The 100 most-cited articles in Applied Physics Letters, 2016

Conventional acoustic absorbers are used to have a structure with a thickness comparable to the working wavelength, resulting in major obstacles in real applications in low frequency range. We present a metasurface-based perfect absorber capable of achieving the total absorption of acoustic wave in an extremely low frequency region. The metasurface possessing a deep subwavelength thickness down to a feature size of ∼λ/223 is composed of a perforated plate and a coiled coplanar air chamber. Simulations based on fully coupled acoustic with thermodynamic equations and theoretical impedance analysis are utilized to reveal the underlying physics and the acoustic performances, showing an excellent agreement. Our realization should have an high impact on amount of applications due to the extremely thin thickness, easy fabrication, and high efficiency of the proposed structure.

Capacitance response of perovskite-based solar cells (PSCs) can be exploited to infer underlying physical mechanisms, both in the materials bulk and at outer interfaces. Particularly interesting is applying the depletion layer capacitance theory to PSCs, following common procedures used with inorganic and organic photovoltaic devices. Voltage-modulation of the depletion layer width allows extracting relevant parameters as the absorber defect density and built-in potential by means of the Mott-Schottky (MS) analysis. However, the uncritical use of the MS technique may be misleading and yields incorrect outcomes as a consequence of masking effects that accumulation capacitances, commonly observed in PSCs, produce on the measured capacitance value. Rules are provided here to select the measuring frequency that allows extracting depletion layer capacitance, and the voltage range in which it dominates, avoiding accumulation capacitive parasitic contributions. It is noted that the distinction of the depletion capacitance from the accumulation capacitance is only feasible in the case of…

By systematically comparing experimental and theoretical transport properties, we identify the polar optical phonon scattering as the dominant mechanism limiting electron mobility in β–Ga2O3 to <200 cm2/V s at 300 K for donor doping densities lower than ∼1018 cm–3. Despite similar electron effective mass of β–Ga2O3 to GaN, the electron mobility is ∼10× lower because of a massive Fröhlich interaction, due to the low phonon energies stemming from the crystal structure and strong bond ionicity. Based on the theoretical and experimental analysis, we provide an empirical expression for electron mobility in β–Ga2O3 that should help calibrate its potential in high performance device design and applications.

Using the concepts of slow sound and critical coupling, an ultra-thin acoustic metamaterial panel for perfect and quasi-omnidirectional absorption is theoretically and experimentally conceived in this work. The system is made of a rigid panel with a periodic distribution of thin closed slits, the upper wall of which is loaded by Helmholtz Resonators (HRs). The presence of resonators produces a slow sound propagation shifting the resonance frequency of the slit to the deep sub-wavelength regime (λ/88). By controlling the geometry of the slit and the HRs, the intrinsic visco-thermal losses can be tuned in order to exactly compensate the energy leakage of the system and fulfill the critical coupling condition to create the perfect absorption of sound in a large range of incidence angles due to the deep subwavelength behavior.

Sn-doped gallium oxide (Ga2O3) wrap-gate fin-array field-effect transistors (finFETs) were formed by top-down BCl3 plasma etching on a native semi-insulating Mg-doped (100) β-Ga2O3 substrate. The fin channels have a triangular cross-section and are approximately 300 nm wide and 200 nm tall. FinFETs, with 20 nm Al2O3 gate dielectric and ∼2 μm wrap-gate, demonstrate normally-off operation with a threshold voltage between 0 and +1 V during high-voltage operation. The ION/IOFF ratio is greater than 105 and is mainly limited by high on-resistance that can be significantly improved. At VG = 0, a finFET with 21 μm gate-drain spacing achieved a three-terminal breakdown voltage exceeding 600 V without a field-plate.

We investigated the temperature-dependent electrical properties of Pt/Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) fabricated on n–-Ga2O3 drift layers grown on single-crystal n+-Ga2O3 (001) substrates by halide vapor phase epitaxy. In an operating temperature range from 21 °C to 200 °C, the Pt/Ga2O3 (001) Schottky contact exhibited a zero-bias barrier height of 1.09–1.15 eV with a constant near-unity ideality factor. The current–voltage characteristics of the SBDs were well-modeled by thermionic emission in the forward regime and thermionic field emission in the reverse regime over the entire temperature range.

In this paper, a reflective metasurface is designed, fabricated, and experimentally demonstrated to generate an orbital angular momentum (OAM) vortex wave in radio frequency domain. Theoretical formula of phase-shift distribution is deduced and used to design the metasurface producing vortex radio waves. The prototype of a practical configuration is designed, fabricated, and measured to validate the theoretical analysis at 5.8 GHz. The simulated and experimental results verify that the vortex waves with different OAM mode numbers can be flexibly generated by using sub-wavelength reflective metasurfaces. The proposed method and metasurface pave a way to generate the OAM vortex waves for radio and microwave wireless communication applications.

In this paper, an electromagnetic metasurface is designed, fabricated, and experimentally demonstrated to generate multiple orbital angular momentum (OAM) vortex beams in radio frequency domain. Theoretical formula of compensated phase-shift distribution is deduced and used to design the metasurface to produce multiple vortex radio waves in different directions with different OAM modes. The prototype of a practical configuration of square-patch metasurface is designed, fabricated, and measured to validate the theoretical analysis at 5.8 GHz. The simulated and experimental results verify that multiple OAM vortex waves can be simultaneously generated by using a single electromagnetic metasurface. The proposed method paves an effective way to generate multiple OAM vortex waves in radio and microwave wireless communication applications.

The wake-up effect which is observed in ferroelectric hafnium oxide is investigated in yttrium doped hafnium oxide prepared by chemical solution deposition. It can be shown that not the amount of cycles but the duration of the applied electrical field is essential for the wake-up. Temperature dependent wake-up cycling in a range of −160 °C to 100 °C reveals a strong temperature activation of the wake-up, which can be attributed to ion rearrangement during cycling. By using asymmetrical electrodes, resistive valence change mechanism switching can be observed coincident with ferroelectric switching. From the given results, it can be concluded that redistribution of oxygen vacancies is the origin of the wake-up effect.

Two-dimensional materials present a versatile platform for developing steep transistors due to their uniform thickness and sharp band edges. We demonstrate 2D-2D tunneling in a WSe2/SnSe2 van der Waals vertical heterojunction device, where WSe2 is used as the gate controlled p-layer and SnSe2 is the degenerately n-type layer. The van der Waals gap facilitates the regulation of band alignment at the heterojunction, without the necessity of a tunneling barrier. ZrO2 is used as the gate dielectric, allowing the scaling of gate oxide to improve device subthreshold swing. Efficient gate control and clean interfaces yield a subthreshold swing of ∼100 mV/dec for >2 decades of drain current at room temperature, hitherto unobserved in 2D-2D tunneling devices. The subthreshold swing is independent of temperature, which is a clear signature of band-to-band tunneling at the heterojunction. A maximum switching ratio ION/IOFF of 107 is obtained. Negative differential resistance in the forward bias characteristics is observed at 77 K. This work bodes well for the possibilities of two-dimensional…

Deep level optical spectroscopy (DLOS) and deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) measurements performed on Ni/β-Ga2O3 Schottky diodes fabricated on unintentionally doped (010) substrates prepared by edge-defined film-fed growth revealed a rich spectrum of defect states throughout the 4.84 eV bandgap of β-Ga2O3. Five distinct defect states were detected at EC − 0.62 eV, 0.82 eV, 1.00 eV, 2.16 eV, and 4.40 eV. The EC − 0.82 eV and 4.40 eV levels are dominant, with concentrations on the order of 1016 cm−3. The three DLTS-detected traps at EC − 0.62 eV, 0.82 eV, and 1.00 eV are similar to traps reported in Czochralski-grown β-Ga2O3, [K. Irmscher et al., J. Appl. Phys. 110, 063720 (2011)], suggesting possibly common sources. The DLOS-detected states at EC − 2.16 eV and 4.40 eV exhibit significant lattice relaxation effects in their optical transitions associated with strongly bound defects. As a consequence of this study, the Ni/β-Ga2O3 (010) Schottky barrier height was determined to be 1.55 eV, with good consistency achieved between different characterization techniques.

To investigate the impact of mechanical stress on their ferroelectric properties, polycrystalline (Hf0.5Zr0.5)O2 thin films were deposited on (111)Pt-coated SiO2, Si, and CaF2 substrates with thermal expansion coefficients of 0.47, 4.5, and 22 × 10−6/ °C, respectively. In-plane X-ray diffraction measurements revealed that the (Hf0.5Zr0.5)O2 thin films deposited on SiO2 and Si substrates were under in-plane tensile strain and that their volume fraction of monoclinic phase decreased as this strain increased. In contrast, films deposited on CaF2 substrates were under in-plane compressive strain, and their volume fraction of monoclinic phase was the largest among the three kinds of substrates. The maximum remanent polarization of 9.3 μC/cm2 was observed for Pt/(Hf0.5Zr0.5)O2/Pt/TiO2/SiO2, while ferroelectricity was barely observable for Pt/(Hf0.5Zr0.5)O2/Pt/TiO2/SiO2/CaF2. This result suggests that the in-plane tensile strain effectively enhanced the ferroelectricity of the (Hf0.5Zr0.5)O2 thin films.

