The present work reports on the comparative characterization of optical properties of hafnium and zirconium-based ultra-refractory ceramics at room and high temperature, in view of their possible use in novel solar receivers for thermal solar plants operating at higher temperatures. We show how porosity and surface finishing affect both the spectral reflectance and the high-temperature emittanc...

Thin hafnium oxide layers deposited by an atomic layer deposition system were investigated as the sensing membrane of the electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor structure. Moreover, a post-remote NH3 plasma treatment was proposed to replace the complicated silanization procedure for enzyme immobilization. Compared to conventional methods using chemical procedures, remote NH3 plasma treatment reduc...

AtomSim, a collection of interfaces for computational crystallography simulations, has been developed. It uses forcefield-based dynamics through physics engines such as the General Utility Lattice Program, and can be integrated into larger computational frameworks such as the Virtual Neutron Facility for processing its dynamics into scattering functions, dynamical functions etc. It is also avai...

The reduction of the equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) of the gate oxide has emerged as one of the most difficult tasks addressing future CMOS technology. In order to overcome gate tunneling, the introduction of so-called high-κ materials will be necessary [1]. Hafnium dioxide, HfO2 [2], zirconium dioxide, ZrO2 [3], and their silicates are assumed to be the most promising candidates to fulfil th...

Harrison et al. (Reports, 23 December 2005, p. 1947) proposed that plate tectonics and granites existed 4.5 billion years ago (Ga), within 70 million years of Earth's formation, based on geochemistry of >4.0 Ga detrital zircons from Australia. We highlight the large uncertainties of this claim and make the more moderate proposal that some crust formed by 4.4 Ga and oceans formed by 4.2 Ga.

The structure of triclinic disodium hafnium disilicate, Na2HfSi2O7, has been determined by laboratory powder X-ray diffraction and refined by the Rietveld refinement. The structure is a framework made of alternate layers of HfO6 octa-hedra and SiO4 tetra-hedra linked by common O atoms. Sodium atoms are located in the voids of the framework, aligned into tunnels along the [010] direction. Na2HfS...

Hafnium oxide layer was deposited on unheated silicon wafer and glass substrates at different power by using RF magnetron sputtering technique. The structural property investigated Raman spectroscopy. Moreover, HfO2 structure in monoclinic major phase especially high found from the spectra vibrational modes. In addition, oxidations state of hafnium thin films gained synchrotron-based X-ray abso...