Search

Rare earth elements (REEs) as Dysprosium (Dy) are critical elements for the fabrication of components in many green energy technologies, from electric vehicles to wind turbines. Consequently, there is an increasing interest in creating sustainable and effective materials for the recovery and recycling of these elements. Zeolite materials have demonstrated a high affinity and selectivity for REEs. Thus, this paper aims to study the use of a synthetic LTA zeolite functionalized with nanomagnetite for Dy absorption, including a complete characterization of the synthetic zeolite, the kinetics and the factors affecting the adsorption efficiency. The maximum adsorption capacity reaches a value around 35 mg of Dy per gram of zeolite. The results from the adsorption isotherms and kinetic study revealed a good agreement with both Langmuir and Temkin models and pseudo-second-order kinetics. Furthermore, the thermodynamic analysis suggests that the adsorption of Dy onto the zeolite is a spontaneous and favorable process. The findings from this work could provide insights into the design and optimization of zeolite-based processes for REE recovery and recycling, contributing to the development of a more sustainable and circular economy., Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico (MITECO), Comunidad de Madrid, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

Electrodeposited nanowires are an excellent scenario to study and control magnetic domain wall motion in nanostructures. In particular, the introduction of local changes in composition during the growth procedure has been proven to be very efficient for controlling the magnetization dynamics. In this work, we show the possibility of introducing compositional gradients in FeNi electrodeposited nanowires by gradually changing the Fe/Ni ratio along their axis. These compositional gradients produce an asymmetrical landscape for domain wall motion which is reflected in asymmetrical magnetization processes under an applied magnetic field. By studying nanowires with different compositional gradients we were able to correlate composition and magnetic asymmetry. Our results pave the way towards full control of the movement of domain walls along the nanowires., Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Comunidad de Madrid, Unión Europea, Fundación Alexander von Humboldt, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

El texto completo de este trabajo no se encuentra disponible por no haber sido facilitado aún por su autor, por restricciones de copyright, o por no existir una versión digital, Novel transparent semiconducting oxides have emerged as key materials for a variety of optoelectronic applications due to their ultra-wide band gap. Owing to the critical role of native defects and impurities in the optoelectronical properties, investigation in detail of the electronic structure of these oxides has become a challenge, being luminescence technique a powerful way to gain insight into the electronic levels. Here, the photoluminescence temperature dependence of Li doped Zn2GeO4 microrods is analysed and discussed in the framework of the electronic levels structure related to native defects and Li impurities. Unlike the undoped material, the blue emission (2.8 eV) of Li-doped germanate exhibits a negative thermal quenching as its photoluminescence intensity increases with increasing temperature. The mechanisms underlying this anomalous behaviour are discussed with the aid of X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and first principles calculations. This study has helped us to understand the role of Li in the electronic structure and optical response of Zn2GeO4. Our results highlight the versatility of Zn2GeO4 luminescence through Li doping, which could be exploited in optoelectronic devices with bespoke properties., Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

2023 Acuerdos transformativos CRUE, The identification of the active phase of a catalyst under operando conditions is probably the most relevant task in basic catalysis research. In this respect, the Ru(0001) surface during CO oxidation is a traditional studied model, for both its importance in applied catalysis and for its peculiar behavior. In this work, we study the CO catalytic oxidation reaction on flat and defective Ru(0001) surfaces, concluding that the highest activity is achieved in oxidizing conditions when a disordered and thin Ru oxide is formed at the surface. Also, we find that in defective surfaces, with a high density of surface steps, this reaction is enhanced, related to the facile sub-surface incorporation of atomic oxygen and to the easier formation of the oxide. Thus, the CO catalytic oxidation on Ru(0001) is a structure-sensitive reaction, being active on the surface of the oxide formed in reaction conditions., Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© 1996 Published by Elsevier B.V. The author thanks E. Maciá, A. Sánchez and V. Malyshev for helpful comments. This work is supported by CICYT through project MAT95-0325., We consider exciton optical absorption in quasiperiodic lattices, focusing our attention on the Fibonacci case as a typical example. The absorption spectrum is evaluated by solving numerically the equation of motion of the Frenkel-exciton problem on the lattice, in which on-site energies take on two values according to the Fibonacci sequence. We find that the quasiperiodic order causes the occurrence of well-defined characteristic features in the absorption spectra. We also develop an analytical method that relates satellite lines with the Fourier pattern of the lattice. Our predictions can be used to determine experimentally the long-range quasiperiodic order from optical measurements., Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (CICYT), España, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© Physics Letters A. CAPES via project PPCP-Mercosul (Brazilian Research Agency) [25/2011]; CNPq (Brazilian Research Agency) [472204/2010-6]; FAPEAL (Alagoas State Research Agency) [2011.0908.011.0025.0087]; MINECO [MAT2010-17180, MAT2013-46308]., We study the electronic transport across connected quantum rings attached to leads and subjected to time-harmonic side-gate voltages. Using the Floquet formalism, we calculate the net pumped current generated and controlled by the side-gate voltage. The control of the current is achieved by varying the phase shift between the two side-gate voltages as well as the Fermi energy. In particular, the maximum current is reached when the side-gate voltages are in quadrature. This new design based on connected quantum rings controlled without magnetic fields can be easily integrated in standard electronic devices., CAPES via project PPCP-Mercosul (Brazilian Research Agency), CNPq (Brazilian Research Agency), FAPEAL (Alagoas State Research