In the present work, it is shown that carbon nanotube-doped transition metal oxides are potential candidates for use as ceramic transparent electrode materials. Electrodes in shape of fibers are obtained via inexpensive and low temperature sol-gel method. Fiber electrodes are characterised by SEM-FIB and rheological analizes. Due to extraordinary electrical and optical properties of CNT-s and good chemical and physical stability of metal oxide ceramics, resulting composites could be an interesting subject for industry.

A modification of the tape casting method optimized for preparing either uniform or linearly structured sol–gel films is presented. It is demonstrated that molecular level homogeneous high viscosity sol–gel precursors can be used instead of slurries to prepare surface coatings by the tape casting method. Such method is especially well suited for preparing thick sol–gel films from relatively high viscosity sol precursor materials. The feasibility of the method is demonstrated using linearly structured ATO precursor films.

A new method for subsurface nanometric imaging is proposed that combines scanning probe microscopy and laser ablation techniques.The feasibility of the method was tested on mica samples by studying laser radiation interaction with the mica surface.The ablation of the samples was characterized as functions of deposited radiation energy and of the number of laser pulses.Additional examples of applicability of the method are presented using more complex samples such as a TiC : Ni compound and a biological tooth.

New method for 3D nano-scale imaging was developed that combines a traditional scanning probe techniques with a local laser ablation processing of the surface of a sample. The technology opens new possibilities for ultra precise (down to atomic resolution) subsurface studies, whereas the traditional SPM sensitivity is limited to only few atomic layers. We demonstrate that our new experimental set-up can also be used for other investigations, e.g. in in situ characterisation of surface processing. The approach is potentially interesting for many applications, like volume nano-imaging, in situ studies of a stimulated nano-assembling or growth, monitoring of laser processing and cleaning, etc.

A long-standing problem for piezo-electric inertial motors is the decrease of efficiency and step length at lower temperatures.We have developed a piezoelectric vibration driver for positioning in a temperature range of 4 - 400K for Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPM). The vibrator consists of two parallel piezoceramic plates, which are fixed rigidly to the support at their centre, and to the endpieces at their ends. The vibrator is symmetrical to the three perpendicular symmetric axes.There is no considerable decrease of steps size in the novel piezoresonance device while cooling to a low temperature, because the decrease of piezomodule d(31) is compensated by an increase of the mechanical efficiency factor Q of the vibrator at low temperatures.The described vibrator can shift linear rails, rotate and/or shift cylindrical bodies.

We have developed and built up a novel variable temperature (4–300 K, ±0.05K) continuous flow cryostat for scanning SQUID microscopy (SSM) and other magneto-sensitive cryogenic applications. Temperature is controlled only by balancing cold and warm fluxes of He gas. In this way, any magnetic noise due to the temperature regulation system is eliminated.