Controllable chemical vapor deposition of large area uniform nanocrystalline graphene directly on silicon dioxide

Metal-catalyst-free chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of large area uniform nanocrystalline graphene on oxidized silicon substrates is demonstrated. The material grows slowly, allowing for thickness control down to monolayer graphene. The as-grown thin films are continuous with no observable pinholes, and are smooth and uniform across whole wafers, as inspected by optical-, scanning electron-, and atomic force microscopy. The sp 2 hybridized carbon structure is confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. Room temperature electrical measurements show ohmic behavior (sheet resistance similar to exfoliated graphene) and up to 13 of electric-field effect. The Hall mobility is ∼40 cm 2/Vs, which is an order of magnitude higher than previously reported values for nanocrystalline graphene. Transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and transport measurements indicate a graphene crystalline domain size ∼10 nm. The absence of transfer to another substrate allows avoidance of wrinkles, holes, and etching residues which are usually detrimental to device performance. This work provides a broader perspective of graphene CVD and shows a viable route toward applications involving transparent electrodes. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

Room-temperature remote-plasma sputtering of c-axis oriented zinc oxide thin films

Highly c-axis oriented ZnO films have been deposited at room temperature with high rates (∼50 nm·min -1) using an innovative remote plasma sputtering configuration, which allows independent control of the plasma density and the sputtering ion energy. The ZnO films deposited possess excellent crystallographic orientation, high resistivity (>10 9 Ω·m), and exhibit very low surface roughness. The ability to increase the sputtering ion energy without causing unwanted Ar + bombardment onto the substrate has been shown to be crucial for the growth of films with excellent c-axis orientation without the need of substrate heating. In addition, the elimination of the Ar + bombardment has facilitated the growth of films with very low defect density and hence very low intrinsic stress (100 MPa for 3 μm-thick films). This is over an order of magnitude lower than films grown with a standard magnetron sputtering system. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

Insight into differences in nanoindentation properties of bone.

Nanoindentation provides the ideal framework to determine mechanical properties of bone at the tissue scale without being affected by the size, shape, and porosity of the bone. However, the values of tissue level mechanical properties vary significantly between studies. Since the differences in the bone sample, hydration state, and test parameters complicate direct comparisons across the various studies, these discrepancies in values cannot be compared directly. The objective of the current study is to evaluate and compare mechanical properties of the same bones using a broad range of testing parameters. Wild type C56BL6 mice tibiae were embedded following different processes and tested in dry and rehydrated conditions. Spherical and Berkovich indenter probes were used, and data analysis was considered within the elasto-plastic (Oliver-Pharr), viscoelastic and visco-elastic-plastic frameworks. The mean values of plane strain modulus varied significantly depending on the hydration state, probe geometry and analysis method. Indentations in dry bone analyzed using a visco-elastic-plastic approach gave values of 34 GPa. After rehydrating the same bones and indenting them with a spherical tip and utilizing a viscoelastic analysis, the mean modulus value was 4 GPa, nearly an order of magnitude smaller. Results suggest that the hydration state, probe geometry and the limitations and assumptions of each analysis method influence significantly the measured mechanical properties. This is the first time that such a systematic study has been carried out and it has been concluded that the discrepancies in the mechanical properties of bone measured by nanoindentation found in the literature should not be attributed only to the differences between the bones themselves, but also to the testing and analysis protocols.

The nature and origin of deep ocean clay crust from the Gulf of Guinea

Deep ocean sediments off the west coast of Africa exhibit a peculiar undrained strength profile in the form of a crust, albeit of exceptionally high water content, overlying normally consolidated clay. Hot-oil pipelines are installed into these crustal sediments, so their origins and characteristics are of great interest to pipeline designers. This paper provides evidence for the presence of burrowing invertebrates in crust material, and for the way sediment properties are modified through their creation of burrows, and through the deposition of faecal pellets. A variety of imaging techniques are used to make these connections, including photography, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray computer tomography. However, the essential investigative technology is simply the wet-sieving of natural cores, which reveals that up to 60% by dry mass of the crustal material can consist of smooth, highly regular, sand-sized capsules that have been identified as the faecal pellets of invertebrates such as polychaetes. Mechanical tests reveal that these pellets are quite robust under effective stresses of the order of 10 kPa, acting like sand grains within a matrix of fines. Their abundance correlates closely with the measured strength of the crust. While this can easily be accepted in the context of a pellet fraction as high as 60%, the question arises how a smaller proportion of pellets, such as 20%, is apparently able to enhance significantly the strength of a sediment that otherwise appears to be normally consolidated. A hypothesis is suggested based on the composition of the matrix of fines around the pellets. These appear to consist of agglomerates of clay platelets, which may be the result of the breakdown of pellets by other organisms. Their continued degradation at depths in excess of 1 m is taken to explain the progressive loss of crustal strength thereafter.

The energy required to produce materials: constraints on energy-intensity improvements, parameters of demand.

