Critical Issues in Sol-Gel Derived Ferroelectric Thin Films: A Review

In this article we have reviewed our recent research efforts on the synthesis and characterization of a wide spectrum of ferroelectric thin films for a variety of electronic and electro-optic devices including computer memories, tunable microwave devices, infra-red detectors, and electro-optic modulators. The review is separated into three sections; first we have described the process induced modifications of the properties of perovskite films prepared by sol-gel technique. The next section reviews the effect of certain impurity elements (e.g. La, Nd, Ce etc) in modifying the electrical characteristics of perovskite thin films followed by our experimental observations on the synthesis of epitaxially grown perovskite thin films by sol-gel technique. The epitaxial quality of BST thin films has been evaluated by fabricating eight element coupled microstrip phase shifters at NASA Glenn Research Center. Finally, future directions of sol-gel thin film research have been highlighted in view of these experimental observations.     

Investigation on the electrical characteristics of sol-gel derived Pb1.05(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3 thin films

Abstract

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films with composition Zr/Ti ～ 0.53/0.47 were deposited by the sol-gel technique. The films were characterized in terms of its polarization relaxation, fatigue and imprint characteristics. We have found that the polarization relaxation is due to the presence of a depolarization field which increases dramatically with the rise in temperature. Improved fatigue performance was observed when the film was fatigued with higher frequency. The direction of imprint depends on the state of polarization. With the increase in net polarization, the trapped charge density at the film-electrode interface increases which leads to imprint characteristics. Also the imprint increases considerably with the rise in temperature. Finally, we have made an attempt to correlate simultaneously fatigue, polarization relaxation, and imprint characteristics with the presence of mobile charge defects (viz. V_o) and defect dipoles (viz. V_Pb – V_o) in the film.     

Crosstalk noise analysis of coupled on-chip interconnects using a multiresolution time domain (MRTD) technique

Journal of Computational Electronics - In this paper, crosstalk noise analysis of coupled on-chip interconnects is presented. The multiresolution time domain (MRTD) method is used to analyze the...     

Inverse active filters employing CFOAs

New configurations for realizing inverse lowpass, inverse bandpass, inverse highpass and inverse bandreject filters using commercially available current feedback op-amps (CFOA) with an accessible z-terminal such as AD844 are presented. The workability of the proposed circuits has been confirmed by experimental results employing AD844 type CFOAs.     

Synthesis of biodiesel from Scenedesmus sp. by microwave and ultrasound assisted in situ transesterification using tungstated zirconia as a solid acid catalyst

Oleaginous Scenedesmus sp. was cultivated phototrophically in an open pond for biofuels production. The culture was harvested and subsequently dewatered and dried. The chemical properties of the Scenedesmus sp. lipids were determined as per standard ASTM methods. Biodiesel was synthesized by in situ transesterification from dried biomass using microwave and sonication techniques with tungstated zirconia (WO₃/ZrO₂) as a solid acid catalyst. In situ transesterification allowed minimizing the requirement of solvents by merging the two steps (i.e. extraction of lipid and conversion to biodiesel) to a single step. The use of a solid catalyst effectively reduces the purification cost of biodiesel due to ease of separation and potential for reuse. The conversion of Scenedesmus sp. lipids to biodiesel was determined by GC. Box–Behnken design was used for optimization of the variables to optimize the biodiesel yield and conversion. The efficiency of the two processes was compared.     

Evaluating the role of composition and local structure on alkali out-diffusion in glasses for thin-film solar cells

The presence of alkali ions has reportedly improved the performance of CIGS/CZTS–based thin-film solar cells. The out-diffusion of the alkali ion, in particular, Na, from the glass substrate offers a facile scalable route of supplying the alkali ions during the growth of the absorber layer. In this work, we demonstrate the diffusion of different alkali ions (Li/Na/K) from composition tuned glasses with intentionally incorporated excess alkali ions into a thin Mo film, typically used as a bottom electrode in solar cells. We also evaluate the physical, mechanical, and thermal properties of the glasses for suitability as a substrate in thin-film deposition. The out-diffusion of alkali ions to the overlayer is found to be critically influenced by the composition and the local structure of the glasses. The Na ions exhibit the highest extent of diffusion among the alkali ions present in glass substrates, while that for the K-ions is the lowest. For the glasses with mixed alkali ions, the presence of Li facilitated the out-diffusion of Na, whereas K ions appear to inhibit the same. Differently with the existing reports, we show that the activation energy and the presence of Ca ions as additional modifiers play a crucial role in the transport mechanism of the ions. In addition, the synthesized glasses exhibit hardness of the order 5-7 GPa, density ~2.55 g cm^-3. The glass transition temperature lies between 535 and 580°C and the coefficient of thermal expansion 8.5-10 ppm/K, which is highly suitable for use as substrates in thin-film solar cells.     

High-Valent Iron-Oxo and -Nitrido Complexes: Bonding and Reactivity

Multiple-bonded iron-oxo and -nitrido species have been identified or proposed as key intermediates in a range of important chemical transformations. The reported model complexes feature various coordination geometries and distinct electronic structures, and therefore exhibit diverse reactivity. The present contribution highlights the synergy from both experimental and theoretical standpoints to elucidate their different bonding situations and delineate their common mechanistic features in hydrogen-atom abstraction processes. Our analysis reveals that a radical centered on the abstracting atom E (E=O, N), which is generated via homolysis of covalent Fe−E bonds upon approaching the transition state, is an intrinsic C−H cleaving agent. The iron-oxo species is predicted to be more reactive than its nitride congener, in general, because the O−H bond formed in the H-atom transfer process is often stronger than the corresponding N−H bond.     

Secure image encryption scheme using high efficiency word-oriented feedback shift register over finite field

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Image encryption is an evolving technique in the arena of data communication. In the last decade, many encryption schemes have been suggested. Unfortunately,...     

Unsupervised strategies for shilling detection and robust collaborative filtering

Collaborative filtering systems are essentially social systems which base their recommendation on the judgment of a large number of people. However, like other social systems, they are also vulnerable to manipulation by malicious social elements. Lies and Propaganda may be spread by a malicious user who may have an interest in promoting an item, or downplaying the popularity of another one. By doing this systematically, with either multiple identities, or by involving more people, malicious user votes and profiles can be injected into a collaborative recommender system. This can significantly affect the robustness of a system or algorithm, as has been studied in previous work. While current detection algorithms are able to use certain characteristics of shilling profiles to detect them, they suffer from low precision, and require a large amount of training data. In this work, we provide an in-depth analysis of shilling profiles and describe new approaches to detect malicious collaborative filtering profiles. In particular, we exploit the similarity structure in shilling user profiles to separate them from normal user profiles using unsupervised dimensionality reduction. We present two detection algorithms; one based on PCA, while the other uses PLSA. Experimental results show a much improved detection precision over existing methods without the usage of additional training time required for supervised approaches. Finally, we present a novel and highly effective robust collaborative filtering algorithm which uses ideas presented in the detection algorithms using principal component analysis.     

Vulnerabilities in Anonymous Credential Systems

We show the following:

(i) In existing anonymous credential revocation systems, the revocation authority can link the transactions of any user in a subset T of users in O(log|T|) fake failed sessions.

(ii) A concern about the DLREP-I anonymous credentials system described in [Stefan Brands: Rethinking public key infrastructure and Digital Certificates; The MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, London England. ISBN 0-262-02491-8] and [Stefan Brands: A Technical Overview of Digital Credentials; February 2002 (was a white paper in credentica.com)].