The crystallization properties of the phase change material (PCM) germanium telluride (GeTe) are investigated. It is shown that the critical nucleus radius of a crystalline cluster is smaller than 1.4nm when the annealing temperature is lower than 600K, indicating an extremely promising scaling scenario. It is revealed that the elastic energy, which is largely ignored in existing PCM crystallization studies, plays an important role in determining various crystallization properties and the ultimate scaling limit of the PCM. By omitting the influence of elastic energy, the critical formation energy (critical nuclei radius) will be underestimated by 41.7% (22.4%), and the nucleation rate will be overestimated by 74.2% when the annealing temperature is 600 K. The methodology proposed here is capable of quantitatively calculating the nucleation rate and growth speed of amorphous PCM from first principle calculations, which is relevant to computational design and optimization of PCM.

We will present a simplified approximate model showing how even small changes in the dielectric response result in substantial variations in the Hamaker coefficient of the van der Waals interactions. Since all the terms in the Matsubara summation depends on the variation of the dielectric response spectra at one particular frequency, the total change in the Hamaker coefficient depends on the spectral changes not only at that frequency but also at the rest of the spectrum properly weighted. The Matsubara terms most affected by the addition of a single peak are not those close to the position of the added peak, but are distributed over the entire range of frequencies. We comment on the possibility of eliminating van der Waals interactions and/or drastically reducing them by spectral variation in a narrow regime of frequencies.

In this work, effects of thermal annealing on the structural and optical properties of ZnO thin films grown on p-Si and GaN substrates using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) are investigated. Annealing at 600 °C results in optimum crystal and optical qualities of the ZnO thin films on both substrates. Smaller lattice mismatch between grown ZnO epitaxial layer on GaN substrates results in better film morphology as compared to p-Si substrates. Higher annealing temperature along with a slower thermal ramp provides better crystal quality of ZnO thin films on both substrates. Annealing ZnO thin films at 700 °C with a slower thermal ramp results in better crystal quality as is evident from a 56% reduction in the full-width at half maximum (FWHM) of the (002) peak compared to the as-grown films. The optical quality also enhances with a slower annealing rate. The determination of the optimum annealing conditions for different substrates has important implications in fabricating optimized and efficient ZnO based electronics.

MOS capacitors with the ZrHfO/AlOx/ZrHfO high-k gate dielectric stack were prepared and characterized for memory functions. The device prefers to trap holes, i.e., under the negative gate voltage, rather than electrons, i.e., under the positive voltage. The hole-trapping process is time and voltage dependent. The weakly trapped holes are quickly released upon the remove of the stress voltage. However, more than 30% of the originally trapped holes can be retained in the device after 10 years. The AlOx embedded ZrHfO high-k stack is a suitable gate dielectric structure for nonvolatile memories.

This paper presents synthesis and optical properties of mono-crystalline Ge1-y Sny and Ge1-x-y Six Sny semiconductor alloys grown on Si/Ge platforms via purposely designed CVD routes using highly reactive Si/Ge/Sn hydrides including Ge3H8, Ge4H10, Si4H10 and SnD4. The Ge1-y Sny materials are shown to exhibit strong and tunable photoluminescence induced by the substitution of sizable Sn concentrations in the Ge diamond lattice ultimately leading to an indirect-to-direct band gap crossover at y= 0.08-0.09. The optical data indicate that the IR coverage of the alloy extends well beyond that of elemental Ge into the broader long wavelength range suggesting a variety of applications in Si-based photonics. Ge1-x-y Six Sny alloys represent the first viable ternary semiconductor among group IV elements with independently tunable lattice parameter and electronic structure. Studies of the compositional dependence of direct and indirect edges in these alloys using photoluminescence and photocurrent measurements are reviewed. The optical results show band gap variation over a wide range above and below that of Ge from 1.1 to 0.5 eV and provide the first demonstration of direct gap behavior in this semiconductor system.

In hospitals and clinics worldwide, medical device surfaces have become a rapidly growing source of nosocomial infections. Almost immediately after adhering to a device surface, bacteria can begin to form a biofilm, which makes the infection especially difficult to treat and often necessitates device removal. Adding to the severity of this problem is the spread of bacterial genetic tolerance to antibiotics, in part demonstrated by the recent and significant increase in the prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Nanomaterials are beginning to be used for a wide variety of biomedical applications due to their unique surface properties which have the ability to control initial protein adsorption and subsequent cell behavior. This “nanoroughness” gives nanomaterials a greater functional surface area than conventional materials, which do not have significant features on the nanoscale. In addition, it is theorized that nanoparticles may also have general mechanisms of toxicity towards bacteria that do not cause problems for mammalian cells.

