Protein adsorption is the first phenomenon which occurs at nanoscale level when a given surface came into contact with a living fluid cell such as blood. Investigation of this adsorption at nanoscale provides useful information about kinetics and mechanism of conformation of proteins on a given surface. The present study investigates the adsorption of proteins using tapping/intermittent mode atomic force microscopy (T-AFM). The approach taken here is that hydrogenated amorphous carbon coating (a-C:H) is used as a model surface because it is amorphous, smooth, inert and hydrophobic. Two proteins namely albumin and fibrinogen in phosphate buffer (PBS) and de-ionized water are drop casted to study the adsorption kinetics. First and second resonance AFM data was used to investigate the adsorbed layer of proteins. AFM force curve and scratch experiment were used to verify the adhesion and thickness of the adsorbed layer. Combination of height, phase images along with the AFM force curve and scratch experiment shows inhomogeneous distribution of albumin protein in phosphate buffer compared to other protein solutions.

In a constant effort to capture effectively more of the spectral range from the sun, multi-junction cells are being investigated. In this context, the marriage of thin film and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC) PV technologies may be able to offer greater efficiency whilst maintaining the benefits of each individual technology. DSC devices offer advantages in the nature of both the metal oxide photo-electrode and dye absorption bands, which can be tuned to vary the optical performance of this part of a tandem device, while CdTe cells absorb the majority of light above their band-gap in only a few microns of thickness. The key challenge is to assess the optical losses with the goal of reaching a net gain in photocurrent and consequently increased conversion efficiency. This study reports on the influence of optical losses from various parts of the stacked tandem structure using UV-VIS spectrometry and EQE measurements. A net gain in photocurrent was achieved from a model developed for the DSC/CdTe mechanically stacked tandem structure.

The surface energy quantifies the disruption of intermolecular bond that occurs when a surface is created. The paper discusses critical size dc of mono-dispersed nanometer particle by analyzing the change of interfacial surface energy. The traditional theory neglects that the mono-dispersed nanometer particle has quantum standing wave in its internal structure with a size below critical dc. During the preparation of mono-dispersed nanometer powder, the large surface energy is formed ont only by cutting surface bond but also by forming quantum standing wave that opposites to interfacial edge unsaturated bond on the nanometer partcile surface atom. The preparation process of nanometer material needs more energy than the size surpass dc material. The new theory can explain why the melting point of nanometer powder decreases and other phenomina of nanometer material.

Fabrication methodologies with high precision and tenability for nanostructures of metal and metal oxides are widely explored for engineering devices such as solar cells, sensors, non-volatile memories (NVM) etc. In this direction, metal and metal oxide nanopatterned arrays are the state-of-the-art platforms upon which the device structures are built where the tunable orderly arrangement of the nanostructures enhances the device performance. We describe here a coalition of fabrication protocols that employ block copolymer self-assembly and nanoimprint lithography (NIL) to obtain metal oxide nanopatterns with sub-100 nm spatial resolution. The protocols are easily scalable down to sub-50 nm and below.

Nanopatterned arrays of ZnO created by using NIL assisted templates through area selective atomic layer deposition (ALD) and radio frequency (RF) sputtering find application in NVM and photovoltaics. We have employed NIL that produced nanoporous polymer templates using Si molds derived from block copolymer lithography (BCL) for pattern transfer into ZnO. The resulting ZnO nanoarrays were highly dense (8.6 x 109 nanofeatures per cm2) exhibiting periodic feature to feature spacing and width that replicated the geometric attributes of the template. Such nanopatterns find application in NVM, where a change in the density and periodicity of the arrays influences the charge storage characteristics. The above assembly and patterning protocols were employed to fabricate metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitor devices for investigating application in NVM. Patterned ZnO nanoarrays were used as charge storage centres for the MOS capacitor devices. Preliminary results upon investigating the flash memory performance showed good flat-band voltage hysteresis window at a relatively low operating voltage due to high charge trap density.

Highly pure iron pyrites (FeS2) cubic phased nanocrystals of diameter ∼ 20 nm were synthesized by colloidal method using only amines acting both as a coordinating and surfactant ligands. The details of synthetic condition at temperature 175 °C, 215 °C, 230 °C, 245 °C were compared and elucidated. The best synthetic conditions using an octylamine as a ligand at 230 °C for 2h have been optimized in an inert atmosphere. The XRD measurement shows diffraction peaks of pure cubic iron pyrite crystal structure without any detectable presence of marcasite, pyrrotite, greigyte and other impurity structures. The UV-Vis spectra depict clear absorption onset at 1200 nm in best sample with estimated band gap of ∼1.03 eV. These high pure and nanostructures based iron pyrite processed from solution route may offer excellent manufacturing scalability at very low cost since it can be used as inks for large scale fabrication. The morphological and optical characterizations are carried out by using XRD, UV-Vis, and SEM techniques.

