Abstract: A radiation detector has an electron emitter that includes a coated nanostructure on a support. The nanostructure can include a plurality of nanoneedles. A nanoneedle is a shaft tapering from a base portion toward a tip portion. The tip portion has a diameter between about 1 nm to about 50 nm and the base portion has a diameter between about 20 nm to about 300 nm. Each shaft has a length between about 100 nm to about 3,000 nm and an aspect ratio larger than 10. A coating covers at least the tip portions of the shafts. The coating exhibits negative electron affinity and is capable of emitting secondary electrons upon being irradiated by radiation. The nanostructure can also include carbon nanotubes (CNTs) coated with a material selected from the group of aluminum nitride (AlN), gallium nitride (GaN), and zinc oxide (ZnO).

Abstract: A layer of a material is created in a thin-film structure by coating a substrate (14) in one pass with an ink having a major, fugitive component (13) and at least one minor, non-fugitive component (12) and treating the ink to expel the major component (13) to leave the layer (15) of material. The layer (15) may bean electrically insulating layer having a thickness in the range 0.5 to 10 micrometres, with the ink containing non-fugitive colloidal ceramic nanoparticles having a size in the range 10 to 100 nanometres. The layer (15) may be a process control. layer, such as an etch stop layer or barrier layer. The layer (15) may be an optically emissive layer or a layer of predetermined electrical conductivity.

Abstract: A field electron emission material is created by applying a silica precursor to graphite particles (11); processing the silica precursor to produce amorphous silica (12) which is doped and/or is heavily defective, and disposing the graphite particles (11) upon an electrically conductive surface (14) of a substrate (13) such that they are at least partially coated with the amorphous silica (12).

Abstract: In a method of creating a field electron emission material, vanadium or a vanadium compound is disposed in respective locations of a substrate in order to create a plurality of emission site at said locations, at an average density of at least 10cm?2.Preferably, the vanadium or vanadium compound is in the form of particles.

Abstract: A method of identifying an object having identification information, said identification information being used to verify the object's identity, said method comprising: determining at least one characteristic of a magnetic field of at least a portion of a tag, thereby obtaining a first specific magnetic signal, wherein the tag comprises a substantially non-magnetic host material having pores, wherein at least some of the pores contain a magnetic material, and storing signal information relating to said first specific magnetic signal, said stored signal information forming the identification information of the object.