A comparison of He and Ne FIB imaging of cracks in microindented silicon nitride

Helium ion microscopy (HIM) offers potential as a high spatial resolution technique for imaging insulating samples that are susceptible to charging artifacts. In this study helium and neon ion microscopy are used to image cracking in microindented samples of the non-conductive ceramic silicon nitride. The crack morphology of radial cracks emanating from the microindentations has been characterized for two different compositions of silicon nitride, with and without conductive coatings. Gold coating enhances crack edge contrast, but masks grain contrast for both He and Ne ion-induced secondary electron (ISE) imaging. Carbon coating enables the crystalline and glassy phases to be distinguished, more clearly with Ne-ISE, and the cracking pathway is found to be primarily intergranular. Zones of < 100 nm diameter depleted ion-induced secondary electron emission along the crack paths are identified, consistent with charging ‘hotspots’

Semi-supervised clustering on heterogeneous information networks

Postprin

A theory of \pi/2 superconducting Josephson junctions

We consider theoretically a Josephson junction with a superconducting critical current density which has a random sign along the junction's surface. We show that the ground state of the junction corresponds to the phase difference equal to \pi/2. Such a situation can take place in superconductor- ferromagnet junction

Effect of annealing on the electrical and magnetic properties of electrodeposited Ni and permalloy nanowires

The influence of annealing on the microstructure and the electrical and magnetic properties of cylindrical nickel-based nanowires has been investigated. Nanowires of nickel of ~275 nm diameter and of permalloy (Py) of ~70 nm diameter were fabricated by electrochemical deposition into nanoporous templates of polycarbonate and anodic alumina, respectively. Characterization was carried out on as-grown and up to 650 °C heat-treated nanowires. Transmission electron microscopy imaging and diffraction of the nanowires showed a temperature-correlated grain growth of an initially nanocrystalline structure (untreated) with <8 nm (Ni) and <20 nm (Py) grains towards coarser poly-crystallinity after heat treatment with grains up to ~160 nm (Ni) and ~70 nm (Py), the latter being limited by the nanowire width. The electrical conductivity of individual as-grown and 650 °C annealed Ni nanowires was measured in-situ by scanning electron microscopy. At low current densities, the conductivity of annealed nanowires was estimated to have doubled over as-grown nanowires. We attribute this increase to the observed grain growth. The annealed nanowire was subsequently subjected to increasing current densities. Above 120 kA.mm−2 the nanowire resistance started to rise. At 450 kA.mm−2, the nanowire melted and current flow ceased. Magnetometry of as-grown and annealed nanowire arrays showed them to display quasi-thin film magnetic properties. Coercivity and saturation field were inversely correlated in annealed wires and a 25% tunability in these properties was achieved at just 200 °C

A Dissipative-Particle-Dynamics Model for Simulating Dynamics of Charged Colloid

A mesoscopic colloid model is developed in which a spherical colloid is represented by many interacting sites on its surface. The hydrodynamic interactions with thermal fluctuations are taken accounts in full using Dissipative Particle Dynamics, and the electrostatic interactions are simulated using Particle-Particle-Particle Mesh method. This new model is applied to investigate the electrophoretic mobility of a charged colloid under an external electric field, and the influence of salt concentration and colloid charge are systematically studied. The simulation results show good agreement with predictions from the electrokinetic theory.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, submitted to the proceedings of High Performance Computing in Science & Engineering '1

The transition from linear to highly branched poly(beta-amino ester)s: Branching matters for gene delivery

Nonviral gene therapy holds great promise but has not delivered treatments for clinical application to date. Lack of safe and efficient gene delivery vectors is the major hurdle. Among nonviral gene delivery vectors, poly(beta-amino ester)s are one of the most versatile candidates because of their wide monomer availability, high polymer flexibility, and superior gene transfection performance both in vitro and in vivo. However, to date, all research has been focused on vectors with a linear structure. A well-accepted view is that dendritic or branched polymers have greater potential as gene delivery vectors because of their three-dimensional structure and multiple terminal groups. Nevertheless, to date, the synthesis of dendritic or branched polymers has been proven to be a well-known challenge. We report the design and synthesis of highly branched poly(beta-amino ester)s (HPAEs) via a one-pot "A2 + B3 + C2"&-type Michael addition approach and evaluate their potential as gene delivery vectors. We find that the branched structure can significantly enhance the transfection efficiency of poly(beta-amino ester)s: Up to an 8521-fold enhancement in transfection efficiency was observed across 12 cell types ranging from cell lines, primary cells, to stem cells, over their corresponding linear poly(beta-amino ester)s (LPAEs) and the commercial transfection reagents polyethyleneimine, SuperFect, and Lipofectamine 2000...This work was funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), a Technology Innovation and Development Award (14/TIDA/2367), an Industry Fellowship (15/IFA/3037), the Principal Investigator Program [10/IN.1/B2981(T)], an Investigator Award (12/IP/1688), the Health Research Board of Ireland (HRA-POR-2013-412), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (130-0401180007). The atomic force microscope used for this work was funded by SFI (SFI07/IN1/B931

Green’s function method to the ground state properties of a two-component Bose–Einstein condensate

The elementary excitation spectrum of a two-component Bose–Einstein condensate is obtained by Green’s function method. It is found to have two branches. In the long-wave limit, the two branches of the excitation spectrum are reduced to one phonon excitation and one single-particle excitation. With the obtained excitation spectrum and the Green’s functions, the depletion of the condensate and the ground state energy have also been calculated in this paper

Modified f(G) gravity models with curvature-matter coupling

A modified f(G) gravity model with coupling between matter and geometry is proposed, which is described by the product of the Lagrange density of the matter and an arbitrary function of the Gauss-Bonnet term. The field equations and the equations of motion corresponding to this model show the non-conservation of the energy-momentum tensor, the presence of an extra-force acting on test particles and the non-geodesic motion. Moreover, the energy conditions and the stability criterion at de Sitter point in the modified f(G) gravity models with curvature-matter coupling are derived, which can degenerate to the well-known energy conditions in general relativity. Furthermore, in order to get some insight on the meaning of these energy conditions, we apply them to the specific models of f(G) gravity and the corresponding constraints on the models are given. In addition, the conditions and the candidate for late-time cosmic accelerated expansion in the modified f(G) gravity are studied by means of conditions of power-law expansion and the equation of state of matter less than -1/ 3 .Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure