The 100 most-cited articles in Applied Physics Letters, 2022

An ultrasensitive photonic sensor is vital for sensing matter with absolute specificity. High specificity terahertz photonic sensors are essential in many fields, including medical research, clinical diagnosis, security inspection, and probing molecular vibrations in all forms of matter. Widespread photonic sensing technology detects small frequency shifts due to the targeted specimen, thus requiring ultra-high quality (Q) factor resonance. However, the existing terahertz waveguide resonating structures are prone to defects, possess limited Q-factor, and lack the feature of chip-scale CMOS integration. Here, inspired by the topologically protected edge state of light, we demonstrate a silicon valley photonic crystal based ultrasensitive, robust on-chip terahertz topological insulator sensor that consists of a topological waveguide critically coupled to a topological cavity with an ultra-high quality (Q) factor of Q=0.14×106. Topologically protected cavity resonance exhibits strong resilience against disorder and multiple sharp bends. Leveraging on the extremely narrow linewidth (2.3…

Laser-induced graphene (LIG) is a simple, environmentally friendly, efficient, and less costly method, as well as can form various shapes on a flexible substrate in situ without the use of masks. More importantly, it can tune the work function of LIG easily by changing laser parameters to control the transportation of carriers. In this work, the work functions of LIG were controlled by adjusting the frequency or speed of the laser, and a series of LIG/GaOx Schottky photodetectors were formed. When the work function of the graphene increases, the Fermi energy is shifted below the crossing point of the Π and Π* bands, and then more electrons or holes can be activated to participate in the conduction process, resulting in low resistance. Meanwhile, a large built-in electric field can be formed when using a high work function LIG, which is more beneficial to separate photo-generated carriers. Enabled by the controllable LIG, LIG/GaOx Schottky photodetectors can be modulated to have high photoresponsivity or self-powered characteristics. Our work provides a high-performance photodetector…

Vertical heterojunction NiO/β n-Ga2O/n+ Ga2O3 rectifiers employing NiO layer extension beyond the rectifying contact for edge termination exhibit breakdown voltages (VB) up to 4.7 kV with a power figure-of-merits, VB2/RON of 2 GW·cm−2, where RON is the on-state resistance (11.3 mΩ cm2). Conventional rectifiers fabricated on the same wafers without NiO showed VB values of 840 V and a power figure-of-merit of 0.11 GW cm−2. Optimization of the design of the two-layer NiO doping and thickness and also the extension beyond the rectifying contact by TCAD showed that the peak electric field at the edge of the rectifying contact could be significantly reduced. The leakage current density before breakdown was 144 mA/cm2, the forward current density was 0.8 kA/cm2 at 12 V, and the turn-on voltage was in the range of 2.2–2.4 V compared to 0.8 V without NiO. Transmission electron microscopy showed sharp interfaces between NiO and epitaxial Ga2O3 and a small amount of disorder from the sputtering process.

We demonstrate a continuously tunable electric field measurement based on the far off-resonant AC stark effect in a Rydberg atomic vapor cell. In this configuration, a strong far off-resonant field, denoted as a local oscillator (LO) field, acts as a gain to shift the Rydberg level to a high sensitivity region. An incident weak signal field with a few hundreds of kHz difference from the LO field is mixed with the LO field in the Rydberg system to generate an intermediate frequency signal, which is read out by Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency (Rydberg-EIT) spectroscopy. Not like resonant EIT-Autler–Townes spectra, we realize the electric field measurement of the signal frequency from 2 to 5 GHz using a single Rydberg state. The detectable field strength is down to 2.25 μV/cm with sensitivity of the electrometry 712 nV cm−1 Hz−1/2, and a linear dynamic range is over 65 dB. The detectable field strength is comparable with a resonant microwave-dressed Rydberg heterodyne receiver using the same system, which is 0.96 μV/cm with sensitivity of 304 nV cm–1 Hz−1/2. We also…

Sound absorption is important for room acoustics and remediation of noise. Acoustic metamaterials have recently emerged as one of the most promising platforms for sound absorption. However, the working bandwidth is severely limited because of the strong dispersion in the spectrum caused by local resonance. Utilizing the coupling effect among resonators can improve the absorbers' performance, but the requirement of collecting coupling effects among all resonators, not only the nearest-neighbor coupling, makes the system too complex to explore analytically. This Letter describes deep learning based acoustic metamaterials for achieving broadband sound absorption with no visible oscillation in a targeted frequency band. We numerically and experimentally achieve an average absorption coefficient larger than 97% within the ultra-broadband extending from 860 to 8000 Hz, proving the validity of the deep learning based acoustic metamaterials. The excellent ultra-broadband and near-perfect absorption performance allows the absorber for versatile applications in noise-control engineering and…

This work acquires a vertical β-Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diode (SBD) with the advanced termination structure of p-type NiOx and n-type β-Ga2O3 heterojunctions and coupled field plate structures to alleviate the crowding electric field. A Ga2O3 SBD delivers an average breakdown voltage of 1860 V and a specific on-resistance of 3.12 mΩ cm2, yielding a state-of-the-art direct-current Baliga's power figure of merit of 1.11 GW/cm2 at an anode area of 2.83 × 10−5 cm2. In addition, the Ga2O3 SBD with the same fabrication process at a large area of 1.21 × 10−2 cm2 also presents a high forward current of 7.13 A, a breakdown voltage of 1260 V, and a power figure-of-merit of 235 MW/cm2. According to dynamic pulse switching and capacitance-frequency characteristics, an optimized p-NiOx/Ga2O3 interface with a maximum trap density of 4.13 × 1010 eV−1 cm−2 is delivered. Moreover, based on the forward current-voltage measurement at various temperatures, the physics behind a forward conduction mechanism is illustrated. Ga2O3 SBDs with p-NiOx/n-Ga2O3 heterojunction termination, field plate, high power…

Vertical metal–oxide–semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) is essential to the future application of ultrawide bandgap β-Ga2O3. In this work, we demonstrated an enhancement-mode β-Ga2O3 U-shaped gate trench vertical metal–oxide–semiconductor field effect transistor (UMOSFET) featuring a current blocking layer (CBL). The CBL was realized by high-temperature annealing under oxygen ambient, which provided electrical isolation between the source and drain electrodes. The CBL thicknesses of different annealing temperatures were derived from C–V measurements and the Fermi level position of the sample surfaces of different annealing temperature was characterized by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements, indicating good process controllability. Furthermore, photoluminescence spectra were measured to study the effect of oxygen annealing. The fabricated UMOSFET showed normally off with a Vth of 11.5 V, an on-state resistance of 1.48 Ω cm2, a maximum on-state current of 11 A/cm2, an on–off ratio of 6 × 104, and a three-terminal breakdown voltage over 100 V. This work paves a…

We demonstrate the bandwidth enhancement of an all-optical spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) magnetometer based on amplitude-modulated (AM) light. Alkali metal atoms are modulated directly by the pump beam instead of the modulation field or radio frequency field. The first harmonic demodulation of an AM SERF magnetometer with a modulation intensity of 15 kHz results in a high bandwidth of over 11 kHz with a sensitivity of 20 fT/Hz1/2 at 30 Hz and 60 fT/Hz1/2 at 10 kHz. Meanwhile, the AM SERF magnetometer with DC demodulation presents the same sensitivity as a traditional DC SERF magnetometer (6 fT/Hz1/2 at 30 Hz). The presented technique for modulating the amplitude of the pump beam allows AM SERF magnetometers to enter the domain of high-bandwidth magnetometers and opens the door to many areas that are inaccessible to conventional magnetometers.

Charge carrier scattering channels in graphite bridging its valence and conduction band offer an efficient Auger recombination dynamic to promote low energy charge carriers to higher energy states. It is of importance to answer the question whether a large number of charge carriers can be promoted to higher energy states to enhance the quantum efficiency of photodetectors. Here, we present an experimental demonstration of an effective Auger recombination process in the photo-excited nano-graphite film. The time-resolved hot carrier thermalization was analyzed based on the energy dissipation via the Auger scattering channels. We split the Auger recombination occurrence centered at 0.40 eV energy state into scattering and recombination parts, for characterizing the scattering rate in the conduction band and the recombination rate toward the valence band. The scattering time with respect to the energy state was extracted as 8 ps · eV−1, while the recombination time with respect to the energy state was extracted as 24 ps · eV−1. Our study indicates a 300 fs delay between the hot carrier…

Passive radiative cooling, radiating energy from objects to the outer space through the Earth's atmospheric window, offers promising solutions for passive building cooling and renewable energy harvesting. However, static passive radiative cooling systems with a fixed thermal emissivity cannot automatically regulate emission in response to varying ambient temperature. Here, we propose an intelligent cooling system composed of nanoporous polyethylene, which acts as a solar reflector and a nanograting radiative cooler using the phase-transition material vanadium dioxide (VO2) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The top reflector enables the cooling system to reflect solar irradiation during the daytime, and the bottom cooler plays the role of switching radiative cooling in the spectrum band (8 μm < λ < 13 μm) due to the phase transition characteristic of VO2, contributing to the temperature of radiative cooler near a critical temperature. Meanwhile, continuous stretching of the material can achieve dynamic radiative cooling via deformation of the elastic PDMS substrate to realize…

In this work, we investigated the temperature-dependent photodetection behavior of a high-performance AlGaN/GaN-based ultraviolet phototransistor (UVPT) operating under 265 nm illumination. As the temperature continuously rises from room temperature to 250 °C, the photocurrent of a device increases in the beginning but suffers from degradation afterwards. This can be explained by the competing process between the generation and recombination rate of photo-induced carriers in the UVPT at room and high temperatures. Intriguingly, we found that the optimal operating temperature for our UVPT is around 50 °C, featuring a high peak responsivity of 1.52 × 105 A/W under a light intensity of 45 μW/cm2. Furthermore, the photoresponse time of our UVPT is also highly temperature-dependent, exhibiting the shortest rise time of 50 ms at 100 °C while the decay time is monotonically reduced as the temperature rises to 250 °C. Notably, our AlGaN/GaN-based UVPTs exhibit ultra-high responsivity at high temperatures, which have outperformed those earlier reported UV photodetectors in the form of…

Ultra-small micro-LEDs are essential for next-generation display technology. However, micro-LEDs below 5 μm have been seldom reported. In this work, we demonstrate InGaN-based blue and green micro-LEDs from 1 to 20 μm by using laser direct writing lithography. The 1-μm blue micro-LEDs show a peak external quantum efficiency of 13.02%, which is 9.57% for green ones. By characterizing the size-dependent external quantum efficiency and simply assuming that this variety is dominantly determined by the dry-etching induced dead zone, we deduce that the dead zone sizes of carrier injection at the edge of chips are 0.18 and 0.15 μm in blue and green ones, respectively. A time-resolved photoluminescence measurement also shows that carrier lifetime reduction at the edge of blue ones is more serious than that of green ones, reflecting the easier carrier lateral diffusion in the former than the latter. These results exhibit the ability of laser direct writing lithography on micro-LED fabrication and also provide a reference for predicting the limit of their chip size scaling-down.

