Zinc nitride thin films: Basic properties and applications

A. Redondo-Cubero, M. Gómez-Castaño, C. García Núñez, M. Domínguez, L. Vázquez, J. L. Pau , "Zinc nitride thin films: basic properties and applications", Oxide-based Materials and Devices VIII, Proc. SPIE 10105, 101051B (24 February 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2253044. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of the paper are prohibitedProceedings of VIII Oxide-based Materials and Devices Conference (San Francisco, California, United States)Zinc nitride films can be deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering using a Zn target at substrate temperatures lower than 250°C. This low deposition temperature makes the material compatible with flexible substrates. The asgrown layers present a black color, polycrystalline structures, large conductivities, and large visible light absorption. Different studies have reported about the severe oxidation of the layers in ambient conditions. Different compositional, structural and optical characterization techniques have shown that the films turn into ZnO polycrystalline layers, showing visible transparency and semi-insulating properties after total transformation. The oxidation rate is fairly constant as a function of time and depends on environmental parameters such as relative humidity or temperature. Taking advantage of those properties, potential applications of zinc nitride films in environmental sensing have been studied in the recent years. This work reviews the state-of-the-art of the zinc nitride technology and the development of several devices such as humidity indicators, thin film (photo)transistors and sweat monitoring sensors.This research is supported by the MINECO (CTQ2014-53334-C2-2-R) and Comunidad de Madrid (NANOAVANSENS ref. S2013/MIT-3029). ARC acknowledges Ramón y Cajal program (under contract number RYC-2015-18047

Effect of thermal and ultrasound treatments on denaturation and allergenic potential of Pru p 3 protein from peach

The effect of thermal and ultrasound treatments on denaturation and allergenicity of Pru p 3, the major peach allergenic protein, was determined. The degree of denaturation of Pru p 3 was estimated by sandwich ELISA using specific rabbit IgG, that was previously developed. Validation of ELISA test showed high sensitivity and specificity, and acceptable results of precision and robustness. Allergenicity of Pru p 3 was determined by immunofluorescent assay using three pools of sera from peach allergic individuals. Denaturation of Pru p 3 was dependent on the intensity of the thermal treatment applied and the treatment medium. Thus, the degree of denaturation of Pru p 3 treated at 95 °C for 40 min was about 60% and 95%, for the protein heated in peach extract and in buffer, respectively. Ultrasound treatments denatured Pru p 3 up to 60%, being dependent on amplitude and pressure. However, both heat and ultrasound treatments at the most severe conditions applied inhibited less than 10% the IgE-binding of Pru p 3. These results indicate that although heat and ultrasound treatments induce a considerable denaturation of Pru p 3, they are not effective in reducing its allergenicity

Size-selective breaking of the core-shell structure of gallium nanoparticles

This Accepted Manuscript is available for reuse under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence after the 12 month embargo period provided that all the terms of the licence are adhered toCore-shell gallium nanoparticles (Ga NPs) have recently been proposed as an ultraviolet plasmonic material for different applications but only at room temperature. Here, the thermal stability as a function of the size of the NPs is reported over a wide range of temperatures. We analyze the chemical and structural properties of the oxide shell by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. We demonstrate the inverse dependence of the shell breaking temperature with the size of the NPs. Spectroscopic ellipsometry is used for tracking the rupture and its mechanism is systematically investigated by scanning electron microscopy, grazing incidence x-ray diffraction and cathodoluminescence. Taking advantage of the thermal stability of the NPs, we perform complete oxidations that lead to homogenous gallium oxide NPs. Thus, this study set the physical limits of Ga NPs to last at high temperatures, and opens up the possibility to achieve totally oxidized NPs while keeping their sphericityThe research is supported by the MINECO (CTQ2014-53334-C2-2-R, CTQ2017-84309-C2-2-R, MAT2016-80394-R, MAT 2015-65274-R/FEDER and MAT2017-85089-C2-1-R) and Comunidad de Madrid (NANOAVANSENS ref. S2013/MIT-3029) projects. ARC acknowledges Ramón y Cajal program (under contract number RYC-2015-18047). FN acknowledges support from Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 641899 from the European Union´s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programm

Simultaneous analysis of the elastic scattering and breakup channel for the reaction 11 Li + 208 Pb at energies near the Coulomb barrier

We present a detailed analysis of the elastic scattering and breakup channel for the reaction of Li11 on Pb208 at incident laboratory energies of 24.3 and 29.8 MeV, measured at the radioactive ion beam facility of TRIUMF, in Vancouver, Canada. A large yield of Li9 fragments was detected by four charged particle telescopes in a wide angular range. The experimental angular and energy distributions of these Li9 fragments have been compared to coupled-reaction-channel and continuum-discretized coupled-channel calculations. The large production of Li9 fragments at small angles can be explained by considering a direct breakup mechanism, while at medium-large angles a competition between direct breakup and neutron transfer to the continuum of the Pb208 target was observed.Proyecto Nacional (España) PA2009-08848 PA2009-07387 PA2010-22131-C02-01 FPA2009-07653 FPA2012-32443Programa Consolider-Ingenio 2010 (España) CSD2007-0004

Recent Advances and Applications of Hyperspectral Imaging for Fruit and Vegetable Quality Assessment

