Search

Zr-Cu based thin-film metallic glass (TFMG) has good glass-forming ability and the addition of a third element can create a chaotic system capable of inhibiting the nucleation and growth of crystals. This study focused on TFMGs made with Zr, Cu, and Ti in various compositions deposited via high-impulse magnetron sputtering on silicon and 304 stainless-steel substrates. Detailed analysis was performed on the microstructure and surface characteristics of the resulting coatings. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the multilayer structure changed to a nanocrystalline structure similar to an amorphous coating. The excellent hydrophobicity of Zr-Cu-Ti TFMGs can be attributed to their ultra-smooth surface without any grain boundaries. The excellent antimicrobial effects can be attributed to a hydrophobic surface resisting cell adhesion and the presence of copper ions, which are lethal to microbes.

Practical experience in the use of high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) technology has revealed that output bias current depends on the total energy output of the cathodes, which means that bias voltage settings do not necessarily match the actual output. In this study, we investigated the effects of bias current and voltage on the characteristics of titanium nitride thin films produced using high impulse magnetron sputtering. The bias current and voltage values were adjusted by varying the supplied cathode power and substrate bias under DC and pulsed-DC output models. Our results revealed that pulse delay (PD) and feed forward (FF) settings can be used to control bias current and voltage. Increasing the bias current from 0.56 to 0.84 was shown to alter the preferred orientation from (111) to (220), increase the deposition rate, and lead to a corresponding increase in film thickness. The surface morphology of all titanium nitride samples exhibited tapered planes attributable to the low bias current and voltage (−30 V). The maximum hardness values were as follows: DC mode (23 GPa) and pulsed-DC mode (19 GPa). The lower hardness values of pulsed-DC samples can be attributed to residual stress, preferred orientation, and surface morphology. The surface of the samples was shown to be hydrophobic, with contact angles of &gt, 100°.

This study deposited CrAlN coatings from Al50Cr50 targets using high-power impulse magnetron sputtering, with a focus on the effects of nitrogen content and substrate bias voltage on the deposition rate, microstructure, crystal orientation, residual stress, and mechanical properties of the coating. The nitrogen content was adjusted by varying the N2/Ar flow ratio between 20% and 140%. Increasing the nitrogen flow rate during deposition led to corresponding decreases in the deposition rate and film thickness. X-ray diffractometer (XRD) analysis revealed that a low N2/Ar flow ratio (&lt, 40%) resulted in amorphous CrAlN, whereas a higher ratio (&gt, 40%) resulted in an face-centered cubic (FCC) phase. Bias voltage also had considerable influence on the residual stress and grain size. A refined grain structure and high internal stress resulted in hard CrAlN coatings. Among the various parameter combinations evaluated in this study, the highest hardness (35.4 GPa) and highest elastic modulus (426 GPa) were obtained using an N2/Ar flow ratio of 100% and a bias voltage of −120 V.

High-precision trajectory control is considered as an important factor in the performance of industrial two-axis contour motion systems. This research presents an adaptive direct fuzzy cerebellar model articulation controller (CMAC) sliding mode control (DFCMACSMC) for the precise control of the industrial XY-axis motion system. The FCMAC was utilized to approximate an ideal controller, and the weights of FCMAC were on-line tuned by the derived adaptive law based on the Lyapunov criterion. With this derivation in mind, the asymptotic stability of the developed motion system could be guaranteed. The two-axis stage system was experimentally investigated using four contours, namely, circle, bowknot, heart, and star reference contours. The experimental results indicate that the proposed DFCMACSMC method achieved the improved tracking capability, and so reveal that the DFCMACSMC scheme outperformed other schemes of the model uncertainties and cross-coupling interference.

