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The recombination of electric charge carriers at semiconductor surfaces continues to be a limiting factor in achieving high performance optoelectronic devices, including solar cells, laser diodes, and photodetectors. The theoretical model and a solution algorithm for surface recombination have been previously reported. However, their successful application to experimental data for a wide range of both minority excess carrier concentrations and dielectric fixed charge densities has not previously been shown. Here, a parametrisation for the semiconductor-dielectric interface charge Qit is used in a Shockley-Read-Hall extended formalism to describe recombination at the c-Si/SiO2 interface, and estimate the physical parameters relating to the interface trap density Dit, and the electron and hole capture cross-sections rn and rp. This approach gives an excellent description of the experimental data without the need to invoke a surface damage region in the c-Si/SiO2 system. Band-gap tail states have been observed to limit strongly the effectiveness of field effect passivation. This approach provides a methodology to determine interface recombination parameters in any semiconductor-insulator system using macro scale measuring techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have studied the structure and electrical properties of La2Mo2O9 thin films of different thicknesses prepared by the laser deposition technique at different substrate temperatures. The structural properties of the thin films have been investigated using XRD, XPS, AFM, TEM, SEM, and Raman spectroscopy. The electrical transport properties of the thin films have been investigated in wide temperature and frequency ranges. The cubic nature of the thin films has been confirmed from structural analysis. An enhancement of the oxygen ion conductivity of the films up to five orders of magnitude is obtained compared to that of the bulk La2Mo2O9, suggesting usefulness of the thin films as electrolytes in micro-solid oxide fuel cells. The enhanced dc ionic conductivity of the thin films has been interpreted using the rule of the mixture model, while a power law model has been used to investigate the frequency and temperature dependences of the conductivity. The analysis of the results predicts the three-dimensional oxygen ion conduction in the thin films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on a novel technique of wireless actuation of a micromembrane mounted on a piezoelectric stack using radio frequency magnetic fields. The magnetic field component of the radio frequency field induces time varying voltage across the leads of the piezoelectric stack which results in vibrations of the piezoelectric stack which are eventually transferred to a micromembrane of silicon nitride mounted on top of it. Thus, wireless actuation of micromembranes is achieved which is measured using a laser-photodetector system. Wireless actuation of micromembranes has applications in controlled drug delivery with rates of the order of tens of nanolitres per second. It can also be used in controlling capsule endoscopes, in vivo sensors, and micromachines for biomedical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We obtained metallic SrTiO3 with an atomically smooth surface, where the step height is close to the unit cell height of the crystal. After the surface treatments for generating the TiO2 terminated layer, the optimal conditions for vacuum annealing were found. The atomically smooth surface was verified by atomic force microscopy and lateral force microscopy. The temperature dependent resistance R(T) measured down to 52 mK indicates the metallic behavior, and its physical origin of the conduction was analyzed by fitting an equation involving electron-phonon and electronelectron scattering mechanisms. Our results are similar to R(T) reported for LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces. In addition, the Hall effect measurement shows a clear resemblance between our reduced SrTiO3 and LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces with sheet carrier density and Hall mobility. We expect that our treatments not only promote the usage of conducting SrTiO3 substrates for subsequent thin film growth but also contribute to the current research interest in two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) SrTiO3 and the interfaces between insulating oxides of LaAlO3/SrTiO3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aluminum nitride (AlN) film coatings on flexible substrates (polymeric Teflon, Mylar) have been obtained using a hybrid helicon-arc ion-plasma deposition technique with high adhesion of coatings. Studies of optical, morphological, and structural properties of AlN films have been carried out. It was found that AlN coatings on Teflon and Mylar thin-film substrates substantially suppress transmission of infrared (IR) radiation within the spectral range λ∼5-20 μm at certain technological parameters and thickness of AlN. Transmission in THz regions by using quasioptics attains T≈79%-95%, and losses measured in the channels within the microwave region 2 to 36 GHz are <0.06 dB. The obtained composite structures (AlN coatings on Teflon and Mylar thin-film substrates), due to a high thermal conductivity of AlN, could be used as efficient blocking structures in the infrared spectral range ("infrared stealth") withdrawing the heat from filters warmed by IR radiation. At the same time, they can be used as the transparent ones in the microwave and THz regions, which can be important for low-temperature detector components of navigation, positioning, and telecommunication systems due to reducing the background noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, strain transfer efficiencies from a single crystalline piezoelectric lead magnesium niobatelead titanate substrate to a GaAs semiconductor membrane bonded on top are investigated using state-of-the-art x-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques and finite-element-method (FEM) simulations. Two different bonding techniques are studied, namely, gold-thermo-compression and polymer-based SU8 bonding. Our results show a much higher strain-transfer for the "soft" SU8 bonding in comparison to the "hard" bonding via gold-thermo-compression. A comparison between the XRD results and FEM simulations allows us to explain this unexpected result with the presence of complex interface structures between the different layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solid-state reactions between Ni1-uPtu (0

