Gopalakrishnan Chandrasekaran

Characterization and bacterial toxicity of lanthanum oxide bulk and nanoparticles

This study evaluated the bacterial toxicity of lanthanum oxide micron and nano sized particles using shake flask method against gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and gram-negative (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria. Particle size, morphology and chemical composition were determined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Re- sults indicated that lanthanum oxide nanoparticles showed antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, but not against Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It was speculated that lanthanum oxide produced this effect by interacting with the gram-positive bacte- rial cell wall. Furthermore, lanthanum oxide bulk particles were found to enhance the pyocyanin pigment production in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Room temperature magnetoelectric coupling in Zn1−xCoxO/BaTiO3 bilayer system

We report on room temperature magnetoelectric coupling in Zn1−xCoxO/BaTiO3 (x = 0.02, 0.05, and 0.10) bilayer thinfilm multiferroic system (BLS) grown on SrTiO3 (100) substrate. All the BLSs exhibit room temperature ferroelectric response. The BLS with x = 0.02 is paramagnetic, while the BLS with x = 0.05 and 0.10 is weakly ferromagnetic. Increase in Co concentration of the BLS results in reduction of permittivity and electric polarization along with increase of coercive voltage, coercive field, and magnetic moment. The d33 value change from 23 pm/V to 30 pm/V with increase in external magnetic field from 1500 G to 2500 G for BLS with x = 0.05. This shows that Zn1−xCoxO/BaTiO3 is magnetoelectrically coupled at room temperature.

Room temperature magnetoelectric coupling in BaTi1−xCrxO3 multiferroic thin films

We report on room temperature (RT) magnetoelectric coupling in tetragonal BaTi1−xCrxO3 thin film multiferroics (BTCO) sputter deposited on (100) SrTiO3 (where x = 0.005, 0.01, 0.02, and 0.03). As-deposited thin films are vacuum annealed by electron beam rapid thermal annealing technique. 50 nm thick BTCO with “x = 0.01” shows RT ferromagnetic and ferroelectric response with saturation magnetic moment of 1120 emu/cc and polarization of 14.7 microcoulomb/cm2. Piezoresponse/magnetic force microscope images shows RT magnetoelectric coupling in BTCO with “x = 0.01,” which is confirmed using magnetocapacitance measurement where an increase in capacitance from 17.5 pF to 18.4 pF is observed with an applied magnetic field.