Two inch diameter, highly conducting (Si-doped) bulk β-Ga2O3 single crystals with the cylinder length up to one inch were grown by the Czochralski method. The obtained crystals revealed high structural quality characterized by narrow x-ray rocking curves (FWHM ≤ 25 arc sec) and high surface smoothness (RMS < 200 pm) of the epi-ready wafers. The free electron concentration and Hall mobility at room temperature were in the range of 1.6–9 × 1018 cm−3 and 118 – 52 cm2 V−1 s−1, respectively, which are not affected by a heat treatment at temperatures up to 1000 °C in an oxidizing atmosphere. Temperature-dependent electrical properties of the crystals revealed a degenerated semiconducting state. Both high structural quality and electrical properties make the crystals well suited as substrates for homoepitaxy and electronic device fabrication in the vertical configuration.

We experimentally demonstrate the generation of spin-wave frequency combs based on the nonlinear interaction of propagating spin waves in a microstructured waveguide. By means of time- and space-resolved Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy, we show that the simultaneous excitation of spin waves with different frequencies leads to a cascade of four-magnon scattering events, which ultimately results in well-defined frequency combs. Their spectral weight can be tuned by the choice of amplitude and frequency of the input signals. Furthermore, we introduce a model for stimulated four-magnon scattering, which describes the formation of spin-wave frequency combs in the frequency and time domain.

In this work, we demonstrate a deep mesa etch design for efficient edge field termination in β-Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs). The proposed design enabled parallel plate fields higher than 4.1 MV/cm with negligible change to the device ON characteristics. The effect of BCl3/Cl2-based dry etch on (100) and (010) etched vertical sidewalls is also analyzed. A remarkable anisotropy in depletion was observed for etch along (100) and (010) sidewalls. This work provides insight into the impact of etching on n-type Ga2O3 and shows a promising method to realize efficient field termination for high breakdown field strength SBDs.

Epitaxial ScxAl1−xN thin films of ∼100 nm thickness grown on metal polar GaN substrates are found to exhibit significantly enhanced relative dielectric permittivity (εr) values relative to AlN. εr values of ∼17–21 for Sc mole fractions of 17%–25% (x = 0.17–0.25) measured electrically by capacitance–voltage measurements indicate that ScxAl1−xN has the largest relative dielectric permittivity of any existing nitride material. Since epitaxial ScxAl1−xN layers deposited on GaN also exhibit large polarization discontinuity, the heterojunction can exploit the in situ high-K dielectric property to extend transistor operation for power electronics and high-speed microwave applications.

Saturable absorption may be induced at critical pumping power by nonlinear optical effects of nanomaterials, thereby making it possible to generate a high-power ultrafast laser. Recently, Bi4Br4 is theoretically predicted to be a member of topological insulators and is expected to be a promising candidate for saturable absorbers (SAs). We show here that Bi4Br4 features a large modulation depth of 42.3%. The Bi4Br4-based SA enables mode-locking operation at the near-infrared range, as demonstrated here by a 1.5 μm fiber laser with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 90 dB and a pulse duration of 172 fs. Moreover, the robustness of the Bi4Br4-based SA at relatively high power is of particular interest, which can be proved by a laser's stable operation state. The strong optical nonlinearity and robustness provided by Bi4Br4 may arouse a growing upsurge in the innovation of high-power ultrafast photonic devices and further development of photon applications.

Recently, the important role of high-order anharmonic phonon–phonon interactions has been revealed in several materials, such as cubic boron arsenide (BAs), in which the wide phononic energy gap is found to be a critical factor causing the importance of four-phonon scattering. In this work, by solving the Boltzmann transport equation, we show that the four-phonon scattering has a significant impact on the thermal transport in honeycomb structured monolayer BAs (m-BAs) and its hydrogenated bilayer counterparts (bi-BAs). The lattice thermal conductivity (κL) values of all these structures are reduced after considering four-phonon scattering. Particularly, a huge drop in κL as large as 80% is observed for m-BAs compared to the case without four-phonon scattering, which is mainly caused by the suppression of phonon lifetimes. More interestingly, as opposed to the case of graphene, κL of m-BAs is abnormally lower than its bi-BAs counterparts, which is attributed to the much larger phonon scattering rate in m-BAs compared to that in bi-BAs. By further comparing BAs sheets with and without…

We demonstrate robust ferroelectricity in single-crystalline wurtzite phase N-polar ScAlN/GaN heterostructures grown on on-axis c-plane sapphire substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. The exactly aligned crystallographic orientation among the ScAlN, GaN, and sapphire substrate has been confirmed using x-ray diffraction measurements. The nearly lattice-matched N-polar Sc0.21Al0.79N/GaN heterostructure shows a highly uniform coercive field (∼4.6 MV/cm at 10 kHz) and remnant polarization (∼90 μC/cm2) across the whole wafer. The reliability of N-polar Sc0.21Al0.79N/GaN ferroelectricity has been systemically characterized using retention and endurance tests. Both the coercive field and remnant polarization exhibit negligible degradation over 105 switching cycles, which is among the best reported for ferroelectric III-nitrides. This work offers a viable path for fully epitaxial heterogeneous integration of ferroelectricity into N-polar III-nitride heterostructures, which, together with the recent demonstration of fully epitaxial ferroelectric metal-polar ScAlN, will find important…

Ultra-wide-bandgap (UWBG) semiconductors, such as Ga2O3 and diamond, have been attracting increasing attention owing to their potential to realize high-performance power devices with high breakdown voltage and low on-resistance beyond those of SiC and GaN. Among numerous UWBG semiconductors, this work focuses on the corundum-structured α-Ga2O3, which is a metastable polymorph of Ga2O3. The large bandgap energy of 5.3 eV, a large degree of freedom in band engineering, and availability of isomorphic p-type oxides to form a hetero p–n junction make α-Ga2O3 an attractive candidate for power device applications. Promising preliminary prototype device structures have been demonstrated without advanced edge termination despite the high dislocation density in the epilayers owing to the absence of native substrates and lattice-matched foreign substrates. In this Perspective, we present an overview of the research and development of α-Ga2O3 for power device applications and discuss future research directions.

Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) are elastic waves propagating on the surface of solids with the amplitude decaying into the solid. The well-established fabrication of compact SAW devices, together with well-defined resonance frequencies, places SAWs as an attractive route to manipulate the magnetization states in spintronics, all of which is made possible by the magnetostriction and magnetoelastic effects. Here, we review the basic characteristics of SAW devices and their interaction out-of-resonance and in-resonance with the magnetization in thin films. We describe our own recent results in this research field and closely related works and provide our perspectives moving forward.

Ferroelectric hafnium oxides are poised to impact a wide range of microelectronic applications owing to their superior thickness scaling of ferroelectric stability and compatibility with mainstream semiconductors and fabrication processes. For broad-scale impact, long-term performance and reliability of devices using hafnia will require knowledge of the phases present and how they vary with time and use. In this Perspective article, the importance of phases present on device performance is discussed, including the extent to which specific classes of devices can tolerate phase impurities. Following, the factors and mechanisms that are known to influence phase stability, including substituents, crystallite size, oxygen point defects, electrode chemistry, biaxial stress, and electrode capping layers, are highlighted. Discussions will focus on the importance of considering both neutral and charged oxygen vacancies as stabilizing agents, the limited biaxial strain imparted to a hafnia layer by adjacent electrodes, and the strong correlation of biaxial stress with resulting polarization…

Enhanced thermoelectric performance is restricted greatly by the interaction of various transport parameters, and this bottleneck urgently requires a solution. In this paper, first-principles calculations and Boltzmann transport theory are used to study the thermoelectric performance of two-dimensional (PbX)2 (X=S,Se,Te) monolayers, and it is found that the thermoelectric performance can be enhanced significantly by applying a biaxial tensile strain. The room-temperature ZT values of the p-type (PbS)2, (PbSe)2, and (PbTe)2 in zigzag (armchair) directions are boosted as high as 1.97 (1.35), 2.26 (1.31), and 2.45 (1.59), respectively. The results show that it is mainly attributed to the significantly reduced phonon thermal conductivity. Moreover, the sharply reduced phonon thermal conductivity is mainly due to the enhancement of the phonon scattering rate caused by strong phonon anharmonicity. In addition, the excellent ZT value of the p-type (PbX)2 (X=S, Se, Te) monolayer exhibits their potential application in the thermoelectric field, and the external strain has a good prospect in…

In this Letter, we report on establishing high performance hysteresis-free and μs-switching depletion/enhancement-mode (D/E-mode) β-Ga2O3 heterojunction (HJ) field effect transistors (FETs) with the state-of-art power figure-of-merit (P-FOM). By optimizing the p-NiOx/n-Ga2O3 interface and n-Ga2O3 recess technology, a positive threshold voltage (VT) as well as a low subthreshold slope can be substantially achieved. The trade-off between the on-resistance (Ron,sp) and breakdown voltage (BV) is improved by incorporation of T-shaped NiOx, resulting in the Ron,sp of 6.24/13.75 mΩ cm2 and the breakdown voltage (BV) of 2145/1977 V for D/E-mode devices and yielding the P-FOM = BV2/Ron,sp to be 0.74/0.28 GW/cm2. To the best of all the authors' knowledge, those P-FOMs are the highest ones among all published lateral Ga2O3 FETs. Benefited from the high-quality interface, a negligible hysteresis of 4 mV and μs-switching can be essentially achieved, showing the great promise of Ga2O3 HJ-FETs for future high-power, high-efficiency, and high-speed power electronics.

