A modern look at a medieval bilayer metal leaf: nanotomography of Zwischgold
Many European sculptures and altarpieces from the Middle Ages were decorated with Zwischgold, a bilayer metal leaf with an ultra-thin gold face backed by silver.
Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Wu, Qing.
Many European sculptures and altarpieces from the Middle Ages were decorated with Zwischgold, a bilayer metal leaf with an ultra-thin gold face backed by silver.
Sr 4 (Ru 0.99 Fe 0.01 ) 3 O 10 shows a ferromagnetic (FM) transition at T C ~ 105 K with the magnetic easy axis in the ab plane, followed by a metamagnetic transition (MMT) at low temperatures when the magnetic field H is applied along the c axis, which is in sharp contrast to that of the pure Sr 4 Ru 3 O 10 , where the easy axis is along the c axis and the MMT is in the ab plane. Here, we studied the MMT in the Sr 4 (Ru 0.99 Fe 0.01 ) 3 O 10 nanosheet by the Hall effect. It was found that the ordinary Hall coefficient of Sr 4 (Ru 0.99 Fe 0.01 ) 3 O 10 is almost the same as that of the pure Sr 4 Ru 3 O 10 , while a sudden increase in the Hall resistance R xy is observed below ~50 K, above which the R xy presents the conventional anomalous Hall effect up to T C . Analysis of the results indicates that the MMT has no direct correlation to the electronic structure but closely relates to the magnetic moment locking, where the magnetic-field-induced breakdown of the locked moments is responsible for the MMT.
Memristors are promising building blocks for the next generation memory, unconventional computing systems and beyond. Currently common materials used to build memristors are not necessarily compatible with the silicon dominant complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Furthermore, external selector devices or circuits are usually required in order for large memristor arrays to function properly, resulting in increased circuit complexity. Here we demonstrate fully CMOS-compatible, all-silicon based and self-rectifying memristors that negate the need for external selectors in large arrays. It consists of p- and n-type doped single crystalline silicon electrodes and a thin chemically produced silicon oxide switching layer. The device exhibits repeatable resistance switching behavior with high rectifying ratio (10 5 ), high ON/OFF conductance ratio (10 4 ) and attractive retention at 300 °C. We further build a 5-layer 3-dimensional (3D) crossbar array of 100 nm memristors by stacking fluid supported silicon membranes. The CMOS compatibility and self-rectifying behavior open up opportunities for mass production of memristor arrays and 3D hybrid circuits on full-wafer scale silicon and flexible substrates without increasing circuit complexity.
We developed a novel Ag/oxide-based threshold switching device with attractive features including ≈10 10 nonlinearity. Furthermore, in a high-resolution transmission electron microscopic analysis of the nanoscale crosspoint device it is suggested that elongation of an Ag nanoparticle under voltage bias followed by spontaneous reformation of a more spherical shape after power off, is responsible for the observed threshold switching.
The accumulation and extrusion of Ca 2+ in the pre- and postsynaptic compartments play a critical role in initiating plastic changes in biological synapses. In order to emulate this fundamental process in electronic devices, we developed diffusive Ag-in-oxide memristors with a temporal response during and after stimulation similar to that of the synaptic Ca 2+ dynamics. In situ high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and nanoparticle dynamics simulations both demonstrate that Ag atoms disperse under electrical bias and regroup spontaneously under zero bias because of interfacial energy minimization, closely resembling synaptic influx and extrusion of Ca 2+ , respectively. Furthermore, the diffusive memristor and its dynamics enable a direct emulation of both short- and long-term plasticity of biological synapses, representing an advance in hardware implementation of neuromorphic functionalities.