Suspended core-shell Pt-PtOx nanostructure for ultrasensitive hydrogen gas sensor

High sensitivity gas sensors are typically realized using metal catalysts and nanostructured materials, utilizing non-conventional synthesis and processing techniques, incompatible with on-chip integration of sensor arrays. In this work, we report a new device architecture, suspended core-shell Pt-PtOx nanostructure that is fully CMOS-compatible. The device consists of a metal gate core, embedded within a partially suspended semiconductor shell with source and drain contacts in the anchored region. The reduced work function in suspended region, coupled with builtin electric field of metal-semiconductor junction, enables the modulation of drain current, due to room temperature Redox reactions on exposure to gas. The device architecture is validated using Pt-PtO2 suspended nanostructure for sensing H-2 down to 200 ppb under room temperature. By exploiting catalytic activity of PtO2, in conjunction with its p-type semiconducting behavior, we demonstrate about two orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity and limit of detection, compared to the sensors reported in recent literature. Pt thin film, deposited on SiO2, is lithographically patterned and converted into suspended Pt-PtO2 sensor, in a single step isotropic SiO2 etching. An optimum design space for the sensor is elucidated with the initial Pt film thickness ranging between 10 nm and 30 nm, for low power (< 5 mu W), room temperature operation. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

Atmospheric pressure plasma chemical vapor deposition reactor for 100 mm wafers, optimized for minimum contamination at low gas flow rates

Gas discharge plasmas used for thinfilm deposition by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) must be devoid of contaminants, like dust or active species which disturb the intended chemical reaction. In atmospheric pressure plasma systems employing an inert gas, the main source of such contamination is the residual air inside the system. To enable the construction of an atmospheric pressure plasma (APP) system with minimal contamination, we have carried out fluid dynamic simulation of the APP chamber into which an inert gas is injected at different mass flow rates. On the basis of the simulation results, we have designed and built a simple, scaled APP system, which is capable of holding a 100 mm substrate wafer, so that the presence of air (contamination) in the APP chamber is minimized with as low a flow rate of argon as possible. This is examined systematically by examining optical emission from the plasma as a function of inert gas flow rate. It is found that optical emission from the plasma shows the presence of atmospheric air, if the inlet argon flow rate is lowered below 300 sccm. That there is minimal contamination of the APP reactor built here, was verified by conducting an atmospheric pressure PECVD process under acetylene flow, combined with argon flow at 100 sccm and 500 sccm. The deposition of a polymer coating is confirmed by infrared spectroscopy. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy shows that the polymer coating contains only 5% of oxygen, which is comparable to the oxygen content in polymer deposits obtained in low-pressure PECVD systems. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

Role of gas in supporting grand spiral structure

The density wave theory for the grand-design two-armed spiral pattern in galaxies is successful in explaining several observed features. However, the long-term persistence of this spiral structure is a serious problem since the group transport would destroy it within about a billion years as shown in a classic paper by Toomre. In this paper, we include the low-velocity dispersion component, namely gas, on an equal footing with stars in the formulation of the density wave theory, and obtain the dispersion relation for this coupled system. We show that the inclusion of gas makes the group transport slower by a factor of few, thus allowing the pattern to persist longer - for several billion years. Though still less than the Hubble time, this helps in making the spiral structure more long-lived. Further we show that addition of gas is essential to get a stable wave for the observed pattern speed for the Galaxy, which otherwise is not possible for a one-component stellar disc.

Haloarchaeal gas vesicle nanoparticles displaying Salmonella antigens as a novel approach to vaccine development

