Enhanced Proton Conduction in Polymer Electrolyte Membranes as Synthesized by Polymerization of Protic Ionic Liquid-Based Microemulsions

Proton-conducting membranes were prepared by polymerization of microemulsions consisting of surfactant-stabilized protic ionic liquid (PIL) nanodomains dispersed in a polymerizable oil, a mixture of styrene and acrylonitrile. The obtained PIL-based polymer composite membranes are transparent and flexible even though the resulting vinyl polymers are immiscible with PIL cores. This type of composite membranes have quite a good thermal stability, chemical stability, tunability, and good mechanical properties. Under nonhumidifying conditions, PIL-based membranes show a conductivity up to the order of 1 x 10(-1) S/cm at 160 degrees C, due to the well-connected PIL nanochannels preserved in the membrane. This type of polymer conducting membranes have potential application in high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells.

Spin splitting of conduction subbands in Al0.3Ga0.7As/GaAs/AlxGa1-x As/Al0.3Ga0.7As step quantum wells

By means of the transfer matrix technique, interface-induced Rashba spin splitting of conduction subbands in Al0.3Ga0.7As/GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs/Al0.3Ga0.7As step quantum wells which contain internal structure inversion asymmetry introduced by the insertion of AlxGa1-xAs step potential is investigated theoretically in the absence of electric field and magnetic field. The dependence of spin splitting on the well width, step width and Al concentration is investigated in detail. We find that the sign of the first excited subband spin splitting changes with well width and step width, and is opposite to that of the ground subband under certain conditions. The sign and strength of the spin splitting are shown to be sensitive to the components of the envelope function at three interfaces. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2009

Simulation of light coupling enhancement and localization of transmission field via subwavelength metallic gratings

Surface plasmons(SPs) generated in nano metallic gratings on medium layer can greatly enhance the transmission field through the metallic gratings. The enhancement effect is achieved from lambda = 500 nm to near-infrared domain. The enhancement rate is about 110 % at the wavelength of about 6 10 nm and about 180 % at lambda = 700 nm and 740 nm where most kinds of thin film solar cells have a high spectral response. These structures should provide a promising way to increase the coupling efficiency of thin film solar cells and optical detectors of different wavelength response.

Electromagnetic-field-induced cohesive force enhancement in a metallic nanowire

We theoretically study the conducting electronic contribution to the cohesive force in a metallic nanowire irradiated under a transversely polarized external electromagnetic field at low temperatures and in the ballistic regime. In the framework of the free-electron model, we have obtained a time-dependent two-level electronic wavefunction by means of a unitary transformation. Using a thermodynamic statistical approach with this wavefunction, we have calculated the cohesive force in the nanowire. We show that the cohesive force can be divided into two components, one of which is independent of the electromagnetic field (static component), which is consistent with the existing results in the literature. The magnitude of the other component is proportional to the electromagnetic field strength. This extra component of the cohesive force is originally from the coherent coupling between the two lateral energy levels of the wire and the electromagnetic field.

Kinetic study for hopping conduction through deoxyribonucleic acid molecules

Recent experiments indicated that disorder effect in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) may lead to a transition of the electronic hole transport mechanism from band resonant tunneling to thermally activated hopping. In this letter, based on Mott's variable-range hopping theory, we present a kinetic study for the hole transport properties of DNA molecules. Beyond the conventional argument in large-scale systems, our numerical study for finite-size DNA molecules reveals a number of unique features for: (i) the current-voltage characteristics, (ii) the temperature and length dependence, and (iii) the transition from conducting to insulating behaviors. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

A convenient way of determining the ferromagnetic transition temperature of metallic (Ga,Mn)As

We have studied magnetic and transport properties of insulating and metallic (Ga,Mn)As layers before and after annealing. A dramatic increase of the ferromagnetic transition temperature T-C by postgrowth annealing has been realized in both insulating and metallic (Ga,Mn)As. The as-grown insulating (Ga,Mn)As can be turned into metallic by the low-temperature annealing. For all the metallic (Ga,Mn)As, a characteristic feature in the temperature dependence of sheet resistance appears around T-C. This phenomenon may provide a simple and more convenient method to determine the T-C of metallic (Ga,Mn)As compared with superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) measurement. Moreover, the T-C of the metallic (Ga,Mn)As obtained by this way is in good agreement with that measured by a SQUID magnetometer. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

ZnO thin films on Si(111) grown by pulsed laser deposition from metallic Zn target

ZnO thin films with highly c-axis orientation have been fabricated on p-type Si(1 1 1) substrates at 400 degrees C by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) from a metallic Zn target with oxygen pressures between 0.1 and 0.7 mbar. Experimental results indicate that the films deposited at 0.3 and 0.5 mbar have better crystalline and optical quality and flatter surfaces than the films prepared at other pressures. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of (0 0 0 2) diffraction peak decreases remarkably from 0.46 to 0.19 degrees with increasing annealing temperature for the film prepared at 0.3 mbar. In photoluminescence (PL) spectra at room temperature, the annealed film at 700 degrees C exhibits a smaller ultraviolet (UV) peak FWHM of 108 meV than the as-grown film (119 meV). However, an enhanced deep-level emission is observed. Possible origins to above results are discussed. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Surface plasmon coupling in hexagonal textured metallic microcavity

The coupling of surface plasmons to the photonic modes in hexagonal textured metallic microcavity was studied. The modified photonic modes enable efficient coupling with the luminescence source in the microcavity. Hexagonal photonic crystal lattice has higher folding symmetry providing more channels for surface plasmon coupling in different in-plane directions, i.e., more isotropic light extraction profile than one-or two-dimensional gratings. Results show that strong coupling between surface plasmon modes and the waveguide mode in the microcavity has led to angle-selective enhanced light extraction and it was as much as 12 times more light extracted compare to planar microcavity. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Fabrication of metallic air bridges using multiple-dose electron beam lithography

The techniques of fabricating metallic air bridges using different resists in a one-step electron beam lithography are presented. The exposure process employed a single-layer polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) or photoresists with either different doses in the span and feet areas or with varying acceleration voltage of the electron beam. The process using photoresists with different doses has produced air bridges more stable than what the PMMA method using various acceleration voltages would achieve. Using this method, air bridges up to 12 mu m long have been fabricated. The length and height of these metallic air bridges vary with the photoresist thickness. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Comparative study for colloidal quantum dot conduction band state calculations

By comparing the results of some well-controlled calculation methods, we analyze the relative importance of bulk band structure, multi-bulk-band coupling, and boundary conditions in determining colloidal quantum dot conduction band eigenenergies. We find that while the bulk band structure and correct boundary conditions are important, the effects of multi-bulk-band coupling are small.

Conduction band offset and electron effective mass in GaInNAs/GaAs quantum-well structures with low nitrogen concentration

We have investigated the optical transitions in Ga1-yInyNxAs1-x/GaAs single and multiple quantum wells using photovoltaic measurements at room temperature. From a theoretical fit to the experimental data, the conduction band offset Q(c), electron effective mass m(e)*, and band gap energy E-g were estimated. It was found that the Q(c) is dependent on the indium concentration, but independent on the nitrogen concentration over the range x=(0-1)%. The m(e)* of GaInNAs is much greater than that of InGaAs with the same concentration of indium, and increases as the nitrogen concentration increases up to 1%. Our experimental results for the m(e)* and E-g of GaInNAs are quantitatively explained by the two-band model based on the strong interaction of the conduction band minimum with the localized N states. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Tuning of conduction intersublevel absorption wavelengths in (In, Ga)As/GaAs quantum-dot nanostructures

We demonstrate that by increasing the amount of (In, Ga)As deposit in a quantum dot layer, the intersublevel absorption wavelength for (In, Ga)As/GaAs quantum-dot infrared photodetectors can be blue-shifted from 15 to 10 mu m while the photoluminescence peak is red-shifted. We directly compare the measured energy spacing between intersublevels obtained from infrared absorption spectroscopy with those obtained from photoluminescence spectroscopy. We find that the intersublevel energy spacing determined from absorption measurements is much larger than that obtained from the photoluminescence measurements. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)04524-1].

Conduction-band offset in a pseudomorphic GaAs/In0.2Ga0.8As quantum well determined by capacitance-voltage profiling and deep-level transient spectroscopy techniques

The conduction-band offset Delta E-C has been determined for a molecular beam epitaxy grown GaAs/In0.2Ga0.8As single quantum-well structure, by measuring the capacitance-voltage (C - V) profiling, taking into account a correction for the interface charge density, and the capacitance transient resulting from thermal emission of carriers from the quantum well, respectively. We found that Delta E-C = 0.227 eV, corresponding to about 89% Delta E-g, from the C - V profiling; and Delta E-C = 0.229eV, corresponding to about 89.9% Delta E-g, from the deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) technique. The results suggest that the conduction-band discontinuity Delta E-C obtained from the C-V profiling is in good agreement with that obtained from the DLTS technique. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.

DETERMINATION OF THE CONDUCTION-BAND OFFSET OF A SINGLE ALGAAS BARRIER LAYER USING DEEP-LEVEL TRANSIENT SPECTROSCOPY

The tunneling from an AlGaAs confined thin layer to a GaAs layer in the GaAs/Al0.33Ga0.67As/GaAs structure during the trapped electron emission from deep level in the AlGaAs to its conduction band has been observed by deep level transient spectroscopy. With the aid of the tunneling effect, the conduction-band offset DELTAE(c) was determined to be 0.260 eV, corresponding to 63% of DELTAE(g). A calculation was also carried out based on this tunneling model by using the experimental value of DELTAE(c) = E2 - E1 = 0. 260 eV, and good agreement between the experimental and calculated curves is obtained.