Dense and smooth BaTiO3 thin films were prepared on SrTiO3 (100) substrates by the dipping-pyrolysis process using a mixed precursor solution of barium and titanium naphthenates. Combination effects of prefiring [at 150–450 °C in air or low oxygen partial pressure, p(O2)[ and final heat treatment [at 850 °C in air or low p(O2)[ on preparation of BaTiO3 thin films were examined. An epitaxial BaTiO3 thin film with a dense and smooth surface consisting of nanosized grains about 70 nm was prepared by prefiring under low p(O2) at 250 °C and final heat treatment under low p (O2) at 850 °C.

Laser-induced-surface-flaw experiments on fused silica at 351 nm and 500 ps pulse duration are reported here. Specimens with surface flaws produced at a measured exit-surface damage threshold fluence of Fexit/th = 10 J/cm2 were irradiated at a constant fluence of FL = 1.8 × Fexit/th by different numbers of laser pulses, N = 110 to 520. Micrograph observations show that (i) the produced cracks have a semielliptical shape and (ii) the material strength predictions based on the radial crack depth (normal to the surface) instead of the crack surface length (parallel to the surface) are in good agreement with measured strengths obtained using a four-point bending fixture. The underlying basis of conventional crack analysis is first examined critically and is argued to be deficient in the way the failure strength for the cracks is related to the characteristic parameters of crack geometry. In general, it is necessary to incorporate a residual term into the failure strength formulation. The crack depth and the failure strength are found to increase and decrease with the number of laser pulses, respectively.

The analysis of thermostimulated currents by the fractional polarization procedure is used to understand percolative behaviors in conductor-insulator-like oil-resin mixtures. On the fundamental side oil-poor systems are particularly attractive. They offer for the first time the opportunity to apply a pure Debye-like dielectric treatment of the quasi-elastic dipolar relaxation since the involved dipoles are independent, associated with spatially separated bounded clusters. An unusual compensation phenomenon is observed in the sense that first it does not describe hierarchically correlated motions and secondly it is related to the conducting phase but exhibits characteristics of the insulating phase. This compensation phenomenon is interpreted within the framework of Fröhlich's approach of relaxation processes in biological materials, as significative of a coherent vibration resulting from Böse condensation effects. On the practical side, the surveillance of this compensation phenomenon appears to be a new way to follow the coalescence of conducting bounded clusters with aging.

ZrC films with high hardness were deposited on A3 steel by ion-beam-assisted deposition and had a corrosion rate more than two orders less and a corrosion potential 0.19 V greater than those of the bare A3 steel. The corrosion current of ZrC films was 10 times less and the polarization resistance at least 7.82 times higher than those of both Teflon and ZrN films, respectively. The experimental results confirmed that ZrC films notably enhanced the corrosion resistance of steels.

A mixture of scheelite and magnesium has been mechanically milled together for 100 h, either with graphite or in a nitrogen atmosphere, with the intention of forming tungsten carbide or nitride. The resultant powders were examined by thermal analysis, isothermal annealing, and x-ray diffraction to determine the effect of milling on the reduction of scheelite. With graphite, nanocrystallite W2C was the exclusive tungsten product; WC was not detected even after annealing at 1000 °C. No nitride formed in the system milled with nitrogen; however, 10 nm crystallites of elemental tungsten were formed. The unwanted phases, MgO and CaO, were readily removed by leaching in acid, leaving a fine powder composed of impact welded aggregates of either carbide or 99% pure tungsten metal.