A. H. Harker

Velocity and attenuation of ultrasound in suspensions of particles in fluids

The theory of the scattering of compression waves in viscous fluids is examined. The effects of fluid viscosity, of differences in density and in elastic modulus between the particles and the fluid, of heat transfer and of concentration are considered. Ultrasonic phase velocity and attenuation are derived. Results for the phase velocity are compared with several other formulations. The feasibility of using ultrasound to characterise suspensions is discussed.

Misfit strain and misfit dislocations in lattice mismatched epitaxial layers and other systems

Abstract Heterostructures in the form of thin layers of one material grown on a substrate have been the subject of intense study for several years. In the case of semiconductor systems the aim is to grow epitaxial layers of, for example, Si1-xGex on Si, and devices based on such structures are already in use. Much is known, as is summarized in this review, about the stability of such systems against the insertion of dislocations, and about the critical thicknesses up to which strained layer structures are stable. The effects of dislocation nucleation and the dynamics of dislocation motion which lead to strain relaxation in metastable systems are also reviewed. The present state of theoretical understanding is compared with what is known experimentally. For metallic systems, which often exhibit magnetic properties, the underlying problems of lattice mismatch and strain relief are similar, but much of the interest has been concentrated on the commensurate-incommensurate transition in both structurally and m...

Edge‐induced stress and strain in stripe films and substrates: A two‐dimensional finite element calculation

Finite element calculations of stresses and strains in substrates and stripe films of thickness h and width 2l are reported. Both variation of the stress in the vertical direction (away from the interface) in the film and distortion of the substrate are taken into account. The calculations show that both the horizontal and vertical lattice planes are curved in the film as well as in the substrate. If the thickness of the substrate is infinite, the curvature in the substrate is maximum near the interface and decays rapidly with depth. Furthermore, the edges near the top are over‐relaxed, i.e., if the film is originally under compression, the stress becomes tensile because the free edge surfaces affect the relaxation. For a film with h/l=1 or greater, the stress is reversed throughout the top layer. The change from compression to tension takes place partly because of the Poisson effect and partly due to the bending of the lattice planes. The approximations made in the existing analytical models were examine...

Hartree-Fock cluster computations of defect and perfect ionic crystal properties

Abstract Recent progress is reported on a collaboration to develop a convenient program package for point defect calculations in ionic crystals, incorporating unrestricted Hartree-Fock self-consistent field cluster calculations with correlation correction, interfaced with a surrounding shell-model lattice. Electric multipole consistency between cluster and lattice and appropriate lattice boundary conditions for the cluster are features of the method. Application to specific defects and questions of consistency between cluster treatment and perfect lattice properties will be discussed.

The initial protection of defects in alkali halides: F and H centre production by non-radiative decay of the self-trapped exciton

Radiation damage in KCl can be produced by the decay of a self-trapped exciton into an F centre and an H centre. The authors present calculations of the energies of the states involved for various stages in the evolution of the damage. These lead to important conclusions about the very rapid damage process, and support strongly Itoh and Saidohs suggestion (1973) that damage proceeds through an excited hole state. The results also help in understanding the prompt decay of F and H pairs at low temperatures, the thermal annihilation of F and H centres, the effects of optical excitation of the self-trapped exciton, and some of the trends within the alkali halides. The calculations use a self-consistent semi-empirical molecular-orbital method. A large cluster of ions is used (either 42 or 57 ions) plus long-range Madelung terms. The ion positions were obtained from separate lattice-relaxation calculations with the HADES code. The choice of CNDO parameters and the adequacy of the method were checked by a number of separate predictions.

Electrohydrodynamic encapsulation of cisplatin in poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles for controlled drug delivery

Targeted delivery of potent, toxic chemotherapy drugs, such as cisplatin, is a significant area of research in cancer treatment. In this study, cisplatin was successfully encapsulated with high efficiency (>70%) in poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) polymeric nanoparticles by using electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) where applied voltage and solution flow rate as well as the concentration of cisplatin and polymer were varied to control the size of the particles. Thus, nanoparticles were produced with three different drug:polymer ratios (2.5, 5 and 10wt% cisplatin). It was shown that smaller nanoparticles were produced with 10wt% cisplatin. Furthermore, these demonstrated the best sustained release (smallest burst release). By fitting the experimental data with various kinetic models it was concluded that the release is dependent upon the particle morphology and the drug concentration. Thus, these particles have significant potential for cisplatin delivery with controlled dosage and release period that are crucial chemotherapy parameters.

Bistable collective behavior of polymers tethered in a nanopore.

Polymer-coated pores play a crucial role in nucleo-cytoplasmic transport and in a number of biomimetic and nanotechnological applications. Here we present Monte Carlo and Density Functional Theory approaches to identify different collective phases of end-grafted polymers in a nanopore and to study their relative stability as a function of intermolecular interactions. Over a range of system parameters that is relevant for nuclear pore complexes, we observe two distinct phases: one with the bulk of the polymers condensed at the wall of the pore, and the other with the polymers condensed along its central axis. The relative stability of these two phases depends on the interpolymer interactions. The existence the two phases suggests a mechanism in which marginal changes in these interactions, possibly induced by nuclear transport receptors, cause the pore to transform between open and closed configurations, which will influence transport through the pore.

Structure-dependent exchange in the organic magnets Cu(II)Pc and Mn(II)Pc

We study exchange couplings in the organic magnets copper(II) phthalocyanine [Cu(II)Pc] and manganese(II) phthalocyanine [Mn(II)Pc] by a combination of Greens function perturbation theory and ab initio density-functional theory (DFT). Based on the indirect exchange model, our perturbation-theory calculation of Cu(II)Pc qualitatively agrees with the experimental observations. DFT calculations performed on Cu(II)Pc dimer show a very good quantitative agreement with exchange couplings that our theoretical group extracts by using a global fitting for the magnetization measurements to a spin-1/2 Bonner-Fisher model. These two methods give us remarkably consistent trends for the exchange couplings in Cu(II)Pc when changing the stacking angles. The situation is more complex for Mn(II)Pc owing to the competition between superexchange and indirect exchange.

Film edge-induced stress in substrates and finite films

Abstract A numerical method developed originally for calculating the edge-induced relaxation of film stress in a semi-infinite thin film, and the corresponding stresses induced in the substrate, is extended to apply to stripes of finite width 2l and thickness h. Values of relaxation are obtained by numerical integration for several values of the ratio R = Kl h (K depends on the elastic constants of the film and substrate). Since numerical integration is necessary to evaluate the full solution for each value of R, an approximate expression for the relaxation is derived. This expression is accurate to within 6% for R = 1 and the accuracy increases rapidly as R increases; becoming practically zero for R > 3. Since all substrate stress components depend uniquely on the film relaxation, they can also be calculated using this expression. It is shown that earlier expressions used for the finite stripe give very large errors both in the stripe and in the substrate. A method to extend the use of this expression to calculate stresses in an array of stripes separated by valleys and in the substrate under the array is also described. The expression is compared with experimental results on GaAs stripes grown on Si substrates.

Ultrasonic propagation in slurries.

Experimental measurements have been made of the ultrasonic velocity and attenuation in some simple suspensions of, mainly, silicon carbide in water and in ethylene glycol. These are compared with theoretical predictions based on a novel hydrodynamic model. Predicted ultrasonic velocities are in excellent agreement with the measured values. Predicted and measured ultrasonic attenuations do not agree as well. However, the suspensions give rise to excess attenuations rising to a few hundred nepers per metre and special experimental techniques were needed to measure ultrasonic properties. To predict attenuations to within, say, 20% for mixtures such as these is a major achievement.