The 100 most-cited articles in Journal of Applied Physics, 2016

The electron mean free path λ and carrier relaxation time τ of the twenty most conductive elemental metals are determined by numerical integration over the Fermi surface obtained from first-principles, using constant λ or τ approximations and wave-vector dependent Fermi velocities vf (k). The average vf deviates considerably from the free-electron prediction, even for elements with spherical Fermi surfaces including Cu (29% deviation). The calculated product of the bulk resistivity times λ indicates that, in the limit of narrow wires, Rh, Ir, and Ni are 2.1, 1.8, and 1.6 times more conductive than Cu, while various metals including Mo, Co, and Ru approximately match the Cu resistivity, suggesting that these metals are promising candidates to replace Cu for narrow interconnect lines.

Refractory high-entropy alloys (RHEAs), comprising group IV (Ti, Zr, Hf), V (V, Nb, Ta), and VI (Cr, Mo, W) refractory elements, can be potentially new generation high-temperature materials. However, most existing RHEAs lack room-temperature ductility, similar to conventional refractory metals and alloys. Here, we propose an alloy design strategy to intrinsically ductilize RHEAs based on the electron theory and more specifically to decrease the number of valence electrons through controlled alloying. A new ductile RHEA, Hf0.5Nb0.5Ta0.5Ti1.5Zr, was developed as a proof of concept, with a fracture stress of close to 1 GPa and an elongation of near 20%. The findings here will shed light on the development of ductile RHEAs for ultrahigh-temperature applications in aerospace and power-generation industries.

Point defects affect or even completely determine physical and chemical properties of semiconductors. Characterization of point defects based on experimental techniques alone is often inconclusive. In such cases, the combination of experiment and theory is crucial to gain understanding of the system studied. In this tutorial, we explain how and when such comparison provides new understanding of the defect physics. More specifically, we focus on processes that can be analyzed or understood in terms of configuration coordinate diagrams of defects in their different charge states. These processes include light absorption, luminescence, and nonradiative capture of charge carriers. Recent theoretical developments to describe these processes are reviewed.

This year the discovery of femtosecond demagnetization by laser pulses is 20 years old. For the first time, this milestone work by Bigot and coworkers gave insight directly into the time scales of microscopic interactions that connect the spin and electron system. While intense discussions in the field were fueled by the complexity of the processes in the past, it now became evident that it is a puzzle of many different parts. Rather than providing an overview that has been presented in previous reviews on ultrafast processes in ferromagnets, this perspective will show that with our current depth of knowledge the first applications are developed: THz spintronics and all-optical spin manipulation are becoming more and more feasible. The aim of this perspective is to point out where we can connect the different puzzle pieces of understanding gathered over 20 years to develop novel applications. Based on many observations in a large number of experiments. Differences in the theoretical models arise from the localized and delocalized nature of ferromagnetism. Transport effects are…

Elastic/acoustic metamaterials made from locally resonant arrays can exhibit bandgaps at wavelengths much longer than the lattice size for various applications spanning from low-frequency vibration/sound attenuation to wave guiding and filtering in mechanical and electromechanical devices. For an effective use of such locally resonant metamaterial concepts in finite structures, it is required to bridge the gap between the lattice dispersion characteristics and modal behavior of the host structure with its resonators. To this end, we develop a novel argument for bandgap formation in finite-length elastic metamaterial beams, relying on the modal analysis and the assumption of infinitely many resonators. We show that the dual problem to wave propagation through an infinite periodic beam is the modal analysis of a finite beam with an infinite number of resonators. A simple formula that depends only on the resonator natural frequency and total mass ratio is derived for placing the bandgap in a desired frequency range, yielding an analytical insight and a rule of thumb for design…

Residual stress is a long-standing issue in thin film growth. Better understanding and control of film stress would lead to enhanced performance and reduced failures. In this work, we review how thin film stress is measured and interpreted. The results are used to describe a comprehensive picture that is emerging of what controls stress evolution. Examples from multiple studies are discussed to illustrate how the stress depends on key parameters (e.g., growth rate, material type, temperature, grain size, morphology, etc.). The corresponding stress-generating mechanisms that have been proposed to explain the data are also described. To develop a fuller understanding, we consider the kinetic factors that determine how much each of these processes contributes to the overall stress under different conditions. This leads to a kinetic model that can predict the dependence of the stress on multiple parameters. The model results are compared with the experiments to show how this approach can explain many features of stress evolution.

In this work, a synaptic transistor based on the indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO)–aluminum oxide (Al2O3) thin film structure, which uses ultraviolet (UV) light pulses as the pre-synaptic stimulus, has been demonstrated. The synaptic transistor exhibits the behavior of synaptic plasticity like the paired-pulse facilitation. In addition, it also shows the brain's memory behaviors including the transition from short-term memory to long-term memory and the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve. The synapse-like behavior and memory behaviors of the transistor are due to the trapping and detrapping processes of the holes, which are generated by the UV pulses, at the IGZO/Al2O3 interface and/or in the Al2O3 layer.

Low stability of organic-inorganic perovskite (CH3NH3PbI3) solar cells in humid air environments is a serious drawback which could limit practical application of this material severely. In this study, from real-time spectroscopic ellipsometry characterization, the degradation mechanism of ultra-smooth CH3NH3PbI3 layers prepared by a laser evaporation technique is studied. We present evidence that the CH3NH3PbI3 degradation in humid air proceeds by two competing reactions of (i) the PbI2 formation by the desorption of CH3NH3I species and (ii) the generation of a CH3NH3PbI3 hydrate phase by H2O incorporation. In particular, rapid phase change occurs in the near-surface region and the CH3NH3PbI3 layer thickness reduces rapidly in the initial 1 h air exposure even at a low relative humidity of 40%. After the prolonged air exposure, the CH3NH3PbI3 layer is converted completely to hexagonal platelet PbI2/hydrate crystals that have a distinct atomic-scale multilayer structure with a period of 0.65 ± 0.05 nm. We find that conventional x-ray diffraction and optical characterization in the…

The performance of CdTe solar cells can be very sensitive to the emitter/absorber interface, especially for high-efficiency cells with high bulk lifetime. Performance losses from acceptor-type interface defects can be significant when interface defect states are located near mid-gap energies. Numerical simulations show that the emitter/absorber band alignment, the emitter doping and thickness, and the defect properties of the interface (i.e., defect density, defect type, and defect energy) can all play significant roles in the interface recombination. In particular, a type I heterojunction with small conduction-band offset (0.1 eV ≤ ΔEC ≤ 0.3 eV) can help maintain good cell efficiency in spite of high interface defect density, much like with Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) cells. The basic principle is that positive ΔEC, often referred to as a “spike,” creates an absorber inversion and hence a large hole barrier adjacent to the interface. As a result, the electron-hole recombination is suppressed due to an insufficient hole supply at the interface. A large spike (ΔEC ≥ 0.4 eV), however, can…

For conventional materials, the thermal conductivity of thin films is usually suppressed when the thickness decreases due to phonon-boundary scattering. However, this is not necessarily true for the van der Waals solids if the thickness is reduced to only a few layers. In this letter, the layer thickness-dependent phonon properties and thermal conductivity in the few-layer MoS2 are studied using the first-principles-based Peierls-Boltzmann transport equation approach. The basal-plane thermal conductivity of 10-μm-long samples is found to monotonically reduce from 138 W/mK to 98 W/mK for naturally occurring MoS2, and from 155 W/mK to 115 W/mK for isotopically pure MoS2, when its thickness increases from one layer to three layers. The thermal conductivity of tri-layer MoS2 approaches to that of bulk MoS2. Both the change of phonon dispersion and the thickness-induced anharmonicity are important for explaining such a thermal conductivity reduction. The increased anharmonicity in bi-layer MoS2 results in stronger phonon scattering for ZAi modes, which is linked to the breakdown of the…

A surface sensitivity study was performed on different transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) under ambient conditions in order to understand which material is the most suitable for future device applications. Initially, Atomic Force Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy studies were carried out over a period of 27 days on mechanically exfoliated flakes of 5 different TMDs, namely, MoS2, MoSe2, MoTe2, HfS2, and HfSe2. The most reactive were MoTe2 and HfSe2. HfSe2, in particular, showed surface protrusions after ambient exposure, reaching a height and width of approximately 60 nm after a single day. This study was later supplemented by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) cross-sectional analysis, which showed hemispherical-shaped surface blisters that are amorphous in nature, approximately 180–240 nm tall and 420–540 nm wide, after 5 months of air exposure, as well as surface deformation in regions between these structures, related to surface oxidation. An X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study of atmosphere exposed HfSe2 was conducted over various time scales, which…

The effect of phonon-electron (p-e) scattering on lattice thermal conductivity is investigated for Cu, Ag, Au, Al, Pt, and Ni. We evaluate both phonon-phonon (p-p) and p-e scattering rates from first principles and calculate the lattice thermal conductivity (κL). It is found that p-e scattering plays an important role in determining the κL of Pt and Ni at room temperature, while it has negligible effect on the κL of Cu, Ag, Au, and Al. Specifically, the room temperature κLs of Cu, Ag, Au, and Al predicted from density-functional theory calculations with the local density approximation are 16.9, 5.2, 2.6, and 5.8 W/m K, respectively, when only p-p scattering is considered, while it is almost unchanged when p-e scattering is also taken into account. However, the κL of Pt and Ni is reduced from 7.1 and 33.2 W/m K to 5.8 and 23.2 W/m K by p-e scattering. Even though Al has quite high electron-phonon coupling constant, a quantity that characterizes the rate of heat transfer from hot electrons to cold phonons in the two-temperature model, p-e scattering is not effective in reducing κL…

Solar-blind photodetection and photoconductive gain >50 corresponding to a responsivity >8 A/W were observed for β-Ga2O3 Schottky photodiodes. The origin of photoconductive gain was investigated. Current-voltage characteristics of the diodes did not indicate avalanche breakdown, which excludes carrier multiplication by impact ionization as the source for gain. However, photocapacitance measurements indicated a mechanism for hole localization for above-band gap illumination, suggesting self-trapped hole formation. Comparison of photoconductivity and photocapacitance spectra indicated that self-trapped hole formation coincides with the strong photoconductive gain. It is concluded that self-trapped hole formation near the Schottky diode lowers the effective Schottky barrier in reverse bias, producing photoconductive gain. Ascribing photoconductive gain to an inherent property like self-trapping of holes can explain the operation of a variety of β-Ga2O3 photodetectors.