Organometal halide perovskites are highly promising materials for photovoltaic applications, yet their rapid degradation remains a significant challenge. Here, the light-induced structural degradation mechanism of methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) perovskite films and devices is studied in low humidity environment using X-Ray Diffraction, Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) absorption spectroscopy, Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy, and device measurements. Under dry conditions, the perovskite film degrades only in the presence of both light and oxygen, which together induce the formation of halide anions through donation of electrons to the surrounding oxygen. The halide anions generate free radicals that deprotonate the methylammonium cation and form the highly volatile CH3NH2 molecules that escape and leave pure PbI2 behind. The device findings show that changes in the local structure at the TiO2 mesoporous layer occur with light, even in the absence of oxygen, and yet such changes can be prevented by the application of UV…

We harness non-volatile, amorphous-crystalline transitions in the chalcogenide phase-change medium germanium antimony telluride (GST) to realize optically-switchable, all-dielectric metamaterials. Nanostructured, subwavelength-thickness films of GST present high-quality resonances that are spectrally shifted by laser-induced structural transitions, providing reflectivity and transmission switching contrast ratios of up to 5:1 (7 dB) at visible/near-infrared wavelengths selected by design.

An impedance matched surface is able, in principle, to totally absorb the incident sound and yield no reflection, and this is desired in many acoustic applications. Here we demonstrate a design of impedance matched sound absorbing surface with a simple construction. By coupling different resonators and generating a hybrid resonance mode, we designed and fabricated a metasurface that is impedance-matched to airborne sound at tunable frequencies with subwavelength scale unit cells. With careful design of the coupled resonators, over 99% energy absorption at central frequency of 511 Hz with a 50% absorption bandwidth of 140 Hz is achieved experimentally. The proposed design can be easily fabricated, and is mechanically stable. The proposed metasurface can be used in many sound absorption applications such as loudspeaker design and architectural acoustics.

We report on the electrical characterization of single MXene Ti3C2Tx flakes (where T is a surface termination) and demonstrate the metallic nature of their conductivities. We also show that the carrier density can be modulated by an external gate voltage. The density of free carriers is estimated to be 8 ± 3 × 1021 cm−3 while their mobility is estimated to be 0.7 ± 0.2 cm2/V s. Electrical measurements, in the presence of a magnetic field, show a small, but clearly discernable, quadratic increase in conductance at 2.5 K.

We report electric-field-induced switching with write energies down to 6 fJ/bit for switching times of 0.5 ns, in nanoscale perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with high resistance-area product and diameters down to 50 nm. The ultra-low switching energy is made possible by a thick MgO barrier that ensures negligible spin-transfer torque contributions, along with a reduction of the Ohmic dissipation. We find that the switching voltage and time are insensitive to the junction diameter for high-resistance MTJs, a result accounted for by a macrospin model of purely voltage-induced switching. The measured performance enables integration with same-size CMOS transistors in compact memory and logic integrated circuits.

We theoretically report on an innovative and practical acoustic energy harvester based on a defected acoustic metamaterial (AMM) with piezoelectric material. The idea is to create suitable resonant defects in an AMM to confine the strain energy originating from an acoustic incidence. This scavenged energy is converted into electrical energy by attaching a structured piezoelectric material into the defect area of the AMM. We show an acoustic energy harvester based on a meta-structure capable of producing electrical power from an acoustic pressure. Numerical simulations are provided to analyze and elucidate the principles and the performances of the proposed system. A maximum output voltage of 1.3 V and a power density of 0.54 μW/cm3 are obtained at a frequency of 2257.5 Hz. The proposed concept should have broad applications on energy harvesting as well as on low-frequency sound isolation, since this system acts as both acoustic insulator and energy harvester.

This paper presents the homoepitaxial growth of phase pure (010) β-Ga2O3 thin films on (010) β-Ga2O3 substrate by low pressure chemical vapor deposition. The effects of growth temperature on the surface morphology and crystal quality of the thin films were systematically investigated. The thin films were synthesized using high purity metallic gallium (Ga) and oxygen (O2) as precursors for gallium and oxygen, respectively. The surface morphology and structural properties of the thin films were characterized by atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. Material characterization indicates the growth temperature played an important role in controlling both surface morphology and crystal quality of the β-Ga2O3 thin films. The smallest root-mean-square surface roughness of ∼7 nm was for thin films grown at a temperature of 950 °C, whereas the highest growth rate (∼1.3 μm/h) with a fixed oxygen flow rate was obtained for the epitaxial layers grown at 850 °C.

This paper reports the demonstration of optically pumped GeSn edge-emitting lasers grown on Si substrates. The whole device structures were grown by an industry standard chemical vapor deposition reactor using the low cost commercially available precursors SnCl4 and GeH4 in a single run epitaxy process. Temperature-dependent characteristics of laser-output versus pumping-laser-input showed lasing operation up to 110 K. The 10 K lasing threshold and wavelength were measured as 68 kW/cm2 and 2476 nm, respectively. Lasing characteristic temperature (T0) was extracted as 65 K.

In this contribution, we present a highly accurate approach for thickness measurements of multi-layered automotive paints using terahertz time domain spectroscopy in reflection geometry. The proposed method combines the benefits of a model-based material parameters extraction method to calibrate the paint coatings, a generalized Rouard's method to simulate the terahertz radiation behavior within arbitrary thin films, and the robustness of a powerful evolutionary optimization algorithm to increase the sensitivity of the minimum thickness measurement limit. Within the framework of this work, a self-calibration model is introduced, which takes into consideration the real industrial challenges such as the effect of wet-on-wet spray in the painting process.

Van der Waals single-layer materials are characterized by an inherent extremely low bending rigidity and therefore are prone to nanoscale structural modifications due to substrate interactions. Such interactions can induce excess charge concentration, conformational ripples, and residual mechanical strain. In this work, we employed spatially resolved Raman and photoluminescence (PL) images to investigate strain and doping inhomogeneities in a single layer exfoliated molybdenum disulphide crystal. We have found that correlations between the spectral parameters of the most prominent Raman bands A1′ and E′ enable us to decouple and quantify strain and charge doping effects. In comparison with Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) topography, we show that the spatial distribution of the position of the A− -trion PL peak is strain sensitive and its linewidth can capture features smaller than the laser spot size. The presented optical analysis may have implications in the development of high-quality devices based on two-dimensional materials since structural and electronic modifications affect…

3D print is a recently developed technique, for single-unit production, and for structures that have been impossible to build previously. The current work presents a method to 3D print polymer bonded isotropic hard magnets with a low-cost, end-user 3D printer. Commercially available isotropic NdFeB powder inside a PA11 matrix is characterized, and prepared for the printing process. An example of a printed magnet with a complex shape that was designed to generate a specific stray field is presented, and compared with finite element simulation solving the macroscopic Maxwell equations. For magnetic characterization, and comparing 3D printed structures with injection molded parts, hysteresis measurements are performed. To measure the stray field outside the magnet, the printer is upgraded to a 3D magnetic flux density measurement system. To skip an elaborate adjusting of the sensor, a simulation is used to calibrate the angles, sensitivity, and the offset of the sensor. With this setup, a measurement resolution of 0.05 mm along the z-axes is achievable. The effectiveness of our…

A number of important commercial applications would benefit from the introduction of easily manufactured devices that exhibit current-controlled, or “S-type,” negative differential resistance (NDR). A leading example is emerging non-volatile memory based on crossbar array architectures. Due to the inherently linear current vs. voltage characteristics of candidate non-volatile memristor memory elements, individual memory cells in these crossbar arrays can be addressed only if a highly non-linear circuit element, termed a “selector,” is incorporated in the cell. Selectors based on a layer of niobium oxide sandwiched between two electrodes have been investigated by a number of groups because the NDR they exhibit provides a promisingly large non-linearity. We have developed a highly accurate compact dynamical model for their electrical conduction that shows that the NDR in these devices results from a thermal feedback mechanism. A series of electrothermal measurements and numerical simulations corroborate this model. These results reveal that the leakage currents can be minimized by…

Dual-comb technique has enabled exciting applications in high resolution spectroscopy, precision distance measurements, and 3D imaging. Major advantages over traditional methods can be achieved with dual-comb technique. For example, dual-comb spectroscopy provides orders of magnitude improvement in acquisition speed over standard Fourier-transform spectroscopy while still preserving the high resolution capability. Wider adoption of the technique has, however, been hindered by the need for complex and expensive ultrafast laser systems. Here, we present a simple and robust dual-comb system that employs a free-running bidirectionally mode-locked fiber laser operating at telecommunication wavelength. Two femtosecond frequency combs (with a small difference in repetition rates) are generated from a single laser cavity to ensure mutual coherent properties and common noise cancellation. As the result, we have achieved real-time absorption spectroscopy measurements without the need for complex servo locking with accurate frequency referencing, and relatively high signal-to-noise ratio.

