We present the fabrication and characterization of an artificial crystal structure formed from a thin film of silicon that has a full phononic band gap for microwave X-band phonons and a two-dimensional pseudo-band gap for near-infrared photons. An engineered defect in the crystal structure is used to localize optical and mechanical resonances in the band gap of the planar crystal. Two-tone opt...

In this work, we extracted the film’s hardness (HF) of ultra-thin diamond-like carbon layers by simultaneously taking into account the tip blunting and the substrate effect. As compared to previous approaches, which did not consider tip blunting, this resulted in marked differences (30–100%) for the HF value of the thinner carbon coatings. We find that the nature of the substrate influences thi...

The fastest growth pattern of layer-by-layer (LBL) assembled films is exponential LBL (e-LBL), which has both fundamental and practical importance. It is associated with "in-and-out" diffusion of flexible polymers and thus was considered to be impossible for films containing clay sheets with strong barrier function, preventing diffusion. Here, we demonstrate that e-LBL for inorganic sheets is p...

The fabrication and unique characteristics of a new type of thin layer electrode, an optically reflective thin layer electrode (ORTLE), are described. The electrode was fabricated by the anodization of a thin layer of aluminum sputtered onto a plain glass microscope slide to create a 750 nm-thick porous alumina film. A thin film of gold was then sputtered atop the porous and transparent alumina...

The thermal conductivity of a nanoscale yttrium iron garnet (Y₃Fe₅O12, YIG) thin-film prepared by a sol-gel method was evaluated using the ultrafast pump-probe technique in the present study. The thermoreflectance change on the surface of a 250 nm thick YIG film, induced by the irradiation of femtosecond laser pulses, was measured, and curve fitting of a numerical solution for the transient hea...

This paper presents research carried out at the University of Southampton into the development of a magnetostrictive thick-film material suitable for use with silicon micromachined devices. This form of magnetostrictive material has previously been deposited onto alumina substrates and this paper reports further work on migrating the technology onto silicon. The evaluation of two alternative gl...

Results of thorough experimental studies on electrical properties of thick-film resistors (TFRs) have been overviewed and summarized. Experiments covered resistance and noise measurements in wide temperature range. Low-frequency noise spectroscopy has been used for the investigations of fluctuating phenomena. Sample resistors were prepared of various combinations of commercial and laboratory-ma...

Light trapping in planar ultrathin-film solar cells is limited due to a small number of optical modes available in the thin-film slab. A nanostructured thin-film design could surpass this limit by providing broadband increase in the local density of states in a subwavelength volume and maintaining efficient coupling of light. Here we report a broadband metasurface design, enabling efficient and...

Pulsed laser irradiation is employed over a wide spectrum of materials processing applications, including surface hardening, alloying, curing, synthesis of compound and semiconductor films. In semiconductor systems,* it is used to anneal ion-implantation surface damage, recrystallize amorphous and polycrystalline films, and enhance dopant diffusion. Recent studies2 have shown that one of the mo...