Journal of Applied Physics

Linear electro-optic properties of 0.24Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-(0.76 - x)Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-xPbTiO3 single crystals, with compositions in the rhombohedral, morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) and tetragonal phases, have been investigated. Very large effective electro-optic coefficient [Formula: see text] (204 pm/V) was observed in a crystal with the MPB composition when it is poled along [001]. The rhombohedral phase (x = 0.27 and 0.30) single crystals poled along [111] direction and tetragonal phase (x = 0.39) single crystal poled along [001] direction are in single domain, and their electro-optic coefficients ([Formula: see text] = 76, 94, and 43 pm/V for the crystals with x = 0.27, 0.30, and 0.39, respectively) were found to be much higher than that of traditional electro-optic single crystal LiNbO3 ([Formula: see text] = 19.9 pm/V). The electro-optic coefficients of the single crystal in the rhombohedral phase have excellent temperature stability in the experimental temperature range of 10-40 °C. The half-wave voltage [Formula: see text] was calculated to be much lower (less than 1000 V) than that of LiNbO3 single crystal (2800 V). These superior properties make the ternary relaxor-PT single crystals very promising for electro-optic modulation applications.

Complete sets of elastic, piezoelectric, dielectric, and electromechanical properties of [001]c and [011]c poled pure and 0.5 wt. % manganese-doped 0.24Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-0.47Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.29PbTiO3 single crystals have been characterized at room temperature. The results indicate that manganese ion substitution in the B-site of perovskite 0.24PIN-0.47PMN-0.29PT single crystals makes the material harder with much higher mechanical quality factor Q m and slight decrease in piezoelectric and dielectric constants. The much improved Q m value (200-900) makes Mn-doped single crystals more suitable for high-power transducer applications than pure single crystals.

Effect of nano-patterned composite electrode and backswitching poling technique on dielectric and piezoelectric properties of 0.7 Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.3 PbTiO3 was studied in this paper. Composite electrode consists of Mn nano-patterns with pitch size of 200 nm, and a blanket layer of Ti/Au was fabricated using a nanolithography based lift-off process, heat treatment, and metal film sputtering. Composite electrode and backswitching poling resulted in 27% increase of d 33 and 25% increase of dielectric constant, and we believe that this is attributed to regularly defined nano-domains and irreversible rhombohedral to monoclinic phase transition in crystal. The results indicate that nano-patterned composite electrode and backswitching poling has a great potential in domain engineering of relaxor single crystals for advanced devices.

Mn modified rhombohedral Pb(In0.5Nb0.5)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PIN-PMN-PT:Mn) single crystals poled along [011]C crystallographic direction exhibit a "2R" engineered domain configuration, with macroscopic mm2 symmetry. The complete sets of material constants were determined using combined resonance and ultrasonic methods, and compared to [001]C poled PIN-PMN-PT:Mn crystals. The thickness shear piezoelectric coefficient d 15 and electromechanical coupling factor k 15 were found to be on the order of ∼3000 pC/N and 0.92, respectively, with longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient d 33 and coupling factor k 33 being on the order of ∼1050 pC/N and 0.90. Of particular importance is that PIN-PMN-PT:Mn single crystals exhibited high mechanical quality factor Q 33 ∼ 1000, comparable to "hard" PZT8 ceramics, which can also be confirmed by the low extrinsic contribution, being ≤2% from the Rayleigh analysis.

[This corrects the article on p. 014701 in vol. 109.].

The ferroelectric, dielectric, elastic, piezoelectric, and electromechanical properties of tetragonal Pb(In(12)Nb(12))O(3)-Pb(Mg(13)Nb(23))O(3)-PbTiO(3) (PIN-PMN-PT) crystals were investigated. The single domain piezoelectric coefficients d(33), d(15), and d(31) were found to be 530, 2350, and -200 pCN, respectively, with electromechanical coupling factors k(33), k(15), and k(31) being on the order of 0.84, 0.85, and 0.58. The mechanical quality factor Q for longitudinal mode was found to be >700, with high coercive field (E(c)) being on the order of 10 kVcm. The temperature and dc bias electric-field characteristics of single domain tetragonal PIN-PMN-PT crystals were also investigated. In contrast to [001] oriented domain engineered rhombohedral crystals, tetragonal PIN-PMN-PT crystals exhibited broader temperature usage range and higher thermalelectric field stability, with improved coercive field and mechanical quality factor.

