Effect of fabrication conditions on I-V properties for ZnO varistor with high concentration additives by sol-gel technique

Polycrystalline nano-grain-boundary multi-doping ZnO-based nonlinear varistors with higher concentration additives have been fabricated by sol-gel and standard solid-state reaction method, of which the best sample has a very high threshold voltage of E-b = 3300 V/mm. The effect of sintering processes, sintering temperature and sintering time, and that of additive concentration of Bi2O3 on E-b of the samples are systematically investigated. The results show that the great merit of sol-gel method is its high threshold voltage obtained by a lower sintering temperature than the solid-state reaction method. The present work also shows that five phases including solid-state sintering, rich Bi liquid phase formation and ZnO as well as other additive dissolution, ZnO grain growth, the secondary phase sufficient formation and evolution have been experienced at different sintering temperatures. The hole type defect and nonhomogeneity of the microstructure will lead to the decrease of threshold voltage, i.e., the grain size and the homogeneity of the material will be important factors and directly affect the characteristic of the varistor. The sintering characteristic and the influence of Bi2O3 content on the threshold voltage are also discussed. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects and numerical analysis of argon gas flow on the oxygen concentration in Czochralski silicon single crystal growth

Argon gas, as a protective environment and carrier of latent heat, has an important effect on the temperature distribution in crystals and melts. Numeric simulation is a potent tool for solving engineering problems. In this paper, the relationship between argon gas flow and oxygen concentration in silicon crystals was studied systematically. A flowing stream of argon gas is described by numeric simulation for the first time. Therefore, the results of experiments can be explained, and the optimum argon flow with the lowest oxygen concentration can be achieved. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Carrier concentration profiling in magnetic GaMnSb/GaSb investigated by electrochemistry capacitance-voltage profiler

Depth profiles of carrier concentrations in GaMnSb/GaSb are investigated by electrochemistry capacitance-voltage profiler and electrolyte of Tiron. The carrier concentration in GaMnSb/GaSb measured by this method is coincident with the results of Hall and X-ray diffraction measurements. It is indicated that most of the Mn atoms in GaMnSb take the site of Ga, play a role of acceptors, and provide shallow acceptor level(s).

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.

Compensation ratio-dependent concentration of a VInH4 complex in n-type liquid encapsulated Czochralski InP

The concentration of hydroen-indium vacancy complex VInH4 in liquid encapsulated Czochralski undoped and Fe-doped n-type InP has been studied by low-temperature infrared absorption spectroscopy. The VInH4 complex is found to be a dominant intrinsic shallow donor defect with concentrations up to similar to 10(16) cm(-3) in as-grown liquid encapsulated Czochralski InP. The concentration of the VInH4 complex is found to increase with the compensation ratio in good agreement with the proposed defect formation model of Walukiewicz [W. Walukiewicz, Phys. Rev. B 37, 4760 (1998); Appl. Phys. Lett. 54, 2094 (1989)], which predicts a Fermi-level-dependent concentration of amphoteric defects. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics, [S0003-6951(98)04435-0].

Study on the oxygen concentration reduction in heavily Sb-doped silicon

It was determined that oxygen concentration in heavily Sb-doped silicon was about 40% lower than that in the lightly doped Czochralski grown silicon and decreased with increasing content of Sb by means of coincident elastic recoil detection analysis. Through thermodynamic calculation, the oxygen loss by evaporation from the free surface of melt is only due to the formation of SiO, and Sb2O3 evaporation can be neglected. The basic reason for oxygen concentration reduction in heavily Sb-doped CZSi was that oxygen solubility decreased when element Sb with larger radius doped degenerately into silicon crystal. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

High-concentration hydrogen in unintentionally doped GaN

We use nuclear reaction analysis to study hydrogen in unintentionally doped GaN, and high-concentration hydrogen, nearly 10(21) cm(-3), is detected. Accordingly, a broad but intense infrared absorption zone with a peak at 2962 cm(-1) is reported, which is tentatively assigned to the stretch mode of NH: Ga complex. The complex is assumed to be one candidate answering for background electrons in unintentionally doped GaN. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Electron concentration dependence of exciton localization and freeze-out at local potential fluctuations in InN films

InN films with electron concentration ranging from n similar to 10(17) to 10(20) cm(-3) grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) were investigated by variable-temperature photoluminescence and absorption measurements. The energy positions of absorption edge as well as photoluminescence peak of these InN samples with electron concentration above 10(18) cm(-3) show a distinct S-shape temperature dependence. With a model of potential fluctuations caused by electron-impurity interactions, the behavior can be quantitatively explained in terms of exciton freeze-out in local potential minima at sufficiently low temperatures, followed by thermal redistribution of the localized excitons when the band gap shrinks with increasing temperature. The exciton localization energy sigma (loc) is found to follow the n (5/12) power relation, which testifies to the observed strong localization effects in InN with high electron concentrations.

