Publikationen

During the last few years several research groups have focused on the fabrication of artificial gecko inspired adhesives. For mimicking these structures, different polymers are used as structure material, such as polydimethylsiloxanes (PDMS), polyurethanes (PU), and polypropylene (PP). While these polymers can be structured easily and used for artificial adhesion systems, the effects of repeated adhesion testing have never been investigated closely. In this paper we report on the effect of repeated adhesion measurements on the commercially available poly(dimethylsiloxane) polymer kit Sylgard 184 (Dow Corning). We show that the adhesion force decreases as a function of contact cycles. The rate of change and the final value of adhesion are found to depend on the details of the PDMS synthesis and structuring.

Recently, much work has focused on the size effect in face centered cubic (fcc) structures, however few pillar studies have focused on body centered cubic (bcc) metals. This paper explores the role of bcc crystal structure on the size effect, through compression testing of [001] and [235] Molybdenum (Mo) small-scale pillars manufactured by focused ion beam (FIB). The pillar diameters ranged from 200 nm to 5 μm. Results show that the relationship between yield stress and diameter exhibits an inverse relationship (σy ∝ d−0.22 for [001] Mo and σy ∝ d−0.34 for [235] Mo) weaker than that observed for face centered cubic (fcc) metals (σy ∝ d−0.6 to −1.0). Additional tests at various loading rates revealed that small-scale Mo pillars exhibit a strain rate sensitivity similar to bulk Mo.

Microcompression tests were performed on focused-ion-beam-machined micropillars of several body-centered-cubic metals (W, Mo, Ta, and Nb) at room temperature. The relationship between yield strength and pillar diameter as well as the deformation morphologies were found to correlate with a parameter specific for bcc metals, i.e., the critical temperature Tc. This finding sheds new light on the phenomenon of small-scale plasticity in largely unexplored non-fcc metals.

Molecular architecture affects the properties of surface layers. Photosensitive silanes with branched architectures allow patterning and coupling of proteins and cells on surfaces while maintaining their biofunctional state. Attachment can be directed to the activated regions of irradiated substrates with high selectivity (see image of mouse fibroblasts). Novel photosensitive silanes with a branched molecular architecture combining three end-functionalized oligoethylene glycol (OEG) and alkyl arms are presented. These molecules are synthesized and applied to the modification of silica surfaces. The resulting layers are tested in their ability for the selective, patterned and functional immobilization of proteins and cells. The results demonstrate and accurately quantify the benefits of branched OEG structures against linear analogues for preventing non-specific interactions with the biological material. Linear structures guarantee high selectivity for the attachment of proteins, however, they fail in the case of cells. Branched structures provide good antifouling properties in both cases and allow the formation of protein patterns with higher densities of the target protein, as well as cell patterns. The results demonstrate the careful balance between surface functionality, composition and architecture that is required for maximizing the performance of any surface-based assay in biology.

It is well known that mechanical properties of materials are dependent on the volume of material that is deformed. This size effect has been investigated for metal nanostructures and thin films. However, to date there are no known studies of how confined geometries affect properties of BCC metals. The current investigation began with the aim of shedding new light on this open question. Because it allows for isothermal tensile tests of thin films in a temperature regime from cryogenic to elevated temperatures, the approach taken is that of bulge testing. Molybdenum was chosen as a starting material because of its insensitivity to oxidation at temperatures below 300 °C. After describing the coating procedure and the parameters associated with the coating process, the coating microstructure is presented. Qualitative results for investigation of the oxidation of Mo thin films are also presented. We then describe the method to obtain free-standing thin films. Finally, the apparatus for performing bulge tests and several stress–strain curves is presented. Due to limitations with the measurement equipment, for the current round of experiments, it was not possible to test the Molybdenum films at temperatures high enough to induce a brittle-to-ductile transition.

The incipient stages of plasticity in KBr single crystals have been examined in ultra-high vacuum by means of atomic force microscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). Conducting diamond-coated tips have been used to both indent the crystals and image the resulting plastic deformation. KPFM reveals that edge dislocations intersecting the surface carry a negative charge similarly to kinks in surface steps, while screw dislocations show no contrast. The charges are attributed to trapped cation vacancies which compensate the charge of divalent impurities. Furthermore, the site of indentation has been found to carry a large positive charge. Weak topographic features extending in the < 110 > direction from the indentation are identified by atomic-resolution imaging to be pairs of edge dislocations of opposite sign, separated by a distance similar to the indenter radius. They indicate the glide of two parallel {110} planes perpendicular to the surface, a process which allows for a slice of KBr to be pushed away from the indentation site.

We have studied friction and dissipation in single and bilayer graphene films grown epitaxially on SiC. The friction on SiC is greatly reduced by a single layer of graphene and reduced by another factor of 2 on bilayer graphene. The friction contrast between single and bilayer graphene arises from a dramatic difference in electron-phonon coupling, which we discovered by means of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Bilayer graphene as a lubricant outperforms even graphite due to reduced adhesion.

Using frequency-modulation atomic force microscopy (FM-AFM) at sub-nanometer vibration amplitudes, we find in the system n-dodecanol/graphite that solvation layers may extend for several nanometers into the bulk liquid. These layers maintain crystalline order which can be imaged using FM-AFM. The energy dissipation of the vibrating tip can peak sharply upon penetration of molecular layers. The tip shape appears critical for this effect.

We have recently shown that click evoked auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) can be efficiently processed using a novelty detection paradigm. Here, ABRs as a large-scale reflection of a stimulus locked neuronal group synchronization at the brainstem level are detected as novel instance-novel as compared to the spontaneous activity which does not exhibit a regular stimulus locked synchronization. In this paper we propose for the first time Gabor frame operators as an efficient feature extraction technique for ABR single sweep sequences that is in line with this paradigm. In particular, we use this decomposition technique to derive the Gabor frame phase stability (GFPS) of sweep sequences of click and chirp evoked ABRs. We show that the GFPS of chirp evoked ABRs provides a stable discrimination of the spontaneous activity from stimulations above the hearing threshold with a small number of sweeps, even at low stimulation intensities. It is concluded that the GFPS analysis represents a robust feature extraction method for ABR single sweep sequences. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the value of the presented approach for clinical applications.

We propose a novel tool to evaluate the electroencephalograph (EEG) phase reset due to auditory attention by utilizing an inverse analysis of the instantaneous phase for the first time. EEGs were acquired through auditory attention experiments with a maximum entropy stimulation paradigm. We examined single sweeps of auditory late response (ALR) with the complex continuous wavelet transform. The phase in the frequency band that is associated with auditory attention (6-10 Hz, termed as theta-alpha border) was reset to the mean phase of the averaged EEGs. The inverse transform was applied to reconstruct the phase-modified signal. We found significant enhancement of the N100 wave in the reconstructed signal. Analysis of the phase noise shows the effects of phase jittering on the generation of the N100 wave implying that a preferred phase is necessary to generate the event-related potential (ERP). Power spectrum analysis shows a remarkable increase of evoked power but little change of total power after stabilizing the phase of EEGs. Furthermore, by resetting the phase only at the theta border of no attention data to the mean phase of attention data yields a result that resembles attention data. These results show strong connections between EEGs and ERP, in particular, we suggest that the presentation of an auditory stimulus triggers the phase reset process at the theta-alpha border which leads to the emergence of the N100 wave. It is concluded that our study reinforces other studies on the importance of the EEG in ERP genesis.