Non-reciprocity in the critical current has been observed in a variety of superconducting systems and has been called the superconducting diode effect. The origin underlying the effect depends on the symmetry breaking mechanisms at play. We investigate superconducting micro-bridges of NbN and also NbN/magnetic insulator (MI) hybrids. We observe a large diode efficiency of ≈30% when an out-of-plane magnetic field as small as 25 mT is applied. In both NbN and NbN/MI hybrid, we find that the diode effect vanishes when the magnetic field is parallel to the sample plane. Our observations are consistent with the critical current being determined by the vortex surface barrier. Unequal barriers on the two edges of the superconductor strip result in the diode effect. Furthermore, the rectification is observed up to 10 K, which makes the device potential for diode based applications over a larger temperature range than before.

Although the pulsed operation of AlGaN-based laser diodes at UV-C wavelengths has been confirmed in the previous studies, continuous oscillation without cooling is difficult because of the high operating voltage. In this study, the temperature dependence of key parameters was investigated and their impact on achieving continuous-wave lasing was discussed. A reduction in the threshold voltage was achieved by tapering the sides of the laser diode mesa and reducing the lateral distance between the n- and p-electrodes. As a result, continuous-wave lasing at room temperature was demonstrated at a threshold current density of 4.2 kA/cm2 and a threshold voltage of 8.7 V.

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are a burgeoning biosensing transducer platform due to their intrinsic amplification, high transconductance, and biocompatibility. To be successful in real world biosensing applications, however, stable performance should be demonstrated to avoid false analyte readings that could lead to dangerous misdiagnosis. This work demonstrates the stability of carefully prepared OECTs using commercially available PEDOT:PSS as the channel layer. These devices exhibit more than 99% retention of the baseline current over 50 transfer curve cycles and, importantly, after several changes in electrolyte solution. Furthermore, impressive stability is demonstrated during continuous measurements of the drain current. These results show that PEDOT:PSS OECTs are ready for biosensing applications requiring accurate continuous monitoring.

Drop impact on solid surfaces widely occurs both in nature and engineering. In this Perspective, we review the recent advances in experimental, theoretical, and numerical investigations of drop impact dynamics on solid surfaces. The relevant theoretical models and numerical methods, such as the wetting transition models and the volume-of-fluid method, are briefly described. The influences of key factors on the drop impact dynamics, and the underlying mechanisms of forces and energies, are examined. Especially, we analyze the contact time for a drop impacting on a solid surface and discuss the effective strategies to tune the dynamic impact behavior. The design principles of functional surfaces and some typical applications are also discussed. Finally, Perspectives are given on future development of the drop impact dynamics and its potential applications in diverse engineering fields.

AlScN is attractive as a lattice-matched epitaxial barrier layer for incorporation in GaN high electron mobility transistors due to its large dielectric constant and polarization. The transport properties of polarization-induced two-dimensional (2D) electron gas of densities of ∼2×1013/cm2 formed at the AlScN–GaN interface is studied by Hall-effect measurements down to cryogenic temperatures. The 2D electron gas densities exhibit mobilities limited to ∼300 cm2/V s down to 10 K at AlScN/GaN heterojunctions. The insertion of a ∼2 nm AlN interlayer boosts the room temperature mobility by more than five times from ∼300 cm2/V s to ∼1573 cm2/V s, and the 10 K mobility by more than 20 times to ∼6980 cm2/V s at 10 K. These measurements provide guidelines to the limits of electron conductivities of these highly polar heterostructures.

Analyzing and optimizing carrier behaviors are essential to achieve high electroluminescence performance in perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs). In this work, a capacitance–voltage (C–V) model for PeLEDs is established to describe carrier behaviors. Four distinct regions in this typical C–V model, including a neutrality region, a barrier region, a carrier diffusion region, and a carrier recombination region, were analyzed. Importantly, the C–V model is implemented to guide the electroluminescence (EL) performance improvement in PeLEDs. By studying the measured C–V characteristics of a typical PeLED, issues of a high hole injection barrier and insufficient recombination are revealed. To address them, one MoO3 interface layer with deep conduction band minimum is designed between a hole transport layer and a hole injection layer to enhance the hole injection. The C–V characteristics for the optimized PeLED confirm the reduced injection barrier and strengthened recombination rate. The optimized PeLED shows an improved external quantum efficiency from 8.34% to 15.82%. The C–V model…

The influence of substrate orientation on homoepitaxial growth of beta-gallium oxide by halide vapor phase epitaxy was investigated. Substrates were cut at various angles Δb from the (001) plane (Δb = 0°) to the (010) plane (Δb = 90°) of bulk crystals grown by the edge-defined film-fed growth method. The growth rate increased with increasing absolute value of Δb near the (001). However, from the (001) to the (010), as Δb increased, the growth rate decreased sharply, and streaky grooves observed in the grown layer on the (001) substrate became triangular pits. The length of the pits decreased with increasing Δb, and a pit-free homoepitaxial layer grew at Δb ≈ 60°. The valley line of the pits was parallel to the [010] direction; therefore, the length of the pits decreased with increasing Δb. In addition, transmission electron microscopy observations of the deepest part of a pit revealed that the pits originate from dislocations propagating in the substrate at an angle of 60° with respect to the (001) plane. Therefore, pits are not formed on the grown layer surface when the Δb of the…

Van de Waals heterostructure (VDWH) is an emerging strategy to engineer the electronic properties of two-dimensional (2D) material systems. Motivated by the recent discovery of MoSi2N4-a synthetic septuple-layered 2D semiconductor with exceptional mechanical and electronic properties, we investigate the synergy of MoSi2N4 with wide-bandgap (WBG) 2D monolayers of GaN and ZnO using first-principle calculations. We find that MoSi2N4/GaN is a direct bandgap type-I VDWH, while MoSi2N4/ZnO is an indirect bandgap type-II VDWH. Intriguingly, by applying an electric field or mechanical strain along the out-of-plane direction, the band structures of MoSi2N4/GaN and MoSi2N4/ZnO can be substantially modified, exhibiting rich transitional behaviors, such as the type-I-to-type-II band alignment and the direct-to-indirect bandgap transitions. These findings reveal the potentials of MoSi2N4-based WBG VDWH as a tunable hybrid materials with enormous design flexibility in ultracompact optoelectronic applications.

Highly efficient absorption of broadband low-frequency sound with a slim subwavelength meta-structure promises extensive applications in acoustic engineering, which remains a major challenge due to the weak coupling of strong scattering resonant modes. Here, we formulate the interaction of resonant modes in different damping states on the basis of a coupled-mode theory and draw the conclusion that couplings between over-damped modes demonstrate superiority to under-damped or critically coupled states in sound absorption. Furthermore, we theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate an ultra-broadband sound absorber by hybridizing multi-order Helmholtz resonators, which support a series of over-damped modes in a single element with flexible key acoustic parameters, including operating frequencies and loss and leakage factors decorated at will. Due to the intense coupling between these elaborated over-damped modes, the designed absorber demonstrates 81% average absorptance for airborne sound ranging from 100 to 1000 Hz (exceeding three octaves) with a thickness down to 1/18.8…

Quantum computing relies on the operation of qubits in an environment as free of noise as possible. Assessing the quality of this environment is a key aspect of ensuring high-fidelity implementations based on superconducting qubits. Relaxation, decoherence, dephasing, and quasiparticle tunneling rates have been measured for various shielding configurations used in the measurement environment for state-of-the-art transmon qubits. An ensemble of approximately 120 control devices was used for this study, with five different capacitor pad designs. The shielding elements varied in the configuration included an indium gasket at the qubit can's lid, Cryoperm magnetic shielding, the mixing chamber shield of the dilution refrigerator, the inclusion of a vacuum pump-out port, and capping unused subminiature version A connectors at the top of the measurement can's lid. It was found that the qubit lifetimes T1, T2, and Tϕ are robust to the all of configuration changes tried until the mixing chamber shield was removed, significantly increasing blackbody radiation levels in the qubit measurement…

GeSn alloys are promising materials for light emitters monolithically grown on silicon. In this work, we demonstrate room temperature (RT) lasing in a GeSn hetero-structure with 17.2% of Sn. We report a threshold of 3.27 MW cm−2 at 305 K with peak emission at 353 meV. We ascribe these improvements to a higher tin concentration in the GeSn active layer with lower Sn content barriers on each side and to a better thermal dissipation provided by an adapted pedestal architecture beneath the GeSn micro-disk. This outcome is a major milestone for a fully integrated group-IV semiconductor laser on Si.

The optical response of bilayer moiré photonic structures can be precisely controlled by varying the lattice geometry. Bilayer moiré photonic crystal slabs exhibit flat bands in the optical band structure, where the optical modes have zero group velocity. They also give rise to momentum-independent light-trapping of Bloch waves in both transverse and vertical directions, leading to high quality-factors (Q=109) and small mode volumes (V=0.12 λ2). The large Q and small V lead to a large Purcell enhancement (FP=1035), providing opportunities for low-threshold lasing, enhancement of optical nonlinearities, and quantum information processing.

Since research on artificial intelligence has begun receiving much attention, interest in efficient hardware that can process a complex and large amount of information has also increased. The existing von Neumann computing architecture has significant limitations in terms of speed and energy efficiency. Volatile memristors are the most promising among several emerging memory semiconductor devices, because they have various features suitable for neuro-inspired applications. Therefore, a comprehensive review of volatile memristors is urgently needed for future research. Herein, we present the physical interpretation and latest research trends of the switching mechanisms of volatile memristors. We also review diverse promising applications using volatile memristors. In particular, we focus on selectors for array structures, synaptic devices for neuromorphic engineering, imitation of nociceptors, and reservoir computing for time-dependent input data processing. Finally, we discuss the future directions of volatile memristors and their applications.

