Sicilian Byzantine Icons through the Use of Non-Invasive Imaging Techniques and Optical Spectroscopy: The Case of the .

The iconographic heritage is one of the treasures of Byzantine art that have enriched the south of Italy, and Sicily in particular, since the early 16th century. In this work, the investigations of a Sicilian Icon of Greek-Byzantine origin, the , is reported for the first time. The study was carried out using mainly non-invasive imaging techniques (photography in reflectance and grazing visible light, UV fluorescence, infrared reflectography, radiography, and computed tomography) and spectroscopic techniques (X-ray fluorescence and infrared spectroscopy).

Features of Fabrication of Titanium Dioxide Based Coatings for Non-Lithographic Template Electrochemical Synthesis of Micron Metal Particle Arrays.

This work is devoted to the development of non-lithographic template methods of synthesis. These methods have a significant advantage in terms of structure formation: there is no need to design and produce masks, which greatly simplifies the process, and more of them can work with nonplanar substrates. The purpose of this study was to reveal the conditions for the synthesis of titanium dioxide xerogel films of different topologies as well as to develop a technique for non-lithographic template electrochemical synthesis of micron metal particles arrays and to study the structure of the resulting coatings.

Nanoscale Piezoelectric Properties and Phase Separation in Pure and La-Doped BiFeO Films Prepared by Sol-Gel Method.

Pure BiFeO (BFO) and doped BiLaFeO (BLFO) thin films were prepared on Pt/TiO/SiO/Si substrates by a modified sol-gel technique using a separate hydrolysis procedure. The effects of final crystallization temperature and La doping on the phase structure, film morphology, and nanoscale piezoelectric properties were investigated. La doping and higher crystallization temperature lead to an increase in the grain size and preferred (102) texture of the films.