Agency), MINECO, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© Elsevier. F. D-A. acknowledges support from UCM through project PR161/93-4811. A. S. acknowledges partial support from C.I.C. y T. (Spain) through project PB92-0248 and by the European Union Human Capital and Mobility Programme through contract ERBCHRXCT930413., We study resonant tunnelling through double-barrier structures under an applied bias voltage, in which nonlinearities due to self-interaction of electrons in the barrier regions are included. As an approximation, we concern ourselves with thin barriers simulated by delta-function potentials. This approximation allows for an analytical expression of the transmission probability through the structure. We show that the typical peaks due to resonant tunneling decrease and broaden as nonlinearity increases. The main conclusion is that nonlinear effects degrade the peak-to-valley ratio but improve the maximum operation frequency of the resonant tunnelling devices., UCM, C.I.C. y T. (Spain), European Union Human Capital and Mobility Programme, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© Elsevier. This work has been supported by UCM under project PR161/93-4811., We have numerically computed the reflectivity of X-rays incident normally onto Fibonacci multilayers, and compared the results with those obtained in periodic approximant multilayers. The constituent layers are of low and high refractive indices with the same thickness. Whereas the reflectivity of periodic approximant multilayers changes only slightly with increasing the number of layers, Fibonacci multilayers present a completely different behaviour. In particular, we have found a highly fragmented and self-similar reflectivity pattern in Fibonacci systems. The behaviour of the fragmentation pattern on increasing the number of layers is quantitatively described using multifractal techniques. We end with a brief discussion on possible practical applications of our results in the design of new X-ray devices., UCM, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. The authors thank J. M. R. Parrondo for discussions. This work was supported by MICINN (projects Mosaico and MAT2010-17180). C. G.-S. acknowledges financial support from Comunidad de Madrid and European Social Foundation., We calculate the energy levels of two particles trapped in a harmonic potential. The actual two-body potential, assumed to be spherically symmetric, is replaced by a projective operator (non-local separable potential) to determine the energy levels in a closed form. This approach overcomes the limitations of the regularized Fermi pseudopotential when the characteristic length of the two-body interaction potential is of the order of the size of the harmonic trap. In addition, we recover the results obtained with the Fermi pseudopotential when the length of the interaction is much smaller than the size of the trap., Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), Comunidad de Madrid, European Social Foundation, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©Elsevier. F. D-A. thanks the Theoretical Physics Group of the University of Warwick for the warm hospitality and the Spanish Ministry of Education (grant PRX14/00129). This work was supported by MINECO (project MAT2013-46308). A. V. M. was partially supported by CAPES (grant PVE-A121)., We study electronic transport in systems comprising square graphene nanorings with a ferromagnetic insulator layer on top of them. The rings are connected symmetrically or asymmetrically to contacts. The proximity exchange interaction of electrons with agnetic ions results in spin-dependent transport properties. When a nanoring is connected asymmetrically, the occurrence of Fano-like antiresonances in the transmission coefficient can induce abrupt changes in the spin polarisation under minute variations of the Fermi energy. We also demonstrate that the spin polarization can be efficiently controlled by a side-gate voltage. This opens a possibility to use these effects for fabricating tunable sources of polarised electrons., Spanish Ministry of Education, MINECO, CAPES, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© Elsevier B.V. or its licensors or contributors. We are very thankful to Paco Padilla and Alan R. Bishop for useful discussions. This work is supported from CICYT (Spain) through project No. MAT95-0325., We introduce a model of a nonlinear double-barrier structure to describe in a simple way the effects of electron-electron scattering while remaining analytically tractable. The model is based on a generalized effective-mass equation where a nonlinear local field interaction is introduced to account for those inelastic scattering phenomena. Resonance peaks seen in the transmission coefficient spectra for the linear case appear shifted to higher energies depending on the magnitude of the nonlinear coupling. Our results are in good agreement with self-consistent solutions of the Schrodinger and Poisson equations. The calculation procedure is seen to be very fast, which makes our technique a good candidate for a rapid approximate analysis of these structures., Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (CICYT), España, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Work in Madrid was supported by MICINN (project MAT2010- 17180). R.P.A. Lima would like to thank CAPES via project PPCPMercosul, CNPq, and FINEP (Brazilian Research Agencies) as well as FAPEAL (Alagoas State Research Agency) for partial financial support., We study theoretically the level shift of the Dirac oscillator perturbed by any sharply peaked potential approaching a surface delta potential. A Green function method is used to obtain closed expressions for all partial waves and parities., MICINN, CAPES (Brazilian Research Agency), FINEP (Brazilian Research Agency), FAPEAL (Alagoas State Research Agency), CNPq (Brazilian Research Agency), Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© Elsevier. The authors thank Enrique Maciá and Angel Sánchez for helpful comments. This work has been supported by CICYT (Spain) under project MAT95-0325., We present a thorough study of transmission and localization properties of Fibonacci superlattices, both in flat band conditions and subject to homogeneous electric fields perpendicular to the layers. We use the transfer matrix formalism to determine the transmission coefficient and the degree of localization of the electronic states. We find that the fragmentation pattern of the electronic spectrum is strongly modified when the electric field is switched on, this effect being more noticeable as the system length increases. We relate those phenomena to field-induced localization of carriers in Fibonacci superlattices., CICYT, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Work at Alagoas was supported by CNPq-Rede Nanobioestruturas, CAPES (Brazilian research agencies) and FAPEAL (Alagoas State agency). Work at Madrid