Sharif Digital Repository

Nanoparticle copper/carbon composite films were prepared by co-deposition of RF-Sputtering and RF-PECVD method from acetylene gas and copper target. We investigate deposition process in the region where by changing pressure, the process converts to physical sputtering mode in constant power regime and at a critical pressure between 1.5 to 3 Pa. The estimated value of mean ion energy at this critical point of pressure is close to threshold energy of physical sputtering of copper atoms by acetylene ions. By utilizing this property and by setting initial pressure from 1.3 to 6.6 Pa, nanoparticles copper/carbon composite films were grown with different copper content. The Copper content of our... 

Nanostructured and mesoporous TiO2-Ta2O5 films and powders with various TiO2:Ta2O5 molar ratios and high specific surface area (SSA) have been prepared by a straightforward particulate sol-gel route. Titanium isopropoxide and tantalum ethoxide were used as precursors and hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) was used as a polymeric fugitive agent (PFA) in order to increase the SSA. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) revealed that powders contained both hexagonal δ-Ta2O5 and monoclinic β-Ta2O5 phases, as well as anatase and rutile. It was observed that Ta2O5 retarded anatase-to-rutile transformation. Furthermore, δ → β phase transformation temperature increased... 

We have studied formation of Au-Ag alloy nanoparticles in sputtered SiO 2 thin films. Silica thin films containing Au-Ag nanoparticles were deposited on quartz substrates using rf reactive magnetron co-sputtering technique. The films heat-treated in reducing Ar + H 2 atmosphere at different temperatures. They were analyzed by using UV-vis spectrophotometry, atomic force microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) methods for their optical, surface morphological as well as structural and chemical properties. The optical absorption of the Au-Ag alloy nanoparticles illustrated one plasmon resonance absorption peak located at 450 nm between the absorption bands of pure Au and Ag... 

The taping mode Atomic Force Microscopic (T-AFM) can be assumed as a cantilever beam which its base is excited by a sinusoidal force and nonlinear potential interaction with sample. Thus the cantilever may cause chaotic behavior which decreases the performance of the sample topography. In order to modeling, using the galerkin method, the PDE equation is reduced to a single ODE equation which properly describing the continuous beam. In this paper a nonlinear delayed feedback control is proposed to control chaos in T-AFM system. Assuming model parameters uncertainties, the first order Unstable Periodic Orbits (UPOs) of the system is stabilized using the sliding nonlinear delayed feedback... 

In this research, we have focused on the formation of Ag nanoparticles dispersed in SiO2 matrix using sol-gel method. The influences of the metal concentration on the size variation of Ag nanoparticles and the size effect on the surface plasmon absorption have been studied. Sol-gel silica thin films containing Ag particles were synthesized by dip-coating on soda-lime glasses. The molar ratio of Ag / Si was chosen from 0.2% to 8%. All films were dried in air at 100 °C for 1 h. Using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the Ag / Si ratios in the prepared films have been measured. In addition, it was shown that the prepared matrix was a stoichiometric composition as SiO2, and the synthesized... 

Silica films containing various concentrations of Ag nanoparticles were deposited on glass slides using a sol-gel process and then heat-treated in air at different temperatures. The films were analysed by using UV-visible spectrophotometry, atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for their optical, surface morphological as well as structural, and chemical properties. After heat-treatment, the optical absorption peaks of Ag nanoparticles show a blueshift and an intensity reduction due to particle size reduction and AgOx nanoparticle formation, respectively. The particle size reduction... 

In this study, a general 3D distributed modeling of Trolling-Mode AFM (TR-AFM) as a nanorobot is presented to analyze the 2D manipulation process of a spherical cell. To this aim, the analysis is categorized into 3 sections. In the first section, 6 deformations of TR-AFM are taken into account, and the standard model of the system is obtained. Moreover, the system is simulated in ANSYS Workbench. The results of modal and transient analyses of the system from both analytical and software methods reveal high agreement, which confirms the accuracy of the presented analytical model. In the second section, by utilizing the 3D derived model, displacement of a spherical yeast single cell (W303)... 

Atomic force microscope (AFM) is one of the most versatile and powerful devices capable of producing high-resolution images of nanomaterial. Many researchers are widely investigating to improve the scanning speed and image quality of AFM by proposing different techniques. Here, we aim to present a novel approach based on the smooth orthogonal decomposition for the estimation of the surface topography in AFM. The technique proposed in this research not only eliminates the need for a closed-loop controller but also acquires the surface three-dimensional shape (topography) very quickly and accurately. The proposed technique relies on the fact that in the tapping mode of atomic force microscopy,... 

Trolling mode atomic force microscopy (TR-AFM) can considerably reduce the liquid-resonator interaction forces, and hence, has overcome many imaging problems in liquid environments. This mode increases the quality factor (QF) significantly compared with the conventional AFM operation in liquid; therefore, the duration to reach the steady-state periodic motion of the oscillating probe is relatively high. As a result, utilizing conventional imaging techniques, which are based on measuring the amplitude and phase, are significantly slower when compared to our proposed method. This research presents a high-speed scanning technique based on an estimation law to obtain the topography of various... 

