Collective excitations in spin-polarized bilayer graphene.

We calculate the plasmon frequency ω and damping rate γ of plasma oscillations in a spin-polarized BLG system. Using the long wavelength approximation for dynamical dielectric function, we obtain an analytical expression for plasmon frequency showing that degree of spin polarization P has negligible effect on the long wavelength plasmon frequency. Numerical calculations demonstrate that the plasmon frequency increases (decreases) noticeably (slightly) with the increase in spin polarization in large (small) wave-vector q region. We also find that the damping rate and the shape of γ as a function of q depend strongly on P. The increase in carrier density decreases significantly both plasmon frequency and damping rate independently of the spin polarization. The numerically calculated critical wave vector, at which the plasmon dispersion curve hits the edge of electron-hole continuum, decreases with P and can be used to experimentally determine the degree of spin polarization.

Micro-combinatorial sampling of the optical properties of hydrogenated amorphous [Formula: see text] for the entire range of compositions towards a database for optoelectronics.

The optical parameters of hydrogenated amorphous a-[Formula: see text]:H layers were measured with focused beam mapping ellipsometry for photon energies from 0.7 to 6.5 eV. The applied single-sample micro-combinatorial technique enables the preparation of a-[Formula: see text]:H with full range composition spread. Linearly variable composition profile was revealed along the 20 mm long gradient part of the sample by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and elastic recoil detection analysis. The Cody-Lorentz approach was identified as the best method to describe the optical dispersion of the alloy. The effect of incorporated H on the optical absorption is explained by the lowering of the density of localized states in the mobility gap. It is shown that in the low-dispersion near infrared range the refractive index of the a-[Formula: see text] alloy can be comprehended as a linear combination of the optical parameters of the components. The micro-combinatorial sample preparation with mapping ellipsometry is not only suitable for the fabrication of samples with controlled lateral distribution of the concentrations, but also opens new prospects in creating databases of compounds for optical and optoelectonic applications.

Fabrication and characterization of ultrathin dextran layers: Time dependent nanostructure in aqueous environments revealed by OWLS.

Surface coatings of the polysaccharide dextran and its derivatives are key ingredients especially in label-free biosensors for the suppression of non-specific binding and for receptor immobilization. Nevertheless, the nanostructure of these ultrathin coatings and its tailoring by the variation of the preparation conditions have not been profoundly characterized and understood. In this work carboxymethylated dextran (CMD) was prepared and used for fabricating ultrathin surface coatings. A grafting method based on covalent coupling to aminosilane- and epoxysilane-functionalized surfaces was applied to obtain thin CMD layers. The carboxyl moiety of the CMD was coupled to the aminated surface by EDC-NHS reagents, while CMD coupling through epoxysilane molecules was performed without any additional reagents. The surface analysis following the grafting procedures consisted of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR), spectroscopic ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and optical waveguide lightmode spectroscopy (OWLS). The XPS and AFM measurements showed that the grafting resulted in a very thin dextran layer of a few nanometers. The OWLS method allowed devising the structure of the interfacial dextran layers by the evaluation of the optogeometrical parameters. The alteration in the nanostructure of the CMD layer with the chemical composition of the silane coverage and the pH of the grafting solution was revealed by in situ OWLS, specifically, lain down chains were found to be prevalent on the surface under neutral and basic conditions on epoxysilylated surfaces. The developed methodologies allowed to design and fabricate nanometer scale CMD layers with well-controlled surface structure, which are very difficult to characterize in aqueous environments using present instrumentations and highly hydrated surface layers.

Flagellin based biomimetic coatings: From cell-repellent surfaces to highly adhesive coatings.

UNLABELLED: Biomimetic coatings with cell-adhesion-regulating functionalities are intensively researched today. For example, cell-based biosensing for drug development, biomedical implants, and tissue engineering require that the surface adhesion of living cells is well controlled. Recently, we have shown that the bacterial flagellar protein, flagellin, adsorbs through its terminal segments to hydrophobic surfaces, forming an oriented monolayer and exposing its variable D3 domain to the solution. Here, we hypothesized that this nanostructured layer is highly cell-repellent since it mimics the surface of the flagellar filaments. Moreover, we proposed flagellin as a carrier molecule to display the cell-adhesive RGD (Arg-Gly-Asp) peptide sequence and induce cell adhesion on the coated surface. The D3 domain of flagellin was replaced with one or more RGD motifs linked by various oligopeptides modulating flexibility and accessibility of the inserted segment. The obtained flagellin variants were applied to create surface coatings inducing cell adhesion and spreading to different levels, while wild-type flagellin was shown to form a surface layer with strong anti-adhesive properties. As reference surfaces synthetic polymers were applied which have anti-adhesive (PLL-g-PEG poly(l-lysine)-graft-poly(ethylene glycol)) or adhesion inducing properties (RGD-functionalized PLL-g-PEG). Quantitative adhesion data was obtained by employing optical biochips and microscopy. Cell-adhesion-regulating coatings can be simply formed on hydrophobic surfaces by using the developed flagellin-based constructs. The developed novel RGD-displaying flagellin variants can be easily obtained by bacterial production and can serve as alternatives to create cell-adhesion-regulating biomimetic coatings. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: In the present work, we show for the first time that.

On the formation of blisters in annealed hydrogenated a-Si layers.

Differently hydrogenated radio frequency-sputtered a-Si layers have been studied by infrared (IR) spectroscopy as a function of the annealing time at 350°C with the aim to get a deeper understanding of the origin of blisters previously observed by us in a-Si/a-Ge multilayers prepared under the same conditions as the ones applied to the present a-Si layers. The H content varied between 10.8 and 17.6 at.% as measured by elastic recoil detection analysis. IR spectroscopy showed that the concentration of the clustered (Si-H)n groups and of the (Si-H2)n (n ≥ 1) polymers increased at the expense of the Si-H mono-hydrides with increasing annealing time, suggesting that there is a corresponding increase of the volume of micro-voids whose walls are assumed from literature to be decorated by the clustered mono-hydride groups and polymers. At the same time, an increase in the size of surface blisters was observed. Also, with increasing annealing time, the total concentration of bonded H of any type decreases, indicating that H is partially released from its bonds to Si. It is argued that the H released from the (Si-H)n complexes and polymers at the microvoid surfaces form molecular H2 inside the voids, whose size increases upon annealing because of the thermal expansion of the H2 gas, eventually producing plastic surface deformation in the shape of blisters.

Relationship between structural changes, hydrogen content and annealing in stacks of ultrathin Si/Ge amorphous layers.

Hydrogenated multilayers (MLs) of a-Si/a-Ge have been analysed to establish the reasons of H release during annealing that has been seen to bring about structural modifications even up to well-detectable surface degradation. Analyses carried out on single layers of a-Si and a-Ge show that H is released from its bond to the host lattice atom and that it escapes from the layer much more efficiently in a-Ge than in a-Si because of the smaller binding energy of the H-Ge bond and probably of a greater weakness of the Ge lattice. This should support the previous hypothesis that the structural degradation of a-Si/a-Ge MLs primary starts with the formation of H bubbles in the Ge layers.