Electron spin relaxation by nuclei and holes in single InAs quantum dots

Electron spin relaxation of charged excitons X+ and X2+ are investigated by time-resolved and polarization-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. For X+ configuration, the electron spin relaxation shows a typical decay curve induced by hyperfine interaction with nuclei, whereas for X2+ state the electron spin relaxation is affected not only by nuclei but also by electron-hole exchange interaction, leading to a power-law time dependence.

Impacts of hydrogen dilution on growth and optical properties of a-SiC : H films

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon-carbon (a-SiC:H) films were deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) with a fixed methane to silane ratio ([CH4]/[SiH4]) of 1.2 and a wide range of hydrogen dilution (R-H=[H-2]/[SiH4 + CH4]) values of 12, 22, 33, 102 and 135. The impacts of RH on the structural and optical properties of the films were investigated by using UV-VIS transmission, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) absorption, Raman scattering and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The effects of high temperature annealing on the films were also probed. It is found that with increasing hydrogen dilution, the optical band gap increases, and the PL peak blueshifts from similar to1.43 to 1.62 eV. In annealed state, the room temperature PL peak for the low R-H samples disappears, while the PL peak for the high R-H samples appears at similar to 2.08 eV, which is attributed to nanocrystalline Si particles confined by Si-C and Si-O bonds.

Photoemission study of chemisorption and Fermi-level pinning at K/GaAs(100) interface with synchrotron radiation

The adsorption of K on the n-GaAs(I 0 0) surface was investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy (SR-PES). The Ga3d and As3d core level was measured for clean and K adsorbed GaAs(I 0 0) surface. The adsorption of K induced chemical reaction between K and As, and the K-As reactant formed when the K coverage theta > I ML. The chemical reaction between K and Ga did not occur, but Ga atoms were exchanged by K atoms. From the data of band bending, the Schottky barrier is 0.70 eV. The Fermi-level pinning was not caused by defect levels. The probable reason is that the dangling bonds of surface Ga atoms were filled by the outer-shell electrons of K atoms, forming a half-filled surface state. The Fermi-level pinning was caused by this half-filled surface state. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Quantum master equation scheme of time-dependent density functional theory to time-dependent transport in nanoelectronic devices

In this work a practical scheme is developed for the first-principles study of time-dependent quantum transport. The basic idea is to combine the transport master equation with the well-known time-dependent density functional theory. The key ingredients of this paper include (i) the partitioning-free initial condition and the consideration of the time-dependent bias voltages which base our treatment on the Runge-Gross existence theorem; (ii) the non-Markovian master equation for the reduced (many-body) central system (i.e., the device); and (iii) the construction of Kohn-Sham master equations for the reduced single-particle density matrix, where a number of auxiliary functions are introduced and their equations of motion (EOMs) are established based on the technique of spectral decomposition. As a result, starting with a well-defined initial state, the time-dependent transport current can be calculated simultaneously along with the propagation of the Kohn-Sham master equation and the EOMs of the auxiliary functions.

Fabrication of thermo-optic switch in silicon-on-insulator

Silicon-on-insulator technology has been used to fabricate 2 x 2 thermo-optic switches. The switch shows crosstalk of -23.4 dB and extinction ratio of 18.1 dB in the bar-state. The switching speed is less than 30 mus and the power consumption is about 420 mW The measured excess loss is 1.8 dB. These merits make the switch more attractive for applications in wavelength division multiplexing.

Electronic structure and optical properties of quantum rods with wurtzite structure

The Hamiltonian of the wurtzite quantum rods with an ellipsoidal boundary is given after a coordinate transformation. The energies, wave functions, and transition possibilities are obtained as functions of the aspect ratio e with the same method we used on spherical dots. With an overall consideration of both the transition matrix element and the Boltzmann distribution we explained why the polarization factor increases with increasing e and approaches a saturation value, which tallies quite well with the experimental result. When e increases more and more S-z states are mixed into the ground, second, and third states of J(z)=1/2, resulting in an increase of the emission of z polarization. It is just the linear terms of the momentum operator in the hole Hamiltonian that cause the mixing of S and P states in the hole ground state. The effects of the crystal field splitting energy, temperature, and transverse radius to the polarization are also considered. We also calculated the band gap variation with the size and shape of the quantum rods.