We present efficient red InGaN 60 × 60 μm2 micro-light-emitting diodes (μLEDs) with an epitaxial tunnel junction (TJ) contact. The TJ was grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition using selective area growth. The red TJ μLEDs show a uniform electroluminescence. At a low current density of 1 A/cm2, the emission peak wavelength is 623 nm with a full-width half maximum of 47 nm. The peak external quantum efficiency (EQE) measured in an integrating sphere is as high as 4.5%. These results suggest a significant progress in exploring high efficiency InGaN red μLEDs using TJ technology.

The rapid development of the Internet of Things increases the demand for wearable devices. Compared with traditional chemical batteries, flexible thermoelectric technology contributes a solution for solving the power supply of wearable electronics. Here, we prepared n-type Bi2Te3 and p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 flexible thermoelectric films by the magnetron sputtering method, where the thermoelectric performance and their microstructures are systematically studied. The carrier concentration and mobility are optimized by adjusting the deposition temperature, eventually improving the thermoelectric performance and achieving the room-temperature power factors of 3.2 and 6.1 μW cm−1 K−2 for Bi2Te3 and Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 films, respectively. Furthermore, after being bent 900 times with a radius of 5 mm, the resistance of these films barely increases, demonstrating the great potential for applications in wearable electronics. In order to further evaluate the practicability, these films are used to design a flexible thermoelectric generator, in which output performance improves with the increase in…

In this work, β-Ga2O3 fin field-effect transistors (FinFETs) with metalorganic chemical vapor deposition grown epitaxial Si-doped channel layer on (010) semi-insulating β-Ga2O3 substrates are demonstrated. β-Ga2O3 fin channels with smooth sidewalls are produced by the plasma-free metal-assisted chemical etching (MacEtch) method. A specific on-resistance (Ron,sp) of 6.5 mΩ·cm2 and a 370 V breakdown voltage are achieved. In addition, these MacEtch-formed FinFETs demonstrate DC transfer characteristics with near zero (9.7 mV) hysteresis. The effect of channel orientation on threshold voltage, subthreshold swing, hysteresis, and breakdown voltages is also characterized. The FinFET with channel perpendicular to the [102] direction is found to exhibit the lowest subthreshold swing and hysteresis.

In this Letter, a method is proposed to increase the power output of piezoelectric energy harvesting via gradient auxetic structures. This method is validated through a gradient auxetic piezoelectric energy harvester, which combines a cantilever beam and a gradient auxetic structure. Compared with the normal uniform auxetic structure, the gradient auxetic structure can contribute to a more uniform strain distribution of the piezoelectric cantilever beam; thus, the proposed gradient auxetic energy harvester can produce higher power than the uniform auxetic energy harvester without increasing the stress concentration at the same time. Finite element simulation is performed to analyze the characteristics of the gradient auxetic energy harvester. From the experimental results, under the base excitation of 1 m/s2, the power density of the gradient auxetic energy harvester is increased by 356% and 55%, respectively, compared with the conventional plain energy harvester without auxetic structure and the uniform auxetic energy harvester.

We report on the effect of dislocation density on the ferroelectric properties of single-crystalline ScAlN thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Wurtzite phase and atomically smooth ScAlN films have been grown on bulk GaN, GaN on sapphire, and GaN on Si substrates with dislocation densities ranging from ∼107 to 1010 cm−2. Despite the significant difference in dislocation density, ferroelectricity is observed in all three samples. The presence of high densities of dislocations, however, results in enhanced asymmetric P–E loops and overestimated remnant polarization values. Further measurements show that the leakage current and breakdown strength can be improved with decreasing dislocation density. Detailed studies suggest that trapping/detrapping assisted transport is the main leakage mechanism in epitaxial ferroelectric ScAlN films. This work sheds light on the essential material quality considerations for tuning the ferroelectric property of ScAlN toward integration with mainstream semiconductor platforms, e.g., Si, and paves the way for next-generation electronics,…

A nonreciprocal thermal emitter, which consists of a magnetic Weyl semimetal embedded in a topological photonic crystal, is proposed and investigated. An emitter exhibits strong nonreciprocal radiation, which results from the exaction of a topological photonic state between two photonic crystals (PhCs). The underlying physical mechanism of such behaviors is disclosed by illustrating magnetic field intensity distributions at resonances and is further confirmed by investigating the band diagram and the Zak phases of the two PhCs. Aside from that, radiation properties of the proposed emitter remain excellent within wide geometric dimension ranges, which should be interesting for practical fabrication. Finally, considering the actual manufacture and the more intense interest of multi-channel nonreciprocal radiation, the extension of the designed scheme to the multi-channel scheme with more practical structure is also investigated. The results should provide possibility for the development of energy devices and thermal emitters with more engineered function.

Cascaded Brillouin lasers based on guided-wave structures are applied across a range of important fields such as optical communications, microwave photonics, and sensing. However, restricted by the volume and available transmission range of the gain medium, the power output and wavelength diversity of guided-wave Brillouin devices are somewhat limited. In this work, we report the design and development of a cascaded Brillouin laser based utilizing a free-space optical layout with a diamond crystal as the Brillouin gain medium. A quasi-continuous-wave, 1 μm laser was used as the pump laser, and Raman wavelength conversion is used as an intermediate process to facilitate stimulated Brillouin scattering with a low threshold. When the output transmission of the diamond cavity is 0.37% and the incident pump power is 220 W, cascading of the Brillouin–Stokes field to the eighth Stokes and the seventh anti-Stokes orders was observed. By adjusting the cavity length, the order of the cascaded Brillouin laser output is controlled. A comprehensive analysis of the Brillouin generation process…

A large fraction of the world's population lacks access to the electric grid. Standard photovoltaic (PV) cells can provide a renewable off-grid source of electricity but only produce power from daytime solar irradiance and do not produce power at night. While there have been several theoretical proposals and experimental demonstrations of energy harvesting from the radiative cooling of a PV cell at night, the achieved power density is very low. Here, we construct a device, which incorporates a thermoelectric generator that harvests electricity from the temperature difference between the PV cell and the ambient surrounding. We achieve 50 mW/m2 nighttime power generation with a clear night sky, with an open-circuit voltage of 100 mV, which is orders of magnitude higher as compared with previous demonstrations. During the daytime, the thermoelectric generator also provides additional power on top of the electric power generated directly from the PV cells. Our system can be used as a continuous renewable power source for both day- and nighttime in off-grid locations.

ScAlN is an emerging ultrawide bandgap semiconductor for next-generation radio frequency electronic devices. Here, we show that the material quality of ScAlN grown by molecular beam epitaxy can be drastically improved by alloying with Ga. The resulting quaternary alloy ScAlGaN exhibits a single-phase wurtzite structure, atomically smooth surface, high crystal quality, sharp interface, and low impurity concentration. Most significantly, oxygen impurity incorporation in ScAlGaN is found to be three to four orders of magnitude lower compared to that for ScAlN grown on AlN templates utilizing a similar Sc source. We further demonstrate that ScAlGaN/GaN superlattices exhibit clear periodicity with sharp interfaces. Moreover, GaN high electron mobility transistors with high sheet electron density and high mobility have been realized using ScAlGaN as a barrier. This work provides a viable approach for achieving high-quality Sc-III-N semiconductors that were not previously possible and further offers additional dimensions for bandgap, polarization, interface, strain, and quantum engineering.

Grain boundary diffusion (GBD) is an effective approach for improving the coercivity of Nd-Fe-B magnets with less heavy rare earth consumption. However, it generally only works well for thin magnets since the infiltration depth of diffusion source is limited. Here, a GBD approach that mainly diffuses the source from the edge and corner areas of the magnet, named selected area GBD (SAGBD), is proposed for treating thick magnets. After diffusing Pr-Tb-Al-Cu alloy by SAGBD, the coercivity of a 12-mm thick magnet was increased from 1070 to 1675 kA/m. By this approach, the coercivity enhancement with 1 wt. % Tb was 465 kA·m−1, 1.6 times as much as that by diffusion from two easy magnetization planes. For achieving a coercivity enhancement of ∼600 kA/m, the thickness of treated magnet was increased by 4 mm. Although the diffusion from six planes can further increase the coercivity, SAGBD leads to high efficient use of Tb and less reduction of remanence. The microstructure characterizations and micromagnetic simulation demonstrated that the edges and corners are magnetic “weak” areas of…

HfO2-ZrO2 superlattice (SL) ferroelectric (FE) ultrathin films exhibit significant improvement in endurance performance compared with solid-solution HfxZr1−xO2 (HZO). Despite the experimental evidence, the underlying microscopic mechanisms of the enhanced reliability of SL remain elusive. This Letter explores the mechanism by performing first-principle calculations on SL and HZO systems. The enhanced endurance in the SL can be well explained by higher oxygen vacancy (Vo) migration energy barriers along the FE polarization direction, which slow down the increase in Vo. The suppression of Vo increase will potentially help maintain the stability of the FE phase and alleviate the fatigue. Based on this mechanism, we suggest that doping materials with higher Vo migration barriers can further improve the endurance of HfO2-based FE devices. This work facilitates the future development of HfO2-based FE devices with enhanced endurance and reliability.

