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The atomistic mechanisms active during plastic deformation of nanocrystalline metals are still a subject of controversy. The recently developed approach of combining automated crystal orientation mapping (ACOM) and in situ straining inside a transmission electron microscope was applied to study the deformation of nanocrystalline PdxAu1−x thin films. This combination enables direct imaging of simultaneously occurring plastic deformation processes in one experiment, such as grain boundary motion, twin activity and grain rotation. Large-angle grain rotations with ≈39° and ≈60° occur and can be related to twin formation, twin migration and twin–twin interaction as a result of partial dislocation activity. Furthermore, plastic deformation in nanocrystalline thin films was found to be partially reversible upon rupture of the film. In conclusion, conventional deformation mechanisms are still active in nanocrystalline metals but with different weighting as compared with conventional materials with coarser grains.

A custom-designed apparatus was used for the fine-tuned co-deposition of preformed Fe clusters into antiferromagnetic Cr matrices. Three series of samples with precisely defined cluster sizes, with accuracy to a few atoms, and controlled concentrations were fabricated, followed by a complete characterization of structure and magnetic performance. Relevant magnetic characteristics, reflecting the ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic coupling between Fe clusters and the Cr matrix, i.e., blocking temperature, coercivity field, and exchange bias were measured and their dependence on cluster size and cluster concentration in the matrix was analyzed. It is evident that the blocking temperatures are clearly affected by both the cluster size and their concentration in the Cr matrix. In contrast the coercivity shows hardly any dependence on size or inter-cluster distance. The exchange bias was found to be strongly sensitive to the cluster size but not to the inter-cluster distances. Therefore, it was concluded to be an effect that is purely localized at the interfaces.

Long, straight mesoscale silver wires have been fabricated from AgNO3 electrolyte via electrodeposition without the help of templates, additives, and surfactants. Although the wire growth speed is very fast due to growth under non-equilibrium conditions, the wire morphology is regular and uniform in diameter. Structural studies reveal that the wires are single-crystalline, with the [112] direction as the growth direction. A possible growth mechanism is suggested. Auger depth profile measurements show that the wires are stable against oxidation under ambient conditions. This unique system provides a convenient way for the study of self-organization in electrochemical environments as well as for the fabrication of highly-ordered, single-crystalline metal nanowires.

Systematical studies of the electrochemical performance of CFx-derived carbon–FeF2 nanocomposites for reversible lithium storage are presented. The conversion cathode materials were synthesized by a simple one-pot synthesis, which enables a reactive intercalation of nanoscale Fe particles in a CFx matrix, and the reaction of these components to an electrically conductive C–FeF2 compound. The pretreatment and the structure of the utilized CFx precursors play a crucial role in the synthesis and influence the electrochemical behavior of the conversion cathode material. The particle size of the CFx precursor particles was varied by ball milling as well as by choosing different C/F ratios. The investigations led to optimized C–FeF2 conversion cathode materials that showed specific capacities of 436 mAh/g at 40 °C after 25 cycles. The composites were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, X-Ray diffraction measurements, electron energy loss spectroscopy and TEM measurements. The electrochemical performances of the materials were tested by galvanostatic measurements.

A carbon-encapsulated Fe3O4 nanocomposite was prepared by a simple one-step pyrolysis of iron pentacarbonyl without using any templates, solvents or surfactants. The structure and morphology of the nanocomposite was investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analysis and Raman spectroscopy. Fe3O4 nanoparticles are dispersed intimately in a carbon framework. The nanocomposite exhibits well constructed core–shell and nanotube structures, with Fe3O4 cores and graphitic shells/tubes. The as-synthesized material could be used directly as anode in a lithium-ion cell and demonstrated a stable capacity, and good cyclic and rate performances.

The microstructure and mechanical properties of nanocrystalline Pd films prepared by magnetron sputtering have been investigated as a function of strain. The films were deposited onto polyimide substrates and tested in tensile mode. In order to follow the deformation processes in the material, several samples were strained to defined straining states, up to a maximum engineering strain of 10%, and prepared for post-mortem analysis. The nanocrystalline structure was investigated by quantitative automated crystal orientation mapping (ACOM) in a transmission electron microscope (TEM), identifying grain growth and twinning/detwinning resulting from dislocation activity as two of the mechanisms contributing to the macroscopic deformation. Depending on the initial twin density, the samples behaved differently. For low initial twin densities, an increasing twin density was found during straining. On the other hand, starting from a higher twin density, the twins were depleted with increasing strain. The findings from ACOM-TEM were confirmed by results from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and from conventional and in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction (CXRD, SXRD) experiments.

One of the big challenges of the 21st century is the utilization of nanotechnology for energy technology. Nanoscale structures may provide novel functionality, which has been demonstrated most convincingly by successful applications such as dye-sensitized solar cells introduced by M. Grätzel. Applications in energy technology are based on the transfer and conversion of energy. Following the example of photosynthesis, this requires a combination of light harvesting, transfer of energy to a reaction center, and conversion to other forms of energy by charge separation and transfer. This may be achieved by utilizing hybrid nanostructures, which combine metallic and nonmetallic components. Metallic nanostructures can interact strongly with light. Plasmonic excitations of such structures can cause local enhancement of the electrical field, which has been utilized in spectroscopy for many years. On the other hand, the excited states in metallic structures decay over very short lifetimes. Longer lifetimes of excited states occur in nonmetallic nanostructures, which makes them attractive for further energy transfer before recombination or relaxation sets in. Therefore, the combination of metallic nanostructures with nonmetallic materials is of great interest. We report investigations of hybrid nanostructured model systems that consist of a combination of metallic nanoantennas (fabricated by nanosphere lithography, NSL) and oxide nanoparticles. The oxide particles were doped with rare-earth (RE) ions, which show a large shift between absorption and emission wavelengths, allowing us to investigate the energy-transfer processes in detail. The main focus is on TiO2 nanoparticles doped with Eu3+, since the material is interesting for applications such as the generation of hydrogen by photocatalytic splitting of water molecules. We use high-resolution techniques such as confocal fluorescence microscopy for the investigation of energy-transfer processes. The experiments are supported by simulations of the electromagnetic field enhancement in the vicinity of well-defined nanoantennas. The results show that the presence of the nanoparticle layer can modify the field enhancement significantly. In addition, we find that the fluorescent intensities observed in the experiments are affected by agglomeration of the nanoparticles. In order to further elucidate the possible influence of agglomeration and quenching effects in the vicinity of the nanoantennas, we have used a commercial organic pigment containing Eu, which exhibits an extremely narrow particle size distribution and no significant agglomeration. We demonstrate that quenching of the Eu fluorescence can be suppressed by covering the nanoantennas with a 10 nm thick SiOx layer.

The effect of depositing FeO nanoparticles with a diameter of 10 nm onto the surface of MgB2 thin films on the critical current density was studied in comparison with the case of uncoated MgB2 thin films. We calculated the superconducting critical current densities (Jc) from the magnetization hysteresis (M–H) curves for both sets of samples and found that the Jc value of FeO-coated films is higher at all fields and temperatures than the Jc value for uncoated films, and that it decreases to ~105 A/cm2 at B = 1 T and T = 20 K and remains approximately constant at higher fields up to 7 T.