No Arabic abstract
Hydroxyapatite synthesized by a wet chemical route was subjected to heavy Krypton ion irradiation of 4MeV at various fluences. Glancing incidence Xray diffraction results confirmed the phase purity of irradiated HA with a moderate contraction in lattice parameters, and further indicated the irradiation induced structural disorder, evidenced by broadening of the diffraction peaks. High resolution transmission electron microscopy observations indicated that the applied Kr irradiation induced significant damage in the hydroxyapatite lattice. Specifically, cavities were observed with their diameter and density varying with the irradiation fluences, while a radiation induced crystalline to amorphous transition with increasing ion dose was identified. Raman and Xray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis further indicated the presence of irradiation induced defects. Ion release from pristine and irradiated materials following immersion in Trisbuffer showed that dissolution in vitro was enhanced by irradiation. We examined the effects of irradiation on the early stages of the mouse osteoblast like cells response. A cell counting kit 8 assay was carried out to investigate the cytotoxicity of samples, and viable cells can be observed on the irradiated materials.
Magnetic refrigeration based on the magnetocaloric effect at room temperature is one of the most attractive alternative to the current gas compression/expansion method routinely employed. Nevertheless, in giant magnetocaloric materials, optimal refrigeration is restricted to the narrow temperature window of the phase transition (Tc). In this work, we present the possibility of varying this transition temperature into a same giant magnetocaloric material by ion irradiation. We demonstrate that the transition temperature of iron rhodium thin films can be tuned by the bombardment of ions of Ne 5+ with varying fluences up to 10 14 ions cm --2 , leading to optimal refrigeration over a large 270--380 K temperature window. The Tc modification is found to be due to the ion-induced disorder and to the density of new point-like defects. The variation of the phase transition temperature with the number of incident ions opens new perspectives in the conception of devices using giant magnetocaloric materials.
Si nanopillars of less than 50 nm diameter have been irradiated in a helium ion microscope with a focused Ne$^+$ beam. The morphological changes due to ion beam irradiation at room temperature and elevated temperatures have been studied with the transmission electron microscope. We found that the shape changes of the nanopillars depend on irradiation-induced amorphization and thermally driven dynamic annealing. While at room temperature, the nanopillars evolve to a conical shape due to ion-induced plastic deformation and viscous flow of amorphized Si, simultaneous dynamic annealing during the irradiation at elevated temperatures prevents amorphization which is necessary for the viscous flow. Above the critical temperature of ion-induced amorphization, a steady decrease of the diameter was observed as a result of the dominating forward sputtering process through the nanopillar sidewalls. Under these conditions the nanopillars can be thinned down to a diameter of 10 nm in a well-controlled manner. A deeper understanding of the pillar thinning process has been achieved by a comparison of experimental results with 3D computer simulations based on the binary collision approximation.
A porous electrode resulting from unregulated Li growth is the major cause of the low Coulombic efficiency and potential safety hazards of rechargeable Li metal batteries. Strategies aiming to achieve large granular Li deposits have been extensively explored; yet, the ideal Li deposits, which consist of large Li particles that are seamlessly packed on the electrode and can be reversibly deposited and stripped, have never been achieved. Here, by controlling the uniaxial stack pressure during battery operation, a dense Li deposition (99.49% electrode density) with an ideal columnar structure has been achieved. Using multi-scale characterization and simulation, we elucidated the critical role of stack pressure on Li nucleation, growth and dissolution processes, and developed innovative strategies to maintain the ideal Li morphology during extended cycling. The precision manipulation of Li deposition and dissolution is a critical step to enable fast charging and low temperature operation for Li metal batteries.
The Helium Ion Microscope (HIM) has the capability to image small features with a resolution down to 0.35 nm due to its highly focused gas field ionization source and its small beam-sample interaction volume. In this work, the focused helium ion beam of a HIM is utilized to create nanopores with diameters down to 1.3 nm. It will be demonstrated that nanopores can be milled into silicon nitride, carbon nanomembranes (CNMs) and graphene with well-defined aspect ratio. To image and characterize the produced nanopores, helium ion microscopy and high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy were used. The analysis of the nanopores growth behavior, allows inferring on the profile of the helium ion beam.
We report quantum efficiency (QE) enhancements in accelerator technology relevant antimonide photocathodes (K2CsSb) by interfacing them with atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) crystal layers. The enhancement occurs in a reflection mode, when a 2D crystal is placed in between the photocathodes and optically reflective substrates. Specifically, the peak QE at 405 nm (3.1 eV) increases by a relative 10 percent, while the long wavelength response at 633 nm (2.0 eV) increases by a relative 36 percent on average and up to 80 percent at localized hot spot regions when photocathodes are deposited onto graphene coated stainless steel. There is a similar effect for photocathodes deposited on hexagonal boron nitride monolayer coatings using nickel substrates. The enhancement does not occur when reflective substrates are replaced with optically transparent sapphire. Optical transmission, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) revealed that thickness, crystal orientation, quality and elemental stoichiometry of photocathodes do not appreciably change due to 2D crystal coatings. These results suggest optical interactions are responsible for the QE enhancements when 2D crystal sublayers are present on reflective substrates, and provide a pathway toward a simple method of QE enhancement in semiconductor photocathodes by an atomically thin 2D crystal on substrates.