Electroporation is being successfully used in biology, medicine, food processing, and biotechnology, and in some environmental applications. Recent applications also include in addition to classical electroporation, where cells are exposed to micro- or milliseconds long pulses, exposures to extremely short nanosecond pulses, i.e., high-frequency electroporation. Electric pulses are applied to cells in different structural configurations ranging from suspended cells to cells in tissues. Understanding electroporation of cells in tissues and other complex environments is a key to its successful use and optimization in various applications. Thus, explanation will be provided theoretically/numerically with relation to experimental observations by scaling our understanding of electroporation from the molecular level of the cell membrane up to the tissue level.

A homogenization model is developed that describes the effective elastic constants of polycrystalline materials with constituent crystallites of general anisotropy (triclinic symmetry). The model is solved through an iterative technique where successive iterations improve the estimates of the polycrystal's elastic constants. Convergence of the solution provides the self-consistent elastic constants, which are the polycrystal's elastic constants resulting from continuity between local and far-field stress and strains. Iterative solutions prior to convergence are the bounds on the elastic constants including the Voigt-Reuss and Hashin-Shtrikman bounds. The second part of the article establishes a formal link between the present model and single-crystal elastic anisotropy. An analysis from a dataset containing 2176 inorganic crystalline compounds, spanning all crystallographic symmetries, is provided. The role of elastic anisotropy and related properties such as crystalline structure and elastic stability are discussed as it relates to the model.

We investigate wave motion in a continuous elastic rod with a periodically attached inertial-amplification mechanism. The mechanism has properties similar to an “inerter” typically used in vehicle suspensions, however here it is constructed and utilized in a manner that alters the intrinsic properties of a continuous structure. The elastodynamic band structure of the hybrid rod-mechanism structure yields band gaps that are exceedingly wide and deep when compared to what can be obtained using standard local resonators, while still being low in frequency. With this concept, a large band gap may be realized with as much as twenty times less added mass compared to what is needed in a standard local resonator configuration. The emerging inertially enhanced continuous structure also exhibits unique qualitative features in its dispersion curves. These include the existence of a characteristic double-peak in the attenuation constant profile within gaps and the possibility of coalescence of two neighbouring gaps creating a large contiguous gap.

The investigation of the rotational dynamics of magnetic nanoparticles in magnetic fields is of academic interest but also important for applications such as magnetic particle imaging where the particles are exposed to magnetic fields with amplitudes of up to 25 mT. We have experimentally studied the dependence of Brownian and Néel relaxation times on ac and dc magnetic field amplitude using ac susceptibility measurements in the frequency range between 2 Hz and 9 kHz for field amplitudes up to 9 mT. As samples, single-core iron oxide nanoparticles with core diameters between 20 nm and 30 nm were used either suspended in water-glycerol mixtures or immobilized by freeze-drying. The experimentally determined relaxation times are compared with theoretical models. It was found that the Néel relaxation time decays much faster with increasing field amplitude than the Brownian one. Whereas the dependence of the Brownian relaxation time on the ac and dc field amplitude can be well explained with existing theoretical models, a proper model for the dependence of the Néel relaxation time on ac…

We explore the formation of single bilayer Sb(111) ultrathin film (Antimonene) on Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3 substrates for the first time, which is theoretically predicated to be a robust trivial semiconductor but can be tuned to a 2D TI by reducing the buckling height. From angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements, the antimonene can be well grown on the two surfaces and shows clear band dispersion. The electronic structure of the antimonene shows similar character on the two surfaces, but due to the interfacial strain effect, the bands of antimonene on Bi2Te3 are flatter than on Sb2Te3, which attributes to Bi2Te3 substrate lattice constants lager than Sb2Te3. At the same time, the charge transfer effect is also observed through core level shift, which influences the band dispersion simultaneously.

The absorption coefficient and refractive index of Ge1−xSnx alloys (x from 0% to 10%) were characterized for the wavelength range from 1500 to 2500 nm via spectroscopic ellipsometry at room temperature. By applying physical models to fit the obtained data, two empirical formulae with extracted constants and coefficients were developed: (1) Absorption coefficient. The absorption regarding Urbach tail, indirect and direct bandgap transitions were comprehensively taken into account; (2) refractive index. The Sellmeier coefficients associated with dispersion relationship were extracted. In these formulae, the Sn composition and strain percentage were the input parameters, by inputting which the spectral absorption coefficient and spectral refractive index can be obtained. Since the absorption coefficient is key information to determine the performance of the photodetectors including operation wavelength range, responsivity, and specific detectivity, and the refractive index is very useful for the design of the anti-reflection coating for photodetectors and the layer structure for…

Pulsed capacitors require high energy density and low loss, properties that can be realized through selection of composition. Ceramic (Pb0.88La0.08)(Zr0.91Ti0.09)O3 was found to be an ideal candidate. La3+ doping and excess PbO were used to produce relaxor antiferroelectric behavior with slim and slanted hysteresis loops to reduce the dielectric hysteresis loss, to increase the dielectric strength, and to increase the discharge energy density. The discharge energy density of this composition was found to be 3.04 J/cm3 with applied electric field of 170 kV/cm, and the energy efficiency, defined as the ratio of the discharge energy density to the charging energy density, was 0.920. This high efficiency reduces the heat generated under cyclic loading and improves the reliability. The properties were observed to degrade some with temperature increase above 80 °C. Repeated electric field cycles up to 10 000 cycles were applied to the specimen with no observed performance degradation.

Density functional theory calculations were carried out for three entropic rocksalt oxides, (Mg0.1Co0.1Ni0.1Cu0.1Zn0.1)O0.5, termed J14, and J14 + Li and J14 + Sc, to understand the role of charge neutrality and electronic states on their properties, and to probe whether simple expressions may exist that predict stability. The calculations predict that the average lattice constants of the ternary structures provide good approximations to that of the random structures. For J14, Bader charges are transferable between the binary, ternary, and random structures. For J14 + Sc and J14 + Li, average Bader charges in the entropic structures can be estimated from the ternary compositions. Addition of Sc to J14 reduces the majority of Cu, which show large displacements from ideal lattice sites, along with reduction of a few Co and Ni cations. Addition of Li to J14 reduces the lattice constant, consistent with experiment, and oxidizes some of Co as well as some of Ni and Cu. The Bader charges and spin-resolved density of states (DOS) for Co+3 in J14 + Li are very different from Co+2, while for…

In developing photovoltaic devices with high efficiencies, quantitative determination of the carrier loss is crucial. In conventional solar-cell characterization techniques, however, photocurrent reduction originating from parasitic light absorption and carrier recombination within the light absorber cannot be assessed easily. Here, we develop a general analysis scheme in which the optical and recombination losses in submicron-textured solar cells are evaluated systematically from external quantum efficiency (EQE) spectra. In this method, the optical absorption in solar cells is first deduced by imposing the anti-reflection condition in the calculation of the absorptance spectrum, and the carrier extraction from the light absorber layer is then modeled by considering a carrier collection length from the absorber interface. Our analysis method is appropriate for a wide variety of photovoltaic devices, including kesterite solar cells [Cu2ZnSnSe4, Cu2ZnSnS4, and Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4], zincblende CdTe solar cells, and hybrid perovskite (CH3NH3PbI3) solar cells, and provides excellent fitting…

Quite recently, the magnon Hall effect of spin excitations has been observed experimentally on the kagome and pyrochlore lattices. The thermal Hall conductivity κxy changes sign as a function of magnetic field or temperature on the kagome lattice, and κxy changes sign upon reversing the sign of the magnetic field on the pyrochlore lattice. Motivated by these recent exciting experimental observations, we theoretically propose a simple realization of the magnon Hall effect in a two-band model on the honeycomb lattice. The magnon Hall effect of spin excitations arises in the usual way via the breaking of inversion symmetry of the lattice, however, by a next-nearest-neighbour Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction. We find that κxy has a fixed sign for all parameter regimes considered. These results are in contrast to the Lieb, kagome, and pyrochlore lattices. We further show that the low-temperature dependence on the magnon Hall conductivity follows a T2 law, as opposed to the kagome and pyrochlore lattices. These results suggest an experimental procedure to measure thermal Hall conductivity…

We study the homoepitaxial growth of β-Ga2O3 (100) grown by metal-organic vapour phase as dependent on miscut-angle vs. the c direction. Atomic force microscopy of layers grown on substrates with miscut-angles smaller than 2° reveals the growth proceeding through nucleation and growth of two-dimensional islands. With increasing miscut-angle, step meandering and finally step flow growth take place. While step-flow growth results in layers with high crystalline perfection, independent nucleation of two-dimensional islands causes double positioning on the (100) plane, resulting in twin lamellae and stacking mismatch boundaries. Applying nucleation theory in the mean field approach for vicinal surfaces, we can fit experimentally found values for the density of twin lamellae in epitaxial layers as dependent on the miscut-angle. The model yields a diffusion coefficient for Ga adatoms of D = 7 × 10−9 cm2 s−1 at a growth temperature of 850 °C, two orders of magnitude lower than the values published for GaAs.

Magnetic force microscopy was used to observe the magnetic microstructure of Fe3GeTe2 at 4 K on the (001) surface. The surface magnetic structure consists of a two-phase domain branching pattern that is characteristic for highly uniaxial magnets in the plane perpendicular to the magnetic easy axis. The average surface magnetic domain width Ds = 1.3 μm determined from this pattern, in combination with intrinsic properties calculated from bulk magnetization data (the saturation magnetization Ms = 376 emu/cm3 and the uniaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant Ku = 1.46 × 107 erg/cm3), was used to determine the following micromagnetic parameters for Fe3GeTe2 from phenomenological models: the domain wall energy γw = 4.7 erg/cm2, the domain wall thickness δw = 2.5 nm, the exchange stiffness constant Aex = 0.95 × 10−7 erg/cm, the exchange length lex = 2.3 nm, and the critical single domain particle diameter dc = 470 nm.

