ABSTRACT
Pulsed laser deposition on 3-dimensional micro-objects of complex morphology is demonstrated by the paradigmatic growth of cellulose and polymer/Y3Al5O12:Ce phosphor composite nanolayers. Congruent materials transfer is a result of multicomponent ablation performed by relatively low fluence (<200 mJ cm-2) ArF excimer laser pulses (λ = 193 nm). Films grown on optical and engineering components, having a thickness from ~50 nm to more than ~300 nm, are durable, well adherent and maintain the structural and functional properties of the parent solids. The results verify the unique capabilities of deep-ultraviolet pulsed laser deposition of novel functional nanostructures on arbitrary surface morphologies and highlight its potential in future 3-dimensional nanotechnologies.
ABSTRACT
Ultrathin NiO films in the thickness range between 1 and 27 nm have been deposited on high-quality quartz substrates by direct magnetron sputtering under a rough vacuum with a base pressure of 2 × 10-2 mbar. The sputtering target was metallic Ni; however, due to the rough vacuum a precursor material was grown in which most of Ni was already oxidized. Subsequent short annealing at temperatures of about 600 °C in a furnace in air resulted in NiO with high crystallinity quality, as atomic force microscopy revealed. The images of surface morphology showed that the NiO films were continuous and follow a normal grain growth mode. UV-Vis light absorption spectroscopy experiments have revealed a blue shift of the direct band gap of NiO. The band gap was determined either by Tauc plots (onset) or by the derivative method (highest rate of absorbance increase just after the onset). The experimental results are interpreted as evidences of quantum confinement effects. Theoretical calculations based on Hartree Fock approximation as applied for an electron-hole system, in the framework of effective mass approximation were carried out. The agreement between theory and experiment supports the quantum confinement interpretation.
ABSTRACT
The origins and first demonstration of structurally stable solids formed by use of radiation forces are presented. By experimentally proving that radiation forces can indeed produce stable solid material forms, a novel method enabling two- and three-dimensional (2d and 3d) microfabrication is introduced: An optical, non-contact single-step physical operation, reversible with respect to materials nature, based on the sole use of radiation forces. The present innovation is elucidated by the formation of polyisoprene and polybutadiene micro-solids, as well as plasmonic and fluorescent hybrids, respectively comprising Au nanoparticles and CdS quantum dots, together with novel concepts of polymeric fiber-drawing by radiation forces.
ABSTRACT
In this article we present a review on instrumentation and the modes of operation of a scanning probe microscope. In detail, we review the main techniques of Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM), which are Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), focusing our attention on the latter one. The AFM instrument provides information on the roughness and grain size of thin films. As an example we review recent results on two metallic thin film systems: thin Ag films deposited on glass, and Ni/Pt compositionally modulated multilayers deposited on glass, Si, and polyimide substrates. To show the validity of the grain size measurements, we compare the data with the ones resulting from X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. We show that the AFM results are reliable for grain diameters as small as 14 nm, which is approximately comparable to the tip radius. Finally, we deal with Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) results on Co/Pt and Co/Au multilayers. We observe perpendicularly magnetized domains. The domain configurations are correlated to the magnetization hysteresis curves.
