A simple solid-on-solid model of epitaxial thin films growth: surface morphology anisotropy

In this paper we present a generalization of a simple solid-on-solid epitaxial model of thin films growth, when surface morphology anisotropy is provoked by anisotropy in model control parameters: binding energy and/or diffusion barrier. The anisotropy is discussed in terms of the height-height correlation function. It was experimentally confirmed that the difference in diffusion barriers yields anisotropy in morphology of the surface. We got antisymmetric correlations in the two in-plane directions for antisymmetric binding.Comment: 6 pages + 2 figures (to appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys. C, journal style applied

Structural and electrical properties of as-deposited and annealed DC sputtered ITO thin films

We have studied the effect of annealing on the structural and electrical properties of tin-doped indium oxyde, $\rm In _2O_3{:}Sn$ (ITO), thin films prepared by DC sputtering at different partial pressure of oxygen (ppo). Annealing experiments have been done in vacuum and in Ar atmosphere up to a temperature of 450 °C. A change of texture from $\langle 100\rangle$ to $\langle 111\rangle$ as the ppo was increased was noted in the as-deposited films. Annealing induced cristallinity and improved the texture of these films. The lattice constant decreased after annealing. The (222) grain size increased after vacuum annealing but was unaffected by annealing in Ar atmosphere; while the (400) grain size decreased for samples having the $\langle 100\rangle$ texture. The electrical resistivity decreases sharply after annealing to a minimum value of 87 × 10-4 Ω cm

Oxygen Tolerant and Cytocompatible Iron(0)-Mediated ATRP Enables the Controlled Growth of Polymer Brushes from Mammalian Cell Cultures

The use of zerovalent iron (Fe0)-coated plates, which act both as a source of catalyst and as a reducing agent during surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP), enables the controlled growth of a wide range of polymer brushes under ambient conditions utilizing either organic or aqueous reaction media. Thanks to its cytocompatibility, Fe0 SI-ATRP can be applied within cell cultures, providing a tool that can broadly and dynamically modify the substrate's affinity toward cells, without influencing their viability. Upon systematically assessing the application of Fe-based catalytic systems in the controlled grafting of polymers, Fe0 SI-ATRP emerges as an extremely versatile technique that could be applied to tune the physicochemical properties of a cell's microenvironments on biomaterials or within tissue engineering constructs