XPS depth profiles were used to investigate the effects of rapid thermal annealing under varying conditions on the structural, magnetic and optical properties of Ni-doped ZnO thin films. Oxidization of metallic Ni from its metallic state to two-valence oxidation state occurred in the film annealed in air at 600 C, while reduction of Ni2þ from its two-valence oxidation state to metallic state oc...

Morphology evolution of the multicomponent metallic glass film obtained by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering was investigated in the present work. Two modes of metallic glass sputtering were distinguished: smooth film mode and clustered film mode. The sputtering parameters, which have the most influence on the sputtering modes, were determined. As a result, amorphous Ni-Nb thin films wi...

TiO₂-CdO composite rods were synthesized through a hydrothermal method and sputtering thin-film deposition. The hydrothermally derived TiO₂ rods exhibited a rectangular cross-sectional crystal feature with a smooth surface, and the as-synthesized CdO thin film exhibited a rounded granular surface feature. Structural analyses revealed that the CdO thin film sputtered onto the surfaces of the TiO...

Thin film polycrystalline silicon (pc-Si) on flexible metallic substrates is promising for low cost production of photovoltaic solar cells. One of the attractive methods to produce pc-Si solar cells consists in thickening a large-grained seed layer by epitaxy. In this work, the deposited seed layer is made by aluminium induced crystallization (AIC) of an amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin film on me...

In this paper, a novel method of producing bi-metallic alloy nanoparticles at low temperatures using hydrogen bombardment of thin films, deposited on glass substrates, is introduced. Optical and morphological characteristics of the nanoparticles were extensively studied for various conditions of plasma treatment, such as plasma power density, temperature, duration of hydrogen bombardment, thick...

In this paper, a novel method of producing bi-metallic alloy nanoparticles at low temperatures using hydrogen bombardment of thin films, deposited on glass substrates, is introduced. Optical and morphological characteristics of the nanoparticles were extensively studied for various conditions of plasma treatment, such as plasma power density, temperature, duration of hydrogen bombardment, thick...

A paramount challenge in materials science is to design damage-tolerant glasses. Poisson's ratio is commonly used as a criterion to gauge the brittle-ductile transition in glasses. However, our data, as well as results in the literature, are in conflict with the concept of Poisson's ratio serving as a universal parameter for fracture energy. Here, we identify the electronic structure fingerprin...

Compared to the long history of plasmonic gratings, there are only a few studies regarding the bandgap in the propagation of plasmonic surface waves. Considering the previous studies on interpretation of plasmonic bandgap formation, we discuss this phenomenon using the effect of both surface plasmon polariton (SPP) and localized surface plasmon (LSP) for our fabricated one-dimensional metallic-...

The polarization dependence of the optical properties of individual subwavelength holes in a thin metallic film is studied using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. We show that for parallel polarization of the incident light, the coupling is predominantly to short-range bonding film plasmons while for perpendicular polarization the incident light couples more efficiently to long-range antibond...

We report on a new contactless scanning probe technique to probe thin metallic films. The scanning eddy current dynamometer ~SECD! is based on the measurement of the force generated by a magnetic tip oscillating in close proximity to a conducting thin film glued to a high-Q mechanical oscillator. By measuring the resonant motion induced in the mechanical oscillator, the eddy current force on th...