The full set of material constants for relaxor-based ternary single crystals Pb(In(12)Nb(12))O(3)-Pb(Mg(13)Nb(23))O(3)-PbTiO(3) (PIN-PMN-PT) were determined and compared to binary Pb(Mg(13)Nb(23))O(3)-PbTiO(3) (PMNT) crystals. The Curie temperature for rhombohedral compositions of PIN-PMN-PT was found to be in the range of 160-200 degrees C with ferroelectric rhombohedral to tetragonal phase transition on the order of 120-130 degrees C, more than 30 degrees C higher than that found for PMNT. The piezoelectric coefficients (d(33)) were in the range of 1100-1500 pCN, with electromechanical coupling factors (k(33)) about 89%-92% comparable to PMNT crystals. The coercive field of the ternary crystal was found to be 5.5 kVcm, double the value of the binary counterparts. The dielectric behavior under varying dc bias exhibited a similar trend as observed in PMNT with a much broader usage temperature range. Together with its enhanced field induced phase transition level, the ternary PIN-PMN-PT crystals are promising candidates for high temperature and high drive transducer applications.

Relaxor based [Formula: see text] ternary single crystals (PIN-PMN-PT) were reported to have broader temperature usage range [Formula: see text] and comparable piezoelectric properties to [Formula: see text] (PMNT) crystals. In this work, the orientation dependent dielectric, piezoelectric and electromechanical properties for PIN-PMN-PT crystals were investigated along [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] directions. The electromechanical couplings [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] for [Formula: see text] poled crystals were found to be 0.91 and 0.91, respectively, with piezoelectric coefficients [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] on the order of 925 and -1420 pC/N. Of particular significance was the mechanical quality factor [Formula: see text] for [Formula: see text] oriented crystals, which was found to be [Formula: see text], much higher than the [Formula: see text] values of [Formula: see text] oriented relaxor-PT crystals [Formula: see text]. The temperature dependence of the piezoelectric properties exhibited good temperature stability up to their ferroelectric phase transition [Formula: see text], indicating [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] oriented PIN-PMN-PT are promising materials for transducer applications, with the latter for high power resonant devices where low loss (high [Formula: see text]) was required.

Laser ablation arrays of triangular and square shaped clusters, comprised of 23 micrometers diam circular holes, are defined upon 100 nm thick Ni81Fe19 films used to control the rf permeability spectra. Cluster-to-cluster spacing is varied from 200 to 600 micrometers. For each geometry it is found that the loss peak frequency and permeability magnitude shift lower, in a step-wise fashion, at a cluster-to-cluster spacing between 275 and 300 micrometers. The nonlinear shift in the behavior of the permeability spectra correlates with a dramatic increase in domain wall density.

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), referred to as the Dartmouth MNPs, which exhibit high specific absorption rate at low applied field strength have been developed for hyperthermia therapy applications. The MNPs consist of small (2-5 nm) single crystals of gamma-Fe2O3 with saccharide chains implanted in their crystalline structure, forming 20-40 nm flower-like aggregates with a hydrodynamic diameter of 110-120 nm. The MNPs form stable (>12 months) colloidal solutions in water and exhibit no hysteresis under an applied quasistatic magnetic field, and produce a significant amount of heat at field strengths as low as 100 Oe at 99-164 kHz. The MNP heating mechanisms under an alternating magnetic field (AMF) are discussed and analyzed quantitatively based on (a) the calculated multi-scale MNP interactions obtained using a three dimensional numerical model called the method of auxiliary sources, (b) measured MNP frequency spectra, and (c) quantified MNP friction losses based on magneto-viscous theory. The frequency responses and hysteresis curves of the Dartmouth MNPs are measured and compared to the modeled data. The specific absorption rate of the particles is measured at various AMF strengths and frequencies, and compared to commercially available MNPs. The comparisons demonstrate the superior heating properties of the Dartmouth MNPs at low field strengths (<250 Oe). This may extend MNP hyperthermia therapy to deeper tumors that were previously non-viable targets, potentially enabling the treatment of some of the most difficult cancers, such as pancreatic and rectal cancers, without damaging normal tissue.