We calculate a large difference in the band alignments for transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) heterojunctions when arranged in the stacked layer or lateral (in-plane) geometries, using direct supercell calculations. The stacked case follows the unpinned limit of the electron affinity rule, whereas the lateral geometry follows the strongly pinned limit of alignment of charge neutrality levels. TMDs therefore provide one of the few clear tests of band alignment models, whereas three-dimensional semiconductors give less stringent tests because of accidental chemical trends in their properties.

Mechanically exfoliated monolayers of WS2, MoS2 and their van der Waals heterostructure were fabricated on flexible substrate so that uniaxial tensile strain can be applied to the two-dimensional samples. The modification of the band structure under strain was investigated by micro-photoluminescence spectroscopy at room temperature as well as by first-principles calculations. Exciton and trion emissions were observed in both WS2 and the heterostructure at room temperature, and were redshifted by strain, indicating potential for applications in flexible electronics and optoelectronics.

Energy harvesting performance of an efficient flexible bio-piezoelectric nanogenerator (BPNG) is demonstrated, where “bio-waste” transparent fish scale (FSC), composed of self-assembled and ordered collagen nano-fibrils, serves as a self-poled piezoelectric active component, exhibiting intrinsic piezoelectric strength of −5.0 pC/N. The dipolar orientation (∼19%) of the self-polarized FSC collagen is confirmed by the angular dependent near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. The BPNG is able to scavenge several types of ambient mechanical energies such as body movements, machine and sound vibrations, and wind flow which are abundant in living environment. Furthermore, as a power source, it generates the output voltage of 4 V, the short circuit current of 1.5 μA, and the maximum output power density of 1.14 μW/cm2 under repeated compressive normal stress of 0.17 MPa. In addition, serially integrated four BPNGs are able to produce enhanced output voltage of 14 V that turn on more than 50 blue light emitting diodes instantly, proving its essentiality as a sustainable…

We report the experimental determination of the elastic properties of suspended multilayer WSe2, a promising two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting material combined with high optical quality. The suspended WSe2 membranes have been fabricated by mechanical exfoliation of bulk WSe2 and transfer of the exfoliated multilayer WSe2 flakes onto SiO2/Si substrates pre-patterned with hole arrays. Then, indentation experiments have been performed on these membranes with an atomic force microscope. The results show that the 2D elastic modulus of the multilayer WSe2 membranes increases linearly while the prestress decreases linearly as the number of layers increases. The interlayer interaction in WSe2 has been observed to be strong enough to prevent the interlayer sliding during the indentation experiments. The Young's modulus of multilayer WSe2 (167.3 ± 6.7 GPa) is statistically independent of the thickness of the membranes, whose value is about two thirds of other most investigated 2D semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides, namely, MoS2 and WS2. Moreover, the multilayer WSe2 can endure…

This work utilizes organic photovoltaics (OPV) for indoor applications, such as powering small electronic devices or wireless connected Internet of Things. Three representative polymer-based OPV systems, namely, poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl), poly[N-9′-heptadecanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4′,7′-di-2-thienyl-2′,1′,3′-benzothiadiazole)], and poly[[4,8-bis[(2-ethylhexyl)oxy]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene-2,6-diyl][3-fluoro-2-[(2-ethylhexyl)carbonyl]thieno[3,4-b]thiophenediyl]], were selected as the donor materials in blend with fullerene derivatives for comparison under low light level condition using fluorescent lamps. PCDTBT based devices are found to be the best performing system, generating 13.9 μW/cm2 corresponding to 16.6% power conversion efficiency at 300 lx, although PTB7 based devices show the highest efficiency under one sun conditions. This high performance suggests that OPV is competitive to the other PV technologies under low light condition despite much lower performance under one sun condition. Different properties of these devices are studied to explain the…

We report high temperature superconductivity in one unit-cell (1-UC) FeSe films grown on SrTiO3 (STO)(110) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy. By in-situ scanning tunneling microscopy measurement, we observe a superconducting gap as large as 17 meV on the 1-UC FeSe films. Transport measurements on 1-UC FeSe/STO(110) capped with FeTe layers reveal superconductivity with an onset transition temperature (TC) of 31.6 K and an upper critical magnetic field of 30.2 T. We also find that TC can be further increased by external electric field although the effect is weaker than that on STO(001) substrate.

Impedance is an important issue in the design of acoustic lenses because mismatched impedance is detrimental to real focusing applications. Here, we report two designs of acoustic lenses that focus acoustic waves in water and air, respectively. They are tailored by acoustic meta-surfaces, which are rigid thin plates decorated with periodically distributed sub-wavelength slits. Their respective building blocks are constructed from the coiling-up spaces in water and the layered structures in air. Analytic analysis based on coupled-mode theory and transfer matrix reveals that the impedances of the lenses are matched to those of the background media. With these impedance-matched acoustic lenses, we demonstrate the acoustic focusing effect by finite-element simulations.

Via incorporation of Sr2+ into (Pb,La)(Zr,Sn,Ti)O3, high recoverable energy density (Ure) is achieved in (Pb,Sr,La)(Zr,Sn,Ti)O3 (PSLZST) ceramics. All Sr2+ modified ceramics exhibit orthorhombic antiferroelectric (AFE) characteristics, and have higher ferroelectric-AFE phase switching electric field (EA, proportional to Ure) than the base composition with a tetragonal AFE phase. By properly adjusting the Sr2+ content, the Ure of PSLZST ceramics is greatly improved. This is attributed to the substitution of Pb2+ by Sr2+ with a smaller ion radius, which decreases the tolerance factor leading to enhanced AFE phase stability and thus increased EA. The best energy storage properties are achieved in the PSLZST ceramic with a Sr2+ content of 0.015. It exhibits a maximum room-temperature Ure of 5.56 J/cm3, the highest value achieved so far for dielectric ceramics prepared by a conventional sintering technique, and very small energy density variation (<12%) in the range of 30–90 °C. The high Ure (>4.9 J/cm3) over a wide temperature range implies attractive prospects of this material for…

We explore the enhancement of structure-borne elastic wave energy harvesting, both numerically and experimentally, by exploiting a Gradient-Index Phononic Crystal Lens (GRIN-PCL) structure. The proposed GRIN-PCL is formed by an array of blind holes with different diameters on an aluminum plate, where the blind hole distribution is tailored to obtain a hyperbolic secant gradient profile of refractive index guided by finite-element simulations of the lowest asymmetric mode Lamb wave band diagrams. Under plane wave excitation from a line source, experimentally measured wave field validates the numerical simulation of wave focusing within the GRIN-PCL domain. A piezoelectric energy harvester disk located at the first focus of the GRIN-PCL yields an order of magnitude larger power output as compared to the baseline case of energy harvesting without the GRIN-PCL on the uniform plate counterpart.

We demonstrate an on-chip sensor for room-temperature detection of methane gas using a broadband spiral chalcogenide glass waveguide coupled with off-chip laser and detector. The waveguide is fabricated using UV lithography patterning and lift-off after thermal evaporation. We measure the intensity change due to the presence and concentration of methane gas in the mid-infrared (MIR) range. This work provides an approach for broadband planar MIR gas sensing.

In this letter, we propose an effective route to obtain large recoverable strain, purely electrostrictive effects and high energy-storage density by inducing defect dipoles into Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (NBT)-based relaxor ferroelectrics. It has been found that pinched and double polarization hysteresis loops with high maximum polarization (Pmax) and negligible remanent polarization (Pr) can be observed due to the presence of acceptor-induced defect dipoles. A large recoverable strain of 0.24% with very little hysteresis and high electrostriction coefficient of 0.022 m4 C2 with purely electrostrictive characteristics were acquired when 11 mol. ‰ Mn-doped. Meanwhile, a high recoverable energy density of 1.06 J/cm3 with excellent temperature stability was obtained at the same composition owing to the enlarged value of Pmax-Pr (36.8 μC/cm2) and relatively high electric field (95 kV/cm). Our achievement can open up the exciting opportunities for ferroelectric materials in high-precision positioning devices and high electric power pulse energy storage applications.

This work examines the initial growth and collapse stages of bubbles induced by laser ablation in liquids. First, the bubble shape and size are tracked using an ultrafast camera in a shadowgraph imaging setup. The use of an ultrafast camera ensures a high control of the reproducibility, because a thorough measurement of each bubble lifetime is performed. Next, an analytical cavitation-based model is developed to assess the thermodynamic bubble properties. This study demonstrates that the bubble evolution is adiabatic and driven by inertial forces. Surprisingly, it is found that the bubbles consist of significantly more solvent molecules than ablated matter. These results are valuable to the field of nanoparticle synthesis as they provide insight into the mechanics of laser ablation in liquids.