was supported by MEC (Project MOSAICO) and BSCH-UCM (Project PR34/07-15916)., We study the dynamics of an electron wave-packet in a two-dimensional square lattice with an aperiodic site potential in the presence of an external uniform electric field. The aperiodicity is described by epsilon(m) = V cos(pi alpha m(x)(nu x)) cos(pi alpha m(y)(nu y)) at lattice sites (m(x),m(y)), with pi alpha being a rational number, and v(x) and v(y) tunable parameters. controlling the aperiodicity. Using an exact diagonalization procedure and a finite-size scaling analysis, we show that in the weakly aperiodic regime (nu(x), nu(y) < 1), a phase of extended states emerges in the center of the band at zero field giving support to a macroscopic conductivity in the thermodynamic limit. Turning on the field gives rise to Bloch oscillations of the electron wave-packet. The spectral density of these oscillations may display a double peak structure signaling the spatial anisotropy of the potential landscape. The frequency of the oscillations can be understood using a semi-classical approach., CNPq-Rede Nanobioestruturas, CAPES, FAPEAL, MEC, BSCH-UCM, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© Elsevier. This work was supported by MICINN (projects MAT2010-17180 and MOSAICO). C. H. acknowledges financial support by MEC (Program Becas de Colaboración)., Recently, polarons in the Peyrard-Bishop-Holstein model under DC electric fields were established to perform Bloch oscillations, provided the charge-lattice coupling is not large. In this work, we study this model when the charge is subjected to an applied field with both DC and AC components. Similarly to what happens in the rigid lattice, we find that the carrier undergoes a directed motion or coherent oscillations when the AC field is resonant or detuned with respect to the Bloch frequency, respectively. The electric density current and its Fourier spectrum are also studied to reveal the frequencies involved in the polaron dynamics., MICINN, MEC, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. E. D. thanks to Antti-Pekka Jauho illuminating conversations and his warm hospitality at Mikroelektronik Centret where this paper was written in part. Work at Leganés and Madrid is supported by CICYT (Spain) under projects and DGES PB96-0119. E. D. gratefully acknowledges partial support from Fundación Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. G. P. B. gratefully acknowledges partial support by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, We investigate the coherent dynamics of carriers in semiconductor superlattices driven by ac-dc electric fields. We solve numerically the time-dependent effective-mass equation for the envelope function. We find that carriers undergo Rabi oscillations when the driving frequency is close to the separation between minibands., CICYT, Fundación Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. This work was supported by MEC (Project MOSAICO) and BSCH-UCM (Project PR34/07-15916). C.G.-S. acknowledges financial support from Comunidad de Madrid and European Social Foundation., We analyze the exciton states in a quantum wire under intense laser radiation. Electrons and holes are confined by the parabolic potential of the quantum wire. An exactly solvable model is introduced for calculating the exciton binding energy, replacing the actual Coulomb interaction between the electron and the hole by a projective operator., MEC, BSCH-UCM, Comunidad de Madrid, European Social Foundation, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© Elsevier. The author thanks A. Sánchez for a critical reading of the manuscript. This work is supported by DGICYT (Spain) under project MAT95-0325., We theoretically study electronic states in graded-gap junctions of IV-VI compounds with band inversion. Using a two-band model within the k . p approximation and assuming that the gap and the gap centre present linear profiles, we demonstrate the existence of a set of localized states along the growth direction with a discrete energy spectrum. The envelope functions are found to be a combination of harmonic oscillator eigenfunctions, and the corresponding energy levels are proportional to the square root of the quantum number. The level spacing can be directly controlled by varying the structure thickness., DGICYT (Spain), Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. This work was supported by MICINN (projects MAT2010-17180 and FIS2009-07880), JCYL (project SA226U13) and USAL (project KBBB). C.G.-S. acknowledges financial upport from Comunidad de Madrid and European Social Foundation., We study the scattering of massless Dirac particles by oscillating barriers in one dimension. Using the Floquet theory, we find the exact scattering amplitudes for time-harmonic barriers of arbitrary shape. In all cases the scattering amplitudes are found to be independent of the energy of the incoming particle and the transmission coefficient is unity. This is a manifestation of the Klein tunneling in time-harmonic potentials. Remarkably, the transmission amplitudes for arbitrary sharply-peaked potehtials also become independent of the driving frequency. Conditions for which barriers of finite width can be replaced by sharply-peaked potentials are discussed., Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), JCYL, USAL, Comunidad de Madrid, European Social Foundation, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. The author thanks V. Malyshev and A. Rodr´ıguez for helpful discussions. This work is supported by Comunidad de Madrid under Project 07N/0034/98., We present a model for a class of random binary lattices by introducing a one-dimensional system where impurities are placed in one sublattice while host atoms lie on the other sublattice. The source of disorder is the stochastic fluctuation of the impurity energy from site to site. We study the optical absorption spectra and the peculiarities of the motional narrowing effect at the band edges for perturbative and nonperturbative degrees of disorder. Analytical results agree well with numerical simulations., Comunidad de Madrid, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Work at Madrid was supported by MINECO (projects MAT2010-17180 and MAT2013-46308). F Domínguez- Adame thanks the Theoretical Physics Group of the University of Warwick for the warm hospitality during the sabbatical leave. P Orellana acknowledges support from FONDECYT (grant 114057), DGIP/USM (internal grant 11.14.68) and CONICYT ACT 1204., We investigate the nonequilibrium transport properties of a coupled quantum dot system connected in parallel to two leads, including electron-vibron interaction. It is known that in the absence of interaction the system supports a bound state in the continuum. This state is revealed as a Fano antiresonance in the transmission when the energy levels of the dots are detuned. Using the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green's function formalism, we find that the occurrence of the Fano antiresonance arises even if the electronvibration interaction is taken into account. We also examine the impact of the coupling to the leads in the linear response of the system. We conclude that the existence of bound states in the continuum in coupled quantum dot systems is a robust phenomenon, opening the possibility of its observation in experiments., MINECO, MEC, FONDECYT, DGIP/USM, CONICYT ACT, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

