5,688 research outputs found
Directed Irradiation Synthesis as an Advanced Plasma Technology for Surface Modification to Activate Porous and “as-received” Titanium Surfaces
For the design of smart titanium implants, it is essential to balance the surface properties without any detrimental effect on the bulk properties of the material. Therefore, in this study, an irradiation-driven surface modification called directed irradiation synthesis (DIS) has been developed to nanopattern porousand“as-received”c.p. Tisur faces with the aim of improving cellular viability. Nano features were developed using singly-charged argon ions at 0.5 and 1.0 keV energies, incident angles from 0◦ to 75◦ degrees, and fluences up to 5.0×1017 cm−2. Irradiated surfaces were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and contact angle, observing an increased hydrophilicity (a contact angle reduction of 73.4% and 49.3%) and a higher roughness on both surfaces except for higher incident angles, which showed the smoothest surface. In-vitro studies demonstrated the biocompatibility of directed irradiation synthesis (DIS) reaching 84% and 87% cell viability levels at 1 and 7 days respectively, and a lower percentage of damaged DNA in tail compared to the control c.p. Ti. All these results confirm the potential of the DIS technique to modify complex surfaces at the nanoscale level promoting their biological performance.Department of Defense (Spain) contract W81XWH-11-2-0067Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain grant MAT2015-71284-
Influence of biomaterial nanotopography on the adhesive and elastic properties of Staphylococcus aureus cells
Despite the well-known beneficial effects of biomaterial nanopatterning on host tissue integration, the influence of controlled nanoscale topography on bacterial colonisation and infection remains unknown. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to determine the nanoscale effect of surface nanopatterning on biomaterial colonisation by S. aureus, utilising AFM nanomechanics and single-cell force spectroscopy (SCFS). Nanoindentation of S. aureus bound to planar (PL) and nanopatterned (SQ) polycarbonate (PC) surfaces suggested two distinct areas of mechanical properties, consistent with a central bacterial cell surrounded by a capsullar component. Nevertheless, no differences in elastic moduli were found between bacteria bound to PL and SQ, suggesting a minor role of nanopatterning in bacterial cell elasticity. Furthermore, SCFS demonstrated increased adhesion forces and work between S. aureus and SQ surfaces at 0 s and 1 s contact times. Although WLC modelling showed similarities in contour lengths for attachment to both surfaces, Poisson analysis suggests increased short-range forces for the S. aureus–SQ interactions. In the case of S. aureus–PL, long-range forces were found to not only be dominant but also repulsive in nature, which may help explain the reduced adhesion forces observed during AFM probing. In conclusion, although surface nanopatterning does not significantly influence the elasticity of attached bacterial cells, it was found to promote the early-adhesion of S. aureus cells to the biomaterial surface
Soft nanostructuring of YBCO Josephson Junctions by phase separation
We have developed a new method to fabricate biepitaxial YBa2Cu3O(7-x) (YBCO)
Josephson junctions at the nanoscale, allowing junctions widths down to 100 nm
and simultaneously avoiding the typical damage in grain boundary interfaces due
to conventional patterning procedures. By using the competition between the
superconducting YBCO and the insulating Y2BaCuO5 phases during film growth, we
formed nanometer sized grain boundary junctions in the insulating Y2BaCuO5
matrix as confirmed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy.
Electrical transport measurements give clear indications that we are close to
probing the intrinsic properties of the grain boundaries.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure
Ballistic transport in graphene antidot lattices
Graphene samples can have a very high carrier mobility if influences from the
substrate and the environment are minimized. Embedding a graphene sheet into a
heterostructure with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) on both sides was shown to
be a particularly efficient way of achieving a high bulk mobility.
Nanopatterning graphene can add extra damage and drastically reduce sample
mobility by edge disorder. Preparing etched graphene nanostructures on top of
an hBN substrate instead of SiO2 is no remedy, as transport characteristics are
still dominated by edge roughness. Here we show that etching fully encapsulated
graphene on the nanoscale is more gentle and the high mobility can be
preserved. To this end, we prepared graphene antidot lattices where we observe
magnetotransport features stemming from ballistic transport. Due to the short
lattice period in our samples we can also explore the boundary between the
classical and the quantum transport regime
Nanopattern-stimulated superconductor-insulator transition in thin TiN films
We present the results of the comparative study of the influence of disorder
on transport properties in continuous and nanoperforated TiN films. We show
that nanopatterning turns a thin TiN film into an array of superconducting weak
links and stimulates both, the disorder- and magnetic field-driven
superconductor-to-insulator transitions, pushing them to lower degree of
disorder. We find that nanopatterning enhances the role of the two-dimensional
Coulomb interaction in the system transforming the originally insulating film
into a more pronounced insulator. We observe magnetoresistance oscillations
reflecting collective behaviour of the multiconnected nanopatterned
superconducting film in the wide range of temperatures and uncover the physical
mechanism of these oscillations as phase slips in superconducting weak link
network.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Ageing dynamics of ion bombardment induced self-organization processes
Instabilities caused during the erosion of a surface by an ion beam can lead to the formation of self-organized patterns of nanostructures. Understanding the self-organization process requires not only the in-situ characterization of ensemble averaged properties but also probing the dynamics. This can be done with the use of coherent X-rays and analyzing the temporal correlations of the scattered intensity. Here, we show that the dynamics of a semiconductor surface nanopatterned
by normal incidence ion beam sputtering are age-dependent and slow down with sputtering time. This work provides a novel insight into the erosion dynamics and opens new perspectives for the understanding of self-organization mechanisms
Replicating Nanostructures on Silicon by Low Energy Ion Beams
We report on a nanoscale patterning method on Si substrates using
self-assembled metal islands and low-energy ion-beam irradiation. The Si
nanostructures produced on the Si substrate have a one-to-one correspondence
with the self-assembled metal (Ag, Au, Pt) nanoislands initially grown on the
substrate. The surface morphology and the structure of the irradiated surface
were studied by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). TEM
images of ion-beam irradiated samples show the formation of sawtooth-like
structures on Si. Removing metal islands and the ion-beam induced amorphous Si
by etching, we obtain a crystalline nanostructure of Si. The smallest
structures emit red light when exposed to a UV light. The size of the
nanostructures on Si is governed by the size of the self-assembled metal
nanoparticles grown on the substrate for this replica nanopatterning. The
method can easily be extended for tuning the size of the Si nanostructures by
the proper choice of the metal nanoparticles and the ion energy in
ion-irradiation. It is suggested that off-normal irradiation can also be used
for tuning the size of the nanostructures.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, regular paper submitted to Nanotechnolog
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