Rare-Earth Functional Films Prepared by Ion Beam Epitaxy

Ion beam epitaxy （IBE） technology is a significant method for preparing high pure and high quality rare-earth functional films at low growth temperatue. A new method of preparing rare-earth functional films by ion beam epitaxy was reviewed in details. The recent developments and application of IBE on rare-earth functional films is focused, particularly for high-K materials CeO2, photoluminescence materials Gd2O3 and magnetic semiconductor materials Si1-x Gdx.

Ultraviolet-shielding and conductive double functional films coated on glass substrates by sol-gel process

Ultraviolet-shielding and conductive double functional films were composed of CeO2-TiO2 film and SnO2:Sb film deposited on glass substrates using sol-gel process.Ce(NO3)3·6H2O and Ti(C4H9O4),SnCl4 and SbCl3 were used as precursors of the two different functional films respectively.The CeO2-TiO2 films were deposited on glass substrates by sol-gel dip coating method,and then the SnO2:Sb films with different thickness were deposited on the pre-coated CeO2-TiO2 thin film glass substrates,finally,the substrates coated with double functional films were annealed at different temperatures.The optical and electrical properties of the CeO2-TiO2 films and the double films were measured by UV-Vis spectrometer and four probe resistance measuring instrument.The crystal structures and surface morphology of the films were characterized using XRD and optical microscope,respectively.The obtained results show that the ultraviolet-shielding rate of the glass substrates with CeO2-TiO2 films is not less than 90%,and transmittance in visible lights can reach 65%.With the thickness of the SnO2:Sb film increasing,its conductivity became better,and the surface resistance is about 260 Ω/ when the SnO2:Sb films were deposited 11 cycles of the dip on the pre-coated CeO2-TiO2 glass.The ultraviolet-shielding rate of the glass substrates with double functional films is higher than 97%,and the peak transmittance in the visible lights is 72%.Additionally,with increasing the heat treatment time,the Na+ of the glass substrates diffuses into the films,resulting in the particle size of SnO2 crystal smaller.

SURFACE REARRANGEMENTS OF OXYGEN PLASMA TREATED POLYSTYRENE:SURFACE DYNAMICS AND HUMIDITY EFFECT

The time evolution of oxygen plasma treated polystyrene(PS)surfaces was investigated upon storing them in theair under controlled humidity conditions.The methods of water contact angle,X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS),sumfrequency generation(SFG)vibrational spectroscopy,and atomic force microscopy(AFM)were used to infer the surfaceproperties and structure.Chemical groups containing oxygen were formed on the PS surface with the plasma treatment,demonstrated by water contact angle and XPS.The surface polarity decayed markedly on time,as assessed by steady increasein the water contact angle as a function of storage time,from zero to around 60°.The observed decay is interpreted as arisingfrom surface rearrangement processes to burying polar groups away from the uppermost layer of the surfaces,which is incontact with air.On the other hand,XPS results show that the chemical composition in the first 3 nm surface layer isunaffected by the surface aging,and the depth profile of oxygen is essentially the same with time.A possible change of PSsurface roughness was examined by AFM,and it showed that the increase of water contact angle during surface aging couldnot be attributed to surface roughness.Thus,it is concluded that surface aging is attributable to surface reorganization andthe motion of oxygen containing groups is confined within the XPS probing depth.SFG spectroscopy,which is intrinsicallyinterface-specific,was used to detect the chemical structure of PS surface at the molecular level after various aging times.The results are interpreted as follows.During the aging of the plasma treated PS surfaces,the oxygen containing groupsundergo reorientation processes toward the polymer bulk and/or parallel to the surface,while the CH_2 moiety stands up onthe PS surface.Our results indicate that the surface configuration changes do not require large length scale segmentalmotions or migration of macromolecules.Motions that are responsible for surface configuration changes could be relativelysmall rotational motions.The aging behaviors under different relative humidity conditions were shown to be similar from18% to 91%,whereas the kinetics of surface polarity decays were faster in higher relative humidity.Here,the surfacerearrangement of polystyrene films that were previously treated by oxygen plasma and aged,and was investigated in terms ofcontact angle after the water immersion.The contact angles of the water-immersed samples were found to change andapproach the initial values before the immersion asymptotically.

Temperature-dependent dielectric anomalies in powder aerosol deposited ferroelectric ceramic films

Room-temperature fabrication of functional ceramic films using powder aerosol deposition(AD)is important for practical applications.However,the as-processed ferroelectric films show unusual temperature-dependent dielectric response,including enhanced conductivity in the as-processed state and subsequent significant increase in the permittivity following heat treatment.In this work,we investigate the influence of the residual internal stresses developed during the high-impact consolidation process on the dielectric response.Moreover,the recombination of charged defects generated during deposition is driven by the temperature and the atmospheric condition during the heat treatment as well as the carrier gas type used during deposition.Thermal treatment up to 500℃ in different atmospheres was used to tune the dielectric and ferroelectric response,highlighting that irrespective of the type of carrier gas,AD deposition process induces charged defects in polar oxide ceramics that can be reduced through heat-treatment far-below their bulk sintering temperature.Macroscopic electromechanical properties are contrasted to in-situ heating scanning transmission electron microscopy to observe possible local effects,such as crystallization,grain growth,crystal defect structure,or grain reorientation.In addition X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies were conducted to gain insight into the effect of annealing on the crystal structure and local moisture adsorption.

Influence of conductive network composite structure on the electromechanical performance of ionic electroactive polymer actuators

The influence of the nanostructure of the conductive network composite(CNC)on the performance of ionic electroactive polymer(IEAP)actuators has been examined in detail.We have studied IEAP actuators consisting of CNCs with different volume densities of gold nanoparticles(AuNPs)and the polymer network.Varying the concentration of AuNPs in CNC thin films was used as a means to control the CNC-ion interfacial area and the electrical resistance of the CNC,with minimum effect on the mechanical properties of the actuator.Increasing the interfacial area and reducing the resistance,while maintaining porosity of the composite,provide means for generating motion of more ions into the CNC at a significantly shorter time,which results in generation of strain at a faster rate.We have demonstrated that cationic strain in actuators with denser CNCs is improved by more than 460%.Denser CNC structures have larger interfacial areas,which results in attraction/repulsion of more ions in a shorter time,thus generation of a larger mechanical strain at a faster rate.Also,time-dependent response to a square-wave voltage was improved by increasing the AuNP concentration in the CNC.Under 0.1 Hz frequency,the cationic strain was increased by 64%when the AuNP concentration was increased from 4 to 20 ppm.