About 250 nm-thick Ni-doped ZnO:Al films were deposited on glass substrates at 300 K, 473 K and 673 K by direct current magnetron cosputtering. Atomic ratio of Zn:Al:Ni in the film is 100:5:4. All the films have a ZnO wurtzite structure and grow mainly with their crystallographic c-axis perpendicular to the substrate. The films deposited at 300 K and 673 K consist of granular grains whereas the film grown at 473 K mainly has a dense columnar structure. The Ni-doped ZnO:Al film grown at 473 K has the lowest resistivity of 7.7×10−3 Ωcm. All the films have an average optical transmittance of over 90% in the visible wavelength range. The absorption edge of the film grown at 473 K shifts to the shorter wavelength (blueshift) relative to those deposited at 300 K and 673 K. When the substrate temperature reaches 673 K, the Ni-doped ZnO:Al film shows a magnetization curve at room temperature, indicating that the film has a hard magnetization characteristic. The saturation magnetization is about 1×10−4 T and the saturation field is about 3.2×105 A/m.

DBSA-doped polyaniline powder (DBSA-PANI) was mixed with Fe nanoparticles to obtain the DBSA-PANI-Fe composite. Powder of the composite was compacted to the pellets to study the electrical property and magnetization characteristic by measuring the conductivity in 100—300 K and the magnetization curve at room temperature. The conductivity of the composite pellet is linearly decreased from 0.25±0.02 to 0.07±0.01 S/cm with increasing the Fe nanoparticle content from 0 to 70 wt%. For the pellets containing the Fe nanoparticles less than 70 wt%, the variation of conductivity with temperature reveals that the charge transport mechanism can be considered to be one-dimensional variable-range-hopping (1D-VRH). For the pellet with 70wt%-Fe nanoparticles, however, the charge transport mechanism can not be well understood in terms of the VRH model. All the DBSA-PANI-Fe composite pellets show a magnetic hysteresis loop and a hard magnetization characteristic. The saturation magnetization monotonously increases from 32 to 78 emu/g with increasing the Fe nanoparticle content from 30 to 70 wt%. The saturation field and the coercivity are estimated to be about 5500 Oe and 385 Oe respectively, independent of the Fe nanoparticle content.

HCl-doped polyaniline nanofibers having a long nanosize fibril structure were prepared by an inverse microemulsion polymerization process using nanosize Ni particles as inorganic template Powders of the polyaniline nanofibers were pressed to pellets in thickness of about 0.3mm and in diameter of 13mm. Micromorphology and conductive property of the pellets were studied by using scanning electron microscopy as well as by measuring the conductivity at room temperature and the variation of conductivity with temperature in 80-290K. The pellets consist of granular particles and nanofibers. An array direction of the polyaniline nanofibers in the pellet is random. The conductivity of the pellets at room temperature is 0.55

Powder of DBSA-doped polyaniline was pressed to pellets. The pellets were annealed in vacuum at 140 ℃, 200 ℃, 260 ℃ and 320 ℃ for times up to 120 minutes. For all the annealing temperatures, the conductivity of the pellet is sharply reduced by a factor of 2 when the annealing time reaches 15 minutes. For the annealing temperatures lower than 260 ℃, the conductivity does not change almost with further increasing annealing time. However, under the annealing condition of 260℃/120min, the conductivity of the pellet decreases markedly again. Furthermore, the pellets annealed at 320 ℃ for the times longer than 30 minutes show an insulating characteristic. The pellets consist of many agglomerated particles. The agglomerated particles become large with thermal aging. When the annealing temperature reaches 320 ℃, some small sub-particles are formed on the surface of the agglomerated particles. The annealing results in a de-doping of DBSA from the polymer backbones and promotes the formation of reduction state in the polyaniline. The DBSA-doped polyaniline pellets annealed have a more porous and cracked morphology relative to the pellet unannealed. The degradation of the conductivity of the DBSA-doped polyaniline pellets is attributed to the de-doping, the phase separation and the porous and cracked morphology.

A 750 nm-thick PZT-PMN/PZT composite film was prepared by sequential multiple spin-coatings. First, a 375 nm-thick sol-gel Pb (Zr0.56Ti0.44)O3 (PZT) layer was prepared on a Ti/Pt/Ti bottom electrode and then a 375 nm-thick Pb (Zr0.56Ti0.44)0.80 (Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.20O3 (PZT-PMN) layer was prepared on the PZT layer. The structural, compositional and piezoelectric properties of the composite film were investigated by using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy and secondary ion mass spectrometry and by measuring the piezoelectric charge constant d31, the piezoelectric voltage constant g31 and the relative permittivity ∈. The composite film retains the tetragonal perovskite structure with columnar grains. The lattice of the PZT-PMN layer smoothly connects to that of the PZT layer without forming any interfacial structure. However, the atomic composition, mainly in Mg and Nb, differs between PZT-PMN and PZT layers. The composite film has a higher piezoelectric charge constant d31 as compared with the PZT-PMN and PZT single films. The value of d31 is independent of the sequence of the PZT-PMN and PZT layers.

