National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

Commercially pure titanium (CP-Ti) offers a good corrosion resistance and tissue tolerance. The interfacial phenomena between biomaterial and biological fluids depend especially on surface chemistry, energy, roughness and topography of the implant Different methods are used to modify CP-Ti surface in order to improve its bonding properties to bone tissue. Besides the mechanical approaches, chemical etching and chemical oxidation, there are also other procedures improving the biocornpatibility. One of the most important involves the deposition of a bioceramic thin layer on the metallic surface. A bioceramics frequently used is hydroxyapatite (HA), the mineral component of the bone. In this paper. the main objective was to study the effects of different surface pretreatments on adherence of hydroxyapatite layer obtained by electrochemical method. The CP-Ti substrate was used in different treated states of the surface. The applicability of the electrochemical technique is relieved by the fact that it is a very rapid method, requires relatively low temperatures, being also very versatile. The obtained coatings were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) associated with EDX (Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction method (XRD). The adherence of the layers was evaluated by the "pull-out" test. The quality of the coating (morphology and adhesion properties) is decisively influenced by the electrochemical parameters and also by the surface state.

Reconstructive surgery of bone defects in the calvarium makes use of a multitude of biological and artificial materials. Due to the increased number of such medical casuistry in the recent years, a special attention was dedicated to the biocompatibility and osteointegrative properties of various types of biomaterials. Titanium emerged to be a promising cranioplasty material due to its excellent mechanical properties and biocompatibility. However, the way the host calvarial bone reacts to the titanium implant has not been fully understood. Here, we evaluate the influence of cranial bone substrate on the osteoconduction and osseointegration of titanium mesh implants. The pattern of bone tissue reaction in the areas of contact with metallic implant is analyzed by means of bone density measurements on the computer tomography images. Twenty-eight patients underwent cranioplasty with titanium mesh implants for bone cranial defects due to different aetiology. With the aid of visual analogue scales, the patients' status (osteointegration degree, comfort and cosmetics) was evaluated after 3 - 14 months since surgery (implantation).

This paper reports on the experimental realization and characterization of a wireless sensing system for machine-tool condition based monitoring. The system comprises a vibration sensor, an ARDUINO Leonardo development board and an RM 42 Blue tooth module. The sensing principle is based on a vibration sensor which includes a piezoelectric AlN layer deposited by sputtering on a flexible stainless steel foil. The functional testing of the sensor using a test stand for asynchronous engines equipped with frequency convertors is demonstrated.

In this work, anomalous discontinuities observed in Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics on non-nitridated n-4H-SiC/SiO2 capacitors at low temperature are addressed. The appearance of abrupt capacitance minima, always at the same gate voltages (4V and 8V) and independent on probe frequency, led us to consider a resonant electron tunneling process from neutral donor states present at the SiC/SiO2 interface into two well defined energy levels in the oxide layer. Results of numerical simulations based on this model describe quantitatively the experimentally observed discontinuities at 4V and 8V and provide strong evidence for the presence resonant tunneling.

We report on the synthesis of advanced nanostructured hydroxyapatite (HA) thin films onto 3D titanium (Ti) mesh substrates by Pulsed Laser Deposition method. Morphological and structural investigations as well as pull-out tests proved the stoichiometric transfer of crystalline HA films along with their good adherence. In vivo tests were performed on 12 patients (six with simple Ti mesh, six with Ti mesh biofunctionalized with HA). The tomodensitometry analysis of the cranial control scans evidenced the process of osseogenesis. For four patients with implanted HA/Ti mesh structures, the modification of the value obtained on Hounsfield scale was observed at the level of implant, proving the progress of osseointegration. We conclude that the structures exhibit excellent bonding strength and functionality, and are suitable for neurosurgical applications.

The presence and structure of paramagnetic point defects in C-13 and O-17 implanted ultrapure Si single-crystal material, two impurities which seem to play a major role in the detectors performance degradation and radiation resistance enhancement, respectively, are reported before and after irradiation with 6 MeV electrons. The investigation, performed by Q-band electron spin resonance spectroscopy in the 300 - 10 K temperature range, included also reference ultrapure and O-16 doped single-crystal Si-platelets. It resulted in the observation of points defects associated with lattice defects as dangling bonds and impurities.