A toy model of two dimensional nanoindentation in finite crystals is proposed. The crystal is described by periodized discrete elasticity whereas the indenter is a rigid strain field of triangular shape representing a hard knife-like indenter. Analysis of the model shows that there are a number of discontinuities in the load vs penetration depth plot which correspond to the creation of dislocation loops. The stress vs depth bifurcation diagram of the model reveals multistable stationary solutions that appear as the dislocation-free branch of solutions develops turning points for increasing stress. Dynamical simulations show that an increment of the applied load leads to nucleation of dislocation loops below the nanoindenter tip. Such dislocations travel inside the bulk of the crystal and accommodate at a certain depth in the sample. In agreement with experiments, hysteresis is observed if the stress is decreased after the first dislocation loop is created. Critical stress values for loop creation and their final location at equilibrium are calculated., Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid, Depto. de Análisis Matemático y Matemática Aplicada, Fac. de Ciencias Matemáticas, TRUE, pub

Few-layered mesoporous graphene (FLMG) is employed as a sensing material to develop an innovative and high-sensitivity room temperature NO_(2) sensor through a simple manufacturing process. For this purpose, sensing material is optimized at 100 min by a high-energy milling process where natural graphite is used as a precursor: it is an inexpensive, sustainable and suitable active material. The large number of defects created and the enhanced degree of mesoporosity produced during the milling process determine the physical principles of operation of the designed device. NO_(2) gas sensing tests reveal an improved and selective performance with a change in resistance of ∼16 % at 0.5 ppm under ultraviolet photo-activation, establishing a detection limit around ∼25 ppb. Interestingly, the response of the developed sensor to humidity is independent in the measured range (0–33 % relative humidity at 25 °C) and the dependency to the presence of NH3 is rather poor as well (∼1.5 % at 50 ppm)., Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (Unión Europea), Comunidad de Madrid, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, Instituto de Magnetismo Aplicado (IMA), TRUE, pub

CRUE-CSIC (Acuerdos Transformativos 2022), Au/SiO2 SBA-15 materials were prepared using supercritical CO2 (scCO2) and by wet impregnation. First, SiO2 SBA-15 was functionalized with thiol groups at different grafting densities using 3-(Mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane dissolved in scCO2. The support was then impregnated with HAuCl4·3H2O in scCO2 modified with EtOH. Wet impregnation of the supports with HAuCl4·3H2O in ethanol was also performed. Materials were calcined at 500 ºC to remove the organic matter and promote particle growth. Materials prepared on the highest thiol grafting density support showed Au NP between 2.5-5 nm homogeneously distributed within the mesopores. Slightly larger Au NPs were obtained in scCO2 modified with EtOH. Materials prepared on the low thiol grafting density support showed a bimodal particle size distribution with particles up to 7 nm located inside the mesopores and larger ones of 10-20 nm on the external surface. A possible reaction mechanism was proposed. These materials can be used in catalysis, sensing and biomedicine., Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), Depto. de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Depto. de Ingeniería Química y de Materiales, Depto. de Química Física, Fac. de Ciencias Químicas, TRUE, pub

CRUE-CSIC (Acuerdos Transformativos 2022) © 2022 The Author(s). Author A. P. received funding from grant PRE2019-0875001234, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCI), Spain. D. M. received funding from Comfuturo, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain. Authors A. P., D. M., D. O., P. M., and M- C. H. received funding from projects RTI2018-095856-B-C21 and –C22, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain. A. P. and P. M. received funding S2018/ NMT-4321, Comunidad de Madrid. J. L.-S. received funding from project PID2020-114192RB-C41, Ministerio de Asuntos Económicos y Transformación Digital (MINECO)., Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a potential hazard to human health at low concentrations, below one part per million (ppm). NO2 can be monitored using gas sensors based on multi-layered graphene operating at ambient temperature. However, reliable detection of concentrations on the order of parts per million and lower is hindered by partial recovery and lack of reproducibility of the sensors after exposure. We show how to overcome these longstanding problems using ultraviolet (UV) light. When exposed to NO2, the sensor response is enhanced by 290 % − 550 % under a 275 nm wavelength light emitting diode irradiation. Furthermore, the sensor’s initial state is completely restored after exposure to the target gas. UV irradiation at 68 W/m2 reduces the NO2 detection limit to 30 parts per billion (ppb) at room temperature. We investigated sensor performance optimization for UV irradiation with different power densities and target gases, such as carbon oxide and ammonia. Improved sensitivity, recovery, and reproducibility of UV-assisted graphene-based gas sensors make them suitable for widespread environmental applications., Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), Ministerio de Asuntos Económicos y Transformación Digital (MINECO), Comunidad de Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This research has been supported by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of Spain (PID2019-105325RB-C33/AEI/10.13039/ 501100011033) and by the Regional Government of Madrid through the program TECHNOFUSI´ON(III)CM (S2018/EMT-4437), project cofinancing with Structural Funds (ERDF and ESF). The support of the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid-Spain) through the Multi-annual Agreement with UC3M ( Excellence of University Professors – EPUC3M14 and in the context of the V PRICIT - Regional Programme of Research and Technological Innovation) is also acknowledge., The microstructure, thermal stability, and mechanical