interface with the bottom SrRuO3 electrode, thus favouring an upward orientation of polarization. For Fe-doped film the dominant carriers are holes, thus the sign of charges is opposite at the growing surface and the bottom electrode interface, favouring downward orientation of polarization. These findings open the way to obtain p-n ferroelectric homojunctions and suggest that PFM can be used to identify the type of conduction in PZT upon the dominant direction of polarization in the as-grown films.

The aim of this work is the development of a cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna with multimodal operation. In order to use modes with different radiation patterns, the field distributions were investigated. Using a feeding solution with the resonator placed asymmetrically above a wide microstrip feeding line, we managed to excite and identify 17 operating modes in the 1.8-4.5 GHz frequency band. In dissimilarity with the symmetric configuration, the proposed feeding allows excitation of new modes, which exhibit a magnetic dipole radiation pattern. The new added modes enhance the antenna pattern diversity and increase the antenna capacity to mitigate the multipath effects.

This work reports the effect of the rapid solidification technique and thermal treatment on the martensitic transformation (MT), magnetic and magnetostrictive properties on the off-stoichiometric Ni49Mn31Ga20 and Ni51Mn28Ga21 ferromagnetic shape memory ribbons. The samples were investigated by X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy, magnetic and magnetostrictive measurements. The temperature dependence of the X-ray phases analysis shows the presence of martensite structures, both tetragonal and monoclinic, at room temperature and allowed to study their evolution through MT. The thermal treatment induces changes in the microstructure with implications in MT and Curie temperatures evolution. The competition between the magnetization orientation and twin boundary motion within martensitic variants under magnetic field evidenced in the magnetic-strain curves was discussed and correlated with the magnetic data.

Nano-nitride reinforcement of Fe-Cr alloys are under intense investigations, e.g., along with oxide-strengthened, nitride-strengthened reduced activation steels with superior high temperature mechanical properties are developed as materials for nuclear energy applications. Fe14Cr alloy powders were produced by mechanical milling for up to 170 h under a nitrogen atmosphere followed by heating under an Ar5%H-2 atmosphere to 600 degrees C-1120 degrees C. The samples were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction, DTA/TG and magnetic measurements. CrN, detected after milling for 58 h, reached 39 wt % (5.3 wt.% total N) at 170 h milling. The ferrite supersaturated with nitrogen shows a strong decrease in grain size and saturation magnetization, an increase in lattice constant, microstrain and coercivity, H-c. Upon heating, the metastable ultrafine alpha-ferrite and CrN in the as-milled samples undergo transformations and recrystallization into ferrite grains free of super-saturation, whose microstructure follows a continuous relaxation. The supersaturation with nitrogen was retained upon heating in the relatively stable ferrite crystalized at the milling stage. This microstructure undergoes a discontinuous relaxation in the 800 degrees C-1120 degrees C region: a pronounced decrease of grain size (down to similar to 25 nm), an increase of lattice constant, microstrain and H-c. These improvements were associated with features of discontinuous precipitation reaction of coherent nitride precipitates (involving a new alpha ''-phase with expanded lattice), in connection with the heating in the austenite phase field. Such microstructure refinement or (nitride) strengthening of Fe14Cr alloys can be achieved on powders milled for much less time as compared to previously reported (oxide dispersion) strengthening of Fe14Cr-W-Ti ferritic steels. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Zr0.8Sn0.2TiO4 powders synthesized by solid state reaction route have been consolidated by conventional and spark plasma sintering methods. Single-phase ceramics with various microstructures and, consequently, different extrinsic absorption were investigated by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. The results showed that the terahertz spectroscopy can be used for tailoring in the " synthesis - microstructure - properties" cycle.

The dielectric and electric properties of a core-shell SrFe12O19 - BNT-BT nanocomposite were explored in this study. The desired composition and the existence of the magnetoplumbite SrFe12O19 and perovskite BNT-BT structures were verified by X-ray diffraction. The dielectric constant values approached the case of BNT-BT due to the small amount of hexaferrite content. The electric properties were also derived.

A consistent quantitative description of radiation-induced degradation on p-type Silicon detectors is conducted within CERN RD50 collaboration. The present contribution summarizes the first obtained results for epitaxial 50 mu m thin pad diodes irradiated with protons, neutrons and gamma rays. Microscopic and Macroscopic damage-driven effects are analyzed.

Pure Ti films deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering on FTO glass were anodized to fabricate TiO2 nanotubes (NTs) arrays. The TiO2 NTs/FTO samples were sintered at 450, 550 and 630 degrees C, in ambient air. The thermal treatment did not influence the crystal phase composition, preserving in all cases the anatase single phase. As expected, the crystalline anatase quality improved with the annealing temperature. Nevertheless, slight differences in nanotubular morphology, such as the appearance of grains inside the walls, were observed in the case of the sample sintered at 630 degrees C. Chemical analysis by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy of annealed samples revealed the presence of Sn inside TiO2 NTs, due to diffusion of Sn from the substrate to TiO2. For the substrate was used FTO glass whose top layer consists of SnO2 doped with F. Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry and Time-of-Flight Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis were carried out to study the elemental depth profile of the films. It was found that the temperature of sintering controls the Sn diffusion inside TiO2 film. Sn atoms diffuse towards the TiO2 NTs surface for the samples annealed at 450 and 550 degrees C. The diffusion is however hindered in the case of the heat treatment at 630 degrees C. Besides, the Ti diffusion into the SnO2 underlayer was observed, together with the formation of TiO2/SnO2 interfaces. One then expected but not a great difference in absorption between samples, since all contained anatase phase, as confirmed by Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy. A higher amount of Sn was however detected for the sample annealed at 550 degrees C, which accounts for a slight red absorption shift. The importance of controlling the annealing parameters of the anodized TiO2/FTO structures was highlighted through the formation of TiO2-SnO2 interfaces and the Sn insertion from FTO, which can play an essential role in increasing the photoperformances of TiO2 NTs/FTO based structures of photovoltaic cells.