The aim of the present work is to elaborate nanocrystalline soft Fe80Ni20 powders and to study the relationship between their magnetic behaviour and structural changes after different milling times. A series of Fe80Ni20 powders were elaborated by the mechanical alloying process for milling time ranging from 3 to 25 h. X-ray diffraction results showed that nickel dissolved in the iron lattice and formed a complete cubic centered (bcc) solid solution after 10 h of milling time. As the milling time increases from 0 to 25 h, the lattice parameter increases from 0.28610 nm for pure Fe to 0.28670 nm, the grain size decreases from 75 to 11 nm, while the mean level of strain increases from 0.09% to 0.5%. It is found that the saturation magnetization increases while the coercivity decreases when the milling time increases. The increase of saturation magnetization and decrease of coercivity are attributed to the decrease of the grain size with milling time. We have shown that nanocrystalline Fe80Ni20 powders exhibit a soft magnetic behaviour.

First-principles calculations have been performed to determine the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of transition metal TM (TM = Fe, Co and Ni) monatomic nanochain encapsulated inside and between (9, 0) beryllium oxide nanotube (BeONT) bundle. The generalized gradient approximation (GGA) was employed to describe the exchange-correlation potential. Our results show that the geometrical structure of the BeONT bundle is significantly changed after encapsulating TM nanochains. All configurations of TM chains @ (9, 0) BeONTs bundle systems have negative formation energy so they are stable and exothermic. Total density of states and partial densities of states analyses show that the spin polarization and the magnetic moment of TM chains @ BeONT systems come mostly from the TM atoms chain. The values of total and partial magnetic moment, spin polarization and Stoner parameter are calculated for all configurations of TM chains @ (9, 0) BeONTs bundle systems.

The relaxation behavior of neat PET and PET/Ti3N4 nanocomposites was investigated by means of internal friction. The temperature dependence of internal friction exhibit two relaxation peaks i.e. α and β peaks, and both heights of the peaks first increase and then decrease with increasing concentration of Ti3N4 nanoparticles. However, the peak temperature and activation energy for α and β peaks show different change trends with increasing concentration of Ti3N4 nanoparticles, which associated with the changes of nucleation and crystallization of the PET due to the addition of nanoparticles. Further increasing the concentration of Ti3N4 nanoparticles, a third peak, α′ located at the temperature between α and β peaks appears in the PET/Ti3N4 nanocomposites, which may be a physical aging peak.

The energy leakage rate of Rayleigh wave generated by a laser pulse applied on a fluid-solid interface was analyzed. Data were presented for different fluid-solid interfaces based on the overall solution of wave motion, which was obtained by using finite element method. The results show that the energy leakage rate increases linearly with the increase of acoustic impedance ratio of the fluid and solid material, and that the increase in acoustic impedance matching of those two materials will be able to increase the acoustic leakage of Rayleigh wave and the excitation efficiency of leaky Rayleigh wave.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of hemoglobin from 30 esophageal cancer patients and 30 healthy persons have been detected and analyzed. The results indicate that, there are more iron ions in low spin state and less in high for the hemoglobin of esophageal cancer patients than normal persons, which is consistent with the fact that it is easier to hemolyze for the blood of cancer patients. By using principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminate analysis, we can get a three-dimensional scatter plot of PC scores from the SERS spectra of healthy persons and cancer patients, from which the two groups can be discriminated. The total accuracy of this method is 90%, while the diagnostic specificity is 93.3% and sensitivity is 86.7%. Thus SERS spectra of hemoglobin analysis combined with PCA may be a new technique for the early diagnose of esophageal cancer.

A systematic current annealing treatment to achieve a high magnetoimpedance (MI) response in CoFeSiB amorphous ribbons is demonstrated. After current annealing in the present of air, although transverse permeability can increase but because of a significant surface oxidization, condition to reach a high MI response cannot be achieved. Additionally, this process leads to asymmetric MI response. In this paper, the effect of mechanical polishing of samples after current annealing is studied. We show a significant MI change by removing the hard magnetic phase on sample surface after current annealing. Results are useful and promising to be employed to reach high MI response for sensing applications.

We investigated the effect of the deposition rate on the surface morphology of Si nanowhiskers (NW) deposited by e-beam evaporation using the vapor-liquid-solid growth mechanism. The roles of deposition rate and corresponding surface diffusion on the Si NW growth kinetics were examined. Two growth regimes were observed within the investigated range of deposition rates. Films belonging to these two regimes were found to have characteristically different formations and surface morphologies. We found that the length-diameter curves of NWs switch from decreasing to increasing at a certain critical evaporation rate. The surface morphology is composed of long whiskers (~1 μm) tapered with faceted sidewalls in the high deposition rate regimes (above 1.2 Å/s) due to their length which is comparable with the adatom diffusion and the direct adsorption of Si atoms on the sidewalls. The characteristic morphology was composed of shorter straight whiskers in the low deposition rate regimes (0.6–1 Å/s) because of the higher contribution of Si adatoms diffusing from the substrate to the NW growth.

