The PL "violet shift" of cerium dioxide on silicon

CeO2 thin film was fabricated by dual ion beam epitaxial technique. The phenomenon of PL violet shift at room temperature was observed, and the distance of shift was about 65 nm. After the analysis of crystal structure and valence in the compound were carried out by XRD and XPS technique, it was concluded that the PL shift was related with valence of cerium ion in the oxides. When the valence of cerium ion varied front tetravalence to trivalence, the PL peak position would move from blue region to violet region and the phenomenon of "violet shift" was observed.

Violet/blue photoluminescence from CeO2 thin film

CeO2 thin film was fabricated by dual ion beam epitaxial technique. The violet/blue PL at room temperature and lower temperature was observed from the CeO2 thin film. After the analysis of crystal structure and valence in the compound was carried out by the XRD and XPS technique, it was inferred that the origin of CeO2 PL was due to the electrons transition from Ce4f band to O2p band and the defect level to O2p band. And these defects levels were located in the range of 1 eV around Ce4f band.

A study of the interface of CeO2/Si heterostructure grown by ion beam deposition

Epitaxial cerium dioxide films on single-crystal silicon substrates (CeO2/Si) have been grown by a dual mass-analyzed low-energy ion beam deposition (IBD) system. By double-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD), Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) are 23' and 33' in the rocking curves for (222) and (111) faces of the CeO2 film, respectively, and the lattice-mismatch Delta a/a with the substrate is about - 0.123%. The results show that the CeO2/Si grown by IBD is of high crystalline quality. In this work, the CeO2/Si heterostructure were investigated by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES) measurements. Especially, XPS and AES depth profiling was used to analyze the compositions and structures in the interface regions of the as-grown and post-annealed CeO2/Si. It was found that there was no silicon oxide in the interface region of the as-grown sample but silicon oxide in the post-annealed sample. The reason for obtaining such high quality heterostructure mainly depends on the absence of silicon oxide in the surface at the beginning of the deposition. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

High quality CeO2 film grown on Si(111) substrate by using low energy dual ion beam deposition technology

By using the mass-analyzed low energy dual ion beam deposition technique, a high quality epitaxial, insulating cerium dioxide thin film with a thickness of about 2000 Angstrom, has been grown on a silicon (111) substrate. The component species, cerium and oxygen, are homogeneous in depth, and have the correct stoichiometry for CeO2. X-ray double-crystal diffraction shows that the full width at half maximum of the (222) and (111) peaks of the film are less than 23 and 32 s, respectively, confirming that the film is a perfect single crystal. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.

Studies on syntheses and properties of novel CeO2/Polyimide nanocomposite films from Ce(Phen)(3) complex

A series of cerium dioxide (CeO2,)/polyimide (PI) nanocomposites were successfully prepared from Ce(Phen)(3) and polyamic acid (PAA) via the solution direct-dispersing method, followed by a step thermal imidization process. TGA and XPS studies showed that the cerium complex decomposed to form CeO2, during the thermal imidization process at 300 degrees C. SEM observation showed that the formed CeO2, as nalloparticles was well dispersed in polyimide matrix with a size of about 50-100 nm for samples with different contents of CeO2. Thermal analysis indicated that the introduction of CeO2, decreased the thermal stability of nanocomposite films due to the decomposition of Ce(Phen)(3) in the imidization process, while the glass transition temperature (T-g) increased obviously. especially nanocomposite films with high loading of CeO2 exhibited a trend of disappearance off, DMTA and static tensile measurements showed that the storage modulus of nanocomposite films increased, while the elongation at break decreased with increasing CeO2 content.

Refractive index and thickness analysis of natural silicon dioxide film growing on silicon with variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry

The refractive index and thickness of SiO2 thin films naturally grown on Si substrates were determined simultaneously within the wavelength range of 220-1100 nm with variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry. Different angles of incidence and wavelength ranges were chosen to enhance the analysis sensitivity for more accurate results. Several optical models describing the practical SiO2-Si system were investigated, and best results were obtained with the optical model, including an interface layer between SiO2 and Si, which proved the existence of the interface layer in this work as described in other publications.

Effect of cerium oxide on the precipitation of silver nanoparticles in femtosecond laser irradiated silicate glass

We investigated the effect of cerium oxide on the precipitation of Ag nanoparticles in silicate glass via a femtosecond laser irradiation and successive annealing. Absorption spectra show that Ce3+ ions may absorb part of the laser energy via multiphoton absorption and release free electrons, resulting in an increase of the concentration of Ag atoms and a decrease of the concentration of hole-trapped color centers, which influence precipitation of the Ag nanoparticles. In addition, we found that the formed Ag-0 may reduce Ce4+ ions to Ce3+ ions during the annealing process, which inhibits the growth of the Ag nanoparticles.

