Boris Mogwitz

Magnetoresistance in Ag2+δSe with high silver excess

In the present study, we investigated the galvanomagnetic transport properties of polycrystalline AgxSe thin films with silver excess in the range from x=1.5 to 18. The results prove that the silver excess controls the transition from linear magnetoresistance (MR) behavior to the quadratic ordinary MR and the temperature for the metal–semiconductor transition. Analyzing the MR effect by Kohler’s rule and comparing the results with the field-free resistivity we observe for 2<x<2.3 a steep rise of the product of mean free path and electron concentration (λ·n2∕3). We interpret this result as a consequence of the percolation of nanoscale silver networks within the semiconducting matrix, i.e., as a consequence of the two-phase character of the system.

Preparation and magnetoresistance of Ag2+xSe thin films deposited via pulsed laser deposition

The preparation of Ag 2+x Se thin films with thicknesses between 4 nm and 3000 nm by pulsed laser deposition on single crystalline NaCl and MgO substrates is reported. The films are perfectly dense and show a good lateral uniformity with a small number of defects. The microstructure of the films corresponds to a nanoparquet, being composed of two different phases of silver selenide. One phase is identified as the Naumannite low temperature phase of silver selenide, the structure of the other phase has not been reported in detail before and probably represents a metastable phase. Silver-rich films contain silver precipitates with typical sizes on the nanoscale. Their presence and their size appears to be responsible for the large and linear magnetoresistance effect of silver-rich silver selenide.

Adjustable metal-semiconductor transition of FeS thin films by thermal annealing

FeS polycrystalline thin films were prepared on float glass at 500°C by radio-frequency reactive sputtering. The influence of vacuum annealing on the metal-semiconductor transition of FeS films was investigated. It has been found that with the increase of the annealing temperature from 360to600°C, the metal-semiconductor transition temperature of FeS films first decreases and then increases, associated with first a reduction and then an enhancement of hysteresis width. The thermal stress is considered to give rise to the abnormal change of the metal-semiconductor transition of the FeS film during annealing.

Strontium release from Sr2+-loaded bone cements and dispersion in healthy and osteoporotic rat bone

Drug functionalization of biomaterials is a modern and popular approach in biomaterials research. Amongst others this concept is used for the functionalization of bone implants to locally stimulate the bone healing process. For example strontium ions (Sr2+) are administered in osteoporosis therapy to stimulate bone growth and have recently been integrated into bone cements. Based on results of different analytical experiments we developed a two-phase model for the transport of therapeutically active Sr2+-ions in bone in combination with Korsmeyer-Peppas kinetics for the Sr2+ release from bone cement. Data of cement dissolution experiments into water in combination with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis account for dissolution kinetics following Noyes-Whitney rule. For dissolution in α-MEM cell culture media the process is kinetically hindered and can be described by Korsmeyer-Peppas kinetics. Time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) was used to determine the Sr2+ diffusion coefficient in healthy and osteoporotic trabecular rat bone. Therefore, bone sections were dipped in aqueous Sr2+-solution by one side and the Sr2+-profile was measured by classical SIMS depth profiling. The Sr2+ mobility can be described by a simple diffusion model and we obtained diffusion coefficients of (2.28±2.97)⋅10-12cm2/s for healthy and of (1.55±0.93)⋅10-10cm2/s for osteoporotic bone. This finding can be explained by a different bone nanostructure, which was observed by focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Finally, the time and spatially resolved drug transport was calculated by finite element method for the femur of healthy and osteoporotic rats. The obtained results were compared to mass images that were obtained from sections of in vivo experiments by ToF-SIMS. The simulated data fits quite well to experimental results. The successfully applied model for the description of drug dispersion can help to reduce the number of animal experiments in the future.