The intense development and study of resistive random access memory (RRAM) devices has opened a new era in semiconductor memory manufacturing. Resistive switching and carrier conduction inside RRAM films have become critical issues in recent years. Electron trapping/detrapping behavior is observed and investigated in the proposed contact resistive random access memory (CR-RAM) cell. Through the fitting of the space charge limiting current (SCLC) model, and analysis in terms of the random telegraph noise (RTN) model, the temperature-dependence of resistance levels and the high-temperature data retention behavior of the contact RRAM film are successfully and completely explained. Detail analyses of the electron capture and emission from the traps by forward and reverse read measurements provide further verifications for hopping conduction mechanism and current fluctuation discrepancies.

A compact nonvolatile programmable switch (NVPS) using 90 nm CMOS technology together with perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (p-MTJ) devices is fabricated for zero-standby-power field-programmable gate array. Because routing information does not change once it is programmed into an NVPS, high-speed read and write accesses are not required and a write-control transistor can be shared among all the NVPSs, which greatly simplifies structure of the NVPS. In fact, the effective area of the proposed NVPS is reduced by 40% compared to that of a conventional MTJ-based NVPS. The instant on/off behavior without external nonvolatile memory access is also demonstrated using the fabricated test chip.

This article reports the design concept of a novel acoustic beam aperture modifier using butt-jointed gradient-index phononic crystals (GRIN PCs) consisting of steel cylinders embedded in a homogeneous epoxy background. By gradually tuning the period of a GRIN PC, the propagating direction of acoustic waves can be continuously bent to follow a sinusoidal trajectory in the structure. The aperture of an acoustic beam can therefore be shrunk or expanded through change of the gradient refractive index profiles of the butt-jointed GRIN PCs. Our computational results elucidate the effectiveness of the proposed acoustic beam aperture modifier. Such an acoustic device can be fabricated through a simple process and will be valuable in applications, such as biomedical imaging and surgery, nondestructive evaluation, communication, and acoustic absorbers.

An analysis is developed for the frequency response of a quartz crystal resonator (often referred to as a quartz crystal microbalance) that is modified with a grafted solvent-swollen polymer brush and placed in contact with a membrane capping layer. The shear wave generated at the resonator surface couples into the membrane layer with an efficiency that is strongly dependent on the thickness of the swollen brush layer. As a result, the resonant frequency changes by a maximum amount that is closely approximated by the Sauerbrey shift for the capping layer. The calculated shift substantially decreases for increases in the brush thickness of approximately 10 nm, which gives a net frequency response that is extremely sensitive to the degree of swelling of the polymer brush. An optimum capping layer thickness is determined by balancing the Sauerbrey shift against dissipative effects that weaken the crystal resonance. This optimum membrane thickness depends only weakly on the properties of the membrane material and is in the micron range. Detailed multilayer calculations are presented for the specific case of a poly(ethylene glycol) brush swollen with water and brought into contact with an elastomeric water-permeable membrane. These calculations confirm that the method is sensitive to the properties of the brush layer in the experimentally relevant thickness regime. Connections are also made to conceptually simpler two and three layer models of the acoustic impedance of the material systems that are brought into contact with the resonator.

We report a material-dependent critical temperature for ion beam sculpting of nanopores in amorphous materials under keV ion irradiation. At temperatures below the critical temperature, irradiated pores open at a rate that soon saturates with decreasing temperature. At temperatures above the critical temperature, the pore closing rate rises rapidly and eventually saturates with increasing temperature. The observed behavior is well described by a model based on adatom diffusion, but is difficult to reconcile with an ion-stimulated viscous flow model.

We report a novel method for high-throughput investigations on cell-material interactions based on metal oxide nanoscaffolds. These scaffolds possess a continuous gradient of various titanium alloys allowing the compositional and morphological variation that could substantially improve the formation of an osseointegrative interface with bone. The model nanoscaffold has been fabricated on commercially pure titanium (cp-Ti) substrate with a compositional gradients of tin (Sn), chromium (Cr), and niobium (Nb) deposited using a combinatorial approach followed by annealing to create native oxide surface. As an invitro test system, the human fetal osteoblastic cell line (hFOB 1.19) has been used. Cell-adhesion of hFOB 1.19 cells and the suitability of these alloys have been evaluated for cell-morphology, cell-number, and protein adsorption. Although, cell-morphology was not affected by surface composition, cell-proliferation rates varied significantly with surface metal oxide composition; with the Sn- and Nb-rich regions showing the highest proliferation rate and the Cr-rich regions presenting the lowest. The results suggest that Sn and Nb rich regions on surface seems to promote hFOB 1.19 cell proliferation and may therefore be considered as implant material candidates that deserve further analysis.

