http://www.hindawi.comThe latest articles from Hindawi Publishing Corporation© 2012, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/574979/Results of a study of PbxS1−x alloys and films with various Pb content have been reported and discussed. Films of PbxS1−x of thickness 1.5 μm have been deposited on glass substrates by flash thermal evaporation method at room temperature, under vacuum at constant deposition rate. These films were annealed under vacuum around 10−6 Torr at different temperatures up to 523 K. The composition of the elements in PbxS1−x alloys was determined by standard surfaces techniques such as atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and the results were found of high accuracy and in very good agreement with the theoretical values. The structure for alloys and films is determined by using X-ray diffraction. This measurement reveals that the structure is polycrystalline with cubic structure and there are strong peaks at the direction (200) and (111). The effect of heat treatment on the crystalline orientation, relative intensity, and grain size of PbxS1−x films is presented.M. F. A. Alias, A. A. J. Al-Douri, E. M. N. Al-Fawadi, and A. A. AlnajjarCopyright © 2011 M. F. A. Alias et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/298928/The article reviews the rich phenomena of metal-insulator transitions, anomalous metalicity, taking as examples iron and titanium oxides. The diverse phenomena include strong spin and orbital fluctuations, incoherence of charge dynamics, and phase transitions under control of key parameters such as band filling, bandwidth, and dimensionality. Another important phenomena presented in the article is a valence fluctuation which occur often in rare-earth compounds. We consider some Ce, Sm, Eu, Tm, and Yb compounds such as Ce, Sm and Tm monochalcogenides, Sm and Yb borides, mixed-valent and charge-ordered Sm, Eu and Yb pnictides and chalcogenides R4X3 and R3X4 (R = Sm, Eu, Yb; X = As, Sb, Bi), intermediate-valence YbInCu4 and heavy-fermion compounds YbMCu4 (M = Cu, Ag, Au, Pd). Issues addressed include the nature of the electronic ground states, the metal-insulator transition, the electronic and magnetic structures. The discussion includes key experiments, such as optical and magneto-optical spectroscopic measurements, x-ray photoemission and x-ray absorption, bremsstrahlung isochromat spectroscopy measurements as well as x-ray magnetic circular dichroism.V. N. Antonov, L. V. Bekenov, and A. N. YareskoCopyright © 2011 V. N. Antonov et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/104843/We consider two-dimensional randomly deformed circular quantum dots with two attached waveguides (an emitter and a collector) in magnetic fields as an electronic analogy of the blackbody radiation. Transport properties through them are numerically investigated. The fraction of the current carried by each propagating mode in the collector is computed for transmission currents when each propagating mode is incident. By taking the statistical average in shape, it is shown that a universal frequency distribution is obtained for a sufficiently deformed system even though magnetic fields are so strong that electron waves form edge states. Then, the transmission currents are randomly distributed over all propagating modes. On average, each propagating mode carries the same current as in the absence of a magnetic field. It is also confirmed that a finite size dot cannot be a model of a reservoir even if it is chaotic.Tsuyoshi UetaCopyright © 2011 Tsuyoshi Ueta. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/493794/The electrostatic potential and the associated charge distribution in the vortices of high-Tc superconductors involving mixed symmetry state of the order parameters have been studied. The work is carried out in the framework of an extended Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory involving the Gorter-Casimir two-fluid model and Bardeen's extension of GL theory applied to the high-Tc superconductors. The properties are calculated using the material parameters relevant for the high-Tc cuprate YBCO.Madhuparna KarmakarCopyright © 2011 Madhuparna Karmakar. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/637170/We report studies on dielectric properties of magnetoelectric composites of La-substituted lead zirconate titanate (PLZT) and zinc-doped nickel ferrite (NZF) with compositional formula 0.95 Pb1-3x/2LaxZr0.65Ti0.35O3-0.05 Ni0.8Zn0.2Fe2O4 (x=0, 0.01, 0.02, and 0.03). The materials were synthesized by conventional solid state reaction route. The presence of individual phases (PLZT and NZF) was confirmed by using X-ray diffraction technique. Dielectric properties were studied as a function of temperature and frequency. Significant improvement was observed in dielectric properties with addition of La.Rekha Rani, Parveen Kumar, J. K. Juneja, K. K. Raina, and Chandra PrakashCopyright © 2011 Rekha Rani et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/174786/Effects of varying doping concentrations (x) of CuCl2 on the aggregation behaviour of cationic surfactant in nonaqueous and aqueous medium have been investigated. Mixed and pure lyotropic liquid crystalline LLC phases appeared in nonaqueous and aqueous ternary mixtures due to the fast quenching process and then characterized through polarizing optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction technique. The material parameters corresponding to these ternary nonaqueous and aqueous mixtures were evaluated to understand the mechanisms of deriving forces responsible for the modification of mesophases in the presence of metal salt.Ravi K. Shukla and K. K. RainaCopyright © 2011 Ravi K. Shukla and K. K. Raina. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/871231/An adaptive model is developed here for the liquid water density fluctuations as momentary dense clusters with helices of hydrogen bonds and nondense tetrahedral clusters of ice. This model can be useful for explanation of liquid water structural anomalies including the high quantity of hydrogen bonds with quasitetrahedral orientation in the nonordered liquid water. The topology of such clusters is essentially differed from the one of the crystalline ice. From this and only this point of view, the liquid water can be considered as a two-structural fluid by dynamic forming the two topological kinds of clusters as a consequence of condensed-matter density fluctuations. Another feature of the dense-water-part clusters is helical ordering of protons which can realize coherent vibrations. A spectral series of such vibrations is determined as a function of the number of molecules into the helical cluster.Alexander Shimkevich and Inessa ShimkevichCopyright © 2011 Alexander Shimkevich and Inessa Shimkevich. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/910967/Films of CdTe pure and doped with various atomic percentages of Al and Sb (0.5, 1.5 & 2.5) were prepared, and their electrical properties were investigated. The films were prepared by thermal evaporation on glass substrates at two substrate temperatures (Ts=RT & 423 K). The results showed that the conduction phenomena of all the investigated CdTe thin films on glass substrates are caused by two distinct mechanisms. Room temperature DC conductivity increases by a factor of four for undoped CdTe thin films as Ts increases and by 1-2 orders of magnitude with increasing dopant percentage of Al and Sb. In general, films doped with Sb are more efficient than Al-doped films. The activation energy (Ea2) decreases with increasing Ts and dopant percentage for both Al and Sb. Undoped CdTe films deposited at RT are p-type convert to n-type with increasing Ts and upon doping with Al at more than 0.5%. The carrier concentration decreases as Ts increases while it increases with increasing dopant percentage. Hall mobility decreases more than three times as Al increases whereas it increases about one order of magnitude with increasing Sb percentage in CdTe thin films deposited at 423 K and RT, respectively.Ala J. Al-Douri, F. Y. Al-Shakily, Abdalla A. Alnajjar, and Maysoon F. A. AliasCopyright © 2011 Ala J. Al-Douri et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/816906/Through the coupling of Synchrotron Radiation and Michelson interferometry, one may obtain in the terahertz (THz) range transmittance and reflectivity spectra with a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) up to 103. In this paper we review the application of this spectroscopic technique to novel superconductors with an increasing degree of complexity: the single-gap boron-doped diamond; the isotropic multiband V3Si, where superconductivity opens two gaps at the Fermi energy; the CaAlSi superconductor, isostructural to MgB2, with a single gap in the hexagonal ab plane and two gaps along the orthogonal c axis.Stefano LupiCopyright © 2011 Stefano Lupi. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/989732/Since the discovery of its superconducting properties in 2001, magnesium diboride has generated terrific scientific and engineering research interest around the world. With a TC of 39 K and two superconducting gaps, MgB2 has great promise from the fundamental point of view, as well as immediate applications. Several techniques for thin film deposition and heterojunction formation have been established, each with its own advantages and drawbacks. Here, we will present a brief overview of research based on MgB2 thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy coevaporation of Mg and B. The films are smooth and highly crystalline, and the technique allows for virtually any heterostructure to be formed, including all-MgB2 tunnel junctions. Such devices have been characterized, with both quasiparticle and Josephson tunneling reported. MgB2 remains a material of great potential for a multitude of further characterization and exploration research projects and applications.Jean-Baptiste Laloë, Tae Hee Kim, and Jagadeesh S. MooderaCopyright © 2011 Jean-Baptiste Laloë et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/178190/A limiting factor in the ability to interpret isotope effect measurements in cuprates is the absence of sufficiently accurate data for the whole phase diagram; there is precise data for Tc, but not for the antiferromagnetic transition temperature TN. Extreme sensitivity of TN to small changes in the amount of oxygen in the sample is the major problem. This problem is solved here by using the novel compound (Ca0.1La0.9)(Ba1.65La0.35)Cu3Oy for which there is a region where TN is independent of oxygen doping. Meticulous measurements of TN for samples with 16O and 18O find the absence of an oxygen isotope effect on TN with unprecedented accuracy. A possible interpretation of our finding and existing data is that isotope substitution affects the normal state charge carrier density.E. Amit, A. Keren, J. S. Lord, and P. KingCopyright © 2011 E. Amit et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/526397/The emerging structures in spinodal dewetting of thin nano films and spinodal decomposition of binary mixtures are found to be similar with certain differences attributed to the nonlinearities inherent in the wetting forces. This paper deals with the technological aspects of the spinodal processes by giving a brief account of the theory and to correlate the two phenomena termed as spinodal dewetting of thin nanofilms and surface-directed phase separation. The MC simulation micrographs at early stage of spinodal dewetting of a (linear) polymer film confined between two hard walls (using FENE potential between the beads on same chain and Morse potential between inter and intra chain beads) show similarities with surface-directed phase separation (using metropolis algorithm) in creation of holes. The spinodal dewetting is also criticized on the basis of global minimization of free energy emerging from dipole-quadrupole interactions. A novel molecular scale-driving mechanism coming from asymmetric interface formation in spinodal processes is also proposed. It can be believed that the modeling done with the films under confinement of two walls works as a classical mathematical ansatz to the dipole-quadrupole interaction coming from quantum origins and giving rise to lateral interactions in the process reflecting a colossal behavior in thin nano films though weak in nature.Satya Pal SinghCopyright © 2011 Satya Pal Singh. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/867074/The electronic structure of ErGa3 and its isostructural compounds with Tm, Yb, and Lu are investigated with a highly accurate band structure scheme in LDA and GGA and warped muffin-tin approximation. In contrast to other investigations, the 4f electrons of the constituent Re are also treated as part of the valence bands. The position of the corresponding 4f bands relative to the Fermi energy EF strongly depends on the nuclear charge of Re. In Lu, they lie almost by 0.5 Ryd below EF and are extremely narrow. In Er, both in LDA and GGA, the 4f bands are found to be very close to the Fermi level EF. Assuming most of the 4f electrons to be part of the core removes the disagreement almost completely but produces a Fermi surface with a topology markedly different from that proposed in previous investigations. The intersections of the Fermi surface with planes are strongly varying within the Brillouin zone, they do not well match with the sparse experimental results. Investigations using the LDA+U scheme as well as investigations of the dielectric response function are sketched.Helmut BrossCopyright © 2011 Helmut Bross. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/901848/Kubo formula was derived for the electron gas conductivity tensor on the nanotube surface in longitudinal magnetic field considering spatial and time dispersion. Components of the degenerate and nondegenerate electron gas conductivity tensor were calculated. The study has showed that under high electron density, the conductivity undergoes oscillations of de Haas-van Alphen and Aharonov-Bohm types with the density of electrons and magnetic field changes.A. M. Ermolaev, S. V. Kofanov, and G. I. RashbaCopyright © 2011 A. M. Ermolaev et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/541318/The crack propagation from the indent introduced with a Vickers hardness tester at room temperature and the dislocation nucleation from the cracks at 900°C inside lightly boron (B), heavily B, or heavily arsenic (As) doped Czochralski (CZ) Si wafers were investigated with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations. It was found that the dopant concentration and the dopant type did not significantly affect the crack propagation and the dislocation nucleation. The slip dislocations with a density of about (0.8∼2.8) × 1013/cm3 were nucleated from the cracks propagated about 10 μm in depth. Furthermore, small dislocations that nucleated with very high density and without cracks were found around the indent introduced at 1000°C.Seiji Shiba and Koji SueokaCopyright © 2011 Seiji Shiba and Koji Sueoka. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/216065/The initial stage of oxidation of an Si (110)-(1 × 1) surface was analyzed by using the first-principles calculation. Two calculation cells with different surface areas were prepared. In these cells, O atoms were located at the Si–Si bonds in the first layer (A-bonds) and at the Si–Si bonds between the first and second layers (B-bonds). We found that (i) the most stable site of one O atom was the A-bond, and (ii) an O (A-bond) –Si–O (A-bond) was the most stable for two O atoms with a coverage ratio of Rox=0.06 while an O (A-bond) –Si–O (B-bond) was the most stable for Rox=0.10. The stability of O (A-bond) –Si–Si–O (A-bond) was less than the structures obtained in (ii). The other calculations showed that the unoxidized A-bonds should be left when a coverage ratio of Rox is close to 1. These simulations suggest that the O atoms will form clusters in the initial stage of oxidation, and the preferential oxidation will change from the A-bonds to the B-bonds up to the formation of 1 monolayer (ML) oxide. The results obtained here support the reported experimental results.Takahiro Nagasawa and Koji SueokaCopyright © 2011 Takahiro Nagasawa and Koji Sueoka. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2010/763406/Novel ferromagnetic-dielectric particulate composites of Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe1.95O4−δ (NZF) and PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PZT) were prepared by conventional ceramic method. The presence of two phases in composites was confirmed by XRD technique. The variations of dielectric constant (ε) with frequency in the range of 100 kHz–1 MHz at room temperature and also with temperature at three different frequencies (50 kHz, 100 kHz, and 500 kHz) were studied. Detailed studies on the dielectric properties were done confirming that the magnetoelectric interaction between the constituent phases may result in various anomalies in the dielectric behaviour of the composites. It is proposed that interfaces play an important role in the dielectric properties, causing space charge effects and Maxwell-Wagner relaxation, particularly at low frequencies and high temperatures. The piezoelectric d33 constant was studied at room temperature, and the d33 constant value decreased with ferrite content. Magnetic properties like B-H loops traces were studied to understand the saturation magnetic (Ms) and magnetic moment (μB) of the present particulate composites. The magnetoelectric (ME) output was measured by varying dc bias magnetic field. A large ME output signal of 2780 mV/cm Oe was observed in the composite having 50% ferrite. The temperature variation of longitudinal modulus (L) and internal friction (Q−1) of these particulate composites at 104 kHz was studied in the temperature range 30°C–420°C by the composite oscillator technique. Longitudinal modulus showed a sharp minimum, and internal friction exhibits a sharp peak at ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition. These ferroelectric-dielectric particulate composites were prepared with a view to using them as ME sensors and transducers.M. Venkata Ramana, N. Ramamanohar