Comparison of cerium-doped Lu2Si2O7 and Lu2SiO5 scintillators

In this paper, high optical quality cerium-doped lutetium pyrosilicate(LPS:Ce) crystal has been grown by Czochralski method with the seed oriented along cleavage plane (1 1 0). The structure, segregation coefficient of Ce3+ and optical characterization of LPS:Ce crystal have been compared with those of LSO:Ce crystal. The results show that LPS:Ce has the advantage over LSO:Ce by having a larger segregation coefficient of Ce3+, lower cost of starting material, lower melting point and only one luminescence mechanism. Thus, LPS:Ce crystal offers an attractive alternative to LSO:Ce for scintillator applications. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Czochralski growth and crystal structure of cerium-doped Lu2Si2O7 scintillator

Cerium-doped lutetium pyrosilicate crystal, Ce:Lu2Si2O7 (Ce:LPS), was grown by the Czochralski method. The segregation coefficient of Ce3+ ion was studied by the ICP-AES method. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the structure of Ce:LPS crystal was monoclinic symmetry with space group of C2/m. Perfect cleavage planes (110) and imperfect cleavage planes (001) were observed by optical microscope. The reasons why it is difficult to grow crack-free crystals were studied. After optimized growth parameters, a Ce:LPS crystal with dimension of Phi 25 x 30 mm was grown, which is colorless, high optical quality, cracking-free and no inclusions. The transmittance of Ce:LPS crystal from 380 to 800 nm is over 82% and there is no observable absorption. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Synthesis and luminescence characterization of cerium doped Lu2O3-Y2O3-La2O3 solid solution transparent ceramics

Ce3+:( Lu0.7Y0.25La0.05)(2)O-3 transparent ceramics were fabricated with nanopowders and sintered in H-2 atmosphere. The spectral properties of Ce3+:( Lu0.7Y0.25La0.05)(2)O-3 transparent ceramics were investigated and the luminescence of Ce3+ in the solid solution of Lu2O3, Y2O3 and La2O3 has been found. The ceramics has high density of 8.10g/cm(3) and short fluorescence lifetimes of 7.15 ns and 26.92 ns. It is expected to be a good fast response high temperature inorganic scintillating materials. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.

Investigation on microstructure and optical properties of titanium dioxide coatings annealed at various temperature

TiO2 coatings were prepared on fused silica with conventional electron beam evaporation deposition. After TiO2 thin films were annealed at different temperatures for 4 h, several properties were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), spectrometer.. photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and AFM. It was found that with the annealing temperature increasing, the transmittance of TiO2 coatings decreased, and the cutoff wavelength shifted to long wavelength in near ultraviolet band. Especially, when coatings were annealed at high temperature, the optical loss is very serious, which can be attributed to the scattering and the absorption of TiO2 coatings. XRD patterns revealed that only anatase phase was observed in TiO2 coatings regardless of the different annealing temperatures. XPS results indicated that the fine chemical shift of TiO2 2p(1/2) should be attributed to existence of oxygen vacancies around Ti+4 ion. The investigation on surface morphology by AFM showed that the RMS of titania thin films gradually increases from less than 0.40 nm to 5.03 nm and it should be ascribed to the growth of titanium dioxide grain size with the increase of annealing temperature. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Methane and carbon dioxide fluxes from a shallow hypereutrophic subtropical Lake in China

Up to now, there have been few studies in the annual fluxes of greenhouse gases in lakes of subtropical regions. The fluxes of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) across air-water interface were measured in a shallow, hypereutrophic, subtropical Lake Donghu (China) over a year cycle, using a static chamber technique. During the year, Lake Donghu emitted CH4 and CO2; the average flux of CH4 and CO2 was 23.3 +/- 18.6 and 332.3 +/- 160.1 mg m(-2) d(-1), respectively. The fluxes of CH4 and CO2 showed strong seasonal dynamics: CH4 emission rate was highest in summer, remaining low in other seasons, whereas CO2 was adsorbed from the atmosphere in spring and summer, but exhibited a large emission in winter. Annual carbon (C) budget across air-water interface in Lake Donghu was estimated to be 7.52 +/- 4.07 x 10(8) g. CH4 emission was correlated positively with net primary production (NPP) and temperature, whereas CO2 flux correlated negatively with NPP and temperature; however, there were no significant relationships between the fluxes of CH4 and CO2 and dissolved organic carbon, a significant difference from boreal lakes, indicating that phytoplankton rather than allochthonous matter regulated C dynamics across air-water interface of subtropical lake enriched nutrient content. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

First-principles LDA plus U and GGA plus U study of neptunium dioxide

We have performed a systematic first-principles investigation to calculate the electronic structures, mechanical properties, and phonon-dispersion curves of NpO2. The local-density approximation+U and the generalized gradient approximation+U formalisms have been used to account for the strong on-site Coulomb repulsion among the localized Np 5f electrons. By choosing the Hubbard U parameter around 4 eV, the orbital occupancy characters of Np 5f and O 2p are in good agreement with recent experiments [A. Seibert, T. Gouder, and F. Huber, J. Nucl. Mater. 389, 470 (2009)]. Comparing to our previous study of ThO2, we note that stronger covalency exists in NpO2 due to the more localization behavior of 5f electrons of Np in line with the localization-delocalization trend exhibited by the actinides series.

Fabrication and Infrared Optical Properties of Nano Vanadium Dioxide Thin Films

Vanadium dioxide thin films were fabricated by ion beam sputtering on Si3N4/SiO2/Si after a post reductive annealing process in a nitrogen atmosphere. X-ray Diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were employed to analyze the effects of post annealing temperature on crystallinity, morphology, and composition of the vanadium oxide thin films. Transmission properties of vanadium dioxide thin films were measured by Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The results showed that the as-deposited vanadium oxide thin films were composed of non-crystalline V2O5 and a tetragonal rutile VO2. After annealing at 400 degrees C for 2 h, the mixed phase vanadium oxide (VOx) thin film changed its composition and structure to VO2 and had a (011) oriented monoclinic rutile structure. When increasing the temperature to 450 degrees C, nano VO2 thin films with smaller grains were obtained. FT-IR results showed that the transmission contrast factor of the nano VO2 thin film was more than 0.99 and the transmission of smaller grain nano VO2 thin film was near zero at its switched state. Nano VO2 thin film with smaller grains is an ideal material for application in optical switching devices.