National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

This paper is focused on preparation and microstructure and electrochemical characterization of carbon-TiO2/Pt catalyst used as electrode in fuel cells applications. The platinum deposition was comparatively studied on graphitized carbon substrate and carbon substrate covered with titanium oxide. A strong influence on the platinum deposition, depending of the TiO2 presence, was found. The platinum nanoparticles about 5 nm in size are dispersed in aggregates of 50 to 100 nm on the catalyst surface. This dispersion is strongly affected by the titanium oxide and the substrate porosity. The Pt/TiO2/G and Pt/G electrodes were tested for their catalytic activity in the oxidation of ethanol. The prepared Pt/TiO2/G electrode show higher active surface area than for the Pt/G electrode, this increase in the surface area could be explained to be due to a spreading of wetting or the formation of new active sites at the Pt/oxide interface.

Highly electronegative plasmas were produced in Ar/SF6 gas mixtures in a dc discharge with multipolar magnetic confinement and transversal magnetic filter. Langmuir probe and mass spectrometry were used for plasma diagnostics. Plasma potential drift, the influence of small or large area biased electrodes on plasma parameters, the formation of the negative ion sheath and etching rates by positive and negative ions have been investigated for different experimental conditions. When the electron temperature was reduced below 1 eV the density ratio of negative ion to electron exceeded 100 even for very low amounts of SF6 gas. The plasma potential drift could be controlled by proper wall conditioning. A large electrode biased positively had no effect on plasma potential for density ratios of negative ions to electrons larger than 50. For similar electronegativities or higher a negative ion sheath could be formed by applying a positive bias of a few hundred volts.

We obtain and analyze the effect of electron-electron Coulomb interaction on the time-dependent current flowing through a mesoscopic system connected to biased semi-infinite leads. We assume the contact is gradually switched on in time and we calculate the time-dependent reduced density operator of the sample using the generalized master equation. The many-electron states (MES) of the isolated sample are derived with the exact-diagonalization method. The chemical potentials of the two leads create a bias window which determines which MES are relevant to the charging and discharging of the sample and to the currents, during the transient or steady states. We discuss the contribution of the MES with fixed number of electrons N and we find that in the transient regime there are excited states more active than the ground state even for N=1. This is a dynamical signature of the Coulomb-blockade phenomenon. We discuss numerical results for three sample models: short one-dimensional chain, two-dimensional (2D) lattice, and 2D parabolic quantum wire.

We demonstrate that an anisotropic photonic crystal can modify the shape of a highly convergent incident optical beam. The beam shape engineering is relatively easy, and the photonic crystal is less alignment demanding than beam shapers that incorporate several optical systems. The shape of the output beam can be controlled by an appropriate choice of the angular divergence of the beam, the number of periods and the birefringence values and layer widths of the constituent materials. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America

The optical birefringence of Gd1-xRxCa4O(BO3)(3) (R = Lu or Sc) crystals can be controlled by changing the compositional parameter x. Two nonlinear crystals of Gd0.884Lu0.116Ca4O(BO3)(3) and Gd0.952Sc0.048Ca4O(BO3)(3) with large size and good quality have been grown by Czochralski method. According to our assumptions, the obtained results demonstrate that both crystals convert the near-infrared radiation of 800nm into blue-violet light (400nm) by type-I noncritical phase-matching (NCPM) second-harmonic generation (SHG) processes along Y axis.

Composites prepared from aerosil A380 and liquid crystals (LCs) of 4-n-alkyl-4'-cyanophenyl benzoate type, with four to six carbon atoms in the alkyl chain were investigated by infrared spectroscopy. Their high silica content (of 2-7 g aerosil/1 g of LC) was given by thermogravimetric investigations and allows the observation of a rather thin LC layer on the silica particles. Several surface species onto the external surface of the grains were demonstrated. Arguments are given that monomer and dimer species are present in the bulk cyanophenyl benzoate materials while bulk-like species along with hydrogen-bonded ones coexist in the so-called surface layer of the composites. The main interaction of LC molecules with the aerosil surface is by hydrogen bonding taking place with the involvement of the cyan group. There is a contribution of ester carbonyl group to these surface interactions but this cannot be well quantified. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Radiofrequency magnetron sputtering deposition at low temperature (150A degrees C) was used to deposit bioactive glass coatings onto titanium substrates. Three different working atmospheres were used: Ar 100%, Ar + 7%O(2), and Ar + 20%O(2). The preliminary adhesion tests (pull-out) produced excellent adhesion values (similar to 75 MPa) for the as-deposited bio-glass films. Bioactivity tests in simulated body fluid were carried out for 30 days. SEM-EDS, XRD and FTIR measurements were performed. The tests clearly showed strong bioactive features for all the prepared films. The best biomineralization capability, expressed by the thickest chemically grown carbonated hydroxyapatite layer, was obtained for the bio-glass coating sputtered in a reactive atmosphere with 7% O(2).

In this paper, dispersion/attenuation diagrams are investigated for purely left-handed (PLH) and for composite right/left handed (CRLH) transmission lines. The magnitude and phase of the S parameters of these structures are analyzed in a broadband (1-7 GHz) range. The investigations on microstrip CRLH lines demonstrate the presence of the left-handed range, the stop-band (only for the unbalanced lines) and the right-handed range. By edge-coupling two such CRLH lines, devices with new properties, different from conventional microstrip devices were obtained. Symmetric and asymmetric 0 dB backward couplers working in the stop-band of the CRLH line were achieved. Very short 3 dB couplers (with only 2 or 3 unit cells) were also investigated.

In this paper a band-pass filter in microstrip technology, with cross couplings and with a pair of attenuation poles, is investigated. The equi-ripple in-band response and the location of the poles on the frequency axis can be precisely controlled through a new technique which combines accurate electromagnetic-field simulation and fast linear circuit optimization, allowing this way the design of band-pass filters with improved performances. To illustrate the procedure, a microstrip band-pass filter was designed, verified by em-field simulation, fabricated and tested. The response of the designed filter is in good agreement with the specification, confirming the possibilities of realizing microwave band-pass filters with rigorously controlled characteristics, with reduced design time and non-prohibitive computational effort.