TiN films were prepared by the Cathodic arc evaporation deposition method under different negative substrate bias. AFM image analyses show that the growth mode of biased coatings changes from 3D island to lateral when the negative bias potential is increased. Nanohardness of the thin films was measured by nanoindentation, and residual stress was determined using Grazing incidence X ray diffraction. The maximum value of residual stress is reached at −100 V substrate bias coinciding with the biggest values of adhesion and nanohardness. Nanoindentation measurement proves that the force-depth curve shifts due to residual stress. The experimental results demonstrate that nanohardness is seriously affected by the residual stress.

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To prevent the spread of diseases in humans, animals or plants, determining whether potential vectors are infected is crucial. For example, early detection of the citrus disease Huanglongbing, which has been a scourge on the citrus industries around the world, is a critical need. This vector-borne disease is transmitted by Diaphorina citri , the Asian citrus psyllid, which carries the putative bacterial phytopathogen, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus ( C Las). In this investigation, we introduced Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) to reveal key biochemical differences between C Las-infected and non-infected psyllids. The emission spectra captured from laser ablation of C Las-infected and healthy psyllids were processed through the principal component analysis (PCA) method and compared. Thirteen peaks from seven different elements were detected in D . citri . The t -test showed that C Las-infected D . citri were deficients in zinc, iron, copper, magnesium, calcium, and nitrogen. The PCA showed that LIBS can successfully differentiate between C Las-infected and healthy D . citri by comparing their elemental profile. In this work, we demonstrated a method that allows for a fast and precise compositional microanalysis of an insect vector which can contribute to the early detection of citrus huanglongbing