National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

Organic heterostructures based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and fullerene (C60) as blends or multilayer were deposited on Al:ZnO (AZO) by Matrix-Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (MAPLE) technique. The AZO layers were obtained by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) on glass substrate, the high quality of the films being reflected by the calculated figure of merit. The organic heterostructures were investigated from morphological, optical and electrical point of view by atomic force microscopy (AFM), UV-vis spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) and current-voltage (I-V) measurements, respectively. The increase of the C60 content in the blend heterostructure has as result a high roughness. Compared with the multilayer heterostructure, those based on blends present an improvement in the electrical properties. Under illumination, the highest current value was recorded for the heterostructure based on the blend with the higher C60 amount. The obtained results showed that MAPLE is a useful technique for the deposition of the organic heterostructures on AZO as transparent conductor electrode. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The crystallization mechanism of sol-gel-derived NaYF4:(Yb, Er) up-converting phosphors has been studied by differential scanning calorimetry analysis using both model-free and model fitting approaches. Structural and optical data have shown that the hexagonal NaYF4:(Yb, Er) phase crystallization process occurs at around 315 degrees C as a result of the thermal decomposition of the metal trifluoroacetates. As the annealing temperature increases, sphere-like microcrystals of about 1-2 mu m size (at 300 degrees C) break up into smaller ones (400-500 nm size) and finally collapse at higher temperatures (600 degrees C); the up-conversion luminescence signal intensity increases due to the crystallinity improvement and dehydration process. The crystallization process can be described as an autocatalytic-type reaction where the accompanying cubic NaYF4 phase played a catalytic role by reducing the energy barrier against the crystallization of the hexagonal NaYF4 phase, causing its fast self-accelerated crystallization. The energy resulting from the disintegration process of the initial NaYF4 microcrystals contributed to the growth and agglomeration processes and finally the collapse of the crystalline fragments with increasing temperature.

The exciton-phonon interaction, considered as a stimulated Raman scattering process, is studied in different semiconductor mixtures: PbI2/TiO2, PbI2/Si and CdS/Si. Raman spectra recorded at excitation wavelengths of 514.5 and 488 nm for PbI2 and CdS, respectively, reveal a strong enhancement of the Raman lines peaked at 97 and 305 cm(-1), evaluated by the ratio I-TK/I-300 (K) between the relative intensities of the spectra recorded in the temperature range of 88-300 K. It is found that PbI2 and CdS exhibit a decrease in the Raman intensity modes with decreasing temperature, while in TiO2 and Si an increase in the Raman lines intensities peaked at 138 and 520 cm(-1) is observed. This behavior can be explained by an energy transfer process from PbI2 or CdS towards TiO2 and Si. This explanation is supported by the schematic potential energy levels diagram obtained from the density of states, which is calculated using the density functional theory. According to this energy levels diagram, the electrons are expected to migrate directly from the conduction band (CB) energetic levels of the PbI2 and CdS towards the CB levels of TiO2 and Si.

Graphene is widely used in nanotechnologies to amplify the photocatalytic activity of TiO2, but the development of TiO2/graphene composites imposes the assessment of their risk to human and environmental health. Therefore, reduced graphene oxide was decorated with two types of TiO2 particles co-doped with 1% iron and nitrogen, one of them being obtained by a simultaneous precipitation of Ti3+ and Fe3+ ions to achieve their uniform distribution, and the other one after a sequential precipitation of these two cations for a higher concentration of iron on the surface. Physico-chemical characterization, photocatalytic efficiency evaluation, antimicrobial analysis and biocompatibility assessment were performed for these TiO2-based composites. The best photocatalytic efficiency was found for the sample with iron atoms localized at the sample surface. A very good anti-inhibitory activity was obtained for both samples against biofilms of Gram-positive and Gram-negative strains. Exposure of human skin and lung fibroblasts to photocatalysts did not significantly affect cell viability, but analysis of oxidative stress showed increased levels of carbonyl groups and advanced oxidation protein products for both cell lines after 48 h of incubation. Our findings are of major importance by providing useful knowledge for future photocatalytic self-cleaning and biomedical applications of graphene-based materials.

The implementation of dense, one-selector one-resistor (1S1R), resistive switching memory arrays, can be achieved with an appropriate selector for correct information storage and retrieval. Ovonic threshold switches (OTS) based on chalcogenide materials are a strong candidate, but their low thermal stability is one of the key factors that prevents rapid adoption by emerging resistive switching memory technologies. A previously developed map for phase change materials is expanded and improved for OTS materials. Selected materials from different areas of the map, belonging to binary Ge-Te and Si-Te systems, are explored. Several routes, including Si doping and reduction of Te amount, are used to increase the crystallization temperature. Selector devices, with areas as small as 55 x 55 nm(2), were electrically assessed. Sub-threshold conduction models, based on Poole-Frenkel conduction mechanism, are applied to fresh samples in order to extract as-processed material parameters, such as trap height and density of defects, tailoring of which could be an important element for designing a suitable OTS material. Finally, a glass transition temperature estimation model is applied to Te-based materials in order to predict materials that might have the required thermal stability. A lower average number of p-electrons is correlated with a good thermal stability.

