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...

Gas-phase Deposition of Thin Aluminium Oxide Films at Ambient Conditions

Particles are widely used in the chemical industry as raw material and end product. In many applications of particles, it is advantageous to give them a coating that can either protect the particle from outside influences or give it an additional function. Technologies to provide micron-sized particles with relatively thick coatings (in the...

Gas-Phase Deposition of Ultrathin Aluminium Oxide Films on Nanoparticles at Ambient Conditions

We have deposited aluminium oxide films by atomic layer deposition on titanium oxide nanoparticles in a fluidized bed reactor at 27 ± 3 °C and atmospheric pressure. Working at room temperature allows coating heat-sensitive materials, while working at atmospheric pressure would simplify the scale-up of this process. We performed 4, 7 and 15...

Thermal Stability of MgyTi1-y Thin Films Investigated by Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy

Mg-Ti compounds are attractive candidates as hydrogen storage materials for their fast sorption kinetics and high storage capacity. In this context, an investigation of their thermal stability is of great importance. The thermal stability of MgyTi1-y thin films was investigated using positron annihilation spectroscopy. Despite the positive...

Characterization of Thin Film Photoanodes for Solar Water Splitting

For centuries, mankind has mostly used fossil fuels, i.e., natural gas, coal, and oil for its energy needs. With the fast rise of the world population and the rising standards of living in the developing countries, the amount of energy the world is going to need in the coming decades will grow enormously. Due to environmental concerns and the...

In situ study of hydrogen silsesquioxane dissolution rate in salty and electrochemical developers

In order to better characterize the development of the electron-beam resist hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ), the authors used a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) to study its rate of dissolution in situ. The authors determined the effect of both salt concentration and applied electric potential on the development rate of HSQ. The development rates...

Lightweight sodium alanate thin films grown by reactive sputtering

We report the preparation of sodium alanate, a promising hydrogen storage material, in a thin film form using cosputtering in a reactive atmosphere of atomic hydrogen. We study the phase formation and distribution, and the hydrogen desorption, with a combination of optical and infrared transmission spectroscopy. We show that the hydrogen...

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....

Hydrogen mediated transport of Sn to Ru film surface

The authors report on the interaction of atomic hydrogen with Sn and thin Ru film at room temperature. The study is done using a combination of photoelectron and low energy ion scattering spectroscopies as well as scanning electron microscopy. The adsorption of hydrogen on a Sn surface leads to the formation of stannane (SnH4), which...

Microstructures and the corresponding magnetic properties of half-doped Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3 films

The microstructural and magnetic properties of amorphous, nanoclustered, and self-organized bilayer Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3 films, prepared by rf magnetron sputtering, are investigated. The amorphous film was found to be a typical paramagnet with free motion of the individual Mn spins, and the magnetic properties are well described on the basis of the...

Numerical simulations of rarefied gas flows in thin film processes

Many processes exist in which a thin film is deposited from the gas phase, e.g. Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD). These processes are operated at ever decreasing reactor operating pressures and with ever decreasing wafer feature dimensions, reaching into the rarefied flow regime. As numerical simulation tools are frequently used to design and...

Magnetic phase diagram and structural separation of La0.7(Ca1?ySry)0.3MnO3 thin films

The structural, magnetic, and transport properties of La0.7(Ca1?ySry)0.3MnO3 films, deposited on a LaAlO3?(001) single crystalline substrate by rf-magnetron sputtering using “soft” (or powder) targets, have been investigated. It was found that at 0.3 ? y ? 0.5 both the rhombohedral (R3c) and the orthorhombic (Pnma) crystal phases in the form of...

Crystal structure and band gap determination of HfO2 thin films

Valence electron energy loss spectroscopy (VEELS) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) are performed on three different HfO2 thin films grown on Si (001) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or atomic layer deposition (ALD). For each sample the band gap (Eg) is determined by low-loss EELS analysis. The Eg values are then...

High-Tc superconducting thin films devices

Neutron Depolarization in Submicron Ferromagnetic Materials

The neutron depolarization technique is based on the loss of polarization of a polarized neutron beam after transmission through ferromagnetic substances. This loss, caused by Larmor precession in individual domains, determines the mean domain size, the mean square direction cosines of the domains and the mean magnetization. The method is...