Temperature annealing of tracks induced by ion irradiation of graphite

Highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) samples were irradiated by Xe ions of initial kinetic energy of 3 MeV/u. The irradiations were performed at temperatures of 500 and 800 K. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images show that the tracks occasionally have elongated structures under high-temperature irradiation. The track creation yield at 800 K is by three orders of magnitude smaller compared to that obtained during room-temperature irradiation. STM and Raman spectra show that amorphization occurs in graphite samples irradiated at 500 K to higher fluences, but not at 800 K. The obtained experimental results clearly reveal that the irradiation under high temperature causes track annealing.

The effects of the annealing time on helium implantation in Si

The modifications induced in silicon samples by helium implantation before and after isothermal annealing at 673 K have been investigated. The surface morphology has been detected by atomic force microscopy. A hillock structure is observed on the sample surface before and after annealing for 5-10 min. Surface blister formation is observed with an increasing annealing time. The variation of crystal damage with annealing time has been investigated by Rutherford backscattering/channeling. The intensity of the damage peak first increases with annealing time, reaches maximum at an annealing time of 60 min and then decreases. Helium-induced bubbles and residual defects have been observed by transmission electron microscopy, which shows that dislocations are close to the bubbles. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The annealing behavior of Cu nanoparticles in Ar-ion implanted spinel

Magnesium aluminate spinel crystals (MgAl2O4 (1 1 0)) deposited with 30 nm Cu film on surface were implanted with 110 key Ar-ions to a fluence of 1.0 x 10(17) ions/cm(2) at 350 degrees C, and then annealed in vacuum condition at the temperature of 500, 600, 700, 800 and 900 degrees C for 1 h, respectively. Ultraviolet-visible spectrometry (UV-VIS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Rutherford backscattering (RBS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were adopted to analyze the specimens. After implantation, the appearance of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorbance peak in the UV-VIS spectrum indicated the formation of Cu nanoparticles, and the TEM results for 500 degrees C also confirmed the formation of Cu nanoparticles at near-surface region. In annealing process, The SPR absorbance intensity increased at 500 and 700 degrees C, decreased with a blue shift of the peak position at 600 and 800 degrees C, and the peak disappeared at 900 degrees C. The SPR absorbance intensity evolution with temperature was discussed combined with other measurement results (RBS, SEM and TEM). (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of substrate and annealing on the structural and optical properties of ZnO:Al films

ZnO:Al thin films with c-axis preferred orientation were deposited on glass and Si substrates using RF magnetron sputtering technique. The effect of substrate on the structural and optical properties of ZnO:Al films were investigated. The results showed a strong blue peak from glass-substrate ZnO:Al film whose intensity became weak when deposited on Si substrate. However, the full width at half maxima (FWHM) of the Si-substrate ZnO:Al (0 0 2) peaks decreased evidently and the grain size increased. Finally, we discussed the influence of annealing temperature on the structural and optical properties of Si-substrate ZnO:Al films. After annealing, the crystal quality of Si-substrate ZnO:Al thin films was markedly improved and the intensity of blue peak (similar to 445 nm) increased noticeably. This observation may indicate that the visible emission properties of the ZnO:Al films are dependent more on the film crystallinity than on the film stoichiometry. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adsorption and reaction of thiophene and H2S on Mo2C/Al2O3 catalyst studied by in situ FT-IR spectroscopy

The reactions of both thiophene and H2S onMo(2)C/Al2O3 catalyst have been studied by in situ FT-IR spectroscopy. CO adsorption was used to probe the surface sites of Mo2C/Al2O3 catalyst under the interaction and reaction of thiophene and H2S. When the fresh Mo2C/Al2O3 catalyst is treated with a thiophene/H-2 mixture above 473 K, hydrogenated species exhibiting IR bands in the regions 2800-3000 cm(-1) are produced on the surface, indicating that thiophene reacts with the fresh carbide catalyst at relatively low temperatures. IR spectra of adsorbed CO on fresh Mo2C/Al2O3 pretreated by thiophene/H-2 at different temperatures clearly reveal the gradual sulfidation of the carbide catalyst at temperatures higher than 473 K, while H2S/H-2 can sulfide the Mo2C/Al2O3 catalyst surface readily at room temperature (RT). The sulfidation of the carbide surface by the reaction with thiophene or H2S maybe the major cause of the deactivation of carbide catalysts in hydrotreating reactions. The surface of the sulfided carbide catalyst can be only partially regenerated by a recarburization using CH4/H-2 at 1033 K. When the catalyst is first oxidized and then recarburized, the carbide surface can be completely reproduced.