National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

Barium strontium titanate (BST) bulk ceramic with composition Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 was produced by solid-state reaction and was used as target for PLD thin film deposition. A Nd-YAG laser, working at 5-10 Hz and different wavelengths has been used. Thin films of stoichiometric BST were deposited on alumina substrate with the thickness between 400 and 500 nm. An aditional annealing was carried out at 800 degrees C for 6 h. XRD and SEM were used for sample characterization. Capacity measurements were performed versus temperature at 100 kHz in a large temperature range. A diffuse ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition with T-C = -72 degrees C for the BST thin film was determined. A 5% tunability was measured in the transition region. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We report an optimized kinetic regime to grow in situ YBa2Cu3O7-delta (YBCO) films on LaAlO3 substrates, by pulsed laser deposition (PLD), which is technically more advantageous than the usual one. Atomic force microscope (AFM) pictures show that the in situ grown YBCO films have much smoother surfaces than the post-deposition annealed YBCO films. The influence of the substrate's surface quality and that of the pulsed laser fluence used in the deposition process on the surface quality and on the critical temperature (T-C) of the in situ YBCO films are described. For measurements we utilized the atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fe-doped titania films were deposited by RF sputtering onto different substrates (glass and ITO/glass) in the same deposition run. The rutile nanocrystalline structure of Fe-doped thin films deposited on glass substrates and anatase nanocrystalline structure of Fe-doped thin films deposited on ITO/glass substrates were evidenced by XRD. SEM investigations showed a smooth surface with a dense nanostructure. XPS study evidenced an almost stoichiometric composition with different iron contents. EPR and XPS studies evidenced that iron entered into TiO2 lattice by substitution, as isolated and dimer species. In Fe-doped thin films deposited on ITO/glass substrates the iron content is ten times higher than in Fe-doped thin films deposited on glass substrates and that a part of them entered as Fe2+. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A barium titanate precursor with barium: titanium ratio of 2: 9 was prepared by coprecipitation of mixed barium and titanium chlorides with ammonium oxalate aqueous solution at pH 7-7.5. Single-phase of Ba2Ti9O20 crystallised in the triclinic system and dense ceramic are obtained by sintering at 1375 degrees C for 4-8.5 h. The grain size of the sintered ceramics is 3 to 5 mu m. Dielectric properties of the sintered ceramics in the microwave frequency region were measured using the TE0(11) mode. Good microwave characteristics for Ba2Ti9O20 Were found. At 5 GHz, the dielectric constant and the dielectric loss (tg sigma) were 36 respectively, 0.6x10(-3). The quality factor due to dielectric loss at 5 GHz was similar to 1700.

Transport and thermodynamic properties were studied for the complex metallic compound beta-Al3Mg2, composed of 925 atoms per unit cell. beta-Al3Mg2 exhibits bulk superconductivity below T-c=0.87 K. An exponential temperature dependence of the specific heat well below T-c indicates BCS-like behavior with a nodeless gap of width Delta(BCS)(0)approximate to 1.5 K. The coherence length is derived as xi(0)=4.85x10(-8) m and the Ginzburg Landau parameter kappa(GL)approximate to 13, characterizing beta-Al3Mg2 as a type II superconductor. Superconductivity in beta-Al3Mg2 occurs in the absence of inversion symmetry of the crystal. Surprisingly, in spite of the rather complex crystal structure of beta-Al3Mg2, physical properties turn out to be quite simple.

X-ray optics is a relatively new instrument for the configuration X-ray beams. Presently this method is mainly used for diffraction and material tests. Although there are problems for medical use because of the larger wavelength (lower energy), for some applications it might be suitable.

The dielectric and optical properties of a series of aromatic polyimides synthesized by solution polycondensation of equimolar amounts of 5-(2,5-dioxotetrahydrofurfuryl)-3-methyl-3-cyclohexeiiyl-1,2-dicarboxylic acid anhydride (epiclon) and diamines, in N-methylpyrrolidinone as solvent, under inert atmosphere were investigated. The effect of diamine type, which contains phenilenic units in the vicinity of methylenic groups or ether linkages, on the refractive index and dielectric constant was examined from theoretical and experimental data. Minimizing polarizability by modification of number of polarizable groups per unit volume in polyimide backbone determines lower values for dielectric constant. Thus, optical dielectric constants obtained from the refractive indices are low and are less influenced by the Ar groups. Higher values of the dielectric constant corresponding to the dipolar polarization are observed by decreasing frequency from 100 KHz to 1 KHz due to the increase of the polarization of induced dipoles, depending on the chemical structures.

Polystyrene-CrO2 composite films with extrinsic tunneling magnetoresistance have been obtained. The electric conduction is 2D Mott variable range hopping in the temperature range 77-300 K. The magnetoresistance is negative when the field is aligned parallel to the current (in-plane geometry) and is due to the spin dependent intergrain tunneling of the charge carriers. It reaches a value MR = -10.6 % at room temperature and a magnetic field of 1T. When the field is applied in-plane but perpendicular to the current the magnetoresistivity is positive and has the average value MR = 3.56 %.

A problem of electronic correlations is considered for two specific mesoscopic systems: the quantum point contact (QPC) and the double quantum dot (2QD) system. The systems are described using a generalized Anderson Hamiltonian. We show that charge fluctuations are relevant for electronic transport. In the QPC a local accumulation of charge and the dynamical Coulomb blockade effect lead to the 0.7 structure in the conductance characteristics. The evolution of the conductance with a magnetic field and in non-equilibrium situations is presented as well. The double quantum dot is studied in the approach, in which correlations within the 2QD are treated exactly, whereas the coupling of the 2QD to the leads is considered in the approximation valid at temperatures above the Kondo temperature. We analyse the evolution of the gate voltage dependence of the spin correlation functions and the conductance with the change of the interdot hopping. For the hopping parameter greater than a threshold value of the on-dot repulsion the physics of the device is dominated by the ground state eigenstates of the 2QD and antiferromagnetic correlations in the case of the doubly occupied 2QD. With a decrease of the interdot hopping repulsion below the threshold we observe a significant reduction of the antiferromagnetic coupling between the dots together with an enhanced occupation of the triplet states.