The objective of the present in vitro study was to develop a nanocomposite material by embedding conventional polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with zinc oxide nanoparticles through a simple and inexpensive procedure. The effect of different nanoparticle sizes and %wts were investigated. Results demonstrated that this technique significantly decreased S. aureus density and biofilm formation without the incorporation of antibiotics or other pharmaceuticals, as well as increased the adhesion of human fibroblast cells. Thus, this material could have much promise for use in the manufacture of common implanted medical devices.

In the present study, the sub-gap states of amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (a-IGZO) thin films treated with various process conditions have been evaluated by means of capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics and isothermal capacitance transient spectroscopy (ICTS). It was found that the space-charge densities of the a-IGZO decreased as the oxygen partial pressure was increased during the sputtering of a-IGZO thin films. The ICTS spectra for the 4, 8, and 12 % samples were similar and the peak positions were found to be around 1 × 10-2 s at 180 K. On the other hand, the peak position for the 20 % sample shifted to a longer time regime and was located at around 2 × 10-1 s at 180 K. The total densities of the traps for the 4, 8, and 12 % samples were calculated to be 5−6 × 1016 cm-3, while that for 20 % was one order of magnitude lower than the others. From Thermal desorption spectrometer, it was found that desorption of Zn atoms started at a temperature higher than 300 °C for the 4 % sample, while desorption of Zn was not observed for the 20 % sample. The introduction of the sub-gap states could be attributed to oxygen-rich and/or Zn-deficient defects in the a-IGZO thin films formed during thermal annealing.

We examine a novel phase of the underscreened Anderson lattice Model that might pertain to the ”Hidden Ordered” phase of URu2Si2. We show that the system breaks spin-rotational invariance below the critical temperature and spontaneously selects a preferred axis of spin quantization. As a result, the low temperature phase exhibits a magnetic anisotropy, where the electronic properties depend not only on the magnitude of the magnetic field but also on the orientation of the applied field relative to the axis of quantization. The results are discussed in the context of recent experimental findings on URu2Si2.

In our earlier work [1] microstructural evolution in tungsten under self-ion irradiation was investigated as a function of temperature and dose by in-situ 150 keV W+ ion irradiations on the IVEM-Tandem facility at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). The present work focuses on the thermal stability of this damage. Thin foils of tungsten were irradiated at room temperature (R.T.) to fluences up to 1018 W+m-2 (∼ 1.0 dpa) and were then annealed in-situ for up to 120 min at temperatures between 300 and 800°C.

We found that: (1) loops with Burgers vectors ½ <111> and <100> coexist during annealing; (2) <100> is not a stable loop configuration above 300°C and the fraction of such loops decreased with increasing temperature and/or time; (3) changes in loop populations during annealing were very sensitive to temperature, but less sensitive to time. The majority of changes occurred within 15 min, and were associated with the loss of small (1-2 nm) dislocation loops. The origin of these trends is discussed by considering defect mobility and the energetics of defect configurations predicted by previous DFT calculations [2].

Laser is used to produce graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) by unzipping carbon nanotubes (CNTs). It is found that laser can not only unzip CNTs, but also join GNRs through covalent reconnections. Because the CNTs are aligned in a freestanding CNT sheet, the laser irradiation process results in a freestanding GNR network. Experimental results show that the expected results can be achieved by controlling the delivery of laser beam energy to the sheet. Moreover, this process is a solid-state process and a scalable manufacturing process.

A new donor-acceptor structured conjugated polymer (PDODTBI) with trifluoromethylated benzimidazole and benzo[1,2-b;3,4-b']dithiophene (BDT) unit have been designed and synthesized using Stille coupling polymerization reaction. The polymer is highly soluble in common organic solvents such as chloroform, tetrahydrofuran and chlorobenzene with good film forming properties. The structure of the polymer is elucidated by 1H NMR and FTIR spectroscopic techniques. The introduction of a trifluoromethyl group at 4th position of the benzimidazole unit has significantly altered the optical and electrochemical properties of polymer. Polymer film showed broad absorption band in the range of 400-680 nm. Optical band gap of the polymer estimated from the absorption band edge and is found to be ∼1.88 eV. Polymer exhibited deeper HOMO (-5.0 eV) and the LUMO (-3.12 eV) energy levels. Bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cell device with PDODTBI as a donor and PC61BM as an acceptor were evaluated.

Current treatment options for tissue loss or organ failure include organ/tissue transplantation of autografts/allografts, delivery of bioactive agents, and utilization of synthetic replacements composed of metals, polymers, and ceramics. However each strategy suffers from a number of limitations. The early attempts to overcome these drawbacks led to the emergence of tissue engineering that provided viable tissue substitutes using a combination of biomaterials, cells, and factors. This approach was ideally suited to repair damaged tissues; however the substitution and regeneration of large tissue volumes and multi-level tissues such as complex organ systems require more than optimal combinations of biomaterials and biologics.

