Thermal annealing of Au nanorod self-assembled nanostructured materials: Morphology and optical properties

Three-dimensional Au nanorod and An nanoparticle nanostructured materials were prepared by layer-by-layer self-assembly. The plasmonic properties of the An nanorod and An nanoparticle self-assembled nanostructured materials (abbreviated as AuNR and AuNP SANMs) are tunable by the controlled self-assenibly process. The effect of thermal annealing at 180 and 500 degrees C to the morphologies, plasmonic properties and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) responses of these SANMs were investigated. According to the experimental results, these properties correlate with the structure of the SANMs.

Structural and magnetic properties of Sr2Fe1−xGaxMoO6 (0≤x≤0.25)

We have investigated the structure, magnetization and magnetoresistance (MR) of the double perovskite compounds Sr2Fe1−xGaxMoO6 (0≤x≤0.25). Rietveld refinement results show that the anti-site defects (ASDs) concentration increases with x, giving rise to highly disordered samples at the B/B positions, for the highest doping levels. The evolution of bond lengths and ions oxidation states could be understood by the distribution of trivalent Ga ions at the B/B positions, which leads to the formation of more disorder structure. The saturation magnetization and Curie temperature decreased with the Ga content increases in the samples, and their origin was found that the cations disorder for the Ga-doped compounds is annihilating double exchange mechanism due to the presence of significant amounts of Fe and Ga cations on the B site. The low-field magnetoresistance of Sr2FeMoO6 (SFMO) can be greatly enhanced by replacing the Fe by the nonmagnetic Ga ion up to a temperature of 300 K,since Ga ions may act as a barrier for electron transport along the chain in the ferromagnetic segregation and weaken the ferromagnetic exchange.

Preparation and optical properties of trivalent europium-doped bulk and nanocrystalline SrY2O4

The nanocrystalline Sry(2)O(4):Eu3+ was prepared by a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)+glycine-assist combustion method. The results of x-ray diffraction indicate that the resulting Sry(2)O(4):Eu3+ nanocrystals have much broader and less intense peaks compared with those in bulk material. The charge-transfer bands in Sry(2)O(4):Eu3+ nanocrystals shift to higher energies in contrast to those in bulk material. The spectral results revealed that in bulk SrY2O4: Eu3+ the Eu3+ ions occupied three nonequivalent sites, with one at the Sr site: one at the Y(1) site and another at the Y(2) site, while in nanocrystalline SrY2O4: Eu3+, the Eu3+ ions occupied only two nonequivalent sites; one at the Y(1) site and the other at the Y(2) site. Finally, by theoretical calculation and analysis, the analyzed results are in reasonable agreement with our experimental results.

Fabrication and optical properties of core-shell structured spherical SiO2@GdVO4 : Eu3+ phosphor via sol-gel process

Europium-doped nanocrystalline GdVO4 phosphor layers were coated on the surface of preformed submicron silica spheres by sol-gel method. The resulted SiO2@Gd0.95Eu0.05VO4 core-shell particles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectra (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), photoluminescence (PL) spectra, low voltage cathodoluminescence (CL), time resolved PL spectra and kinetic decays. The XRD results demonstrate that the Gd0.95Eu0.05VO4 layers begin to crystallize on the SiO2 spheres after annealing at 600 C and the crystallinity increases with raising the annealing temperature. The obtained core-shell phosphors have spherical shape, narrow size distribution (average size ca. 600 nm), non-agglomeration. The thickness of the Gd0.95Eu0.05VO4 shells on the SiO2 cores could be easily tailored by varying the number of deposition cycles (50 nm for four deposition cycles). PL and CL show that the emissions are dominated by D-5(0)-F-7(2) transition of Eu3+ (618 nm, red).

Patterning and optical properties rhodamine B-doped organic-inorganic silica films fabricated by sol-gel soft lithography

Rhodamine B (RB)-doped organic-inorganic silica films and their patterning were fabricated by a sol-gel process combined with a soft lithography. The resulted film samples were characterized by atomic force microscope (AFM), optical microscope and UV/Vis absorption and photoluminescence excitation and emission spectra. The effects of the concentration of the RB dye and heat treatment temperature on the optical properties of the hybrid silica films have been studied. Four kinds of patterning structures with film line widths of 5, 10, 20 and 50 mum have been obtained by micromolding in capillaries by a soft lithography technique. The RB-doped hybrid silica films present a red color, with an excitation and emission bands around 564 and 585 mum, respectively. With increasing the RB concentration, the emission intensity of the RB-doped hybrid silica films increases and the emission maximum presents a red shift. The emission intensity of the films decreases with increasing the heat treatment temperatures.

