We report the performance of extended-gate field-effect transistor (EGFET) pH sensors based on the properties of nanostructured porous silicon layer (nano PSi). Four different forms of nano PSi layers with different characteristic features are used as a sensor for determining the pH level. The synthesized nano PSi layer was prepared by laser-assisted etching of n-type (100) by using different illumination intensities 15, 30, 45 and 60 mW/cm2 of 530 nm laser wavelength. The structural and morphological properties of nano PSi were investigated through exploring scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and gravimetrical measurements. Nano PSi with pore-like structures of various pore shapes and sizes are as follows: fine circular pores, star full pore, circular pores and rectangular pores; star full pore shape was prepared through varying the laser illumination intensity. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, current–voltage measurements and specific surface area of were employed to describe the density of the hydrogenated dangling bonds (Si–Hx) of the nano PSi layer. The synthesized nano PSi pH sensors were tested and dry out in the pH range from 3 to 11 at room temperature. The performance of nano PSi pH sensors was comparatively analyzed based on the density of (Si–Hx), specific surface area, porosity and layer thickness of nano PSi. Concerning EGFET pH sensor showed noticeably enhanced pH sensitivity and linearity with increasing the density of (Si–Hx) and specific surface area. Higher sensitivity with excellent linearity was obtained for pore-like structures of circular pore shapes when the laser illumination intensity was about 45 mW/cm2.
In this work, the temperature dependence of extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) of the body-centered cubic crystals was investigated based on the anharmonic correlated Einstein model using the classical statistical theory. The oscillation of the anharmonic EXAFS spectra presented in terms of the cumulant expansion up to the fourth order. Here, the thermodynamic parameters of a system are derived from an anharmonic effective potential that has taken into account the influence of all nearest neighbors of absorbing and backscattering atoms. Analytical expressions of the first four EXAFS cumulants are obtained in simple forms of temperature or parallel mean-square relative displacement. The numerical results for crystalline molybdenum in the temperature range from 0 to 900 K are found to be in good agreement with those obtained using the other theoretical methods and experiments at various temperatures. The analytical results for the contributions of the cumulants to the amplitude reduction and phase shift of the EXAFS oscillation discover the role and meaning of high-order cumulants in analyzing the temperature dependence of the EXAFS spectra.
In this work, the conventional chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique and its growth parameters were systematically studied to deposit CdS thin films on the glass substrate. The samples were prepared using a simple aqueous solution containing cadmium sulfate (CdSO4·8H2O), thiourea [SC(NH2)2], ammonium sulfate [(NH4)2SO4] as a source of cadmium, sulfur, and a complexing agent, respectively. The deposited films were characterized to study the surface morphology, crystallographic structure, chemical composition, optical and electrical properties. Through this study, the structure was determined to cubic with (111) preferential orientation and the crystallinity of the films was improved with the increase of film thickness. The transmission spectra were recorded in the range of wavelength 300–600 nm. The optical bandgap of the optimized CdS films was varied from 2.43 to 2.74 eV. All the films exhibit n-type of conductivity which was found in the order of 10–4 to 10–5 (1/Ω-cm), suggesting that it would be suitable for the buffer layer in thin-film solar cells.
In the present study, nematic liquid crystal (NLC) 4′-(Octyloxy)-4-biphenylcarbonitrile dispersed with three different concentrations of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) is characterized by electro-optical and dielectric spectroscopy method. The dispersion of Ag NPs into NLC material leads to the change in physical parameters such as dielectric permittivity, photoluminescence, threshold voltage, response time and splay elastic constant. The AC conductivity and threshold voltage of Ag NPs-dispersed composite system have increased significantly. The increase in the AC conductivity for the composite system is attributed to the Ag NPs-assisted induced charge transfer mechanism in the system. Moreover, the increase in AC conductivity value for Ag NPs/NLC composite system discloses its importance in photovoltaic solar cell.
This study was conducted to monitor the plant responses to seed priming with electromagnetic fields (0, 4, or 6 mT) or cold plasma (0, 80, or 100 s) in Salvia nemorosa . The cold plasma or electromagnetic field treatments significantly increased shoot fresh weight (49%), root fresh weight (41%), and root length (56%). The results highlighted that seed priming with cold plasma or the electromagnetic field is an effective method to modify seedling growth. The electromagnetic field and plasma treatments upregulated the AREB1 gene (mean = 3.9-fold). Except for the electromagnetic field of 4mT, the other treatments stimulated expressions of the WRKY1 gene by an average of 6.7-fold relative to the control. The cold plasma or electromagnetic field also induced the expression of cinnamoyl-CoA reductases (CCR2) gene (mean = fourfold). These treatments also changed the expression of the rosmarinic acid synthase by an average of sixfold. These findings may improve our knowledge of plant reactions to cold plasma and electromagnetic field for possible functions in seed technology.
