A method of constructing a sensor, including providing a quartz crystal having a first side and a second side, magnetron sputtering of 4000 to 13000 angstroms of aluminum directly on the quartz crystal first side and the quartz crystal second side, heating the aluminum sputtered quartz crystal to 100° C. to 500° C., magnetron sputtering of gold directly onto the aluminum sputtered quartz crystal first side and the aluminum sputtered quartz crystal second side, wherein the thickness of the aluminum is between 3 times and 40 times greater than the thickness of the gold and wherein the magnetron sputtering of aluminum, the heating and the magnetron sputtering of the gold is performed in a vacuum.

Devices having an air bearing surface (ABS), the device including a near field transducer, the near field transducer having a peg and a disc, the peg having a region adjacent the ABS, the peg including a plasmonic material selected from gold (Au), silver (Ag), copper (Cu), ruthenium (Ru), rhodium (Rh), aluminum (Al), or combinations thereof; and at least one other secondary atom selected from germanium (Ge), tellurium (Te), aluminum (Al), antimony (Sb), tin (Sn), mercury (Hg), indium (In), zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), silver (Ag), chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), and combinations thereof, wherein a concentration of the secondary atom is higher at the region of the peg adjacent the ABS than a concentration of the secondary atom throughout the bulk of the peg. Methods of forming NFTs are also disclosed.

A heater and/or cooler chamber includes a heat storage block or chunk. In the block a multitude of parallel, stacked slit pockets are each dimensioned to accommodate a single plate shaped workpiece. Workpiece handling openings of the slit pockets are freed and respectively covered by a door arrangement. The slit pockets are tailored to snugly surround the plate shaped workpieces therein so as to establish an efficient heat transfer between the heat storage block or chunk and the workpieces to be cooled or heated.

The present disclosure is directed to using MXene compositions as templates for the deposition of oriented perovskite films, and compositions derived from such methods. Certain specific embodiments include methods preparing an oriented perovskite, perovskite-type, or perovskite-like film, the methods comprising: (a) depositing at least one perovskite, perovskite-type, or perovskite-like composition or precursor composition using chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), or atomic layer deposition (ALD) onto a film or layer of a MXene composition supported on a substrate to form a layered composition or precursor composition; and either (b) (1) heat treating or annealing the layered precursor composition to form a layered perovskite-type structure comprising at least one oriented perovskite, perovskite-type, or perovskite-like composition; or (2) annealing the layered composition; or (3) both (1) and (2).

A film structure (10) includes a substrate (11), a piezoelectric film (14) formed on the substrate (11) and containing first composite oxide represented by a composition formula Pb(Zr.sub.1-xTi.sub.x)O.sub.3, and a piezoelectric film (15) formed on the piezoelectric film (14) and containing second composite oxide represented by a composition formula Pb(Zr.sub.1-yTi.sub.y)O.sub.3. In the composition formulae, x satisfies 0.10<x≤0.20, and y satisfies 0.35≤y≤0.55. The piezoelectric film (14) has tensile stress, and the piezoelectric film (15) has compressive stress.

A method includes forming, on a substrate by performing physical vapor deposition in vacuum, an absorber layer including copper (Cu), indium (In), gallium (Ga) and selenium (Se), forming a stack including the substrate and an oxygen-annealed absorber layer by performing in-situ oxygen annealing of the absorber layer to improve quantum efficiency of the image sensor by passivating selenium vacancies due to dangling bonds, and forming a cap layer over the oxygen-annealed absorber layer by performing physical vapor deposition in vacuum. The cap layer includes at least one of: Ga.sub.2O.sub.3.Math.Sn, ZnS, CdS, CdSe, ZnO, ZnSe, ZnIn.sub.2Se.sub.4, CuGaS.sub.2, In.sub.2S.sub.3, MgO, or Zn.sub.0.8Mg.sub.0.2O.

An oxide superconducting wire includes a superconducting laminate including an oxide superconducting layer disposed, either directly or indirectly, on a substrate, and a stabilization layer which is a Cu plating layer covering an outer periphery of the superconducting laminate, and a Vickers hardness of the Cu plating layer is in the range of 80 to 190 HV.

A layered stack that can be used as an oxidation and chemical barrier with superalloy substrates, including Ni, Ni—Co, Co, and Ni-aluminide based substrates, and methods of preparing the layered stack. The layer system can be applied to a substrate in a single physical vapor deposition process with no interruption of vacuum conditions.

The present disclosure relates to a hydrogen evolution apparatus including an AC power source, a semiconductor electrode and a counter electrode connected to the AC power source, an electrolyte in which the semiconductor electrode is immersed, and a light source which irradiates light on the semiconductor electrode, in which the semiconductor electrode includes a conductive substrate and n-type semiconductor particles dispersed on a p-type semiconductor matrix or p-type semiconductor particles dispersed on an n-type semiconductor matrix which is vertically grown from the conductive substrate.

The embodiments herein relate to electrochromic stacks, electrochromic devices, and methods and apparatus for making such stacks and devices. In various embodiments, an anodically coloring layer in an electrochromic stack or device is fabricated to include a heterogeneous structure, for example a heterogeneous composition and/or morphology. Such heterogeneous anodically coloring layers can be used to better tune the properties of a device.