In this paper, hexagonal structure phase-pure wide-band gap ε-Ga2O3 films were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition on 6H-SiC substrates. The ε-Ga2O3 films with good crystal quality were verified by high-resolution X-ray diffraction. The out-of-plane epitaxial relationship between ε-Ga2O3 films and 6H-SiC substrates is confirmed to be ε-Ga2O3 (0001)//6H-SiC (0001), and the in-plane epitaxial relationship is also confirmed to be ε-Ga2O3 ⟨112¯0⟩//6H-SiC ⟨112¯0⟩. The SEM and AFM images show that the ε-Ga2O3 films are uniform and flat. The ε-Ga2O3 films are thermally stable up to approximately 800 °C and begin to transform into β-phase Ga2O3 at 850 °C. Then, they are completely converted to β-Ga2O3 films under 900 °C. The high-quality ε-Ga2O3 films with hexagonal structure have potential application in the optoelectronic field.

Multiple-post reentrant 3D lumped cavity modes have been realized to design the concept of a discrete Whispering Gallery and Fabry-Pérot-like Modes for multimode microwave Quantum Electrodynamics experiments. Using the magnon spin-wave resonance of a submillimeter-sized Yttrium-Iron-Garnet sphere at millikelvin temperatures and a four-post cavity, we demonstrate the ultra-strong coupling regime between discrete Whispering Gallery Modes and a magnon resonance with a strength of 1.84 GHz. By increasing the number of posts to eight and arranging them in a D4 symmetry pattern, we expand the mode structure to that of a discrete Fabry-Pérot cavity and modify the Free Spectral Range (FSR). We reach the superstrong coupling regime, where spin-photon coupling strength is larger than FSR, with coupling strength in the 1.1 to 1.5 GHz range.

We present a design of acoustic metasurfaces yielding asymmetric transmission within a certain frequency band. The design consists of a layer of gradient-index metasurface and a layer of low refractive index metasurface. Incident waves are controlled in a wave vector dependent manner to create strong asymmetric transmission. Numerical simulations show that the approach provides high transmission contrast between the two incident directions within the designed frequency band. This is further verified by experiments. Compared to previous designs, the proposed approach yields a compact and planar device. Our design may find applications in various scenarios such as noise control and therapeutic ultrasound.

Hysteresis, which is induced by both extrinsic and intrinsic causes, is often observed in molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) field-effect transistors (FETs), and several extrinsic hysteresis effects have been reported in unpassivated bottom-gate MoS2 device structures. In this study, interface-trap-induced hysteresis and other electrical properties are examined. We experimentally investigate thermally activated trap charges near a silicon-dioxide (SiO2)-MoS2 interface that gives rise to hysteresis in a multilayer MoS2 FET in a temperature region of 10–300 K. The threshold voltage (VTH) and field-effect mobility (μFE) decrease with the increase in temperature, regardless of the gate-bias sweep direction. The hysteresis that coincides with the trend of subthreshold swing increases sharply above T = 150 K as the released charges from interface traps become dominant over the fixed charges. Based on a temperature-dependent hysteresis analysis, we discussed the activation energy of interface traps and maximum interface trap density of the fabricated multilayer MoS2 FET.

This paper reports a comprehensive modeling and experimental characterization of a three-dimensional phononic crystal composed of a single material, endowed with an ultra-wide complete bandgap. The phononic band structure shows a gap-mid gap ratio of 132% that is by far the greatest full 3D bandgap in literature for any kind of phononic crystals. A prototype of the finite crystal structure has been manufactured in polyamide by means of additive manufacturing technology and tested to assess the transmission spectrum of the crystal. The transmission spectrum has been numerically calculated taking into account a frequency-dependent elastic modulus and a Rayleigh model for damping. The measured and numerical transmission spectra are in good agreement and present up to 75 dB of attenuation for a three-layer crystal.

The characteristics and performances of four distinct vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs) piezoelectric energy harvesters are experimentally investigated and compared. The difference between these VIV energy harvesters is the installation of the cylindrical bluff body at the tip of cantilever beam with different orientations (bottom, top, horizontal, and vertical). Experiments show that the synchronization regions of the bottom, top, and horizontal configurations are almost the same at low wind speeds (around 1.5 m/s). The vertical configuration has the highest wind speed for synchronization (around 3.5 m/s) with the largest harvested power, which is explained by its highest natural frequency and the smallest coupled damping. The results lead to the conclusion that to design efficient VIV energy harvesters, the bluff body should be aligned with the beam for low wind speeds (<2 m/s) and perpendicular to the beam at high wind speeds (>2 m/s).

Elliptical Fe3O4 nanorings (NRs) with continuously tunable axes that range from 40 nm to 145 nm in length were prepared through a precursor-directed synthetic route to determine the electromagnetic responses generated at 2–18 GHz. The tunability of the dielectric properties of Fe3O4 NRs depends on the long axis rather than on the specific surface area, internal stress, and grain size. Elliptical Fe3O4 NRs exhibit the excellent microwave absorbing properties due to the unique ring-like configuration, which significantly enhances permittivity, multiple scattering, oscillation resonance absorption, microantenna radiation, and interference. These findings indicate that ring-like nanostructures are promising for devising effective microwave absorbers.

This paper presents the heteroepitaxial growth of ultrawide bandgap β-Ga2O3 thin films on c-plane sapphire substrates by low pressure chemical vapor deposition. N-type conductivity in silicon (Si)-doped β-Ga2O3 films grown on sapphire substrate is demonstrated. The thin films were synthesized using high purity metallic gallium (Ga) and oxygen (O2) as precursors. The morphology, crystal quality, and properties of the as-grown thin films were characterized and analyzed by field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, electron backscatter diffraction, photoluminescence and optical, photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy, and temperature dependent van der Pauw/Hall measurement. The optical bandgap is ∼4.76 eV, and room temperature electron mobility of 42.35 cm2/V s was measured for a Si-doped heteroepitaxial β-Ga2O3 film with a doping concentration of 1.32 × 1018 cm−3.

The recent empirical observation of ferroelectricity in hafnia is rather surprising since all of its known ground-state phases are nonpolar. In this letter, we show that finite size effects, relevant under experimental conditions, may themselves lead to this unexpected phenomenon due to stabilization of metastable polar phase(s). Using surface energies computed from first principles, we determine the thermodynamic stability of a parallelepiped shaped particle constructed from various low energy nonpolar and polar phases of hafnia. We find that at small dimensions, surface effects may stabilize either one of the polar phases or the nonpolar tetragonal phase (the parent phase of the polar phases), suggesting a possible explanation of the ferroelectric behavior observed in pure hafnia films. These results also explain the stabilization of the metastable tetragonal phase in nanoparticles of zirconia, the twin oxide of hafnia. While a comprehensive understanding of the origins of ferroelectricity in hafnia will require inclusion of other relevant factors (such as strain and dopants),…

A detailed study of the reaction kinetics of the plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of the n-type semiconducting oxide Ga2O3 is presented. The growth rate as a function of gallium flux is measured in situ by laser reflectometry at different growth temperatures (TG) and gallium-to-oxygen ratios (rGa). The flux of the suboxide Ga2O desorbed off the growth surface is identified in situ by line-of-sight quadrupole mass spectroscopy. The measurements reveal the influence of TG and rGa on the competing formation of Ga2O3 and desorption of Ga2O resulting in three different growth regimes: (i) Ga transport limited, (ii) Ga2O desorption limited, and (iii) O transport limited. As a result, we present a growth diagram of gallium oxide. This diagram illustrates the regimes of complete, partial, and no Ga incorporation as a function of TG and rGa, and thus provides guidance for the MBE growth of Ga2O3.

The ability to control elastic wave propagation at a deep subwavelength scale makes locally resonant elastic metamaterials very relevant. A number of abilities have been demonstrated such as frequency filtering, wave guiding, and negative refraction. Unfortunately, few metamaterials develop into practical devices due to their lack of tunability for specific frequencies. With the help of multi-physics numerical modeling, experimental validation of an adaptive elastic metamaterial integrated with shunted piezoelectric patches has been performed in a deep subwavelength scale. The tunable bandgap capacity, as high as 45%, is physically realized by using both hardening and softening shunted circuits. It is also demonstrated that the effective mass density of the metamaterial can be fully tailored by adjusting parameters of the shunted electric circuits. Finally, to illustrate a practical application, transient wave propagation tests of the adaptive metamaterial subjected to impact loads are conducted to validate their tunable wave mitigation abilities in real-time.

