Using a magnetically aligned liquid crystal mixture containing a novel Se-labelled dimer and the difluoroterphenyl dimer DTC5C7, the twist-bend nematic phase (Ntb) was studied by the resonant scattering of hard X-rays and by conventional small and wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS, WAXS). Resonant diffraction spots indicated a helix with a 9-12 nm pitch in the Ntb phase and an unprecedentedly h...

Transition metal silicide is an important material used in microelectronic devices and a possible candidate for high temperature application. The objective of this study is trying to make use of this material in a new way as protective thin films on engineering materials. The brittle nature of the silicides can thus be compensated by the ductile bulk material and the surface corrosion resistanc...

When nanoparticles (NPs) are embedded in organic matrices, the materials can show not only combined properties of the original components but also improved performances not seen in the original components.1 To this end, it is important to control the size, shape, and dispersion of the NPs on a chemically diverse range of supports. However, controlling materials at the nanometer scale is of grea...

Close-spaced-sublimated (CSS) CdS films exhibit strong fundamental edge luminescence, high optical absorption, and a bandgap of ~2.41 eV. Structurally, these films show good crystallinity with thickness-dependent grain sizes that vary between 100-400 nm. In contrast, chemical-bath-deposited (CBD) CdS exhibits subband luminescence, lower absorption, and a thicknessdependent bandgap. These films ...

We demonstrate the fabrication of high-quality electrochemically active organic 9 lithium electrode thin films by the currently strongly emerging combined atomic/molecular layer 10 deposition (ALD/MLD) technique using lithium terephthalate, a recently found anode material for 11 lithium-ion battery (LIB), as a proof-of-the-concept material. Our deposition process for Li12 terephthalate is shown...