properties of a novel Cr_35Fe_35V_16.5Mo_6Ti_7.5 high-entropy alloy were studied. The mechanical properties were mapped by nanoindentation, and the results correlated with the microstructure and the Vickers microhardness measurements. The alloy was produced by arc melting in a low pressure He atmosphere. Thermal treatments were performed to study the thermal stability of the alloy. The as-cast microstructure of the alloy exhibited a body-centered cubic phase with morphology of dendrites, outlined by a very thin interdendritic phase with a crystallographic structure compatible with Fe_2Ti. The presence of the intermetallic particles was predicted by a free-energy based model, in contrast with the single solid solution alloy predicted by a parameter-based model. The volume fraction of the dendrites in the alloy is -94 % after arc melting. A small fraction of sparse Ti-rich particles, -0.4 vol%, was observed. The thermal treatments produced an increase of the population of Ti-rich particles, the formation of a sigma-phase and nucleation of precipitates enriched with Fe and Ti into the previous dendrites. The material in as-cast condition exhibited a microhardness value of 6.2 +-0.3 GPa, while the alloy aged at 960 ºC resulted in 7.1 +-0.4 GPa. Nanoindentations maps showed an excellent correlation with the microstructure, and their statistical analyses yielded a nanohardness mean value of 8.2 +-0.4 GPa in the dendritic BCC regions of the as-cast and thermal treated samples and 14.1 +-0.6 GPa for the sigma-phase. The onset of the plastic behavior has been studied by analyzing the pop-in phenomenon observed in the nanoindentation loading curves. For the as-cast alloy, this analysis showed that the elastic-to-plastic transition seems to be triggered by dislocation nucleation. The alloy has a low thermal diffusivity in the measured temperature range that increases on increasing temperature., Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), Comunidad de Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid / Universidad Carlos III, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

CRUE-CSIC (Acuerdos Transformativos 2022) © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This work has been supported by the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid- Spain) under the Multiannual Agreement with Complutense University in the line Program to Stimulate Research for Young Doctors in the context of the V PRICIT (Regional Programme of Research and Technological Innovation): Project PR65/19–22459. We thank to Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/ 501100011033) for granting the projects PID2020-112848RB-C21 and RTI2018-094550-A-I00. We also wish to express our gratitude to the ILL and CNME technical staff for providing the facilities for neutron poder diffraction experiment and SEM, respectively., Perovskite La_0.3Ca_0.7Fe_0.7Cr_0.3O_(3-delta) (LCFCr) is a mixed ionic and electronic conductor (MIEC) that can be employed as an electrode material in reversible solid oxide fuel cells (RSOFCs). In this work, an ultra-fast (15 min) one-step microwave (MW)-assisted combustion synthesis route has been developed to obtain phase pure and highly crystalline LCFCr powder. The synthesized powders exhibited a sponge-like microstructure with increased electrochemical reaction sites. Neutron thermodiffraction analysis revealed a structural transition above 500 degrees C from the room temperature (RT) orthorhombic Pnma to a rhombohedral R3c perovskite phase. The oxygen vacancy concentration was found to increase from delta = 0.272(7) at RT to delta = 0.333(5) at 900 degrees C. Furthermore, a 3-dimensional G-type antiferromagnetic structure was detected at RT. MW-sintering of pressed green ceramic pellets was carried out at 950 degrees C for 1 h, using a MW-transparent quartz fiber crucible or alternatively a SiC crucible acting as a MW-absorber. Impedance spectroscopy data on sintered ceramic pellets revealed electronic inhomogeneity as demonstrated by the occurrence of three dielectric relaxation processes associated with two grain boundary (GB)-like contributions and one bulk. The dielectric inhomogeneity encountered may be restricted to the extrinsic GB areas, which may be rather thin. More homogeneous dielectric properties of the GBs were found in the pellet that was sintered in the SiC crucible., Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) / FEDER, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), Comunidad de Madrid / Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Depto. de Física de Materiales, Depto. de Química Inorgánica, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, Fac. de Ciencias Químicas, TRUE, pub

CRUE-CSIC (Acuerdos Transformativos 2022) ©2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This work has been supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MCINN), Spain, through the projects: MAT2015-65445-C2-1-R, MAT2017-86450-C4-1-R, MAT2015-67557-C2-1-P, RTI2018-095856-B-C21, RTI2018-095303-A-C52, PIE: 2021-60-E-030, PIE: 2010-6-OE-013; and Comunidad de Madrid, Spain, by S2013/MIT-2850 NANOFRONTMAG and S2018/NMT-4321 NANOMAGCOST. The authors are also grateful for the electron mi-croscopy characterization performed in the Centro Nacional de Microscopia Electronica at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ICTS ELECMI, UCM) , support from MCINN grant #RTI2018-097895-B-43. C.G.-M. acknowledges the financial support from MICINN through the "Juan de la Cierva" Program (FJC2018-035532-I)., Fe_3C/few-layered graphene core/shell nanoparticles embedded in a carbon matrix are synthesized by a novel two-step surfactant sol-gel strategy, where the processes of hydrolysis, polycondensation and drying take place in a one-pot. The present approach is based on the combined action of oleic acid and oleylamine, which act sterically on the precursor micelles when a densification temperature is performed in a reducing atmosphere. The structural and magnetic evolution of the formed compounds is investigated, ranging from iron oxides such as Fe_3O_4 and FeO, to the formation of pure Fe_3C/C samples from 700 degrees C onwards. Interestingly, Fe_3C nanoparticles with a size of similar to 20 nm crystallize immersed in the carbon matrix and the surrounding environment forms an oriented encapsulation built by few-layered graphene. The nanostructures show a saturation magnetization of similar to 43 emu/g and a moderate coercivity of similar to 500 Oe. Thereby, an innovative chemical route to produce single phase Fe_3C nanoparticles is described, and an effective method of few-layered graphene passivation is proposed, yielding a product with a high magnetic response and high chemical stability against environmental corrosion., Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), Comunidad de Madrid, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©2021 Elsevier The