A safe, effective, and inexpensive vaccine against typhoid and other Salmonella diseases is urgently needed. In order to address this need, we are developing a novel vaccine platform employing buoyant, self-adjuvanting gas vesicle nanoparticles (GVNPs) from the halophilic archaeon Halobacterium sp. NRC-1, bioengineered to display highly conserved Salmonella enterica antigens. As the initial antigen for testing, we selected SopB, a secreted inosine phosphate effector protein injected by pathogenic S. enterica bacteria during infection into the host cells. Two highly conserved sopB gene segments near the 3'- region, named sopB4 and sopB5, were each fused to the grIpC gene, and resulting SopB-GVNPs were purified by centrifugally accelerated flotation. Display of SopB4 and SopB5 antigenic epitopes on GVNPs was established by Western blotting analysis using antisera raised against short synthetic peptides of SopB. Immunostimulatory activities of the SopB4 and B5 nanoparticles were tested by intraperitoneal administration of SopB-GVNPs to BALB/c mice which had been immunized with S. enterica serovar Typhimurium 14028 ApmrG-H111-D (DV-STM-07), a live attenuated vaccine strain. Proinflammatory cytokines IFN-y, IL-2, and IL-9 were significantly induced in mice boosted with SopB5-GVNPs, consistent with a robust Thl response. After challenge with virulent S. enterica serovar Typhimurium 14028, bacterial burden was found to be diminished in spleen of mice boosted with SopB4-GVNPs and absent or significantly diminished in liver, mesenteric lymph node, and spleen of mice boosted with SopB5GVNPs, indicating that the C-terminal portions of SopB displayed on GVNPs elicit a protective response to Salmonella infection in mice. SopB antigen-GVNPs were also found to be stable at elevated temperatures for extended periods without refrigeration. The results show that bioengineered GVNPs are likely to represent a valuable platform for antigen delivery and development of improved vaccines against Salmonella and other diseases.

Application of principal component analysis to gas sensing characteristics of Cr0.8Fe0.2NbO4 thick film array

The transient changes in resistances of Cr0.8Fe0.2NbO4 thick film sensors towards specified concentrations of H-2, NH3, acetonitrile, acetone, alcohol, cyclohexane and petroleum gas at different operating temperatures were recorded. The analyte-specific characteristics such as slopes of the response and retrace curves, area under the curve and sensitivity deduced from the transient curve of the respective analyte gas have been used to construct a data matrix. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to this data and the score plot was obtained. Distinguishing one reducing gas from the other is demonstrated based on this approach, which otherwise is not possible by measuring relative changes in conductivity. This methodology is extended for three Cr0.8Fe0.2NbO4 thick film sensor array operated at different temperatures. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nickel substitution induced effects on gas sensing properties of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles

Ni2+ ion induced unusual conductivity reversal and an enhancement in the gas sensing properties of ferrites based gas sensors, is reported. The Co1-xNixFe2O4 (for x = 0, 0.5 and 1) nanoparticles were synthesized by wet chemical co-precipitation method and gas sensing properties were studied as a function of composition and temperature. The structural, morphological and microstructural characterization revealed crystallite size of in the range 10-20 nm with porous morphology consisting of nano-sized grains. The Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) mapping confirms homogeneous distribution of Co, Ni, Fe and O elements in the ferrites. The non-stoichiometry of the inverse spinel type ferrites and the relative concentration of Ni3+/Co3+ defects were studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It is found that the addition of Ni2+ ions into cobalt ferrite shows preferred selectivity towards CO gas at high temperature (325 degrees C) and ethanol gas at low temperature (250 degrees C), unlike undoped cobalt ferrite or undoped nickel ferrite, which show similar response for both these gases. Moreover, an unusual conductivity reversal is observed, except cobalt ferrite due to the difference in reactivity of the gases as well as characteristic non-stoichiometry of ferrites. This behavior is highly gas ambient dependent and hence can be well-exploited for selective detection of gases. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

COOL CORE CYCLES: COLD GAS AND AGN JET FEEDBACK IN CLUSTER CORES

Using high-resolution 3D and 2D (axisymmetric) hydrodynamic simulations in spherical geometry, we study the evolution of cool cluster cores heated by feedback-driven bipolar active galactic nuclei (AGNs) jets. Condensation of cold gas, and the consequent enhanced accretion, is required for AGN feedback to balance radiative cooling with reasonable efficiencies, and to match the observed cool core properties. A feedback efficiency (mechanical luminosity approximate to epsilon(M) over dot(acc)c(2); where (M) over dot(acc). is the mass accretion rate at 1 kpc) as small as 6 x 10(-5) is sufficient to reduce the cooling/accretion rate by similar to 10 compared to a pure cooling flow in clusters (with M-200 less than or similar to 7 x 10(14) M-circle dot). This value is much smaller compared to the ones considered earlier, and is consistent with the jet efficiency and the fact that only a small fraction of gas at 1 kpc is accreted onto the supermassive black hole (SMBH). The feedback efficiency in earlier works was so high that the cluster core reached equilibrium in a hot state without much precipitation, unlike what is observed in cool-core clusters. We find hysteresis cycles in all our simulations with cold mode feedback: condensation of cold gas when the ratio of the cooling-time to the free-fall time (t(cool)/t(ff)) is less than or similar to 10 leads to a sudden enhancement in the accretion rate; a large accretion rate causes strong jets and overheating of the hot intracluster medium such that t(cool)/t(ff) > 10; further condensation of cold gas is suppressed and the accretion rate falls, leading to slow cooling of the core and condensation of cold gas, restarting the cycle. Therefore, there is a spread in core properties, such as the jet power, accretion rate, for the same value of core entropy t(cool)/t(ff). A smaller number of cycles is observed for higher efficiencies and for lower mass halos because the core is overheated to a longer cooling time. The 3D simulations show the formation of a few-kpc scale, rotationally supported, massive (similar to 10(11) M-circle dot) cold gas torus. Since the torus gas is not accreted onto the SMBH, it is largely decoupled from the feedback cycle. The radially dominant cold gas (T < 5 x 10(4) K; vertical bar v(r)vertical bar >vertical bar v(phi vertical bar)) consists of fast cold gas uplifted by AGN jets and freely infalling cold gas condensing out of the core. The radially dominant cold gas extends out to 25 kpc for the fiducial run (halo mass 7 x 10(14) M-circle dot and feedback efficiency 6 x 10(-5)), with the average mass inflow rate dominating the outflow rate by a factor of approximate to 2. We compare our simulation results with recent observations.

