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Natural lithography with 100-nm-diameter SiO(2) spheres followed by inductively coupled plasma etching was used to texture the surface of 4H-SiC for a wide-spectrum large-acceptance-angle anti-reflective layer. The surface showed low normal-incidence reflectance of < 5% over a wide spectrum from 250 nm to 550 nm. Photodiodes fabricated from the surface-textured SiC showed broader spectral and angular responsivity than SiC photodiodes with SiO(2) antireflective coating. The textured SiC photodiodes showed peak responsivity of 116 mA/W, large angle of acceptance angle (< 2% decrease in responsivity at 50° incident angle) and low dark current at 10V., (© 2011 Optical Society of America)

We designed and fabricated Ge/Si avalanche photodiodes grown on silicon substrates. The mesa-type photodiodes exhibit a responsivity at 1310 nm of 0.54 A/W, a breakdown voltage thermal coefficient of 0.05%/ degrees C, a 3 dB-bandwidth of 10 GHz. The gain-bandwidth product was measured as 153 GHz. The effective k value extracted from the excess noise factor was 0.1.

Rats were trained on spatial discriminations in which reward was delayed for 1 min. Experiment 1 tested Lett's hypothesis that responses made in the home cage during the delay interval are less likely to interfere with learning than responses made in the maze. Experimental subjects were transferred to their home cages during the delay interval, and control subjects were picked up but then immediately replaced in the maze. Contrary to Lett's hypothesis, both groups learned. Further experiments suggested that handling following a choice response was the crucial variable in producing learning: No learning occurred when handling was delayed (Experiment 2) or omitted (Experiment 3). One possible explanation for the fact that handling facilitated learning is that it served to mark the preceding choice response in memory so that subjects were then more likely to recall it when subsequently reinforced. In accordance with this interpretation, learning was found to be just as strong when the choice response was followed by an intense light or noise as by handling (Experiment 4). The implication of marking for other phenomena such as avoidance, quasi-reinforcement, and the paradoxical effects of punishment is also discussed.

Two-choice spatial discrimination by rats is enhanced if a salient stimulus marker occurs immediately after every choice response and again after a delay interval (Lieberman, McIntosh & Thomas, 1979). Three experiments further explore this effect. Experiment 1 found that the second marker is unnecessary. Experiment 2 found that a marker presented before a response is as effective as one presented after. Both effects could be explained in terms of markers focusing attention on subsequent cues. Experiment 3, however, found that markers after choice enhance learning even when no discriminative cues are present following the marker. Markers thus appear to initiate both a backward search through memory and attention to subsequent events; both processes help to identify events that might be related to the unexpected marking stimulus.