Fabrication, patterning, and optical properties of nanocrystalline YVO4 : A (A = Eu3+, Dy3+, Sm3+, Er3+) phosphor films via sol-gel soft lithography

Nanocrystalline YVO4:A (A = Eu3+, Dy3+, Sm3+, Er3+) phosphor films and their patterning were fabricated by a Pechini sol-gel process combined with soft lithography. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and optical microscopy, UV/vis transmission and absorption spectra, photoluminescence (PL) spectra, and lifetimes were used to characterize the resulting films. The results of XRD indicated that the films began to crystallize at 400 degreesC and the crystallinity increased with the increase of annealing temperatures. Transparent nonpatterned phosphor films were uniform and crack-free, which mainly consisted of grains with an average size of 90 nm. Patterned gel and crystalline phosphor film bands with different widths (5-60 mum) were obtained. Significant shrinkage and a few defects were observed in the patterned films during the heat treatment process. The doped rare earth ions (A) showed their characteristic emission in crystalline YVO4 phosphor films because of an efficient energy transfer from vanadate groups to them. The Sm3+ and Er3+ ions also showed upconversion luminescence in a YVO4 film host. Both the lifetimes and PL intensity of the rare earth ions increased with increasing annealing temperature from 400 to 800 degreesC, and the optimum concentration for Eu3+ was determined to be 7 mol % and those for Dy3+, Sm3-, and Er3+ were 2 Mol % of Y3- in YVO4 films, respectively.

Mild hydrothermal synthesis and optical properties of the complex fluoride KMgF3 doped with Eu

KMgF3 doped with Eu was synthesized by mild hydrothermal method at 240 degreesC for the first time. The excitation and emission spectra of the KMgF3 : Eu2+ phosphor were measured. Comparing with the sample synthesized through solid state reaction, the variation in the excitation spectra at 360 nm resulted from the existences of V-K color centers; the low emission intensity was due to Eu2+ having transferred part energy to V-K color centers.

Structural and magnetic properties of (PrxSm1-x)Mn2Si2

Crystallographic and magnetic properties of intermetallic compounds (PrxSm1-x) Mn2Si2 (x = 0 similar to 0.80) have been investigated by X-ray powder diffraction, XPS and magnetic measurements. All the compounds crystallize in ThCr2Si2-type structure. Substitution of Pr for Sm leads to the increase of the lattice constants and the transition from antiferromagnetism (AFM) to ferromagnetism (FM). The valence-fluctuation in the compounds was observed and the relation between the change of electron binding energy and magnetic properties was also discussed preliminarily.

Optical and structural properties of ZnO films grown on Si(100) substrates by MOCVD - art. no. 60290G

High quality ZnO films have been successfully grown on Si(100) substrates by Metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technique. The optimization of growth conditions (II-VI ratio, growth temperature, etc) and the effects of film thickness and thermal treatment on ZnO films' crystal quality, surface morphology and optical properties were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and photoluminescence (PL) spectrum, respectively. The XRD patterns of the films grown at the optimized temperature (300 degrees C) show only a sharp peak at about 34.4 degrees corresponding to the (0002) peak of hexagonal ZnO, and the FWHM was lower than 0.4 degrees. We find that under the optimized growth conditions, the increase of the ZnO films' thickness cannot improve their structural and optical properties. We suggest that if the film's thickness exceeds an optimum value, the crystal quality will be degraded due to the large differences of lattice constant and thermal expansion coefficient between Si and ZnO. In PL analysis, samples all displayed only ultraviolet emission peaks and no observable deep-level emission, which indicated high-quality ZnO films obtained. Thermal treatments were performed in oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere, respectively. Through the analysis of PL spectra, we found that ZnO films annealing in oxygen have the strongest intensity and the low FWHM of 10.44 nm(106 meV) which is smaller than other reported values on ZnO films grown by MOCVD.