Thick slices mechanically polished cut from a pure benzil ingot grown from melt in a modified Bridgman-Stockbarger configuration were irradiated with Ni ions having a specific energy of 11.4 MeV/u at different fluences. The effect of radiation on the properties of bulk benzil has been investigated. The chemical structure was not substantially affected as shown by infrared spectrum. The changes induced on the disorder degree have been evaluated from the Urbach law and X Ray Diffraction measurements. The morphology and surface topography have been analyzed emphasising a decrease in the size of granules and an increase in the surface roughness by irradiation. No effect of irradiation on the photoluminescence emission and optical nonlinear properties has been evidenced. These results recommend benzil as candidate for applications in space technology.

BaFBr:Er3+ @SiO2 core-shell composites were synthesized starting from BaFBr:Er3+ phosphor core grains (BaFBr doped with 1 at% Er3+) prepared by coprecipitation method. A sol-gel process was used to obtain the outer Si02 layer shell from silica sol precursor. The polycrystalline BaFBr:Er3+ @SiO2 heterostructures were formed following calcination at 700 degrees C, in air. The resulting material was characterized in terms of microstructure, photoluminescence and up-conversion luminescence properties. The results indicate that the as-obtained composite has a core-shell structure and shows good luminescence properties. The BaFBr:Er3+ @SiO2 heterostructure is made of BaFBr:Er3+ square sheets encased in a SiO2 shell layer with thickness values between 100 and 400 nm. Under 810 nm laser light pumping, the core-shell heterostructure exhibits Er3+ green up conversion luminescence bands ((H-2(11/2),S-4(3/2)) -> I-4(15/2)) at 525 and 545 nm, ascribed to a two-photon process.

We report on the fabrication of silicon-reinforced carbon (C: Si) structures by combinatorial pulsed laser deposition to search for the best design for a new generation of multi-functional coated implants. The synthesized films were characterized from the morphological, structural, compositional, mechanical and microbiological points of view. Scanning electron microscopy revealed the presence, on top of the deposited layers, of spheroid particulates with sizes in the micron range. No microcracks or delaminations were observed. Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy and grazing incidence x-ray diffraction pointed to the existence of aC to Si compositional gradient from one end of the film to the other. Raman investigation revealed a relatively high sp(3) hybridization of up to 80% at 40-48 mm a part from the edge with higher Ccontent. Si addition was demonstrated to significantly increase C: Si film bonding to the substrate, with values above the ISO threshold for coatings to be used in high-loading biomedical applications. Surface energy studies pointed to an increase in the hydrophilic character of the deposited structures along with Si content up to 52 m Nm(-1'). In certain cases, the Si-reinforced Ccoatings elicited an antimicrobial biofilm action. The presence of Si was proven to be benign to HEp-2 cells of human origin, without interfering with their cellular cycle. On this basis, reliable C: Si structures with good adherence to the substrate and high efficiency against microbial biofilms can be developed for implant coatings and other advanced medical devices.

Based on simulations using the plane-wave expansion method, we show that the position of the first bandgap for TM polarized electromagnetic radiation in a high-filling ratio two-dimensional square photonic crystal is practically insensitive to the shape of dielectric rods with the same cross-sectional area. The width of this bandgap depends on the rod shape, but the difference between photonic crystals with circular and regular polygonal rod shapes with a number of edges higher than six can be neglected. For higher-order bandgaps the difference is larger. These results suggest that the fabrication tolerances related to the shape of dielectric rods in a PBG are not as strict as previously thought. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In: ZnO (IZO) thin films were deposited on flexible plastic substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. The obtained layers present adequate optical and electrical properties competitive with those based on indium tin oxide (ITO). The figure of merit (9 X 10(-3) Omega(-1)) calculated for IZO layers demonstrates that high quality coatings can be prepared by this deposition technique. A thermal annealing (150 degrees C for 1 h) or an oxygen plasma etching (6 mbar for 10 min.) were applied to the IZO layers to evaluate the influence of these treatments on the properties of the transparent coatings. Using vacuum evaporation, organic heterostructures based on cooper phthalocyanine (CuPc) and 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) were deposited on the untreated and treated IZO layers. The optical and electrical properties of the heterostructures were investigated by UVVis, FTIR and current-voltage (I-V) measurements. For the heterostructure fabricated on IZO treated in oxygen plasma, an improvement in the current value with at least one order of magnitude was evidenced in the I-V characteristics recorded in dark conditions. Also, an increase in the current value for the heterostructure deposited on untreated IZO layer can be achieved by adding an organic layer such as tris-8-hydroxyquinoline aluminium (Alq(3)).