Scanning probe imaging of coexistent ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity at room temperature

Room temperature coexistence of ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity in a thin film of a novel material of nominal composition PbTi0.5Fe0.5O3-d is probed by standard ferroelectric and ferromagnetic hysteresis loop measurements and by scanning probe microscopy of various kinds. Both magnetic domains and ferroelectric domains are observed in the same spatial region of the material, implying phase coexistence in this system. For both order parameters, sample morphology strongly affects roughness of the domain walls.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

A study of the superconducting properties of YBa2Cu(9-x)Nb(x)O(y) thin films

Effect of Niobium substitution at the copper site in YBa2Cu3O(7-x) was studied in thin film form. The films were deposited by laser ablation technique using the targets of the YBa2Cu(3-x)Nb(x)O(y) where x = 0.0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8 and 1.0 under identical deposition conditions on SrTiO3 (100) substrates. Films were characterized by XRD, resistivity, I-V and J(sub c) measurements. Films made from x = 0.025 and 0.05 concentrations of Nb substituted targets showed relatively improved superconducting properties compared to that of undoped films. the best J(sub c) realized for x - 0.025 Nb concentration was 1.8 x 10(exp 6) A/sq cm and for 0.05 Nb concentration it was 3.2 x 10(exp 6) A/sq cm at 77 K. However, degradation of the superconducting properties, with the increase of x is greater than or equal to 0.1 Nb concentration and drastic suppression and complete loss of superconductivity was noticed for x is greater than or equal to 0.4. The growth of impurity phase YBa2NbO6 for x = 0.1 and above of Nb concentration was noted from XRD (X-Ray Diffraction) patterns. However, the site occupancy of Nb could not be confirmed from these studies

Effect of Nb2O5 and V2O5 addition on the superconducting properties of YBa2Cu3O(y) thin films

The effect of Nb2O5 and V2O5 addition on the superconducting properties and microstructure of YBa2Cu3O(y) has been studied in thin films. Polycrystalline targets for laser ablation were prepared by mixing high purity V2O5 or Nb2O5 powders with a well characterized YBa2Cu3O(y) powder in the range 0 to 4 wt percent by solid state reaction method. Thin films (approximately 1500 A thickness) of the above targets were grown on (100) SrTiO3 (STO) and (100) LaAlO3 (LAO) substrates at 700 C temperature by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. In the case of Nb2O5 addition we have noticed an increase in J(sub c) up to 0.5 wt percent and higher additive concentration (greater than 0.5 wt percent) have degraded the superconducting properties. However, in the case of V2O3 addition, there is an improvement in current density and microstructural properties up to 1 wt percent and the superconducting properties degrade for concentrations greater than 1 wt percent. The best J(sub c) for 0.5 wt percent of Nb2O5 added YBCO thin film is 1.6 x 10(exp 6) A/sq cm and for that of V2O5 added sample is 3.4 x 10(exp 6) A/sq cm at 77 K as compared to the pure YBa2Cu3O(y) (YBCO) film J(sub c) (1.2 x 10(exp 6) A/sq cm) observed on STO substrates. The reason for improvement in J(sub c) and microstructural properties in the case of V2O5 addition could be due to the low melting of V2O5 (690 C) which can act as a very good surfactant during deposition. Over all, we have realized that Nb2O5 addition or V2O5 addition to YBCO have shown significant improvement over the undoped YBa2Cu3O(7-x) films grown under identical conditions

Magnetic behavior of nano crystals of a spin-chain system, Ca3Co2O6: Absence of multiple steps in the low temperature isothermal magnetization

We report that the major features in the temperature dependence of dc and ac magnetization of a well-known spin-chain compound, Ca3Co2O6, which has been known to exhibit two complex magnetic transitions due to geometrical frustration (one near 24 K and the other near 10 K), are found to be qualitatively unaffected in its nano form synthesized by high-energy ball-milling. However, the multiple steps in isothermal magnetization - a topic of current interest in low-dimensional systems - known for the bulk form well below 10 K is absent in the nano particles. We believe that this finding will be useful to the understanding of the 'step' magnetization behavior of such spin-chain systems.Comment: Phys. Rev. B (Rapid Communications), in pres