For two-dimensional (2D) materials, piezoelectric ferromagnetism with large out-of-plane piezoresponse is highly desirable for multifunctional ultrathin piezoelectric device application. Here, we predict that Janus monolayer CrSCl is an out-of-plane ferromagnetic semiconductor with large vertical piezoelectric response and high Curie temperature. The predicted out-of-plane piezoelectric strain coefficient d31 is −1.58 pm/V, which is higher than that of most 2D materials (compare absolute values of d31). The large out-of-plane piezoelectricity is robust against electronic correlation and biaxial strain, confirming reliability of large d31. The calculated results show that tensile strain is conducive to high Curie temperature, large magnetic anisotropy energy, and large d31. Finally, by comparing d31 of CrYX (Y = S; X = Cl, Br, I) and CrYX (Y = O; X = F, Cl, Br), we conclude that the size of d31 is positively related to electronegativity difference of X and Y atoms. Such findings can provide valuable guidelines for designing 2D piezoelectric materials with large vertical piezoelectric…

The ultra-wide bandgap of Al-rich AlGaN is expected to support a significantly larger breakdown field compared to GaN, but the reported performance thus far has been limited by the use of foreign substrates. In this Letter, the material and electrical properties of Al0.85Ga0.15N/Al0.6Ga0.4N high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) grown on a 2-in. single crystal AlN substrate are investigated, and it is demonstrated that native AlN substrates unlock the potential for Al-rich AlGaN to sustain large fields in such devices. We further study how Ohmic contacts made directly to a Si-doped channel layer reduce the knee voltage and increase the output current density. High-quality AlGaN growth is confirmed via scanning transmission electron microscopy, which also reveals the absence of metal penetration at the Ohmic contact interface and is in contrast to established GaN HEMT technology. Two-terminal mesa breakdown characteristics with 1.3 μm separation possess a record-high breakdown field strength of ∼11.5 MV/cm for an undoped Al0.6Ga0.4N-channel layer. The breakdown voltages for…

Augmented reality (AR) is emerging as a next-generation interactive display that promotes the interaction between users, digital content, and the real world. Although micro-LED is regarded as the most promising light engine candidate for AR, its inherent Lambertian radiation characteristics and relatively broader emission spectrum result in low optical coupling efficiency and diffraction dispersion-related “rainbow” phenomenon when combined with a waveguide combiner. Here, we numerically and experimentally demonstrate resonant cavity (RC) micro-LEDs by incorporating SiO2/TiO2 distributed Bragg reflectors with chip sizes of 60, 100, and 150 μm. The device has a divergence angle of 78.7° and a narrow spectrum width of 6.8 nm, which is significantly lower than that of the controlled micro-LEDs. The reported GaN-based RC micro-LEDs have the potential to be used in the display panel for AR applications in a variety of scenarios, including AR glasses, and head up display for cars and airplanes.

Ag2Se is an attractive candidate for room temperature thermoelectric applications because of its extremely low thermal conductivity, large power factor, and excellent mechanical properties. However, its performance is difficult to be improved effectively by doping other atoms. The traditional synthesis processes have the disadvantages of low yield, complex steps, and long period. In this study, the Ag2Se1+x samples were rapidly synthesized by the melting method via changing the ratio of Ag and Se. The carrier concentration and mobility of Ag2Se are optimized by adding excess Se, which could regulate non-stoichiometric defects in the process of synthesis. A high Seebeck coefficient of ∼136.0 μV K−1, a large power factor of ∼3000.0 μW m−1 K−2, and the maximum figure of merit (ZT) of ∼1.02 of the Ag2Se1.015 sample have been achieved at 375 K. The ZT value is 2.3 times than that of the pristine sample (Ag2Se). The mechanical properties of the molting sample are comparable to state-of-the-art thermoelectric materials. Finally, the highest ZT value of the material is predicted by factor…

For real-world applications, it is desirable to realize field-free spin–orbit torque (SOT) switching in thin films with high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). In this paper, we report that field-free SOT switching in a L10-FePt single layer with a large switching ratio of 26% is obtained by using a MgO ⟨100⟩⋀8°/⟨100⟩ miscut substrate. It is found that field-free switching depends on the direction of the imposed pulse current. Only when the electric current is along the y (010)-direction but not along the x (100)-direction does field-free switching happen, which can be attributed to the tilted PMA induced symmetry breaking in the x–z plane. Furthermore, under the field-free condition, our FePt single layer system exhibits stable multi-state magnetic switching behavior and nonlinear synaptic characteristics. This work paves the way to realize field-free SOT switching in the L10-FePt single layer, which will have significant impact on spin memory devices and synaptic electronics.

Electromagnetic protection materials are widely used in both military and civilian fields. However, the limited wave-absorbing band and low transparency of conventional electromagnetic protection materials are the impediment for extensive applications. Here, a transparent and electrically tunable wave-absorbing metamaterial for stealth technology and electromagnetic protection has been theoretically and experimentally realized. The trend of the absorption feature change in simulation is consistent with that of the experiment results. The main part of this material adopts a sandwich structure consisting of two layers of indium tin oxide (ITO) and one layer of glass in between. The upper ITO layer is periodically patterned and combined with varactor diodes, which function as a frequency-selective surface. The effective operating frequency range is in the S-band, which covers the common frequency band of WiFi and many other electronic devices. The wave absorbing performance of this material can be electronically tunable by changing the applied voltage. The main absorption peak can be…

Rapid advances have been made in the properties of metastructures, including phononic crystals, metamaterials, and metasurfaces, with respect to their robustness, high power density, and broadband behavior. This presents unique advantages for energy harvesting devices to meet the demands for technology upgrades in various applied science and engineering applications such as wireless sensors, MEMS, and wearable devices. We provide a systematic overview of the mechanisms underlying the above properties, considering different configurations of wave localization in elastic metastructures for energy harvesting purposes. The energy localization can result from cavity modes, topologically protected edge/cavity modes, chiral edge mode, focusing effects, among others. Finally, we give the prospects of energy harvesting metastructures such as the introduction of nonlinear design, time-modulation, machine learning inverse design, and nonlocal effects.

Direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation is one of the most critical technologies of radar, remote sensing, and wireless communications. The traditional DOA estimation is closely related to phased array antennas, which require complicated and expensive hardware and high-power consumption. Metasurface can manipulate electromagnetic waves without using massive transceivers, which makes it possible to realize antenna arrays in a cost-effective way. Here, we propose a strategy of DOA estimations by using a time-domain-coding digital metasurface and a single receiver. Specifically, the incident wave on the metasurface is modulated by the time-domain orthogonal codes impressed on the meta-atoms, and their amplitude and phase distributions are precisely retrieved from the signals detected by the receiver antenna. The effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed strategy are verified by experiments on a two-dimensional metasurface with individually addressable meta-atoms. The strategy features low cost and high flexibility and will facilitate various wireless applications.

Plasma-activated water (PAW) is considered to be an effective anticancer agent due to the diverse aqueous reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS: ROS and RNS), but the drawback of low dose and short duration of RONS in acidified PAW limits their clinical application. Herein, this Letter presents an innovative therapeutic avenue for cancer treatment with highly-effective alkaline PAW prepared by air surface plasma. This anticancer alkaline formulation is comprised of a rich mixture of highly chemical RONS and exhibited a prolonged half-life compared to acidified PAW. The H2O2, NO2−, and ONOO−/O2− concentrations in the alkaline PAW can reach up to 18-, 16-, and 14-fold higher than that in acidic PAW, and the half-life of these species was extended over 8-, 10-, and 26-fold, respectively. The synergistic potent redox action between these RONS with alkaline pH was shown to be more potent than acidic PAW for cancer cell inhibition in vitro. Furthermore, the alkaline PAW injection treatment also significantly inhibited tumor growth in tumor-bearing mice. The possible reasons are that…

Higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs), capable of hosting topological states over multiple dimensionalities, have received considerable attention recently, providing unprecedented platforms for robust wave manipulation. Aiming at applications of HOTIs for integrated sensing, energy harvesting, or control of structural vibration propagation, challenges remain in achieving topological states at low frequencies with ample flexibility and tunability. Here, we report the theoretical modeling and experimental realization of HOTIs in elastic locally resonant metamaterials (LRMs). By exploring the interplay between local resonance couplings and nontrivial band topology, a variety of higher-order topological corner states (TCSs) are constructed in deep sub-wavelength regime with high efficiency in energy confinement. More importantly, we reveal that the TCSs are dependent on localization mechanisms of interacting sites at interfaces, which endows our HOTIs with unique frequency-selective and dimension-switching abilities. We further design complex domain walls to demonstrate the TCSs…

We report controlled silicon doping of Ga2O3 grown in plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Adding an endplate to the Si effusion cell enables the control of the mobile carrier density, leading to over 5-orders of magnitude change in the electrical resistivity. Room temperature mobilities >100 cm2/V s are achieved, with a peak value >125 cm2/V s at a doping density of low-1017/cm3. Temperature-dependent Hall effect measurements exhibit carrier freeze out for samples doped below the Mott criterion. A mobility of 390 cm2/V s is observed at 97 K.

This Letter presents a programmable path to multi-stability of the Kresling origami by introducing bio-inspired nonlinear creases. The origami mathematical model is proposed for the bio-inspired Kresling with the validations by uniaxial compression experiment and finite element analysis. Mono-stability, bi-stability, and tri-stability are demonstrated in one Kresling origami cell. Local energy minimum of multi-stability is found to arise from asymmetric energy barriers. Stable state bifurcation can be tunable under different nonlinearity of the creases and free-stress dihedral angles. Position of stable equilibria can be programmable by varying free-stress dihedral angle of the crease. This work provides a strategy to design programmable multi-stable origami structures.

