Sterilization system for air purifier by combining ultraviolet light emitting diodes with TiO2

BACKGROUND: Ultraviolet light emitting diodes (UV LEDs) were used as a light source in TiO2 photocatalysis because of their many advantages, such as, long life, safety, low pollution, etc. In this experiment, a light source panel was successfully fabricated with UV LEDs, the light intensities of which were relatively uniform.

Determining of the delay time for a heating ventilating and air-conditioning plant using two weighted neural network approach

This paper presents an two weighted neural network approach to determine the delay time for a heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) plan to respond to control actions. The two weighted neural network is a fully connected four-layer network. An acceleration technique was used to improve the General Delta Rule for the learning process. Experimental data for heating and cooling modes were used with both the two weighted neural network and a traditional mathematical method to determine the delay time. The results show that two weighted neural networks can be used effectively determining the delay time for AVAC systems.

Effects of different modified underlayer surfaces on growth and optical properties of InGaN quantum dots

InGaN/GaN quantum dots were grown on the sapphire (0 0 0 1) substrate in a metalorganic chemical vapor deposition system. The morphologies of QDs deposited on different modified underlayer (GaN) surfaces, including naturally as grown, Ga-mediated, In-mediated, and air-passivated ones, were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Photo luminescence (PL) method is used to evaluate optical properties. It is shown that InGaN QDs can form directly on the natural GaN layer. However, both the size and distribution show obvious inhomogeneities. Such a heavy fluctuation in size leads to double peaks for QDs with short growth time, and broad peaks for QDs with long growth time in their low-temperature PL spectra. QDs grown on the Ga-mediated GaN underlayer tends to coalesce. Distinct transform takes place from 3D to 2D growth on the In-mediated ones, and thus the formation of QDs is prohibited. Those results clarify Ga and In's surfactant behavior. When the GaN underlayer is passivated in the air, and together with an additional low-temperature-grown seeding layer, however, the island growth mode is enhanced. Subsequently, grown InGaN QDs are characterized by a relatively high density and an improved Gaussian-like distribution in size. Short surface diffusion length at low growth temperature accounts for that result. It is concluded that reduced temperature favors QD's 3D growth and surface passivation can provide another promising way to obtain high-density QDs that especially suits MOCVD system. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Electrical properties and electroluminescence of 4H-SiC p-n junction diodes

Homoepitaxial growth of 4H-SiC on off-oriented Si-face(0001) substrates was performed by using the step-controlled epitaxy technique in a newly developed low-pressure hot-wall CVD (LP-HWCVD) system with a horizontal air-cooled quartz tube at around 1500 degreesC and 1.33 x 10(4) Pa by employing SiH4 + C2H4 + H-2. In-situ doping during growth was carried out by adding NH3 gas into the precursor gases. It was shown that the maximum Hall mobility of the undoped 4H-SiC epilayers at room temperature is about 430 cm(2) (.) V-1 (.) s(-1) with a carrier concentration of similar to 10(16) cm(-3) and the highest carrier concentration of the N-doped 4H-SiC epilayer obtained at NH3 flow rate of 3 sccm is about 2.7 x 10(21) cm(-3) with a mobility of 0.75 cm(2) (.) V-1 (.) s(-1). SiC p-n junctions were obtained by epitaxially growing N-doped 4H-SiC epilayers on Al-doped 4H-SiC substrates. The C - V characteristics of the diodes were linear in the 1/C-3 - V coordinates indicating that the obtained p-n junctions were graded with a built-in voltage of 2.7 eV. The room temperature electroluminescence spectra of 4H-SiC p-n junctions are studied as a function of forward current. The D-A pair recombination due to nitrogen donors and the unintentional, deep boron center is dominant at low forward bias, while the D-A pair recombination due to nitrogen donors and aluminum acceptors are dominant at higher forward biases. The p-n junctions could operate at temperature of up to 400 degreesC, which provides a potential for high-temperature applications.

Resonant cavity based compact efficient antireflection structures for photonic crystals

We propose an effective admittance ( EA) method to design antireflection structures for two-dimensional photonic crystals (PCs). We demonstrate that a compact and efficient antireflection structure, which is difficult to obtain by the conventional admittance matching method, can be readily designed by the EA method. The antireflection structure consists of an air slot resonant cavity that is constructed only with the materials that constitute the PC. Compared with a bare PC, the reflection from a PC with an antireflection structure is reduced by two orders of magnitude over a wide bandwidth. To confirm the presented EA method, finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations are performed, and the results from the FDTD and the EA method are in good agreement.

Determining of the delay time for a heating ventilating and air-conditioning plant using multi-weights neurons approach

This paper presents an multi weights neurons approach to determine the delay time for a Heating ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) plan to respond to control actions. The multi weights neurons is a fully connected four-layer network. An acceleration technique was used to improve the general delta rule for the learning process. Experimental data for heating and cooling modes were used with both the multi weights neurons and a traditional mathematical method to determine the delay time. The results show that multi weights neurons can be used effectively determining the delay time for HVAC systems.

Effect of oxidation on the optical and surface properties of AlGaN

The chemical properties of AlxGa1-xN surfaces exposed to air for different time periods are investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM), photoluminescence (PL) measurement and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). PL and AFM results show that AlxGa1-xN samples exhibit different surface characteristics for different air-exposure times and Al contents. The XPS spectra of the Al 2p and Ga 2p core levels indicate that the peaks shifted slightly, from an Al-N to an Al-O bond and from a Ga-N to a Ga-O bond. All of these results show that the epilayer surface contains a large amount of Ga and Al oxides. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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.

Structure, fluorescence and stability of CdS nanoparticles prepared in air

CdS nanoparticies were prepared in air and their stability by air annealing was studied. A small change in crystal structure and particle size was observed by air annealing, but a rapid reduction in fluorescence was found. Through investigation, it is revealed that it is the surface change or reconstruction rather than the variation of the size or structure that decreases the fluorescence. The emission of the particles consists with two peaks which are dependent on the excitation energy. The two peaks are considered to be arisen from "two" different sizes of nanoparticles and may be explained in terms of selectively excited photoluminescence. Finally we discuss why the discrete state of nanoparticles are able to be resolved in the photoluminescence excitation spectrum, but could not be differentiated in the absorption spectrum.

Photoluminescence from Ge clusters embedded in porous silicon

Visible photoluminescence (PL) and Raman spectra of Ge clusters embedded in porous silicon (PS) have been studied. The as-prepared sample shows redshifted and enhanced room temperature PL relative to reference PS. This result can be explained by the quantum confinement effect on excitons in Ge clusters and tunnel of excitons from Si units of the PS skeleton to Ge clusters. One year storage in dry air results in a pronounced decrease in PL intensity but blue-shifted in contrast to reference PS. This phenomenon correlates to the size decrease of macerated Ce clusters and occurrence of "quantum depletion" in Ge clusters. Consequently, only excitons in Si units contribute to PL. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.

The influence of substrate nucleation on HVPE-grown GaN thick films - art. no. 684105

Thick GaN films were grown on sapphire in a home-made vertical HVPE reactor. Effect of nucleation treatments on the properties of GaN films was investigated, including the nitridation of sapphire, low temperature GaN buffer and MOCVD-template. Various material characterization techniques, including AFM, SEM, XRD, CL and PL have been used to assess these GaN epitaxial films. It was found that the surface of sapphire after high temperature nitridation was flat and showed high density nucleation centers. In addition, smooth Ga-polarity surface of epitaxial layer can be obtained on the nitridation sapphire placed in air for several days due to polarity inversion. This may be caused by the atoms re-arrangement because of oxidation. The roughness of N-polarity film was caused by the huge inverted taper domains, which can penetrate up to the surface. The low temperature GaN buffer gown at 650 degrees C is favorable for subsequent epitaxial film, which had narrow FWHM of 307 arcsec. The epitaxial growth on MOCVD-template directly came into quasi-2D growth mode due to enough nucleation centers, and high quality GaN films were acquired with the values of the FWHM of 141 arcsec for (002) reflections. After etching in boiled KOH, that the total etch-pit density was only 5 x 106 cm(-2) illustrated high quality of the thick film on template. The photoluminescence spectrum of GaN film on the MOCVD-template showed the narrowest line-width of the band edge emission in comparison with other two growth modes.

Hydrogen sensors based on Pt-AlGN/AIN/GaN Schottky diode - art. no. 68291R

Pt/AlGaN/AlN/GaN Schottky diodes have been fabricated and characterized for H-2 sensing. Platinum (Pt) with a thickness of 20nm was evaporated on the sample to form the Schottky contact. The ohmic contact, formed by evaporated Ti/Al/Ni/Au metals, was subsequently annealed by a rapid thermal treatment at 860 degrees C for 30 s in N-2 ambience. Both the forward and reverse current of the device increased greatly when exposed to H-2 gas. The sensor's responses under different hydrogen concentrations from 500ppm to 10% H-2 in N-2 at 300K were investigated. A shift of 0.45V at 297K is obtained at a fixed forward current for switching from N-2 to 10% H-2 in N-2. Time response of the sensor at a fixed bias of 0.5 V was also measured. The turn-on response of the device was rapid, while the recovery of the sensor at N-2 atmosphere was rather slow. But it recovered quickly when the device was exposed to the air. The decrease in the barrier height of the diode was calculated to be about 160meV upon introduction of 10% H-2 into the ambient. The sensitivity of the sensor is also calculated. Some thermodynamics analyses have been done according to the Langmuir isotherm equation.

Homoepitaxial growth and characterization of 4H-SiC epilayers by low-pressure hot-wall chemical vapor deposition

Horizontal air-cooled low-pressure hot-wall CVD (LP-HWCVD) system is developed to get high quality 4H-SiC epilayers. Homoepitaxial growth of 4H-SiC on off-oriented Si-face (0001) 4H-SiC substrates purchased from Cree is performed at a typical temperature of 1500 degrees C with a pressure of 40 Torr by using SiH4+C2H4+H-2 gas system. The surface morphologies and structural and optical properties of 4H-SiC epilayers are characterized with Nomarski optical microscope, atomic force microscopy (AFM), x-ray diffraction, Raman scattering, and low temperature photoluminescence (LTPL). The background doping of 32 pm-thick sample has been reduced to 2-5 x 10(15) cm(-3). The FWHM of the rocking curve is 9-16 arcsec. Intentional N-doped and B-doped 4H-SiC epilayers are obtained by in-situ doping of NH3 and B2H6, respectively. Schottky barrier diodes with reverse blocking voltage of over 1000 V are achieved preliminarily.