Self Injection length in La0.7 Ca0.3 Mno3-YBa 2Cu3O7-d ferromagnet- superconductor multi layer thin films

We have carried out extensive studies on the self-injection problem in barrierless heterojunctions between La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (LCMO) and YBa2Cu3O7-d (YBCO). The heterojunctions were grown in situ by sequentially growing LCMO and YBCO films on LaAlO3 (LAO) substrate using a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) system. YBCO micro-bridges with 64 microns width were patterned both on the LAO (control) and LCMO side of the substrate. Critical current, Ic, was measured at 77K on both the control side as well as the LCMO side for different YBCO film thickness. It was observed that while the control side showed a Jc of ~2 x 10E6 A/ cm2 the LCMO side showed about half the value for the same thickness (1800 A). The difference in Jc indicates that a certain thickness of YBCO has become 'effectively' normal due to self-injection. From the measurement of Jc at two different thickness' (1800 A and 1500 A) of YBCO both on the LAO as well as the LCMO side, the value of self-injection length (at 77K) was estimated to be ~900 A self-injection length has been quantified. A control experiment carried out with LaNiO3 deposited by PLD on YBCO did not show any evidence of self-injection.Comment: 6 pages, one figure in .ps forma

Growth and micro structural studies on Yittria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) and Strontium Titanate (STO) buffer layers

Microstructure of Yittria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) and Strontium Titanate (STO) of radio frequency magnetron sputtered buffer layers was studied at various sputtering conditions on Si (100), Sapphire and LaAlO3 (100) substrates. The effect of substrate temperatures up to 800 C and sputtering gas pressures in the range of 50 mTorr. of growth conditions was studied. The buffer layers of YSZ and STO showed a strong tendency for columnar growth was observed above 15 mTorr sputtering gas pressure and at high substrate temperatures. Post annealing of these films in oxygen atmosphere reduced the oxygen deficiency and strain generated during growth of the films. Strong c-axis oriented superconducting YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) thin films were obtained on these buffer layers using pulsed laser ablation technique. YBCO films deposited on multilayers of YSZ and STO were shown to have better superconducting properties

Imaging cervical cytology with scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) coupled with an IR-FEL

Cervical cancer remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality among women, especially in the developing world. Increased synthesis of proteins, lipids and nucleic acids is a pre-condition for the rapid proliferation of cancer cells. We show that scanning near-field optical microscopy, in combination with an infrared free electron laser (SNOM-IR-FEL), is able to distinguish between normal and squamous low-grade and high-grade dyskaryosis, and between normal and mixed squamous/glandular pre-invasive and adenocarcinoma cervical lesions, at designated wavelengths associated with DNA, Amide I/II and lipids. These findings evidence the promise of the SNOM-IR-FEL technique in obtaining chemical information relevant to the detection of cervical cell abnormalities and cancer diagnosis at spatial resolutions below the diffraction limit (?0.2 \ensuremathμm). We compare these results with analyses following attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy; although this latter approach has been demonstrated to detect underlying cervical atypia missed by conventional cytology, it is limited by a spatial resolution of ~3 \ensuremathμm to 30 \ensuremathμm due to the optical diffraction limit

Substrate finishing and niobium content effects on the high temperature corrosion resistance in steam atmosphere of CrN/NbN superlattice coatings deposited by PVD-HIPIMS

The main objective of this work was to evaluate the oxidation resistance of three PVD-HIPIMS CrN/NbN coatings, studying the effect of the surface finishing of the substrate and the role of niobium content into the coating composition. CrN/NbN nano-multilayered films on P92 steel were tested at 650°C in pure steam atmosphere. The mass gain was measured at fixed intervals to study their oxidation kinetics. The morphology and thickness of nanoscales were measured by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Characterization of coatings before and after the thermal treatment was performed by scanning electron microscopy-energy with facilities of dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). All coatings improved the oxidation resistance of the substrate material, but the best behaviour was exhibited by the CrN/NbN with the high niobium (Nb) content and deposited on the substrate with the finest surface finishing