present work has been supported by the Agencia Estatal de Investigaci ' on (PID2019-105325RB-C33/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and by the Regional Government of Madrid through the program TECHNOFUSION(III)CM (S2018/EMT-4437). The support of the Regional Government of Madrid through the multi-annual agreement with UC3M ("Excelencia para el Profesorado Universitario" EPUC3M14) -Fifth regional research plan 2016-2020 is acknowledge., Dispersion strengthened copper alloys have been produced following an innovative powder metallurgy route. Copper and yttrium acetate powders have been mechanically alloyed and posteriorly thermal treated at 923 K for 3 h and 15 h under a hydrogen atmosphere in order to transform the yttrium acetate into Y_2O_3. Subsequently, the powders were consolidated by hot isostatic pressing. It has been concluded that the duration of the thermal treatment of the powder is a determining factor in the degree of densification of the alloy. The study of the microstructure by Scanning Electron Microscopy and Electron Backscatter Diffraction has revealed the presence of micrometer and submicrometer grains and nanometric Y-O enriched Cu particles embedded in the copper matrix, the mean grain size being smaller for the sample produced from the powder thermal treated for 15 h. Transmission Electron Microscopy investigations concluded that the nanoparticles exhibit a spherical shape with a size up to 25 nm and correspond to monoclinic Y_2O_3. Annealing twins have been also observed, especially in the material produced from thermal treated powder for longer. The mechanical properties have been inferred from Vickers microhardness measurements and compression tests. Below 473 K the yield strengths of the produced materials are greater than that of pure copper and above 473 K are close to them. From the study of the thermal properties of the densest material it has been found that its thermal conductivity remains nearly constant in the temperature range 300-773 K, and its value is around 85% the thermal conductivity of CuCrZr, the reference material for ITER., Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), Comunidad de Madrid, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©2020 Elsevier This work has been supported by MINECO/FEDER (MAT201565274-R)., The properties of ZnO based materials for ethanol detection have been studied. Cu doped samples obtained from different precursors have been investigated. ZnO and ZnS have been used as host and Cu and CuO as dopant sources. The sensing measurements have been mostly performed at room temperature. To monitor the effect of the presence of gas, resistivity and photoluminescence experiments with and without sensing gas have been carried out. The sensing behaviour is affected by the nature of the precursors used. For ZnO:Cu and ZnO:CuO series, a higher sensitivity is obtained at the lower gas concentrations, the better response is obtained for the sample ZnO:Cu with wt.1% of metallic copper. Strong segregation effects observed in these samples could be deleterious for the sensing properties. In the series ZnS:CuO, no segregation is observed, however the sensing behaviour is erratic and attributed to the reduction of Cu ions to the metallic state., Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO)/ FEDER, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. This work was supported by MICIN (Grant RTI2018-09195-B-I00)., Herein, we report the influence of the surface conditions on the cathodoluminescence (CL) emissions from Zn_2GeO_4 nanowires and Zn_2GeO_4/SnO_2 heterostructures obtained by thermal evaporation technique. A Zn_2GeO_4 nanowire surrounded by a discontinuous shell of SnO_2 crystals composed the Zn_2GeO_4/SnO_2 heterostructures. Local CL measurements at different acceleration voltages allow monitoring the emission bands originated at the interface region, showing an additional deep-ultraviolet (UV) emission at 4.40 eV, which has not been previously reported. CL spectra from SnO_2 coated Zn_2GeO_4 nanowires also show this deep-UV emission. The results would confirm the presence of a shallow energy level close to the conduction band, which becomes active by passivation of Zn_2GeO_4 nanowires surface by the SnO_2 coating., Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©2020 Elsevier This work has been partially supported by MINECO/FEDER (MAT2015-65274-R, MAT2016-80875-C3-3-R, MAT2013-47460-C5-5-P) and from Comunidad of Madrid: S2013/MIT-2862.; The author (G. Flores-Carrasco) kindly acknowledges the financial support of CONACYT by a Postdoctoral scholarship and the facilities given by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering of the University Carlos III of Madrid., ZnO:Ce structures have been obtained by a vapour-solid method. Different dopant concentrations have been used, and the incorporation of cerium in the crystalline structure of zinc oxide has been verified by means of Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy and Raman investigations. The morphology of the structures varies depending on the initial content of Ce in the samples, changing from long and thin rods and wires to "bottle-like" and truncated hexagonal pyramids as the Ce content increases. Cathodoluminescent properties have also been studied, the near band edge and deep level emissions change depending on both Ce content and morphology of the structures. Photocatalysis investigations show that an increase above 5 wt % of cerium oxide in the material causes a slight decrease in the efficiency of these structures in the degradation of the contaminant., Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO)/FEDER, Comunidad de Madrid, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACyT), Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©2019 Elsevier We thank CAI Difraccion de rayos-X of UCM for X-ray diffractometry measurements, and ICTS-ISOM (UPM) for using some of its facilities. This work has been financially supported through the projects MAT2015-66888-C3-3-R of the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of Spain (MINECO), and RTI2018-097895B-C43 of the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades of Spain. The Research Council of Norway is also acknowledged for the financial support to the FUNDAMeNT project (No. 251131), and the Norwegian Micro- and Nano-Fabrication Facility, NorFab project (No. 245963/F50)., The aim of this work is to explore the use of thermal oxidation for the synthesis of GaFeO_3 (GFO) thin films, by employing ex situ annealed samples comprised of sputtered Fe_72Ga_28 layers deposited on top of Ga_2O_3 [1 0 0] monocrystals. To avoid Ga evaporation, Fe_72Ga_28 were capped with 60 nm-thick Mo. No surface damaged was observed when annealed between 200 degrees C and 400 degrees C. Indications of GFO formation have been obtained by X-ray diffractometry in samples with a FeGa