On-Demand CMOS-Compatible Fabrication of Ultrathin Self-Aligned SiC Nanowire Arrays.

The field of semiconductor nanowires (NWs) has become one of the most active and mature research areas. However, progress in this field has been limited, due to the difficulty in controlling the density, orientation, and placement of the individual NWs, parameters important for mass producing nanodevices. The work presented herein describes a novel nanosynthesis strategy for ultrathin self-aligned silicon carbide (SiC) NW arrays (≤ 20 nm width, 130 nm height and 200⁻600 nm variable periodicity), with high quality (~2 Å surface roughness, ~2.

Experimental and theoretical investigation of a mesoporous K(x)WO3 material having superior mechanical strength.

Mesoporous materials with tailored properties hold great promise for energy harvesting and industrial applications. We have synthesized a novel tungsten bronze mesoporous material (K(x)WO3; x ∼ 0.07) having inverse FDU-12 type pore symmetry and a crystalline framework.

Origin of weak layer contraction in de Vries smectic liquid crystals.

Structural investigations of the de Vries smectic-A (SmA) and smectic-C (SmC) phases of four mesogens containing a trisiloxane end segment reveal a linear molecular conformation in the SmA phase and a bent conformation resembling a hockey stick in the SmC phase. The siloxane and the hydrocarbon parts of the molecule tilt at different angles relative to the smectic layer normal and are oriented along different directions. For the compounds investigated, the shape of orientational distribution function (ODF) is found to be sugarloaf shaped and not the widely expected volcano like with positive orientational order parameters: ⟨P2⟩ = 0.