In the present study, a novel tunable two-dimensional thermo-plasmonic grating based on gold nanorods was demonstrated by combining the plasmonic properties of the gold nanostructure and the applied external voltage. In this structure, a thin layer of the gold grating was typically deposited on a patterned polydimethylsiloxane substrate using the nanoimprint lithography method. The surface plasmon resonance of the fabricated plasmonic structure was excited by the surface plasmon imaging system based on a high numerical aperture objective lens and the charged coupled device camera. Based on the results, the number of the plasmonic hot spots due to the thermo-plasmonic effect increased by the external voltage, leading to an increase in this effect. Therefore, this reversible and tunable temperature confinement can be used as the controller of each element including cells in a defined micro-position.
Effects of geometrical asymmetry on spintronic properties of Fe/ZnO/Fe magnetic tunnel junction based on zinc oxide barrier tunnel with rock-salt crystalline structure is studied. Simulations are performed using density functional theory, and substituted layers of C, Mg, Al, Mo, and Ta are used to make geometrically asymmetric structures. The results indicate that this asymmetry has a substantial influence on the properties of the spin-dependent electronic transport, conductance, and the tunneling magneto-resistance (TMR) ratio of the pristine symmetric structure. Additionally, it is shown that geometrical asymmetry results in a sharp decrease in the TMR ratio in one of these junctions and causes a negative TMR ratio in the other four asymmetric structures. Due to the large conductance of the three pristine, C and Al substituted structures in the PA configuration, these structures can be used to generate the current with pure spin for experimental purposes.
In this paper, we study some non-local measurements of quantum correlations in extended gravities with higher-order curvature terms, including conformal gravity. Precisely, we consider higher-curvature correction on holographic mutual information in conformal gravity. There is in fact one deformation in the states because of the higher-curvature corrections. Here by making use of the holographic methods, we study the deformation in the holographic mutual information due to the higher-curvature terms. We also address the change in the quantum phase transition due to these deformations.
The results of one-dimensional time-dependent simulation modeling of hydrogen production from water vapor dissociation using non-thermal discharge plasma in a plate-type reactor were developed. Three different water vapor dissociation reaction mechanisms pathway models were simulated at a water vapor temperature of 573 K and same boundary conditions. The electron collision cross sections of electron water vapor were utilized based on the reaction mechanisms. The electron attachment and detachment processes were described in detail; additionally, the surface charge accumulation, recombination of charged species, positive and negative ions production and losses are considered. The electron density, electric field, electric potential, electron temperature and the hydrogen mass fraction are presented across the plasma discharge gap and over time. The first model was described as direct water vapor decomposition into their constituent’s elements hydrogen and oxygen molecules. It was revealed that the formed hydrogen molecules increased across the plasma discharge gap over time. In model II, the simulation reaction mechanisms pathway included products of H2O+, OH+, and O+ ions. It was found a significant change in the electric potential and electric field across the discharge gap due to the charged species inside the plasma gap. In model III, it was introduced H− radicals which controlled H atoms production by the electron detachment reaction. The most interesting results of these simulation models were the growing of hydrogen molecules across the plasma gap over time. Further, it was observed that the produced hydrogen mass fraction from model III was higher than model II and model I.
A method for enhancing the resistance against corrosion of stainless steel 304L coated with 190 nm-thick manganese film and annealed with nitrogen flux at constant temperature (723 K) is reported. The variable quantity in this work is the temperature of the corroding solution (293 K and 333 K). X-ray diffraction analysis was employed to investigate the crystallographical changes of the annealed samples; atomic force microscope and scanning electron microscope were used for the morphology and studying the roughness of their surfaces; polarization analysis, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and phase and Bode diagrams, as well as the Kramers–Kronig transformation, were employed to study the susceptibility of the samples to corrosion, at temperatures 293 K and 333 K in 0.4 M H 2 SO 4 solutions. Our results, from all the above analyses, unanimously point to the fact that in the process of enhancing resistance to corrosion, the annealing stage is the most crucial for improving the coating and the crystal structure of the samples and that the adsorption of Mn is not sufficient for the enhancement of the surface layer. Moreover, it was observed that increasing the temperature of the solution decreases the resistance of the samples owing to an increase in the rate of corrosion.