thickness of 560 nm annealed at 300 degrees C and 400 degrees C. The hysteresis loops exhibit a coercive field close to the reported value for GFO when annealed at 400 degrees C. All the experimental results encourage the application of this growth routine to synthetize high quality GFO thin films., Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), Research Council of Norway, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This work has been supported by the Ministerio Espanol de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades (MCIU) through the projects MAT201786540-C4-1-R, MAT2017-86540-C4-3-R and RTI2018-095303-A-C52. The European Synchrotron (ESRF), MCIU and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) are acknowledged for the provision of synchrotron radiation facilities. We also thank the BM25-SpLine staff for the technical support beyond their duties. A.S. acknowledges financial support from the Comunidad de Madrid for an "Atraccion de Talento Investigador" contract (No. 2017-t2/IND5395)., We show the efficiency in the preparation of 95% dense ZnO ceramics by cold sintering process through the incorporation of ZnO nanoparticles in the 1-10 wt% range at temperatures of 170 degrees C, pressures of 750 MPa and a pellet height/diameter ratio of 0.38. Morphological, structural and physical properties are dependent on the amount of ZnO nanoparticles incorporated into the system. After the densification by cold sintering process, ZnO ceramics show a reduction of the average valence indicating the deficiency of oxygen, similar to ceramics sintered by the conventional route. Besides, the generation of structural disorder and modifications into the ZnO lattice are identified in sintered ceramics, inducing intrinsic defects related to the loss of oxygen ions, the diffusion of zinc and zinc vacancies, which depend on the sintering process and the starting powders. These characteristics influence the final functional properties of the sintered ZnO ceramics, such as the visible photoluminescence signal., Minisiterio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), Comunidad de Madrid, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©2020 Elsevier B.V. The authors are indebted to P. Echenique, J. Hirsch, V. Golovach, A. Arnau and J. M. Rojo for many fruitful discussions. This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology and Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through Research Projects MAT2015-67557-C2-1-P, MAT2017-86450-C4-1-R S2013/MIT-2850 NANOFRONTMAG, RTI2018-095856-B-C21, by the European Commission AMPHIBIAN (H2020-NMBP-2016-720853) and by the Comunidad de Madrid S2018/NMT-4321 NANOMAGCOST-CM., It is shown that magnetic forces as the force -/+ mu(V) over barB, exerted on electron spins at rest, account for both the transverse spin imbalance typical of spin Hall effect and the transverse charge imbalance associated with pure spin currents (inverse spin Hall effect). Considering that for stationary currents the laboratory reference frame, and those for which the spin up and spin down carriers are at rest, are inertial systems one can easily find the forces exerted by the lattice on both spin sub-bands, as well as the force between sub-bands., Unión Europea. Horizonte 2020, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), Comunidad de Madrid, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license This work has been partially supported by Spanish Ministry of Economy (MINECO) and Business and European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) (Grant ID MAT 2015-65274-R) and by the Comunidad de Madrid Program MULTIMAT CHALLENGE (Grant ID S2013/MIT-2862)., Two electric-arc furnace flue dusts, a waste generated during the steel production process, were characterized and their photocatalytic activity was assessed. Chemical composition by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis identified that both dusts were principally formed by iron, zinc and chromium oxides. Structural characterization carried out by X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD), and micro-Raman measurements demonstrated that ZnFe_2O_4 (zinc ferrite), FeCr_2O_4 (chromite) and ZnO (zincite) are present in both waste dusts as majority phases. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that both dusts are formed by nanoparticles with a globular and octahedral morphology characteristic of the type of flue dusts formation and the obtained phases. Cathodoluminescence (CL) spectra show the characteristics bands of spinel structure (ZnFe_2O_4) and Fe^(3+) emission. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements indicate that Fe ions could be present in 2+ and 3+ oxidation state in the spinel structure, while zinc and chromium ions are in 2+ and 3+, respectively. In addition, the photocatalytic experiments demonstrated that the analyzed samples could be useful as photocatalyzed showing a degradation percentage above 75 %., Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) / FEDER, Comunidad de Madrid, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©2020 Elsevier This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology and Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through Research Projects MAT2015-67557-C2-1-P, MAT2017-86450-C4-1-R, S2013/MIT-2850 NANOFRONTMAG and by the European Commission AMPHIBIAN (H2020-NMBP-2016-720853)., We analyze the contribution of the inhomogeneous magnetic field induced by an electrical current to the spin Hall effect in metals. The Zeeman coupling between the field and the electron spin leads to a spin dependent force, and to spin accumulation at the edges. We compare the effect of this relativistic correction to the electron dynamics to the features induced by the spin-orbit interaction. The effect of current induced magnetic fields on the spin Hall effect can be comparable to the extrinsic contribution from the spin-orbit interaction, although it does not require the presence of heavy elements with a strong spin-orbit interaction., Unión Europea. Horizonte 2020, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), Comunidad de Madrid, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© 2020 Elsevier. Available online 8 May 2020. Symposium on Metal Oxide- and Oxyhydride-Based Nanomaterials for Energy and Environment-Related Applications of the E-MRS (2019. Varsovia) This work was financially supported by the Research Council of Norway through M-ERA.net project 272806 and by MINECO PCIN-2017-106M-ERA.net project. Authors would also like to thank IFE staff involved in HYMATSIREN project for fruitful discussions and practical help in the lab., Due to the combination of low cost materials deposition and device fabrication methods as well as competitive efficiency compared to the other Si solar cell architectures, the hybrid organic-silicon solar cells have attracted attention of the scientific