No Arabic abstract
Optical properties of nanocrystalline red-emitting phosphor, Europium doped Yttria (Y$_{2}$O$_{3}$:Eu$^{3+})$, of average particle size 15 nm are investigated. The intensity of the strongest emission line at 612 nm is found to be highest in the nanocrystalline sample with 4 at. wt. % of Europium. The narrow electronic emission spectrum suggests a crystalline surrounding in this nanomaterial. We have estimated the strength of the crystal field parameter at the dopant site, which plays a crucial role in determining the appearance of the intense emission line. The equilibrium temperature of this system has also been calculated from the intensity ratio of Stokes and anti-Stokes Raman scattering. Though known for the bulk samples, our approach and consequent results on the crystalline nanomaterial of Y$_{2}$O$_{3}$:Eu$^{3+}$ provide a unique report, which, we believe, can be of considerable significance in nanotechnology.the intensity ratio of Stokes and anti-Stokes Raman scattering. Though known for the bulk samples, our approach and consequent results on the crystalline, defect/disorder free nanomaterial of Y2O3:Eu3+ provides a unique report which, we believe, can be of considerable significance in nanotechnology.
Some of the Multiferroics [1] form a rare class of materials that exhibit magnetoelectric coupling arising from the coexistence of ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity, with potential for many technological applications.[2,3] Over the last decade, an active research on multiferroics has resulted in the identification of a few routes that lead to multiferroicity in bulk materials.[4-6] While ferroelectricity in a classic ferroelectric such as BaTiO3 is expected to diminish with the reducing particle size,[7,8] ferromagnetism cannot occur in its bulk form.[9] Here, we use a combination of experiment and first-principles simulations to demonstrate that multiferroic nature emerges in intermediate size nanocrystalline BaTiO3, ferromagnetism arising from the oxygen vacancies at the surface and ferroelectricity from the core. A strong coupling between a surface polar phonon and spin is shown to result in a magnetocapacitance effect observed at room temperature, which can open up possibilities of new electro-magneto-mechanical devices at the nano-scale.
The vibrational density of states (VDOS) of nanoclusters and nanocrystalline materials are derived from molecular-dynamics simulations using empirical tight-binding potentials. The results show that the VDOS inside nanoclusters can be understood as that of the corresponding bulk system compressed by the capillary pressure. At the surface of the nanoparticles the VDOS exhibits a strong enhancement at low energies and shows structures similar to that found near flat crystalline surfaces. For the nanocrystalline materials an increased VDOS is found at high and low phonon energies, in agreement with experimental findings. The individual VDOS contributions from the grain centers, grain boundaries, and internal surfaces show that, in the nanocrystalline materials, the VDOS enhancements are mainly caused by the grain-boundary contributions and that surface atoms play only a minor role. Although capillary pressures are also present inside the grains of nanocrystalline materials, their effect on the VDOS is different than in the cluster case which is probably due to the inter-grain coupling of the modes via the grain-boundaries.
Platinum diselenide (PtSe${_2}$) is a two-dimensional (2D) material with outstanding electronic and piezoresistive properties. The material can be grown at low temperatures in a scalable manner which makes it extremely appealing for many potential electronics, photonics, and sensing applications. Here, we investigate the nanocrystalline structure of different PtSe${_2}$ thin films grown by thermally assisted conversion (TAC) and correlate them with their electronic and piezoresistive properties. We use scanning transmission electron microscopy for structural analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for chemical analysis, and Raman spectroscopy for phase identification. Electronic devices are fabricated using transferred PtSe${_2}$ films for electrical characterization and piezoresistive gauge factor measurements. The variations of crystallite size and their orientations are found to have a strong correlation with the electronic and piezoresistive properties of the films, especially the sheet resistivity and the effective charge carrier mobility. Our findings may pave the way for tuning and optimizing the properties of TAC-grown PtSe${_2}$ towards numerous applications.
The excitation efficiency and external luminescence quantum efficiency of trivalent Eu3+ ions doped into gallium nitride (GaN) was studied under optical and electrical excitation. For small pump fluences it was found that the excitation of Eu3+ ions is limited by an efficient carrier trap that competes in the energy transfer from the host material. For large pump fluences the limited number of high-efficiency Eu3+ sites, and the small excitation cross-section of the majority Eu3+ site, limit the quantum efficiency. At low temperatures under optimal excitation conditions, the external luminescence quantum efficiency reached a value of 46%. These results show the high potential for this material as an efficient light emitter, and demonstrates the importance of the excitation conditions on the light output efficiency.
We have studied the structural and superconducting properties of MgB$_2$ thin films made by pulsed laser deposition followed by in situ annealing. The cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy reveals a nanocrystalline mixture of textured MgO and MgB$_2$ with very small grain sizes. A zero-resistance transition temperature ($T_{c0}$) of 34 K and a zero-field critical current density ($J_c$) of $1.3 times 10^6$ A/cm$^2$ were obtained. The irreversibility field was $sim$ 8 T at low temperatures, although severe pinning instability was observed. These bulk-like superconducting properties show that the in situ deposition process can be a viable candidate for MgB$_2$ Josephson junction technologies.