Au/Ni80Fe20 and Au/Ni30Fe70 bilayer films obtained by electron beam evaporation and sputtering were annealed in a vacuum of 5×10-4Pa from 100 to 350℃ for 15 and 30min, respectively. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) was used to analyze the composition inside the Au layers. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to analyze the structural characteristic of the bilayer films. The sheet resistance of the bilayer films was measured using four-point probe technique. No impurity such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur and chlorine was detected inside the Au layers. As the annealing temperature and time changed from 150℃, 15min to 350℃, 30min, the Ni atoms in the Au/Ni80Fe20 bilayer films diffuse preferentially into the Au layer while a significant diffusion of Fe atoms in the Au/Ni30Fe70 bilayer film into the Au layer was observed. The diffusion of Ni and/or Fe atoms into the Au layer results in an increase in the resistivity of the bilayer film. Large numbers of Ni atoms diffusing into the Au layer of the Au/Ni80Fe20 bilayer film result in a remarkable decrease in the lattice constant of the Au layer.

Aluminium films with thicknesses of 30-650nm were deposited on unheated glass substrates by electron beam evaporation. The deposition rate was controlled at 10 and 33nm/min, respectively. The structural, impure and electrical properties of aluminium films were studied by using atomic force microscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy and by measuring resistivity. The grain size of aluminium film apparently increases and the roughness of the film surface decreases from 2.5 to 1.5nm with increasing deposition rate. Oxygen as main impurity is detected inside the film and its amount slightly decreases with increasing deposition rate. The resistivity of the films decreases from 5×10-7 to 3×10-8Ωm as the deposition rate increases from 10 to 33nm/min. It is considered that the increasing in deposition rate weakens the influence of residual gas atoms on the growing film, resulting in the increase in grain size and the decrease in resistivity of the aluminium film.

NixFe100-x films with a thickness of about 200nm were deposited on SiO2/Si (100) substrates at room temperature by DC magnetron co-sputtering using both Fe and Ni80Fe20 targets. Compositional, structural, electrical and magnetic properties of the films were investigated. Ni76Fe24, Ni65Fe35, Ni60Fe40, Ni55Fe45, Ni49Fe51 films are obtained by increasing the sputtering power of the Fe target. All the films have a fcc structure. Ni76Fe24, Ni65Fe35, Ni60Fe40 and Ni55Fe45 films grow with crystalline orientations of [111] and [220] in the direction of the film growth while the Ni49Fe51 film has the [111] texture structure in the direction of the film growth. The lattice constant of the film increases linearly with increasing Fe content. All of the films grow with thin columnar grains and have void networks in the grain boundaries. The grain size does not change markedly with the composition of the film. The resistivity of the film increases with increasing Fe content and is one order of magnitude larger than that of the bulk. For all the films the magnetic hysteresis loop shows a hard magnetization. The Ni76Fe24 film has the lowest saturation magnetization of 6.75

200nm-thick Ni33Fe67 and Ni21Fe79 films were sputter-deposited on SiO2/Si(100) substrates at room temperature. The films were annealed in vacuum at 573 K, 673 K and 753 K, respectively. The as-deposited Ni33Fe67 film has a fcc-bcc mixed phase and the fcc phase increases with increasing annealing temperature. When the temperature reaches 753 K, the Ni33Fe67 film is the single fcc phase with [111]-, [200]- and [220]-orientations in the growth direction and the [220]-orientation is stronger than the others. The as-deposited Ni21Fe79 film is a bcc phase and changes to the fcc-bcc mixed phase with increasing annealing temperature. The fcc phase is enhanced and the bcc phase is weakened with annealing temperature. The as-deposited Ni33Fe67 film consists of both columnar and triangularly columnar grains. The triangularly columnar grains disappear with increasing annealing temperature. The grain shape of the as-deposited Ni21Fe79 film is triangular column and doesn’t almost change with annealing temperature. All the films have void networks in the grain boundaries. The void networks decrease and shorten and widen with annealing temperature. The film structure change due to annealing leads to a change of the resistivity and the magnetization characteristic of the films.

Ni films were deposited on Si (001) substrates at 190℃ by dc plasma-sputtering in Ar gas in order to investigate the Ni diffusion phenomena into the substrate and its effect on the structure of Ni films. The deposition time was 10, 15 or 30min. The Ni/Si samples were studied by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy and Rutherford backscattering Ni adatoms are confirmed to diffuse into the Si substrate forming a diffusion layer. The diffusion layer consists of two regions. The first one is of homogeneous thickness and locates adjacent to the interface of film and substrate. The second one consists of several isosceles triangles with vertex angle of about 70℃ standing on the front of first region Both the thickness of the first region and the number of triangles in the second region increase with increasing deposition time. The compositional ratio of Ni to Si in the diffusion layer is 1.3±0.1. The Ni films have a lot of voids at the interface and a rough surface. The density of the film is estimated to be 25% lower than that of bulk Ni. The thickness of the Ni films does not increase linearly with deposition time.