The majority of intuition on phonon transport has been derived from studies of homogenous crystalline solids, where the atomic composition and structure are periodic. For this specific class of materials, the solutions to the equations of motions for the atoms (in the harmonic limit) result in plane wave modulated velocity fields for the normal modes of vibration. However, it has been known for several decades that whenever a system lacks periodicity, either compositional or structural, the normal modes of vibration can still be determined (in the harmonic limit), but the solutions take on different characteristics and many modes may not be plane wave modulated. Previous work has classified the types of vibrations into three primary categories, namely, propagons, diffusions, and locons. One can use the participation ratio to distinguish locons, from propagons and diffusons, which measures the extent to which a mode is localized. However, distinguishing between propagons and diffusons has remained a challenge, since both are spatially delocalized. Here, we present a new method that…

The energy storage performance and charge-discharge properties of Pb0.98La0.02(Zr0.35Sn0.55Ti0.10)0.995O3 (PLZST) antiferroelectric ceramics were investigated through directly measuring the hysteresis loops and pulse discharge current-time curves. The energy density only varies 0.2% per degree from 25 °C to 85 °C, and the energy efficiency maintains at about 90%. Furthermore, an approximate calculating model of maximum power density pmax was established for the discharge process. Under a relatively high working electric field (8.2 kV/mm), this ceramics possess a greatly enhanced power density of 18 MW/cm3. Moreover, the pulse power properties did not show degradation until 1500 times of charge-discharge cycling. The large released energy density, high energy efficiency, good temperature stability, greatly enhanced power density, and excellent fatigue endurance combined together make this PLZST ceramics an ideal candidate for pulse power applications.

We propose a framework to realize helical edge states in phononic systems using two identical lattices with interlayer couplings between them. A methodology is presented to systematically transform a quantum mechanical lattice which exhibits edge states to a phononic lattice, thereby developing a family of lattices with edge states. Parameter spaces with topological phase boundaries in the vicinity of the transformed system are illustrated to demonstrate the robustness to mechanical imperfections. A potential realization in terms of fundamental mechanical building blocks is presented for the hexagonal and Lieb lattices. The lattices are composed of passive components and the building blocks are a set of disks and linear springs. Furthermore, by varying the spring stiffness, topological phase transitions are observed, illustrating the potential for tunability of our lattices.

The thermal conductivity of n- and p-type doped gallium nitride (GaN) epilayers having thicknesses of 3–4 μm was investigated using time domain thermoreflectance. Despite possessing carrier concentrations ranging across 3 decades (1015–1018 cm–3), n-type layers exhibit a nearly constant thermal conductivity of 180 W/mK. The thermal conductivity of p-type epilayers, in contrast, reduces from 160 to 110 W/mK with increased doping. These trends—and their overall reduction relative to bulk—are explained leveraging established scattering models where it is shown that, while the decrease in p-type layers is partly due to the increased impurity levels evolving from its doping, size effects play a primary role in limiting the thermal conductivity of GaN layers tens of microns thick. Device layers, even of pristine quality, will therefore exhibit thermal conductivities less than the bulk value of 240 W/mK owing to their finite thickness.

Metallic glasses are metastable and their thermal stability is critical for practical applications, particularly at elevated temperatures. The conventional bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), though exhibiting high glass-forming ability (GFA), crystallize quickly when being heated to a temperature higher than their glass transition temperature. This problem may potentially be alleviated due to the recent developments of high-entropy (or multi-principle-element) bulk metallic glasses (HE-BMGs). In this work, we demonstrate that typical HE-BMGs, i.e., ZrTiHfCuNiBe and ZrTiCuNiBe, have higher kinetic stability, as compared with the benchmark glass Vitreoy1 (Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5) with a similar chemical composition. The measured activation energy for glass transition and crystallization of the HE-BMGs is nearly twice that of Vitreloy 1. Moreover, the sluggish crystallization region ΔTpl-pf, defined as the temperature span between the last exothermic crystallization peak temperature Tpl and the first crystallization exothermic peak temperature Tpf, of all the HE-BMGs is much wider than…

We investigated the dependency of minority carrier lifetimes on the nitrogen concentration, temperature, and the injected carrier concentration for highly nitrogen-doped 4H-SiC epilayers. The minority carrier lifetimes greatly shortened when the nitrogen concentration exceeded 1018 cm−3 through enhancing direct band-to-band and Auger recombination and showed a slight variation in the temperature range from room temperature (RT) to 250 °C. The epilayer with a nitrogen concentration of 9.3 × 1018 cm−3 exhibited a very short minority carrier lifetime of 38 ns at RT and 43 ns at 250 °C. The short minority carrier lifetimes of the highly nitrogen-doped epilayer were confirmed to maintain the values even after the subsequent annealing of 1700 °C. 4H-SiC PiN diodes were fabricated by depositing a highly nitrogen-doped epilayer as a “recombination enhancing layer” between an n− drift layer free from basal plane dislocations and the substrate. The PiN diodes showed no formation of stacking faults and no increase in forward voltage during current conduction of 600 A/cm2 (DC), demonstrating…

While there is a great wealth of data for thermal transport in synthetic diamond, there remains much to be learned about the impacts of grain structure and associated defects and impurities within a few microns of the nucleation region in films grown using chemical vapor deposition. Measurements of the inhomogeneous and anisotropic thermal conductivity in films thinner than 10 μm have previously been complicated by the presence of the substrate thermal boundary resistance. Here, we study thermal conduction in suspended films of polycrystalline diamond, with thicknesses ranging between 0.5 and 5.6 μm, using time-domain thermoreflectance. Measurements on both sides of the films facilitate extraction of the thickness-dependent in-plane (κr) and through-plane (κz) thermal conductivities in the vicinity of the coalescence and high-quality regions. The columnar grain structure makes the conductivity highly anisotropic, with κz being nearly three to five times as large as κr, a contrast higher than that reported previously for thicker films. In the vicinity of the high-quality region, κr…

The structure of amorphous selenium is clouded with much uncertainty and contradictory results regarding the dominance of polymeric chains versus monomer rings. The analysis of the diffraction radial distribution functions are inconclusive because of the similarities between the crystalline allotropes of selenium in terms of the coordination number, bond length, bond angle, and dihedral angle. Here, we took a much different approach and probed the molecular symmetry of the thermodynamically unstable amorphous state via analysis of structural phase transformations. We verified the structure of the converted metastable and stable crystalline structures using scanning transmission electron microscopy. In addition, given that no experimental technique can tell us the exact three-dimensional atomic arrangements in glassy semiconductors, we performed molecular-dynamic simulations using a well-established empirical three-body interatomic potential. We developed a true vapor-deposited process for the deposition of selenium molecules onto a substrate using empirical molecular vapor…

Using first-principles calculations, we investigate the electronic, mechanical, and optical properties of monolayer WTe2. Atomic structure and ground state properties of monolayer WTe2 (Td phase) are anisotropic which are in contrast to similar monolayer crystals of transition metal dichalcogenides, such as MoS2, WS2, MoSe2, WSe2, and MoTe2, which crystallize in the H-phase. We find that the Poisson ratio and the in-plane stiffness is direction dependent due to the symmetry breaking induced by the dimerization of the W atoms along one of the lattice directions of the compound. Since the semimetallic behavior of the Td phase originates from this W-W interaction (along the a crystallographic direction), tensile strain along the dimer direction leads to a semimetal to semiconductor transition after 1% strain. By solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation on top of single shot G0W0 calculations, we predict that the absorption spectrum of Td-WTe2 monolayer is strongly direction dependent and tunable by tensile strain.

For many decades, phonon transport at interfaces has been interpreted in terms of phonons impinging on an interface and subsequently transmitting a certain fraction of their energy into the other material. It has also been largely assumed that when one joins two bulk materials, interfacial phonon transport can be described in terms of the modes that exist in each material separately. However, a new formalism for calculating the modal contributions to thermal interface conductance with full inclusion of anharmonicity has been recently developed, which now offers a means for checking the validity of this assumption. Here, we examine the assumption of using the bulk materials' modes to describe the interfacial transport. The results indicate that when two materials are joined, a new set of vibrational modes are required to correctly describe the transport. As the modes are analyzed, certain classifications emerge and some of the most important modes are localized at the interface and can exhibit large conductance contributions that cannot be explained by the current physical picture…

In spite of decades of research, the details of electrical transport in phase-change materials are still debated. In particular, the so-called threshold switching phenomenon that allows the current density to increase steeply when a sufficiently high voltage is applied is still not well understood, even though there is wide consensus that threshold switching is solely of electronic origin. However, the high thermal efficiency and fast thermal dynamics associated with nanoscale phase-change memory (PCM) devices motivate us to reassess a thermally assisted threshold switching mechanism, at least in these devices. The time/temperature dependence of the threshold switching voltage and current in doped Ge2Sb2Te5 nanoscale PCM cells was measured over 6 decades in time at temperatures ranging from 40 °C to 160 °C. We observe a nearly constant threshold switching power across this wide range of operating conditions. We also measured the transient dynamics associated with threshold switching as a function of the applied voltage. By using a field- and temperature-dependent description of the…

We present a physics-based compact model for two-dimensional (2D) field-effect transistors (FETs) based on monolayer semiconductors such as MoS2. A semi-classical transport approach is appropriate for the 2D channel, enabling simplified analytical expressions for the drain current. In addition to intrinsic FET behavior, the model includes contact resistance, traps and impurities, quantum capacitance, fringing fields, high-field velocity saturation, and self-heating, the latter being found to play an important role. The model is calibrated with state-of-the-art experimental data for n- and p-type 2D-FETs, and it can be used to analyze device properties for sub-100 nm gate lengths. Using the experimental fit, we demonstrate the feasibility of circuit simulations using properly scaled devices. The complete model is implemented in SPICE-compatible Verilog-A, and a downloadable version is freely available at the nanoHUB.org.

Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest in layered transition metal dichalcogenides such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS2). Most studies so far have focused on the electronic and optoelectronic properties of single-layer MoS2, whose band structure features a direct bandgap, in sharp contrast to the indirect bandgap of thicker MoS2. In this paper, we present a systematic study of the thickness-dependent electrical and thermoelectric properties of few-layer MoS2. We observe that the electrical conductivity (σ) increases as we reduce the thickness of MoS2 and peaks at about two layers, with six-times larger conductivity than our thickest sample (23-layer MoS2). Using a back-gate voltage, we modulate the Fermi energy (EF) of the sample where an increase in the Seebeck coefficient (S) is observed with decreasing gate voltage (EF) towards the subthreshold (OFF state) of the device, reaching as large as 500 μV/K in a four-layer MoS2. While previous reports have focused on a single-layer MoS2 and measured Seebeck coefficient in the OFF state, which has vanishing electrical…

The growth of Shockley type stacking faults in p-i-n diodes fabricated on the C-face of 4H-SiC during forward current operation was investigated using Berg-Barrett X-ray topography and photoluminescence imaging. After forward current experiment, Shockley type stacking faults were generated from very short portions of basal plane dislocations lower than the conversion points to threading edge dislocations in the epitaxial layer. The growth behavior of Shockley type stacking faults was discussed. Growth of stacking faults in the substrates was not observed.

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) is a promising degree of freedom for fundamental studies in electromagnetics and quantum mechanics. The unlimited state space of OAM shows a great potential to enhance channel capacities of classical and quantum communications. By exploring the Pancharatnam-Berry phase concept and engineering anisotropic scatterers in a metasurface with spatially varying orientations, a plane wave with zero OAM can be converted to a vortex beam carrying nonzero OAM. In this paper, we proposed two types of novel perfect electric conductor-perfect magnetic conductor anisotropic metasurfaces. One is composed of azimuthally continuous loops and the other is constructed by azimuthally discontinuous dipole scatterers. Both types of metasurfaces are mounted on a mushroom-type high impedance surface. Compared to previous metasurface designs for generating OAM, the proposed ones achieve nearly perfect conversion efficiency. In view of the eliminated vertical component of electric field, the continuous metasurface shows very smooth phase pattern at the near-field region, which…

In this paper we provide an accurate high-pressure structural and optical study of the MAPbI3 hybrid perovskite. Structural data show the presence of a phase transition toward an orthorhombic structure around 0.3 GPa followed by full amorphization of the system above 3 GPa. After releasing the pressure, the system keeps the high-pressure orthorhombic phase. The occurrence of these structural transitions is further confirmed by pressure induced variations of the photoluminescence signal at high pressure. These variations clearly indicate that the bandgap value and the electronic structure of MAPI change across the phase transition.

We present a dark current analysis in waveguide-coupled germanium vertical p-i-n photodetectors. In the analysis, a surface leakage current and a bulk leakage current were separated, and their activation energies were extracted. The surface leakage current originating from the minority carrier generation on the Ge layer sidewalls, governed by the Shockley-Read-Hall process and enhanced by the trap-assisted-tunneling process, was identified as the main contribution to the dark current of vertical p-i-n photodiodes at room temperature. The behavior of this surface leakage current as a function of temperature and reverse bias voltage is well reproduced by using the Hurckx model for trap-assisted-tunneling.

In this work, a dual-band and high-efficiency reflective cross-polarization converter based on an anisotropic metasurface for linearly polarized electromagnetic waves is proposed. Its unit cell is composed of an elliptical disk-ring mounted on grounded dielectric substrate, which is an anisotropic structure with a pair of mutually perpendicular symmetric axes u and v along ±45° directions with respect to y-axis direction. Both the simulation and measured results show that the polarization converter can convert x- or y-polarized incident wave to its cross polarized wave in the two frequency bands (6.99–9.18 GHz, 11.66–20.40 GHz) with the conversion efficiency higher than 90%; moreover, the higher frequency band is an ultra-wide one with a relative bandwidth of 54.5% for multiple plasmon resonances. In addition, we present a detailed analysis for the polarization conversion of the polarization converter, and derive a formula to calculate the cross- and co-polarization reflections at y-polarized incidence according to the phase differences between the two reflected coefficients at…

Electrical self-sustained oscillations have been observed in a broad range of two-terminal systems and are of interest as possible building blocks for bio-inspired neuromorphic computing. In this work, we experimentally explore voltage-controlled oscillations in NbOx devices with a particular focus on understanding how the frequency and waveform are influenced by circuit parameters. We also introduce a finite element model of the device based on a Joule-heating induced insulator-metal transition. The electroformed device structure is represented by a cylindrical conductive channel (filament) comprised of NbO/NbO2 zones and surrounded by an Nb2O5−x matrix. The model is shown to reproduce the current-controlled negative differential resistance observed in measured current-voltage curves, and is combined with circuit elements to simulate the waveforms and dynamics of an isolated Pearson–Anson oscillator. Such modeling is shown to provide considerable insight into the relationship between the material response and device and circuit characteristics.

Detailed quantum efficiency (QE) analysis of a nanoparticle-based Cu2ZnSnSe4 (CZTSe) solar cell has been conducted to understand photogenerated carrier collection in the device. Specifically, voltage-dependent analysis has been considered to characterize both diffusion limitations and recombination limitations to carrier collection. Application of a generalized QE model and corresponding experimental and analytical procedures are presented to account for non-ideal device behavior, with specific consideration of photogenerated charge trapping, finite absorber thickness, back-surface recombination, and recombination of photogenerated carriers via interface, space-charge-region limited, and/or band tail limited recombination mechanisms. Analysis of diffusion limited collection results in extraction of the minority carrier diffusion length, mobility, back surface recombination velocity, and absorption coefficient. Additionally, forward bias QE measurements afford analysis of the dominant recombination mechanism for photogenerated carriers. For the analyzed CZTSe device, diffusion…

The most recent release of the open source and general purpose Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation toolkit (Geant4 10.2 release) contains a new set of physics models in the Geant4-DNA extension for improving the modelling of low-energy electron transport in liquid water (<10 keV). This includes updated electron cross sections for excitation, ionization, and elastic scattering. In the present work, the impact of these developments to track-structure calculations is examined for providing the first comprehensive comparison against the default physics models of Geant4-DNA. Significant differences with the default models are found for the average path length and penetration distance, as well as for dose-point-kernels for electron energies below a few hundred eV. On the other hand, self-irradiation absorbed fractions for tissue-like volumes and low-energy electron sources (including some Auger emitters) reveal rather small differences (up to 15%) between these new and default Geant4-DNA models. The above findings indicate that the impact of the new developments will mainly affect those…

Weak magnetic nondestructive testing (e.g., metal magnetic memory method) concerns the magnetization variation of ferromagnetic materials due to its applied load and a weak magnetic surrounding them. One key issue on these nondestructive technologies is the magnetomechanical effect for quantitative evaluation of magnetization state from stress–strain condition. A representative phenomenological model has been proposed to explain the magnetomechanical effect by Jiles in 1995. However, the Jiles' model has some deficiencies in quantification, for instance, there is a visible difference between theoretical prediction and experimental measurements on stress–magnetization curve, especially in the compression case. Based on the thermodynamic relations and the approach law of irreversible magnetization, a nonlinear coupled model is proposed to improve the quantitative evaluation of the magnetomechanical effect. Excellent agreement has been achieved between the predictions from the present model and previous experimental results. In comparison with Jiles' model, the prediction accuracy is…

The dissociation of CO2 in a geometrically symmetric dielectric barrier discharge has been analysed by means of numerical modelling. A time- and space-dependent fluid model has been used, taking into account the spatial variation of the plasma between the plane-parallel dielectrics covering the electrodes. The main features of the model, including an extensive reaction kinetics for the vibrational states of CO2, are given. The modelling studies have been performed for different applied voltages, discharge frequencies, pressures, gas temperatures, and relative permittivities of the dielectrics. The model calculations show that the discharges in the positive and negative half-cycles are different for the considered standard condition, leading to a spatially asymmetric distribution of the stable neutrals like CO molecules and O atoms. The generation of CO mainly takes place during the discharge pulses, and it is dominated by electron impact dissociation. The specific energy input obtained for the broad range of parameters considered and determined for residence times reported in the…

Choice of appropriate force field is one of the main concerns of any atomistic simulation that needs to be seriously considered in order to yield reliable results. Since investigations on the mechanical behavior of materials at micro/nanoscale have been becoming much more widespread, it is necessary to determine an adequate potential which accurately models the interaction of the atoms for desired applications. In this framework, reliability of multiple embedded atom method based interatomic potentials for predicting the elastic properties was investigated. Assessments were carried out for different copper, aluminum, and nickel interatomic potentials at room temperature which is considered as the most applicable case. Examined force fields for the three species were taken from online repositories of National Institute of Standards and Technology, as well as the Sandia National Laboratories, the LAMMPS database. Using molecular dynamic simulations, the three independent elastic constants, C11, C12, and C44, were found for Cu, Al, and Ni cubic single crystals. Voigt-Reuss-Hill…

Electron paramagnetic resonance was used to study the donor that is responsible for the n-type conductivity in unintentionally doped (UID) β-Ga2O3 substrates. We show that in as-grown materials, the donor requires high temperature annealing to be activated. In partly activated materials with the donor concentration in the 1016 cm−3 range or lower, the donor is found to behave as a negative-U center (often called a DX center) with the negative charge state DX− lying ∼16–20 meV below the neutral charge state d0 (or Ed), which is estimated to be ∼28–29 meV below the conduction band minimum. This corresponds to a donor activation energy of Ea∼44–49 meV. In fully activated materials with the donor spin density close to ∼1 × 1018 cm−3, donor electrons become delocalized, leading to the formation of impurity bands, which reduces the donor activation energy to Ea∼15–17 meV. The results clarify the electronic structure of the dominant donor in UID β-Ga2O3 and explain the large variation in the previously reported donor activation energy.

