Study of hyperfine interactions in nanostructured dielectric oxides and filmes using gamma-gamma perturbed angular coorelation spectroscopy

Abstract

The principle objective of this work is to prepare and characterize some of the metal oxides with high dielectric constants and nanoparticle structure. The objective is to prepare bulk oxide samples or thin films of pure hafnium oxides or hafnium oxide doped with Ti, Ce, Gd, and Dy in order to study possible changes in their physical properties and consequent appearance of new phenomena. A nuclear hyperfine interaction technique using perturbed gamma-gamma angular correlation spectroscopy (PAC) will be employed to characterize the oxide samples on atomic scale. Additionally the conventional techniques such as X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy and Rutherford backscattering (RBS) will also be used. The measurement of hyperfine parameters like electric field gradient, the asymmetry parameter of the electric field gradient and hyperfine magnetic field will be carried out in the temperature range 10K-1300K and the results will be correlated with the behavior of the characteristic properties of each compound in an effort to understand the microscopic mechanisms which give rise to these phenomena. Theoretical calculations using first principle methods may also be used whenever possible.