No Arabic abstract
In this work, we investigate the correlation between morphology, composition, and the mechanical properties of metallic amorphous tungsten-oxygen and amorphous tungsten-oxide films deposited by Pulsed Laser Deposition. This correlation is investigated by the combined use of Brillouin Spectroscopy and the substrate curvature method. The stiffness of the films is strongly affected by both the oxygen content and the mass density. The elastic moduli show a decreasing trend as the mass density decreases and the oxygen-tungsten ratio increases. A plateaux region is detected in correspondence of the transition between metallic and oxide films. The compressive residual stresses, moderate stiffness and high local ductility that characterize compact amorphous tungsten-oxide films make them promising for applications involving thermal or mechanical loads. The coefficient of thermal expansion is quite high (i.e. 8.9 $cdot$ 10$^{-6}$ K$^{-1}$), being strictly correlated to the amorphous structure and stoichiometry of the films. Under thermal treatments they show a quite low relaxation temperature (i.e. 450 K). They crystallize into the $gamma$ monoclinic phase of WO$_3$ starting from 670 K, inducing an increase by about 70% of material stiffness.
Electrochromic devices, which dynamically change color under the applied potential, are widely studied because of its wide range of applications such as energy-efficient smart windows, rear view mirrors and display devices etc. In this study we are reporting four layer electrochromic device based on tungsten oxide as a electrochromic layer and nafion membrane as a ionic conducting layer. Nafion membranes are generally used in fuel cell applications because of its high ionic conductivity and high optical transparency which is suitable for electrochromic device to attain higher efficiencies. We have prepared an electrochromic device by sandwiching ITO coated glass and WO3 coated ITO thin film between nafion membrane. The overall structure of the device is Glass/ITO/WO3/Nafion/ITO/Glass. We deposited tungsten oxide thin films with different thickness on ITO coated glass substrate at room temperature by using reactive DC Magnetron sputtering and we studied the performance of the electrochromic device with the function of thickness. We have observed that electrochromic efficiency is increasing with increase in the tungsten oxide layer thickness. The efficiency of the device increased from 24.8 cm2/C to 184.3 cm2/C.
A lack of spatial inversion symmetry gives rise to a variety of unconventional physics, from noncollinear order and Skyrmion lattice phases in magnetic materials to topologically-protected surface states in certain band insulators, to mixed-parity pairing states in superconductors. The search for exotic physics in such materials is largely limited by a lack of candidate materials, and often by difficulty in obtaining crystals. Here, we report the single crystal growth and physical properties of the noncentrosymmetric tungsten aluminide cage compounds Al$_4$W and Al$_5$W, alongside related molybdenum aluminides in which spin-orbit coupling should be significantly weaker. All compounds are nonmagnetic metals. Their high conductivities suggest the opportunity to find superconductivity at lower temperatures, while the limits we can place on their transition temperatures suggest that any superconductivity may be expected to exhibit significant parity mixing.
Recently reported results on the long lifetime of the tungsten samples under high temperature and high stress conditions expected in the Neutrino Factory target have strengthened the case for a solid target option for the Neutrino Factory. In order to study in more details the behaviour of basic material properties of tungsten, a new method has been developed for measurement of tungsten Youngs modulus at high stress, high strain-rates (> 1000 s^-1) and very high temperatures (up to 2650 C). The method is based on measurements of the surface motion of tungsten wires, stressed by a pulsed current, using a Laser Doppler Vibrometer. The measured characteristic frequencies of wire expansion and contraction under the thermal loading have been used to directly obtain the tungsten Youngs modulus as a function of applied stress and temperature. The experimental results have been compared with modelling results and we have found that they agree very well. From the point of view of future use of tungsten as a high power target material, the most important result of this study is that Youngs modulus of tungsten remains high at high temperature, high stress and high strain-rates.
The conductance confined at the interface of complex oxide heterostructures provides new opportunities to explore nanoelectronic as well as nanoionic devices. Herein we show that metallic interfaces can be realized in SrTiO3-based heterostructures with various insulating overlayers of amorphous LaAlO3, SrTiO3 and yttria-stabilized zirconia films. On the other hand, samples of amorphous La7/8Sr1/8MnO3 films on SrTiO3 substrates remain insulating. The interfacial conductivity results from the formation of oxygen vacancies near the interface, suggesting that the redox reactions on the surface of SrTiO3 substrates play an important role.
We investigate the electronic structure of tungsten ditelluride (WTe$_2$) flakes with different thicknesses in magneto-transport studies. The temperature-dependent resistance and magnetoresistance (MR) measurements both confirm the breaking of carrier balance induced by thickness reduction, which suppresses the `turn-on behavior and large positive MR. The Shubnikov-de-Haas oscillation studies further confirm the thickness-dependent change of electronic structure of WTe$_2$ and reveal a possible temperature-sensitive electronic structure change. Finally, we report the thickness-dependent anisotropy of Fermi surface, which reveals that multi-layer WTe$_2$ is an electronic 3D material and the anisotropy decreases as thickness decreases.