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Now showing 1 - 10 of 15
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    High temperature behavior of rual thin films on piezoelectric CTGS and LGS substrates
    (Basel : MDPI AG, 2020) Seifert, M.
    This paper reports on a significant further improvement of the high temperature stability of RuAl thin films (110 nm) on the piezoelectric Ca3TaGa3Si2O14 (CTGS) and La3Ga5SiO14 (LGS) substrates. RuAl thin films with AlN or SiO2 cover layers and barriers to the substrate (each 20 nm), as well as a combination of both were prepared on thermally oxidized Si substrates, which serve as a reference for fundamental studies, and the piezoelectric CTGS, as well as LGS substrates. In somefilms, additional Al layers were added. To study their high temperature stability, the samples were annealed in air and in high vacuum up to 900 °C, and subsequently their cross-sections, phase formation, film chemistry, and electrical resistivity were analyzed. It was shown that on thermally oxidized Si substrates, all films were stable after annealing in air up to 800 °C and in high vacuum up to 900 °C. The high temperature stability of RuAl thin films on CTGS substrates was improved up to 900 °C in high vacuum by the application of a combined AlN/SiO2 barrier layer and up to 800 °C in air using a SiO2 barrier. On LGS, the films were only stable up to 600 °C in air; however, a single SiO2 barrier layer was sufficient to prevent oxidation during annealing at 900 °C in high vacuum.
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    Slowness curve surface acoustic wave transducers for optimized acoustic streaming
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2020) O'Rorke, R.; Winkler, A.; Collins, D.; Ai, Y.
    Surface acoustic waves can induce force gradients on the length scales of micro- and nanoparticles, allowing precise manipulation for particle capture, alignment and sorting activities. These waves typically occupy a spatial region much larger than a single particle, resulting in batch manipulation. Circular arc transducers can focus a SAW into a narrow beam on the order of the particle diameter for highly localised, single-particle manipulation by exciting wavelets which propagate to a common focal point. The anisotropic nature of SAW substrates, however, elongates and shifts the focal region. Acousto-microfluidic applications are highly dependent on the morphology of the underlying substrate displacement and, thus, become dependent on the microchannel position relative to the circular arc transducer. This requires either direct measurement or computational modelling of the SAW displacement field. We show that the directly measured elongation and shift in the focal region are recapitulated by an analytical model of beam steering, derived from a simulated slowness curve for 128° Y-cut lithium niobate. We show how the negative effects of beam steering can be negated by adjusting the curvature of arced transducers according to the slowness curve of the substrate, for which we present a simple function for convenient implementation in computational design software. Slowness-curve adjusted transducers do not require direct measurement of the SAW displacement field for microchannel placement and can capture smaller particles within the streaming vortices than can circular arc IDTs.
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    Epitaxial growth and stress relaxation of vapor-deposited Fe-Pd magnetic shape memory films
    (College Park, MD : Institute of Physics Publishing, 2009) Kühnemund, L.; Edler, T.; Kock, I.; Seibt, M.; Mayr, S.G.
    To achieve maximum performance in microscale magnetic shape memory actuation devices epitaxial films several hundred nanometers thick are needed. Epitaxial films were grown on hot MgO substrates (500 °C and above) by e-beam evaporation. Structural properties and stress relaxation mechanisms were investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, in situ substrate curvature measurements and classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The high misfit stress incorporated during Vollmer-Weber growth at the beginning was relaxed by partial or perfect dislocations depending on the substrate temperature. This relaxation allowed the avoidance of a stressinduced breakdown of epitaxy and no thickness limit for epitaxy was found. For substrate temperatures of 690 °C or above, the films grew in the fee austenite phase. Below this temperature, iron precipitates were formed. MD simulations showed how these precipitates influence the movements of partial dislocations, and can thereby explain the higher stress level observed in the experiments in the initial stage of growth for these films. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.