In this study, five AlTiCrN nitride coatings were deposited via high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS). The AlTiCrN coatings were synthesized with high contents of Al or Ti and a lower fraction of Cr, using Ti and Al70Cr30 targets with five different input power ratios. Electron probe microanalyzer results revealed that the increased rate of Ti contents in the coatings can be divided into two regions due to the difference of power densities for HiPIMS (&gt, 0.5 kW/cm2) and modulated pulsed power (MPP) (&lt, 0.5 kW/cm2). The deposition rate and thickness of the coatings depended on the sputtering yield of two metal targets under HiPIMS and MPP modes. The grain size of the coatings decreased from 60 to 40 nm as the input power ratios of the AlCr/Ti targets decreased due to their lower thickness values and lower Al content. Selected area electron diffraction patterns and X-ray diffraction results revealed that the TiN and AlTiN phases can be found in the coating containing higher Ti content, whereas the AlN, CrN, and AlCrN phases were observed in the coating with a higher Al concentration. Nevertheless, decreasing the concentration of Ti had a detrimental effect on the mechanical properties of AlTiCrN coatings, due to a promotion in grain size and the formation of AlN, which is softer than TiN. It is noticed that our results differed from those in previous reports, in which a grain refinement effect was observed due to increasing Al content. In this work, the effect of processing the parameters of the HiPIMS and MPP power systems on the grain size and the mechanical property of the coating was also discussed.

In this study, lead-free LiNbO3-doped (Na0.535K0.48)NbO3 (NKN) ceramics (NKLxN, x = 0–0.09) were prepared using a conventional mixed oxide method to investigate the effects of LiNbO3 additives on the microstructure and electrical properties. The addition of LiNbO3 reduced the optimal sintering temperature from 1100 to 950 ℃ and increased the bulk relative density to 99.61% (g/cm3) at x = 0.05 through the formation of a homogeneous microstructure. The electrical properties remained highly stable, even when the ambient temperature was increased from room temperature to 140 ℃. NKLxN ceramics sintered at 950 ℃ with x = 0.05 exhibited the following excellent piezoelectric properties: kp：50% (34%); kt：53% (40%); Qm：168 (112); d33：150 pC/N (80 pC/N); and tan δ ：4% (8%). These values far exceed those of pure NKN ceramics sintered at 1100 ℃. Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices fabricated using the proposed NKLxN (x = 0.05) ceramics presented high phase velocity of 3210 m/s, k2 of 6.7%, and TCF of approximately −282 ppm/℃. Our results clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of adding LiNbO3 to prevent deliquescence and thereby enhance resistance to the effects of humidity. The resulting devices are highly sensitive to changes in temperature, making them ideally suited to electromechanical transducers as well as SAW temperature sensors.

In this study, the performances of red CsPbI3-based all-inorganic perovskite quantum-dot light-emitting diodes (IPQLEDs) employing polymeric crystalline Poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT), poly(9-vinycarbazole) (PVK), Poly(N,N′-bis-4-butylphenyl-N,N′-bisphenyl)benzidine (Poly-TPD) and 9,9-Bis[4-[(4-ethenylphenyl)methoxy]phenyl]-N2,N7-di-1-naphthalenyl-N2,N7-diphenyl-9H-fluorene-2,7-diamine (VB-FNPD) as the hole transporting layers (HTLs) have been demonstrated. The purpose of this work is an attempt to promote the development of device structures and hole transporting materials for the CsPbI3-based IPQLEDs via a comparative study of different HTLs. A full-coverage quantum dot (QD) film without the aggregation can be obtained by coating it with VB-FNPD, and thus, the best external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 7.28% was achieved in the VB-FNPD device. We also reported a standing method to further improve the degree of VB-FNPD polymerization, resulting in the improved device performance, with the EQE of 8.64%.

Transparent conducting Nb-doped titanium oxide (NTO) films were deposited on a non-alkali glass substrate using an RF magnetron sputtering method with post-annealing. Structural, electrical and optical properties of the NTO films were found to be strongly dependent on film thickness. A resistivity of 4.2 × 10−3 Ω cm and an average visible transmittance of ∼70% were obtained at the film thickness of 360 nm, indicating that the polycrystalline NTO fabricated by the sputtering method has sufficient potential as a transparent conducting oxide (TCO) candidate for practical applications.