In an attempt to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, associated with severe environmental effects, the current research is focused on the identification of the thermoelectric potential of p-type (GeTe)1−x(Bi2Te3)x alloys, with x values of up to 20%. Higher solubility limit of Bi2Te3 in GeTe, than previously reported, was identified around ∼9%, extending the doping potential of GeTe by the Bi2Te3 donor dopant, for an effective compensation of the high inherent hole concentration of GeTe toward thermoelectrically optimal values. Around the solubility limit of 9%, an electronic optimization resulted in an impressive maximal thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, of ∼1.55 at ∼410 °C, which is one of the highest ever reported for any p-type GeTe-rich alloys. Beyond the solubility limit, a Fermi Level Pinning effect of stabilizing the Seebeck coefficient was observed in the x = 12%–17% range, leading to stabilization of the maximal ZTs over an extended temperature range; an effect that was associated with the potential of the governed highly symmetric Ge8Bi2Te11 and Ge4Bi2Te7 phases to…

Temperature-dependent characteristics of GeSn light-emitting diodes with Sn composition up to 9.2% have been systematically studied. Such diodes were based on Ge/GeSn/Ge double heterostructures (DHS) that were grown directly on a Si substrate via a chemical vapor deposition system. Both photoluminescence and electroluminescence spectra have been characterized at temperatures from 300 to 77 K. Based on our theoretical calculation, all GeSn alloys in this study are indirect bandgap materials. However, due to the small energy separation between direct and indirect bandgap, and the fact that radiative recombination rate greater than non-radiative, the emissions are mainly from the direct Γ-valley to valence band transitions. The electroluminescence emissions under current injection levels from 102 to 357 A/cm2 were investigated at 300 K. The monotonic increase of the integrated electroluminescence intensity was observed for each sample. Moreover, the electronic band structures of the DHS were discussed. Despite the indirect GeSn bandgap owing to the compressive strain, type-I band…

The dynamic evolution and interaction of defects under the conditions of shock loading in single crystal and nanocrystalline Cu are investigated using a series of large-scale molecular dynamics simulations for an impact velocity of 1 km/s. Four stages of defect evolution are identified during shock simulations that result in deformation and failure. These stages correspond to: the initial shock compression (I); the propagation of the compression wave (II); the propagation and interaction of the reflected tensile wave (III); and the nucleation, growth, and coalescence of voids (IV). The effect of the microstructure on the evolution of defect densities during these four stages is characterized and quantified for single crystal Cu as well as nanocrystalline Cu with an average grain size of 6 nm, 10 nm, 13 nm, 16 nm, 20 nm, and 30 nm. The evolution of twin densities during the shock propagation is observed to vary with the grain size of the system and affects the spall strength of the metal. The grain sizes of 6 nm and 16 nm are observed to have peak values for the twin densities and a…

We demonstrated a new CaHfO3-NaNbO3 solid solution system that allows stable antiferroelectric (AFE) (P) phase to exist under ambient conditions. Based on crystal chemistry viewpoint of relative change of the Goldschmidt tolerance factor (t) and polarizability, two new solid solutions were fabricated using the perovskite end member CaHfO3. It was found that the CaHfO3 effectively stabilized the antiferroelectric (AFE) P phase in NaNbO3. In this article, electrical properties and transmission electron microscopy experiments were conducted to verify the stabilization and enhancement of antiferroelectric behavior over the various solid solutions, where both structural signature of ¼{010} superlattice diffraction reflections and electrical characteristic of double polarization-electric (P-E) hysteresis were observed.

We have developed a kinetic model for residual stress generation in thin films grown from energetic vapor fluxes, encountered, e.g., during sputter deposition. The new analytical model considers sub-surface point defects created by atomic peening, along with processes treated in already existing stress models for non-energetic deposition, i.e., thermally activated diffusion processes at the surface and the grain boundary. According to the new model, ballistically induced sub-surface defects can get incorporated as excess atoms at the grain boundary, remain trapped in the bulk, or annihilate at the free surface, resulting in a complex dependence of the steady-state stress on the grain size, the growth rate, as well as the energetics of the incoming particle flux. We compare calculations from the model with in situ stress measurements performed on a series of Mo films sputter-deposited at different conditions and having different grain sizes. The model is able to reproduce the observed increase of compressive stress with increasing growth rate, behavior that is the opposite of what is…

In this paper, we report a theoretical investigation of surface acoustic waves propagating in one-dimensional phononic crystal. Using finite element method eigenfrequency and frequency response studies, we develop two model geometries suitable to distinguish true and pseudo (or leaky) surface acoustic waves and determine their propagation through finite size phononic crystals, respectively. The novelty of the first model comes from the application of a surface-like criterion and, additionally, functional damping domain. Exemplary calculated band diagrams show sorted branches of true and pseudo surface acoustic waves and their quantified surface confinement. The second model gives a complementary study of transmission, reflection, and surface-to-bulk losses of Rayleigh surface waves in the case of a phononic crystal with a finite number of periods. Here, we demonstrate that a non-zero transmission within non-radiative band gaps can be carried via leaky modes originating from the coupling of local resonances with propagating waves in the substrate. Finally, we show that the…

Acoustic metasurfaces provide useful wavefront shaping capabilities, such as beam steering, acoustic focusing, and asymmetric transmission, in a compact structure. Most acoustic metasurfaces described in the literature are transmissive devices and focus their performance on steering sound beam of the fundamental diffractive order. In addition, the range of incident angles studied is usually below the critical incidence predicted by generalized Snell's law of reflection. In this work, we comprehensively analyze the wave interaction with a generic periodic phase-modulating structure in order to predict the behavior of all diffractive orders, especially for cases beyond critical incidence. Under the guidance of the presented analysis, a broadband reflective metasurface is designed based on an expanded library of labyrinthine acoustic metamaterials. Various local and nonlocal wavefront shaping properties are experimentally demonstrated, and enhanced absorption of higher order diffractive waves is experimentally shown for the first time. The proposed methodology provides an accurate…

The greatest challenge for improving the power conversion efficiency of Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe)/CdS/ZnO thin film solar cells is increasing the open circuit voltage (VOC). Probable leading causes of the VOC deficit in state-of-the-art CZTSSe devices have been identified as bulk recombination, band tails, and the intertwined effects of CZTSSe/CdS band offset, interface defects, and interface recombination. In this work, we demonstrate the modification of the CZTSSe absorber/CdS buffer interface following the deposition of 1 nm-thick Al2O3 layers by atomic layer deposition (ALD) near room temperature. Capacitance-voltage profiling and quantum efficiency measurements reveal that ALD-Al2O3 interface modification reduces the density of acceptor-like states at the heterojunction resulting in reduced interface recombination and wider depletion width. Indications of increased VOC resulting from the modification of the heterojunction interface as a result of ALD-Al2O3 treatment are presented. These results, while not conclusive for application to state-of-the-art high efficiency CZTSSe…

Alloying of Ni with Fe or Co has been shown to reduce primary damage production under ion irradiation. Similar results have been obtained from classical molecular dynamics simulations of 1, 10, 20, and 40 keV collision cascades in Ni, NiFe, and NiCo. In all cases, a mix of imperfect stacking fault tetrahedra, faulted loops with a 1/3⟨111⟩ Burgers vector, and glissile interstitial loops with a 1/2⟨110⟩ Burgers vector were formed, along with small sessile point defect complexes and clusters. Primary damage reduction occurs by three mechanisms. First, Ni-Co, Ni-Fe, Co-Co, and Fe-Fe short-distance repulsive interactions are stiffer than Ni-Ni interactions, which lead to a decrease in damage formation during the transition from the supersonic ballistic regime to the sonic regime. This largely controls final defect production. Second, alloying decreases thermal conductivity, leading to a longer thermal spike lifetime. The associated annealing reduces final damage production. These two mechanisms are especially important at cascades energies less than 40 keV. Third, at the higher energies,…

This work was driven by the need to understand the electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE) of light weight, flexible, and high performance graphene composite foams, but as EMI SE of a material depends on its electrical conductivity, dielectric permittivity, and magnetic permeability, the investigation of these three properties also became a priority. In this paper, we first present a continuum theory to determine these three electromagnetic properties, and then use the obtained properties to evaluate the EMI SE of the foam. A two-scale composite model is conceived to evaluate these three properties, with the large one being the skeleton-void composite and the small one being the graphene-polymer composite that serves as the skeleton of the foam. To evaluate the properties of the skeleton, the effective-medium approach is taken as the starting point. Subsequently, the effect of an imperfect interface and the contributions of electron tunneling to the interfacial conductivity and Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars polarization mechanism to the dielectric constant are also…

The first principles study of the (001) two symmetric n-type interfaces between two insulating perovskites, the nonpolar SrTiO3 (STO), and the polar LaAlO3 (LAO) was performed. We have analyzed the formation of metallic interface states between the STO and LAO heterointerfaces by using the all-electron full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave approach based on the density functional theory, within the local density approximation, the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof generalized gradient approximation (PBE-GGA), and the Engel-Vosko GGA (EVGGA) formalism. It has been found that some bands cross the Fermi energy level (EF), forming a metallic nature of two symmetric n-type 6.5STO/1.5LAO interfaces with density of states at EF, N(EF) of about 3.56 (state/eV/unit cell), and bare electronic specific heat coefficient (γ) of about 0.62 mJ/(mol cell K2). The electronic band stature and the partial density of states in the vicinity of EF are mainly originated from Ti1,2,3,4-3dxy orbitals. These bands are responsible for the metallic behavior and the forming of the Fermi surface of the two…

We experimentally demonstrated the strong coupling between a microwave cavity and standing magnetostatic magnon modes in a yttrium iron garnet film. Such strong coupling can be observed for various spin wave modes under different magnetic field bias configurations, with a coupling strength inversely proportional to the transverse mode number. A comb-like spectrum can be obtained from these high order modes. The collectively enhanced magnon-microwave photon coupling strength is comparable with the magnon free spectral range and therefore leads to the superstrong coupling regime. Our findings pave the road towards designing a new type of strongly hybridized magnon-photon system.

Recently synthesized NdFe12N has excellent magnetic properties, while it is thermodynamically unstable. Using the first-principles method, we study the effect of substitutional 3d transition metal elements to the mother compound NdFe12. We find that Co has a positive effect on the stability of the ThMn12 structure. In contrast to Ti substitution, Co substitution does not reduce the magnetization significantly. The crystal field parameter 〈r2〉A20 is nearly unchanged by Co substitution, and nitrogenation to NdFe11Co greatly enhances 〈r2〉A20. This suggests that Co is a good candidate as a substitutional element for NdFe12N.

