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Presents a study which measured x-ray absorption near edge structure spectra of thin films using the fluorescence and sample drain current modes. Methodology; Results and discussion; Conclusion.

TaN–Cu nanocomposite films were deposited by reactive cosputtering on Si and tool steel substrates. The films were then annealed using rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at 400 °C for 2, 4, and 8 min, respectively, to induce the nucleation and growth of Cu particles in TaN matrix and on film surface. Field emission scanning electron microscopy was applied to characterize Cu nanoparticles emerged on the surface of TaN–Cu thin films. The effects of annealing on the antiwear and antibacterial properties of these films were studied. The results reveal that annealing by RTA can cause Cu nanoparticles to form on the TaN surface. Consequently, the tribological behaviors, as well as the antibacterial behavior may vary depending on particle size, particle distribution, and total exposed Cu amount. For the samples with large Cu particles, the reduction of averaged friction and wear rate is obvious. Apparently, it is due to the smeared Cu particles adhered onto the wear tracks. This Cu layer may act as a solid lubricant. From the antibacterial testing results, it is found that both Cu particle size and total exposed Cu amount are critical in making short-term antibacterial effect. Overall, all the annealed TaN–Cu samples can reach >99% antibacterial efficiency in 24 h, with respect to uncoated Si substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we measured the Fe, Mn, and Ni L[sub 2,3]-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and K-edge extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) of the ferromagnetic (FM) NiFe and antiferromagnetic (AFM) FeMn bilayer films prepared with various annealing temperatures. The branching ratios of the white-line intensities in the Fe, Mn, and Ni L[sub 2,3]-edges XANES spectra and consequently the magnetic properties of these exchange-biased FM NiFe — AFM FeMn bilayers are found to depend strongly on the annealing temperature. We find that the first peak in the Fe, Mn, and Ni K-edge EXAFS Fourier transform spectra are very similar, which suggests that the nearest-neighbor bond lengths among Fe, Mn, and Ni atoms are essentially the same in the NiFe-FeMn bilayers. However, the peaks at distances greater than ∼ 3 Å appear to be sensitive to the annealing temperature especially for the Fe and Mn K-edge spectra, which suggests that annealing alters the atomic structures of the next-nearest-neighbor and more distant shells surrounding the Fe and Mn atoms in the NiFe-FeMn bilayers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectra of hard amorphous a-Si–C–N thin films with various compositions were measured at the C and N K-edge using sample drain current and fluorescent modes. The C K-edge XANES spectra of a-Si–C–N contain a relatively large 1s→π[sup *] peak, indicating that a substantial percentage of carbon atoms in the a-Si–C–N films have sp[sup 2] or graphite-like bonding. Both the observed sp[sup 2] intensity and the Young’s modulus decrease with an increase in the carbon content. For N K-edge XANES spectra of the a-Si–C–N films we find the emergence of a sharp peak near the threshold when the carbon content is larger than between 9% and 36%, which indicates that carbon and nitrogen atoms tend to form local graphitic carbon nitride. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) measurements have been performed for nitrogen (N) containing diamond films with three different N concentrations at the C K-edge using the sample drain current mode. The C K-edge XANES spectra of these diamond films resemble that of the pure diamond regardless of the N concentration, which suggests that the overall bonding configuration of the C atom is unaltered. N impurities are found to reduce the intensities of both the sp[sup 2]- and sp[sup 3]-bond derived resonance features in the XANES spectra. The valence-band photoelectron spectra indicate that N atoms cause the broadening of the valence band σ- and π-bond features and the enhancement and reduction of the σ- and π-bond features, respectively. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]