Magnetic skyrmions are topological quasiparticles with nanoscale size and high mobility, which have potential applications in information storage and spintronic devices. Here, we computationally investigate the dynamics of isolated skyrmions in a ferromagnetic racetrack, where magnetic properties of the edges are enhanced and modified, forming a channel with lower magnetic anisotropy for skyrmion motion. It is found that the rectangular notch at the edge can have a pinning effect on the skyrmion and enrich the dynamics of the skyrmion. Based on the racetrack with modified edges and the notch, we design a racetrack that realizes the skyrmionic logic AND, OR, and NOT gates as well as the diode in the same magnetic racetrack. It is found that the driving current density could be much smaller than those used in previous designs of skyrmion-based logic gates. By slightly altering the shape of the racetrack, we also design the NAND and NOR gates. Finally, we study the feasibility of our design at finite temperatures. Our results may contribute to the design of nonvolatile spintronic…

In this Letter, we propose an enhanced vibro-impact energy harvester using acoustic black holes (ABHs) for scavenging low-frequency vibration energy. The energy harvester involves two beams: a relatively rigid piezoelectric generating beam with ABH profile and a flexible driving beam with a tip mass mounted at the end. The tip mass and the generating beam collide repeatedly under low-frequency excitations. Experimental studies are conducted to investigate the output performance of the energy harvester by comparing the output power and voltage of generating beams with different tailored ends. Finite element analysis is also carried out to evaluate the influence of electrode number of the piezoelectric sheet attached to the ABH beam on the output performance of the energy harvester. It is shown that the impacts between the tip mass and generating beam are capable of transferring vibration energy from the low-frequency band to high-frequency band, where ABH gets a desirable energy focalization effect to improve the output performance of the energy harvester. The energy harvester…

Spin gapless semiconductors (SGSs) and bipolar magnetic semiconductors (BMSs) are highly desirable for advanced spintronic applications due to their unique electronic and magnetic properties. Being inspired by the recent synthesis of the 2D MA2X4 family with various electronic properties, including nontrivial topological properties, 2D ferromagnetism, Ising superconductivity, and robust valley polarization, we systematically studied the electron structure, magnetism, and spin transport properties for VSi2X4 (X = N, P, As) monolayers by the density functional theory combined with the nonequilibrium Green's function method. The results show that VSi2X4 monolayers are ferromagnetic type-II SGS and BMS with high Curie temperatures 230–250 K. The interesting electronic phase transitions of type-II-SGS-to-metal-to-type-I-SGS for VSi2P4 and BMS-to-type-I-SGS-to-type-II-SGS for VSi2As4 can be achieved by applying the biaxial strain. Furthermore, the VSi2P4 monolayer exhibits the bias-dependent spin filtering effect and the temperature-driven spin Seebeck effect. The high Curie temperature,…

To inaugurate energy-efficient hardware as a solution to complex tasks, information processing paradigms shift from von Neumann to non-von Neumann computing architectures. Emerging electronic devices compete with speed, energy, and performance to revolutionize the neural hardware system where training and inference must achieve milestones. In this Perspective, we discuss the essential criteria for training and inference in various nonvolatile neuromorphic systems such as filamentary resistive switching, interfacial resistive switching, electrochemical random-access memory, and ferroelectric memory. We present a holistic analysis of technical requirements to design ideal neuromorphic hardware in which linearity is the critical aspect during training, whereas retention is the essential criterion of inference. Finally, we evaluate the prospect of a futuristic neuromorphic hardware system by optimizing the training and inference dilemma.

We demonstrate mid-infrared ring resonators fabricated in an In0.53Ga0.47As/InP materials platform operating at a wavelength of approximately 5.2 μm with quality factors over 120 000. We also perform broadband characterization of optical losses in passive In0.53Ga0.47As/InP ridge waveguides in the 5–11 μm wavelength range with waveguide losses ranging from below 0.5 dB/cm at shorter wavelengths to 4–5 dB/cm at longer wavelengths of this spectral range. Our results establish In0.53Ga0.47As/InP as a low-loss waveguiding platform for mid-infrared photonic integrated circuits that are fully integrable with InGaAs/AlInAs/InP quantum cascade lasers and detectors.

We have studied the field cycling behavior of microscopic TiN/Hf0.5Zr0.5O2/TiN ferroelectric capacitors using synchrotron-based soft x-ray photoemission electron microscopy. The oxygen vacancy (VO) concentration near the top TiN/Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 interface is estimated from the reduction of Hf4+ to Hf3+ as measured in the Hf 4f core level spectra. The VO concentration increases with field cycling and redistributes under the effect of the internal field due to the polarization. Upward pointing polarization slightly depletes the concentration near the top interface, whereas downward polarization causes VO drift toward the top interface. The VO redistribution after wake-up is consistent with shifts in the I–V switching peak. The Schottky barrier height for electrons decreases systematically with cycling in polarization states, reflecting the overall increase in VO.

The Gerchberg–Saxton (GS) algorithm is a widely employed algorithm for the calculation of a phase-only hologram (POH). However, the POH that can strictly satisfy the amplitude constraints on the object and the holographic plane may not exist or be obtained, resulting in speckle noise and reduction of the reconstruction quality. Relaxing the amplitude constraint during the iterations is an effective method to solve the above problem. In this work, a GS-double amplitude freedom (GS-DAF) algorithm is proposed. The amplitude constraint relaxation is realized by both the combined amplitude constraint and the support constraint. The spherical initial phase and oversampling method are applied to further improve the optical reconstruction quality of the GS-DAF algorithm. An enhanced reconstruction quality with less speckle noise has been achieved. The peak signal-to-noise ratio can be improved from 14.98 to 33.32 dB after 200 iterations.

Heterogeneous integration is important to create multi-functionality in future electronic devices. However, few thermal studies of the interfaces formed in these integrated devices have been reported before. Recently, integrated interfaces by surface-activated bonding were found to have high thermal boundary conductance, which provides a solution for heat dissipation of GaN and β-Ga2O3-based power electronics. Here, we review the recent progress on the interfacial thermal transport across heterogeneously integrated interfaces, including transferred van der Waals force bonded interfaces, surface-activated bonded interfaces, plasma bonded interfaces, and hydrophilic bonded interfaces. This Perspective specifically focuses on applications of thermal management strategies of electronics, especially power electronics. Finally, the challenges, such as high-throughput thermal measurements of buried interfaces, thermal property-structure relations of interfaces bonded under different conditions, theoretical understanding of interfacial thermal transport, and device demonstrations, are…

In this work, threshold voltage instability of normally off p-GaN high electron mobility transistors has been investigated by monitoring the gate current density during a device on-state. The origin of gate current variations under stress has been ascribed to charge trapping occurring at different interfaces in the metal/p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN system. In particular, depending on the stress bias level, electrons (VG < 6 V) or holes (VG > 6 V) are trapped, causing a positive or negative threshold voltage shift ΔVTH, respectively. By monitoring the gate current variations at different temperatures, activation energies associated with the electrons and holes trapping could be determined and correlated with the presence of nitrogen (electron traps) or gallium (hole traps) vacancies. Moreover, the electrical measurements suggested the generation of a new electron-trap upon long-time bias stress, associated with the creation of crystallographic dislocation-like defects extending across different interfaces (p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN) of the gate stack.

Manipulating the valley degree of freedom is an important target of valleytronics development, which provides remarkable opportunities for both fundamental research and practical applications. Here, based on first-principles calculations, we demonstrate the intrinsic valley-polarized quantum anomalous Hall effect in a monolayer ferrovalley material: Janus VSiGeN4, of which the edge states are chiral-spin-valley locking. Furthermore, a small tensile or compressive strain can drive phase transition in the material from the valley-polarized quantum anomalous Hall state to the half-valley-metal state. With the increase in the strain, the material turns into a ferrovalley semiconductor with the valley anomalous Hall effect. The origin of the phase transition is the sequent band inversion of the V d orbital at the K valleys. Moreover, we find that phase transition causes the sign reversal of the Berry curvature and induces different polarized light absorption in different valley states. Our work provides an ideal material platform for practical applications and experimental exploration of…

The outstanding properties of Gallium Nitride (GaN) have enabled considerable improvements in the performance of power devices compared to traditional silicon technology, resulting in more efficient and highly compact power converters. GaN power technology has rapidly developed and is expected to gain a significant market share in an increasing number of applications in the coming years. However, despite the great progress, the performance of current GaN devices is still far from what the GaN material could potentially offer, and a significant reduction of the device on-resistance for a certain blocking voltage is needed. Conventional GaN high-electron-mobility-transistors are based on a single two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) channel, whose trade-off between electron mobility and carrier density limits the minimum achievable sheet resistance. To overcome such limitations, GaN power devices including multiple, vertically stacked 2DEG channels have recently been proposed, showing much-reduced resistances and excellent voltage blocking capabilities for a wide range of voltage…

We demonstrate that a lightly strained germanium channel (ε//=−0.41%) in an undoped Ge/Si0.1Ge0.9 heterostructure field effect transistor supports a two-dimensional (2D) hole gas with mobility in excess of 1×106 cm2/Vs and percolation density less than 5×1010 cm−2. This low disorder 2D hole system shows tunable fractional quantum Hall effects at low densities and low magnetic fields. The low-disorder and small effective mass (0.068me) defines lightly strained germanium as a basis to tune the strength of the spin–orbit coupling for fast and coherent quantum hardware.

Black phosphorous (BP) is a well-known two-dimensional van der Waals (vdW) material with in-plane anisotropy and remarkable electronic and optical properties. Here, we comprehensively analyze the near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) between a pair of parallel non-rotated BP flakes that occurs due to the tunneling of the coupled anisotropic surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) supported by the flakes. It is demonstrated that the covering of the BP flakes with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) films leads to the hybridization of the BP's SPPs with the hBN's hyperbolic phonon polaritons and to the significant enhancement of the NFRHT at the hBN's epsilon-near-zero frequencies. It is also shown that the NFRHT in the BP/hBN parallel-plate structure can be actively switched between the ON and OFF states by changing the chemical potential of the BPs and that the NFRHT can be modified by altering the number of the BP layers. Finally, we replace hBN with α-MoO3 and explore how the NFRHT is spectrally and strongly modified in the BP/α-MoO3 parallel-plate structure. We believe that the proposed…

With rich electrical and magnetic properties and environmental stability, layered MSi2N4 (M = transition metal) has recently attracted much attention. By using a ferromagnetic VSi2N4 monolayer as an electrode and a semiconducting MoSi2N4 monolayer as a tunneling barrier, an atomically thin VSi2N4/MoSi2N4/VSi2N4 magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) is theoretically proposed. Our calculated results suggest that the MTJ has a giant tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) as large as 1010% and a near perfect (100%) spin injection efficiency (SIE). Our nonequilibrium Green's functions calculations indicate that the TMR and SIE are robust under a finite bias voltage of −100 mV to 100 mV. These results show that layered MSi2N4 can be promising materials for designing atomically thin MTJ with a giant TMR for future spintronic applications.

