Enhancement of the radiation resistance of cerium-containing fluorophosphate glasses through codoping with Sb2O3 and Bi2O3

The growing demand for radiation-resistant optical glasses for space and nuclear radiation applications has attracted significant research interest. However, radiation-resistant fluorophosphate glasses have been poorly studied. In this work, we report on the tailoring and performance of radiation-resistant fluorophosphate glasses that contained cerium through codoping with Sb₂O₃ and Bi₂O₃. The physical properties, optical properties, microstructure, and defects of fluorophosphate glasses were investigated using transmittance measurements, absorption measurements, as well as Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. The results showed that the radiation resistance of all codoped fluorophosphate glasses was better than the undoped cerium-containing fluorophosphate glasses after 10–250 krad(Si) irradiation. Especially in glasses doped with Bi₂O₃, the optical density increment at 385 nm was only 0.1482 after 250 krad(Si) irradiation. The CeO₂ prevented the development of phosphate-related oxygen hole center (POHC) defects, whereas further codoping with Bi₂O₃ suppressed the formation of oxygen hole center (OHC) and POEC defects, reducing the breaking of phosphate chains caused by CeO₂. Bi³⁺ is more likely than Sb³⁺ to change the valence, affecting the transition equilibrium of intrinsic defects and reducing the concentration of defects produced by irradiation. When codoping with Sb₂O₃ and Bi₂O₃, Bi₂O₃ does not enhance radiation resistance owing to the scission effect of Sb₂O₃ on the phosphate chain, which is not conducive to the radiation resistance of glasses. This indicates that the cerium-containing fluorophosphate glasses doped with Bi₂O₃ can effectively suppress the defects caused by irradiation and improve the radiation resistance of the glasses.     

A Smart Deep Convolutional Neural Network for Real-Time Surface Inspection

A proper detection and classification of defects in steel sheets in real time have become a requirement for manufacturing these products, largely used in many industrial sectors. However, computers used in the production line of small to medium size companies, in general, lack performance to attend real-time inspection with high processing demands. In this paper, a smart deep convolutional neural network for using in real-time surface inspection of steel rolling sheets is proposed. The architecture is based on the state-of-the-art SqueezeNet approach, which was originally developed for usage with autonomous vehicles. The main features of the proposed model are: small size and low computational burden. The model is 10 to 20 times smaller when compared to other networks designed for the same task, and more than 700 times smaller than general networks. Also, the number of floating-point operations for a prediction is about 50 times lower than the ones used for similar tasks. Despite its small size, the proposed model achieved near-perfect accuracy on a public dataset of 1800 images of six types of steel rolling defects.     

非径向管板焊接接头的超声检测

对AP1000压水堆核电站安全壳贯穿件的非径向管板焊接接头结构特点进行了介绍,并分析其超声检测工艺的重点和难点。通过建立统一的缺陷定位坐标系并结合被检构件的几何特点进行综合分析,推导得出了h值(缺陷回波最高点距套管外壁的距离)的计算方法。为超声检测对这类焊接接头缺陷的准确识别和定位提供了行之有效的方法,为解决这类焊接接头的超声检测技术受限区提供了行之有效的措施。     

Theoretical investigation of intrinsic point defects and the oxygen migration behavior in rare earth hafnates

In this work, the composition-dependent point defect types and formation energies of RE₂Hf₂O₇ (RE = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu and Gd) as well as the oxygen diffusion behavior are systematically investigated by first-principles calculations. The possible defect reactions and dominant defect complexes under stoichiometric and non-stoichiometric conditions are revealed. It is found that O Frenkel pairs are the predominant defect in stoichiometric pyrochlore hafnates. Hf-RE cation anti-site defects, accompanied by RE vacancies and/or oxygen interstitials, are stable in the non-stoichiometric case of HfO₂ excess. On the other hand, RE-Hf anti-site defects together with oxygen vacancies and/or RE interstitials are preferable in the case of RE₂O₃ excess. The energy barriers for the migration along the V_O48f - V_O48f pathway of pyrochlore hafnates were calculated to be between 0.81 eV and 0.89 eV. Based on these results, a defect engineering strategy is proposed and the pyrochlore hafnates investigated here are predicted to exhibit potential oxygen ionic conductivity.     

Efficient Visible-to-UV Photon Upconversion Systems Based on CdS Nanocrystals Modified with Triplet Energy Mediators

Developing high-performance visible-to-UV photon upconversion systems based on triplet–triplet annihilation photon upconversion (TTA-UC) is highly desired, as it provides a potential approach for UV light-induced photosynthesis and photocatalysis. However, the quantum yield and spectral range of visible-to-UV TTA-UC based on nanocrystals (NCs) are still far from satisfactory. Here, three different sized CdS NCs are systematically investigated with triplet energy transfer to four mediators and four annihilators, thus substantially expanding the available materials for visible-to-UV TTA-UC. By improving the quality of CdS NCs, introducing the mediator via a direct mixing fashion, and matching the energy levels, a high TTA-UC quantum yield of 10.4% (out of a 50% maximum) is achieved in one case, which represents a record performance in TTA-UC based on NCs without doping. In another case, TTA-UC photons approaching 4 eV are observed, which is on par with the highest energies observed in optimized organic systems. Importantly, the in-depth investigation reveals that the direct mixing approach to introduce the mediator is a key factor that leads to close to unity efficiencies of triplet energy transfer, which ultimately governs the performance of NC-based TTA-UC systems. These findings provide guidelines for the design of high-performance TTA-UC systems toward solar energy harvesting.     

