Related papers: Nanoconfined Polystyrene: A New Phase
A simple and predictive model is put forward explaining the experimentally observed substantial shift of the glass transition temperature, Tg, of sufficiently thin polymer films. It focuses on the limit of small molecular weight, where…
Recent experimental and computational studies have demonstrated that nanoconfinement profoundly alters the phase behavior of water, facilitating complex phase transitions at pressures and temperatures far lower than typically observed in…
Interlayer coupling is strongly implicated in the complex electronic properties of 1$T$-TaS$_2$ , but the interplay between this and electronic correlations remains unresolved. Here, we employ angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy…
The miniaturization of electronic devices has led to the prominence, in technological applications, of semiconductor thin films that are only a few nanometers thick. In spite of intense research, the thickness-dependent resistivity or…
Confinement can have a dramatic effect on the behavior of all sorts of particulate systems and it therefore is an important phenomenon in many different areas of physics and technology. Here, we investigate the role played by the softness…
Experiments have investigated shape changes of polymer films induced by asymmetric swelling by a chemical vapor. Inspired by recent work on the shaping of elastic sheets by non-Euclidean metrics [Y. Klein, E. Efrati, and E. Sharon, Science…
The electron reflection amplitude $R$ at stacking-fault (SF) induced fractional steps is determined for Ag(111) surface states using a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope. Unexpectedly, $R$ remains as high as $0.6 \sim 0.8$ as…
There is a growing interest since the 1990s to understand the squeezing and shear behaviors of liquid films at nanometer scale by the atomic force microscope (AFM) measurement. We carry out all-atom contact-mode AFM simulations in a…
Laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSSs) on various materials have been extensively investigated because of their wide applications. The combination of different materials allows for greater freedom in tailoring their functions…
Memristive switching in polycrystalline materials is widely attributed to the formation and rupture of conducting filaments, believed to be mediated by oxygen-vacancy redistribution. The underlying atomic-scale processes are still unknown,…
We study the change of the size and structure of freely suspended single lamella nanoparticles of polyethylene during thermal annealing in aqueous solutions. Using small-angle x-ray scattering and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy,…
Studies of random close packing of spheres have advanced our knowledge about the structure of systems such as liquids, glasses, emulsions, granular media, and amorphous solids. When these systems are confined their structural properties…
From in-situ ellipsometric measurements during condensation of As4 molecular beam on GaAs(001) substrate the arsenic sticking coefficient was determined. For the substrate with Ga-rich surface reconstruction at 60C the sticking coefficient…
Vapor deposition on polycrystalline films can lead to staggering levels of compressive stress, exceeding even the yield strength of the films. Mysteriously, a significant part of this stress has a reversible nature: it disappears when the…
When a glassy polymer film is formed by evaporation, the region near the free surface is polymer rich and becomes glassy first, as noticed long ago by Scriven et al. We discuss the thickness of this "crust" and the time interval where it is…
We report on a resistance anomaly in disordered superconducting films containing arrays of irregularly distributed nanoscale holes. At high driving currents, peaks appear in the resistance as a function of temperature, with peak values up…
We present a synchrotron grazing incidence x-ray diffraction analysis of the domain structure and polar symmetry of highly strained BiFeO3 thin films grown on LaAlO3 substrate. We revealed the existence of periodic elastic nanodomains in…
Heterogeneous nucleation from defects dominates the electric field required for polarization switching of ferroelectrics. Here, we consider the switching of a nominally non-switchable polar thin film of AlN due to the proximity effect…
Nanocomposites made of polymer films embedding silver nanoparticles were prepared by thermal annealing of poly-(vinyl) alcohol films containing AgNO3. Low (2.5% w:w) and high (25% w:w) doping concentration of silver nitrate were considered…
Highly confined "spoof" surface plasmon-like (SSP) modes are theoretically predicted to exist in a perforated metal film coated with a thin dielectric layer. Strong modes confinement results from the additional waveguiding by the layer.…