In the low doping range below 1 × 1017 cm−3, carbon was identified as the main defect attributing to the sudden reduction of the electron mobility, the electron mobility collapse, in n-type GaN grown by low pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy has been performed in conjunction with C concentration and the thermodynamic Ga supersaturation model. By controlling the ammonia flow rate, the input partial pressure of Ga precursor, and the diluent gas within the Ga supersaturation model, the C concentration in Si-doped GaN was controllable from 6 × 1019 cm−3 to values as low as 2 × 1015 cm−3. It was found that the electron mobility collapsed as a function of free carrier concentration, once the Si concentration closely approached the C concentration. Lowering the C concentration to the order of 1015 cm−3 by optimizing Ga supersaturation achieved controllable free carrier concentrations down to 5 × 1015 cm−3 with a peak electron mobility of 820 cm2/V s without observing the mobility collapse. The highest electron mobility of 1170 cm2/V s was…

CO2 laser heating of silica glass is used in many scientific and industrial applications. Particularly, localized CO2 laser heating of silica glass has demonstrated its ability to mitigate surface damage on optics used for high power laser applications. To develop such applications, the control of temperature, heat affected area, and resulting mechanical stresses are critical. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the silica transformation, the material ejection, and the thermo-mechanical stresses induced by the laser heating and subsequent cooling. In this paper, we detail the development of comprehensive thermo-mechanical numerical simulations of these physical processes, based on finite-element method. The approach is developed for 2D or 3D cases to tackle the case of a moving beam at the surface of the sample, and we particularly discuss the choice of the different parameters based on bibliographic inputs. The thermal and mechanical numerical results have been compared to different dedicated experimental studies: infrared thermography measurements at the surface of the…

We report the successful synthesis of ferrimagnetic magnetite powders made using an arc-discharge method in a partial oxygen atmosphere. X-ray and electron diffraction measurements show that the powders also contain some antiferromagnetic hematite and a small amount of FeO and Fe that has not oxidized. The Raman data show that there is a small fraction of ferrimagnetic maghemite that cannot be seen in the x-ray diffraction data. There is a wide particle size distribution where there are nanoparticles as small as 7 nm, larger faceted nanoparticles, and particles that are up to 25 μm in diameter. The saturation magnetization at high magnetic fields is ∼74% of that found in the bulk magnetite, where the lower value is due to the presence of some antiferromagnetic hematite. The temperature dependence of the saturation magnetization changes at the Verwey transition temperature, and it has a power low dependence with an exponent of 3/2 at low temperatures and 2.23 at high temperatures above the Verwey transition temperature. Electronic transport measurements were made on a cold-pressed…

World-record power conversion efficiencies for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells have been achieved via a post-deposition treatment with alkaline metals, which increases the open-circuit voltage and fill factor. We explore the role of the potassium fluoride (KF) post-deposition treatment in CIGS by employing energy- and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy and electrical characterization combined with numerical modeling. The bulk carrier lifetime is found to increase with post-deposition treatment from 255 ns to 388 ns, which is the longest charge carrier lifetime reported for CIGS, and within ∼40% of the radiative limit. We find evidence that the post-deposition treatment causes a decrease in the electronic potential fluctuations. These potential fluctuations have previously been shown to reduce the open-circuit voltage and the device efficiency in CIGS. Additionally, numerical simulations based on the measured carrier lifetimes and mobilities show a diffusion length of ∼10 μm, which is ∼4 times larger than the film thickness. Thus, carrier collection in the bulk is not a…

We report on a comparative study of transfer doping of hydrogenated single crystal diamond surface by insulators featured by high electron affinity, such as Nb2O5, WO3, V2O5, and MoO3. The low electron affinity Al2O3 was also investigated for comparison. Hole transport properties were evaluated in the passivated hydrogenated diamond films by Hall effect measurements, and were compared to un-passivated diamond films (air-induced doping). A drastic improvement was observed in passivated samples in terms of conductivity, stability with time, and resistance to high temperatures. The efficiency of the investigated insulators, as electron accepting materials in hydrogenated diamond surface, is consistent with their electronic structure. These surface acceptor materials generate a higher hole sheet concentration, up to 6.5 × 1013 cm−2, and a lower sheet resistance, down to 2.6 kΩ/sq, in comparison to the atmosphere-induced values of about 1 × 1013 cm−2 and 10 kΩ/sq, respectively. On the other hand, hole mobilities were reduced by using high electron affinity insulator dopants. Hole…

Even when cooled through its transition temperature in the presence of an external magnetic field, a superconductor can expel nearly all external magnetic flux. This paper presents an experimental study to identify the parameters that most strongly influence flux trapping in high purity niobium during cooldown. This is critical to the operation of superconducting radiofrequency cavities, in which trapped flux degrades the quality factor and therefore cryogenic efficiency. Flux expulsion was measured on a large survey of 1.3 GHz cavities prepared in various ways. It is shown that both spatial thermal gradient and high temperature treatment are critical to expelling external magnetic fields, while surface treatment has minimal effect. For the first time, it is shown that a cavity can be converted from poor expulsion behavior to strong expulsion behavior after furnace treatment, resulting in a substantial improvement in quality factor. Microscopic investigations are performed to study the relevant changes in the material from this treatment. Future plans are described to build on this…

Orientation control of {100}-oriented epitaxial orthorhombic 0.07YO1.5-0.93HfO2 films grown by pulsed laser deposition was investigated. To achieve in-plane lattice matching, indium tin oxide (ITO) and yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) were selected as underlying layers. We obtained (100)- and (001)/(010)-oriented films on ITO and YSZ, respectively. Ferroelastic domain formation was confirmed for both films by X-ray diffraction using the superlattice diffraction that appeared only for the orthorhombic symmetry. The formation of ferroelastic domains is believed to be induced by the tetragonal–orthorhombic phase transition upon cooling the films after deposition. The present results demonstrate that the orientation of HfO2-based ferroelectric films can be controlled in the same manner as that of ferroelectric films composed of conventional perovskite-type material such as Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 and BiFeO3.

Layer specific direct measurement of optical band gaps of two important van der Waals compounds, MoS2 and ReS2, is performed at nanoscale by high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy. For monolayer MoS2, the twin excitons (1.8 and 1.95 eV) originating at the K point of the Brillouin zone are observed. An indirect band gap of 1.27 eV is obtained from the multilayer regions. Indirect to direct band gap crossover is observed which is consistent with the previously reported strong photoluminescence from the monolayer MoS2. For ReS2, the band gap is direct, and a value of 1.52 and 1.42 eV is obtained for the monolayer and multilayer, respectively. The energy loss function is dominated by features due to high density of states at both the valence and conduction band edges, and the difference in analyzing band gap with respect to ZnO is highlighted. Crystalline 1T ReS2 forms two dimensional chains like superstructure due to the clustering between four Re atoms. The results demonstrate the power of HREELS technique as a nanoscale optical absorption spectroscopy tool.

An old painting generally exhibits a wide variety of crack patterns. From a strictly aesthetic point of view, cracks are undesirable; nevertheless, they can be seen as the fingerprints of the painting and provide valuable knowledge about the art piece. Precisely, the morphology of crack patterns can be related to the mechanical properties of the pictorial matter or they can reveal information about the methods used by the artist or the conditions of conservation. In the present paper, we show how drying dispersions of colloidal particles in a volatile solvent on a non-porous substrate provides a good candidate to study crack formation in a solid layer. We recover the crack patterns observed in paintings, and we investigate the role of the substrate, e.g., the sub-layer, and of the thickness of the layer in the crack spacing. We show how to deduce mechanical properties of a sub-layer, provided the thickness and the elastic modulus of the layer are known. These experiments aim to propose a potentially non-invasive method to deduce quantitative information about mechanical properties…

First principles calculations are used to study the preferential occupation of ternary alloying additions into the binary Ti-Al phases, namely, γ-TiAl, α2-Ti3Al, βo-TiAl, and B19-TiAl. While the early transition metals (TMs, group IVB, VB, and VIB elements) prefer to substitute for Ti atoms in the γ-, α2-, and B19-phases, they preferentially occupy Al sites in the βo-TiAl. Si is, in this context, an anomaly, as it prefers to sit on the Al sublattice for all four phases. B and C are shown to prefer octahedral Ti-rich interstitial positions instead of substitutional incorporation. The site preference energy is linked with the alloying-induced changes of energy of formation, hence alloying-related (de)stabilisation of the phases. We further show that the phase-stabilisation effect of early TMs on βo-phase has a different origin depending on their valency. Finally, an extensive comparison of our predictions with available theoretical and experimental data (which is, however, limited mostly to the γ-phase) shows a consistent picture.

In this paper, we compare and contrast the experimental data and the theoretical predictions of the low temperature optical properties of polar and nonpolar InGaN/GaN quantum well structures. In both types of structure, the optical properties at low temperatures are governed by the effects of carrier localisation. In polar structures, the effect of the in-built electric field leads to electrons being mainly localised at well width fluctuations, whereas holes are localised at regions within the quantum wells, where the random In distribution leads to local minima in potential energy. This leads to a system of independently localised electrons and holes. In nonpolar quantum wells, the nature of the hole localisation is essentially the same as the polar case but the electrons are now coulombically bound to the holes forming localised excitons. These localisation mechanisms are compatible with the large photoluminescence linewidths of the polar and nonpolar quantum wells as well as the different time scales and form of the radiative recombination decay curves.