Raman scattering study of vibrational modes and hole concentration in GaxMn1-xSb

The Raman scattering study of vibrational modes and hole concentration in a ferromagnetic semiconductor Ga1-xMnxSb grown by Mn ion implantation, deposition and post-annealing has been presented. The experiments are performed both in implanted and unimplanted regions before and after etching the samples. The Raman spectra measured from the unimplanted region show only GaSb-like phonon modes. On the other hand, the spectra measured from the implanted region show additional phonon modes approximately at 115, 152, 269, 437 and 659 cm(-1). The experimental results demonstrate that the extra modes are associated with surface defects, crystal disorder and blackish layer that is formed due to Mn ion implantation, deposition and annealing processes. Furthermore, we have determined the hole concentration as a function of laser probing position by modeling the Raman spectra using coupled mode theory. The contributions of GaSb-like phonon modes and coupled LO-phonon plasmon mode are taken into consideration in the model. The hole-concentration-dependent CLOPM is resolved in the spectra measured from the implanted and nearby implanted regions. The hole concentrations determined by Raman scattering are found to be in good agreement with those measured by the electrochemical capacitance-voltage technique.

Experimental Investigation on Propane Hydrate Dissociation by High Concentration Methanol and Ethylene Glycol Solution Injection

The dissociation behaviors of propane hydrate by high concentration alcohols inhibitors injection were investigated. Methanol (30.0, 60.1, 80.2, and 99.5 wt %) and ethylene glycol (30.0, 60.1, 69.8, 80.2, and 99.5 wt %) solution were injected, respectively, as alcohols inhibitors in 3.5 L transparent reactor. It is shown that the average dissociation rates of propane hydrate injecting methanol and ethylene glycol solution are 0.02059-0.04535 and 0.0302-0.0606 mol.min(-1).L-1, respectively. The average dissociation rates increase with the mass concentration increase of alcohols solution, and it is the biggest when 99.5 wt % ethylene glycol solution was injected. The presence of alcohols accelerates gas hydrate dissociation and reduces the total need of external energy to dissociate the hydrates. Density differences act as driving force, causing the acceleration effects of ethylene glycol on dissociation behaviors of propane hydrate are better than that of methanol with the same injecting flux and mass concentration.

Effect of dopant concentration on photocatalytic activity of TiO2 film doped by Mn non-uniformly

The thin films of TiO2 doped by Mn non-uniformly were prepared by sol-gel method under process control. In our preceding study, we investigated in detail, the effect of doping mode on the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 films showing that Mn non-uniform doping can greatly enhance the activity. In this study we looked at the effect of doping concentration on the photocatalytic activity of the TiO2 films. In this paper, the thin films were characterized by UV-vis spectrophotometer and electrochemical workstation. The activity of the photocatalyst was also evaluated by photocatalytic degradation rate of aqueous methyl orange under UV radiation. The results illustrate that the TiO2 thin film doped by Mn non-uniformly at the optimal dopant concentration (0.7 at %) is of the highest activity, and on the contrary, the activity of those doped uniformly is decreased. As a comparison, in 80 min, the degradation rate of methyl orange is 62 %, 12 % and 34 % for Mn non-uniform doping film (0.7 at %), the uniform doping film (0.7 at %) and pure titanium dioxide film, respectively. We have seen that, for the doping and the pure TiO2 films, the stronger signals of open circuit potential and transient photocurrent, the better photocatalytic activity. We also discusse the effect of dopant concentration on the photocatalytic activity of the TiO2 films in terms of effective separation of the photon-generated carriers in the semiconductor. (C) Versita Warsaw and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. All rights reserved.

Modeling and optimizing of high-concentration erbium-doped fiber amplifiers with consideration of ion-clusters

Starting from the modeling of isolated ions and ion-clusters, a closed form rate and power evolution equations for high-concentration erbium-doped fiber amplifiers are constructed. Based on the equations, the effects of the fraction of ion-clusters in total ions and the number of ions per cluster on the performance of high-concentration erbium-doped fiber amplifiers are analyzed numerically. The results show that the presence of the ion-clusters deteriorates amplifier performance, such as the signal power, signal gain, the threshold pump power for zero gain, saturated signal gain, and the maximum gain efficiency, etc. The optimum fiber length or other parameters should be modified with the ion-clusters being taken into account for the amplifiers to achieve a better performance. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Formation and Properties of a Novel Heavy-Metal Chalcogenide Glass Doped with a High Dysprosium Concentration

A novel heavy-metal chalcogenide glass doped with a high dysprosium ion (Dy(3+)) concentration was prepared by the well-established melt-quenching technique from high-purity elements. The results show that when Cadmium (Cd) is introduced into chalcogenide glass, the concentration of Dy(3+) ions doped in GeGaCdS glasses is markedly increased, the thermodynamic performance improves, and the difference between T(g) and T(x) is >120 degrees C. The Vickers microhardness is also modified greatly, about 245 kgf/mm(2). The optical spectra indicate that all absorption and emission bands of Dy(3+) are clearly observed and red-shifted with increasing Dy(3+) concentration.