‘Regenerative Engineering’ is aimed at creating large and complex tissue systems incorporating advances in material science, stem cell technology and developmental biology. We believe that recent breakthrough technologies in advanced materials science and nanotechnology allow us to recapitulate native tissues. The novel designer polymers incorporate bioactivity and physical features specific to a regeneration application. Overall, engineered materials and scaffolds afford selective control of cell sensitivity, and precise control of temporal and spatial stimulatory cues. We aim to build multi-level systems such as organs through location-specific topographies and physico-chemical cues incorporated into a continuous phase using a combination of classical top-down tissue engineering approach with bottom-up strategies used in regenerative biology.

Musculoskeletal tissues are critical to the normal functioning of an individual and following damage or degeneration show extremely limited endogenous regenerative capacity. The development of material and structural platforms to modulate stem cell behavior to enhance regeneration is an area of great interest. In this manuscript we cover some examples of material development, and incorporation of topographical and cytokine cues to modulate the differentiation of hard and soft musculoskeletal tissues such as bone, ligament and tendon.

For a cost-efficient fabrication of homogeneous oxide thin films the usage of amorphous materials is favorable. They can be deposited at room temperature (RT) and represent an interesting alternative to amorphous silicon in electronics. Zinc-tin oxide is a promising n-type channel material for thin film transistors and consists of abundant elements, only, in contrast to the well-explored indium gallium zinc oxide. Here, the electrical and optical properties of room temperature deposited ZTO thin films are discussed. These films were fabricated via pulsed-laser deposition on glass substrates by ablating a ceramic target composed of ZnO and SnO2 in a 1:2 ratio. The resistivity has been controlled over seven orders of magnitude via the oxygen growth pressure. Further, the optical transmittance tends to be higher for higher oxygen growth pressures.

Cold spray is a novel and promising technology to obtain surface coating. Notwithstanding the several technological advantages with respect to other processes, its diffusion is somewhat limited because of the limited knowledge on the mechanical properties of the cold sprayed materials and in particular, the fatigue behavior. Moreover, the existing data concerning fatigue behavior of coated specimens are controversial and different material system shows different behaviors. The aim of this study is to distinguish the involved parameters and their effect on fatigue behavior of cold sprayed systems. A critical discussion on four important parameters i.e. interface quality, material properties, deposition parameters and residual stress is given. The influential parameters are consolidated in one formula, which can predict the fatigue limit of cold spray system as a function of residual stress, coating hardness and stress gradient in the specimen.

Intermolecular interaction potentials of the acrylamide dimer in 12 equilibrium configurations have been calculated using the second-order Møller-Plesset (MP2) perturbation theory. We have employed Pople’s medium size basis sets [up to 6-311++G(3df,2p)] and Dunning’s correlation consistent basis sets (up to aug-cc-pVTZ). We have also carried out density functional theory (DFT) type calculations and compared the results with those calculated with the MP2 theory.

In the current paper we modify the evolution equations of the simplified continuum dislocation dynamics theory presented in [T. Hochrainer, S. Sandfeld, M. Zaiser, P. Gumbsch, Continuum dislocation dynamics: Towards a physical theory of crystal plasticity. J. Mech. Phys. Solids. (in print)] to account for the nature of the so-called curvature density as a conserved quantity. The derived evolution equations define a dislocation flux based crystal plasticity law, which we present in a fully three-dimensional form. Because the total curvature is a conserved quantity in the theory the time integration of the equations benefit from using conservative numerical schemes. We present a discontinuous Galerkin implementation for integrating the time evolution of the dislocation state and show that this allows simulating the evolution of a single dislocation loop as well as of a distributed loop density on different slip systems.

An electrical and analytical study was carried out to investigate TiW/ZnO Schottky contacts with 30 nm ZnO thin film layers deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD), plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD), and thermal atomic layer deposition (TALD). Devices with ZnO layer deposited by TALD exhibit approximately linear behavior in their I-V measurements. However, both devices with ZnO layers deposited by PEALD and PLD behaved like Schottky rectifiers with barrier heights between TiW and ZnO of 0.51 eV and 0.45 eV respectively and ideality factors of 2.0 and 2.3 respectively. The PEALD deposited ZnO Schotty diodes demonstrated an on/off rectifying ratio of about 25 at ±1 V. The leakage current values of the PLD deposited ZnO Schottky diodes are significantly larger than those of PEALD, leading to a poor on/off rectifying ratio of ∼4. Due to the small thickness, a critical breakdown strength of 1.3 MV/cm was estimated for PEALD-ZnO thin films.

The organometallic approach was successfully applied to synthesize water-soluble ruthenium nanoparticles displaying interesting catalytic properties in hydrogenation of unsaturated model-substrates. Nanocatalyst synthesis was performed by hydrogenation of the complex [Ru(COD)(COT)] in the presence of sulfonated diphosphines and cyclodextrins as protective agents providing very small ruthenium nanoparticles (ca. 1.2-1.5 nm) with narrow size distribution and high stability. Catalysis results in water evidenced a control of the surface properties of these novel ruthenium nanocatalysts at a supramolecular level.