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In this paper, we combine the atomic layer deposition synthesis method of inverse opal with the hydrothermal growth of nanorods. From 460 nm polystyrene nanospheres opal crystals were produced using vertical deposition on Si wafers. The opal templates were covered with ZnO by atomic layer deposition. High temperature annealing was used to remove the polystyrene nanospheres to obtain the inverse opal structure. For the hydrothermal growth of ZnO nanorods, two production routes were analysed: hydrothermal reaction before and after the removal of the template. The two paths produced two distinct structures, one with plate like formations and one with nanorods, respectively. Also, the sample modified by the hydrothermal growth after the annealing showed slight differences in optical properties compared to the regular inverse opal. Morphology, composition and structure of the samples were explored using SEM, EDX and XRD. Optical properties were investigated with reflectance UV–Vis spectroscopy. Thermal stability of the polystyrene opal was determined using TG.

Interface induced diffusion had been identified in a thin film system damaged by electron bombardment. This new phenomenon was observed in Al2O3 (some nm thick)/Si substrate system, which was subjected to low energy (5 keV) electron bombardment producing defects in the Al2O3 layer. The defects produced partially relaxed. The rate of relaxation is, however, was different in the vicinity of the interface and in the "bulk" parts of the Al2O3 layer. This difference creates an oxygen concentration gradient and consequently oxygen diffusion, resulting in an altered layer which grows from the Al2O3/Si substrate interface. The relative rate of the diffusion and relaxation is strongly temperature dependent, resulting in various altered layer compositions, SiO2 (at room temperature), Al2O3 + AlOx + Si (at 500 °C), Al2O3 + Si (at 700 °C), as the temperature during irradiation varies. Utilizing this finding it is possible to produce area selective interface patterning.

Carbon nanospheres (CNSs) were prepared by hydrothermal synthesis, and coated with TiO2 and ZnO nanofilms by atomic layer deposition. Subsequently, through burning out the carbon core templates hollow metal oxide nanospheres were obtained. The substrates, the carbon-metal oxide composites and the hollow nanospheres were characterized with TG/DTA-MS, FTIR, Raman, XRD, SEM-EDX, TEM-SAED and their photocatalytic activity was also investigated. The results indicate that CNSs are not beneficial for photocatalysis, but the crystalline hollow metal oxide nanospheres have considerable photocatalytic activity.

Diffusion on the nano/atomic scales in multilayers, thin films has many challenging features even if the role of structural defects (grain-boundaries, dislocations, etc.) can be neglected and 'only' the effects related to the nano/atomic scale raise. This can be the case for diffusion in amorphous materials, in epitaxial, highly ideal thin films, or multilayers where diffusion along short circuits can be ignored and 'only' fundamental difficulties related to nanoscale effects are important. The objective of this article is to review some interesting fundamental experimental and theoretical results in the field of nanoscale volume diffusion in planar and spherical geometries.

FINEMET-type (Fe75Si15NbBCu) ribbons were heat treated, and their magnetic properties were analyzed. Permeability, thermal, and mechanical sensitivities were measured by commonly used industrial methods, and these properties were correlated with measured magnetic Barkhausen noise parameters. Distributions of peak area, A, and peak noise energy, E, were evaluated. Distribution functions of noise parameters, P(x), were in good agreement with the theory of self-organized criticality (SOC), satisfying power laws in the form P(x)∼x−α. It is found that the noise did not considerably depend on the temperature sensitivity parameter and on the permeability of ribbons. However, a useful correlation between the noise parameters and mechanical sensitivity has been observed. Minimal noise was detected for samples with negligible mechanical sensitivity in an amorphous-nanocrystalline composite state obtained by a heat treatment at 853 K.

A study is presented of the structural changes occurring as a function of the annealing conditions in hydrogenated amorphous Si/Ge multilayers prepared by sputtering. Annealing changes the structure of the as-deposited multilayer except for the less severe conditions here applied (150 oC, time

It was shown very recently that diffusion nonlinearity, caused by the strong composition dependence of diffusion coefficients, can lead to surprising effects on the nanoscale: a nonparabolic shift of interfaces (both in ideal and phase separating systems) and sharpening of an initially diffuse interface in ideal systems. Some of these can not be interpreted even qualitatively from Fick’s classic equations. For instance, the nonparabolic shift of an interface at the very beginning is a consequence of the violation of Fick’s first equation on the nanoscale, and the transition from this to the classic parabolic behavior depends on the strength of the nonlinearity and the value of the solid solution parameter V (proportional to the heat of mixing). Experimental and theoretical efforts to explore the above phenomena are summarized in this paper.