A new method for the specific surface energy investigation based on a combination of the force spectroscopy and the method of nanofriction study using atomic force microscopy was proposed. It was shown that air humidity does not affect the results of investigation by the proposed method as opposed to the previously used methods. Therefore, the method has high accuracy and repeatability in air without use of climate chambers and liquid cells. The proposed method has a high local resolution and is suitable for investigation of the specific surface energy of individual nanograins or fixed nanoparticles. The achievements described in the paper demonstrate one of the method capabilities, which is to control the growth mechanism of thin magnetic films. The conditions for the transition of the growth mechanism of thin Ni₈₀Fe₂₀ films from island to layer-by-layer obtained via electrolyte deposition have been determined using the proposed method and the purpose made probes with Ni coating.

$\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry is a unique platform for light manipulation and versatile use in unidirectional invisibility, lasing, sensing, etc. Broken and unbroken $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric states in non-Hermitian open systems are described by scattering matrices. A multilayer structure, as a simplest example of the open system, has no certain definition of the scattering matrix, since the output ports can be permuted. The uncertainty in definition of the exceptional points bordering $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric and $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry-broken states poses an important problem, because the exceptional points are indispensable in applications such as sensing and mode discrimination. Here we derive the proper scattering matrix from the unambiguous relation between the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric Hamiltonian and scattering matrix. We reveal that the exceptional points of the scattering matrix with permuted output ports are not related to the $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry breaking. Nevertheless, they can be employed for finding a lasing onset as demonstrated in our time-domain calculations and scattering-matrix pole analysis. Our results are important for various applications of the non-Hermitian systems including encircling exceptional points, coherent perfect absorption, $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric plasmonics, etc.

Bi nanocrystalline films were formed from perchlorate electrolyte (PE) on Cu substrate via electrochemical deposition with different duration and current densities. The microstructural, morphological properties, and elemental composition were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX). The optimal range of current densities for Bi electrodeposition in PE using polarization measurements was demonstrated. For the first time, it was shown and explained why, with a deposition duration of 1 s, co-deposition of Pb and Bi occurs. The correlation between synthesis conditions and chemical composition and microstructure for Bi films was discussed. The analysis of the microstructure evolution revealed the changing mechanism of the films’ growth from pillar-like (for Pb-rich phase) to layered granular form (for Bi) with deposition duration rising. This abnormal behavior is explained by the appearance of a strong Bi growth texture and coalescence effects. The investigations of porosity showed that Bi films have a closely-packed microstructure. The main stages and the growth mechanism of Bi films in the galvanostatic regime in PE with a deposition duration of 1–30 s are proposed.

Quantum imaging has a potential of enhancing the precision of objects reconstruction by exploiting quantum correlations of the imaging field, in particular for imaging with low-intensity fields up to the level of a few photons. However, it generally leads to nonlinear estimation problems. The complexity of these problems rapidly increases with the number of parameters describing the object and the correlation order. Here we propose a way to drastically reduce the complexity for a wide class of problems. The key point of our approach is to connect the features of the Fisher information with the parametric locality of the problem, and to reconstruct the whole set of parameters stepwise by an efficient iterative inference scheme that is linear on the total number of parameters. This general inference procedure is experimentally applied to quantum near-field imaging with higher-order correlated light sources, resulting in super-resolving reconstruction of grey compound transmission objects.

This paper provides computational tools for the modeling and design of quad mesh mechanisms, which are meshes allowing continuous flexions under the assumption of rigid faces and hinges in the edges. We combine methods and results from different areas, namely differential geometry of surfaces, rigidity and flexibility of bar and joint frameworks, algebraic geometry, and optimization. The basic idea to achieve a time-continuous flexion is time-discretization justified by an algebraic degree argument. We are able to prove computationally feasible bounds on the number of required time instances we need to incorporate in our optimization. For optimization to succeed, an informed initialization is crucial. We present two computational pipelines to achieve that: one based on remeshing isometric surface pairs, another one based on iterative refinement. A third manner of initialization proved very effective: We interactively design meshes which are close to a narrow known class of flexible meshes, but not contained in it. Having enjoyed sufficiently many degrees of freedom during design, we afterwards optimize towards flexibility.

The conductivity and percolation concentration of the composite material filled with randomly distributed carbon nanotubes were simulated as a function of the mechanical deformation. Nanotubes were modelled as the hard-core ellipsoids of revolution with high aspect ratio. The evident anisotropy was observed in the percolation threshold and conductivity. The minimal mean values of the percolation of 4.6 vol. % and maximal conductivity of 0.74 S/m were found for the isotropic composite. Being slightly aligned, the composite demonstrates lower percolation concentration and conductivity along the orientation of the nanotubes compared to the perpendicular arrangement.