Intrinsic Defect Limit to the Growth of Orthorhombic HfO2 and (Hf,Zr)O2 with Strong Ferroelectricity: First-Principles Insights

It is believed that promoting the fraction of ferroelectric orthorhombic phase (o-phase) through O-poor growth conditions can increase the spontaneous polarization of HfO₂ and (Hf,Zr)O₂ thin films. However, the first-principles calculations show that the growth may be limited by the easy formation of point defects in the orthorhombic and tetragonal phases of HfO₂, ZrO₂, and (Hf,Zr)O₂. Their dominant defects, O interstitial (O_i) under O-rich conditions and O vacancy (V_O) under O-poor condition, have low formation energies and quite high density (10¹⁶–10¹⁹ cm⁻³ for 800–1400 K growth temperature). Especially, O_i has negative formation energy in tetragonal HfO₂ under O-rich condition, causing non-stoichiometry and limiting the crystalline-seed formation during o-phase growth. High-density defects can cause disordering of dipole moments and increase leakage current, both diminishing the polarization. These results explain the experimental puzzle that the measured polarization is much lower than the ideal value even in O-poor thin films and highlight that controlling defects is as important as promoting the o-phase fraction for enhancing ferroelectricity. The O-intermediate condition (average of O-rich and O-poor conditions) and low growth temperature are proposed for fabricating HfO₂ and (Hf,Zr)O₂ with fewer defects, lower leakage current, and stronger ferroelectricity, which challenges the belief that O-poor condition is optimal.     

Resolving Deep Sub-Wavelength Scattering of Nanoscale Sidewalls Using Parametric Microscopy

The quantitative optical measurement of deep sub-wavelength features with sub-nanometer sensitivity addresses the measurement challenge in the semiconductor fabrication process. Optical scatterings from the sidewalls of patterned devices reveal abundant structural and material information. We demonstrated a parametric indirect microscopic imaging (PIMI) technique that enables recovery of the profile of wavelength-scale objects with deep sub-wavelength resolution, based on measuring and filtering the variations of far-field scattering intensities when the illumination was modulated. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) numerical simulation was performed, and the experimental results were compared with atomic force microscopic (AFM) images to verify the resolution improvement achieved with PIMI. This work may provide a new approach to exploring the detailed structure and material properties of sidewalls and edges in semiconductor-patterned devices with enhanced contrast and resolution, compared with using the conventional optical microscopy, while retaining its advantage of a wide field of view and relatively low cost.     

一种压电半导体纳米线的热电耦合性能研究

采用有限元分析方法,研究了一种n型压电半导体纳米线(氧化锌)的电热耦合性能,分析了外部温度对氧化锌纳米线内部机械场、电场及电流场分布的影响,并讨论了本构方程线性化对电学参数的影响。研究结果表明,温度对氧化锌纳米线的电场、载流子浓度和电流密度影响很大,采用线性本构和非线性本构求得的电场、电子浓度和电流密度最大相差分别为24%,32%和68%,基于非线性本构分析压电半导体的电学性能会引起很大误差。该研究结果可为压电半导体器件利用温度调控电场、电流提供理论依据。     

Effects of stray AC on corrosion of 3-layer polyethylene coated X70 pipeline steel and cathodic delamination of coating with defects in 3.5 wt-% NaCl solution

In this work, the effects of stray alternating current (AC) on the corrosion of coated X70 pipeline steel and the delamination of 3-layer polyethylene (3PE) coatings with defects were investigated using COMSOL Multiphysics simulation, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and three-dimensional (3D) digital microscope techniques. The results showed that under the same level of AC interference, pits with deeper maximum pit depth were observed at the smaller defect areas than those at larger defect areas. It was consistent with the simulation results that a greater corrosion current density was accompanied on samples with smaller defects. According to 3D digital images, the larger delamination of 3PE coatings was found on samples with smaller defects. With the increase of current density, the impedance of samples with small defects decreased, while that of samples with large defects increased. Additionally, with the same defect size, the maximum pit depth became deeper and the corrosion was more severe.     

Electrical Characterization of Individual Cesium Lead Halide Perovskite Nanowires Using Conductive AFM

Perovskite nanostructures have attracted much attention in recent years due to their suitability for a variety of applications such as photovoltaics, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), nanometer-size lasing, and more. These uses rely on the conductive properties of these nanostructures. However, electrical characterization of individual, thin perovskite nanowires has not yet been reported. Here, conductive atomic force microscopy characterization of individual cesium lead halide nanowires is presented. Clear differences are observed in the conductivity of nanowires containing only bromide and nanowires containing a mixture of bromide and iodide. The differences are attributed to a higher density of crystalline defects, deeper trap states, and higher inherent conductivity for nanowires with mixed bromide–iodide content.