Magnetic skyrmion moved by the spin-Hall effect is promising for the application of the generation racetrack memories. However, the Magnus force causes a deflected motion of skyrmion, which limits its application. Here, we create an antiferromagnetic skyrmion by injecting a spin-polarized pulse in the nanostripe and investigate the spin Hall effect-induced motion of antiferromagnetic skyrmion by micromagnetic simulations. In contrast to ferromagnetic skyrmion, we find that the antiferromagnetic skyrmion has three evident advantages: (i) the minimum driving current density of antiferromagnetic skyrmion is about two orders smaller than the ferromagnetic skyrmion; (ii) the velocity of the antiferromagnetic skyrmion is about 57 times larger than the ferromagnetic skyrmion driven by the same value of current density; (iii) antiferromagnetic skyrmion can be driven by the spin Hall effect without the influence of Magnus force. In addition, antiferromagnetic skyrmion can move around the pinning sites due to its property of topological protection. Our results present the understanding of…

For macroscopically manipulating heat flow at will, thermal metamaterials have opened a practical way, which possesses a single function, such as either cloaking or concentrating the flow of heat even though environmental temperature varies. By developing a theory of transformation heat transfer for multiple functions, here we introduce the concept of intelligent thermal metamaterials with a dual function, which is in contrast to the existing thermal metamaterials with single functions. By assembling homogeneous isotropic materials and shape-memory alloys, we experimentally fabricate a kind of intelligent thermal metamaterials, which can automatically change from a cloak (or concentrator) to a concentrator (or cloak) when the environmental temperature changes. This work paves an efficient way for a controllable gradient of heat, and also provides guidance both for arbitrarily manipulating the flow of heat and for efficiently designing similar intelligent metamaterials in other fields.

In this work, we demonstrate an approach for improved sensitivity in weak radio frequency (RF) electric-field strength measurements using Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in an atomic vapor. This is accomplished by varying the RF frequency around a resonant atomic transition and extrapolating the weak on-resonant field strength from the resulting off-resonant Autler-Townes (AT) splittings. This measurement remains directly traceable to SI compared to previous techniques, precluding any knowledge of experimental parameters such as optical beam powers as is the case when using the curvature of the EIT line shape to measure weak fields. We use this approach to measure weak RF fields at 182 GHz and 208 GHz demonstrating improvement greater than a factor of 2 in the measurement sensitivity compared to on-resonant AT splitting RF electric field measurements.

We present experiments on acoustic carpet cloaking by using a metasurface made of graded Helmholtz resonators. The thin metasurface, placed over the object to hide, is designed such that the reflection phase shifts of the resonators at the resonance frequency are tuned to compensate the shape of the object to cloak. Experimental as well as numerical results show the efficiency of the cloak at the resonance frequency. The reflection of a short pulse is also reported to inspect the broadband character of the cloak.

Solution-processed p-type oxide semiconductors have recently attracted increasing interests for the applications in low-cost optoelectronic devices and low-power consumption complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor circuits. In this work, p-type nickel oxide (NiOx) thin films were prepared using low-temperature solution process and integrated as the channel layer in thin-film transistors (TFTs). The electrical properties of NiOx TFTs, together with the characteristics of NiOx thin films, were systematically investigated as a function of annealing temperature. By introducing aqueous high-k aluminum oxide (Al2O3) gate dielectric, the electrical performance of NiOx TFT was improved significantly compared with those based on SiO2 dielectric. Particularly, the hole mobility was found to be 60 times enhancement, quantitatively from 0.07 to 4.4 cm2/V s, which is mainly beneficial from the high areal capacitance of the Al2O3 dielectric and high-quality NiOx/Al2O3 interface. This simple solution-based method for producing p-type oxide TFTs is promising for next-generation oxide-based…

Layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have attracted extensive attention due to their interesting properties originating from an effective honeycomb lattice and strong spin-orbit coupling, and have potential applications in catalysis, lithium batteries, photonic, electronic, and valleytronic devices. Introducing magnetism in the TMDs can lead to the interesting functionalities such as magnetic order and carrier spin polarization with potential applications in spintronics. Here, we demonstrate an effective approach to induce robust ferromagnetism in MoS2 nanostructures by transition metal doping. After doping with a few percent Mn2+, the magnetism of MoS2 nanostructures is enhanced dramatically. Moreover, the magnetic properties are strongly temperature dependent, which is clearly different from the behavior of defect-induced magnetism. Our approach opens up the possibility for tuning the spin and magnetic properties in two-dimensional nanostructures.

A fiber optic relative humidity (RH) sensor based on the tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) coated with graphene oxide (GO) film was presented. Amplitudes of the cladding mode resonances of the TFGB varies with the water sorption and desorption processes of the GO film, because of the strong interactions between the excited backward propagating cladding modes and the GO film. By detecting the transmission intensity changes of the cladding mode resonant dips at the wavelength of 1557 nm, the maximum sensitivity of 0.129 dB/%RH with a linear correlation coefficient of 99% under the RH range of 10–80% was obtained. The Bragg mode of TFBG can be used as power or wavelength references, since it is inherently insensitive to RH changes. In addition, the proposed humidity sensor shows a good performance in repeatability and stability.

We describe the principles of design, fabrication, and operation of a piezoelectric optomechanical crystal with which we demonstrate bi-directional conversion of energy between microwave and optical frequencies. The optomechanical crystal has an optical mode at 1523 nm co-located with a mechanical breathing mode at 3.8 GHz, with a measured optomechanical coupling strength gom/2π of 115 kHz. The breathing mode is driven and detected by curved interdigitated transducers that couple to a Lamb mode in suspended membranes on either end of the optomechanical crystal, allowing the external piezoelectric modulation of the optical signal as well as the converse, the detection of microwave electrical signals generated by a modulated optical signal. We compare measurements to theory where appropriate.

An AlN barrier high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) based on the AlN/Al0.85Ga0.15N heterostructure was grown, fabricated, and electrically characterized, thereby extending the range of Al composition and bandgap for AlGaN channel HEMTs. An etch and regrowth procedure was implemented for source and drain contact formation. A breakdown voltage of 810 V was achieved without a gate insulator or field plate. Excellent gate leakage characteristics enabled a high Ion/Ioff current ratio greater than 107 and an excellent subthreshold slope of 75 mV/decade. A large Schottky barrier height of 1.74 eV contributed to these results. The room temperature voltage-dependent 3-terminal off-state drain current was adequately modeled with Frenkel-Poole emission.

We report on the integration of atomically thin 2D insulating hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) tunnel barriers into Co/h-BN/Fe magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). The h-BN monolayer is directly grown by chemical vapor deposition on Fe. The Conductive Tip Atomic Force Microscopy (CT-AFM) measurements reveal the homogeneity of the tunnel behavior of our h-BN layers. As expected for tunneling, the resistance depends exponentially on the number of h-BN layers. The h-BN monolayer properties are also characterized through integration into complete MTJ devices. A Tunnel Magnetoresistance of up to 6% is observed for a MTJ based on a single atomically thin h-BN layer.

By first principles calculations, we predict that the recently prepared borophene is a pristine two-dimensional monolayer superconductor in which the superconductivity can be significantly enhanced by strain and charge carrier doping. The intrinsic metallic ground state with high density of states at Fermi energy and strong Fermi surface nesting lead to sizeable electron-phonon coupling, making the freestanding borophene superconduct with Tc close to 19.0 K. The tensile strain can increase the Tc to 27.4 K, while the hole doping can notably increase Tc to 34.8 K. The results indicate that the borophene grown on substrates with large lattice parameters or under photoexcitation can show enhanced superconductivity with Tc far above the liquid hydrogen temperature of 20.3 K, which will largely broaden the applications of such promising material.

The potential of effectively n-type doping Ga2O3 considering its large band gap has made it an attractive target for integration into transistors and solar cells. As a result amorphous GaOx is now attracting interest as an electron transport layer in solar cells despite little information on its opto-electrical properties. Here we present the opto-electronic properties, including optical band gap, electron affinity, and charge carrier density, for amorphous GaOx thin films deposited by pulsed laser deposition. These properties are strongly dependent on the deposition temperature during the deposition process. The deposition temperature has no significant influence on the general structural properties but produces significant changes in the oxygen stoichiometry of the films. The density of the oxygen vacancies is found to be related to the optical band gap of the GaOx layer. It is proposed that the oxygen deficiency leads to defect band below the conduction band minimum that increases the electron affinity. These properties facilitate the use of amorphous GaOx as an electron…

In this work, we give direct demonstration of acoustic radiation force and acoustic torque on particles exerted by an acoustic vortex beam, which is realized by an acoustic artificial structure plate instead of traditional transducer arrays. First, the first order acoustic vortex beam, which has the distinctive features of a linear and continuous phase variation from −π to π around its propagation axis and a magnitude null at its core, is obtained through one single acoustic source incident upon a structured brass plate with Archimedean spiral grating engraved on the back surface. Second, annular self-patterning of polystyrene particles with a radius of 90 μm is realized in the gradient field of this acoustic vortex beam. In addition, we further exhibit acoustic angular momentum transfer to an acoustic absorptive matter, which is verified by a millimeter-sized polylactic acid disk self-rotating in water in the acoustic field of the generated vortex beam.

