Macroscopic Anisotropy Research Articles

Wet etching mechanism of Er2O3 grown on Si by molecular beam epitaxy

We report on wet etching mechanism of erbium oxide in a sulfuric acid solution within the nanometer scale. The experiments were performed on 300 nm thick Er2O3 thin films formed on Si substrate by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The etching mechanism was greatly effected by surface morphology and was different for Er2O3 on Si(111) compared to Er2O3 on Si(100) orientation samples. The chemical etching kinetics was analysed in detail by determining the etching rates and activation energy. The well-defined patterns were formed to explain etching anisotropy. The lateral isotropic etching can be achieved for both orientation Er2O3 (110), (111) samples, however the macroscopic etching anisotropy of Er2O3(110) thin film is governed by the shape of nanometer size crystalline grains and their in-plane alignment. The model based on surface morphology was introduced to explain the lateral etching anisotropy of Er2O3(110) thin film, finally.

High frequency giant magnetoimpedance effect of a stress-annealed Fe-rich glass-coated microwire

Processing by stress-annealing (450 MPa, 300 °C, 1 h) the glass-coated microwire of Fe75B9Si12C4 composition a macroscopic magnetic anisotropy with a circular component is developed. This anisotropy very significantly improves the giant magnetoimpedance (GMI) effect with respect to the observed in the as-prepared microwire. The analysis of the GMI response as a function of the frequency (10–1000 MHz) opens new lights to understand the distribution of the magnetic anisotropy inside the glass-coated microwire.We have investigated the GMI response of the stress-annealed Fe75B9Si12C4 glass-coated microwire. From the frequency dependence of the GMI we have analyzed the distribution of the magnetic anisotropy inside the metallic nucleus obtaining good agreement with the average value of the anisotropy field deduced from the hysteresis loop of the bulk.From measured magnetic field dependences of GMI ratio we evaluated the frequency and magnetic field dependences of the penetration depth. We found that the minimum penetration depth of Fe75B9Si12C4 microwire decreases from about 1.5 μm down to 0.8 μm after stress annealing.Obtained dependences demonstrate that the minimum penetration depth value as well as the frequency and magnetic field dependences are considerably affected by the stress-annealing.

Characterization of Macroscopic Mechanical Anisotropy of Magnetocaloric Gadolinium Cylinders

The metallographic analysis of polycrystalline gadolinium cylinders revealed a microstructural anisotropy of some included phases in the extrusion and extrusion transversal directions. The amount of those phases in the material is not significant. However, the macroscopic anisotropy of mechanical properties needs to be verified. The strain distribution during compression loading was analyzed using finite element model (FEM) simulations. A FEM for the simulation of the elasto-plastic response of the Gd cylinders was performed. For this purpose, the experimentally obtained typical flow curve in the extrusion direction was used as the input data for the FEM model. Based on the dimensional similarity of the FEM model and the measured specimens, the potential appearance of macroscopic anisotropy is evaluated. Mechanical testing using compression cigar tests, as well as FEM, did not confirm any obvious effect of the elongated inclusions on the mechanical anisotropy of the gadolinium specimens.

Strain-induced reversible manipulation of orbital magnetic moments in Ni/Cu multilayers on ferroelectric BaTiO3

Controlling magnetic anisotropy by orbital magnetic moments related to interfacial strains has considerable potential for the development of future devices using spins and orbitals. For the fundamental physics, the relationship between strain and orbital magnetic moment is still unknown, because there are few tools to probe changes of orbital magnetic moment. In this study, we developed an electric field (E)-induced X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (EXMCD) technique to apply E to a ferroelectric BaTiO3 substrate. We reversibly tuned the interfacial lattice constants of Ni/Cu multilayers on BaTiO3 using this technique. As the domain structures in BaTiO3 are modulated by E, EXMCD measurements reveal that the changes in the magnetic anisotropy of Ni/Cu films are induced through the modulation of orbital magnetic moments in Ni with magneto-elastic contributions. The strained Ni layer that induces the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy without E is released at E = 8 kV/cm, and in-plane magnetization also occurs. We observed that EXMCD measurements clarified the origin of the reversible changes in perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and established the relationship between macroscopic inverse magnetostriction effects and microscopic orbital moment anisotropy.