DOES THE CHEMOTHERMAL INSTABILITY HAVE ANY ROLE IN THE FRAGMENTATION OF PRIMORDIAL GAS

The collapse of the primordial gas in the density regime similar to 10(8)-10(10) cm(-3) is controlled by the three-body H-2 formation process, in which the gas can cool faster than free-fall time-a condition proposed as the chemothermal instability. We investigate how the heating and cooling rates are affected during the rapid transformation of atomic to molecular hydrogen. With a detailed study of the heating and cooling balance in a 3D simulation of Pop III collapse, we follow the chemical and thermal evolution of the primordial gas in two dark matter minihalos. The inclusion of sink particles in modified Gadget-2 smoothed particle hydrodynamics code allows us to investigate the long-term evolution of the disk that fragments into several clumps. We find that the sum of all the cooling rates is less than the total heating rate after including the contribution from the compressional heating (pdV). The increasing cooling rate during the rapid increase of the molecular fraction is offset by the unavoidable heating due to gas contraction. We conclude that fragmentation occurs because H-2 cooling, the heating due to H-2 formation and compressional heating together set a density and temperature structure in the disk that favors fragmentation, not the chemothermal instability.

Anomalous transport at weak coupling

We evaluate the contribution of chiral fermions in d = 2, 4, 6, chiral bosons, a chiral gravitino like theory in d = 2 and chiral gravitinos in d = 6 to all the leading parity odd transport coefficients at one loop. This is done by using finite temperature field theory to evaluate the relevant Kubo formulae. For chiral fermions and chiral bosons the relation between the parity odd transport coefficient and the microscopic anomalies including gravitational anomalies agree with that found by using the general methods of hydrodynamics and the argument involving the consistency of the Euclidean vacuum. For the gravitino like theory in d = 2 and chiral gravitinos in d = 6, we show that relation between the pure gravitational anomaly and parity odd transport breaks down. From the perturbative calculation we clearly identify the terms that contribute to the anomaly polynomial, but not to the transport coefficient for gravitinos. We also develop a simple method for evaluating the angular integrals in the one loop diagrams involved in the Kubo formulae. Finally we show that charge diffusion mode of an ideal 2 dimensional Weyl gas in the presence of a finite chemical potential acquires a speed, which is equal to half the speed of light.

Ultra sensitive NO2 gas detection using the reduced graphene oxide coated etched fiber Bragg gratings

We report a simple and highly sensitive methodology for the room temperature NO2 gas sensing using reduced graphene oxide (RGO) coated clad etched fiber Bragg grating (eFBG). A significant shift (>10 pm) is observed in the reflected Bragg wavelength (lambda(B)) upon exposing RGO coated on the surface of eFBG to the NO2 gas molecules of concentration 0.5 ppm. The shift in Bragg wavelength is due to the change in the refractive index of RGO by charge transfer from the adsorbing NO2 molecules. The range of NO2 concentration is tested from 0.5 ppm to 3 ppm and the estimated time taken for 50% increase in Delta lambda(B) ranges from 20 min (for 0.5 ppm) to 6 min (for 3 ppm). (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Prediction of electronically nonadiabatic decomposition mechanisms of isolated gas phase nitrogen-rich energetic salt: Guanidium-triazolate