community. It has recently been demonstrated that spin-coated poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (hereafter PEDOT:PSS) on a silicon wafer is a promising material due to its good optical and electrical properties. However, degradation caused by atmospheric exposure and relatively poor passivation properties limits implementation of PEDOT:PSS- silicon devices. Functionalization of PEDOT:PSS by inorganic nanoparticles might provide a possible solution as was shown for TiO_2 and SnO_2 nanoparticles. In this contribution, we present our results on spincoated PEDOT:PSS thin-films with NiO nanoparticles. We show that PEDOT:PSS mixed with Triton X-100 and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) or ethylene glycol (EG) form a homogenous film and passivates the Si surface with charge carrier lifetimes of 300-400 ms with good reproducibility. Time-resolved measurements revealed continuous degradation of the passivation properties in air, however saturation of the degradation at approximately 150 ms was observed in N_2 atmosphere. The influence of the NiO nanoparticles on the optical properties of PEDOT:PSS is negligible, whereas the surface passivation properties are worsened due probably to the formation of large size agglomerates exceeding thickness of PEDOT:PSS film., Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), Research Council of Norway/M-ERA.Net, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©2020 Elsevier We thank `CAI Difraccion de rayos-X' of UCM for XRD measurements and Instituto of Sistemas Optoelectronicos y Microtecnologia (ISOM) for using some of its facilities. This work has been financially supported through the projects MAT2015-66888-C3-3-R (MINECO/FEDER) of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and RTI2018-097895-B-C43 of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities., In this paper we present an investigation about the out of plane component of the magnetization of Ga-rich sputtered FeGa thin films. To study this magnetic component, we have used magnetometric measurements and magnetic force microscopy combined with a structural characterization by means of x-ray diffractometry. For a more profound analysis, we have examined samples in both, as-grown and annealed state. The out of plane component of the magnetization promotes a magnetic ripple observed by magnetic force microscopy in all the studied samples. To quantitatively monitor the out of plane component of the magnetization, we have used the ratio between the magnetic remanence and the maximum magnetization (M-r/Mmax), i.e. the squareness, measured in the perpendicular hysteresis loops. The experimental results indicate that the out of plane component of the magnetization is reduced upon annealing at a moderate temperature of 400 degrees C. The experimental results can be understood considering that phase coexistence is the most likely origin for the observed magnetic ripple., Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO)/ FEDER, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved This research was funded by the MINECO/FEDER/M-ERA.Net projects MAT-2015-65274-R/FEDER, RTI2018-097195-B-I00 and M-ERA.NET PCIN-2017-106. SZK, and ESM have received financial support from M-ERA.net project 272806 by the Research Council of Norway., In this work, hybrid composites formed by PEDOT:PSS (poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene):-polystyrene sulfonate) and anatase TiO_2 nanoparticles synthesized by hydrolysis were spin-coated on Si substrates in order to evaluate their potential implementation in Si-hybrid solar cells, based on their passivation behaviour. X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL), Raman spectroscopy, quasi-steady state photoconductance (QSS-PC) based on PL imaging, and Hall effect measurements were carried out for the structural, optical and electrical characterization. Enhanced carrier lifetime values of tau similar to 0.5 ms were obtained by adding a controlled amount of TiO_2 nanoparticles (0.5% wt.) to the PEDOT:PSS matrix., Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO)/ FEDER, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)/M-ERA.Net, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades (MCIU), Consejo de Investigación de Noruega/M-ERA.Net, Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

© Elsevier Ltd. Available online 26 May 2020. Symposium on Metal Oxide-and Oxyhydride-Based Nanomaterials for Energy and Environment-Related Applications of the E-MRS (2019. Varsovia), Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

©2020 Elsevier The work was supported by MINECO/FEDER/M-ERA.Net Cofund projects: MAT 2015-65274-R, RTI2018-097195-B-I00 and PCIN-2017-106., Complex patterning of surfaces commonly requires a significant effort in terms of time, cost, and advanced post-fabrication treatments design, which could be overcome by self-organization mechanisms avoiding damage to the surface materials and enhancing properties of interest. In the present work, grid self-assembled NiO complex surfaces have been fabricated assisted by Sn incorporation during growth, following thermal treatments at 1400 degrees C under a controlled Ar flow. The singular morphologies achieved enable the fabrication of robust high surface to volume ratio surfaces with a wide range of surface properties and functionalities. Based on the research performed by a set of complementary techniques, the mechanisms involved in the formation of these textured surfaces have been discussed and some of the fundamental electronic and optical properties of NiO have been analyzed, both aspects necessary to head up the potential development of applications based on this p-type material which is arousing growing attention. These singular micro- and nanostructures present high luminescence and tunable performance unusual to bulk NiO samples, which can broaden the applicability of this material to light-emitting devices. Moreover, the surface evolution depends on a controllable way on the preferential state of charge of the incorporated Sn, which could be selected through the convenient Sn-based precursor, its ratio to the metallic Ni starting precursor, and the atmosphere and duration of the fabrication treatment. Finally, in order to assess the dependence of some potential NiO-based applications on the insights achieved on the surface characterization, the gas-sensing response to ethanol from the Sn doped NiO samples was also evaluated. The study of the processes and mechanisms involved in the growth of these grid-patterned surfaces can be extended to similar oxide-based systems., Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) / FEDER, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)/M-ERA.Net, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), Depto. de Física de Materiales, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub