Silver nanoparticles are key building blocks of my plasmonic structure. This choice was made because of simulation results and literature survey. Required concentration of silver nanoparticles is about ten to the power of nine per centimeter squared. The Basic difficulty is fabrication of such densely packed nanoparticles array.

Previous method used for that purpose was the multiple spin coating with injecting colloidal solution onto spinning wafer. Unfortunatelly maximal obtained concentration was of order of 10^7 particles per squared centimeter. Most commonly used method is thermal evaporation of thin silver layer(over a dozen nm) followed by annealing, which result in formation of hemispherical silver nano islands.

Due to the lack of proper facilities for thin layer deposition this stage was replaced by electroless silver deposition method commonly used for mirrors manufacturing. Silver deposition occurs on either silicon and titanium dioxide substrate. Obtained layer was annealed at the temperature of 200 Celsius for one hour in the innert atmosphere. Creation of silver nano islands was confirmed by SEM. Unluckily due to the inhomogenity and lack of thickness control this method cannot be used for further investigations.

Better precision is expected with photochemical deposition.

Xmas is approaching. Some preliminary VSM results show that the studied Ni-Mn-Sn-Al ribbons feature magnetostructural transition, which render them promissing for magnetocaloric applications.

In November I performed some microhardness measurements on melt-spun ribbons with different loading rates. I tried to gather data I have obtained so far and analyze them to set research plan for nearest months. In this month three new melt spun ribbons with W, Hf and Nb addition were prepared. Additionally two new ingots were cast into steel mould. During November I was also preparing for the joint seminar in Dresden planned for the first part of December.

Continuation of the molecular dynamic simulation for liquid binary alloys Al-Zn, Al-Li using EOPP and MEAM potential for modelling the viscosity, density. Attempt to find the interatomic potential for Zn in order to application for liquid Al-Zn alloy. In case of Al-Li alloy, many variants were used in order to predict physical properties.
EMF measurement for application to liquid ternary Al-Zn-Li alloy. Analysis of the experimental results. Ab initio molecular dynamic study.

Samples polished grit paper the final of 1200, and then polished the diamond pastes (powder with a diameter of 6, 3 and 1 micron). The samples to be further polished for microscopic examination using a colloidal silica having a particle size 0.06 microns, and then digested with the alcohol solution consisting of 10 ml of acetic acid + 10 ml water + 70 ml of a 4% solution of picric acid in ethanol. For samples destined for final polishing micro-hardness measurements were carried out on the diamond grit paste 0.25 microns. Photos morphology of the samples was performed on an optical microscope Leica DMIRM. The measurements were made using Knoop hardness with a load of 0.1 kg at 2500 Tukon hardness tester using the guidelines of ISO 4545. Two series of measurements were made covering the entire wall thickness (in the direction of TD). For one of them, the longer diagonal footprint was always parallel and the other perpendicular to the RD.