Electronically nonadiabatic decomposition pathways of guanidium triazolate are explored theoretically. Nonadiabatically coupled potential energy surfaces are explored at the complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) level of theory. For better estimation of energies complete active space second order perturbation theories (CASPT2 and CASMP2) are also employed. Density functional theory (DFT) with B3LYP functional and MP2 level of theory are used to explore subsequent ground state decomposition pathways. In comparison with all possible stable decomposition products (such as, N-2, NH3, HNC, HCN, NH2CN and CH3NC), only NH3 (with NH2CN) and N-2 are predicted to be energetically most accessible initial decomposition products. Furthermore, different conical intersections between the S-1 and S-0 surfaces, which are computed at the CASSCF(14,10)/6-31G(d) level of theory, are found to play an essential role in the excited state deactivation process of guanidium triazolate. This is the first report on the electronically nonadiabatic decomposition mechanisms of isolated guanidium triazolate salt. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Computationally efficient models for simulation of non-ideal DC-DC converters operating in continuous and discontinuous conduction modes

This paper discusses dynamic modeling of non-isolated DC-DC converters (buck, boost and buck-boost) under continuous and discontinuous modes of operation. Three types of models are presented for each converter, namely, switching model, average model and harmonic model. These models include significant non-idealities of the converters. The switching model gives the instantaneous currents and voltages of the converter. The average model provides the ripple-free currents and voltages, averaged over a switching cycle. The harmonic model gives the peak to peak values of ripple in currents and voltages. The validity of all these models is established by comparing the simulation results with the experimental results from laboratory prototypes, at different steady state and transient conditions. Simulation based on a combination of average and harmonic models is shown to provide all relevant information as obtained from the switching model, while consuming less computation time than the latter.

Measuring the magnetic-field-dependent chemical potential of a low-density three-dimensional electron gas in n-GaAs and extracting its magnetic susceptibility

We report the magnetic-field-dependent shift of the electron chemical potential in bulk, n-type GaAs at room temperature. A transient voltage of similar to 100 mu V was measured across a Au-Al2O3-GaAs metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitor in a pulsed magnetic field of similar to 6 T. Several spurious voltages larger than the signal that had plagued earlier researchers performing similar experiments were carefully eliminated. The itinerant magnetic susceptibility of GaAs is extracted from the experimentally measured data for four different doping densities, including one as low as 5 x 10(15) cm(-3). Though the susceptibility in GaAs is dominated by Landau-Peierls diamagnetism, the experimental technique demonstrated can be a powerful tool for extracting the total free carrier magnetization of any electron system. The method is also virtually independent of the carrier concentration and is expected to work better in the nondegenerate limit. Such experiments had been successfully performed in two-dimensional electron gases at cryogenic temperatures. However, an unambiguous report on having observed this effect in any three-dimensional electron gas has been lacking. We highlight the 50 year old literature of various trials and discuss the key details of our experiment that were essential for its success. The technique can be used to unambiguously yield only the itinerant part of the magnetic susceptibility of complex materials such as magnetic semiconductors and hexaborides, and thus shed light on the origin of ferromagnetism in such systems.

Effect of RF power on the structural, optical and gas sensing properties of RF-sputtered Al doped ZnO thin films

The effect of Radio Frequency (RF) power on the properties of magnetron sputtered Al doped ZnO thin films and the related sensor properties are investigated. A series of 2 wt% Al doped ZnO; Zn0.98Al0.02O (AZO) thin films prepared with magnetron sputtering at different RF powers, are examined. The structural results reveal a good adhesive nature of thin films with quartz substrates as well as increasing thickness of the films with increasing RF power. Besides, the increasing RF power is found to improve the crystallinity and grain growth as confirmed by X-ray diffraction. On the other hand, the optical transmittance is significantly influenced by the RF power, where the transparency values achieved are higher than 82% for all the AZO thin films and the estimated optical band gap energy is found to decrease with RF power due to an increase in the crystallite size as well as the film thickness. In addition, the defect induced luminescence at low temperature (77 K) and room temperature (300 K) was studied through photoluminescence spectroscopy, it is found that the defect density of electronic states of the Al3+ ion increases with an increase of RF power due to the increase in the thickness of the film and the crystallite size. The gas sensing behavior of AZO films was studied for NO2 at 350 degrees C. The AZO film shows a good response towards NO2 gas and also a good relationship between the response and the NO2 concentration, which is modeled using an empirical formula. The sensing mechanism of NO2 is discussed.