Guiyang Zhang

Thickness dependent fatigue life at microcrack nucleation for metal thin films on flexible substrates

For polymer-supported metal thin films used in flexible electronics, the definition of the fatigue lifetime at microcrack nucleation (FLMN) should be more physically meaningful than all the previous definitions at structural instability. In this paper, the FLMN of Cu films (with thickness from 100 nm to 3.75 µm) as well as Al thin films (from 80 to 800 nm) was experimentally characterized at different strain ranges and different thicknesses by using a simple electrical resistance measurement (ERM). A significant thickness dependence was revealed for the FLMN and a similar Coffin–Manson fatigue relationship observed commonly in bulk materials was found to be still operative in both the films. Microstructural analyses were carried out to verify the feasibility of ERM correspondingly.

Comparative investigation of fracture behaviour of aluminium-doped ZnO films on a flexible substrate

The differences in the fracture behaviour of aluminium-doped ZnO (AZO) films on a flexible substrate subjected to tensile and compressive strains were investigated by using a simple-support bending method. It is found that the crack density and the crack spacing of the AZO films become saturated both in the face-out (FO) and in the face-in (FI) bending tests when the applied strain reaches a certain value. The saturated crack density of the AZO film in the FO bending is higher than that of the film in the FI bending. Crack-initiation strain of the film in the FO bending is smaller than that of the film in the FI bending. The fracture energy of the AZO films is also analyszed. Failure behaviours of the films are examined and exhibit different failure mechanisms for the films subjected to tensile and compressive strains.

Enhancement of pump efficiency for an organic distributed feedback laser based on a holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal as an external light feedback layer

We report a low threshold, high energy conversion organic distributed feedback (DFB) laser based on a holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal (HPDLC) grating as an external light feedback layer, specifically, by adopting an acrylate-based monomer with low functionality and a rubbed polyimide (PI) alignment layer. In such configuration, the phase separated LCs were aligned along the preferred direction, which gave an increased refractive index difference between the LC and the polymer, so it can provide better light feedback in the HPDLC layer. The pump efficiency for the laser, such as lasing output threshold and conversion efficiency, can be enhanced. The light loss, diffraction efficiency and driving voltage were also investigated for the HPDLC structures to identify the effects of the rubbing layer and monomer functionality.

Disordered Tm:Ca 9 La(VO 4 ) 7 : a novel crystal with potential for broadband tunable lasing

We report on the crystal growth, structural and spectroscopic investigation of a novel trigonal calcium vanadate crystal, Tm3+:Ca9La(VO4)7. Polarized absorption, stimulated-emission and gain cross-section spectra are determined for this material. The maximum σSE corresponding to the 3F4 → 3H6 transition amounts to 1.28 × 10−20 cm2 at 1854 nm for σ-polarization. The measured lifetime of the Tm3+ ions in the 3F4 state is 1.19 ms. The Judd-Ofelt analysis performed yielded intensity parameters of Ω2 = 4.682, Ω4 = 0.659 and Ω6 = 0.475 [10−20 cm2]. The polarized Raman spectra indicate a strong and broad band centered at 867 cm−1. Owing to the disordered nature of Ca9La(VO4)7, the Tm3+ ions exhibit a broad and smooth gain profile at ~2 μm. The spectroscopic properties of Tm3+:Ca9La(VO4)7 are very promising for broadly tunable and ultrashort pulse lasers near 2 µm.

Tunable surface-emitting dual-wavelength laser from a blended gain layer with an external holographic grating feedback structure

A tunable surface-emitting dual-wavelength laser emitted from the blended organic gain layer based on a holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal (HPDLC) transmission grating feedback structure was reported. The organic blended gain layer was formed from Poly (2-methoxy-5-(2’-ethyl-hexyloxy)-p-phenylenevinylene) (MEH-PPV) and Poly (2-methoxy-5-(3′, 7’-dimethyloctyloxy)-1, 4-phenylenevinylene) (MDMO-PPV) with a weight ratio of 2:1. The dual-wavelength laser located at 629.9 nm and 640 nm was obtained in a single beam. The optical characteristics of these two organic semiconducting materials and the dual-wavelength laser performance under an electric field are investigated and illustrated. This simple tunable dual-wavelength laser shows the potential to extend the development of organic lasers.