Reddy, B. S. Murty, V. R. K. Murthy, and K. V. Siva KumarCopyright © 2010 M. Venkata Ramana et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2011/425328/Transport equations of the macroscopic superfluid dynamics are revised on the basis of a combination of the conventional (stationary) Ginzburg-Landau equation and Schrödinger's equation for the macroscopic wave function (often called the order parameter) by using the well-known Madelung-Feynman approach to representation of the quantum-mechanical equations in hydrodynamic form. Such an approach has given (a) three different contributions to the resulting chemical potential μs for the superfluid component, (b) a general hydrodynamic equation of superfluid motion, (c) the continuity equation for superfluid flow with a relaxation term involving the phenomenological parameters τGL and ξGL, (d) a new version of the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation for the modulus of the order parameter which takes into account dissipation effects and reflects the charge conservation property for the superfluid component. The conventional Ginzburg-Landau equation also follows from our continuity equation as a particular case of stationarity. All the results obtained are mutually consistent within the scope of the chosen phenomenological description and, being model-neutral, applicable to both the low-Tc and high-Tc superconductors.Anatoly A. BarybinCopyright © 2011 Anatoly A. Barybin. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2010/683521/The wave propagation on closed curved interface (a rod or ball) between low and high loss dielectrics was studied and compared with well-known wave propagation problem on flat plane interface between low loss and high loss media. We have studied the propagation of a cylindrical wave along a round dielectric rod immersed into a high loss medium and a spherical wave forming by the oscillations in a dielectric ball immersed into a high loss medium as well. These waves have surface character similar to the wave known as the Zenneck surface wave. The distinctive characteristic of such cylindrical or spherical waves: the more loss in high loss medium the greater its surface character. We showed that the wave attenuation is essentially small at enough big dissipative loss in outer medium of dielectric structures.Z. E. EremenkoCopyright © 2010 Z. E. Eremenko. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2010/526929/Temperature-dependent reverse-bias current-voltage characteristics obtained by other researchers for Schottky diodes fabricated on GaN are reinterpreted in terms of phonon-assisted tunneling (PhAT) model. Temperature dependence of reverse-bias leakage current is shown could be caused by the temperature dependence of electron tunneling rate from traps in the metal-semiconductor interface to the conduction band of semiconductor. A good fit of experimental data with the theory is received in a wide temperature range (from 80 K to 500 K) using for calculation the effective mass of 0.222 me. and for the phonon energy the value of 70 meV. The temperature and bias voltages dependences of an apparent barrier height (activation energy) are also explicable in the framework of the PhAT model.P. Pipinys and V. LapeikaCopyright © 2010 P. Pipinys and V. Lapeika. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2010/928419/We investigate a chiral d-density wave (CDDW) mean field model Hamiltonian in the momentum space suitable for the hole-doped cuprates, such as YBCO, in the pseudogap phase to obtain the Fermi surface (FS) topologies, including the anisotropy parameter(έ) and the elastic scattering by disorder potential (|v0|). For έ=0, with the chemical potential μ=−0.27 eV for 10% doping level and |v0|≥|t| (where |t|=0.25 eV is the first neighbor hopping), at zero/non-zero magnetic field (B), the FS on the first Brillouin zone is found to correspond to electron pockets around antinodal regions and barely visible patches around nodal regions. For έ≠0, we find Pomeranchuk distortion of FS. We next relate our findings regarding FS to the magneto-quantum oscillations in the electronic specific heat. Since the nodal quasiparticle energy values for B=0 are found to be greater than μ for |v0|≥|t|, the origin of the oscillations for nonzero B corresponds to the Fermi pockets around antinodal regions. The oscillations are shown to take place in the weak disorder regime (|v0|=0.25 eV) only.Partha Goswami and Manju RaniCopyright © 2010 Partha Goswami and Manju Rani. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2010/487381/The dynamical mean-field approximation (DMFA) becomes exact in the limit of infinite dimensions, and allows results to be obtained in a nonperturbative regime without the limitations normally found with exact diagonalization (ED) and quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods. In this paper, we investigate the applicability of the method to lattices with small coordination number in special situations. Specifically we use this approximation to study the two-dimensional (2D) Hubbard model on a square lattice far from half filling. In this situation, we calculate the specific heat and find that when the filling decreases, that is, antiferromagnetic correlations become less important, the agreement between DMFA and QMC results increases. Our results show that the DMFA can be a valuable technique for studying the thermodynamic properties of the Hubbard model also on a square lattice, but within a parameter range in which the antiferromagnetic correlations are not important.A. N. Ribeiro and C. A. MacedoCopyright © 2010 A. N. Ribeiro and C. A. Macedo. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2010/380710/Quantum transport for DNA conduction has been widely studied with interest in application as a candidate in making nanowires as well as interest in the scientific mechanism. In this paper, we review recent works concerning the electronic states and the conduction/transfer in DNA polymers. We have mainly investigated the energy-band structure and the correlation effects of localization property in the two- and three-chain systems (ladder model) with long-range correlation as a simple model for electronic property in a double strand of DNA by using the tight-bindingmodel. In addition, we investigated the localization properties of electronic states in several actual DNA sequences such as bacteriophages of Escherichia coli, human-chromosome 22, compared with those of the artificial disordered sequences with correlation. The charge-transfer properties for poly(dA)-poly(dT) and poly(dG)-poly(dC) DNA polymers are also presented in terms of localization lengths within the frameworks of the polaron models due to the coupling between the charge carriers and the lattice vibrations of the double strand of DNA.Hiroaki Yamada and Kazumoto IguchiCopyright © 2010 Hiroaki Yamada and Kazumoto Iguchi. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2010/387853/The main switching properties in ferroelectrics undergoing first-order phase transitions are simulated within the framework of the extended Ishibashi dipole-lattice model including the dipole-dipole interaction in a two-dimensional case for ferroelectric nanoscale objects. The peculiarities of the temperature dependence of the switching rate and the pyroelectric coefficient are discussed in the range of coexistence of the metastable states. The used coefficients of the long-range and short-range interactions between the dipoles are taken from the dielectric and structure measurements in BaTiO3.L. A. Bakaleinikov and A. GordonCopyright © 2010 L. A. Bakaleinikov and A. Gordon. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2010/258019/We investigate theoretically the infrared optical response characteristics of metallic armchair/zigzag-edge graphene nanoribbons (A/ZGNRs) to an external longitudinally polarized electromagnetic field at low temperatures. Within the framework of linear response theory at the perturbation regime, we examine the optical infrared absorption threshold energy, absorption power, dielectric function, and electron energy loss spectra near the neutrality points of the systems. It is demonstrated that, by some numerical examples, the photon-assisted direct interband absorptions for AGNR exist with different selection rules from those for ZGNR and single-walled carbon nanotube at infrared regime. This infrared optical property dependence of GNRs on field frequency may be used to design graphene-based nanoscale optoelectronic devices for the detection of infrared electromagnetic irradiations.Zigang Duan, Wenhu Liao, and Guanghui ZhouCopyright © 2010 Zigang Duan et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2010/518209/Nanostructure and electrical properties of iridium oxide (IrO2) thin films prepared by spray pyrolysis technique (SPT) have been experimentally characterized. The effect of solution molarity (SM) and substrate temperature (Tsub) on the nanostructure features and electrical conductivity of these films has been investigated. The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that all samples