In this paper, we review the energy requirements to make materials on a global scale by focusing on the five construction materials that dominate energy used in material production: steel, cement, paper, plastics and aluminium. We then estimate the possibility of reducing absolute material production energy by half, while doubling production from the present to 2050. The goal therefore is a 75 per cent reduction in energy intensity. Four technology-based strategies are investigated, regardless of cost: (i) widespread application of best available technology (BAT), (ii) BAT to cutting-edge technologies, (iii) aggressive recycling and finally, and (iv) significant improvements in recycling technologies. Taken together, these aggressive strategies could produce impressive gains, of the order of a 50-56 per cent reduction in energy intensity, but this is still short of our goal of a 75 per cent reduction. Ultimately, we face fundamental thermodynamic as well as practical constraints on our ability to improve the energy intensity of material production. A strategy to reduce demand by providing material services with less material (called 'material efficiency') is outlined as an approach to solving this dilemma.

Independence is elusive: set size effects on encoding precision in visual search.

Looking for a target in a visual scene becomes more difficult as the number of stimuli increases. In a signal detection theory view, this is due to the cumulative effect of noise in the encoding of the distractors, and potentially on top of that, to an increase of the noise (i.e., a decrease of precision) per stimulus with set size, reflecting divided attention. It has long been argued that human visual search behavior can be accounted for by the first factor alone. While such an account seems to be adequate for search tasks in which all distractors have the same, known feature value (i.e., are maximally predictable), we recently found a clear effect of set size on encoding precision when distractors are drawn from a uniform distribution (i.e., when they are maximally unpredictable). Here we interpolate between these two extreme cases to examine which of both conclusions holds more generally as distractor statistics are varied. In one experiment, we vary the level of distractor heterogeneity; in another we dissociate distractor homogeneity from predictability. In all conditions in both experiments, we found a strong decrease of precision with increasing set size, suggesting that precision being independent of set size is the exception rather than the rule.

Use of 2G coated conductors for efficient shielding of DC magnetic fields

This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation of the performance of two types of magnetic screens assembled from YBa2Cu3O7-d (YBCO) coated conductors. Since effective screening of the axial DC magnetic field requires the unimpeded flow of an azimuthal persistent current, we demonstrate a configuration of a screening shell made out of standard YBCO coated conductor capable to accomplish that. The screen allows the persistent current to flow in the predominantly azimuthal direction at a temperature of 77 K. The persistent screen, incorporating a single layer of superconducting film, can attenuate an external magnetic field of up to 5 mT by more than an order of magnitude. For comparison purposes, another type of screen which incorporates low critical temperature quasi-persistent joints was also built. The shielding technique we describe here appears to be especially promising for the realization of large scale high-Tc superconducting screens.

Intragranular and intergranular behaviour of multifilamentary Bi-2223/Ag tapes

This communication aims at reporting the superconducting properties of Bi-2223/Ag tapes determined by using various measuring techniques. First, the original samples have been characterized by electrical resistance, AC susceptibility, and DC magnetization. The transport (intergranular) critical current vs. magnetic field was also determined at T = 77 K using pulsed currents up to 40 A. Next, the same combination of experiments was performed on bent tapes in order to bring out relevant information concerning the strength of the intergranular coupling. The results show that intergranular and intragranular currents differ by at least one order of magnitude. Finally, additional magnetic measurements were carried out in order to determine the anisotropy ratio Jc ab/Jc c, which was found to lie around 30. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Design and characteristion of a hydraulic microactuator fabricated by lithography

To improve the force output of microactuators, this work focuses on actuators driven by pressurized gasses or liquids. Despite their well known ability to generate high actuation forces, hydraulic actuators remain uncommon in microsystems. This is both due to the difficulty of fabricating these microactuators with the existing micromachining processes and to the lack of adequate microseals. This paper describes how to overcome these limitations with a combination of anisotropic micromachining, UV definable polymers and low temperature bonding. The functionality of these actuators is proven by extensive measurements which showed that actuation forces of 0.1 N can be achieved for actuators with an active cross-section of 0.15 mm2. This is an order of magnitude higher than what is reported for classic MEMS actuators of similar size.

Measurement of the unburnt gas temperature in an IC engine by means of a pressure transducer

A novel method of measuring cylinder gas temperature in an internal combustion engine cylinder is introduced. The physical basis for the technique is that the flow rate through an orifice is a function of the temperature of the gas flowing through the orifice. Using a pressure transducer in the cylinder, and another in a chamber connected to the cylinder via an orifice, it is shown how the cylinder temperature can be determined with useful sensitivity. In this paper the governing equations are derived, which show that the heat transfer characteristics of the chamber are critical to the performance of the system, and that isothermal or adiabatic conditions give the optimum performance. For a typical internal combustion engine, it is found that the pre-compression cylinder temperature is related to the chamber pressure late in the compression process with sensitivity of the order of 0.005 bar/K. Copyright © 2010 SAE International.

Novel experiment on in-cylinder desorption of fuel from the oil layer

A technique has been developed to measure the desorption and subsequent oxidation of fuel in the oil layer by spiking the oil with liquid fuel and firing the engine on gaseous fuel or motoring with air. Experiments suggest that fuel desorption is not diffusion limited above 50°C and indicated that approximately two to four percent of the cylinder oil layer is fresh oil from the sump. The increase in hydrocarbon emissions is of the order of 100 ppmC1 per 1% liquid fuel introduced into the fresh oil in a methane fired engine at mid-speed and light load conditions. Calculations indicate that fuel desorbing from oil is much more likely to produce hydrocarbon emissions than fuel emerging from crevices. © Copyright 1994 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.

Raman scattering efficiency of graphene

We determine the Raman scattering efficiency of the G and 2D peaks in graphene. Three substrates are used: silicon covered with 300 or 90 nm oxide, and calcium fluoride (CaF2). On Si/SiOx, the areas of the G and 2D peak show a strong dependence on the substrate due to interference effects, while on CaF2 no significant dependence is detected. Unintentional doping is reduced by placing graphene on CaF2. We determine the Raman scattering efficiency by comparison with the 322 cm -1 peak area of CaF2. At 2.41 eV, the Raman efficiency of the G peak is ∼200×10-5 m-1Sr-1, and changes with the excitation energy to the power of 4. The 2D Raman efficiency is at least one order of magnitude higher than that of the G peak, with a different excitation energy dependence. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Electronic properties of GaAs, InAs and InP nanowires studied by terahertz spectroscopy.

We have performed a comparative study of ultrafast charge carrier dynamics in a range of III-V nanowires using optical pump-terahertz probe spectroscopy. This versatile technique allows measurement of important parameters for device applications, including carrier lifetimes, surface recombination velocities, carrier mobilities and donor doping levels. GaAs, InAs and InP nanowires of varying diameters were measured. For all samples, the electronic response was dominated by a pronounced surface plasmon mode. Of the three nanowire materials, InAs nanowires exhibited the highest electron mobilities of 6000 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, which highlights their potential for high mobility applications, such as field effect transistors. InP nanowires exhibited the longest carrier lifetimes and the lowest surface recombination velocity of 170 cm s⁻¹. This very low surface recombination velocity makes InP nanowires suitable for applications where carrier lifetime is crucial, such as in photovoltaics. In contrast, the carrier lifetimes in GaAs nanowires were extremely short, of the order of picoseconds, due to the high surface recombination velocity, which was measured as 5.4 × 10⁵ cm s⁻¹. These findings will assist in the choice of nanowires for different applications, and identify the challenges in producing nanowires suitable for future electronic and optoelectronic devices.

An approach to multi-fidelity optimization of aeroengine compression systems

The aerodynamic design of turbomachinery presents the design optimisation community with a number of exquisite challenges. Chief among these are the size of the design space and the extent of discontinuity therein. This discontinuity can serve to limit the full exploitation of high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD): such codes require detailed geometric information often available only sometime after the basic configuration of the machine has been set by other means. The premise of this paper is that it should be possible to produce higher performing designs in less time by exploiting multi-fidelity techniques to effectively harness CFD earlier in the design process, specifically by facilitating its participation in configuration selection. The adopted strategy of local multi-fidelity correction, generated on demand, combined with a global search algorithm via an adaptive trust region is first tested on a modest, smooth external aerodynamic problem. Speed-up of an order of magnitude is demonstrated, comparable to established techniques applied to smooth problems. A number of enhancements aimed principally at effectively evaluating a wide range of configurations quickly is then applied to the basic strategy, and the emerging technique is tested on a generic aeroengine core compression system. A similar order of magnitude speed-up is achieved on this relatively large and highly discontinuous problem. A five-fold increase in the number of configurations assessed with CFD is observed. As the technique places constraints neither on the underlying physical modelling of the constituent analysis codes nor on first-order agreement between those codes, it has potential applicability to a range of multidisciplinary design challenges. © 2012 by Jerome Jarrett and Tiziano Ghisu.

Towards robust design of axial compressors with uncertainty quantification

Operational uncertainties such as throttle excursions, varying inlet conditions and geometry changes lead to variability in compressor performance. In this work, the main operational uncertainties inherent in a transonic axial compressor are quantified to deter- mine their effect on performance. These uncertainties include the effects of inlet distortion, metal expansion, ow leakages and blade roughness. A 3D, validated RANS model of the compressor is utilized to simulate these uncertainties and quantify their effect on polytropic efficiency and pressure ratio. To propagate them, stochastic collocation and sparse pseudospectral approximations are used. We demonstrate that lower-order approximations are sufficient as these uncertainties are inherently linear. Results for epistemic uncertainties in the form of meshing methodologies are also presented. Finally, the uncertainties considered are ranked in order of their effect on efficiency loss. © 2012 AIAA.