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29th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1959-1962, Diffused emitters have shown their limitations in the way to achieve high efficiency solar cells especially as a result of difficulties to make thin and sharp junctions. Epitaxial emitters are a good solution to tackle these drawbacks, but so far no solar cells have even reached diffused emitters solar cells efficiency in spite of better potential. However most of suggested processes used for this application are based on APCVD or LPCVD. These high temperature processes induce thermal stress in the c-Si wafer and as a consequence carriers lifetime strongly decreases. We describe here how to perform low temperature (~200 °C) epitaxy by standard RF-PECVD from SiF4/H2/Ar mixtures. By studying process parameters such as H2 depletion in the plasma and ion bombardment energy, we are able to optimize the process conditions to perform epitaxy. Crystalline thin films have been characterized by in situ and ex situ ellipsometry, then TEM and electron diffraction have been used to assess ellipsometry measurement, revealing an epitaxy with good structural properties. Further work is under way to characterize the electronic properties and to dope these epi-layers.

The coagulation system plays a major role in the formation of the infected endocardial vegetation in bacterial endocarditis. Since monocytes can express tissue factor (TF) on their surfaces, they are thought to be responsible for the extrinsic activation of the coagulation cascade during this disease. The present study used an in vitro model in which fibrin plates, isolated adherent monocytes, and Streptococcus sanguis were used as an analog for endocardial vegetations. Adherence to fibrin by itself was found to stimulate TF expression on the monocytes, but stimulation by S. sanguis significantly increased TF expression, which was found to be maximal at a bacterium-to-monocyte ratio of 9 or more.

International audience

International audience; Epitaxial SrTiO3 (STO)/Si templates open a unique opportunity for the integration of ferroelectric oxides, such as BaTiO3 on silicon and for the realization of new devices exploiting ferroelectricity. STO itself has been shown as ferroelectric at room temperature when deposited in thin layers on Si, while bulk STO is tetragonal and, thus, ferroelectric below 105 K. Here, we demonstrate the coexistence, at room temperature, of strained cubic and tetragonal phases in thin STO/Si layers. The tetragonal STO phase presents a pronounced tetragonality for thicknesses up to 24 ML. Above this thickness, the strained cubic STO phase starts relaxing while the tetragonal STO phase progressively transits to cubic STO. The origin of the simultaneous formation of these two phases is analyzed and is attributed to oxygen segregation at the early stages of the growth.

8 pages; International audience; Vertically aligned multi-walled carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition with Ni catalysts on the top of nanofibers. Transmission electron microscopy was used to study the morphology and crystallography of Ni catalysts, which are essential for the nucleation and growth of CNFs. A model for the faceted shape of Ni catalytic particles is proposed. It is shown that the exposed polyhedral surfaces of Ni catalytic particles for vertically aligned CNFs are composed of {111}, {110}, and {100}, a faceting that appears to be characteristic of the growth atmosphere.

International audience; Using a low-temperature conductive-tip atomic force microscope in cross-section geometry we have characterized the local transport properties of the metallic electron gas that forms at the interface between LaAlO3 and SrTiO3. At low temperature, we find that the carriers do not spread away from the interface but are confined within ∼10 nm, just like at room temperature. Simulations taking into account both the large temperature and electric-field dependence of the permittivity of SrTiO3 predict a confinement over a few nm for sheet carrier densities larger than ∼6×1013 cm−2. We discuss the experimental and simulations results in terms of a multiband carrier system. Remarkably, the Fermi wavelength estimated from Hall measurements is ∼16 nm, indicating that the electron gas in on the verge of two dimensionality.

