The structure of thin-film water on a BaF(2)(111) surface under ambient conditions was studied using x-ray absorption spectroscopy from ambient to supercooled temperatures at relative humidity up to 95%. No hexagonal ice-like structure was observed in spite of the expected templating effect of the lattice-matched (111) surface. The oxygen K-edge x-ray absorption spectrum of liquid thin-film wat...

Amorphous Tungsten Oxide (alpha-WO3) film is one of the most studied electrochromic (EC) materials. It can be used as EC layer in EC devices. Electrochromism can be described as reversible change optical properties, by an applied external voltage. Here alpha-WO3 thin films were deposited onto glass and ITO substrates by reactive DC magnetron sputtering for EC application. Growth temperature, ox...

Nickel oxide thin film of various preferred orientations was deposited using sol-gel method using solvents including methanol. The resulting film was analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), contact angle measurement, and ultraviolet spectroscopy (UV-vis). Antibacterial activities of nickel oxide-based film against gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli) has...

We report on the morphological influence of solution-processed zinc oxide (ZnO) semiconductor films on the electrical characteristics of ZnO thin-film transistors (TFTs). Different film morphologies were produced by controlling the spin-coating condition of a precursor solution, and the ZnO films were analyzed using atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, a...

A method is developed for calculating the small-angle x-ray scattering originating from within the interior of a thin film under grazing incidence illumination. This offers the possibility of using x-ray scattering to probe how the structure of polymers is modified by confinement. When the diffuse scattering from a thin film is measured over a range of incident angles, it is possible to separat...

A Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) film with a thickness of approximately 1.5 μm was fabricated on a Mo-coated glass substrate by annealing a CZTS precursor fabricated from nanoparticle ink. The chemical states of the elements in the CZTS thin film in the depth direction were studied to identify the presence of secondary phases, which are detrimental to the performance of solar cells containing CZTS. X-ray dif...

The fundamental important and technologically widely employed exchange bias effect occurs in general in bilayers of magnetic thin films consisting of antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic layers where the hard magnetization behavior of an antiferromagnetic thin film causes a shift in the magnetization curve of a soft ferromagnetic film. The minimization of the single magnetic grain size to increa...

Cu-implanted SiO2 films on Si 100 have been studied and compared to unimplanted SiO2 on Si 100 using x-ray methods, transmission electron microscopy, Rutherford backscattering, and Brillouin spectroscopy. The x-ray results indicate the preferred orientation of Cu 111 planes parallel to the Si substrate surface without any directional orientation for Cu-implanted SiO2/Si 100 and for Cu-implanted...

In this work, TiN/TiCN & PN/TiCN multilayer films were deposited by plasma- assisted chemical vapour deposition (PACVD). Plasma nitriding (PN) and TiN intermediate layer prior to coating leads to appropriate hardness gradient and it can greatly improve the mechanical properties of the coating. The composition, crystalline structure and phase of the films were investigated by X-ray d...