Synthesis of In2O3 nanostructures grown on Si substrate by the resistive evaporation of metallic indium granules followed by dry oxidation process has been articulated. To prepare nucleation growth sites, selected samples pre-annealed around indium melting point in free-oxygen atmosphere and then to fabricate 1-D nanostructures, they annealed in a horizontal thermal furnace in presence of argon and oxygen. For comparison, one sample, the same origin as initially pre-annealed samples, was excluded in pre-annealing process but presented in annealing step. Characterization of the products with FESEM revealed that the pre-annealed obtained nanostructures are mostly nanorod and nanowire with different morphologies. For the comparative sample, no 1-D structures achieved. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns for pre-annealed samples indicated that they are crystalline and the comparative one is polycrystalline. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements carried out at room temperature revealed that emission band shifted to shorter wavelength from pre-annealed samples to comparative one.

A theoretical model for the frequency response of magnetoelectric (ME) effect in thin cylindrical piezoelectric-magnetostrictive composites is presented by using constitutive and elastodynamic equations. The calculated results show that there is a resonant enhancement peak of ME voltage coefficient in the electromechanical resonance region and the ME voltage coefficient at resonance frequency exceeds that at low frequency by one or two orders of magnitude. The resonance frequency is predicted to increase with decreasing average diameter D̅$ \bar{D}$ and increasing thickness of magnetostrictive layer tM of the cylindrical composite, which is in good agreement with the experimental results reported in literatures. The corresponding resonance ME voltage coefficient increases with increasing tM , but reaches to a peak value and then decreases with increasing D̅$ \bar{D}$. It is indicated that the ME effect of trilayered cylindrical composite is less than that of bilayered one, possibly due to its symmetric structure. Under clamped condition, the resonance frequency will shift to a very high value for both trilayered and bilayered cylindrical composites, while the ME effect has different performance, enhanced in bilayered but suppressed in trilayered cylindrical composite. Our model shows that one can obtain strong ME effect and proper resonance frequency by selecting suitable materials, optimizing its geometry structure and varying mechanical boundary conditions for the cylindrical composite structure

Inductive sensors are used to detect or test magnetic and/or conductive targets. In this paper, a simplified analytical modeling of an inductive sensor having a magnetic core and a conductive shielding is presented with an inspected target consisting in a stratified medium. Two shapes of magnetic core geometries are considered: cup-core and U-core. Comparisons of results obtained using the analytical model with numerical and experimental data show a quite good agreement in spite of the modeling assumptions.

This study is carried out to establish a correlation between optical absorbance and track density in CR-39 detectors exposed to different fluences of D-T (14 MeV) neutrons. This can be useful in estimating the neutron fluence and hence the dose without involving the tedious track counting procedure, especially when the track density is extremely high. Variation in the optical properties is studied using UV-VIS-NIR (ultraviolet-visible-near infrared) spectroscopic technique. The neutron-induced recoil tracks are developed by chemical etching and the track density is determined. The optical transmission spectra are obtained for pristine and neutron irradiated detectors before and after etching. A linear relationship is obtained between the track density and the optical absorbance with increasing neutron fluence. Another objective of this work is to study the effect of etching on the optical properties such as transmittance and absorbance of irradiated CR-39 detectors. The optical properties are found to be changing due to the development of tracks in the detector.

In this study, CO2 laser treatment was used as a novel method for creating antibacterial properties on glass mat. Different metallic salts such as CuO, ZnO and AgNO3 were even applied on surface of glass fiber mat, then irradiated with the laser light beam (100 μs). Metal particles were deposited on the surface of samples, and the antibacterial has been developed, through incorporation of metal particles on glass mats. The antibacterial properties of the fabrics were connected with the presence of metal particles on their surface. The amounts of metal particles on the surface were compared using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS). Also the morphological properties of the fabrics were observed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The experimental work suggests that the change in properties induced by laser can effect an improvement in certain textile products.

Hydrogen is more and more considered as a potential fuel for propulsion applications. However, due to its low ignition energy and wide flammability limits, H2-air mixtures raise a concern in terms of safety. This aspect can be partly solved by adding an alkane to these mixtures, which plays the role of an inhibitor. The present paper provides data on such binary fuel-air mixtures where various amounts of propane are added to hydrogen. The behavior of the corresponding mixtures, in terms of detonation characteristics and other fundamental properties, such as the cell size of the detonation front and induction delay, are presented and discussed for a series of equivalence ratios and propane addition. The experimental detonation velocity is in good agreement with calculated theoretical Chapman-Jouguet values. Based on soot tracks records, the cell size λ is measured, whereas the induction length Li is derived from data using a GRI-Mech kinetic mechanism. These data allow providing a value of the coefficient K = λ/Li.

The influence of inhomogeneous Rashba interaction on spin-transport of two-dimensional electron gas system (2DEG) is investigated. In the works which have been previously performed in this field it has been shown that in the non-equilibrium regime, the Rashba and Dresselhaus couplings cannot be responsible for spin-current and both transverse and longitudinal components of the spin-current identically vanish. In the present work by using a semi-classical method it was found out that a random Rashba field interaction cannot be considered as a underestimate effect on spin-dependent mechanisms. Regarding the inhomogeneous distribution of the Rashba field it was shown that the spin-current of the system, in general, does not go all the way to zero.