prepared at Tsub=350∘C with different SM, IrO2 appear almost in amorphous form. XRD revealed that the films deposited at Tsub=450∘C were tetragonal structures with a preferential orientation along 〈101〉 direction. Moreover, the degree of crystallinity was improved by solution molarity. Single order Voigt profile method has been used to determine the nanostructure parameters at different SM and Tsub. The dark conductivity measurements at room temperature as a function of SM were observed and the value of conductivity were slightly increases at higher SM, reaching the bulk value of 20 Ω−1cm−1. The values of activation energy of ΔE and σo of IrO2 were found to be 0.21 eV and 1.68×10−3Ω−1⋅cm−1, respectively.S. A. Mahmoud, S. M. Al-Shomar, and A. A. AklCopyright © 2010 S. A. Mahmoud et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2010/947684/Nondoped and (Al, Sb)-doped CdTe thin films with 0.5, 1.5, and 2.5  wt.%, respectively, were deposited by thermal evaporation technique under vacuum onto Corning 7059 glass at substrate temperatures (Ts) of room temperature (RT) and 423 K. The optical properties of deposited CdTe films such as band gap, refractive index (n), extinction coefficient (ke), and dielectric coefficients were investigated as function of Al and Sb wt.% doping, respectively. The results showed that films have direct optical transition. Increasing Ts and the wt.% of both types of dopant, the band gap decrease but the optical is constant as n, ke and real and imaginary parts of the dielectric coefficient increase.A. A. J. Al-Douri, F. Y. Al-Shakily, M. F. A. Alias, and A. A. AlnajjarCopyright © 2010 A. A. J. Al-Douri et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2010/428739/Thin a-GexSi1−x:H films were grown successfully by fabrication of designated ingot followed by evaporation onto glass slides. A range of growth conditions, Ge contents, dopant concentration (Al and As), and substrate temperature, were employed. Stoichiometry of the thin films composition was confirmed using standard surface techniques. The structure of all films was amorphous. Film composition and deposition parameters were investigated for their bearing on film electrical and optical properties. More than one transport mechanism is indicated. It was observed that increasing substrate temperature, Ge contents, and dopant concentration lead to a decrease in the optical energy gap of those films. The role of the deposition conditions on values of the optical constants was determined. Accordingly, models of the density of states for the Ge0.5Si0.5:H thin films as pure, doped with 3.5% of Al (p-type) and that doped with 3.5% As (n-type), were proposed.A. A. J. Al-Douri, M. F. A. Alias, A. A. Alnajjar, and M. N. MakadsiCopyright © 2010 A. A. J. Al-Douri et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2010/107192/Novel semiconducting Germanium-Dysprosium nanowires are fabricated by a combined two-step method, which consists of initial arc-melting of the elemental constituents into a pellet and its heat treatment, followed by thermal vapor transport of the powdered pellet in a tube reactor for fabrication of the nanowires. The nanomaterials are fabricated on gold nucleation seeds on Si/SiO2 substrates. The thermodynamic conditions in the reactor are carefully chosen to produce wires with diameters in a narrow, specific range. This nanofabrication method ensures high phase purity and crystallinity of nanowires. Based on the results and theoretical work, it is concluded that the fabricated Ge98Dy2 materials are in a glassy state below 20 K.K. B. Paul, G. I. Athanasopoulos, C. C. Doumanidis, and C. RebholzCopyright © 2010 K. B. Paul et al. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/journals/acmp/2009/327605/LiIn1−xTmx(WO4)2 (x=0, 0.5, 1, 5, and 10 at.%) polycrystalline powders blue phosphors were prepared via the classical solid-state reaction method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), photoluminescence excitation, and emission spectra were used to characterize LiIn1−xTmx(WO4)2 phosphors. By analyzing the excitation and emission spectra of LiIn1−xTmx(WO4)2 samples, the result indicates that there exists the energy transfer only from the WO42− group to the 1G4 energy level of Tm3+ ion. On the other hand, the influence of the thulium concentration on the blue emission transition 1D2→3F4 and 1G4→3H6 and the emission of WO42− group are investigated.Mourad Derbal, Lakhdar Guerbous, Ouadjaout Djamel, Chaminade Jean Pierre, and Mohyddine Kadi-HanifiCopyright © 2009 Mourad Derbal et al. All rights reserved.