Thick and very stable aqueous films between oil phases are obtained in systems where surfactant diffuses across the interfaces, towards the film. An osmotic pressure difference exists between the film interior and the surrounding aqueous meniscus. This is due to surfactant aggregates (micelles); it pushes the film surfaces apart, giving rise to intensive liquid circulation and exchange of mass ...

The visible light photochemical reactivity of a 50 nm thick α-Fe(2)O(3)(0001) (hematite) film on a SrTiO(3)(111) substrate is compared to the reactivities of bulk hematite and the same film supported by α-Al(2)O(3)(0001). The hematite film supported by SrTiO(3)(111) is far more reactive then the other two cases.

Thin-film electrets have been patterned with trapped charge with submicrometer resolution using a flexible, electrically conductive electrode. A poly(dimethylsiloxane) stamp, patterned in bas-relief and supporting an 80-nanometer-thick gold film, is brought into contact with an 80-nanometer-thick film of poly(methylmethacrylate) supported on n-doped silicon. A voltage pulse between the gold fil...

A 2.5 monolayer (ML) thick graphene film grown by chemical vapor deposition of thermally dissociated C(2)H(4) on MgO(111), displays a significant band gap. The apparent six-fold low energy electron diffraction (LEED) pattern actually consists of two three-fold patterns with different 'A' and 'B' site diffraction intensities. Similar effects are observed for the LEED patterns of a 1 ML carbon fi...

Two different types of lasing modes, vertical Fabry-Perot cavity and random lasing, were observed in ZnO epi-films of different thicknesses grown on Si (111) substrates. Under optical excitation at room temperature by a frequency tripled Nd:YVO₄ laser with wavelength of 355 nm, the lasing thresholds are low due to high crystalline quality of the ZnO epitaxial films, which act as microresonators...

Isotropic Nd-Fe-B thick-film magnets have been prepared using a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method with the control of laser energy density (LED) followed by post-annealing. The characteristics of the method are a high deposition rate up to several tens of microns per hour together with a reliability of magnetic properties due to the good transfer of composition from an Nd-Fe-B target to a fi...