Pulsed laser ablation of MoS2 and WO3 targets at appropriate pressures of background gas (Ar, air) were used for the preparation of new hybrid nanostructured catalytic films for hydrogen production in an acid solution. The films consisted of a nanostructured WO3−y underlayer that was covered with composite MoS3/np-Mo nanocatalyst. The use of dry air with pressures of 40 and 80 Pa allowed the formation of porous WO3−y films with cauliflower- and web-like morphology, respectively. The ablation of the MoS2 target in Ar gas at a pressure of 16 Pa resulted in the formation of amorphous MoS3 films and spherical Mo nanoparticles. The hybrid MoS3/np-Mo//WO3−y films deposited on transparent conducting substrates possessed the enhanced (photo)electrocatalytic performance in comparison with that of any pristine one (MoS3/np-Mo or WO3−y films) with the same loading. Modeling by the kinetic Monte Carlo method indicated that the change in morphology of the deposited WO3−y films could be caused by the transition of ballistic deposition to diffusion limited aggregation of structural units (atoms/clusters) under background gas pressure growth. The factors and mechanisms contributing to the enhancement of the electrocatalytic activity of hybrid nanostructured films and facilitating the effective photo-activation of hydrogen evolution in these films are considered.

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The tunable terahertz intersubband Landau level transitions in resonant tunneling cascade quantum well structures are considered. The way of lifting the selection rule forbidding the inter-Landau level terahertz transitions of interest by applying a magnetic field tilted with respect to the structure layers is proposed. The importance of asymmetric structure design to achieve considerable values of transition dipole matrix elements is demonstrated.

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