Monocytes are important effector cells in the pathogenesis of bacterial endocarditis since they provide the tissue factor that activates the coagulation system and maintains established vegetations. Monocytes secrete cytokines that can modulate monocyte tissue factor activity (TFA), thereby affecting the formation and maintenance of vegetations. In this study, we show that monocytes cultured for 4 h on aStreptococcus sanguis-infected fibrin matrix mimicking the in vivo vegetational surface express high levels of TFA. This was accompanied by secretion of the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1α (IL-1α), and IL-1β. After a 24-h incubation period the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 could also be detected. Our data show that, whereas TNF-α and IL-1 have a minor role in the induction of TFA by monocytes cultured on a fibrin matrix, TNF-α but not IL-1 plays an important role in the induction of IL-10 by these cells. In turn, our data show that IL-10 is an important factor in the downregulation of monocyte TFA. In summary, we conclude that IL-10 is an important factor in the control of monocyte TFA in endocardial vegetations.

In the pathogenesis of bacterial endocarditis (BE), the clotting system plays a cardinal role in the formation and maintenance of the endocardial vegetations. The extrinsic pathway is involved in the activation of the coagulation pathway with tissue factor (TF) as the key protein. Staphylococcus aureus is a frequently isolated bacterium from patients with BE. We therefore investigated whether S. aureus can induce TF activity (TFA) on fibrin-adherent monocytes, used as an in vitro model of BE. We also assessed in vivo in rabbits with catheter induced vegetations, the effect of S. aureus infection on vegetational TFA. In vitro experiments showed that adherent S. aureus induced TFA on fibrin-adherent monocytes which was optimal at a bacterium/monocyte ratio of 1 to 1. Monocyte damage occurred when this ratio exceeded 4 to 1 (visually) or 6 to 1 (propidium iodide influx) Consequently, TFA decreased. In vivo S. aureus led to very high bacterial numbers in the vegetations and a significant increase of their weight. However, TFA of infected vegetations was the same as of sterile ones. This may be due to the high bacteria to monocyte ratio as well as bacterium-induced monocyte damage. Teicoplanin treatment of infected rabbits reduced bacterial numbers in the blood and in the vegetations. Two-day treatment resulted in an increase of vegetational TFA, but after four-day treatment vegetational TFA dropped, most probably due to a suboptimal bacterium/monocyte ratio. S. aureus endocarditis in etoposide (Vepesid)-treated rabbits, leading to a selective monocytopenia, caused a rapid death of the animals. In these rabbits no vegetations were found at all. We conclude that, like Streptococcus sanguis and Staphylococcus epidermidis , S. aureus is able to induce TFA in fibrin-adherent blood monocytes. In addition, monocytes have a protective effect during the course of S. aureus endocarditis.

The endocardial vegetation which is formed in the course of bacterial endocarditis (BE) contains tissue factor (TF)-dependent procoagulant activity. Earlier studies showed that monocytes are the main source of TF in the vegetations. The TF activity (TFA) of vegetations isolated from Streptococcus sanguis -infected rabbits depended on the numbers of bacteria as well as monocytes in the vegetation. In this study, we investigated whether for Staphylococcus epidermidis , a frequent pathogen in BE, an effect similar to that found for S. sanguis could be shown. In vitro, S. epidermidis was found to stimulate TFA of fibrin adherent monocytes significantly. This stimulation was maximal at a bacterium-to-monocyte ratio of 7. In vivo, TFA was found to be significantly higher in S. epidermidis -infected than in sterile catheter-induced vegetations. Reduction of vegetational bacterial numbers by teicoplanin treatment lead to a small but significant decrease of TFA. Reduction of monocyte numbers by etoposide did not affect vegetational TFA. Comparison of data for S. epidermidis and S. sanguis revealed that at equivalent bacterial numbers, vegetational TFAs were approximately the same for both microorganisms. Combining the results of the present study with those of a previous study using S. sanguis , we conclude that the main factor determining monocyte-dependent vegetational TFA is the number of vegetation-associated bacteria. The lower TFA found for S. epidermidis -infected than for S. sanguis -infected vegetations can be explained by the significantly lower bacterial numbers in the infected vegetations and consequently a lower stimulation of vegetation-associated monocytes.