Hyperspectral imaging systems are starting to be used as a scientific tool for food quality assessment. A typical hyperspectral image is composed of a set of a relatively wide range of monochromatic images corresponding to continuous wavelengths that normally contain redundant information or may exhibit a high degree of correlation. In addition, computation of the classifiers used to deal with the data obtained from the images can become excessively complex and time-consuming for such high-dimensional datasets, and this makes it difficult to incorporate such systems into an industry that demands standard protocols or high-speed processes. Therefore, recent works have focused on the development of new systems based on this technology that are capable of analysing quality features that cannot be inspected using visible imaging. Many of those studies have also centred on finding new statistical techniques to reduce the hyperspectral images to multispectral ones, which are easier to implement in automatic, non-destructive systems. This article reviews recent works that use hyperspectral imaging for the inspection of fruit and vegetables. It explains the different technologies available to acquire the images and their use for the non-destructive inspection of the internal and external features of these products. Particular attention is paid to the works aimed at reducing the dimensionality of the images, with details of the statistical techniques most commonly used for this task

Elastic scattering of 9Li on 208Pb at energies around the Coulomb barrier

We have studied the dynamical effects of the halo structure of 11Li on the scattering on heavy targets at energies around the Coulomb barrier. This experiment was performed at ISAC-II at TRIUMF with a world record in production of the post-accelerated 11Li beam. As part of this study we report here on the first measurement of the elastic cross section of the core nucleus, i.e. 9Li on 208Pb, at energies around the Coulomb barrier. A preliminary optical model analysis has been performed in order to extract a global optical potential to describe the measured angular distributions

Scattering of the halo nucleus 11Li and its core 9Li on 208Pb at energies around the Coulomb barrier

The first measurement of the elastic scattering of the halo nucleus 11Li and its core 9Li on 208Pb at energies around the Coulomb barrier is presented. The 11Li reaction showed a large cross section for the breakup channel, even at energies well below the barrier. The analysis of the 11Li + 208Pb scattering data in terms of the continuum-discretized coupled-channel calculations indicates that the effect of the coupling to the breakup channels produces a strong suppression of the elastic cross section at energies above and below the barrier. This effect is mainly due to the strong Coulomb coupling to the dipole states in the low-lying continuum of 11Li

Soluble RAGE in COPD, with or without coexisting obstructive sleep apnoea

Background: Hypoxia can reduce the levels of soluble receptor for advanced glycation end-products (sRAGE), a new anti-infammatory biomarker of COPD. We assessed sRAGE in patients with hypoxia-related diseases such as COPD, OSA and OSA-COPD overlap. Methods: Plasma levels of sRAGE were measured in 317 subjects at baseline (57 heathy nonsmokers [HNS], 84 healthy smokers [HS], 79 OSA, 62 COPD and 35 OSA-COPD overlap patients) and in 294 subjects after one year of follow-up (50 HNS, 74 HS, 77 OSA, 60 COPD and 33 overlap). Results: After adjusting for age, sex, smoking status and body mass index, sRAGE levels showed a reduction in OSA (− 12.5%, p=0.005), COPD (− 14.8%, p<0.001) and OSA-COPD overlap (− 12.3%, p=0.02) compared with HNS. There were no diferences when comparing sRAGE plasma levels between overlap patients and those with OSA or COPD alone. At follow-up, sRAGE levels did not change signifcantly in healthy subjects, COPD and OSA or OSA-COPD overlap nontreated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Moreover, in patients with OSA and OSA-COPD overlap who were treated with CPAP, sRAGE increased signifcantly. Conclusions: The levels of sRAGE are reduced in COPD and OSA. Treatment with CPAP appears to improve sRAGE levels in patients with OSA who also had COPD.The EPIOSA study (NCT02131610) was supported by Grants Number PI12/02175, PI15/01940 and PI18/01524 from the Instituto Salud Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Health, Madrid, Spain and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) and by a Grant Number 01/2010 from the SADAR-Pneumo Aragón, Zaragoza, Spain

Study of the break-up channel in 11Li+208Pb collisions at energies around the Coulomb barrier

We present a study of 11Li+208 Pb collisions at energies around the Coulomb barrier (Elab = 24.3 and 29.8 MeV), measured at the post-accelerated beam facility, ISAC II, at TRIUMF (Vancouver, Canada). A remarkably large yield of 9Li has been observed, a result that is attributed to the weak binding of the 11Li nucleus. The angular distribution of this 9Li yield, relative to the elastic one, has been analysed in terms of first-order semiclassical calculations as well as four-body and three-body Continuum-Discretized Coupled-Channels (CDCC) calculations, based on a three-body and di-neutron model of the 11Li nucleus, respectively. The calculations reproduce well the trend of the data and support the existence of a large concentration of B (E1) strength at very low excitation energies. The connection of this large B (E1) with a possible low-lying dipole resonance is discussed

Scattering of light halo nuclei on heavy target at energies around the coulomb barrier

INPC 2013 – International Nuclear Physics ConferenceWe report here on experiments performed at TRIUMF to study the scattering of the light halo nuclei 11Li on lead at energies below and around the Coulomb barrier. The the elastic and break-up differential cross section are interpreted in the framework of Continuum-Discretized Coupled-Channel calculations. The departure from Rutherford scattering at energies below the barrier is well beyond the behavior of normal nucleiConsejo Interinstitucional de Ciencia y Tecnología FPA2009-07387Consejo Interinstitucional de Ciencia y Tecnología FPA2012-32443Consejo Interinstitucional de Ciencia y Tecnología FPA2009-08848Consejo Interinstitucional de Ciencia y Tecnología FPA2009-07653Consejo Interinstitucional de Ciencia y Tecnología FPA2010-22131-C02-0