Search Results
Biomaterial based strategies to reconstruct the nigrostriatal pathway in organotypic slice co-cultures
Protection or repair of the nigrostriatal pathway represents a principal disease-modifying therapeutic strategy for Parkinson's disease (PD). Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) holds great therapeutic potential for PD, but its efficacious delivery remains difficult. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of different biomaterials (hydrogels, microspheres, cryogels and microcontact printed surfaces) for reconstructing the nigrostriatal pathway in organotypic co-culture of ventral mesencephalon and dorsal striatum. The biomaterials (either alone or loaded with GDNF) were locally applied onto the brain co-slices and fiber growth between the co-slices was evaluated after three weeks in culture based on staining for tyrosine hydroxylase (TH). Collagen hydrogels loaded with GDNF slightly promoted the TH+ nerve fiber growth towards the dorsal striatum, while GDNF loaded microspheres embedded within the hydrogels did not provide an improvement. Cryogels alone or loaded with GDNF also enhanced TH+ fiber growth. Lines of GDNF immobilized onto the membrane inserts via microcontact printing also significantly improved TH+ fiber growth. In conclusion, this study shows that various biomaterials and tissue engineering techniques can be employed to regenerate the nigrostriatal pathway in organotypic brain slices. This comparison of techniques highlights the relative merits of different technologies that researchers can use/develop for neuronal regeneration strategies. © 2020
Laser structuring of thin layers for flexible electronics by a shock wave-induced delamination process
The defect-free laser-assisted structuring of thin films on flexible substrates is a challenge for laser methods. However, solving this problem exhibits an outstanding potential for a pioneering development of flexible electronics. Thereby, the laser-assisted delamination method has a great application potential. At the delamination process: the localized removal of the layer is induced by a shock wave which is produced by a laser ablation process on the rear side of the substrate. In this study, the thin-film patterning process is investigated for different polymer substrates dependent on the material and laser parameters using a KrF excimer laser. The resultant structures were studied by optical microscopy and white light interferometry (WLI). The delamination process was tested at different samples (indium tin oxide (ITO) on polyethylene terephthalate (PET), epoxy-based negative photoresist (SU8) on polyimide (PI) and indium tin oxide/copper indium gallium selenide/molybdenum (ITO/CIGS/Mo) on PI.
BaFe2As2/Fe bilayers with [001]-tilt grain boundary on MgO and SrTiO3 bicrystal substrates
Co-doped BaFe2As2 (Ba-122) can be realized on both MgO and SrTiO3 bicrystal substrates with [001]-tilt grain boundary by employing Fe buffer layers. However, an additional spinel (i.e. MgAl 2O4) buffer between Fe and SrTiO3 is necessary since an epitaxial, smooth surface of Fe layer can not be grown on bare SrTiO3. Both types of bicrystal films show good crystalline quality.
Three-Dimensional Imaging of Magnetic Domains with Neutron Grating Interferometry
This paper gives a brief overview on3D imaging of magnetic domains with shearing grating neutron tomography. We investigated the three-dimensional distribution of magnetic domain walls in the bulk of a wedge-shaped FeSi single crystal. The width of the magnetic domains wasanalyzed at different locations within the crystal. Magnetic domains close to the tip of the wedge are much smaller than in the bulk. Furthermore, the three-dimensional shape of individual domains wasinvestigated. We discuss prospects and limitations of the applied measurement technique.
Automated meshing of electron backscatter diffraction data and application to finite element micromagnetics
This paper gives a procedure for automatically generating finite element meshes with an adaptive mesh size from Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) data. After describing the procedure in detail, including preliminary and image processing steps, an example application is given. The method was used to carry out finite element (FE) micromagnetic simulations based on real microstructures in the hard magnetic material, MnAl. A fast micromagnetic solver was used to compute hysteresis properties from the finite element mesh generated automatically from EBSD data. The visualization of the magnetization evolution showed that the reversal is governed by domain wall pinning at twin boundaries. The calculated coercive fields are very sensitive to changes of the Gilbert damping constant, even for low field rates. © 2019 The Authors
Visualization of Bulk Magnetic Properties by Neutron Grating Interferometry
The neutron Grating Interferometer (nGI) is a standard user instrument at the cold neutron imaging beamline ICON (Kaestner, 2011) at the neutron source SINQ at Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland. The setup is able to deliver simultaneously information about the attenuation, phase shift (DPC) (Pfeiffer, 2006) and scattering properties in the so-called dark-field image (DFI) (Grünzweig, 2008-I) of a sample. Since neutrons only interact with the nucleus they are often able to penetrate deeper into matter than X-rays, in particular heavier materials. A further advantage of neutrons compared to X-rays is the interaction of the neutron's magnetic moment with magnetic structures that allows for the bulk investigation of magnetic domain structures using the nGI technique (Grünzweig, 2008-II). The nGI-setup and its technique for imaging with cold neutrons is presented in this contribution. The main focus will be on magnetic investigations of electrical steel laminations using the nGI technique. Both, grain-oriented (GO) and non-oriented (NO) laminations will be presented. GO-laminations are widely used in industrial transformer applications, while NO-sheets are common in electrical machines. For grain-oriented sheet, domain walls were visualized individually,spatially resolved, while in NO-sheet a relative density distribution is depicted.
Laser Patterning of CIGS thin Films with 1550 nm Nanosecond Laser Pulses
The results of laser scribing experiments of CIGS thin films deposited on Mo-coated stainless steel sheets, using laser pulses with a wavelength of 1550 nm and a pulse duration of 6 ns, are presented in this study. It is shown that a removal of the CIGS from the Mo film is possible without edge melting of the CIGS or damaging of the Mo. The critical parameter for inducing the delamination lift-off process of the CIGS from the Mo was identified to be the scribing speed of the laser. In dependence on the laser parameters two different material removal processes were found. For a low pulse overlap the laser pulse penetrates the CIGS film and is absorbed in the interface between the CIGS and the Mo causing a lift-off process of the CIGS from the Mo back contact. For a high pulse overlap an ablation process starting from the top side of the CIGS film was found. The composition and morphology of the sample material after the laser patterning were analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and micro-Raman spectroscopy.
Measurements of Streams Agitated by Fluid Loaded SAW-devices Using a Volumetric 3-component Measurement Technique (V3V)
Utilizing surface acoustic waves (SAW) to induce tailored fluid motion via the acoustic streaming requires detailed knowledge about the acoustic bulk wave excitation. For the first time, the Defocus Digital Particle Image Velocimetry is used to measure the fluid motion originating from a fluid loaded SAW-device. With this flow measurement technique, the acoustic streaming-induced fluid motion can be observed volumetrically, which is attractive not only for application, but also for simulation in order to gain deeper insights regarding three-dimensional acoustic effects.
Josephson and tunneling junctions with thin films of iron based superconductors
We produced planar hybrid Superconductor - Normal metal - Superconductor (SNS') junctions and interfaceengineered edge junctions (SN'S' or SIS' with normal metal (N') or insulating (I) barrier) with various areas using Co-doped Ba-122 as base electrode. Varying the thickness of the Normal metal (gold) barrier of the planar junctions, we can either observe Josephson behavior at thinner gold thicknesses or transport dominated by Andreev reflection. The edge junctions seem to form a SN'S'-contact.
In-process evaluation of electrical properties of CIGS solar cells scribed with laser pulses of different pulse lengths
The optimization of laser scribing for the interconnection of CIGS solar cells is a current focus of laser process development. In addition to the geometry of the laser scribes the impact of the laser patterning to the electrical properties of the solar cells has to be optimized with regards to the scribing process and the laser sources. In-process measurements provide an approach for reliable evaluation of the electrical characteristics. In particular, the parallel resistance Rp that was calculated from the measured I-V curves was measured in dependence on the scribing parameters of a short-pulsed ns laser in comparison to a standard ps laser at a wavelength of 1.06 μm. With low pulse overlap of ∼ 20% a reduction of Rp to 2/3 of the initial value has been achieved for ns laser pulses. In comparison to ps laser slightly more defects were observed at the investigated parameter range.