Orientationally-averaged diffusion-attenuated magnetic resonance signal for locally-anisotropic diffusion

Diffusion-attenuated MR signal for heterogeneous media has been represented as a sum of signals from anisotropic Gaussian sub-domains to the extent that this approximation is permissible. Any effect of macroscopic (global or ensemble) anisotropy in the signal can be removed by averaging the signal values obtained by differently oriented experimental schemes. The resulting average signal is identical to what one would get if the micro-domains are isotropically (e.g., randomly) distributed with respect to orientation, which is the case for “powdered” specimens. We provide exact expressions for the orientationally-averaged signal obtained via general gradient waveforms when the microdomains are characterized by a general diffusion tensor possibly featuring three distinct eigenvalues. This extends earlier results which covered only axisymmetric diffusion as well as measurement tensors. Our results are expected to be useful in not only multidimensional diffusion MR but also solid-state NMR spectroscopy due to the mathematical similarities in the two fields.

Microstructure and mechanical anisotropy of CoCrW alloy processed by selective laser melting

We have investigated the correlation between the microstructure and mechanical anisotropy of biomedical CoCrW alloy processed by selective laser melting (SLM). A phase analysis revealed that the as-SLM CoCrW alloy consisted of mostly the γ-fcc phase and little ε-hcp phase. The as-SLM CoCrW microstructure featured the rotated cube texture, a strong <100> texture along the building direction (BD) and a weaker <110> texture along the front direction. To investigate the mechanical anisotropy, the external loading was applied either perpendicular or parallel to the BD (i.e., horizontal loading (⊥BD) or vertical loading (//BD), respectively). The rotated cube texture leads to a higher elastic modulus (~ 2.4 times), plastic flow stress, and microhardness in the horizontal loading. Macroscopic plastic anisotropy was elucidated by the Taylor factor analysis of polycrystalline aggregate. Strain-induced martensite transformation (SIMT) occurring in the horizontal loading (ef = 6.9%) is responsible for significantly reduced elongation to fracture compared to the vertical loading (ef = 32.8%). In the fatigue crack growth experiment, the threshold stress intensity range in the vertical loading is ~ 32% higher compared to the horizontal loading, leading to a retarded fatigue crack growth rate. A vertically elongated columnar granular structure due to the epitaxial grain growth along the BD results in anisotropic behavior of the fatigue crack growth.

Tunable magnetic anisotropy in nanostructured permanent magnet: A micromagnetic study

Abstract The optimization of the magnetic energy of nanowires assembly is a delicate balance between the magnetic properties of each nanowire, their organization and their density inside the bulk assembly. As a matter of fact, from the simulation point of view, a dense packed structure of Co nanowires with high magnetocrystalline anisotropy and perfect alignment is the best solution to obtain a high magnetic energy and thus a powerful rare earth free permanent magnet. However, experiments have been shown that this is not a trivial task since the misalignment of nanowires inexorably occurs and likely reduces (more than expected) the magnetic properties of the final nanostructured assembly. Experiments also suggest that when the hardness and/or relative density (%) of the ensemble increases, the magnetic properties decreases casting the seeds of doubt on the realistic possibility of using these sintered materials in a new rare earth technology. Inside this frame, we report here the effect of a realistic misalignment reproducing the one observed experimentally inside the nanowires assembly. We show how, dipolar interactions and macroscopic shape contribute in different ways to destroy the magnetic energy of the bulk nanostructured material. However, we report the critical percentage of misalignment and disorder still affordable to keep the magnetic properties of the bulk material. We also demonstrate that these nanostructured materials can be interesting for their high macroscopic magnetic anisotropy. Last but not least, we show that the macroscopic shape of the nanowires assemblies presents very different critical sensibility to the misalignment/disorder of the arrangement. In particular, we report how a bi-dimensional arrangement of nanowires can be more magnetically stable compared to the tri-dimensional one. All these results give insights on the future strategies to optimize the magnetic properties of cobalt-based nanostructured material.

