Metastable crystalline AuGe catalysts formed during isothermal germanium nanowire growth

We observe the formation of metastable AuGe phases without quenching, during strictly isothermal nucleation and growth of Ge nanowires, using video-rate lattice-resolved environmental transmission electron microscopy. We explain the unexpected formation of these phases through a novel pathway involving changes in composition rather than temperature. The metastable catalyst has important implications for nanowire growth, and more broadly, the isothermal process provides both a new approach to growing and studying metastable phases, and a new perspective on their formation. © 2012 American Physical Society.

Phase synchronization between stratospheric and tropospheric quasi-biennial and semi-annual oscillations

A combination of singular systems analysis and analytic phase techniques are used to investigate the possible occurrence in observations of coherent synchronization between quasi-biennial and semi-annual oscillations (QBOs; SAOs) in the stratosphere and troposphere. Time series of zonal mean zonal winds near the Equator are analysed from the ERA-40 and ERA-interim reanalysis datasets over a ∼ 50-year period. In the stratosphere, the QBO is found to synchronize with the SAO almost all the time, but with a frequency ratio that changes erratically between 4:1, 5:1 and 6:1. A similar variable synchronization is also evident in the tropical troposphere between semi-annual and quasi-biennial cycles (known as TBOs). Mean zonal winds from ERA-40 and ERA-interim, and also time series of indices for the Indian and West Pacific monsoons, are commonly found to exhibit synchronization, with SAO/TBO ratios that vary between 4:1 and 7:1. Coherent synchronization between the QBO and tropical TBO does not appear to persist for long intervals, however. This suggests that both the QBO and tropical TBOs may be separately synchronized to SAOs that are themselves enslaved to the seasonal cycle, or to the annual cycle itself. However, the QBO and TBOs are evidently only weakly coupled between themselves and are frequently found to lose mutual coherence when each changes its frequency ratio to its respective SAO. This suggests a need to revise a commonly cited paradigm that advocates the use of stratospheric QBO indices as a predictor for tropospheric phenomena such as monsoons and hurricanes. © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society.

Dye-sensitized solar cells based on a single layer deposition of TiO 2 from a new formulation paste and their photovoltaic performance

A new strategy for enhancing the efficiency and reducing the production cost of TiO 2 solar cells by design of a new formulated TiO 2 paste with tailored crystal structure and morphology is reported. The conventional three- or four-fold layer deposition process was eliminated and replaced by a single layer deposition of TiO 2 compound. Different TiO 2 pastes with various crystal structures, morphologies and crystallite sizes were prepared by an aqueous particulate sol-gel process. Based on simultaneous differential thermal (SDT) analysis the minimum annealing temperature to obtain organic-free TiO 2 paste was determined at 400°C, being one of the lowest crystallization temperatures of TiO 2 photoanode electrodes for solar cell application. Photovoltaic measurements showed that TiO 2 solar cell with pure anatase crystal structure had higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) than that made of pure rutile-TiO 2. However, the PCE of solar cells depends on the anatase to rutile weight ratio, reaching a maximum at a specific value due to the synergic effect between anatase and rutile TiO 2 nanoparticles. Moreover, it was found that the PCE of solar cells made of crystalline TiO 2 powders was much higher, increasing in the range 32-84% depending on anatase to rutile weight ratio, than that of prepared by amorphous powders. TiO 2 solar cell with the morphology of mixtures of nanoparticles and microparticles had higher PCE than the solar cell with the same phase composition containing TiO 2 nanoparticles due to the role of TiO 2 microparticles as light scattering particles. The presented strategy would open up new insight into fabrication and structural design of low-cost TiO 2 solar cells with high power conversion efficiency. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Twisting transition between crystalline and fibrillar phases of aggregated peptides

We study two distinctly ordered condensed phases of polypeptide molecules, amyloid fibrils and amyloidlike microcrystals, and the first-order twisting phase transition between these two states. We derive a single free-energy form which connects both phases. Our model identifies relevant degrees of freedom for describing the collective behavior of supramolecular polypeptide structures, reproduces accurately the results from molecular dynamics simulations as well as from experiments, and sheds light on the uniform nature of the dimensions of different peptide fibrils. © 2012 American Physical Society.

Modeling fatigue crack growth in crystalline solids with discrete dislocation plasticity

Analyses of crack growth under cyclic loading conditions are discussed where plastic flow arises from the motion of large numbers of discrete dislocations and the fracture properties are embedded in a cohesive surface constitutive relation. The formulation is the same as used to analyse crack growth under monotonic loading conditions, differing only in the remote loading being a cyclic function of time. Fatigue, i.e. crack growth in cyclic loading at a driving force for which the crack would have arrested under monotonic loading, emerges in the simulations as a consequence of the evolution of internal stresses associated with the irreversibility of the dislocation motion. A fatigue threshold, Paris law behaviour, striations, the accelerated growth of short cracks and the scaling with material properties are outcomes of the calculations. Results for single crystals and polycrystals will be discussed.

Design guidelines for granular particles in a conical centrifugal filter

Essential design criteria for successful drying of granular particles in a conical continuous centrifugal filter are developed in a dimensionless fashion. Four criteria are considered: minimum flow thickness (to ensure sliding bulk flow rather than particulate flow), desaturation position, output dryness and basket failure. The criteria are based on idealised physical models of the machine operation and are written explicitly as functions of the basket size lout, spin velocity Ω and input flow rate of powder Qp. The separation of sucrose crystals from liquid molasses is taken as a case study and the successful regime of potential operating points (lout, Ω) is plotted for a wide range of selected values of flow rate Qp. Analytical expressions are given for minimum and maximum values of the three independent parameters (lout, Ω, Qp) as a function of the slurry and basket properties. The viable operating regime for a conical centrifugal filter is thereby obtained as a function of the slurry and basket properties. © 2012 The Institution of Chemical Engineers.