Ion implantation induced phase transformation and the crystal structure of a series of ion implanted β-Ga2O3 samples were studied using electron diffraction, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, and scanning transmission electron microscopy. In contrast to previous reports suggesting an ion implantation induced transformation to the orthorhombic κ-phase, we show that for 28Si+, 58Ni+, and stoichiometric 69Ga+/16O+-implantations, the monoclinic β-phase transforms to the cubic γ-phase. The γ-phase was confirmed for implantations over a range of fluences from 1014 to 1016 ions/cm2, indicating that the transformation is a general phenomenon for β-Ga2O3 due to strain accumulation and/or γ-Ga2O3 being energetically preferred over highly defective β-Ga2O3.

We describe a dual-axis atomic spin comagnetometer for rotation sensing using a single laser beam. A circularly polarized laser is used to pump the co-located atomic ensembles of alkali metal and noble gas and probe their gyroscopic precession at the same time, which is different from the traditional two-beam orthogonal pump-probe configuration. Combined with magnetic field modulations perpendicular to the laser propagating direction, the comagnetometer could measure dual-axis rotation rates simultaneously. This system is demonstrated theoretically and experimentally. A rotation sensitivity of 5.1 × 10–7 rad s−1 Hz−1∕2 and a bias instability of 0.016 °/h have been achieved. The theory and method presented here shed light on the way to miniaturize the comagnetometer with high precision for practical applications.

Multimode fibers provide a unique opportunity for exploring the spatial degrees of freedom for high throughput light transmission. However, the modal dispersion prevents from the straightforward application of multimode fibers for space division multiplexing, such as image transmission. Herein, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a deep neural network termed multimode fiber inverse-scattering net for overcoming the modal dispersion induced scrambling in multimode fibers. Such a network is capable of transmitting grayscale image through the multimode fiber with high fidelity. 256-level grayscale images with 128 × 128 spatial channels encoded in the input wavefront can be retrieved from the output optical speckle patterns, where the average Pearson correlation coefficient and structural similarity index are as large as 0.97 and 0.95, respectively. Our results demonstrate that the proposed deep neural network has an excellent ability for learning the relationship between the input and output optical fields of a multimode fiber, which might facilitate the realization of high…

In last two decades, it has been theoretically and experimentally demonstrated that seismic metamaterials are capable of isolating seismic surface waves. Inertial amplification mechanisms with small mass have been proposed to design metamaterials to isolate elastic waves in rods, beams, and plates at low frequencies. In this Letter, we propose an alternative type of seismic metamaterial providing an ultra-low-frequency bandgap induced by inertial amplification. A unique kind of inertially amplified metamaterial is first conceived and designed. Its bandgap characteristics for flexural waves are then numerically and experimentally demonstrated. Finally, the embedded inertial amplification mechanism is introduced on a soil substrate to design a seismic metamaterial capable of strongly attenuating seismic surface waves around a frequency of 4 Hz. This work provides a promising alternative way to conceive seismic metamaterials to steer and control surface waves.

HfO2-based ferroelectric (FE–HfO2) is a promising material for low-power and high-capacity memory technology. Since thinner ferroelectric films are required for low voltage operation, the impact of film thickness on the switching kinetics of FE–HfO2 needs to be studied in detail. In this paper, metal/ferroelectric/metal capacitors are fabricated with several thicknesses of HfZrO2 (HZO) films and characterized to study the switching kinetics based on the nucleation limited switching (NLS) model. Thinner HZO capacitors show slower polarization switching and asymmetry in program and erase operation, although low-frequency polarization charge density is nearly the same for all thicknesses. Slow switching is due to the large variability of the activation field of FE domains and grain boundaries among small FE grains. The asymmetry is caused by the asymmetric interface property at the top and bottom interfaces. High-resolution TEM and electron diffraction mapping methods provide physical evidence for the above discussions.

In this Letter, we propose an orbital angular momentum (OAM) sensor to simultaneously measure the dynamic micro-displacement and the direction of a moving object in real time. The micro-displacement of the moving object can be detected by the calculation of the petals' rotation angle caused by the coaxial interference between the measured OAM beam and its reference OAM beam, and the direction (forward or backward) of the moving object can be achieved by the clockwise or anticlockwise of the petals' rotation. We also develop an algorithm to monitor the petals' rotation angle and the rotation direction. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed sensor can achieve high precision (±16.5995 nm) and a longer measuring range (0–1100 cm). Additionally, the OAM sensor is sensitive to the topological charge in the OAM mode, the initial distance, and the velocity of the moving object. The sensor can perform the non-contact measurement, so it will be a promising method in micro-vibration sensing, surface unevenness sensing, and microbial movement sensing.

Enhancement of the rate of boiling heat transfer, a critically significant need across a range of industrial transport processes, can be achieved by the introduction of surface microstructures. However, the precise mechanism of such enhancement is not definitively understood. We establish microlayer evaporation from the imbibed liquid layer underneath the growing vapor bubbles as the key mechanism of enhancement in boiling heat transfer coefficient for microstructured surfaces. We experimentally characterize nucleate boiling heat transfer performance on silicon surfaces custom-fabricated with controlled microstructures using HFE-7100 as the working fluid. We then undertake an analytical prediction of the microlayer evaporation from the microstructured surface. A clear dependence of the measured boiling heat transfer coefficients from microstructures of different dimensions on the predicted evaporation heat transfer coefficients allows us to conclude that microlayer evaporation governs the boiling enhancement from microstructured surfaces.

All-inorganic Bi-based perovskites have attracted much attention due to their excellent stability, environmentally friendly, and low-cost solution processability. However, due to the large exciton binding energy and small light absorption coefficient, the performance of the Bi-based perovskite photodetector (PD) is far behind of the traditional Pb-based perovskite PDs. In this work, the lead-free all-inorganic Cs3Bi2I9 (CBI) perovskite single crystal was synthesized by a space-confined antisolvent-assisted crystallization method for high-performance, semi-transparent, and self-driven PDs with an ITO/SnO2/CBI/PTAA/Au/ITO structure. Electrical and optical properties of Au/ITO transparent electrode were studied considering its figure of merit and device quantum efficiency through optimizing the Au thickness. Finally, our optimized semi-transparent device showed excellent self-driven performance with a large on/off ratio of ∼5700, a high responsivity of 52.06 mA/W, a high detectivity of >1012 Jones, and a large linear dynamic range of up to 140.7 dB. In addition, our device demonstrated…

Two-dimensional (2D) perovskites have been demonstrated great promise in x-ray detection application because of their stability, tunability, and the unique electronic properties. The centimeter-sized 2D perovskite (PMA)2PbI4 single crystal and the corresponding x-ray detector were fabricated. The Cu ion implanted device exhibits an excellent sensitivity of 283 μC Gyair−1 cm−2, the significantly enhanced mobility-lifetime (μτ) product of 8.05 × 10−3 cm2 V−1, and the lowest detectable dose rate of 2.13 μGyair s−1. Experimental observation combined with the DFT calculations shows that the improvement in Cu ion implanted x-ray detection is ascribed to the enhanced photoinduced charge carrier density and μτ product, and the increased carrier dissociation capability associated deeply with the decreased binding energy of exciton in the inorganic layer quasi-quantum well. The incorporation of the Cu interstitials by high-energy Cu ion implantation is able to introduce the donor and acceptor states with additional charge transfer channeling, resulting in the decreased exciton binding energy…

Different from traditional lithium-ion battery, the solid-state lithium batteries (SSLBs) using solid electrolytes (SEs) have attracted much attention for their potential of high safety, high energy density, good rate performance, and wide operating temperature range in recent years. In China, the SSLB-relevant fundamental research and industrialization exploration are progressing rapidly. In this perspective, we present a timely overview of the recent research and development of SSLBs in China in the past 1 year, covering the latest achievements of SSLBs which used sulfide SEs, oxide SEs, solid polymer electrolytes, and halide SEs, respectively. Moreover, the government policies and the latest company industrialization process relative to SSLBs are comprehensively summarized.

The phonon thermal conductivity and mean-free-path (MFP) spectrum of high-temperature phase SnSe (β-SnSe) are studied using the Boltzmann transport equation and ab initio approaches. The particle picture for phonon transport in β-SnSe is revisited, and the imaginary phonon frequencies caused by the ground-state within conventional density-functional theory are resolved. We show that between 800 and 950 K, the in-plane and cross-plane thermal conductivity has an average decrease of 38% and 19%, respectively, when four-phonon scatterings are considered. This large suppression of phonon transport stems mainly from the strong redistribution scattering process. With both the phonon and electron MFP spectra revealed, a characteristic length of 10 nm is suggested to reduce the in-plane and cross-plane thermal conductivity by 18% and 52%, respectively, via nanostructure engineering without sacrificing the power factor.

β-Ga2O3 is an emerging ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor, holding a tremendous potential for power-switching devices for next-generation high power electronics. The performance of such devices strongly relies on the precise control of electrical properties of β-Ga2O3, which can be achieved by implantation of dopant ions. However, a detailed understanding of the impact of ion implantation on the structure of β-Ga2O3 remains elusive. Here, using aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy, we investigate the nature of structural damage in ion-implanted β-Ga2O3 and its recovery upon heat treatment with the atomic-scale spatial resolution. We reveal that upon Sn ion implantation, Ga2O3 films undergo a phase transformation from the monoclinic β-phase to the defective cubic spinel γ-phase, which contains high-density antiphase boundaries. Using the planar defect models proposed for the γ-Al2O3, which has the same space group as β-Ga2O3, and atomic-resolution microscopy images, we identify that the observed antiphase boundaries are the {100}1/4 ⟨110⟩ type in cubic…

With the rapid development of 5G technology, acoustic wave filters with large bandwidths are urgently required to deal with the explosive increase in data traffic. Recently, there is extensive attention paid to shear-horizontal (SH) surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators based on lithium niobate (LiNbO3) substrates, thanks to its large effective coupling coefficient (k2eff). However, because of the bulk acoustic wave (BAW) energy radiation into the LiNbO3 substrate, it is very challenging to obtain a high quality factor (Q) for SH-SAW resonators. In this study, a 30° YX-LiNbO3/SiO2/Si SAW resonator with the SH mode is proposed to achieve a large coupling and a high Q simultaneously. By bonding a LiNbO3 thin film onto a thermally oxidized Si(100) substrate, the velocity mismatch between the piezoelectric layer and the SiO2/Si substrate could significantly reduce the BAW energy leakage. Finite element method simulation is employed to optimize the cut angle of the LiNbO3 film and the thickness of each layer. The fabricated SH-SAW resonators with a resonant frequency of 924 MHz yield a…

Perfect vortex (PV) beams possess a radial intensity profile independent of their topological charges, overcoming the defects of the regular vortex beams. However, the bulky optical elements used in conventional methods for generation of PV beams limit their potential applications. Metasurfaces are ultra-thin version of metamaterials with the flexible ability of controlling electromagnetic waves, promising great potential applications in many optical fields. Here, an all-dielectric metasurface based on a geometrical phase is demonstrated, featuring broadband and high efficiency in manipulation of circularly polarized light. We numerically simulate the performance of the unit-cell and metasurface for generating PV beams carrying integer and fractional topological charges. We hope the designed metasurface will provide an ultra-compact way for generation of high-quality PV beams.