Polymer-shelled micro-bubbles are employed as ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) and vesicles for targeted drug delivery. UCA-based delivery of the therapeutic payload relies on ultrasound-induced shell rupture. The fragility of two polymer-shelled UCAs manufactured by Point Biomedical or Philips Research was investigated by characterizing their response to static overpressure. The nominal diameters of Point and Philips UCAs were 3 μm and 2 μm, respectively. The UCAs were subjected to static overpressure in a glycerol-filled test chamber with a microscope-reticule lid. UCAs were reconstituted in 0.1 mL of water and added over the glycerol surface in contact with the reticule. A video-microscope imaged UCAs as glycerol was injected (5 mL∕h) to vary the pressure from 2 to 180 kPa over 1 h. Neither UCA population responded to overpressure until the rupture threshold was exceeded, which resulted in abrupt destruction. The rupture data for both UCAs indicated three subclasses that exhibited different rupture behavior, although their mean diameters were not statistically different. The rupture pressures provided a measure of UCA fragility; the Philips UCAs were more resilient than Point UCAs. Results were compared to theoretical models of spherical shells under compression. Observed variations in rupture pressures are attributed to shell imperfections. These results may provide means to optimize polymeric UCAs for drug delivery and elucidate associated mechanisms.

Magnetic hysteresis loops were measured for ferrimagnetic iron chalcogenide [Formula: see text] nanoparticles in the whole temperature range below the Curie temperature [Formula: see text] (315 K). The coercivity of the material is huge, reaching about 40 kOe at 10 K. The magnetic anisotropy constant K was determined from the magnetic hysteresis loop using the law of approach to saturation. The deduced anisotropy constant at 10 K is [Formula: see text], which is over one order of magnitude larger than that of [Formula: see text]. We also demonstrated that the experimental magnetic hysteresis loop is in good agreement with the theoretical curve calculated by Stoner and Wohlfarth for a noninteracting randomly oriented uniaxial single-domain particle system. Moreover, we show that K is proportional to the cube of the saturation magnetization [Formula: see text], which confirms earlier theoretical models for uniaxial magnets.

Bubble-based microfluidic devices have been proven to be useful for many biological and chemical studies. These bubble-based microdevices are particularly useful when operated at the trapped bubbles' resonance frequencies. In this work, we present an analytical expression that can be used to predict the resonant frequency of a bubble trapped over an arbitrary shape. Also, the effect of viscosity on the dispersion characteristics of trapped bubbles is determined. A good agreement between experimental data and theoretical results is observed for resonant frequency of bubbles trapped over different-sized rectangular-shaped structures, indicating that our expression can be valuable in determining optimized operational parameters for many bubble-based microfluidic devices. Furthermore, we provide a close estimate for the harmonics and a method to determine the dispersion characteristics of a bubble trapped over circular shapes. Finally, we present a new method to predict fluid properties in microfluidic devices and complement the explanation of acoustic microstreaming.

Piezoresistive cantilevers fabricated from doped silicon or metal films are commonly used for force, topography, and chemical sensing at the micro- and macroscales. Proper design is required to optimize the achievable resolution by maximizing sensitivity while simultaneously minimizing the integrated noise over the bandwidth of interest. Existing analytical design methods are insufficient for modeling complex dopant profiles, design constraints, and nonlinear phenomena such as damping in fluid. Here we present an optimization method based on an analytical piezoresistive cantilever model. We use an existing iterative optimizer to minimimize a performance goal, such as minimum detectable force. The design tool is available as open source software. Optimal cantilever design and performance are found to strongly depend on the measurement bandwidth and the constraints applied. We discuss results for silicon piezoresistors fabricated by epitaxy and diffusion, but the method can be applied to any dopant profile or material which can be modeled in a similar fashion or extended to other microelectromechanical systems.

Laser ultrasonic (LU) inspection represents an attractive, non-contact method to evaluate composite materials. Current non-contact systems, however, have relatively low sensitivity compared to contact piezoelectric detection. They are also difficult to adjust, very expensive, and strongly influenced by environmental noise. Here, we demonstrate that most of these drawbacks can be eliminated by combining a new generation of compact, inexpensive fiber lasers with new developments in fiber telecommunication optics and an optimally designed balanced probe scheme. In particular, a new type of a balanced fiber-optic Sagnac interferometer is presented as part of an all-optical LU pump-probe system for non-destructive testing and evaluation of aircraft composites. The performance of the LU system is demonstrated on a composite sample with known defects. Wide-band ultrasound probe signals are generated directly at the sample surface with a pulsed fiber laser delivering nanosecond laser pulses at a repetition rate up to 76 kHz rate with a pulse energy of 0.6 mJ. A balanced fiber-optic Sagnac interferometer is employed to detect pressure signals at the same point on the composite surface. A- and B-scans obtained with the Sagnac interferometer are compared to those made with a contact wide-band polyvinylidene fluoride transducer.

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum dielectric constant, ε', loss tangent, tan(δ), electric modulus, M*, and ac conductivity, σ(ac), of pure polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as well as La-, Gd-, and Er-PVA doped samples have been carried out. The dielectric properties have been studied in the temperature and frequency ranges; 300-450 K and 1 kHz-4 MHz, respectively. FTIR measurements reveal that La(3+), Gd(3+), and Er(3+) ions form complex configuration within PVA structure. Two relaxation processes, namely, ρ and α were observed in pure PVA sample. The first process is due to the interfacial or Maxwell-Wagner-Sillers polarization. The second one is related to the micro-Brownian motion of the main chains. For doped PVA samples, α-relaxation process splits into α(a) and α(c). This splitting is due to the segmental motion in the amorphous (α(a)) and crystalline (α(c)) phases of PVA matrix. Electric modulus analysis was discussed to understand the mechanism of the electrical transport process. The behavior of ac conductivity for all PVA samples indicates that the conduction mechanism is correlated barrier hopping.

Understanding and controlling the hierarchical self-assembly of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is vital for designing materials such as transparent conductors, chemical sensors, high-performance composites, and microelectronic interconnects. In particular, many applications require high-density CNT assemblies that cannot currently be made directly by low-density CNT growth, and therefore require post-processing by methods such as elastocapillary densification. We characterize the hierarchical structure of pristine and densified vertically aligned multi-wall CNT forests, by combining small-angle and ultra-small-angle x-ray scattering (USAXS) techniques. This enables the nondestructive measurement of both the individual CNT diameter and CNT bundle diameter within CNT forests, which are otherwise quantified only by delicate and often destructive microscopy techniques. Our measurements show that multi-wall CNT forests grown by chemical vapor deposition consist of isolated and bundled CNTs, with an average bundle diameter of 16 nm. After capillary densification of the CNT forest, USAXS reveals bundles with a diameter >4 μm, in addition to the small bundles observed in the as-grown forests. Combining these characterization methods with new CNT processing methods could enable the engineering of macro-scale CNT assemblies that exhibit significantly improved bulk properties.

The low molecular weight tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq(3)) has been incorporated with magnesium (Mg) that altered the nature of its opto-electronic characteristics. The lowering of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) in Mg:Alq(3), compared to pure Alq(3), creates a stronger field (exceeding the exciton binding energy) at the donor-acceptor junction to dissociate the photo-generated exciton and also provides a low barrier for electron transport across the device. In an electron-only device (described in the text), a current enhancement in excess of 10(3), with respect to pure Alq(3), could be observed at 10 V applied bias. Optimized Mg:Alq(3) layer, when introduced in the photovoltaic device, improves the power conversion efficiencies significantly to 0.15% compared to the pure Alq(3) device. The improvement in the photovoltaic performance has been attributed to the superior exciton dissociation and carrier transport.

Nanopores fabricated in free-standing amorphous silicon thin films were observed to close under 3 keV argon ion irradiation. The closing rate, measured in situ, exhibited a memory effect: at the same instantaneous radius, pores that started larger close more slowly. An ion-stimulated viscous flow model is developed and solved in both a simple analytical approximation for the small-deformation limit and in a finite element solution for large deformations. The finite-element solution exhibits surprising changes in cross-section morphology, which may be extremely valuable for single biomolecule detection, and are untested experimentally. The finite-element solution reproduces the shape of the measured nanopore radius versus fluence behavior and the sign and magnitude of the measured memory effect. We discuss aspects of the experimental data not reproduced by the model, and successes and failures of the competing adatom diffusion model.