National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

The short history of the Ovshinsky Prize conferred for Excellence in Amorphous Chalcogenides is presented.

Samarium is deposited on Si(001) at various temperatures (room temperature to 400 A degrees C), and the surface structure, interface reactivity, electron configuration, and magnetic properties are investigated by low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE), respectively. It is found that metal Sm is present on samples prepared at room temperature with an interface layer containing mostly Sm2+ and a lower amount of Sm3+. When samples are prepared at high temperature, much less Sm-0 is found with an increasing amount of Sm2+. Freshly prepared Sm-0 and SmSi2 layers react strongly with oxygen from the residual gas, promoting formation of Sm2O3 at the expense of both metal Sm and SmSi2. Room temperature ferromagnetism is observed for all prepared layers with a decrease of the saturation magnetisation when samples are prepared at high temperature. It is found that ferromagnetism implies mostly Sm3+ and Sm metal. In addition to these findings, this work proposes a new assignment of the Sm 3d chemically shifted components. Also, a noticeable variation of the XPS Sm 3d spin-orbit splitting is found as a function of the Sm ionization state.

Novel complexes of type M2L(CH3COO)(4)center dot nH(2)O (M:Ni, n = 4; M:Cu, n = 2 and M:Zn, n = 0; L: ligand resulted in 1,2-phenylenediamine, 3,6-diazaoctane-1,8-diamine and formaldehyde template condensation) were synthesised and characterised. The features of complexes have been assigned from microanalytical, IR, UV-Vis, H-1 NMR, EPR as well as magnetic data at room temperature. Processes as water elimination as well as oxidative degradation of both organic components (bismacrocycle and acetate) were observed. The final product of decomposition was metal (II) oxide as powder X-ray diffraction indicates.

Thin films with the composition [(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3](0.92)-[BaTiO3](0.08) (hereafter BNT-BT0.08) were deposited on Pt-Si by spin-coating from a stable sol precursor. The BNT-BT0.08 film, crystallized on the Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 rhombohedral lattice, was obtained after annealing the film-gel at 700 A degrees C. The films have a smooth surface (Rms = 2.76 nm) and grains with ferroelectric domains. The film showed a bandgap of 3.25 eV and a refractive index of 2.20 at a wavelength of 630 nm. The dielectric characteristics of BNT-BT0.08 thin films were measured at room temperature and 10 kHz the dielectric constant (epsilon (r)) was 243 and the loss tangent (tan delta) was 0.38. The remnant polarization (P (r)) was 0.87 mu C/cm(2) and the coercive field (E (c)) was 220 kV/cm at 10 kHz and room temperature. The current density was approximately 2.7 x 10(-5) A/cm(2) at low electric fields (100 kV/cm). BNT-BT0.08 thin films shown piezoelectric properties (d (33eff) = 100 pm/V) comparable to those of PZT thin films.

Magnetite alternating copolymers divinylbenzene-maleic anhydride (DVB-MA) composites were prepared by dispersion polymerization. Because magnetite is used as a complex with oleic acid (Fe(3)O(4)OLA), the final hybrids show good dispersion of inorganic nanofillers in the polymer matrix. The obtained composites were analyzed by infrared absorption spectrometry, diffuse reflectance in visible light, thermogravimetry, X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, dynamic light scattering, scanning electron microscopy and vibrating sample magnetometry. The obtained results indicate the successful preparation of magnetite nanoparticles with an average size of about 23 nm dispersed in micrometer size copolymer spherical particles, which relative content can be controlled via the processing parameters. A relationship between the relative content of magnetite nanoparticles and the size of the polymer particles, with direct influence on the diffuse reflectance in the visible domain, was observed. A superparamagnetic behavior was evidenced at room temperature with a blocking temperature lower than as expected from the bulk anisotropy constant and the average size of the magnetite nanoparticles. Both the unexpected low blocking temperature and the observed low specific magnetizations were explained by a defected and poor crystalline structure of the magnetite nanoparticles, giving rise to spin disorder and diminished crystalline anisotropy constant. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A new description of the switching phenomenon is given. The switching is regarded as due to the formation and breaking of the links between the dendrites of crystalline nuclei in bulk materials, as a consequence of the energy pumped by an electrical field. This mechanism explains the very short switching time (<20?ns), the possibility to get smart memories based on multisteps of resistivity and the high number of cycles supported by the cell (1016). A cellular automaton mechanism was created on the basis of this model for switching. Multistage memory in chalcogenide materials has also been explained by this mechanism.

Effect of an antibacterial drug, sulfacetamide, IUPAC name N-[(4-aminophenyl) sulfonyl] acetamide (APSA), on the corrosion products formed on carbon steel surface in 1.0 mol L-1 HCl solution has been investigated using mass loss, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and simultaneous thermal and differential scanning calorimetry/differential thermal analysis (TG/DSC/DTA). Mass loss measurements reveal that the corrosion rate of carbon steel is retarded by APSA and that the inhibition efficiency of this inhibitor increases with increasing the concentration. XPS analysis shows that, at this stage, the main product of corrosion is a non-stoichiometric Fe3+ oxyhydroxide, consisting of a mixture of FeO(OH) in anhydrous or hydrated forms, containing Cl- inclusions and adsorbed APSA molecules. The mechanism of inhibition was discussed in light of the chemical structure of the investigated inhibitor. The corrosion products were analyzed using TG/DSC/DTA technique.

High-temperature superconducting objects of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 and YBa2Cu3O7 highly curved in the ab-plane, such as curved/ kinked whiskers, bows and ring-like structures, were obtained within a solid-liquid-solid (SLS) grass-like growth mechanism. As-grown objects are crystals with three-dimensional epitaxy similar to conventional single crystals: they can be viewed as crystal parts 'cut' from a conventional rectangular crystal. Between our curved objects and conventional crystals, whiskers or thin films there are some differences in the superconducting properties induced only by the shape factors and no new physics is observed. Some details of the growth mechanism are discussed, emphasizing curved-line formation.

We used preceramic polysiloxane polymers to fabricate superconducting MgB2 composites that are doped with carbon and nanosized inclusions to improve the pinning properties. The polysiloxanes were prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization and the composites were fabricated by the short time spark plasma sintering method. We found that the superconducting critical temperatures were higher than expected from the carbon content found from the X-ray diffraction analysis of the (110) peak of MgB2. To explain this finding we propose that the grains are unevenly doped, with a core-shell distribution. We also found that both, the upper critical fields and the critical current densities are higher in the preceramic-doped samples than in pure MgB2, in agreement with the carbon doping level. When ferrocene-grafted polysiloxane is used, the upper critical field is the largest, while the critical current density is the lowest. We attribute this fact to the fact that the polymer pyrolysis results in iron-based nanostructures which have a pair breaking effect. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.