Elaboration and TEM structural study of interfaces in composites produced by precipitation

Model ceramic matrix composites have been manufactured in a wide range of materials using the precipitation of a metal (Cu, Ni, Cr) in a ceramic matrix (nitride AIN or oxides MgO, Al2O3) providing, in each case low energy configurations at the heterophase interfaces. In connection to microelectronic applications, copper metallic particles precipitate in AIN after implantation by copper ions and anneal of the ceramic matrix. Faceted particles are imaged by HRTEM and are associated to a low energy structural and chemical configuration. Internal reduction experiments have been carried out on (Mg,Ni)O, (Mg,Cu)O and (Al,Cr)2O3 mixed oxides; the morphology, chemical composition and orientation relationship of the different precipitates are obtained through TEM observations and discussed in terms of interfacial energy and precipitate growth mechanism and kinetics. Conventional and high resolution TEM in conjonction to structural models have allowed a comprehensive description of the interface

AMORPHOUS PD-SI ALLOYS AND HYDRIDES PREPARED BY LOW-TEMPERATURE ION-IMPLANTATION

Ion implantation simultaneously produces compositional changes and radiation damage in the target. If the latter is not annealed, amorphization should ultimately result. Can implantation of a covalent solute into a transition metal host stabilize the damage and hence produce an amorphous alloy at lower concentrations than other techniques ? We have studied the composition-dependence of the resistivity and TCR of thin (600-800 Å) Pd films implanted at 6 K with Si ions : The results are compared to those obtained on the corresponding well-documented quench-condensed alloys, which are amorphous at Si concentrations ~.18. The resistivity of the implanted films saturates at about 90 µΩ·cm for Si concentrations above ~.18. Thus, the critical concentration for amorphization is presumably the same for the low-temperature implanted or quench-condensed Pd-Si alloy, confirming that local structure effects dominate amorphous alloy formation criteria. In a further experiment, hydrogen was implanted into the amorphous Pd-Si films (again at 6K). The resistivity increased sharply, doubling at H concentrations around 100 %. The resulting systems were superconducting ; their maximum critical temperature was 2.6 K

Structure of Extremely Nanosized and Confined In-O Species in Ordered Porous Materials

Perturbed-angular correlation, x-ray absorption, and small-angle x-ray scattering spectroscopies were suitably combined to elucidate the local structure of highly diluted and dispersed InOx species confined in porous of ZSM5 zeolite. These novel approach allow us to determined the structure of extremely nanosized In-O species exchanged inside the 10-atom-ring channel of the zeolite, and to quantify the amount of In2O3 crystallites deposited onto the external zeolite surface.Comment: 4 pages, 5 postscript figures, REVTEX4, published in Physical Review Letter

Software fault-tolerance by design diversity DEDIX: A tool for experiments

The use of multiple versions of a computer program, independently designed from a common specification, to reduce the effects of an error is discussed. If these versions are designed by independent programming teams, it is expected that a fault in one version will not have the same behavior as any fault in the other versions. Since the errors in the output of the versions are different and uncorrelated, it is possible to run the versions concurrently, cross-check their results at prespecified points, and mask errors. A DEsign DIversity eXperiments (DEDIX) testbed was implemented to study the influence of common mode errors which can result in a failure of the entire system. The layered design of DEDIX and its decision algorithm are described

Inhomogeneous magnesium hydride synthesized by low temperature ion implantation: weak localization effect

Metastable MgHx hydride was prepared by H ion implantation into Mg films at 5 K. The resistivity and magnetoresistance temperature dependence reveal weak localization effects due to atomic disorder. At low hydrogen concentrations, x ≤0.3, the conductivity varies as σ∼log (T), typical of two-dimensional weak localization behaviour. The resistivity is also very sensitive to the sample inhomogeneity, due to H diffusion, which can be modelled by introducing a temperature-dependent geometrical percolating factor G. At higher H concentrations, 0.7 ≤x ≤3, after annealing at 20 K, 50 K and 110 K, the samples also exhibit weak localization but with three-dimensional behaviour i.e. a $\sigma \sim \sqrt{T}$. Our analysis is consistent with the existence of an inhomogeneous system formed by a mixture of two phases with contrasted conduction properties, one of which is a well-behaved metal, while the other displays the localization properties. The results lead us to identify the former phase to a non percolating superconducting phase at low temperature

Modeling software design diversity

Design diversity has been used for many years now as a means of achieving a degree of fault tolerance in software-based systems. Whilst there is clear evidence that the approach can be expected to deliver some increase in reliability compared with a single version, there is not agreement about the extent of this. More importantly, it remains difficult to evaluate exactly how reliable a particular diverse fault-tolerant system is. This difficulty arises because assumptions of independence of failures between different versions have been shown not to be tenable: assessment of the actual level of dependence present is therefore needed, and this is hard. In this tutorial we survey the modelling issues here, with an emphasis upon the impact these have upon the problem of assessing the reliability of fault tolerant systems. The intended audience is one of designers, assessors and project managers with only a basic knowledge of probabilities, as well as reliability experts without detailed knowledge of software, who seek an introduction to the probabilistic issues in decisions about design diversity

The statistical mechanics of complex signaling networks : nerve growth factor signaling

It is becoming increasingly appreciated that the signal transduction systems used by eukaryotic cells to achieve a variety of essential responses represent highly complex networks rather than simple linear pathways. While significant effort is being made to experimentally measure the rate constants for individual steps in these signaling networks, many of the parameters required to describe the behavior of these systems remain unknown, or at best, estimates. With these goals and caveats in mind, we use methods of statistical mechanics to extract useful predictions for complex cellular signaling networks. To establish the usefulness of our approach, we have applied our methods towards modeling the nerve growth factor (NGF)-induced differentiation of neuronal cells. Using our approach, we are able to extract predictions that are highly specific and accurate, thereby enabling us to predict the influence of specific signaling modules in determining the integrated cellular response to the two growth factors. We show that extracting biologically relevant predictions from complex signaling models appears to be possible even in the absence of measurements of all the individual rate constants. Our methods also raise some interesting insights into the design and possible evolution of cellular systems, highlighting an inherent property of these systems wherein particular ''soft'' combinations of parameters can be varied over wide ranges without impacting the final output and demonstrating that a few ''stiff'' parameter combinations center around the paramount regulatory steps of the network. We refer to this property -- which is distinct from robustness -- as ''sloppiness.''Comment: 24 pages, 10 EPS figures, 1 GIF (makes 5 multi-panel figs + caption for GIF), IOP style; supp. info/figs. included as brown_supp.pd

X-ray-absorption fine-structure study of ZnSexTe1−x alloys

X-ray-absorption fine-structure experiments at different temperatures in ZnSexTe1−x (x=0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.55, 0.81, 0.93, 0.99, and 1.0) have been performed in order to obtain information about the structural relaxation and disorder effects occurring in the alloys. First and second neighbor distance distributions have been characterized at the Se and Zn K edges, using multiple-edge and multiple-scattering data analysis. The first neighbor distance distribution was found to be bimodal. The static disorder associated with the Zn–Te distance variance did not depend appreciably on composition. On the other hand, the static disorder associated with the Zn–Se distance increased as the Se content diminished. Using the bonding angle information provided by our experiments the point of view of the anion has been related to that of the cation. The resulting structural model indicates that Zn tetrahedra surrounding the anions remain essentially undistorted, but forced to tilt from their ideal zincblende orientation to accommodate the minority element. The main origin of structural disorder is [email protected] ; [email protected]