Spectroscopic ellipsometry, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy experiments are employed to characterize aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films obtained by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering at low temperature (approximate to 50 degrees C). To understand the growth mechanism and to get in depth information of such films by using ex situ characterization techniques, the AlN thin film sample series were prepared for different sputtering times, while keeping constant all the other deposition conditions. The diffraction studies reveal a [002] oriented growth of the AlN thin films. The misorientation of this crystallographic axis to the normal to the surface reduces progressively with film growth. A nonmonotonic behavior of the AlN pseudo-refractive index versus deposition time indicates a complex depth profile of the AlN thin films optical properties. The difference in orientation dispersion of the [002] crystallite axis, the variation of defects concentration and each constituent atom density influence the refractive index evolution. Our interpretation validity was verified by producing and characterizing samples obtained at intermediate deposition time. The AlN thin films show also very good pull-out adherence values. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

Experiments at the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) require silicon pixel sensors which can withstand X-ray doses up to 1 GGy. For the investigation of X-ray radiation damage up to these high doses, MOS capacitors and gate-controlled diodes built on high resistivity n-doped silicon with crystal orientations < 100 > and < 111 > produced by two vendors, CiS and Hamamatsu, have been irradiated with 12 keV X-rays at the DESY DORIS III synchrotron light source. Using capacitance/conductance-voltage, current-voltage and thermal dielectric relaxation current measurements, the surface densities of oxide charges and interface traps at the Si-SiO2 interface, and the surface-current densities have been determined as function of dose. Results indicate that the dose dependence of the surface density of oxide charges and the surface-current density depend on the crystal orientation and producer. In addition, the influence of the voltage applied to the gates of the MOS capacitor and the gate-controlled diode during X-ray irradiation on the surface density of oxide charges and the surface-current density has been investigated at doses of 100 kGy and 100MGy. It is found that both strongly depend on the gate voltage if the electric field in the oxide points from the surface of the SiO2 to the Si-SiO2 interface. Finally, annealing studies have been performed at 60 degrees C and 80 degrees C on MOS capacitors and gate-controlled diodes irradiated to 5MGy and the annealing kinetics of oxide charges and surface current determined.

The hysteretic properties of metal-ferroelectric-semiconductor (MFS) structures based on Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O-3 (PZT) and ZnO films were studied with respect of the quality of the PZT-ZnO interface. The films were grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on platinized silicon (Pt/Si) substrate and on single crystal, (001) oriented SrTiO3 (STO) substrates. The structural analysis has revealed that the PZT-ZnO stack grown on single crystal STO is epitaxial, while the structure grown on Pt/Si has columnar texture. The temperature change of the capacitance-voltage (C-V) hysteresis direction, from clockwise at low temperatures to counter clockwise at high temperatures, was observed at around 300K in the case of the MFS structure grown by PLD on Pt/Si substrate. This temperature is lower than the one reported for the case of the PZT-ZnO structure grown by sol-gel on Pt/Si substrate (Pintilie et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 012903 (2010)). In the fully epitaxial structures the C-V hysteresis is counter clockwise even at 100K. These findings strongly points out that the quality of the PZT-ZnO interface is essential for having a C-V hysteresis of ferroelectric nature, with negligible influence from the part of the interface states and with a memory window of about 5V at room temperature. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4765723]

Ba(Zn1/3Ta2/3)O-3 (BZT) thin films were grown on Pt-coated Si substrates at 500 degrees C substrate temperatures by pulsed electron beam deposition method and post-annealed at 600 and 650 degrees C for 1 h. The X-ray diffraction patterns indicate that the as-grown films are partially crystallized but single-phase cubic perovskite structure was formed in annealed films. The temperature dependence of the dielectric constant of the BZT films was recorded in the -100 to + 100 degrees C range. The annealing treatment induces a decrease of the temperature coefficient of the dielectric permittivity with an order of magnitude, from 2000 to 100 ppm/degrees C. The influence of the annealing treatments on the temperature behavior of the BZT films was evidenced; a dielectric constant of about 21 at room temperature was obtained for the films annealed at 650 degrees C. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.