Due to its unique features, laser-induced graphene (LIG) can be considered as disruptive technology for creating a few-layer graphene-based film that received much attention in the field of flexible electronics. Among all, energy storage, catalysis, sensing, and separation are the main applications that have been investigated in recent years with large improvements in the respective device performance. In particular, miniaturized supercapacitor—usually called a micro-supercapacitor (μSC)—is the most investigated field in which LIG can strongly provide outstanding results concerning the state of the art simplification of the fabrication procedure and intrinsically allowing the flexibility of the device. However, many open points still limit the possible full exploitation of this technology in the energy storage sector. This paper provides a concise overview of the LIG application in μSCs suggesting where the community should direct efforts to enhance the results together with associated challenges.

Optoelectronic synapses are considered to be important cornerstones in the construction of neuromorphic computing systems because of their low power consumption, high operating speeds, and high scalability. In this work, we demonstrate an optoelectronic synaptic device based on a ZnO/HfOx heterojunction in which optical potentiation/electrical depression behaviors and nonvolatile high current state can be implemented. The heterojunction device exhibits conductance evolution with high linearity. The excellent optoelectronic memristive behavior of the device can be attributed to the interface barrier between ZnO and HfOx, which hinders the recombination of photo-excited electron–hole pairs to increase the carrier lifetime, and realizes the nonvolatile high current state. More importantly, the artificial vision system based on optoelectronic synaptic devices can achieved a high recognition accuracy of 96.1%. Our work provides a feasible pathway toward the development of optoelectronic synaptic devices for use in high-performance neuromorphic vision systems.

Texture engineering offers an approach for achieving enhanced properties in bulk ceramics by introducing crystallographic anisotropy. Recent developments on texture engineering have enabled the fabrication of highly aligned ferroelectric ceramics with single-crystal-like electromechanical properties. In this paper, we review the history and recent progress of texture-engineered ferroelectric ceramics. We expect that more explorations on template-related issues, including orientation mismatch, physical models of the textured grain growth, and micromorphology–property relationship, will advance the development of texture-engineered ferroelectric ceramics with further improved properties.

Low-voltage, solution-processed oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) have shown great potential in next-generation low-power, printable electronics. However, it is now still quite challenging to obtain low-voltage oxide TFTs with both high mobility and stability, especially for solution-processed ones. In this work, La-doped InZnO (IZO:La) channel for high performance and stable TFTs is developed using a simple solution process. The effects of La composition in IZO:La on the film and TFT performance are systematically investigated. It is confirmed that the incorporation of appropriate La could control the carrier concentration, improve the surface morphology, and passivate the oxygen-related defects, leading to a reduced trap density both at dielectric/channel interface and within the channel layer. As a result, the optimized TFTs with 1% La dopants exhibit the best overall performance, including a low operating voltage of 1 V, a high mobility of 14.5 cm2/V s, a low subthreshold swing of 109 mV/dec, a turn-on voltage close to 0 V, and negligible changes of performance under both…

A bulk acoustic wave (BAW) driven magnetoelectric (ME) antenna has narrow operating bandwidth due to its high Q factor, and an effective mechanism for bandwidth enhancement is yet to be explored. This article presents a bandwidth-enhanced magnetoelectric (BWE-ME) antenna made of a Mo/AlN/FeGa sandwich stack, which is composed of three different resonant regions. These resonant regions in the discrete device can be equated as a parallel connection of dual high-overtone bulk acoustic resonators (HBARs) and single film bulk acoustic resonators (FBARs) with tiny frequency shift among the three resonators resulting in bandwidth broadening of the BWE-ME antenna. The resonant mode and return loss curves (S11) are simulated in a two-dimensional finite element method and fitted with the Mason equivalent circuit model. The frequency domain analysis shows that the magnetic flux density bandwidth generated by the multi-resonant mode interaction is 18 MHz, which matches the bandwidth of the measured reference gain S21 curve of the BWE-ME antenna, and the far-field radiated power characterization…

With the development of neuromorphic electronics, much effort has been devoted to the design and manufacture of synaptic electronic devices with large scale and cost-efficient. In this paper, an In2O3 synaptic transistor array gated by screen-printed ion-gel was demonstrated. Due to the ion-gel/Al2O3 stacked gate dielectric, all devices on the array achieved a large hysteresis window of >1 V, a steep back sweep subthreshold swing of <60 mV/decade, and a nonvolatile memory behavior, showing that the screen-printed ion-gel has satisfactory uniformity in large scale. In addition, short-term to long-term plasticity, paired-pulse facilitation, and spike-rate-dependent plasticity are simulated. Based on the plasticity regulated with the spike frequency, a high-pass filter was realized. Flash memory as a special memory model in the nervous system has been simulated in the array. This study provides a unique platform for designing high-performance, repeatable, and stable artificial synapses for the neuromorphic system.

n-InGaN/p-Cu2O core-shell nanowire (NW) p–n junctions enable efficient self-powered photoelectrochemical photodetectors (PEC PDs) in the visible. The photocurrent density under one-sun illumination is enhanced by 8 times compared to that of bare InGaN NW PEC PDs due to maximized photocarrier separation in the built-in electric field of the p–n junction. The responsivity reaches 173 μA/W under one-sun illumination. The response times of 30–40 ms are among the shortest achieved for PEC PDs. Together with the long-time stability and reusability, a robust, easy to fabricate, and easy to operate self-powered PEC PD is introduced.

In this work, we report on the realization of SnO/β-Ga2O3 heterojunction vertical diodes and lateral field-effect transistors for power electronic applications. The p-type semiconductor SnO is grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on n-type (100) β-Ga2O3 with donor concentrations of 3 × 1017 cm−3 for the diode devices and 8.1 × 1017 cm−3 for the field-effect transistors. The deposited films show a predominant SnO (001) phase featuring a hole concentration and a mobility of 7.2 × 1018 cm−3 and 1.5 cm2/V s, respectively. The subsequent electrical characterization of the heterojunction diodes and field-effect transistors show stable switching properties with on/off current ratios >106 and specific on-resistances below 4 mΩ cm2. Furthermore, breakdown measurements in air of the non-field-plated heterojunction transistor with a gate-to-drain distance of 4 μm yield a breakdown voltage of 750 V, which equals an average breakdown strength of nearly 1.9 MV/cm. The resulting power figure of merit is calculated to 178 MW/cm2 demonstrating state-of-the-art properties. This emphasizes…

Two-dimensional materials are promising for exploring memristors with excellent performance. However, the memristor still faces challenges in insufficient reliability due to resistance-switching mechanisms of conductive filaments. In this work, a typical metal/heterojunction/metal structure (Ag/MoSe2/MoS2/Au/Ti) was proposed as the device architecture of the memristor. The device exhibits stable bipolar resistive switching behavior with a high on–off ratio, long retention time, and good endurance. The resistance-switching is achieved by adjusting the interface barrier of the MoSe2/MoS2 due to the band modulation. Moreover, we explore the essential synaptic functions of this memristor device, with outstanding voltage pulse potentiation and depression. Our work highlights the significant prospects of MoSe2/MoS2 heterojunction in artificial synapses and neural networks.

Vertical GaN junction barrier Schottky (JBS) diodes with superior electrical characteristics and nondestructive breakdown were realized using selective-area p-type doping via Mg ion implantation and subsequent ultra-high-pressure annealing. Mg-ion implantation was performed into a 10 μm thick Si-doped GaN drift layer grown on a free-standing n-type GaN substrate. We fabricated the JBS diodes with different n-type GaN channel widths Ln = 1 and 1.5 μm. The JBS diodes, depending on Ln, exhibited on-resistance (RON) between 0.57 and 0.67 mΩ cm2, which is a record low value for vertical GaN Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) and high breakdown (BV) between 660 and 675 V (84.4% of the ideal parallel plane BV). The obtained low RON of JBS diodes can be well explained in terms of the RON model, which includes n-type GaN channel resistance, spreading current effect, and substrate resistance. The reverse leakage current in JBS diodes was relatively low 103–104 times lower than in GaN SBDs. In addition, the JBS diode with lower Ln exhibited the leakage current significantly smaller (up to reverse…

Forming a low-resistance semiconductor–metal contact is a critical step to achieve a high-performance two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor nanoelectronic device. Motivated by the recent discovery of monolayer γ-GeSe with exceptional high electrical conductivity reaching 105 S/m, we computationally investigate the interface contact properties of γ-GeSe with four representative classes of metallic systems, including 2D semimetal (graphene), 2D metal (NbS2), 3D semimetal (Bi), and 3D metal (Au) using first-principle density functional theory simulations. We found that these metals exhibit rich contact formation physics with 2D γ-GeSe, yielding contacts of heterostructures with weak and moderate couplings. Importantly, γ-GeSe/NbS2 is an Ohmic contact while γ-GeSe/Bi is an n-type Schottky contact with an ultralow barrier height of 0.07 eV. For γ-GeSe/graphene contact, the electronic properties can be adjusted via the interlayer distance or via an external electric field. Finally, we show that the contact properties can also be further controlled using layer-number engineering of γ-GeSe.…