Hydrogen-induced morphotropic phase transformation of single-crystalline vanadium dioxide nanobeams.

We report a morphotropic phase transformation in vanadium dioxide (VO2) nanobeams annealed in a high-pressure hydrogen gas, which leads to the stabilization of metallic phases. Structural analyses show that the annealed VO2 nanobeams are hexagonal-close-packed structures with roughened surfaces at room temperature, unlike as-grown VO2 nanobeams with the monoclinic structure and with clean surfaces. Quantitative chemical examination reveals that the hydrogen significantly reduces oxygen in the nanobeams with characteristic nonlinear reduction kinetics which depend on the annealing time. Surprisingly, the work function and the electrical resistance of the reduced nanobeams follow a similar trend to the compositional variation due mainly to the oxygen-deficiency-related defects formed at the roughened surfaces. The electronic transport characteristics indicate that the reduced nanobeams are metallic over a large range of temperatures (room temperature to 383 K). Our results demonstrate the interplay between oxygen deficiency and structural/electronic phase transitions, with implications for engineering electronic properties in vanadium oxide systems.

Elastic properties of crystalline-amorphous core-shell silicon nanowires

The pressure behavior of Raman frequencies and line widths of crystalline core-amorphous shell silicon nanowires (SiNWs) with two different core-to-shell ratio thicknesses was studied at pressures up to 8 GPa. The obtained isothermal compressibility (bulk modulus) of SiNWs with a core-to-shell ratio of about 1.8 is ∼20% higher (lower) than reported values for bulk Si. For SiNWs with smaller core-to-shell ratios, a plastic deformation of the shell was observed together with a strain relaxation. A significant increase in the full width at half-maximum of the Raman LTO-peak due to phonon decay was used to determine the critical pressure at which LTO-phonons decay into LO + TA phonons. Our results reveal that this critical pressure in strained core-shell SiNWs (∼4 GPa) is different from the reported value for bulk Si (∼7 GPa), whereas no change is observed for relaxed core-shell SiNWs. © 2013 American Chemical Society.

Liquid crystalline chromophores for photonic band-edge laser devices

We present results on laser action from liquid crystal compounds whereby one sub-unit of the molecular structure consists of the cyano-substituted chromophore, {phenylene-bis (2-cyanopropene)}, similar to the basic unit of the semiconducting polymer structure poly(cyanoterephthalylidene). These compounds were found to exhibit nematic liquid crystal phases. In addition, by virtue of the liquid crystalline properties, the compounds were found to be highly miscible in wide temperature range commercial nematogen mixtures. When optically excited at λ = 355 nm, laser emission was observed in the blue/green region of the visible spectrum (480-530 nm) and at larger concentrations by weight than is achievable using conventional laser dyes. Upon increasing the concentration of dye from 2 to 5 wt.% the threshold was found to increase from Eth = 0.42 ± 0.02 μJ/pulse (≈20 mJ/cm2) to Eth = 0.66 ± 0.03 μJ/pulse (≈34 mJ/cm2). Laser emission was also observed at concentrations of 10 wt.% but was less stable than that observed for lower concentrations of the chromophore. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Investigation of DyBa2Cu3O7-d superconducting domains grown by the infiltration technique starting with small size Dy-211 particles

An infiltration and growth process is here used as an alternative to the classical top-seeded melt-textured growth process for the production of Dy-123 single-domains with finely dispersed small size Dy-211 particles. The starting materials are the 211-particles and a barium and copper rich liquid phase precursor. The infiltration and growth process allows for controlling both the spatial and size distribution of the 211-particles in the final superconducting 123-single-domain. The main parameters (set-ups, maximum processing temperature with respect to the peritectic temperature, nature of reactant, porosity of the 211-preform) of the infiltration and growth process are discussed. Moreover, different processes of chimie douce are shown in order to produce Dy-211 particles with controlled shape and size, particles that can be used as precursors for the infiltration and growth process. © 2005 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Group coordination and cooperative control of steered particles in the plane

The paper overviews recent and ongoing efforts by the authors to develop a design methodology to stabilize isolated relative equilibria in a kinematic model of identical particles moving in the plane at unit speed. Isolated relative equilibria correspond to either parallel motion of all particles with fixed relative spacing or to circular motion of all particles about the same center with fixed relative headings. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.

Collective motion of self-propelled particles: Stabilizing symmetric formations on closed curves

We provide feedback control laws to stabilize formations of multiple, unit speed particles on smooth, convex, and closed curves with definite curvature. As in previous work we exploit an analogy with coupled phase oscillators to provide controls which isolate symmetric particle formations that are invariant to rigid translation of all the particles. In this work, we do not require all particles to be able to communicate; rather we assume that inter-particle communication is limited and can be modeled by a fixed, connected, and undirected graph. Because of their unique spectral properties, the Laplacian matrices of circulant graphs play a key role. The methodology is demonstrated using a superellipse, which is a type of curve that includes circles, ellipses, and rounded rectangles. These results can be used in applications involving multiple autonomous vehicles that travel at constant speed around fixed beacons. ©2006 IEEE.