Structural characterization of stable amorphous silicon films

A kind of hydrogenated diphasic, silicon films has been prepared by a new regime of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) in the region adjacent to the phase transition from amorphous to crystalline state. The photoelectronic and microstructural properties of the films have been investigated by the constant photocurrent method (CPM), Raman scattering and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Our experimental results and corresponding analyses showed that the diphasic films, incorporated with a subtle boron compensation, could gain both the fine photosensitivity and high stability, provided the crystalline fraction (f) was controlled in the range of 0 < f < 0.3. When compared with the conventional hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), the diphasic films are more ordered and robust in the microstructure, and have a less clustered phase in the Si-H bond configurations. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pulsed excimer laser annealing of Mg-doped cubic GaN

A KrF (248 nm) excimer laser with a 38 ns pulse width was used to study pulsed laser annealing (PLA) on Mg-doped cubic GaN alms. The laser-induced changes were monitored by photoluminescence (PL) measurement. It indicated that deep levels in as-grown cubic GaN : Mg films were neutralized by H and PLA treatment could break Mg-H-N complex. The evolution of emissions around 426 and 468 nm with different PLA conditions reflected the different activation of the involved deep levels. Rapid thermal annealing (RTA) in N-2 atmosphere reverts the luminescence of laser annealed samples to that of the pre-annealing state. The reason is that most H atoms still remained in the epilayers after PLA due to the short duration of the pulses and reoccupied the original locations during RTA. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 61.72.Vv; 61.72.Cc; 18.55. -m.

Quantum confinement effect in silicon quantum-well layers

The electronic states and optical transition properties of silicon quantum-well layers embedded by SiO2 layers are studied by the empirical pseudopotential homojunction model. The energy bands, wave functions, and the optical transition matrix elements are obtained for layers of thickness from 1 to 6 nm, and three oriented directions (001), (110), and (111). It is found that for Si layers in the (001) direction the energy gap is pseudodirect, for these in the (111) direction the energy gap is indirect, while for those in the (110) direction the energy gap is pseudodirect or indirect for a thickness smaller or larger than 3 nm, respectively. The optical transition matrix elements are smaller than that of diner transition, and increase with decreasing layer thickness. When the thickness of a layer is smaller than 2 nm, the Si QW layers have larger transition matrix elements. It is caused by mixing of bulk X states with the Gamma(1) state. The calculated results are compared with experimental results.

Measurement and analysis of microwave frequency response of semiconductor optical amplifiers - art. no. 682406

The measurement and analysis of the microwave frequency response of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) are proposed in this paper. The response is measured using a vector network analyzer. Then with the direct-subtracting method, which is based on the definition of scattering parameters of optoelectronic devices, the responses of both the optical signal source and the photodetector are eliminated, and the response of only the SOA is extracted. Some characteristics of the responses can be observed: the responses are quasi-highpass; the gain increases with the bias current; and the response becomes more gradient while the bias current is increasing. The multisectional model of an SOA is then used to analyze the response theoretically. By deducing from the carrier rate equation of one section under the steady state and the small-signal state, the expression of the frequency response is obtained. Then by iterating the expression, the response of the whole SOA is simulated. The simulated results are in good agreement with the measured on the three main characteristics, which are also explained by the deduced results. This proves the validity of the theoretical analysis.

Improved diphasic nc-si/a-si : H I-layer materials using PECVD

Two series of films has been prepared by using a new regime of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) in the region adjacent to the phase transition from amorphous to crystalline state. The photoelectronic properties of the films have been investigated as a function of crystalline fraction. In comparison with typical a-Si:H, these diphasic films with a crystalline fraction less than 0.3 show a similar optical absorption coefficient, higher mobility life-time product ( LT) and higher stability upon light soaking. By using the diphasic nc-Si/a-Si films as the intrinsic layer, a p-i-n junction solar cell has been prepared with an initial efficiency of 9. 10 % and a stabilized efficiency of 8.56 % (AM 1.5, 100 mW/cm(2)).

