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Si-alloyed amorphous alumina coatings having a silicon concentration of 0 to 2.7 at. % were deposited by combinatorial reactive pulsed DC magnetron sputtering of Al and Al-Si (90-10 at. %) split segments in Ar/O2 atmosphere. The effect of Si alloying on thermal stability of the as-deposited amorphous alumina thin films and the phase formation sequence was evaluated by using differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction. The thermal stability window of the amorphous phase containing 2.7 at. % of Si was increased by more than 100 °C compared to that of the unalloyed phase. A similar retarding effect of Si alloying was also observed for the α-Al2O3 formation temperature, which increased by more than 120 °C. While for the latter retardation, the evidence for the presence of SiO2 at the grain boundaries was presented previously, this obviously cannot explain the stability enhancement reported here for the amorphous phase. Based on density functional theory molecular dynamics simulations and synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments for amorphous Al2O3 with and without Si incorporation, we suggest that the experimentally identified enhanced thermal stability of amorphous alumina with addition of Si is due to the formation of shorter and stronger Si–O bonds as compared to Al–O bonds.

In this work we report the study of magnetic relaxation process presented in the bimetallic Co/Au nanoparticles prepared utilizing the reverse micelle method. Structural analysis of the system using synchrotron X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy documented individual nanocrystalline particles of average size about 7 nm. Magnetic properties of the particles were examined by ac magnetic susceptibility measurements at temperature range 2 – 300 K at different frequencies of magnetic field. The relaxation process was revealed at temperature about 6 K. Application of several theoretical models on experimental data of magnetic susceptibility confirmed strong inter-particle interactions and novel superspin glass state in the nanoparticle system at low temperatures.

This work deals with the strain at the core-shell interface of Fe nanoparticles. Series of Fe nanoparticles with various mean diameters were prepared by precipitation in solid state in binary Cu-Fe alloy. Further, nanoparticles were isolated by dissolution of Cu matrix. High-energy X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to probe structure of nanoparticles. XRD measurements suggest presence of the core-shell structure, where core and shell of the nanoparticles are formed of α-Fe and CuFe2O4 phase, respectively. Strains in core and shell were estimated as a function of nanoparticles size by Williamson-Hall method.