Rare earth gadolinium oxide film has been studied by X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) at Gd L3-edge and energy electron loss spectroscopy (EELS) spectroscopies. XAFS data showed that the nearest Gd coordination shells consist of six oxygen atoms at ~2.308(2) Å and six gadolinium atoms at ~3.57(2) Å corresponding to Gd2O3 with a space group of Ia-3. EELS analysis of the film revealed excitations at the energies of 14.2, 19.9 eV which are due to electron transition from the valence band to the conductive one; excitations at the energies of 22.2–23.5 eV originated from valence electrons plasmon oscillations (bulk plasmons); and the excitation at 5.5 eV resulted from the electron transition at defects. When the photon energy changed from 1.5 to 5.0 eV the refractive index increased from 1.92 to 2.15.

In this paper, the potential of stimulated infrared thermography is studied for the detection of cracks located in metallic materials. To start with, the feasibility of the method is shown with the use of numerical simulations. Stimulated infrared thermography allows detecting emerging cracks in samples whether reflective or not as well as non-emerging cracks. In addition, crack detection is due to the radiative effects and/or the thermal effects induced by the defects. Then, the experimental device implemented for the study is detailed. Finally, experiments confirm that stimulated infrared thermography enables to detect microscopic cracks, whether emerging or non-emerging, in metal samples.

The molybdenum nitride coating was produced by nitrogen ion implantation of the molybdenum layer deposited on the stainless steel 316 (SS) substrates. At first, molybdenum layers were deposited on the substrates by ion beam sputtering method, then nitrogen ions with an energy of 30 keV and a fluence between 1×1017 and 12×1017 N+ cm−2 were implanted in Mo/SS system. Crystal structure and topography of the surface are investigated by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) image respectively. XRD patterns showed the formation of molybdenum nitride phases in all implanted samples. Corrosion tests showed that the corrosion resistance of the samples strongly depends on the nitrogen applied fluences. A considerable improvement of corrosion performance by increasing ions fluences was observed. The lowest corrosion current density with amount of 0.1 μA/cm2 was obtained at 12×1017 ions/cm2 fluence in our case.

We consider illumination systems and mathematical algorithms for determination of the anisotropy and topographical features of an illuminated surface from its reflection images. As a particular example we study determination of the fiber orientation of paper surface. We also consider illumination systems with multiple light sources, and introduce optimization algorithms that exploit different spectral bands of these light sources. We show that a system of three light sources, e.g., a blue, green and red LED placed in a regular triangular form, efficiently prevents distortion of the above features. It is also easy to implement in applications, e.g., of the paper industry. We furthermore show that a pentagonal illumination system would be even better. However, in this case a five-colour photographic system and the corresponding light sources would be needed.

In this study, samples of dental porcelain bodies have been made by using the materials collected from selected deposits employing different mixing proportions of clay, quartz and feldspar. Dental porcelain ceramics have been successfully fabricated by using the sintering technique together with some Na2CO3 additive. The dental porcelain powder has been pressed into pellets at first and subsequently sintered at 700, 800, 900, 1000 and 1100 °C for 2 h. The physical and mechanical properties of the prepared samples have been investigated. The sintering behavior of the fired samples has been evaluated by bulk density, linear shrinkage, water absorption and apparent porosity measurements. This study includes the evaluation of the Vickers’s microhardness by microhardness tester. Phase analysis and microstructural study have been performed by XRD and optical microscope respectively. Optical properties have been investigated using UV-visible spectroscopy. Influence of firing conditions on leucite formation, densification and microstructural development of the sintered samples has been investigated. It has been found that the choice of sintering temperature is one of the key factors in controlling leucite crystallization in dental porcelain ceramics. It has also been found that the flux concentration of material and the effect of temperature on preparation of dental porcelain contribute to the firing shrinkage and hardness, which has been found to increase with the increase of treatment temperature.

In this paper, dipolar relaxation processes in epoxy-based polymer were investigated under various polarization conditions, using thermally stimulated depolarization current (TSDC) technique. The TSDC spectrum of un-poled epoxy polymer reveals an unusual negative current, associated with a thermally generated charge carriers, which were due to impurities ionization and structural changes mainly at high temperature (above Tg). β and α dipolar relaxations were detected respectively around 115 °C and 154 °C in conventionally poled sample at TP=110 °C and EP= 3 kV/mm. Dipolar relaxation parameters were evaluated using two techniques: (1) theoretical decomposition of global complex TSDC spectrum, using Bucci-Fieschi expression based on single Debye process, (2) experimental procedure based on selective polarization, commonly known as windowing polarization (WP). The obtained values are TP dependent: relaxation time decreases and activation energy increases when polarization temperature increases. An ω relaxation peak due to water molecule departure was detected around 135 °C, using WP techniques for TP=100 °C Unlike dipolar relaxations, its position is independent of polarization temperature. Complementary thermal analysis investigations by differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), were made to support some given conclusions.