Applied Physics A Solids and Surfaces

Drop-on-demand printing is receiving a great deal of interest in industrial applications; however, the desired pattern sizes are realized by trial and error, through repeated printing experiments with varied materials (ink and suspended particles), operating conditions (voltage, flow rate, nozzle-to-plate distance, etc.), and substrate wettability. Since this approach requires a great deal of time, cost, and effort, a more convenient and efficient method that will predict pattern sizes with a minimal number of experiments is needed. In this study, we patterned a series of Ag dots and lines using a pulsed voltage-applied electrohydrodynamic jet printing system and measured their sizes with an optical microscope. We then applied a model suggested by Stringer and Derby (J Eur Ceram Soc 29:913–918, 2009) and Gao and Sonin (Proc R Soc Lond Ser A 444:533–554, 1994) to predict the pattern sizes, comparing these predictions with the measured sizes. Finally, we demonstrated our methodology on disconnected line repairing.

A simple method is presented to prepare very low pinning niobium foils on which geometrically well defined Nb3Sn-pinning structures of arbitrary shape are deposited. This facilitates the fabrication of samples for guided vortex motion experiments some of which are reported.

This paper aims to investigate the performances of surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators based on chromium-doped aluminum nitride (AlCrN) piezoelectric thin film on c-cut sapphire substrate. The electromechanical properties of AlCrN (mass density, elastic, dielectric and piezoelectric constants) are obtained from density functional theory calculations for different Cr-doping concentrations. Piezoelectricity is enhanced for Al1 − xCrxN with different x concentrations. Using finite element analysis, the electroacoustic parameters such as phase velocity, electromechanical coupling factor K2 of surface acoustic modes are determined for different AlCrN thickness-to-wavelength ratios and different Cr-doping concentrations. Higher order SAW modes arise at Cr concentration x = 25%. The electrical admittance and scattering parameter S21 for the fundamental SAW modes are determined. High K2, low loss and high-quality factor are found after incorporating Cr dopant. The comparison of the obtained results with the available numerical and experimental data on AlN doped with Scandium Sc has shown a considerable improvement of SAW devices characteristics, confirming that AlCrN can be adopted as a new piezoelectric material for high performances SAW devices.

The diffusion dynamics and structure evolvement of the transition metal (TM=Ni, Cu, Au, and Pt) atoms decorating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with differences have been systematically studied by Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. The studies show that TM atoms can be encapsulated inside, aggregated and even wrapped on the surface of the CNT, which depend on the interactions among TM–TM and TM–C during the spontaneous diffusion process. The decorating effect is greatly influenced by the diameters of CNTs, TM atoms tend to be encapsulated inside the tube in the relatively large CNTs, while they are inclined to stack on the surface for the small ones. More interestingly, Au and Pt atoms would wrap around the smaller CNT, whereas Ni and Cu atoms are still clustering outside of the CNTs with the increase of the number of TM atoms. Simulation results indicate that Pt and Au possess a better wetting effect with CNT than Ni and Cu.

ZnO-coated TiO2 (ZTO) thin films were deposited on ITO substrates by a sol–gel method for application as the work electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The I–V curve and the incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) value of DSSCs for ZTO thin films were studied and compared with single TiO2 films. The results show that the short-circuit photocurrent (J sc) and open-circuit voltage (V oc) values increased from 3.7 mA/cm2 and 0.68 V for the DSSCs with a single TiO2 film to 4.5 mA/cm2 and 0.72 V, respectively, for the DSSCs with a ZTO thin film. It indicated that the DSSCs with a ZTO thin film contributed to provide an inherent energy barrier that suppressed charge recombination significantly. In addition, the higher IPCE value in the ZTO thin film is attributed to the better charge separation by a fast electron transfer process using two semiconductors with different conduction band edges and energy positions.

We present a mechanical pressing technique for generating ultra-smooth surfaces on thin metal films by flattening the bumps, asperities, rough grains and spikes of a freshly vacuum deposited metal film. The method was implemented by varying the applied pressure from 100 MPa to 600 MPa on an e-beam evaporated silver film of thickness 1000 Å deposited on double-polished (100)-oriented silicon surfaces, resulting in a varying degree of film smoothness. The surface morphology of the thin film was studied using atomic force microscopy. Notably, at a pressure of ∼600 MPa an initial silver surface with 13-nm RMS roughness was plastically deformed and transformed to an ultra-flat plane with better than 0.1 nm RMS. Our demonstration with the e-beam evaporated silver thin film exhibits the potential for applications in decreasing the scattering-induced losses in optical metamaterials, plasmonic nanodevices and electrical shorts in molecular-scale electronic devices.

The influence of different evaporation process parameters on the optical properties and constants of thin Sb2O3 films in the ultraviolet and visible region from 250 to 800 nm has been investigated. The most dominant parameters, namely the substrate temperature, rate of evaporation, and ambient oxygen pressure used during the deposition process and the post-annealing temperatures were optimised which resulted in low loss, dense and homogeneous Sb2O3 films. The optical constants and band gaps of these films were evaluated using their interference modulated transmittance spectra in case of both homogeneous and inhomogeneous conditions. Optimized films have been successfully used in developing multilayer high reflecting coatings for Fabry-Perot etalons along with the cryolite (Na3AlF6) films.