Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells have attracted much attention due to their high power conversion efficiency (>25%) and low-cost fabrication. Yet, improvements are still needed for ...more stable and higher-performing solar cells. In this work, a series of TiO2 nanocolumn photonic structures have been intentionally fabricated on half of the compact TiO2-coated fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate by glancing angle deposition with magnetron sputtering, a method particularly suitable for industrial applications due to its high reliability and reduced cost when coating large areas. These vertically aligned nanocolumn arrays were then applied as the electron transport layer into triple-cation lead halide perovskite solar cells based on Cs0.05(FA0.83MA0.17)0.95Pb(I0.83Br0.17)3. By comparison to solar cells built onto the same substrate without nanocolumns, the use of TiO2 nanocolumns can significantly enhance the power conversion efficiency of the perovskite solar cells by 7% and prolong their shelf life. Here, detailed characterizations on the morphology and the spectroscopic aspects of the nanocolumns, their near-field and far-field optical properties, solar cells characteristics, as well as the charge transport properties provide mechanistic insights on how one-dimensional TiO2 nanocolumns affect the performance of perovskite halide solar cells in terms of charge transport, light harvesting, and stability, knowledge necessary for the future design of higher-performing and more stable perovskite solar cells.
Metal‐dielectric Au‐Co‐SiO2 magnetoplasmonic nanodisks are found to exhibit large magneto‐optical activity and low optical losses. The internal architecture of the nanodisks is such that, in resonant ...conditions, the electromagnetic field undertakes a particular spatial distribution. This makes it possible to maximize the electromagnetic field at the magneto‐optically active layers and minimize it in the other, optically lossy ones.
Cebollada and co‐workers review on page 10 how the combination of plasmonic and magnetic functionalities gives rise to magnetoplasmonic systems, where both the magneto‐optical and plasmonic ...properties can be engineered. For example, the effect of the magnetic field on the optical properties of these systems can be increased under plasmon excitation. Additionally, in these systems, the wavelength of the propagating surface plasmons can be externally controlled under the application of a magnetic field.
We study how the magneto-optical activity in polar configuration of continuous Au/Co/Au trilayers is affected by the excitation of localized plasmon resonances of an array of Au nanodiscs fabricated ...on top of them over a dielectric SiO(2) spacer. We show that the effect of the nanodiscs array is twofold. First, it optimizes the absorption of light at specific photon energies corresponding to the localized surface plasmon excitation of the array, modifying the reflectivity of the system (we define this effect as the purely optical contribution). Second, upon localized plasmon resonance excitation, the electromagnetic field in the whole system is redistributed, and an enhanced magneto-optical activity occurs at those energies where the electromagnetic field in the magnetic layer is increased (this effect is identified as the purely magneto-optical contribution of the nanodiscs array).
The fabrication of black-gold coatings using sputtering is reported here. Glancing angle deposition with a rotating substrate is needed to obtain vertical nanostructures. Enhanced light absorption is ...obtained in the samples prepared in the ballistic regime with high tilt angles. Under these conditions the diameter distribution of the nanostructures is centered at about 60 nm and the standard deviation is large enough to obtain black-metal behavior in the visible range.
Herein, we investigate the chemical sensing by surface-enhanced Raman scattering regarding two templates of gold nanocolumns (vertical and tilted) manufactured by glancing angle deposition with ...magnetron sputtering. We selected this fabrication technique due to its advantages in terms of low-cost production and ease of implementation. These gold nanocolumnar structures allow producing a high density of strongly confined electric field spots within the nanogaps between the neighboring nanocolumns. Thiophenol molecules were used as model analytes since they have the principal property to adsorb well on gold surfaces. Regarding chemical sensing, the vertical (tilted) nanocolumnar templates showed a detection threshold limit of 10 nM (20 nM), an enhancement factor of 9.8 × 108 (4.8 × 108), and a high quality of adsorption with an adsorption constant Kads of 2.0 × 106 M-1 (1.8 × 106 M-1) for thiophenol molecules.
We present magnetic field induced modulation of the optical response of slit plasmonic metasurfaces fabricated out of giant magnetoresistance/spintronic materials in the 2–17 μm spectral range of the ...spectrum. The modulation of the slit plasmonic modes is due to the modification of the electrical resistivity (and, in turn, of the optical constants) induced by the application of an external magnetic field. This modulation is found to continuously increase both with the slit concentration and with the slit resonance wavelength, with a prospective further increase for wavelengths of up to 60–80 μm. The direct fabrication and implementation of the modulation setup opens a competitive route for the development of active plasmonic metasurfaces in a wide spectral range.
Ferromagnetic films down to thicknesses of tens of nanometers and composed by polycrystalline Fe and Fe
O
nanopillars are grown in large areas by glancing angle deposition with magnetron sputtering ...(MS-GLAD). The morphological features of these films strongly depend on the growth conditions. Vertical or tilted nanopillars have been fabricated depending on whether the substrate is kept rotating azimuthally during deposition or not, respectively. The magnetic properties of these nanopillars films, such as hysteresis loops squareness, adjustable switching fields, magnetic anisotropy and coercivity, can be tuned with the specific morphology. In particular, the growth performed through a collimator mask mounted onto a not rotating azimuthally substrate produces almost isolated well-defined tilted nanopillars that exhibit a magnetic hardening. The first-order reversal curves diagrams and micromagnetic simulations revealed that a growth-induced uniaxial anisotropy, associated with an anisotropic surface morphology produced by the glancing angle deposition in the direction perpendicular to the atomic flux, plays an important role in the observed magnetic signatures. These results demonstrate the potential of the MS-GLAD method to fabricate nanostructured films in large area with tailored structural and magnetic properties for technological applications.
MicroRNAs have been associated with cardiomyocyte apoptosis, a process involved in myocardial remodelling in aortic valve (Av) stenosis (AS). Our aim was to analyse whether the dysregulation of ...myocardial microRNAs was related to cardiomyocyte apoptosis in AS patients. Endomyocardial biopsies were obtained from 28 patients with severe AS (based on pressure gradients and Av area) referred for Av replacement and from necropsies of 10 cardiovascular disease-free control subjects. AS patients showed an increased (P<0.001) cardiomyocyte apoptotic index (CMAI) compared with controls. Two clusters of patients were identified according to the CMAI: group 1 (CMAI ≤ 0.08%; n=16) and group 2 (CMAI > 0.08%; n=12). Group 2 patients presented lower cardiomyocyte density (P<0.001) and ejection fraction (P<0.05), and higher troponin T levels (P<0.05), prevalence of heart failure (HF; P<0.05) and NT-proBNP levels (P<0.05) than those from group 1. miRNA expression profile analysed in 5 patients randomly selected from each group showed 64 microRNAs down-regulated and 6 up-regulated (P<0.05) in group 2 compared with group 1. Those microRNAs with the highest fold-change were validated in the full two groups corroborating that miR-10b, miR-125b-2* and miR-338-3p were down-regulated (P<0.05) in group 2 compared with group 1 and control subjects. These three microRNAs were inversely correlated (P<0.05) with the CMAI. Inhibition of miR-10b induced an increase (P<0.05) of apoptosis and increased expression (P<0.05) of apoptosis protease-activating factor-1 (Apaf-1) in HL-1 cardiomyocytes. In conclusion, myocardial down-regulation of miR-10b may be involved in increased cardiomyocyte apoptosis in AS patients, probably through Apaf-1 up-regulation, contributing to cardiomyocyte damage and to the development of HF.
Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells have attracted much attention due to their high power conversion efficiency (>25%) and low-cost fabrication. Yet, improvements are still needed for ...more stable and higher-performing solar cells. In this work, a series of TiO
nanocolumn photonic structures have been intentionally fabricated on half of the compact TiO
-coated fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate by glancing angle deposition with magnetron sputtering, a method particularly suitable for industrial applications due to its high reliability and reduced cost when coating large areas. These vertically aligned nanocolumn arrays were then applied as the electron transport layer into triple-cation lead halide perovskite solar cells based on Cs
(FA
MA
)
Pb(I
Br
)
. By comparison to solar cells built onto the same substrate without nanocolumns, the use of TiO
nanocolumns can significantly enhance the power conversion efficiency of the perovskite solar cells by 7% and prolong their shelf life. Here, detailed characterizations on the morphology and the spectroscopic aspects of the nanocolumns, their near-field and far-field optical properties, solar cells characteristics, as well as the charge transport properties provide mechanistic insights on how one-dimensional TiO
nanocolumns affect the performance of perovskite halide solar cells in terms of charge transport, light harvesting, and stability, knowledge necessary for the future design of higher-performing and more stable perovskite solar cells.
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