High-entropy alloys are promising materials for novel thin-film resistors since they have high resistivity and a low-temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR). In this work, a new high-entropy thin-film CoCrFeNiTi_x was deposited on a Si/SiO₂ substrate by means of magnetron sputtering of the multi-component target produced by hot pressing of the powder mixture. The samples possessed a thickness of 130–230 nm and an amorphous atomic structure with nanocrystallite traces. This structure persisted after being annealed up to 400 °C, which was confirmed using X-ray and electron diffraction. The film had a single-phase structure with a smooth surface and a uniform distribution of all elements. The obtained film served for microresistor elaboration, which was produced using the lithography technique and tested in a temperature range from −60 °C up to 200 °C. Resistivity at room temperature was estimated as 2.37 μOhm·m. The results have demonstrated that TCR depends on temperature according to the simple linear law in a range from −60 °C up to 130 °C, changing its value from −78 ppm/°C at low temperatures to −6.6 ppm/°C at 130 °C. Such characteristics show the possibility of using these high-entropy alloy films for resistive elements in contemporary and future micro-electronic devices.

The study of individual cell processes that occur both on their surface and inside is highly interesting for the development of new medical drugs, cytology and cell technologies. This work presents an original technique for fabricating the silver-coated pipette and its use for the cell analysis by combination with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and scanning ion-conducting microscopy (SICM). Unlike the majority of other designs, the pipette opening in our case remains uncovered, which is important for SICM. SERS-active Ag nanoparticles on the pipette surface are formed by vacuum–thermal evaporation followed by annealing. An array of nanoparticles had a diameter on the order of 36 nm and spacing of 12 nm. A two-particle model based on Laplace equations is used to calculate a theoretical enhancement factor (EF). The surface morphology of the samples is investigated by scanning electron microscopy while SICM is used to reveal the surface topography, to evaluate Young’s modulus of living cells and to control an injection of the SERS-active pipettes into them. A Raman microscope–spectrometer was used to collect characteristic SERS spectra of cells and cell components. Local Raman spectra were obtained from the cytoplasm and nucleus of the same HEK-293 cancer cell. The EF of the SERS-active pipette was 7 × 10⁵. As a result, we demonstrate utilizing the silver-coated pipette for both the SICM study and the molecular composition analysis of cytoplasm and the nucleus of living cells by SERS. The probe localization in cells is successfully achieved.

In this study, hard wear-resistant Ti-Si-C coatings were deposited on Cu-Cr materials to improve their performance as sliding electrical contact materials. A ceramic disk composed of Ti₃SiC₂ and TiC phases was used as a target for DC magnetron sputtering to deposit the coatings. The influence of the power supplied to the magnetron on the chemical composition, structure, and friction coefficient of the coatings was examined. The coatings demonstrated high hardness (23–25 GPa), low wear rate (1–3 × 10⁻⁵ mm³/N/m) and electrical resistance (300 μOhm·cm), and fair resistance to electroerosion. The coating deposited at 450 W for 30 min displayed optimal properties for protecting the Cu-Cr alloy from the arc effect.

Chalcogenide vitreous semiconductors (ChVSs) find application in rewritable optical memory storage and optically switchable infrared photonic devices due to the possibility of fast and reversible phase transitions, as well as high refractive index and transmission in the near- and mid-infrared spectral range. Formed on such materials, laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSSs), open wide prospects for increasing information storage capacity and create polarization-sensitive optical elements of infrared photonics. In the present work, a possibility to produce LIPSSs under femtosecond laser irradiation (pulse duration 300 fs, wavelength 515 nm, repetition rate up to 2 kHz, pulse energy ranged 0.03 to 0.5 μJ) is demonstrated on a large (up to 5 × 5 mm²) area of arsenic sulfide (As₂S₃) and arsenic selenide (As₂Se₃) ChVS films. Scanning electron and atomic force microscopy revealed that LIPSSs with various periods (170–490 nm) and orientations can coexist within the same irradiated region as a hierarchical structure, resulting from the interference of various plasmon polariton modes generated under intense photoexcitation of nonequilibrium carriers within the film. The depth of the structures varied from 30 to 100 nm. The periods and orientations of the formed LIPSSs were numerically simulated using the Sipe–Drude approach. A good agreement of the calculations with the experimental data was achieved.

This study demonstrates the ability to control the properties of TiO₂–CuO_x composite layers for photocatalytic applications by using a simple electrophoretic deposition method from isopropanol-based suspension. To obtain uniform layers with a controlled composition, the surfactant sodium lauryl sulfate was used, which influenced the electrophoretic mobility of the particles and the morphology of the deposited layers. The TiO₂–CuO_x composite layers with different CuO_x contents (1.5, 5.5, and 11 wt.%) were obtained. It is shown that the optical band gap measured by UV–VIS–NIR diffuse reflectance spectra. When CuO_x is added to TiO₂, two absorption edges corresponding to TiO₂ and CuO_x are observed, indicating a broadening of the photosensitivity range of the material relative to pure TiO₂. An open-circuit potential study shows that by changing the amount of CuOx in the composite material, one can control the ratio of free charge carriers (n and p) and, therefore, the catalytic properties of the material. As a result, the TiO₂–CuO_x composite layers have enhanced photocatalytic activity compared to the pure TiO₂ layer: methanol yield grows with increasing CuO_x content during CO₂ photoreduction.