Macro- and Nanoscale Magnetic Anisotropy of FeNi(P) Micropillars in Polycarbonate Membrane

Macroscopic and local magnetic anisotropy of the FeNi(P) pillars deposited using electroless plating in the pores of the nuclear track-etched polycarbonate membrane has been studied. The alloy fills the pores and forms a nail-shaped pillar. The macroscopic easy magnetization axis was found to be perpendicular to the membrane plane due to magnetic shape anisotropy. The macroscopic magnetic anisotropy constant decreases with decreasing pillar diameter from 0.4 to 0.1 μm supposedly due to increase of the pillar cap contribution. Approach to magnetic saturation analysis indicates that the order in local easy magnetization axis is localized on a nanoscale. The correlation length of the local easy axis and the local magnetic anisotropy field in (Fe100−xNix)98P2 pillars of different compositions with diameter of 0.4 μm are studied.

Application of a polarized modulation technique in supramolecular science: chiroptical measurements of optically anisotropic systems

The chirality of a supramolecular assembly provides particularly valuable information because the bonding nature of noncovalent interactions, such as electrostatic interactions, π effects, van der Waals forces, and hydrophobic effects, makes the development of supramolecular assemblies an attractive and useful approach in chiral induction, chiral amplification, and chirality transfer. However, chiroptical measurements of optically anisotropic samples cannot be generally achieved with modern chiroptical spectrophotometric methods such as circular dichroism (CD) or circular birefringence (CB) and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) that are based on polarization modulation techniques because of the coupling effect of the nonideal optics and the electronics with strong macroscopic anisotropies, that is, nonchiral signals related to linearly polarized phenomena. These artifact signals are often much stronger than the chiroptical signals. Only CD and CPL spectrophotometers developed in 2001 and 2016, respectively, and integrated into a Stokes–Mueller matrix analysis for optically anisotropic samples are capable of obtaining accurate chirality measurements of samples with macroscopic anisotropies. Therefore, these spectrophotometers enable chiral investigations of optically anisotropic samples, for example, single crystals, supramolecular assemblies, gels, films, membranes, polymers, and liquid crystals. This focus review presents a short and elementary discussion of the chiroptical measurement techniques for optically anisotropic samples in supramolecular science and signal interpretation in polarization spectroscopy.

A microstructure-dependent plate model for orthotropic functionally graded micro-plates

ABSTRACTA microstructure-dependent plate model for bending of orthotropic functionally graded micro-plates was proposed on the basis of a re-modified couple stress theory. The proposed model contributed a consideration of micro- as well as macroscopic anisotropy of the plate. Meanwhile these two category material attributes are also assumed to vary continuously through the thickness direction by a power law. From a detailed process of variation the equilibrium equations and related boundary conditions are derived. A simply supported square plate subjected to a double sinusoidal distributed load is taken as the illustrative example and analytically solved. Numerical results demonstrated that the developed micro-plate model predict smaller deflections and stresses than classical model. In addition, the magnitudes of additional bending stiffness in two orthogonal directions caused by scale effect are different.

Highly Oriented Nanowire Thin Films with Anisotropic Optical Properties Driven by the Simultaneous Influence of Surface Templating and Shear Forces.

The functional properties of nanoparticle thin films depend strongly on the arrangement of the nanoparticles within the material. In particular, anisotropic optoelectronic properties can be achieved through the aligned assembly of 1D nanomaterials such as silver nanowires (AgNWs). However, the control of the hierarchical organization of these nanoscale building blocks across multiple length scales and over large areas is still a challenge. Here, we show that the oriented deposition of AgNWs using grazing incidence spraying of the nano-object suspensions on a substrate comprising parallel surface wrinkles readily produces highly oriented monolayer thin films on macroscopic areas (>5 × 5 mm2). The use of textured substrates enhances the degree of ordering as compared to flat ones and increases the area over which AgNWs are oriented. The resulting microscopic linear arrangement of AgNWs evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) reflects in a pronounced macroscopic optical anisotropy measured by conventional polarized UV-vis-NIR spectroscopy. The enhanced ordering obtained when spraying is done in the same direction as the wrinkles makes this approach more robust against small rotational offsets during preparation. On the contrary, the templating effect of the wrinkle topography can even dominate the shear-driven alignment when spraying is performed perpendicular to the wrinkles: the concomitant but opposing influence of topographic confinement (alignment along the wrinkles) and of spray-induced shear forces (orientation along the spraying direction) lead to films in which the predominant orientation of AgNWs gradually changes from one direction to its perpendicular one over the same substrate in a single processing step. This demonstrates that exploiting the subtle balance between shear forces and substrate-nanowire interactions mediated by wrinkles offers a new way to control the self-assembly of nanoparticles into more complex patterns.