In this letter, based on a corner-cut square metasurface, a planar polarization conversion structure is presented and the application for wide band low-profile circular polarization (CP) slot antenna is proposed. The mechanisms for achieving the CP state from a linearly polarized incident wave and for broadening the working bandwidth of conventional slot antenna are analyzed theoretically. The wide band low-profile CP slot antenna is achieved with numerical optimizations and parameter studies. Both simulations and measurements are performed to demonstrate the proposed antenna, and good agreements are obtained. Such results will open the path for polarization conversion metasurfaces used in the CP antenna area.

The molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanosheet is a promising two-dimensional (2D) material and has recently been used in biological sensing. While the electronic structure of 2D MoS2 sheet has been actively studied, the role of its atomic structure and thus the interfacial interactions with bio-fluids are still elusive. Using Molecular dynamics simulations, we developed MoS2 force field parameters to reproduce the experimentally determined water contact angle of the MoS2 nanosheet and then predicted the slip-length of water that has not been measured in experiment yet. Simulation results suggest that the MoS2 nanosheet is a hydrophobic and low-friction surface, despite its seemingly significant charges of surface atoms and relatively strong strength of van der Waals potentials. We expect that the developed force fields for depicting surface atoms of MoS2 will facilitate future research in understanding biomolecule-MoS2 interactions in MoS2-based biosensors.

Vertical GaN Schottky barrier diode (SBD) structures were grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition on free-standing GaN substrates. The carbon doping effect on SBD performance was studied by adjusting the growth conditions and spanning the carbon doping concentration between ≤3 × 1015 cm−3 and 3 × 1019 cm−3. Using the optimized growth conditions that resulted in the lowest carbon incorporation, a vertical GaN SBD with a 6-μm drift layer was fabricated. A low turn-on voltage of 0.77 V with a breakdown voltage over 800 V was obtained from the device.

We present the analytical design and experimental realization of a scheme based on multi-arm coiling slits to generate the stable acoustic vortices in a broadband. The proposed structure is able to spiral the acoustic wave spatially and generate the twisted acoustic vortices with invariant topological charge for a long propagation distance. Compared with conventional methods which require the electronic control of a bulky loudspeaker, this scheme provides an effective and compact solution to generate acoustic vortices with controllable topological charge in the broadband, which offers more initiatives in the demanding applications.

The all-d-metal Mn2-based Heusler ferromagnetic shape memory alloys Mn50Ni40−xCoxTi10 (x = 8 and 9.5) are realized. With a generic comparison between d-metal Ti and main-group elements in lowering the transformation temperature, the magnetostructural martensitic transformations are established by further introducing Co to produce local ferromagnetic Mn-Co-Mn configurations. A 5-fold modulation and (3, −2) stacking of [00 10] of martensite are determined by X-ray diffraction and HRTEM analysis. Based on the transformation, a large magneto-strain of 6900 ppm and a large volume change of −2.54% are observed in polycrystalline samples, which makes the all-d-metal magnetic martensitic alloys of interest for magnetic/pressure multi-field driven applications.

We design and analyze an ultra-thin metasurface consists of mono-layer all-dielectric fishnet structure. It is demonstrated that coherent perfect absorption (CPA) can be achieved in such a metasurface, and the coherent absorptivity is controllable from 0.38% to 99.85% by phase modulation. The angular selectivity of the metasurface shows the feasibility of CPA in oblique incidence circumstances, where the CPA frequency splits into two frequency bands for TE and TM polarizations. Further study reveals that while retaining CPA, the CPA frequency of the metasurface can be manipulated from 8.56 to 13.47 GHz by solely adjusting the thickness of the fishnet metasurface.

This study aims to expand the aeroelastic unstable range of a circular cylinder for improving the efficiency of a vortex-induced vibration (VIV)-based wind energy harvester. The kinetic energy of the harvester is provided by flow-induced vibration of a circular cylinder. Two small-diameter cylindrical rods were attached on two sides of the circular cylinder parallel to the cylinder axis and symmetrical to the stagnation line at a series of circumferential locations. This was inspired by rain-wind-induced vibrations of stay-cables of cable-stayed bridges. It was found that attaching two small-diameter cylindrical rods at the circumferential location θ = 60° significantly expands the aeroelastic unstable range for the circular cylinder. The wind energy harvester with this configuration harnesses the wind energy beyond the VIV onset wind speed and is sustained over the range of wind speed. Therefore, this configuration possesses a dramatic superiority over a plain circular cylinder as the kinetic source of a wind energy harvester.

An internal resonance based broadband vibration energy harvester is proposed by introducing an auxiliary oscillator to the main nonlinear harvesting oscillator. Compared to conventional nonlinear energy harvesters, the natural frequencies of this two-degree-of-freedom nonlinear system can be easily adjusted to be commensurable which will result in more resonant peaks and better wideband performance. Experimental measurements and equivalent circuit simulations demonstrate that this design outperforms its linear counterpart. In addition to the open-circuit voltage, the optimal resistance to obtain the maximum power is determined. Nearly 130% increase in the bandwidth is achieved compared to the linear counterpart at an excitation level of 2 m/s2. The findings provide insight for the design of a broadband energy harvester when there is nonlinearity and internal resonance.

N-type SnSe compound has been synthesized through melting with spark plasma sintering. By doping BiCl3, the carrier concentration of SnSe is significantly increased, leading to a large enhancement of electrical conductivity. Meanwhile, the SnSe0.95-BiCl3 samples also exhibit higher Seebeck coefficient and lower lattice thermal conductivity, compared with polycrystalline SnSe. Consequently, a high power factor of ∼5 μW cm−1 K−2 and a ZT of 0.7 have been achieved at 793 K. The synergistic roles of BiCl3 doping in SnSe provide many opportunities in the optimization of n-type SnSe materials.

Ultrahigh compressibility has been observed in the lightweight porous carbon nanotube (CNT)-thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) nanocomposites prepared by the thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) technique. The porous structure has significantly reduced the density to approximately 0.1 g·cm−3. The nanocomposites prepared with a sonication time of 16 min and a filler content of 0.51 vol. % possess uniform CNT distribution and show the highest saturated electrical conductivity. Furthermore, the observed CNT-dependent cell structure changes indicate that the added CNTs favor the formation of thicker and stronger cell structure to enhance its reproductivity as a piezoresistive sensor. Piezoresistive behaviors were then conducted under stepwise and cyclic compression. The porous nanocomposites possess fast sensing capacity over a wide strain range (up to 90%). In addition, good piezoresistive recoverability and reproducibility were observed in the nanocomposites after stabilization by cyclic compression. This study provides a guideline for fabricating porous electrically conductive…

Perovskite/crystalline silicon tandem solar cells have the potential to reach efficiencies beyond those of silicon single-junction record devices. However, the high-temperature process of 500 °C needed for state-of-the-art mesoscopic perovskite cells has, so far, been limiting their implementation in monolithic tandem devices. Here, we demonstrate the applicability of zinc tin oxide as a recombination layer and show its electrical and optical stability at temperatures up to 500 °C. To prove the concept, we fabricate monolithic tandem cells with mesoscopic top cell with up to 16% efficiency. We then investigate the effect of zinc tin oxide layer thickness variation, showing a strong influence on the optical interference pattern within the tandem device. Finally, we discuss the perspective of mesoscopic perovskite cells for high-efficiency monolithic tandem solar cells.

We demonstrate a high-efficiency tunable acoustic absorber for low frequencies (<500 Hz) with subwavelength thickness. The acoustic absorber is based on split tube resonators and could reach high-efficiency absorption at tunable resonance frequency with wavelength in air at least 30 times larger than its total thickness in simulations and experiments. The resonance frequency and high-efficiency absorption of the absorber are robust under oblique incidence even at large angles. The absorber could have potential applications for acoustic engineering due to its high structural stability, ease of fabrication, subwavelength thickness, and robust high-efficiency.

There is a rising interest in employing the negative capacitance (NC) effect to achieve sub-60 mV/decade (below the thermal limit) switching in field-effect transistors (FETs). The NC effect, which is an effectual amplification of the applied gate potential, is realized by incorporating a ferroelectric material in series with a dielectric in the gate stack of a FET. One of the leading challenges to such NC-FETs is the variable substrate capacitance exhibited in 3D semiconductor channels (bulk, Fin, or nanowire) that minimizes the extent of sub-60 mV/decade switching. In this work, we demonstrate 2D NC-FETs that combine the NC effect with 2D MoS2 channels to extend the steep switching behavior. Using the ferroelectric polymer, poly(vinylidene difluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)), these 2D NC-FETs are fabricated by modification of top-gated 2D FETs through the integrated addition of P(VDF-TrFE) into the gate stack. The impact of including an interfacial metal between the ferroelectric and dielectric is studied and shown to be critical. These 2D NC-FETs exhibit a decrease in…

An ultra-wideband and high-efficiency polarization rotator based on a metasurface is proposed in this paper. The unit cell of the proposed polarization rotator consists of two pairs of L-shaped metallic patches printed on a substrate, which is backed by a metallic ground and covered by a superstrate. The superstrate is composed of a dielectric layer and a pair of L-shaped metallic patches printed on the dielectric layer. The proposed polarization rotator can rotate the polarization of linearly polarized electromagnetic (EM) wave to its orthogonal counterpart after reflection when the incident EM wave is y-/x-polarized. Simulated results show that the polarization rotator can perform 90° polarization rotation with very high efficiency at seven different frequencies and achieve a polarization conversion ratio higher than 0.9 in the frequency range of 7.8–34.7 GHz at normal incidence. Good agreement between the experimental results and simulated ones has been obtained.