In this study, a nonlinear observer for high-speed estimation of the sample surface topography in a small duration of the probe transient motion utilizing a 2DOF model of TR-AFM is proposed. Since the time duration to reach the steady-state periodic motion of the oscillating probe in conventional imaging methods is relatively high, the proposed nonlinear observer in this research is able to address this limitation and estimate the surface topography throughout transient oscillation of the microcantilever. With this aim, topography estimation process utilizing a Thau observer without any linearization of the system dynamics is designed and coupled with the system dynamics to achieve sample... 

In this study, a novel technique based on adaptive fading extended Kalman filter for atomic force microscopy is proposed to directly estimate the topography of a sample surface without needing any control system. While in conventional imaging techniques, the scanning speed or the bandwidth is limited due to a relatively large settling time, the method proposed in this research is able to address this issue and estimate the topography throughout transient oscillation of the microcantilever. With this aim, an estimation process using an adaptive fading extended Kalman filter (augmented with forgetting factor) as the system observer is designed and coupled with the system dynamics to obtain... 

Thin films of (WO3)1 - x-(Fe2O 3)x composition were deposited by thermal evaporation on glass substrates and then all samples were annealed at 400 °C in air. Optical properties such as transmittance, reflectance, and optical bandgap energy of the "as deposited" and the annealed films were studied using ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry. It was shown that the annealing process did not substantially change the optical transmittance and reflectance of all the films except the films having x = 0.75. By increasing Fe2O 3 content in the films from x = 0 to x = 0.75, optical bandgap energy decreased from 3.4 to about 1.3 eV and from 3.1 to 2.1 eV for the "as deposited" and the annealed samples,... 

The roughness of glass surfaces after different stages of etching is investigated by reflection measurements with a spectrophotometer, light scattering, atomic force microscopy (AFM, on a small scale) and profilometry (on a large scale). The results suggest that there are three regimes during etching, according to their optical reflectivity and roughness. The first and the second regimes are studied by the Kirchhoff theory and the third one is studied by the optical geometric theory. Also, the roughness obtained by optical scattering is compared with the AFM results. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd  

High temperature shape memory NiTiHf thin films with varying hafnium contents up to 28.7 at.% were fabricated by DC magnetron sputtering using simultaneous sputter deposition from separate elemental targets. The required film composition was achieved by adjusting the power ratio to the targets. The as-deposited films were amorphous; a post deposition annealing was performed at 550 °C to crystallize the films. Two-micron thick films were characterized by energy dispersive spectroscopy in a scanning electron microscope, temperature controlled X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, and atomic force microscopy. The results showed that above 10 at.% Hf additions the transformation... 

This paper focuses on the influences of the tip mass ratio (the ratio of the tip mass to the cantilever mass), on the excitation of higher oscillation eigenmodes and also on the tip-sample interaction forces in tapping mode atomic force microscopy (TM-AFM). A precise model for the cantilever dynamics capable of accurate simulations is essential for the investigation of the tip mass effects on the interaction forces. In the present work, the finite element method (FEM) is used for modeling the AFM cantilever to consider the oscillations of higher eigenmodes oscillations. In addition, molecular dynamics (MD) is used to calculate precise data for the tip-sample force as a function of tip... 

We have studied the stochastic parameters of surface iron oxide nanograin chains, 97 nm in diameter and 2.4 νm in length, prepared at different annealing temperatures, using atomic force microscopy (AFM) spectral analysis. In this regard, the roughness of the thin films including self-assembled twisted nanograin chains has been analysed and characterized using the height-height correlation function, the roughness exponent as well as the power spectrum density of the AFM profiles and their gradient, for the different annealing temperatures. The tip convolution effect on the stochastic parameters under study has also been investigated. The kinetics of the formation of nanograins on the film... 

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes decorated with Fe 3O 4 nanoparticles (Fe 3O 4NPs/MWCNT) were prepared and used to construct a novel biosensor for the simultaneous detection of adenine and guanine. The direct electro-oxidation of adenine and guanine on the modified electrode were investigated by linear sweep voltammetry. The results indicate a remarkable increase in the oxidation peak currents together with negative shift in the oxidation peak potentials for both adenine and guanine, in comparison to the bare glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The surface morphology and nature of the composite film deposited on GCE were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy,... 

We report optical and electrical properties of Cu-Ni nanoparticles in hydrogenated amorphous carbon (Cu-Ni NPs @ a-C:H) with different surface morphology. Ni NPs with layer thicknesses of 5, 10 and 15 nm over Cu NPs @ a-C:H were prepared by co-deposition of RF-sputtering and RF-Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (RF-PECVD) from acetylene gas and Cu and Ni targets. A nonmetal-metal transition was observed as the thickness of Ni over layer increases. The surface morphology of the sample was described by a two dimensional (2D) Gaussian self-affine fractal, except the sample with 10 nm thickness of Ni over layer, which is in the nonmetal-metal transition region. X-ray diffraction profile... 

Minimum entropy control technique, an approach for controlling chaos without using the dynamical model of the system, can be improved by being combined with a nature-based optimization technique. In this paper, an ACO-based optimization algorithm is employed to minimize the entropy function of the chaotic system. The feedback gain of a delayed feedback controller is adjusted in the ACO algorithm. The effectiveness of the idea is investigated on suppressing chaos in the tapping-mode atomic force microscope equations. Results show a good performance. The PSO-based version of the minimum entropy control technique is also used to control the chaotic behavior of the AFM, and corresponding results...