Substrate and low intensity fires influence bacterial communities in longleaf pine savanna.

Bacterial communities associated with vegetation-soil interfaces have important roles in terrestrial ecosystems. These bacterial communities, studied almost exclusively in unburnt ecosystems or those affected by rare, high-intensity wildfires, have been understudied in fire-frequented grasslands and savannas. The composition of ground-level bacterial communities was explored in an old-growth pine savanna with a centuries-long management history of prescribed fires every 1-2 years.

Atomic Layer Deposition of Silicon Nitride from Bis(tert-butylamino)silane and N2 Plasma.

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of silicon nitride (SiNx) is deemed essential for a variety of applications in nanoelectronics, such as gate spacer layers in transistors. In this work an ALD process using bis(tert-butylamino)silane (BTBAS) and N2 plasma was developed and studied. The process exhibited a wide temperature window starting from room temperature up to 500 °C.

Tungsten imido complexes as precursors to tungsten carbonitride thin films.

Thin films of tungsten carbonitride have been formed on glass by low-pressure chemical vapour deposition (LP)CVD at 550 degrees C from four closely related precursors: [W(mu-N(t)Bu)(N(t)Bu)Cl(2)(H(2)N(t)Bu)](2), [W(N(t)Bu)(2)Cl(2)(TMEDA)] (TMEDA = N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine), [W(N(t)Bu)(2)Cl(2)(py)(2)] (py = pyridine) and [W(N(t)Bu)(2)Cl(N{SiMe(3)}(2))]. The grey mirror-like films were grown with a nitrogen or ammonia bleed gas. In all cases the chlorine content of the deposited films was less than 1 at% and the oxygen content of the films was lower for those grown using ammonia.