Tuning the Properties of Thin-Film TaRu for Hydrogen-Sensing Applications

Accurate, cost-efficient, and safe hydrogen sensors will play a key role in the future hydrogen economy. Optical hydrogen sensors based on metal hydrides are attractive owing to their small size and costs and the fact that they are intrinsically safe. These sensors rely on suitable sensing materials, of which the optical properties change...

The structure of (nuclear) graphite: From the atomic to the macro scales

Lithium and Sodium Insertion in Nanostructured Titanates: Experiments and simulations

Nanostructured materials are featured by providing a variety of favourable electrical properties, as the reduced ion and electron transport paths enable significant enhancement on (de)intercalation rates and hence high power. For TiO2 anatase, nano-sizing results in a curved open cell voltage profile with a much shorter plateau region in...

In-line x-ray phase-contrast tomography and diffraction-contrast tomography study of the ferrite-cementite microstructure in steel

This work presents the development of a non-destructive imaging technique for the investigation of the microstructure of cementite grains embedded in a ferrite matrix of medium-carbon steel. The measurements were carried out at the material science beamline of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) ID11. It was shown that in-line X...

Evidence of non-Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya ferromagnetism in epitaxial BiFeO3 films

X-ray diffraction analysis and high-resolution electron microscopy of BiFeO3 films prepared by dc magnetron sputtering on single-crystal LaAlO3 (001) substrates reveal that the films have a highly c-oriented orthorhombic crystalline structure. The magnetic properties of the BiFeO3 films are typical of ensembles of interacting superparamagnetic...

Positron depth profiling of the structural and electronic structure transformations of hydrogenated Mg-based thin films

We report positron depth-profiling studies on the hydrogen sorption behavior and phase evolution of Mg-based thin films. We show that the main changes in the depth profiles resulting from the hydrogenation to the respective metal hydrides are related to a clear broadening in the observed electron momentum densities in both Mg and Mg2Ni films....

Transformation of polycrystalline tungsten to monocrystalline tungsten W(100) and its potential application in Schottky emitters

The electron sources in electron microscopes and electron lithography machines often consist of small diameter W(100) wires, etched to form a sharp tip. The electron emission is facilitated by the Schottky effect, thus the name Schottky emitter. The authors are investigating the feasibility of arrays of such electron emitters for the use in...

An experimental study on the molecular organization and exciton diffusion in a bilayer of a porphyrin and poly(3-hexylthiophene)

The exciton root-mean-square displacement (?D) in regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) deposited onto meso-tetrakis (n-methyl-4-pyridyl) porphyrin tetrachloride (H2TMPyP) has been determined from the photovoltaic response of a device based on these materials in a bilayer configuration. Excitons formed on illumination that reach the...

Ce3+ activated LaBr3?xIx: High-light-yield and fast-response mixed halide scintillators

Here, we report the scintillation properties of LaBr3?xIx:5%Ce3+ with four different compositions of x, i.e., x = 0.75, 1.5, 2, and 2.25. Radioluminescence spectra reveal a shift of the emission wavelength with the LaBr3 to LaI3 ratio. LaBr1.5I1.5:5%Ce3+ shows the highest scintillation light yield of 58?000?photons/MeV, whereas LaBr0.75I2.25:5...

Localization of ferrocene in NaY zeolite by powder x-ray and neutron diffraction

We study the inclusion of the metallocene ferrocene Fe(C5H5)2 molecules in the supercages of NaY zeolite. To find the exact location of the ferrocene molecules within the supercages we perform neutron and powder x-ray diffraction on bare NaY zeolite, and on NaY zeolite loaded with one or two ferrocene molecules per supercage. Using the...

Internal stresses and microstructure of layer/substrate essemblies. Analysis of TiC and TiN coatings chemically vapour deposited on various substrated