In this study, a hybrid nanostructure comprising ZnO nanorods embedded in polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) was developed for use as an antireflection (AR) coating. The fabrication process includes the etching of PMMA as an alternative to conventional photolithographic methods. This approach enables rapid, large-scale production at low cost with minimal pollution. The PMMA serves to protect the ZnO nanorods against external damage, while the O2 plasma treatment provides a modified surface profile to reduce reflectance. X-ray diffractometer (XRD) measurements and TEM results confirm that the resulting crystal structures are pure ZnO with good crystallinity. This paper compares three hybrid nanostructures (flat film, columnar, and conical) as antireflective layers. The application of poly-Si solar cells with the proposed AR layer was shown to improve cell efficiency by enhancing short-circuit current density.

This paper introduces a novel TiAlSiN/CrN multilayer film deposited on substrates of silicon Si (100) or tungsten carbide steel using high-power impulse magnetron sputtering. The authors systematically analyzed the effects of N2/Ar flow ratio on the microstructural and mechanical properties of the thin films using TEM, SEM, XRD, and nanoindentation measurements. SEM images revealed that increasing the N2/Ar flow ratio led to corresponding decreases in the thickness of TiAlSiN/CrN multilayer films (from 1.9 to 0.5 μm) and the bilayer (from 21.5 to 6.6 nm). XRD and TEM analysis revealed that under the same conditions, the structure of a TiAlSiN monolayer transformed from amorphous to crystallite. Thus, increasing the N2/Ar flow ratio from 5% to 80% led to a sharp increase in hardness (from 9.8 to 19.6 GPa) and Young's modulus (from 178 to 245 GPa).This paper introduces a novel TiAlSiN/CrN multilayer film deposited on substrates of silicon Si (100) or tungsten carbide steel using high-power impulse magnetron sputtering. The authors systematically analyzed the effects of N2/Ar flow ratio on the microstructural and mechanical properties of the thin films using TEM, SEM, XRD, and nanoindentation measurements. SEM images revealed that increasing the N2/Ar flow ratio led to corresponding decreases in the thickness of TiAlSiN/CrN multilayer films (from 1.9 to 0.5 μm) and the bilayer (from 21.5 to 6.6 nm). XRD and TEM analysis revealed that under the same conditions, the structure of a TiAlSiN monolayer transformed from amorphous to crystallite. Thus, increasing the N2/Ar flow ratio from 5% to 80% led to a sharp increase in hardness (from 9.8 to 19.6 GPa) and Young's modulus (from 178 to 245 GPa).

The anemone-like ZnO nanostructures have been synthesized by hydrothermal method and were further adsorbed immobilized cholesterol oxidase (ChOx) as a nano-biosensor. In this study, the sensitivity of biosensor were improved by varying the thickness of the ZnO seed layer. The SEM analysis showed changes in thickness of seed layer will not affect the morphologies of anemone-like ZnO nanostructures. The X-ray Diffraction patterns showed that the (002) plane of anemone-like ZnO grown on various thickness of the seed layer was more prouded than other crystal plane. Abioelectrode (ChOx/ZnO/ITO/glass) grown on the 30nm of ZnO seed layer with high sensitivity of 57.533μAmM-1cm-2 (1.488 μA (mg/dl) -1cm-2), a wide sensitive range from 25 to 500 mg/dl. It is concluded that the thinner sputtered ZnO seed layer for growing anemone-like ZnO nanostructure can effectively improve the sensitivity of the ZnO biosensor.

Chelosterol ZnO biosensors were synthesized by hydrothermal method with predeposited ALD-ZnO seed layers. The ZnO nanostructures were examined by SEM, XRD, AFM, respectively. The XRD is used to analyze the crystal structures of ZnO seed layers that were grown by ALD process, then using SEM and AFM to analysis the surface morphologies of them. Growing of one dimensional ZnO nanostructures on seed layer of 10nm thickness, reveals high sensitivity of 3.15 uA (mg/dl)-1cm-2(121.96 uAmM-1cm-2) and low Km value of 29mM in 25-100mg/dl cholesterol concentration range. The response time could be as low as 10seconds. In the study, it is found that increasing the aspect ratio of ZnO one dimensional nanostructure also increases the sensitivity and expends the linear measureable range of detecting cholesterol in solution. The thickness of seed layer has a significant influence on sensitivity for one dimensional nano ZnO cholesterol biosensor.