In a tokamak, the poloidal magnetic field provided by the toroidal plasma current forms an essential part of the magnetic field confining the plasma. However, instabilities of magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium can lead to an uncontrolled sudden loss of plasma current and energy, which is called a disruption. Disruptions are of significant concern to future devices due to the large amount of energy released during the rapid quenching of the plasma. One important consequence of disruption is the generation of significant current carried in multi-MeV runaway electrons that are eventually lost into plasma components. They can damage the tokamak walls and its structure if they are not controlled. Disruption control by neutral beam injection has been performed on IR-T1 to study the effect on runaway electron generated by plasma disruptions. Noble gases are used for injection, pure Hydrogen, Helium and Argon. The use of these non-reactive gases for disruption control ensures they fast removed from the vessel after the termination of a tokamak discharge. A piezo-valve is used for injection which has the precision of 1 ms. The effect of runaway electron generation control during disruption is studied using a comparison between reference disruptive discharge and a discharge into which different impurity species are injected. The data collected can then be used to optimize the performance of these energetic electrons control generated in disruption.
The optical polarization from a hybrid system including a closely spaced spherical SQD (modeled as a three-level V-type system) and a metal nanoparticle which are considered classically and are connected by the dipole–dipole interaction mechanism is investigated. The interaction between the SQD and the MNP shows an interesting optical response. In the weak probe field regime and MNP nonlocality correction, the absorption spectrum of the hybrid system exhibits an EIT window with two absorption peaks and the plasmon-assisted quantum interference plays an important role in the position and amplitude of these peaks, which are intensely altered by including the nonlocal effects. The probe diffraction grating is created based on the excitons-induced transparency by applying a standing-wave coupling field. The results of this study are useful in numerous areas of all-optical communications.
A study on the transmission of the electromagnetic waves from a structure consisting of an over-dense plasma layer with nonlinear effects is undertaken. The applied nonlinearity is presented due to the series expansion of the polarization in the medium. The nonlinear plasma layer is supposed to be placed between two linear dielectric layers. The transparency conditions are investigated for thep-polarized obliquely incident waves. It is shown that the formation of the surface waves can eventuate to the transmission of the incident waves. This fact has already be seen in the case of the linear over-dense plasma, but, here, it is examined in the presence of the nonlinear effects. To determine the propitious conditions for the surface wave excitation, the exact solutions of the electromagnetic field equations are used in all regions. The transmission, the reflection, and the dissipation rates of the electromagnetic waves from the entire structure are obtained, and the effects of the main parameters on them are discussed.
In order to study the ion temperature effect on the space-charge structure and the plasma variables on the wall, the ion thermal force has been added to the ion motion equation in the plasma fluidal model. In the eigenvalue problem of plasma, the plasma equations are numerically solved in a whole area from the plasma center to the wall and it is displayed that the ion temperature has significant effects on the plasma structure and floating variables. However, the fluidal theory of plasmas introduces a singular point among the space charge of plasma boundary layer if the static pressure and the inertial mass of the thermal ions are taken into account at the same time. Finding a full numerical solution for the thermal plasma equations needs to cross the singular point. The singular point and how crossing the point will be depicted too.
Behaviour of sheath formed on two types of probes, namely cylindrical and spherical probes, has been investigated in terms of its thickness, in front of the conducting probes immersed in an electronegative plasma for different negative to positive ion mass ratios, by considering three electronegative gases, i.e. CF4, O2 and C60. Contrary to others’ work, complete fluid equations are written for negative ions also in addition to those of positive ions considering their different masses. Increasing negative to positive ion mass ratio is found to result in an increment of the sheath thickness. The magnitude of the sheath thickness is enhanced with an increment in the positive ions’ temperature, whereas the magnitude of the sheath thickness is reduced with increased negative ions’ temperature and background density of the negative ions. The analysis of the case of a large probe radius, used in the surface-nitriding process, for both the geometries is attended. Additionally, the comparison between the results for electropositive plasma and electronegative plasma and for behaviour of negative ions with their Boltzmann distribution and fluid approach has also been attempted herewith and a noteworthy difference is realized. The case of doubly charged ions is also entertained herewith.