Improving the conversion efficiency of an organic distributed feedback laser by varying solvents of the laser gain layer

ABSTRACT Control experiments were performed to improve the slope conversion efficiency of the organic distributed feedback laser by varying the dissolution solvents of the laser gain layer, a conjugated polymer poly(2-methoxy-5-(2ʹ-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene-vinylene) (MEH-PPV) in this work. The distributed feedback configuration of the laser was prepared by holographic photopolymerisation of the polymer/liquid crystal (HPDLC) mixture. Experimental results showed that the tetrahydrofuran (THF) solvent cast laser gain layer had a lower lasing threshold (0.28 μJ/pulse) and a higher slope conversion efficiency (7.8%) than that of the xylene solvent cast laser gain layer (0.5 μJ/pulse, 4.9%). Thin film waveguide characterisation demonstrated that the THF-cast film possessed a smaller waveguide loss (5.3 cm−1) and larger net gain (17.1 cm−1) than the xylene-cast film (8.3 cm−1, 15.7 cm−1). Absorbance and photoluminescence spectra indicated that the THF-cast film showed brighter luminescence at 620 nm and larger absorbance at 532 nm, indicating that the interchain interactions of the MEH-PPV is different, which plays the vital role in improving the optical performance of our organic DFB lasers. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Mechanical Characterizations of Saxidomus purpuratus Shells

A sort of biological shells (Saxidomus purpuratus), which belongs to Bivalve, was selected as the target material, and hardness and dynamic three point bending fatigue tests were conducted to examine its mechanical properties. Microhardness measurements showed that the inner layer is the hardest. The indentation on the specimen with a lower bending strength was damaged more seriously by the same load. Three point bending fatigue tests demonstrated that this kind of the shells with a special structure comprising mineral and organic matrix can experience the repeated loads instead of immediate breaking. The fatigue results on a single shell investigated here indicated that the fatigue strength is usually less than the static bending strength. Most of the fatigue lives of the specimens are less than 2105 cycles. In addition, fatigue fracture surfaces are observed by scanning electron microscopy.

Evaluation of phase state and rotational viscosity of fast response liquid crystals using a fully atomistic molecular dynamics

ABSTRACT Rational design of liquid crystals (LCs) with excellent phase state and rotational viscosity has been a crucial technique for response speed improvement of LC wavefront corrector. A complete process for theoretically evaluating the phase state and rotational viscosity of fast response LCs using a fully atomistic molecular dynamics is reported. Predicted trends in molecular order, phase-transition temperature between metastable states and rotational viscosity show excellent agreement with experimental results. We also demonstrate that overestimation of the attraction both between and within molecules in the general Amber force field mainly leads to a systematic shift in the phase-transition temperature, rotational viscosity and figure-of-merit for fast response LCs. With further optimisations of intermolecular potential, simulation procedure and data processing, this fully atomistic simulation will be a useful evaluation method of response performance of LC materials. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Effects of Microstructures on Strength and Fatigue Properties of Long-Term-Serviced F12 Steels

Microstructures of long-term serviced F12 steel exposed at 545 °C have been investigated by electron microscopes. The hardness of the material was measured to be correlated with the variation of the microstructures. Fatigue properties of the material with different running time were evaluated and analyzed. The experimental results show that the coarsening of the precipitated carbides along boundaries and the formation of subgrains accelerate the degradation of the long-term creep properties of the steel. Fatigue crack initiation threshold from a notch linearly deceases with increasing the running time due to the variation of the distribution and the shape of the precipitated carbides. The degradation mechanisms of the F12 steel during their long-term service at high temperature are discussed.