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    Interplay of electric field and disorder in Dirac liquid silicene
    (Berlin ; Heidelberg : Springer, 2021) Craco, L.; Carara, S.S.; Leoni, S.
    Layered materials with buckled structure offer a promising route to explore distinct phases of quantum matter. Using GGA + DMFT we reveal the complex interplay between perpendicular electric field and site-diagonal disorder in the Dirac liquid electronic state of silicene. The electronic structure we derive is promising in the sense that it leads to results that might explain why out-of-plane electric field plus moderate disorder can generate marginal Dirac valleys consistent with scanning tunneling spectroscopy of silicene on Ag substrates.
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    Quantitative protein sensing with germanium THz-antennas manufactured using CMOS processes
    (Washington, DC : Soc., 2022) Hardt, Elena; Chavarin, Carlos Alvarado; Gruessing, Soenke; Flesch, Julia; Skibitzki, Oliver; Spirito, Davide; Vita, Gian Marco; Simone, Giovanna De; Masi, Alessandra di; You, Changjiang; Witzigmann, Bernd; Piehler, Jacob; Capellini, Giovanni
    The development of a CMOS manufactured THz sensing platform could enable the integration of state-of-the-art sensing principles with the mixed signal electronics ecosystem in small footprint, low-cost devices. To this aim, in this work we demonstrate a label-free protein sensing platform using highly doped germanium plasmonic antennas realized on Si and SOI substrates and operating in the THz range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The antenna response to different concentrations of BSA shows in both cases a linear response with saturation above 20 mg/mL. Ge antennas on SOI substrates feature a two-fold sensitivity as compared to conventional Si substrates, reaching a value of 6 GHz/(mg/mL), which is four-fold what reported using metal-based metamaterials. We believe that this result could pave the way to a low-cost lab-on-a-chip biosensing platform.
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    Mueller matrix imaging microscope using dual continuously rotating anisotropic mirrors
    (Washington, DC : Soc., 2021) Ruder, Alexander; Wright, Brandon; Feder, Rene; Kilic, Ufuk; Hilfiker, Matthew; Schubert, Eva; Herzinger, Craig M.; Schubert, Mathias
    We demonstrate calibration and operation of a Mueller matrix imaging microscope using dual continuously rotating anisotropic mirrors for polarization state generation and analysis. The mirrors contain highly spatially coherent nanostructure slanted columnar titanium thin films deposited onto optically thick titanium layers on quartz substrates. The first mirror acts as polarization state image generator and the second mirror acts as polarization state image detector. The instrument is calibrated using samples consisting of laterally homogeneous properties such as straight-through-air, a clear aperture linear polarizer, and a clear aperture linear retarder waveplate. Mueller matrix images are determined for spatially varying anisotropic samples consisting of a commercially available (Thorlabs) birefringent resolution target and a spatially patterned titanium slanted columnar thin film deposited onto a glass substrate. Calibration and operation are demonstrated at a single wavelength (530 nm) only, while, in principle, the instrument can operate regardless of wavelength. We refer to this imaging ellipsometry configuration as rotating-anisotropic-mirror-sample-rotating-anisotropic-mirror ellipsometry (RAM-S-RAM-E).
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    Lifshitz transition in titanium carbide driven by a graphene overlayer
    (College Park, MD : APS, 2023) Krivenkov, M.; Marchenko, D.; Golias, E.; Sajedi, M.; Frolov, A.S.; Sánchez-Barriga, J.; Fedorov, A.; Yashina, L.V.; Rader, O.; Varykhalov, A.
    Two-dimensional (2D) Dirac materials are electronically and structurally very sensitive to proximity effects. We demonstrate, however, the opposite effect: that the deposition of a monolayer 2D material could exercise a substantial influence on the substrate electronic structure. Here we investigate TiC(111) and show that a graphene overlayer produces a proximity effect, changing the Fermi surface topology of the TiC from six electron pockets to one hole pocket on the depth of several atomic layers inside the substrate. In addition, the graphene electronic structure undergoes an extreme modification as well. While the Dirac cone remains gapless, it experiences an energy shift of 1.0 eV beyond what was recently achieved for the Lifshitz transition of overdoped graphene. Due to this shift, the antibonding π∗ band at the M¯ point becomes occupied and observable by photoemission.