Optical properties of aluminum-, gallium-, and indium-doped Bi4Ti3O12 thin films

Undoped and Al-, Ga-, and In-doped Bi4Ti3O12 thin films were prepared on fused quartz substrates by chemical solution deposition. Their microstructures and optical properties were investigated by x-ray diffraction and UV-visible-NIR spectrophotometer, respectively. The optical band-gap energies, Urbach energies, and linear refractive indices of all the films are derived from the transmittance spectrum. Following the single oscillator model, the dispersion parameters such as the average oscillator energy (E-0) and dispersion energy (E-d) are achieved. The energy band gap and refractive indices are found to decrease with introducing the dopants of Al, Ga, and In, which is useful for the band-gap engineering and optical waveguide devices. The refractive index dispersion parameter (E-0/S-0) increases and the chemical bonding quantity (beta) decreases in all the films compared with those of bulk. It is supposed to be caused by the nanosize grains in films. (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI 10.1063/1.3138813]

Structural and Bluish-White Luminescent Properties of Li+-Doped BPO4 as a Potential Environmentally Friendly Phosphor Material

Many efforts have been devoted to exploring novel luminescent materials that not contain expensive or toxic elements, or do not need a mercury vapor plasma source. In this paper, BPO4 and Li+-doped BPO4 powder samples were prepared by the Pechini-type sol-gel (PSG) process. The structure and optical properties of the resulting samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), photoluminescence (PL) excitation and emission spectra, kinetic decay, and X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), respectively. It was found that PSG -derived Li+-doped BPO4 annealed at 960 degrees C exhibited bright bluish-white emission centered at 416 nm. The luminescence decay curves analysis indicates that each sample has two kinds of lifetimes (5.9 ns and 0.529 ms) and two types of kinetic decay behaviors which can be fitted into a single-exponential function and a double-exponential function, respectively.

Formation, thermal, optical and physical properties of GeS2-Ga2S3-AgCl novel chalcohalide glasses

Novel GeS2-Ga2S3-AgCl chalcohalide glasses had been prepared by melt-quenching technique, and the glass-forming region was determined by XRD, which indicated that the maximum of dissolvable AgCl was up to 65 mol%. Thermal and optical properties of the glasses were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Visible-IR transmission, which showed that most of GeS2-Ga2S3-AgCl glasses had strong glass-forming ability and broad region of transmission (about 0.45-12.5 mu m). With the addition of AgCl, the glass transition temperature, Tg decreases distinctly, and the short-wavelength cut-off edge (lambda(vis)) of the glasses also shifts to the long wavelength gradually. However, the glass-forming ability of the glass has a complicated evolutional trend depended on the compositional change. In addition, the values of the Vickers microhardness, H (v) , which decrease with the addition of AgCl, are high enough for the practical applications. These excellent properties of GeS2-Ga2S3-AgCl glasses make them potentially applied in the optoelectronic field, such as all-optical switch, etc.

Optical properties of UO2 and PuO2

We perform first-principles calculations of electronic structure and optical properties for UO2 and PuO2 based on the density functional theory using the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) + U scheme. The main features in orbital-resolved partial density of states for occupied f and p orbitals, unoccupied d orbitals, and related gaps are well reproduced compared to experimental observations. Based on the satisfactory ground-state electronic structure calculations, the dynamical dielectric function and related optical spectra, i.e., the reflectivity, adsorption coefficient, energy-loss, and refractive index spectrum, are obtained. These results are consistent with the available experiments.

The effects of substrate temperature on the structure and properties of ZnO films prepared by pulsed laser deposition

ZnO thin films were prepared by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on glass substrates with growth temperature from room temperature (RT) to 500 degrees C. The effects of substrate temperature on the structural and optical properties of ZnO films have been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission spectra, and RT photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The results showed that crystalline and (0 0 2)-oriented ZnO films were obtained at all substrate temperatures. As the substrate temperature increased from RT to 500 degrees C, the ratio of grain size in height direction to that in the lateral direction gradually decreased. The same grain size in two directions was obtained at 200 degrees C, and the size was smallest in all samples, which may result in maximum E, and E-0 of the films. UV emission was observed only in the films grown at 200 degrees C, which is probably because the stoichiometry of ZnO films was improved at a suitable substrate temperature. It was suggested that the UV emission might be related to the stoichiometry in the ZnO film rather than the grain size of the thin film. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effects of LT AlN buffer thickness on the optical properties of AlGaN grown by MOCVD and Al composition inhomogeneity analysis

We have investigated the growth of AlGaN epilayers on a sapphire substrate by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition using various low-temperature ( LT) AlN buffer thicknesses. Combined scanning electron microscopy and cathodoluminescence investigations reveal the correlation between the surface morphology and optical properties of AlGaN films in a microscopic scale. It is found that the suitable thickness of the LT AlN buffer for high quality AlGaN growth is around 20 nm. The Al compositional inhomogeneity of the AlGaN epilayer is attributed to the low lateral mobility of Al adatoms on the growing surface.