The performance of conventional AlGaN deep ultraviolet light emitting diodes has been limited by the extremely low light extraction efficiency (<10%), due to the unique transverse magnetic (TM) polarized light emission. Here, we show that, by exploiting the lateral side emission, the extraction efficiency of TM polarized light can be significantly enhanced in AlGaN nanowire structures. Using the three-dimensional finite-difference time domain simulation, we demonstrate that the nanowire structures can be designed to inhibit the emission of guided modes and redirect trapped light into radiated modes. A light extraction efficiency of more than 70% can, in principle, be achieved by carefully optimizing the nanowire size, nanowire spacing, and p-GaN thickness.

Heat transfer between two objects separated by a nanoscale vacuum gap holds great promise especially in energy harvesting applications such as near-field thermophotovoltaic systems. However, experimental validation of nanoscale radiative heat transfer has been largely limited to tip-plate configurations due to challenges of maintaining small gap spacing over a relatively large area. Here, we report measurements of heat transfer near room temperature between two 1 cm by 1 cm doped-Si parallel plates, separated by a vacuum gap from about 200 nm to 780 nm. The measured strong near-field radiative transfer is in quantitative agreement with the theoretical prediction based on fluctuational electrodynamics. The largest measured radiative heat flux is 11 times as high as the blackbody limit for the same hot and cold surface temperatures. Our experiments have produced the highest radiative heat transfer rate observed to date across submicron distances between objects near room temperature.

We use magnetic-field-dependent features in the photoluminescence of negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy centers to measure magnetic fields without the use of microwaves. In particular, we present a magnetometer based on the level anti-crossing in the triplet ground state at 102.4 mT with a demonstrated noise floor of 6 nT/Hz, limited by the intensity noise of the laser and the performance of the background-field power supply. The technique presented here can be useful in applications where the sensor is placed close to conductive materials, e.g., magnetic induction tomography or magnetic field mapping, and in remote-sensing applications since principally no electrical access is needed.

Bubbles departing from the nucleation sites induce a liquid flow from the bulk to the heated surface during pool boiling. Alternating the nucleating regions with non-nucleating regions facilitates separate liquid-vapor pathways for departing vapor bubbles and returning liquid. We explored an additional enhancement through liquid feeder channels on the heater surface directing the returning liquid towards the nucleating region. The nucleating bubbles were confined to the nucleating region as the returning liquid flow induced strong convective currents over the non-nucleating regions. In the best performing configuration, the nucleating regions were 0.5 mm wide, separated by non-nucleating regions of width 2.125 mm, which corresponded to the bubble departure diameter. The non-nucleating regions contained 0.5 mm wide feeder channels directing liquid towards the nucleating region. High speed images indicated distinct vapor columns over the nucleating regions with liquid channeled through the feeder channels. At higher heat fluxes, the strong liquid currents established over the feeder…

A tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy-based methane sensor, employing a dense-pattern multi-pass gas cell and a 3.3 μm, CW, DFB, room temperature interband cascade laser (ICL), is reported. The optical integration based on an advanced folded optical path design and an efficient ICL control system with appropriate electrical power management resulted in a CH4 sensor with a small footprint (32 × 20 × 17 cm3) and low-power consumption (6 W). Polynomial and least-squares fit algorithms are employed to remove the baseline of the spectral scan and retrieve CH4 concentrations, respectively. An Allan-Werle deviation analysis shows that the measurement precision can reach 1.4 ppb for a 60 s averaging time. Continuous measurements covering a seven-day period were performed to demonstrate the stability and robustness of the reported CH4 sensor system.

We have fabricated a wide-bandwidth, high dynamic range, low-noise cryogenic amplifier based on a superconducting kinetic inductance traveling-wave device. The device was made from NbTiN and consisted of a long, coplanar waveguide on a silicon chip. By adding a DC current and an RF pump tone we are able to generate parametric amplification using three-wave mixing. The devices exhibit gain of more than 15 dB across an instantaneous bandwidth from 4 to 8 GHz. The total usable gain bandwidth, including both sides of the signal-idler gain region, is more than 6 GHz. The noise referred to the input of the devices approaches the quantum limit, with less than 1 photon excess noise. Compared to similarly constructed four-wave mixing amplifiers, these devices operate with the RF pump at ~20 dB lower power and at frequencies far from the signal. This will permit easier integration into large scale qubit and detector applications.

We investigated the effect of a 3-nm-thick amorphous Si (a-Si) capping layer on the hole transport properties of BaSi2 films. The contact resistance decreased with decreasing resistivity of p-BaSi2 and reached a minimum of 0.35 Ω·cm2. The effect of the a-Si layer was confirmed by higher photoresponsivities for n-BaSi2 films capped with the a-Si layer than for those without the a-Si layer, showing that the minority carriers (holes) were extracted efficiently across the a-Si/n-BaSi2 interface. Under AM1.5 illumination, the conversion efficiency reached 9.9% in a-Si(3 nm)/p-BaSi2(20 nm)/n-Si solar cells, the highest value ever reported for semiconducting silicides.

We propose an all-optical technique for plasmonic structured illumination microscopy (PSIM) with perfect optical vortex (POV). POV can improve the efficiency of the excitation of surface plasma and reduce the background noise of the excited fluorescence. The plasmonic standing wave patterns are excited by POV with fractional topological charges for accurate phase shift of {−2π/3, 0, and 2π/3}. The imaging resolution of less than 200 nm was produced. This PSIM technique is expected to be used as a wide field, super resolution imaging technique in dynamic biological imaging.

A giant electrostrictive effect was observed in (1 − x)NaNbO3-xBaTiO3 relaxor ferroelectric ceramics, which exhibit a high electrostrictive coefficient Q33 of ∼0.046 m4/C2 twice as large as those of Pb- and Bi-based perovskite relaxor ferroelectric ceramics. The theoretical analysis suggests that Q33 should be strongly correlated with chemical species of cations in a perovskite structure in which a strong ionic bond is of great benefit compared with a covalent bond. A hysteresis-free large electrostrictive strain of ∼0.148% up to at least 70 Hz was obtained in the x = 0.25 sample, demonstrating significant advantages over piezoelectric effects in high-precision ceramic actuators.

The spin-orbit torque switching of ferrimagnetic Gdx(Fe90Co10)100−x films was studied for both transition metal (TM)-rich and rare earth (RE)-rich configurations. The spin-orbit torque driven magnetization switching follows the same sense in TM-rich and RE-rich samples with respect to the total magnetization, but the sense of the switching is reversed with respect to the TM magnetization. This indicates that the sign of the spin-orbit-torque-driven magnetic switching follows the total magnetization, although transport based techniques such as anomalous Hall effect are only sensitive to the transition metal magnetization. These results provide important insight into the physics of spin angular momentum transfer in materials with antiferromagnetically coupled sublattices.

A fully tunable plasma photonic crystal is used to control the propagation of free space electromagnetic waves in the S to X bands of the microwave spectrum. An array of discharge plasma tubes forms a simple square crystal structure with the individual plasma dielectric constant tuned through variation in the plasma density. We show, through simulations and experiments, that transverse electric mode bandgaps exist, arising from the positive and negative dielectric constant regimes of the plasma, and that the respective bandgap frequencies can be shifted through changing the dielectric constant by varying discharge current density.

Transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers such as MoSe2, MoS2, and WSe2 are direct bandgap semiconductors with original optoelectronic and spin-valley properties. Here we report on spectrally sharp, spatially localized emission in monolayer MoSe2. We find this quantum dot-like emission in samples exfoliated onto gold substrates and also suspended flakes. Spatial mapping shows a correlation between the location of emitters and the existence of wrinkles (strained regions) in the flake. We tune the emission properties in magnetic and electric fields applied perpendicular to the monolayer plane. We extract an exciton g-factor of the discrete emitters close to −4, as for 2D excitons in this material. In a charge tunable sample, we record discrete jumps on the meV scale as charges are added to the emitter when changing the applied voltage.