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    Tuning the magneto-optical response of TbPc2 single molecule magnets by the choice of the substrate
    (London [u.a.] : RSC, 2015) Robaschik, Peter; Fronk, Michael; Toader, Marius; Klyatskaya, Svetlana; Ganss, Fabian; Siles, Pablo F.; Schmidt, Oliver G.; Albrecht, Manfred; Hietschold, Michael; Ruben, Mario; Zahn, Dietrich R.T.; Salvan, Georgeta
    In this work, we investigated the magneto-optical response of thin films of TbPc2 on substrates which are relevant for (spin) organic field effect transistors (SiO2) or vertical spin valves (Co) in order to explore the possibility of implementing TbPc2 in magneto-electronic devices, the functionality of which includes optical reading. The optical and magneto-optical properties of TbPc2 thin films prepared by organic molecular beam deposition (OMBD) on silicon substrates covered with native oxide were investigated by variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE) and magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) spectroscopy at room temperature. The magneto-optical activity of the TbPc2 films can be significantly enhanced by one to two orders of magnitude upon changing the molecular orientation (from nearly standing molecules on SiO2/Si substrates to nearly lying molecules on perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) templated SiO2/Si substrates) or by using metallic ferromagnetic substrates (Co).
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    Impact of surface charge on the motion of light-activated Janus micromotors
    (Berlin ; Heidelberg : Springer, 2021) Huang, Tao; Ibarlucea, Bergoi; Caspari, Anja; Synytska, Alla; Cuniberti, Gianaurelio; de Graaf, Joost; Baraban, Larysa
    Control over micromotors' motion is of high relevance for lab-on-a-chip and biomedical engineering, wherein such particles encounter complex microenvironments. Here, we introduce an efficient way to influence Janus micromotors' direction of motion and speed by modifying their surface properties and those of their immediate surroundings. We fabricated light-responsive Janus micromotors with positive and negative surface charge, both driven by ionic self-diffusiophoresis. These were used to observe direction-of-motion reversal in proximity to glass substrates for which we varied the surface charge. Quantitative analysis allowed us to extract the dependence of the particle velocity on the surface charge density of the substrate. This constitutes the first quantitative demonstration of the substrate's surface charge on the motility of the light-activated diffusiophoretic motors in water. We provide qualitative understanding of these observations in terms of osmotic flow along the substrate generated through the ions released by the propulsion mechanism. Our results constitute a crucial step in moving toward practical application of self-phoretic artificial micromotors.
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    Magnetically induced reorientation of martensite variants in constrained epitaxial Ni-Mn-Ga films grown on MgO(001)
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2008) Thomas, M.; Heczko, O.; Buschbeck, J.; Rößler, U.K.; McCord, J.; Scheerbaum, N.; Schultz, L.; Fähler, S.
    Magnetically induced reorientation (MIR) is observed in epitaxial orthorhombic Ni-Mn-Ga films. Ni-Mn-Ga films have been grown epitaxially on heated MgO(001) substrates in the cubic austenite state. The unit cell is rotated by 45° relative to the MgO cell. The growth, structure texture and anisotropic magnetic properties of these films are described. The crystallographic analysis of the martensitic transition reveals variant selection dominated by the substrate constraint. The austenite state has low magnetocrystalline anisotropy. In the martensitic state, the magnetization curves reveal an orthorhombic symmetry having three magnetically non-equivalent axes. The existence of MIR is deduced from the typical hysteresis within the first quadrant in magnetization curves and independently by texture measurement without and in the presence of a magnetic field probing micro structural changes. An analytical model is presented, which describes MIR in films with constrained overall extension by the additional degree of freedom of an orthorhombic structure compared to the tetragonal structure used in the standard model.