We report the discovery of three new star clusters in the halo of the Local Group dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 6822. These clusters were found in the deep images taken with the MegaPrime at the CFHT covering a total field of 2 deg $\times$ 2 deg. The most remote cluster is found to be located as far as 79 arcmin away from the center of NGC 6822. This distance is several times larger than the size of the region in NGC 6822 where star clusters were previously found. Morphological structures of the clusters and color-magnitude diagrams of the resolved stars in the clusters show that at least two of these clusters are proabably old globular clusters.

This work demonstrates the properties of InGaN nanorod arrays with various In mole fractions by modified HVPE using In metal at the low growth temperature. The nanorods grown on (0001) sapphire substrates are preferentially oriented in the c-axis direction. We found that the In mole fractions in the nanorods were linearly increased at x ≤ 0.1. However, In mole fractions were slightly increased at x > 0.1 and then were gradually saturated at x = 0.2. CL spectra show strong blue emissions from 428 nm (x = 0.1, 2.89 eV) to 470 nm (x = 0.2, 2.64 eV) at room temperature. From this result, we found the fact that increasing In mole fraction in the InGaN nanorod shift the peak position of CL spectrum emitted from InGaN nanorod to the low energy region.

The sliding friction and wear performance of Al–Ni–Co–Si quasicrystalline coatings deposited by the high-velocity oxy-fuel technique were investigated under dry sliding conditions. This study indicated that changes in the imposed sliding test conditions modified the friction and wear behavior of quasicrystalline coatings. Qualitative analysis of the contact interface and wear debris were performed with the aim of understanding the role of the third body on the friction and wear processes. The dependence of the coefficient of friction on the sliding velocity and counterpart material was explained by the stick-slip behavior. It was also shown that test conditions favorable for the formation of thick intermediate layers and the densification of the coating subsurface led to low wear rates. Large cylindrical particles, formed by agglomeration of small wear debris, were suggested as a beneficial factor for the reduction of the coefficient of friction.

In this letter, we investigated the correlation between as-grown surface morphologies and Mn compositions of Ga1-xMnxAs epilayers - a III-V diluted magnetic semiconductor - grown by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE). Ga1-xMnxAs epilayers were grown at 595 °C from 50 % Ga + 50 % Bi mixed solvent. The grown layers were characterized by energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDS) and atomic forced microscopy (AFM). The Mn composition measured by EDS after growth process was varied from 1 to 7 %. As increasing Mn composition surface morphologies of as-grown Ga1-xMnxAs epilayers were varied. At higher Mn compositions, the morphology of the surface layers degrades strongly, preventing removal of the solution-melt from it. Key words: LPE, as-grown, surface morphology, Mn composition, Ga1-xMnxAs, energy-dispersive x-ray analysis (EDS), atomic forced microscopy (AFM).

GaN nanorods were grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by hydride vapor phase epitaxy HVPE) through a self-assemble process. The nanorods were grown at high growth rate, with the c-axis maintained perpendicular to the substrate surface. The dependence of rod diameter and density on growth conditions was systematically investigated. The average diameter was minimized to 80-120 nm and the density of the GaN nanorods was 100×1012 rods/m2.

A new approach is proposed to obtain fast crystallizing materials based on a conventional GeSbTe alloy for rewritable phase change optical data storage. By means of co-sputtering, Ge1Sb2Te4alloy was mixed with Sn1Bi2Te4alloy so as to form pseudo-binary alloys (Ge1Sb2Te4)1-x(Sn1Bi2Te4)x (x is a mole fraction). From structural and optical analyses of the co- sputtered and annealed alloy films, the formation of stable crystalline single phases was observed along with a Vegard's law behavior, suggesting a homogeneous mixing of the two alloys. By use of a 4 layered disk with (Ge1Sb2Te4)0.85(Sn1Bi2Te4)0.15 recording layer, a preliminary test of writing and erasing was carried out and the results were compared with the case of the disk with Ge1Sb2Te4recording layer. The (Ge1Sb2Te4)0.85(Sn1Bi2Te4)0.15 recording layer was found to yield markedly higher erasibility, especially with increasing disk linear velocity.

In this study, free-standing GaN was produced from 350- to 400-μm-thick GaN films grown on sapphire by using hydride vapor phase epitaxy. The thick films were separated from the substrate by using the mechanical polishing method with a diamond slurry. After liftoff, the bow is slight or absent in the resulting free-standing GaN. Double-crystal X-ray diffraction, hall measurements, and cathodoluminescence were used for characterizing the free-standing GaN wafer. To investigate spatially the backside of the free-standing GaN substrate, we controlled the electron beam energy from 5 keV to 30 keV. As the beam energy increased, dark regions, i.e., nonradiative regions, become smaller than bright regions. We think this means that nonradiative centers, i.e., threading dislocations, merge during film growth.