Ultraviolet (UV) photoconductivity in pure ZnO thin films and metal (Ag, Au, Pt) nanoparticles (NPs) dispersed on ZnO thin films based UV photodetectors biased at 5 V for ultra violet radiation of λ = 365 nm and intensity = 24 µwatt/cm2 has been studied. All the three metal (Ag, Au, Pt) NPs synthesized by Polyol process when dispersed on the surface of 100 nm thin ZnO film results in enhanced photoconductive gain (K) in comparison to pure ZnO (3.1×103). An increase of about an order in K has been obtained in the case of Ag NPs/ZnO and Au NPs/ZnO UV photodetectors ( K = 6.9×104 and 5.3×104 respectively). On the other hand, Pt NPs enhance K by about two orders (5.0×105). Such an enhanced photoconductive gain has been achieved due to the lowering of dark current after dispersing the metal NPs on the surface of ZnO and increased photocurrent upon UV illumination. This may be attributed to the plasmon propagating property in metal NPs which enhances the light trapping through optical absorption in ZnO thin film surface (high photo current).

The accident of the TEPCO Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant occurred by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake on 11 Mar. 2011. It is estimated that totally 1.2-1.5x1016 Bq for 137Cs and 1.5-1.6x1017 Bq for 131I were released until the beginning of Apr. and those radionuclides (RN) were deposited on soil surface and forest etc. widely around Fukushima Pref. This work was carried out as one of the investigations for making the distribution maps of radiation dose rate and soil contaminated by RNs which the MEXT promotes. The Geoslicer investigation on the depth distribution of RNs in soil was performed after 3 months from the accident. The investigation was conducted at 11 locations in Nihonmatsu City, Kawamata Town and Namie Town, and soil samples of depth 50 cm to 1 m were taken. Both of 134Cs and 137Cs were detected in all investigated locations, and 129mTe and 110mAg were detected only in locations where radiation dose rates are high. At many locations investigated, radiocaesium more than 99 % distributed within a depth of 10 cm in soil in the surface layer. On the other hand, RNs tended to distribute to deeper part in soil at locations that are supposed to have been used as farmland than in soil in the surface layer, and radiocaesium more than 99 % in soil at locations that are supposed to have been used as farmland also distributed within a depth of around 14 cm. The apparent diffusion coefficients (Da) of RNs derived from penetration profiles near the surface layer showed a tendency to be higher in soil at locations that are supposed to have been used as farmland (Da=0.1-1.5x10-10 m2/s) than in soil in the surface layer (Da=0.65-4.4x10-11 m2/s), and most Da-values were nearly 10-11 m2/s. The distribution coefficients (Kd) by a batch method were in the range of Kd=2,000-61,000 ml/g for Cs and Kd=0.5-140 ml/g for I. Although the Kd-values are different between cation (Cs+) and anion (I-), the Da-values (134Cs, 137Cs, 129mTe and 110mAg) were similar levels. This is considered to be due to that the Da-values were controlled by dispersion by flow of rain water.

Bioapatite, found in vertebrate bones and teeth, is highly reactive and may incorporate high concentrations of some radionuclides, including U, Pu, and Sr. Therefore, bioapatite may be useful in backfill or overpack materials in nuclear waste repositories. The dissolution rate for bioapatite is constant at pH > 4 and is about 5 times faster than fluorapatite. In terrestrial environments, bioapatite recrystallizes over periods of up to ca. 40 ka.

Research for a reliable solid-form semiconductor neutron detector continues because such a device would have greater efficiency, in a compact form, than present day gas-filled 3He and 10BF3 detectors. The 6Li(n,t)4He reaction yields a total Q value of 4.78 MeV, larger than 10B, and easily identified above background radiations. Hence, devices composed of either natural Li (nominally 7.5% 6Li) or enriched 6Li (usually 95% 6Li) may provide a semiconductor material for compact high efficiency neutron detectors. A sub-branch of the III-V semiconductors, the filled tetrahedral compounds, AIBIICV, known as Nowotny-Juza compounds, are known for their desirable cubic crystal structure, and were originally studied for photonic applications. Equimolar portions of Li, Zn, and P or As were sealed under vacuum (10-6 Torr) in quartz ampoules with a graphite lining, loaded into a compounding furnace, and heated to 560 °C to form the ternary compound, LiZnP or LiZnAs, and further annealed to promote crystallization. The chemical composition of the synthesized starting material was confirmed at Galbraith Laboratories, Inc. by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES), which showed the compounds were reacted in equal ratios, 1-1-1, to form ternary compounds. Bulk single crystal samples were grown by a high temperature technique described elsewhere. Samples were cut, polished, and prepared for electrical characterization by depositing a Ti/Au contact onto one side of the one of the samples and using silver epoxy to form the other contact. Current-voltage curves were collected for a sample with silver epoxy for both anode and cathode contact, and for a sample with a Ti-Au anode contact and silver epoxy cathode contact. A much higher resistivity was calculated, 6.6 x 1010 Ω·cm, for the sample with a Ti-Au contact compared the high conductivity seen with the sample using silver epoxy contacts.

In the present study, we have studied photoelectrochemical properties of poly(3-octathiophene) (P3OT), blending with multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). P3OT blended with MWCNTs was characterized using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Raman spectroscope, and Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) techniques, respectively. The photoelectrochemical current of the MWCNs-P3OT based cell under illumination was investigated by applying a voltage. The blend consisting of 10% MWCNTs in P3OT gave the promising photocurrent in 0.2 M tetra-butyl-ammonium-tetrafluoroborate (TBATFB), electrolyte. Experimental results indicate that photocurrent obtained from MWCNT-P3OT was three times higher than simple P3OT-based conducting polymer. The electrochemical responses of MWCNT-P3OT films in different electrolytes such as 0.2M TBATFB, 0.2 M LiClO4, 1 M H2SO4 and 0.2 M LiBF6 were investigated for comparative photocurrent properties of the photoelectrochemical cell.

Donor-acceptor mixed-stack charge-transfer (CT) compounds can be regarded as a model system for charge carrier separation in molecular-scale donor-acceptor heterojunctions. Here we investigated fundamental photocarrier generation characteristics in single crystals of a donoracceptor mixed-stack system, phenothiazine-tetracyanoquinodimethane (PTZ-TCNQ). The laser beam-induced current (LBIC) measurement on the crystals allowed the discrimination between the exciton and the photocarrier diffusion on the basis of the observed spatial decay profiles. We found that the photocarriers are directly generated by higher-lying CT band excitation and exhibit extremely long diffusion length reaching more than 10 μm. We discuss the origin of the efficient photocarrier generation in terms of the geminate electron-hole pair formation.

We report on the measurement of defect densities and minority carrier lifetimes in nanocrystalline Si samples contaminated with controlled amounts of oxygen. Two different measurement techniques, a capacitance-frequency (CF) and high temperature capacitance-voltage techniques were used. CF measurement is found to yield noisy defect profiles that could lead to inconclusive results. In this paper, we show an innovative technique to remove the noise and obtain clean data using wavelet transforms. This helps us discover that oxygen is creating both shallow and deep/midgap defect states in lieu with crystalline silicon. Minority carrier lifetime measured using reverse recovery techniques shows excellent inverse correlation between deep defects and minority carrier lifetimes through which hole capture cross section can be evaluated.

Epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC) is the leading cause of cancer-related death in women in Western countries. Once patients experience recurrence, complete cure is almost impossible. We elucidated the effect of nonequilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma on the growth of EOC, particularly in plasma-activated medium (PAM). Furthermore, we examined the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) or their scavengers in chronic antineoplastic-resistant EOC cells. As a result, we showed PAM induced the antitumor effect of EOC cells in vitro and in vivo, even in chemoresistant cells. To apply the plasma treatment for advanced or recurrent EOC, we suggest adopting indirect plasma therapy instead of direct plasma considering intraperitoneal administration in the future. However, there are several problems under investigation, including intracellular mechanism of antitumor effect by PAM and adverse event in vivo.

Cartilage defects, which are caused by a variety of reasons such as traumatic injuries, osteoarthritis, or osteoporosis, represent common and severe clinical problems. Each year, over 6 million people visit hospitals in the U.S. for various knee, wrist, and ankle problems. As modern medicine advances, new and novel methodologies have been explored and developed in order to solve and improve current medical problems. One of the areas of investigation is tissue engineering [1, 2]. Since cartilage matrix is nanocomposite, the goal of the current work is to use nanomaterials and nanofabrication methods to create novel biologically inspired tissue engineered cartilage scaffolds for facilitating human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) chondrogenesis. For this purpose, through electrospinning techniques, we designed a series of novel 3D biomimetic nanostructured scaffolds based on carbon nanotubes and biocompatible poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) polymers. Specifically, a series of electrospun fibrous PLLA scaffolds with controlled fiber dimension and surface nanoporosity were fabricated in this study. In vitro hMSC studies showed that stem cells prefer to attach in the scaffolds with smaller fiber diameter or suitable nanoporous structures. More importantly, our in vitro differentiation results demonstrated that incorporation of the biomimetic carbon nanotubes and poly L-lysine coating can induce GAG and collagen synthesis that is indicative of chondrogenic differentiations of MSCs. Our novel scaffolds also performed better than controls, which make them promising for cartilage tissue engineering applications.