Formal specification and refinement of a safe train control function

Motivated by the design and development challenges of the BART case study, an approach for developing and analyzing a formal model for reactive systems is presented. The approach makes use of a domain specific language for specifying control algorithms able to satisfy competing properties such as safety and optimality. The domain language, called SPC, offers several key abstractions such as the state, the profile, and the constraint to facilitate problem specification. Using a high-level program transformation system such as HATS being developed at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, specifications in this modelling language can be transformed to ML code. The resulting executable specification can be further refined by applying generic transformations to the abstractions provided by the domain language. Problem dependent transformations utilizing the domain specific knowledge and properties may also be applied. The result is a significantly more efficient implementation which can be used for simulation and gaining deeper insight into design decisions and various control policies. The correctness of transformations can be established using a rewrite-rule based induction theorem prover Rewrite Rule Laboratory developed at the University of New Mexico.

Study on methane hydration process in a semi-continuous stirred tank reactor

The methane hydration process is investigated in a semi-continuous stirred tank reactor. Liquid temperatures and reaction rates without stirrer are compared with those occurring with stirrer, while at the same time better stirring conditions of the methane hydration process are given by the experiments. Some basic data of fluid mechanics, for example, stirring Reynolds number, Froucle number and stirrer power, are calculated during the methane hydration process, which can be applied to evaluate stirrer capacity and provide some basic data for a scaled up reactor. Based on experiment and calculations in this work, some conclusions are drawn. First, the stirrer has great influence on the methane hydration process. Batch stirring is helpful to improve the mass transfer and heat transfer performances of the methane hydration process. Second, induction time can be shortened effectively by use of the stirrer. Third, in this paper, the appropriate stirring velocity and stirring time were 320 rpm and 30 min, respectively, at 5.0 MPa, for which the storage capacity and reaction time were 159.1 V/V and 370 min, respectively. Under the condition of the on-flow state, the initial stirring Reynolds number of the fluid and the stirring power were 12,150 and 0.54 W, respectively. Fourth, some suggestions, for example, the use of another type of stirrer or some baffles, are proposed to accelerate the methane hydration process. Comparing with literature data, higher storage capacity and hydration rate are achieved in this work. Moreover, some fluid mechanics parameters are calculated, which can provide some references to engineering application.

Kinetic spectra of light-adaptation dark-adaptation and M-intermediate of BR-D96N

BR-D96N is a kind of genetically site-specific mutants of bacteriorhodopsin (BR) with obvious photochromic effect. Compared to the wild type BR, the lifetime of M state of BR-D96N is prolonged to several minutes so that the photochromic kinetics and the intermediates formation can be studied by the conventional spectra analysis. In the experiment, the absorption spectra of the sample at different time after light illumination are measured with spectrophotometer. By fitting and analyzing the variation of the spectra, we suppose that there are three main states in the, photochromic process, i.e., B state (light-adapted state), M state and D state (dark-adapted state). The absorption spectra of the B state, M state and D state are extracted from the experimental data based on this three-state model and the spectra at various time are fitted with the least-square method. So, the variations of population percentages of the M state, B state and D state are obtained and the M state and B state lifetimes are estimated. In another way, from the measurement of the absorption dynamics at 407 and 568 nm, the M state and B state lifetimes are also obtained by two exponential data fitting, which give coincident results with those of the spectra analysis. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Photochromic kinetic spectra and intermediates of BR-D96N

BR-D96N is a kind of genetically site-specific mutant of bacteriorhodopsin (BR) with obvious photochromic effect. Compared to the wild type BR, the lifetime of M state of BR-D96N is prolonged to several minutes so that the photochromic kinetics and the intermediates formation can be studied by the conventional spectra analysis. In the experiment, the absorption spectra of the sample at different time after light illumination are measured with spectrophotometer. By fitting and analyzing the variation of the spectra, we suppose there-are three main states in the photochromic process, i.e. B state (light-adapted state), M state and D state (dark-adapted state). The absorption spectra of the B state, M state and D state are extracted from the experimental data based on this three-state model and the spectra at various time are fitted With the least square method. So, the variations of population percentages of the M state, B state and D state are obtained and the M state and B state lifetimes are estimated. In another,way, from measuring the absorption dynamics at 407 nm and 568 nm, the M state and B state lifetimes are also obtained by two exponential data fitting, which give coincident results with those of the spectra analysis.