A double Dirac cone plays a significant role in the design of zero-refractive-index metamaterials without phase variation and topological insulators with pseudospin states. We present a study on the formation of a double Dirac cone in two-dimensional phononic crystals consisting of either hexagonal or triangular columns in air. We arranged hexagonal and triangular columns separately in a honeycomb lattice to explore the influence of phononic crystal symmetry on the formation of the double Dirac cone. The results show that phononic crystals forming a honeycomb lattice with C6v or C6 symmetry induce an accidental degeneracy, but C3v and C3 cannot. We also demonstrate that by varying the filling ratio of the hexagonal columns, a topological phase transformation induced by energy band inversion with dipolar and quadrupolar states occurs near the double Dirac cone. Transmission properties for acoustic tunneling and waveform shaping are confirmed in two numerical simulation examples. A discussion is given on the formation of the double Dirac cone in different phononic crystal symmetries in a honeycomb lattice. The conclusions suggest a new route for designing topological and zero-refractive-index acoustic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial efforts in theoretical and experimental studies have demonstrated that the dynamics in supercooled liquids is spatially heterogeneous. However, a complete description concerning the dynamic heterogeneity evolution from liquid to rigid glass is still lacking. Here, by a combining study of the dynamic and static mechanical responses, we quantify the characterization of dynamic heterogeneity and its temperature evolution spanning an unprecedented broad temperature range in metallic glass. We show that the dynamic heterogeneity persists from the warm liquid state into the rigid glassy state and becomes progressively pronounced with cooling, accompanied by increasing breadth of the relaxation rate dispersion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additive manufacturing (AM) is an attractive approach for the design and fabrication of structures capable of achieving controlled mechanical response of the underlying deformation mechanisms. While there are numerous examples illustrating how the quasi-static mechanical responses of polymer foams have been tailored by additive manufacturing, there is limited understanding of the response of these materials under shockwave compression. Dynamic compression experiments coupled with time-resolved X-ray imaging were performed to obtain insights into the in situ evolution of shockwave coupling to porous, periodic polymer foams. We further demonstrate shock wave modulation or "spatially graded-flow" in shock-driven experiments via the spatial control of layer symmetries afforded by additive manufacturing techniques at the micron scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transparent conducting oxides such as ZnO doped with Al or Mg are commonly used in solar cells, light emitting diodes, photodetectors, and ultraviolet laser diodes. In our work, we focus on a comparative study of the structural, optical, and electrical properties of ZnO films highly doped with Al (AZO) and Mg (MZO). These films are deposited on glass substrates by the sol-gel spin coating method. The doping concentrations for Al and Mg are fixed to 5%-30%. The XRD spectra indicate that all the samples are polycrystalline with hexagonal wurtzite structures, exhibiting a preferred orientation along the (002) plane. Low degradation in crystallinity was observed for MZO even at a Mg concentration of 30%. The MgO phase started to appear compared to Al-doped layers where smaller grains are formed inducing a deterioration in the films just after doping but no new phase appeared. This result is in agreement with other experimental results [J. K. Rath, Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 76, 431-487 (2003); Morris et al., J. Appl. Phys. 67, 1079-1087 (1990)]. By AFM analysis, the results indicate a significantly rough surface for MZO compared to AZO films. For equal Al and Mg dopant concentrations, we observe that the transmittance spectra of MZO thin films are wider than those of AZO, indicating a shift toward shorter wavelengths with an optical gap energy equal to 3.67 eV. The electrical measurements of AZO and MZO thin films were made using the I-V characteristic obtained by the four probe method. All the films present an ohmic behavior. The conductivity and the mobility of AZO films were found to be better than those of MZO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A continuum model for calculating the time-dependent hydrogen pickup fractions in various Zirconium alloys under steam and pressured water oxidation has been developed in this study. Using only one fitting parameter, the effective hydrogen gas partial pressure at the oxide surface, a qualitative agreement is obtained between the predicted and previously measured hydrogen pickup fractions. The calculation results therefore demonstrate that H diffusion through the dense oxide layer plays an important role in the hydrogen pickup process. The limitations and possible improvement of the model are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, different from Bragg scattering or local resonance mechanisms, a novel mechanism of an ultra-low-frequency broadband for flexural waves propagating in a one-dimensional elastic metamaterial beam with zero bending stiffness is proposed, which consists of periodic hinge-linked blocks. The dispersion relationship of this kind of metamaterial beam is derived and analyzed, from which we find that these hinge-linked blocks can produce the zero bending stiffness. Thus, the flexural waves within the metamaterial beam can be suppressed, and an ultra-low-frequency wide band-gap is formed in which the first branch is generated by the zero bending spring and the second branch by the negative velocity of the metamaterial beam. Numerical results show that the elastic metamaterial beams with zero bending stiffness can indeed generate an ultra-low-frequency wide band gap even starting from almost zero frequency, such as from 0Hz to 525 Hz in our structure. Therefore, the puzzle of realizing an ultra-low-frequency broadband of flexural waves may have been better solved, which could be applied in controlling ultra-low-frequency elastic waves in engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT) is widely used to provide significant improvement in the lateral resolution of ultrasonic images. Frequency-domain SAFT has shown higher accuracy and greater efficiency than time-domain SAFT. However, frequency-domain SAFT should be helix-based for ultrasonic scanning of cylindrical structures such as pipes and axletrees. In this study, a frequency-domain SAFT is proposed for 3D helical ultrasonic imaging applications. This technique adjusts the phase spectra of the images to complete the synthetic aperture focusing process. The focused image is precise because the proposed algorithm is established on the basis of the wave equation in a helical coordinate system. In addition, the algorithm can efficiently separate out point scatterers and present volume scatterers. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm yields lower side lobes and enhances the angular resolution of the ultrasonic image to approximately 1°- 1.5°, which is much better than the performance of time-domain SAFT. The maximum deviations are only 0.6 mm, 0.5°, and 0.4mm along the r-axes, h-axes, and z-axes, respectively, which are appropriate for normal ultrasonic nondestructive testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osmium (Os) is a hexagonal-close-packed metal with a non-spherical Fermi surface that seriously deviates from the assumption in the Mayadas-Shatzkes electrical-resistivity model (MS model) for the size effects of polycrystalline films of metals due to electron scattering by grain boundaries. In this work, we studied the resistivity of the Os films with different thicknesses as a function of temperature in the range of 20 to 296 K. The electron scattering by the surface was found to be unimportant in the contributions to the size effects of resistivity of Os films with a sufficient thickness. Based on the first-principles calculations, an analytical equation was suggested for correction to the MS model and used for fitting the temperature-dependent resistivity of the Os films. The results show that correction to the MS model is necessary and the residual resistivity caused by the defects and impurities cannot be neglected. In addition, the inhomogeneity of resistivity in the direction perpendicular to the film surface was discussed under an assumption of parallel circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A graphical representation of current-voltage (IV) measurements of typical memristive interfaces at constant temperature is presented. This is the starting point to extract relevant microscopic information of the parameters that control the electrical properties of a device based on a particular metal-oxide interface. The convenience of the method is illustrated presenting some examples where the IV characteristics were simulated in order to gain insight into the influence of the fitting parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we provide a theoretical investigation of axisymmetric instabilities observed during electrospinning, which lead to beads-on-a-string morphology. We used a discretized method to model the instability phenomena observed in the jet. We considered the fluid to be analogous to a bead-spring model. The motion of these beads is governed by the electrical, viscoelastic, surface tension, aerodynamic drag, and gravitational forces. The bead is perturbed at the nozzle, and the growth of the instability is observed over time, and along the length of the jet. We considered both lower electrical conducting polyisobutylene (PIB)-based Boger fluids and highly electrical conducting, polyethylene oxide (PEO)/water systems. In PIB fluids, the onset of the axisymmetric instability is predominantly based on the capillary mode, and the growth rate of the instability is decreased with the viscoelasticity of the jet. However, in the PEO/water system, the instability is electrically driven, and a significant increase in the growth rate of the instability is observed with the increase in the voltage. Our predictions from the discretized model are in good agreement with the previous linear stability analysis and experimental results. Our results also revealed the non-stationary behavior of the disturbance, where the amplitude of the perturbation is observed to be oscillating. Furthermore, we showed that the discretized model is also used to observe the non-axisymmetric behavior of the jet, which can be further used to study the bending instability in electrospinning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]