Tissue Anisotropy Modeling Using Soft Composite Materials.

Soft tissues in general exhibit anisotropic mechanical behavior, which varies in three dimensions based on the location of the tissue in the body. In the past, there have been few attempts to numerically model tissue anisotropy using composite-based formulations (involving fibers embedded within a matrix material). However, so far, tissue anisotropy has not been modeled experimentally. In the current work, novel elastomer-based soft composite materials were developed in the form of experimental test coupons, to model the macroscopic anisotropy in tissue mechanical properties. A soft elastomer matrix was fabricated, and fibers made of a stiffer elastomer material were embedded within the matrix material to generate the test coupons. The coupons were tested on a mechanical testing machine, and the resulting stress-versus-stretch responses were studied. The fiber volume fraction (FVF), fiber spacing, and orientations were varied to estimate the changes in the mechanical responses. The mechanical behavior of the soft composites was characterized using hyperelastic material models such as Mooney-Rivlin's, Humphrey's, and Veronda-Westmann's model and also compared with the anisotropic mechanical behavior of the human skin, pelvic tissues, and brain tissues. This work lays the foundation for the experimental modelling of tissue anisotropy, which combined with microscopic studies on tissues can lead to refinements in the simulation of localized fiber distribution and orientations, and enable the development of biofidelic anisotropic tissue phantom materials for various tissue engineering and testing applications.

On Elastic Symmetry Identification for Polycrystalline Materials

The products made by the forming of polycrystalline metals and alloys, which are in high demand in modern industries, have pronounced inhomogeneous distribution of grain orientations. The presence of specific orientation modes in such materials, i.e., crystallographic texture, is responsible for anisotropy of their physical and mechanical properties, e.g., elasticity. A type of anisotropy is usually unknown a priori, and possible ways of its determination is of considerable interest both from theoretical and practical viewpoints. In this work, emphasis is placed on the identification of elasticity classes of polycrystalline materials. By the newly introduced concept of “elasticity class” the union of congruent tensor subspaces of a special form is understood. In particular, it makes it possible to consider the so-called symmetry classification, which is widely spread in solid mechanics. The problem of identification of linear elasticity class for anisotropic material with elastic moduli given in an arbitrary orthonormal basis is formulated. To solve this problem, a general procedure based on constructing the hierarchy of approximations of elasticity tensor in different classes is formulated. This approach is then applied to analyze changes in the elastic symmetry of a representative volume element of polycrystalline copper during numerical experiments on severe plastic deformation. The microstructure evolution is described using a two-level crystal elasto-visco-plasticity model. The well-defined structures, which are indicative of the existence of essentially inhomogeneous distribution of crystallite orientations, were obtained in each experiment. However, the texture obtained in the quasi-axial upsetting experiment demonstrates the absence of significant macroscopic elastic anisotropy. Using the identification framework, it has been shown that the elasticity tensor corresponding to the resultant microstructure proves to be almost isotropic.

Electric birefringence of carbon nanotubes: Single- vs double-walled

When subjected to an external electric field, carbon nanotubes in suspension are polarized and forced to rotate due to the consequent electric torque. The analysis of this electro-orientation is interesting not only at a fundamental level, but also because of the many applications that require the alignment of these particles. Moreover, the study of the interaction of the tubes with an electric field is a highly informative non-invasive technique, able to provide much information on their microscopic properties. In order to monitor the orientation of the particles, in this work we measured the macroscopic optical anisotropy of the suspension, or electric birefringence, that emerges when the tubes are oriented by the field. Two types of particle were studied: single-walled and double-walled carbon nanotubes. The electric, optical and geometrical properties of the suspended tubes were analysed via the field dependence of the electric birefringence over a wide range. Remarkably, it was found that, whilst single-walled carbon nanotubes show a positive signal, double-walled carbon nanotubes exhibit a negative birefringence caused by an anomalous optical anisotropy.

Distinguishing neuronal from astrocytic subcellular microstructures using in vivo Double Diffusion Encoded 1H MRS at 21.1 T.

Measuring cellular microstructures non-invasively and achieving specificity towards a cell-type population within an interrogated in vivo tissue, remains an outstanding challenge in brain research. Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) provides an opportunity to achieve cellular specificity via the spectral resolution of metabolites such as N-Acetylaspartate (NAA) and myo-Inositol (mI), which are considered neuronal and astrocytic markers, respectively. Yet the information typically obtained with MRS describes metabolic concentrations, diffusion coefficients or relaxation rates rather than microstructures. Understanding how these metabolites are compartmentalized is a challenging but important goal, which so far has been mainly addressed using diffusion models. Here, we present direct in vivo evidence for the confinement of NAA and mI within sub-cellular components, namely, the randomly oriented process of neurons and astrocytes, respectively. Our approach applied Relaxation Enhanced MRS at ultrahigh (21.1 T) field, and used its high 1H sensitivity to measure restricted diffusion correlations for NAA and mI using a Double Diffusion Encoding (DDE) filter. While very low macroscopic anisotropy was revealed by spatially localized Diffusion Tensor Spectroscopy, DDE displayed characteristic amplitude modulations reporting on confinements in otherwise randomly oriented anisotropic microstructures for both metabolites. This implies that for the chosen set of parameters, the DDE measurements had a biased sensitivity towards NAA and mI sited in the more confined environments of neurites and astrocytic branches, than in the cell somata. These measurements thus provide intrinsic diffusivities and compartment diameters, and revealed subcellular neuronal and astrocytic morphologies in normal in vivo rat brains. The relevance of these measurements towards human applications—which could in turn help understand CNS plasticity as well as diagnose brain diseases—is discussed.

Macroscopic Magnetic Anisotropy Induced by the Combined Control of Size, Shape and Organization of NiFe Prussian Blue Analog Nanoparticles in an Ordered Mesoporous Silica Monolith

AbstractIntegration of coordination polymers and metal–organic frameworks into real applications requires a processing step at the nanoscale. However, their synthesis in the form of nanoparticles with controlled size, shape and organization remains a challenge faced by diverse scientific communities. Ordered mesoporous silica monolith with 2D‐hexagonal structure of the mesopores is used to form ferromagnetic NiFe Prussian blue analog (PBA) nanoparticles with anisotropic shape. The PBA nanowires formed within the nanochannels of the monolith are made of single chains of nanocrystals. Furthermore, when using an ordered mesoporous silica monolith instead of the more frequently used mesoporous powders a parallel organization of the pores is achieved over whole macroscopic fragments of the monolith. A 1×1×1 mm3 fragment of monolith exhibits a remarkably strong anisotropy in its magnetic properties, arising from unprecedented magnetic dipolar interaction along the chains of coordination nanocrystals, which is spread to the macroscopic scale thanks to the long‐range organization of the pores. As various confined chemistries can be developed within the ordered porosity of such monolith, this tool opens up new opportunities for the development of original nanostructured materials exhibiting anisotropy in their properties at the macroscopic scale.

Visualization of pullout behaviour of geogrid in sand with emphasis on size effect of protrusive junctions

Geogrid has been extensively used in geotechnical engineering practice due to its effectiveness and economy. Deep insight into the interaction between the backfill soil and the geogrid is of great importance for proper design and construction of geogrid reinforced earth structures. Based on the calibrated model of sand and geogrid, a series of numerical pullout tests are conducted using PFC3D under special considerations of particle angularity and aperture geometry of the geogrid. In this work, interface characteristics regarding the displacement and contact force developed among particles and the deformation and force distribution along the geogrid are all visualized with PFC3D simulations so that new understanding on how geogrid-soil interaction develops under pullout loads can be obtained. Meanwhile, a new variable named fabric anisotropy coefficient is introduced to evaluate the inherent relationship between macroscopic strength and microscopic fabric anisotropy. A correlation analysis is adopted to compare the accuracy between the newly-proposed coefficient and the most commonly used one. Furthermore, additional pullout tests on geogrid with four different joint protrusion heights have been conducted to investigate what extent and how vertical reinforcement elements may result in reinforcement effects from perspectives of bearing resistance contribution, energy dissipation, as well as volumetric response. Numerical results show that both the magnitude and the directional variation of normal contact forces govern the development of macroscopic strength and the reinforcing effects of joint protrusion height can be attributed to the accelerated energy dissipation across the particle assembly and the intensive mobilization of the geogrid.

