Abstract: ZnO is a wide band-gap (ca. 3.4 eV) semiconductor, piezoelectric, pyroelectric, biocompatible, transparent in the visible spectrum and UV light emitting material. The fabrication in 2001 of the first nanobelts of semiconductor oxide materials lead to a rapid expansion of researches concerning one dimensional nanostructures (nanotubes, nanowires, nanobelts), given their possible application in optics, optoelectronics, piezoelectricity, catalysis. Researches carried on up to date evidenced the possibility to obtain an extraordinary variety of ZnO nanostructures, in function of the experimental parameters and the used growth methods. In this work we present morphostructural results on nanostructured ZnO layers obtained by electrochemical deposition. The films have been grown on gold covered glass plates and Si wafers, in various experimental conditions such as: nature of the wetting agents, electrical polarization of the substrate (continuous, pulsed). The influence of the growth conditions on the crystalline structure and morphology of the films is revealed by scanning and transmission electron microscopy studies. The films show a variety of growth morphologies, from entangled-wires-like to honeycomb-like layers. These large-specific-surface layers will be tested as nanostructured substrates for photovoltaic cells with improved efficiency.

Abstract: Nano-scale ordering may be revealed in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) by at least three techniques that will be presented in this work: selected area electron diffraction, conventional TEM and high-resolution TEM. Digital image processing is used to extract additional information from the high-resolution micrographs. The described methods are illustrated in a microstructural and compositional study of a 90%Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-3-10%PbTiO2 ceramic sample. High-resolution images reveal the presence of ordered compositional nano-domains, observable in two specific crystallographic orientations. Antiphase boundaries lying in the (111) planes separate them, while (100) and (111) facets separate the ordered domains from the disordered matrix.

Abstract: The optical excitonic Aharonov-Bohm effect in type-1 three-dimensional (In, Ga)As/GaAs nanorings in theoretically explored. The single-particle states of the electron and the hole are extracted from the effective mass theory in the presence of inhomogeneous strain, and an exact numerical diagonalization approach is used to compute the exciton states and the oscillator strength fx for exciton recombination. We studied both the large lithographically-defined and small self-assembled rings. Only in smaller self-assembled nanorings we found optical excitonic AharonovBohm effect. Those oscillations are established by anticrossings between the optically active exciton states with zero orbital momentum. In lithographically defined rings, whose average radius is 33 nm, fx shows no oscillations, whereas in the smaller self-assembled nanoring with average radius of 11.5 nm oscillations in fx for the ground exciton state are found as function of the magnetic field that is superposed on a linear dependence. These oscillations are smeared out at finite temperature, thus photoluminescence intensity exhibits step-like variation with magnetic field even at temperature as small as 4.2 K.

Abstract: The effects of thermal annealing in inert Ar gas atmosphere of SiO2-supported, exfoliated single-layer graphene are investigated in this work. A systematic, reproducible change in the electronic properties of graphene is observed after annealing. The most prominent Raman features in graphene, the G and 2D peaks, change in accord to what is expected in the case of hole doping. The results of electrical characterization performed on annealed, back-gated field-effect graphene devices show that the neutrality point voltage VNP increases monotonically with the annealing temperature, confirming the occurrence of excess hole accumulation. No degradation of the structural properties of graphene is observed after annealing at temperatures as high as 400 °C. Thermal annealing of single-layer graphene in controlled Ar atmosphere can therefore be considered a technique to reproducibly modify the electronic structure of graphene by tuning its Fermi level.

Abstract: We demonstrate that electron irradiation of colloidal CdS nanorods carrying Au domains causes their evolution into AuS/Cd core/shell nanoparticles as a result of a concurrent chemical and morphological transformation. The shrinkage of the CdS nanorods and the growth of the Cd shell around the Au tips are imaged in real time, while the displacement of S atoms from the CdS nanorod to the Au domains is evidenced by high-sensitivity energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. The various nanodomains display different susceptibility to the irradiation, which results in nanoconfigurations that are very different from those obtained after thermal annealing. Such physical manipulations of colloidal nanocrystals can be exploited as a tool to access novel nanocrystal heterostructures.

Abstract: Samples of transparent glass-ceramics in the ternary system Li2O-Al2O3-SiO2 (LAS), with Er2O3 as a luminescent dopant, are investigated. The initial glass is obtained by the classical melting technique. In order to induce ceramization of the glass, TiO2 and ZrO2 are added in small amount as nucleating agents. The thermal treatments at 730 and 770 degrees C are carried out to promote formation of titanium zirconate solid solution precipitates. The spatial distribution of the precipitates in the material, their morphology, and their composition are investigated with TEM, HRTEM, HAADF-STEM, EELS and EFTEM. The results demonstrate that with the glass-melting preparation technique it is possible to achieve small nanoparticles with uniform distribution and higher number density than with the sol-gel glass preparation.