Here we report on the magnetic properties and electronic structures of Cr2M′C2T2 (M′ = Ti, or V; T = O, OH, or F) systems investigated by means of first-principles calculations. Results indicate that Cr2M′C2T2 can be nonmagnetic, anti-ferromagnetic, or ferromagnetic and either a semiconductor or metal depending on the choice of M′ and T and the through-bond coupling interactions that affect the arrangements of Cr2M′C2T2 systems. It was found that Cr2TiC2O2 is nonmagnetic, Cr2TiC2F2 and Cr2TiC2(OH)2 are anti-ferromagnetic. Cr2VC2(OH)2, Cr2VC2F2, and Cr2VC2O2 are ferromagnetic. The Curie temperatures of Cr2VC2(OH)2, Cr2VC2F2 are up to 618.36 and 695.65 K, respectively, calculated by the Heisenberg model with mean-field approximation. By using HSE06 methods, Cr2TiC2F2 was found to have an indirect band gap of approximately 1.35 eV while Cr2TiC(OH)2 was found to have a direct band gap of 0.84 eV. The tunable magnetic properties and electronic structures make the Cr2M′C2T2 (M′ = Ti, or V; T = O, OH, or F) double transition metal carbides promising two dimensional materials for…

Great success has been achieved in improving the photovoltaic energy conversion efficiency of the organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite-based solar cells, but with very limited knowledge on the thermal transport in hybrid perovskites, which could affect the device lifetime and stability. Based on the potential field derived from the density functional theory calculations, we studied the lattice thermal conductivity of the hybrid halide perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 using equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. Temperature-dependent thermal conductivity is reported from 160 K to 400 K, which covers the tetragonal phase (160–330 K) and the pseudocubic phase (>330 K). A very low thermal conductivity (0.59 W/m K) is found in the tetragonal phase at room temperature, whereas a much higher thermal conductivity is found in the pseudocubic phase (1.80 W/m K at 330 K). The low group velocity of acoustic phonons and the strong anharmonicity are found responsible for the relatively low thermal conductivity of the tetragonal CH3NH3PbI3.

Surface properties of refractory ceramic transition metal nitride thin films grown by magnetron sputtering are essential for resistance towards oxidation necessary in all modern applications. Here, typically neglected factors, including exposure to residual process gases following the growth and the venting temperature Tv, each affecting the surface chemistry, are addressed. It is demonstrated for the TiN model materials system that Tv has a substantial effect on the composition and thickness-evolution of the reacted surface layer and should therefore be reported. The phenomena are also shown to have impact on the reliable surface characterization by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

We describe a mechanism by which complexes between gallium vacancies and oxygen and/or hydrogen act as efficient channels for nonradiative recombination in InGaN alloys. Our identification is based on first-principles calculations of defect formation energies, charge-state transition levels, and nonradiative capture coefficients for electrons and holes. The dependence of these quantities on alloy composition is analyzed. We find that modest concentrations of the proposed defect complexes (∼1016 cm−3) can give rise to Shockley-Read-Hall coefficients A=(107−109) s−1. The resulting nonradiative recombination would significantly reduce the internal quantum efficiency of optoelectronic devices.

The Helium Ion Microscope (HIM) has the capability to image small features with a resolution down to 0.35 nm due to its highly focused gas field ionization source and its small beam-sample interaction volume. In this work, the focused helium ion beam of a HIM is utilized to create nanopores with diameters down to 1.3 nm. It will be demonstrated that nanopores can be milled into silicon nitride, carbon nanomembranes, and graphene with well-defined aspect ratio. To image and characterize the produced nanopores, helium ion microscopy and high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy were used. The analysis of the nanopores' growth behavior allows inferring on the profile of the helium ion beam.

We show that properly designed mantle cloaks, consisting of patterned metallic sheets placed around cylindrical monopoles, allow tightly packing the same antennas together in a highly dense telecommunication platform. Our experimental demonstration is applied to the relevant example of two cylindrical monopole radiators operating for 3G and 4G mobile communications. The two antennas are placed in close proximity, separated by 1/10 of the shorter operational wavelength, and, after cloaking, are shown to remarkably operate as if isolated in free-space. This result paves the way to unprecedented co-siting strategies for multiple antennas handling different services and installed in overcrowded platforms, such as communication towers, satellite payloads, aircrafts, or ship trees. More broadly, this work presents a significant application of cloaking technology to improve the efficiency of modern communication systems.

Optical to electrical power converting semiconductor devices were achieved with breakthrough performance by designing a Vertical Epitaxial Heterostructure Architecture. The devices are featuring modeled and measured conversion efficiencies greater than 65%. The ultrahigh conversion efficiencies were obtained by monolithically integrating several thin GaAs photovoltaic junctions tailored with submicron absorption thicknesses and grown in a single crystal by epitaxy. The heterostructures that were engineered with a number N of such ultrathin junctions yielded an optimal external quantum efficiencies approaching 100%/N. The heterostructures are capable of output voltages that are multiple times larger than the corresponding photovoltage of the input light. The individual nanoscale junctions are each generating up to ∼1.2 V of output voltage when illuminated in the infrared. We compare the optoelectronic properties of phototransducers prepared with designs having 5 to 12 junctions and that are exhibiting voltage outputs between >5 V and >14 V.

Boron Nitride (BN) is a two dimensional insulator with excellent chemical, thermal, mechanical, and optical properties, which make it especially attractive for logic device applications. Nevertheless, its insulating properties and reliability as a dielectric material have never been analyzed in-depth. Here, we present the first thorough characterization of BN as dielectric film using nanoscale and device level experiments complementing with theoretical study. Our results reveal that BN is extremely stable against voltage stress, and it does not show the reliability problems related to conventional dielectrics like HfO2, such as charge trapping and detrapping, stress induced leakage current, and untimely dielectric breakdown. Moreover, we observe a unique layer-by-layer dielectric breakdown, both at the nanoscale and device level. These findings may be of interest for many materials scientists and could open a new pathway towards two dimensional logic device applications.

The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) have been envisaged on a two-dimensional (2D) boron sheet through electronic structure calculations based on a density functional theory framework. To date, boron sheets are the lightest 2D material and, therefore, exploring the catalytic activity of such a monolayer system would be quite intuitive both from fundamental and application perspectives. We have functionalized the boron sheet (BS) with different elemental dopants like carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, sulphur, and lithium and determined the adsorption energy for each case while hydrogen and oxygen are on top of the doping site of the boron sheet. The free energy calculated from the individual adsorption energy for each functionalized BS subsequently guides us to predict which case of functionalization serves better for the HER or the OER.

We report low-noise avalanche gain from photodiodes composed of a previously uncharacterized alloy, Al0.7In0.3As0.3Sb0.7, grown on GaSb. The bandgap energy and thus the cutoff wavelength are similar to silicon; however, since the bandgap of Al0.7In0.3As0.3Sb0.7 is direct, its absorption depth is 5 to 10 times shorter than indirect-bandgap silicon, potentially enabling significantly higher operating bandwidths. In addition, unlike other III-V avalanche photodiodes that operate in the visible or near infrared, the excess noise factor is comparable to or below that of silicon, with a k-value of approximately 0.015. Furthermore, the wide array of absorber regions compatible with GaSb substrates enable cutoff wavelengths ranging from 1 μm to 12 μm.

Field effect transistors (FETs) using SiO2 and Al2O3 as the gate oxides for the back and front sides, respectively, were fabricated on exfoliated two-dimensional (2D) β-Ga2O3 nano-belts transferred to a SiO2/Si substrate. The mechanical exfoliation and transfer process produced nano-belts with smooth surface morphologies and a uniform low defect density interface with the SiO2/Si substrate. The depletion mode nanobelt transistors exhibited better channel modulation with both front and back gates operational compared to either front or back-gating alone. The maximum transconductance was ∼4.4 mS mm−1 with front and back-gating and ∼3.7 mS mm−1 with front-gating only and a maximum drain source current density of 60 mA mm−1 was achieved at a drain-source voltage of 10 V. The FETs had on/off ratios of ∼105 at 25 °C with gate-source current densities of ∼2 × 10−3 mA mm−1 at a gate voltage of −30 V. The device characteristics were stable over more than a month for storage in air ambient and the results show the potential of 2D β-Ga2O3 for power nanoelectronics.

The thermal transport properties of the graphene and boron nitride superlattice (CBNSL) are investigated via nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. The simulation results show that a minimum lattice thermal conductivity can be achieved by changing the period length of the superlattice. Additionally, it is found that the period length at the minimum shifts to lower values at higher temperatures, and that the depth of the minimum increases with decreasing temperature. In particular, at 200 K, the thermal conductivities of CBNSLs with certain specific period lengths are nearly equal to the corresponding values at 300 K. A detailed analysis of the phonon spectra shows that this anomalous thermal conductivity behavior is a result of strong phonon wave interference. These observations indicate a promising strategy for manipulation of thermal transport in superlattices.

Recently, the extremely large magnetoresistance (MR) observed in transition metal telluride, like WTe2, attracted much attention because of the potential applications in magnetic sensor. Here, we report the observation of extremely large magnetoresistance as 3.0 × 104% measured at 2 K and 9 T magnetic field aligned along [001]-ZrSiS. The significant magnetoresistance change (∼1.4 × 104%) can be obtained when the magnetic field is titled from [001] to [011]-ZrSiS. These abnormal magnetoresistance behaviors in ZrSiS can be understood by electron-hole compensation and the open orbital of Fermi surface. Because of these superior MR properties, ZrSiS may be used in the magnetic sensors.