The CoFe2-xMnxO4 compound is prepared by following the sol gel technique. The structural analysis through XRD and Rietveld has been confirmed for the single cubic phase having Fd3¯m space group for CoFe2-xMnxO4 and also verified it through Raman spectroscopy measurements. The tetrahedral site observed to be red shifted with increase in Mn concentration in cobalt ferrite. All the XRD patterns have been analyzed by employing the Rietveld refinement technique. The particle size was found to be in the range of 30–40 nm. The electrical properties of polycrystalline CoFe2-xMnxO4 for x = 0.00, 0.10, 0.15, and 0.2, spinel ferrite was investigated by impedance spectroscopy. The influence of doping, frequency and temperature on the electrical transport properties of the CoFe2-xMnxO4 for x = 0.00, 0.10, 0.15, and 0.20 were investigated. The magnitude of Z′ and Z″ decreases with increase in temperature. Only one semicircle is observed in each Cole Cole plot which reveals that ac conductivity is dominated by grains. The grain resistance and grain boundary resistance both were found to decrease…

We demonstrate simultaneous electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) with cesium (Cs) and rubidium (Rb) Rydberg atoms in the same vapor cell with coincident (overlapping) optical fields. Each atomic system can detect radio frequency (RF) electric (E) field strengths through the modification of the EIT signal (Autler-Townes (AT) splitting), which leads to a direct International System of Unit traceable RF E-field measurement. We show that these two systems can detect the same RF E-field strength simultaneously, which provides a direct in situ comparison of Rb and Cs RF measurements in Rydberg atoms. In effect, this allows us to perform two measurements of the same E-field strength, providing a relative comparison of the dipole moments of the two atomic species. This gives two measurements that help rule out systematic effects and uncertainties in this E-field metrology approach, which are important when establishing an international measurement standard for an E-field strength, and is a necessary step for this method to be accepted as a standard calibration technique. We use…

Good conductivity is conventionally considered as a typical reference standard in terms of selecting water electrolysis catalysts. Cobalt hydroxide (Co(OH)2) has received extensive attention for its exceptional properties as a promising electrocatalysis catalyst. However, research on Co(OH)2 so far prefers to its crystal phase instead of amorphous phase because the former generally exhibits better conductivity. Here, we have demonstrated that the amorphous Co(OH)2 electrocatalyst synthesized via a simple, facile, green, and low-cost electrochemistry technique possesses high activity and long-term cycle stability in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The as-synthesized Co(OH)2 electrode was found to be a promising electrocatalyst for mediating OER in alkaline media, as evidenced by the overpotential of 0.38 V at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope of 68 mV dec−1. The amorphous Co(OH)2 also presented outstanding durability and its stability was just as well as that of crystalline Co(OH)2. Generally, the integrated electrochemical performances of the amorphous Co(OH)2…

Based on a combined computational and experimental study, we show that besides the thermodynamically stable β-MoN0.5 and δ2-MoN phases, also metastable γ-MoNx and its ordered relative γ′-MoNx can be synthesized by physical vapor deposition. The formation of the NaCl-based γ-MoNx phase is favored for nitrogen concentrations between 23 and 34 at.% (i.e., x = 0.30–0.53). Higher nitrogen contents (close to the 3:2 stoichiometry, hence, MoN0.67) favor the ordering of the vacancies at the nitrogen sublattice (hence, γ′-MoNx). The highest hardness of ∼33 GPa is obtained for single-phase cubic-structured γ-MoN0.53 coatings, whereas the ordered γ′-MoN0.67 coatings are slightly softer with a hardness of ∼28 GPa.

We experimentally studied the built-in polarization induced effective piezoelectric constant and direct flexoelectric coefficient in α-phase bulk polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). This phenomenon was detected and discussed based on the compression of a truncated cone. An improved mechanical formulation of flexoelectricity was presented and discussed in this study, and the experiment was carried out based on the charge measurement. From the experiment study, a flexoelectric coupling coefficient 202.3 V was calculated from the flexoelectric coefficient μ11=1.6×10−8C/m for bulk polyvinylidene fluoride. We measured the flexoelectric response of bulk PVDF with consideration of the residual piezoelectric contributions and geometry-dependent calibration, which affect the flexoelectric measurement.

We report the thermoelectric properties of polycrystalline samples of Ca3Pb1−xBixO (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2) and Ca3SnO, both crystallizing in a cubic antiperovskite-type structure. The Ca3SnO sample shows metallic resistivity and its thermoelectric power approaches 100 μV K−1 at room temperature, resulting in the thermoelectric power factor of Ca3SnO being larger than that of Ca3Pb1−xBixO. On the basis of Hall and Sommerfeld coefficients, the Ca3SnO sample is found to be a p-type metal with a carrier density of ∼1019 cm−3, a mobility of ∼80 cm2 V−1 s−1, both comparable to those in degenerated semiconductors, and a moderately large hole carrier effective mass. The coexistence of moderately high mobility and large effective mass observed in Ca3SnO, as well as possible emergence of a multivalley electronic structure with a small band gap at low-symmetry points in k-space, suggests that the antiperovskite Ca oxides have strong potential as a thermoelectric material.

Physics is concise, simple, unambiguous, and constantly improving. Yet, confusion reigns in the field especially with respect to complexity and the second law of thermodynamics. In this paper, we step back and take a look at these notions—their meaning and definition—on the background provided by nature and thermodynamics. We review the central concepts and words that underpin the physics of evolutionary design today: information, knowledge, evolution, change, arrow of time, pattern, organization, drawings, complexity, fractal dimension, object, icon, model, empiricism, theory, disorder, second law, the “any” system in thermodynamics, morphing freely, and the constructal law. We show, for example, that information is not knowledge, fractal dimension is not a measure of complexity, and pattern is not a live flow architecture. Drawings, as physical means to facilitate the flow of knowledge, are subject to the natural tendency toward design evolution. Complexity, organization, and evolution in nature are most powerful and useful when pursued as a discipline, with precise terms, rules,…

The magnetocaloric effect (MCE) is an intrinsic property of magnetic materials that enable magnetic refrigeration devices without using the traditional vapour-compression. Temperature sensitive and anisotropic magnetic solids might give rise to a large rotating MCE for building compact and efficient magnetic cooling systems by simply rotating the sample. Here, we report an unprecedented maximal refrigeration capacity of 497.36 J/kg (at 70 kOe) in perovskite TbFeO3 single crystal, resulting from its giant anisotropic magnetic entropy change along a axis. Our paper reveals that interaction between Fe-3d and Tb-4f electrons drives extremely interesting spin reorientation transition, which is highly sensitive to magnetic field and temperature. These findings highlight potential applications of an emerging material for high efficient low temperature magnetic refrigeration, which is compact and quiet, and does not use ozone-depleting coolant gases.

In an attempt to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels, associated with severe environmental effects, the current research is focused on the identification of the thermoelectric potential of n-type Pb1−xTixTe alloys, with x values of up to 3%. A solubility limit of 0.5 at. % Ti in PbTe was identified, while beyond this composition, a precipitation of a TiTe2 phase was occurred. An impressive maximal dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit ZT of ∼1.2 was obtained upon 0.1% Ti doping at 500 °C, indicating a ∼9% efficiency enhancement compared to an undoped PbTe. It is shown that generating a functionally graded material based on undoped PbTe as a low temperature segment and a 0.1% Ti doped PbTe as a high temperature segment has a potential to enhance the efficiency by ∼14% compared to the undoped sample.

Conducting nanowire networks have been developed as viable alternative to existing indium tin oxide based transparent electrode (TE). The nature of electrical conduction and process optimization for electrodes have gained much from the theoretical models based on percolation transport using Monte Carlo approach and applying Kirchhoff's law on individual junctions and loops. While most of the literature work pertaining to theoretical analysis is focussed on networks obtained from conducting rods (mostly considering only junction resistance), hardly any attention has been paid to those made using template based methods, wherein the structure of network is neither similar to network obtained from conducting rods nor similar to well periodic geometry. Here, we have attempted an analytical treatment based on geometrical arguments and applied image analysis on practical networks to gain deeper insight into conducting networked structure particularly in relation to sheet resistance and transmittance. Many literature examples reporting networks with straight or curvilinear wires with…

Graphite oxide reduced by sodium borohydride was characterised and its electrical conduction investigated with impedance spectroscopy. Thermal dependence of electrical modulus (instead of permittivity, its inverse) was calculated from complex impedance spectra, an approach that prevents any peak in dielectric loss (imaginary component) from being swarmed by large dc conductivity. Two loss peaks appeared at each tested frequency, in a sample of either degree of reduction. The set of weaker peak should arise from the relaxation of some polar bonds, as proposed earlier by us. The stronger loss peaks may correspond to the hopping of conduction electrons; variable range hopping is also consistent with the observed thermal dependence of conductivity. However, nearer ambient temperature there is a change in mechanism, to band transport, with an activation energy of fairly similar values as derived from both loss peaks and conductivity.

Electromagnetic interaction between a sub-wavelength particle (the “probe”) and a material surface (the “sample”) is studied theoretically. The interaction is shown to be governed by a series of resonances corresponding to surface polariton modes localized near the probe. The resonance parameters depend on the dielectric function and geometry of the probe as well as on the surface reflectivity of the material. Calculation of such resonances is carried out for several types of axisymmetric probes: spherical, spheroidal, and pear-shaped. For spheroids, an efficient numerical method is developed, capable of handling cases of large or strongly momentum-dependent surface reflectivity. Application of the method to highly resonant materials, such as aluminum oxide (by itself or covered with graphene), reveals a rich structure of multi-peak spectra and nonmonotonic approach curves, i.e., the probe-sample distance dependence. These features also strongly depend on the probe shape and optical constants of the model. For less resonant materials such as silicon oxide, the dependence is weak, so…

Here we improved both piezoelectricity and strain of BaTiO3-based ceramics using composition designs and the optimization of poling conditions. In this work, the (Ba1−yCay)(Ti1−xHfx)O3 lead-free ceramics were fabricated by a conventional solid-state reaction method, and we systematically investigated the composition dependence of their phase structures, microstructure, electrical properties, and polarization characteristics. A multiphase coexistence concerning rhombohedral-orthorhombic and orthorhombic-tetragonal (R-O/O-T) was observed in the ceramics with x = 0.10 and y = 0.15, and then an enhanced piezoelectricity of d33 ∼ 540 pC N−1 and a large strain of ∼0.21% can be attained. More importantly, a larger d33 can be reached when sintered at 1450 °C and polarized at their corresponding phase transition temperatures. We believe that this investigation can benefit the development of barium titanate ceramics.

We present the effects of the application of a nonthermal plasma jet to a liquid surface on H2O2 and NO2− generation in the liquid. Two distinct plasma irradiation conditions, with plasma contact and with no observable plasma contact with the liquid surface, were precisely compared. When the plasma was made to touch the liquid surface, the H2O2 concentration of the plasma-treated water was much higher than the NO2− concentration. In contrast, when no observable contact of the plasma with the liquid surface occurred, the ratio of the NO2− to H2O2 concentration became over 1 and NO2− became more dominant than H2O2 in the plasma-treated water. Our experiments clearly show that reactive oxygen and nitrogen species can be selectively produced in liquid using appropriate plasma-irradiation conditions of the liquid surface. The ratio of NO2− to H2O2 was controlled within a wide range of 0.02–1.2 simply by changing the plasma-irradiation distance from the liquid surface.

An ultra-high sensitivity graphene optical sensor based on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is proposed using the graphene-aluminum (Al)-graphene sandwich-like structure. Here, the graphene sheets are introduced for enhancing the SPR and preventing the oxidation. It is found that our proposed graphene optical sensor is 3.4 times more sensitive than the Al-based sensor without the graphene layers. We demonstrate that a higher sensitivity can be obtained at the short wavelength due to the increases of the sensitivity with the decreases of wavelength. Especially, the sensitivity can be enhanced marked by increasing the number of graphene layers, which is totally different from the previous graphene-based optical sensor where the sensitivity is often decreased with the increases of the number of graphene layers.

We present a study on the spall strength of additive manufactured (AM) Ti-6Al-4V. Samples were obtained from two pieces of selective laser melted (SLM, a powder bed fusion technique) Ti-6Al-4V such that the response to dynamic tensile loading could be investigated as a function of the orientation between the build layers and the loading direction. A sample of wrought bar-stock Ti-6Al-4V was also tested to act as a baseline representing the traditionally manufactured material response. A single-stage light gas-gun was used to launch a thin flyer plate into the samples, generating a region of intense tensile stress on a plane normal to the impact direction. The rear free surface velocity time history of each sample was recorded with laser-based velocimetry to allow the spall strength to be calculated. The samples were also soft recovered to enable post-mortem characterization of the spall damage evolution. Results showed that when the tensile load was applied normal to the interfaces between the build layers caused by the SLM fabrication process the spall strength was drastically…

We perform a theoretical study based on the transmissions of optical and acoustic waves normally impinging to a periodic perforated silicon plate when the embedded medium is a liquid and show the existence of Fano-like resonances in both cases. The signature of the resonances appears as well-defined asymmetric peaks in the phononic and photonic transmission spectra. We show that the origin of the Fano-like resonances is different with respect to the nature of the wave. In photonic, the origin comes from guided modes in the photonic plate while in phononic we show that it comes from the excitation of standing waves confined inside the cavity coming from the deformation of the water/silicon edges of the cylindrical inclusion. We finally use these features for sensing and show ultra-sensitivity to the light and sound velocities for different concentrations of analytes.

It was reported that an interlayer with intermediate phonon spectra between two dielectric materials could reduce the phononic interfacial thermal resistance. In this work, we show that an appropriate choice of interlayer materials with relatively strong electron-phonon coupling could significantly enhance interfacial thermal transport across metal-dielectric interfaces. Our Boltzmann transport simulations demonstrate that such enhancement is achieved by the elimination of electron-phonon nonequilibrium near the original metal-dielectric interface. Moreover, we reveal that interlayer can substantially accelerate hot electron cooling in thin films with weak electron-phonon coupling, for example, Cu, Ag, and Au, supported on a dielectric substrate. At the same time, lattice heating in the thin film is largely reduced.

Phase-change memory (PCM) devices are enabled by amorphization- and crystallization-induced changes in the devices' electrical resistances. Amorphization is achieved by melting and quenching the active volume using short duration electrical pulses (∼ns). The crystallization (set) pulse duration, however, is much longer and depends on the cell temperature reached during the pulse. Hence, the temperature-dependent crystallization process of the phase-change materials at the device level has to be well characterized to achieve fast PCM operations. A main challenge is determining the cell temperature during crystallization. Here, we report extraction of the temperature distribution on a lateral PCM cell during a set pulse using measured voltage-current characteristics and thermal modelling. The effect of the thermal properties of materials on the extracted cell temperature is also studied, and a better cell design is proposed for more accurate temperature extraction. The demonstrated study provides promising results for characterization of the temperature-dependent crystallization…

Pulsed laser deposition has been used to grow thin (10–84 nm) epitaxial layers of Yttrium Iron Garnet Y3Fe5O12 (YIG) on (111)–oriented Gadolinium Gallium Garnet substrates at different growth conditions. Atomic force microscopy showed flat surface morphology both on micrometer and nanometer scales. X-ray diffraction measurements revealed that the films are coherent with the substrate in the interface plane. The interplane distance in the [111] direction was found to be by 1.2% larger than expected for YIG stoichiometric pseudomorphic film indicating presence of rhombohedral distortion in this direction. Polar Kerr effect and ferromagnetic resonance measurements showed existence of additional magnetic anisotropy, which adds to the demagnetizing field to keep magnetization vector in the film plane. The origin of the magnetic anisotropy is related to the strain in YIG films observed by XRD. Magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements revealed important role of magnetization rotation during magnetization reversal. An unusual fine structure of microwave magnetic resonance spectra has been…

Phase pure NdFeO3 has been achieved using high energy ball milling of oxide precursors with subsequent sintering. It is established that structural arrangement of NdFeO3 regulates the multifunctional feature of the material. Rietveld refinement of the room temperature X-ray diffraction pattern shows that the Fe-O-Fe bond angle significantly favors the super exchange interaction, which is predominantly antiferromagnetic in nature. Magnetization measurement illustrates antiferromagnetic behaviour with a weak ferromagnetic component caused by the canted nature of the Fe3+ spins at room temperature. Absorption bands in the visible ambit, apparent from the UV-Vis diffuse reflectance studies, is found due to the crystal ligand field of octahedral oxygen environment of Fe3+ ions. The direct band gap is estimated to be 2.39 eV from the diffuse reflectance spectrum. The lossy natured ferroelectric loop having a maximum polarization of 0.23 μC/cm2 at room temperature is found to be driven by the non-collinear magnetic structure with reverse Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya effect. Magnetic field has…

The hydrogen storage characteristics of Li decorated phosphorene were systematically investigated based on first-principle density functional theory. It is revealed that the adsorption of H2 on pristine phosphorene is relatively weak with an adsorption energy of 0.06 eV. While this value can be dramatically enhanced to ∼0.2 eV after the phosphorene was decorated by Li, and each Li atom can adsorb up to three H2 molecules. The detailed mechanism of the enhanced hydrogen storage was discussed based on our density functional theory calculations. Our studies give a conservative prediction of hydrogen storage capacity to be 4.4 wt. % through Li decoration on pristine phosphorene. By comparing our calculations to the present molecular dynamic simulation results, we expect our adsorption system is stable under room temperature and hydrogen can be released after moderate heating.

α-alumina pre-sintered samples were subjected to flash sintering at 1200 °C under differing electric field strengths. The analysis of the relation between the incubation time and pre-sintering temperature clearly shows that the presence of pores and surfaces within the sample plays a central role in field-assisted sintering behavior of the material. The observed behavior is accounted for by the strong non-linear electrical conductivity shown by porous alumina at high field strength. The observed non-ohmic conductivity can also be related to the “pre-breakdown” behavior previously described by Frenkel. Literature results suggest that the field involved in flash sintering of alumina is comparable with the dielectric strength at high temperature. We can also state that dielectric breakdown and flash sintering in alumina are associated with similar physical phenomena.

Non-textured polycrystalline [Bi1/2(Na0.8K0.2)1/2](Ti1−xTax)O3 ceramics are fabricated and their microstructures and electrical properties are characterized. Transmission electron microscopy reveals the coexistence of the rhombohedral R3c and tetragonal P4bm phases in the form of nanometer-sized domains in [Bi1/2(Na0.8K0.2)1/2]TiO3 with low Ta concentration. When the composition is x = 0.015, the electrostrain is found to be highly asymmetric under bipolar fields of ±50 kV/cm. A very large value of 0.62% is observed in this ceramic, corresponding to a large-signal piezoelectric coefficient d33* of 1240 pm/V (1120 pm/V under unipolar loading). These values are greater than most previously reported lead-free polycrystalline ceramics and can even be compared with some lead-free piezoelectric single crystals. Additionally, this ceramic displays low cycling degradation; its electrostrain remains above 0.55% even after undergoing 10 000 cycles of ±50 kV/cm bipolar fields at 2 Hz. Therefore, Ta-doped [Bi1/2(Na0.8K0.2)1/2]TiO3 ceramics show great potential for large displacement devices.

We investigated the effect of Sn doping on the optical, electrical, and magneto transport properties of epitaxial α-Ga2O3 thin films grown by mist-Chemical Vapour Deposition. Sn introduces a shallow donor level at ∼0.1 eV and has a high solubility allowing doping up to 1020 cm−3. The lowest obtained resistivity of the films is 2.0 × 10−1 Ω cm. The Sn doped films with a direct band gap of 5.1 eV remain transparent in the visible and UV range. The electrical conduction mechanism and magneto-transport have been investigated for carrier concentrations below and above the insulator-metal transition. The magnetic properties of the neutral Sn donor and the conduction electrons have been studied by electron spin resonance spectroscopy. A spin S = 1/2 state and C3V point symmetry of the neutral Sn donor is found to be in good agreement with the model of a simple SnGa center.

A magnetically tunable metamaterial perfect absorber (MPA) based on ferromagnetic resonance is experimentally and numerically demonstrated. The ferrite-based MPA is composed of an array of ferrite rods and a metallic ground plane. Frequency dependent absorption of the ferrite-based MPA under a series of applied magnetic fields is discussed. An absorption peak induced by ferromagnetic resonance appears in the range of 8–12 GHz under a certain magnetic field. Both the simulated and experimental results demonstrate that the absorption frequency of the ferrite-based MPA can be tuned by the applied magnetic field. This work provides an effective way to fabricate the magnetically tunable metamaterial perfect absorber.