Interface physics is at the heart of organic photovoltaics (OPV). Here we reveal for the first time the actual charge generation mechanism in a low-band-gap polymer: fullerene blend as prototypical system for efficient OPV. We demonstrate that the photogenerated excitons dissociate into bound interfacial charge transfer states (CTS) and free charges in 20-50 fs, with a branching ratio that depends on the excess energy. Providing an excess energy, high energy singlet polymer states are excited, giving a direct hot electron transfer into the interfacial hot CTS* before internal energy dissipation occurs. This process ultimately leads to a higher fraction of free charges. Thanks to strong electronic coupling between high-energy-states and hot CTS, we demonstrate the opening of additional paths for charge generation that would otherwise be quenched by internal conversion to the lowest-lying states. Our results provide a new framework to understand charge generation in OPV system, suggesting that hot dissociation is a strategic option to enhance the photovoltaic conversion.

Commercially available tenorite (CuO) nanoparticles (NPs) were investigated in particular with respect to their suitability for photovoltaic applications. NPs with a diameter of about 30 nm were step wise annealed up to 1000°C in nitrogen atmosphere. The influence of the annealing treatment on the structural and electronic properties was investigated by Raman, photoluminescence (PL) and photothermal deflection spectroscopy (PDS) as well as X-ray diffraction measurements. Size, shape, and phase of the untreated NPs are analyzed by TEM measurements. The PL and PDS results show a strong increase of the tenorite band edge emission at about 1.3 eV accompanied by a decreasing sub gap absorption with increasing annealing temperature up to 700°C. According to literature, a phase transition from tenorite to cuprite (Cu2O) was expected and observed after annealing at 800°C. Strong cuprite band edge emission at about 2 eV accompanied by very weak defect and possibly tenorite band edge emission was found for samples annealed at 800°C and 1000°C.

In this study, we demonstrate blue organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with a dual emitting layer (EML) configuration consisting of fluorescent and phosphorescent emitting materials. We investigated the influence of dopants on the electrical and optical characteristics of devices when controlling the fluorescent dopant concentration. The current density and luminance of device B doped with 12wt% BCzVBi was 141.6 mA/cm2 and 6582 cd/m2 at 10V, respectively. In addition, a maximum luminous efficiency of 8.11 cd/A, was achieved from device B. The corresponding Commission Internationale de l’E´ clairage (CIExy) coordinates of device D doped with 5wt% BCzVBi were (0.143, 0.255) at 6V.

This report outlines a methodology for reading back different electrical charges, from Non Volatile Memory (NVM) based Flash devices. The charge is stored in the floating gates (FGs) of the transistors. Reading back these charges in the form of logic levels of “1 bit (1b)” and “0 bit (0b)” without deleting the information from the device was the goal. Scanning Capacitance Microscopy (SCM) with ∼50-100 nm spatial resolution was used, to directly probe the charge on Floating Gate Transistor (FGT) channels. Transistor charge values (ON/OFF or “1b/0b”) are measured. Both the sample preparation and SCM probing methods are discussed. The application has been demonstrated with SanDisk based 64 MB NAND Flash memory device.

The purpose of the present paper is to focus on the impact of oxygen gas partial pressure during the sputtering of i-ZnO and ZnMgO on the transient behavior of solar cells parameters when a CBD-ZnS buffer layer is used. Based on electrical characterization of cells, we have observed that the effect of light-soaking is different on J-V characteristics depending on the quantity of oxygen present during the first deposition time of the i-ZnO or ZnMgO layers. In fact, we have noticed that, when cells are prepared with standard i-ZnO, the efficiencies are very low and a pronounced transient behavior is observed. However, when the i-ZnO or ZnMgO is first formed by a few nanometers sputtered layer without any additive oxygen, depending on the thickness of this layer, the transient effects strongly decrease. It is then possible to reach efficiencies quite similar to the CdS reference cells, especially with ZnMgO, without any post-treatments.

Cupric oxide thin films were sputtered onto soda-lime glass slides from a single pre-formed ceramic target using a radio-frequency power supply. The effects of oxygen partial pressure and substrate temperature on the optical, electrical and structural properties of the films were studied. It was found that increasing temperature resulted in increased crystallinity and crystal size but also increased film resistivity. The most conductive films were those deposited at room temperature. Increasing oxygen partial pressure was found to reduce resistivity dramatically. This is thought to be due to higher charge carrier concentrations resulting from increased copper vacancies. Increasing oxygen partial pressure causes an increase in the optical band gap from a minimum of 0.8eV up to a maximum of 1.42eV. Oxygen-rich films display reduced crystallinity, becoming increasingly amorphous with increased oxygen content. These results show that the optical, electrical and structural properties of sputtered cupric oxide films can be controlled by alteration of the deposition environment.