Anisotropic dielectric response occurs naturally due to the presence of gradation, like in functionally graded materials or graded biological cells. However, these materials with locally anisotropic dielectric responses can have macroscopically isotropic responses. In treating graded particles of anisotropic materials, traditional isotropic gradation methods need to be modified. In this work, w...

We propose an unexplored class of absorbing materials for high-efficiency solar cells: heterostructures of transition-metal oxides. In particular, LaVO(3) grown on SrTiO(3) has a direct band gap ∼1.1  eV in the optimal range as well as an internal potential gradient, which can greatly help to separate the photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Furthermore, oxide heterostructures afford the flexibi...

Zirconia-nickel functionally graded materials were obtained by powder metallurgy technique. The microstructure, residual stress, fracture toughness and Vickers hardness were investigated. Mixed-mode fracture response of YSZ /Ni functionally graded materials was examined utilizing the three point bending test and finite element method (Cosmos/M 2.7). The results show that the stress intensity fac...

Our aim of is to develop a processing method for a rotating disc made of functionally graded materials (FGM), by stacking the slurry, layer by layer in a radial direction. A three-layer functionally graded material of Al/Al2O3 is fabricated with compositions of 10, 20, 30 vol.% Al2O3. The ceramic composition increases from the discs inner (centre) to the outer. The combination of these material...

In the present work, six-layered (Zirconia/Nickel) functionally graded materials were fabricated via powder metallurgy technique (PMT). The microstructure, fracture surface and the elemental analysis of the prepared components were studied, and their linear shrinkage, electrical conductivity, fracture toughness and Vickers hardness were evaluated. The results show that the linear shrinkage of t...

Submitted for the MAR08 Meeting of The American Physical Society Spectral representation theory of graded composite materials K.L. CHAN, C.M. KWOK, K.W. YU, The Chinese University of Hong Kong — In graded composite materials, the physical properties can vary continuously in space and it may give different physical phenomena when compared with homogeneous materials. The Bergman-Milton spectral r...