Structural, magnetic characterization (dependencies of coercivity and loss with the frequency) of magnetic cores based in Finemet

We report changes of coercivity, induced magnetic anisotropy, magneto-optical domain structure and frequency dependencies of coercivity and energy loss (up to 10MHz) associated with the structural modifications produced by thermal treatments under applied magnetic field (field annealing) in toroidal wound cores of Fe73.5Cu1Nb3Si15.5B7 amorphous alloy. The thermal treatment (535°C, 1h) leads to the typical nanocrystalline structure of α-Fe(Si) nanograins (60–65% relative volume, 10–20nm average grain size embedded in a residual amorphous matrix, while the magnetic field with the possibility to be applied in two directions to the toroidal core axis, that is in transverse (which is equivalent to the transverse direction of the ribbon) or longitudinal (equivalent to the longitudinal direction of the ribbon), develops a macroscopic uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in the transverse (around 245J/m3) or longitudinal (around 85J/m3) direction of the ribbon, respectively. It is remarkable the quasi-unhysteretic character of the cores with these two kinds of field annealing as comparing with that of the as-quenched one. Magneto-optical study by Kerr-effect of the ribbons provides useful information on the domain structure of the surface in agreement with the direction and intensity of the induced magnetic anisotropy. This induced uniaxial magnetic anisotropy plays a very important role on the Hc(f) and EL(f) curves, (f: frequency), being drastic the presence and direction of the induced magnetic anisotropy. In addition, these frequency dependencies show a significant change at the frequency around 100Hz.

New polycrystalline modeling as applied to textured steel sheets

It has been long recognized that the preferred orientation of the grains, arising from processing of metallic materials, result in anisotropic plastic behavior. An accurate assessment of the resulting macroscopic plastic anisotropy is thus essential in predicting the mechanical performance of alloys. This paper presents a new approach for modeling polycrystalline behavior. A key aspect in the formulation is the use of the single-crystal yield criterion recently developed by Cazacu et al., 2017 for the description of the plastic properties of the constituent grains. The capabilities of the polycrystalline model in predicting the directionality of macroscopic tensile properties are illustrated by comparing the theoretical predictions with mechanical data on steel sheets of various textures. There is a good agreement between experimental and theoretical predictions.

Controlling Structural Anisotropy of Anisotropic 2D Layers in Pseudo-1D/2D Material Heterojunctions.

Chemical vapor deposition and growth dynamics of highly anisotropic 2D lateral heterojunctions between pseudo-1D ReS2 and isotropic WS2 monolayers are reported for the first time. Constituent ReS2 and WS2 layers have vastly different atomic structure, crystallizing in anisotropic 1T' and isotropic 2H phases, respectively. Through high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy, and angle-resolved Raman spectroscopy, this study is able to provide the very first atomic look at intimate interfaces between these dissimilar 2D materials. Surprisingly, the results reveal that ReS2 lateral heterojunctions to WS2 produce well-oriented (highly anisotropic) Re-chains perpendicular to WS2 edges. When vertically stacked, Re-chains orient themselves along the WS2 zigzag direction, and consequently, Re-chains exhibit six-fold rotation, resulting in loss of macroscopic scale anisotropy. The degree of anisotropy of ReS2 on WS2 largely depends on the domain size, and decreases for increasing domain size due to randomization of Re-chains and formation of ReS2 subdomains. Present work establishes the growth dynamics of atomic junctions between novel anisotropic/isotropic 2D materials, and overall results mark the very first demonstration of control over anisotropy direction, which is a significant leap forward for large-scale nanomanufacturing of anisotropic systems.