In this work the corrosion resistance of stainless steel 304L coated with Mn-based thin film and post annealed with flow of nitrogen at 723 K in 0.6 M NaCl solution is reported. The latter was performed at three different solution temperatures of 293 K, 313 K and 333 K. X-ray diffraction analysis was used to determine the crystallographical structure and phases of the annealed samples. Atomic force microscope and field emission scanning electron microscope were employed to determine the morphology of the surface of the samples. Corrosion behavior of the samples in the corroding media was studied by means of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and polarization analysis. Results showed that the sample investigated in the 0.6 M NaCl solution at 293 K temperature has the highest corrosion resistance than those studied at higher temperatures. The correctness of the EIS results was confirmed by Kramers–Kronig transformation, while fitting of the data (Nyquist and Bode diagrams) to suitable equivalent electrical circuits showed that the highest corrosion enhancement is achieved for the Mn-based/SS304L sample in the 0.6 M NaCl solution at 293 K temperature, resulting in a 90.57% corrosion inhibition enhancement factor (η%). Polarization measurements also showed that this sample has the lowest corrosion current density, lowest corrosion rate and highest corrosion potential with a 96% corrosion inhibition efficiency factor (PE%). Consistent results are achieved for EIS and polarization measurements which are then correlated with the nanostructure of the films using X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscope analyses.
Plasma as a rapidly evolving technology has been succeeded to widely exploit in various industrial fields. We attempt to address the short- and long-time effects of seed priming with cold plasma in Cichorium intybus. The seeds were subjected to plasma (dielectric barrier discharge). The post-reactions of the plasma-primed seedlings were monitored in response to different concentrations (0, 2, and 10 mgl−1) of selenium nanoparticle (nSe). The plasma treatments enhanced seedling early growth in both shoot and roots. Besides, the simultaneous treatments of nSe of 2 mgl−1 and plasma synergistically improved seedling growth (mean = 78%). The plasma treatments mitigated the nSe10-associated phytotoxicity. The plasma and/or nSe treatments induced the enzyme activities of catalase (mean = 35%) and peroxidase (mean = 30%). In a complementary experiment, the long-time effects of plasma priming were monitored in plants grown under soil condition. The seed priming with cold plasma led to significant increases in shoot fresh mass (mean = 32%) and root biomass (mean = 26.8%). Moreover, the plasma-primed seedlings produced higher numbers of flowers (mean = 41.5%) and enhanced flower fresh weights (mean = 24%). The findings underline this hypothesis that exposure to plasma may associate with the activation of plant defense machinery and long-time modification in plant growth and development.
The vortex gas injection into plasma torch is considered as a method for reducing electrodes erosion. In order to investigate the effects of vortex gas injection on plasma structure, as well as the effect of gas viscosity on the rate of rotation, a three-dimensional nonequilibrium and time-dependent non-transferred DC plasma torch model has been simulated. Viewing the general characteristics of the plasma shows that the model works well. The results have shown that if the components of the inlet gas velocity are not properly selected, it is possible that the rotary effects of the gas are greatly depleted even before the gas reaches the cathode tip and plasma formation. In this case, only the change in the axial component of the gas causes changes in the structure of the plasma. Vortex reduction is also observed during the movement of cold gases. It is observed that the change in viscosity of gas has significant effects on the rate of the vortex.
In this paper, we have presented a new power supply structure for ozone generation in a dielectric barrier discharge reactor, so that a high-frequency pulse electric field is applied on the reactor simultaneously with a low-frequency sinusoidal electric field, referred as mixed electric field. In this study, the effect of mixed electric field variation on ozone production efficiency has been investigated and increasing effects on ozone production have been observed when the reactor temperature decreases. This performance has been achieved by modifying the mechanism of electrical discharge and decrease in filamentary discharge in plasma. By examining the spectral lines of atomic emission spectroscopy, the highest peak of the oxygen (O I) spectral lines was observed in the spectrum of the mixed electric field structure. Also by qualitative comparison of the spectral lines, the lowest intensity for the oxygen (O II) spectral lines was observed in this spectrum. Practically, this technique allows us to achieve higher ozone efficiency with less electrical power. Eventually, with the electric field mixing, we were able to achieve a 4.5% efficiency with 7.7 g/h of ozone generation at 2 kW/m2 with 2 L/min injector oxygen. In addition, by electric field mixing, we were able to reduce the reactor temperature from 66 to 41 °C.
The dust acoustic solitary waves are theoretically investigated in dusty plasmas for different cases of with and without density gradients. These low-frequency solitary waves are studied using appropriate Korteweg–de Vries equations obtained using relevant stretched coordinates. The soliton solutions in homogeneous plasma, weakly inhomogeneous plasma and strongly inhomogeneous plasma, are thoroughly investigated for studying the effect of different parameters like dust charge and density of all the plasma species on the soliton profiles. The combination of the dust charge with its number density changes the dynamics of the solitons and that is further affected by the number density of the hot ion with respect to the cold ions.
