Precursor flow rate manipulation for the controlled fabrication of twin-free GaAs nanowires on silicon substrates

Vertically oriented GaAs nanowires (NWs) are grown on Si(111) substrates using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. Controlled epitaxial growth along the 111 direction is demonstrated following the deposition of thin GaAs buffer layers and the elimination of structural defects, such as twin defects and stacking faults, is found for high growth rates. By systematically manipulating the AsH 3 (group-V) and TMGa (group-III) precursor flow rates, it is found that the TMGa flow rate has the most significant effect on the nanowire quality. After capping the minimal tapering and twin-free GaAs NWs with an AlGaAs shell, long exciton lifetimes (over 700ps) are obtained for high TMGa flow rate samples. It is observed that the Ga adatom concentration significantly affects the growth of GaAs NWs, with a high concentration and rapid growth leading to desirable characteristics for optoelectronic nanowire device applications including improved morphology, crystal structure and optical performance. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Taper-free and kinked germanium nanowires grown on silicon via purging and the two-temperature process

We investigate the growth procedures for achieving taper-free and kinked germanium nanowires epitaxially grown on silicon substrates by chemical vapor deposition. Singly and multiply kinked germanium nanowires consisting of 111 segments were formed by employing a reactant gas purging process. Unlike non-epitaxial kinked nanowires, a two-temperature process is necessary to maintain the taper-free nature of segments in our kinked germanium nanowires on silicon. As an application, nanobridges formed between (111) side walls of V-grooved (100) silicon substrates have been demonstrated. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Taper-free and vertically oriented Ge nanowires on Ge/Si substrates grown by a two-temperature process

Taper-free and vertically oriented Ge nanowires were grown on Si (111) substrates by chemical vapor deposition with Au nanoparticle catalysts. To achieve vertical nanowire growth on the highly lattice mismatched Si substrate, a thin Ge buffer layer was first deposited, and to achieve taper-free nanowire growth, a two-temperature process was employed. The two-temperature process consisted of a brief initial base growth step at high temperature followed by prolonged growth at lower temperature. Taper-free and defect-free Ge nanowires grew successfully even at 270 °C, which is 90 °C lower than the bulk eutectic temperature. The yield of vertical and taper-free nanowires is over 90%, comparable to that of vertical but tapered nanowires grown by the conventional one-temperature process. This method is of practical importance and can be reliably used to develop novel nanowire-based devices on relatively cheap Si substrates. Additionally, we observed that the activation energy of Ge nanowire growth by the two-temperature process is dependent on Au nanoparticle size. The low activation energy (∼5 kcal/mol) for 30 and 50 nm diameter Au nanoparticles suggests that the decomposition of gaseous species on the catalytic Au surface is a rate-limiting step. A higher activation energy (∼14 kcal/mol) was determined for 100 nm diameter Au nanoparticles which suggests that larger Au nanoparticles are partially solidified and that growth kinetics become the rate-limiting step. © 2011 American Chemical Society.

Defect-free GaAs/AlGaAs Core-shell nanowires on Si substrates

We report straight and vertically aligned defect-free GaAs nanowires grown on Si(111) substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. By deposition of thin GaAs buffer layers on Si substrates, these nanowires could be grown on the buffer layers with much less stringent conditions as otherwise imposed by epitaxy of III-V compounds on Si. Also, crystal-defect-free GaAs nanowires were grown by using either a two-temperature growth mode consisting of a short initial nucleation step under higher temperature followed by subsequent growth under lower temperature or a rapid growth rate mode with high source flow rate. These two growth modes not only eliminated planar crystallographic defects but also significantly reduced tapering. Core-shell GaAs-AlGaAs nanowires grown by the two-temperature growth mode showed improved optical properties with strong photoluminescence and long carrier life times. © 2011 American Chemical Society.

Twin-free uniform epitaxial GaAs nanowires grown by a two-temperature process.

We demonstrate vertically aligned epitaxial GaAs nanowires of excellent crystallographic quality and optimal shape, grown by Au nanoparticle-catalyzed metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. This is achieved by a two-temperature growth procedure, consisting of a brief initial high-temperature growth step followed by prolonged growth at a lower temperature. The initial high-temperature step is essential for obtaining straight, vertically aligned epitaxial nanowires on the (111)B GaAs substrate. The lower temperature employed for subsequent growth imparts superior nanowire morphology and crystallographic quality by minimizing radial growth and eliminating twinning defects. Photoluminescence measurements confirm the excellent optical quality of these two-temperature grown nanowires. Two mechanisms are proposed to explain the success of this two-temperature growth process, one involving Au nanoparticle-GaAs interface conditions and the other involving melting-solidification temperature hysteresis of the Au-Ga nanoparticle alloy.

High purity GaAs nanowires free of planar defects: Growth and characterization

We investigate how to tailor the structural, crystallographic and optical properties of GaAs nanowires. Nanowires were grown by Au nanoparticle-catalyzed metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. A high arsine flow rate, that is, a high ratio of group V to group III precursors, imparts significant advantages. It dramatically reduces planar crystallographic defects and reduces intrinsic carbon dopant incorporation. Increasing V/III ratio further, however, instigates nanowire kinking and increases nanowire tapering. By choosing an intermediate V/III ratio we achieve uniform, vertically aligned GaAs nanowires, free of planar crystallographic defects, with excellent optical properties and high purity. These findings will greatly assist the development of future GaAs nanowire-based electronic and optoelectronic devices, and are expected to be more broadly relevant to the rational synthesis of other III-V nanowires. © 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

Nearly intrinsic exciton lifetimes in single twin-free GaAsAlGaAs core-shell nanowire heterostructures

CW and time-resolved photoluminescence measurements are used to investigate exciton recombination dynamics in GaAsAlGaAs heterostructure nanowires grown with a recently developed technique which minimizes twinning. A thin capping layer is deposited to eliminate the possibility of oxidation of the AlGaAs shell as a source of oxygen defects in the GaAs core. We observe exciton lifetimes of ∼1 ns, comparable to high quality two-dimensional double heterostructures. These GaAs nanowires allow one to observe state filling and many-body effects resulting from the increased carrier densities accessible with pulsed laser excitation. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.

FEC-free 50 m 1.5 Gb/s plastic optical fibre link using CAP modulation for home networks

LED-based carrierless amplitude and phase modulation is investigated for a multi-gigabit plastic optical fibre link. An FPGA-based 1.5 Gbit/s error free transmission over 50 m standard SI-POF using CAP64 is achieved, providing 2.9 dB power margin without forward error correction. © 2012 OSA.

Tests of an adaptive QM/MM calculation on free energy profiles of chemical reactions in solution.

We present reaction free energy calculations using the adaptive buffered force mixing quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (bf-QM/MM) method. The bf-QM/MM method combines nonadaptive electrostatic embedding QM/MM calculations with extended and reduced QM regions to calculate accurate forces on all atoms, which can be used in free energy calculation methods that require only the forces and not the energy. We calculate the free energy profiles of two reactions in aqueous solution: the nucleophilic substitution reaction of methyl chloride with a chloride anion and the deprotonation reaction of the tyrosine side chain. We validate the bf-QM/MM method against a full QM simulation, and show that it correctly reproduces both geometrical properties and free energy profiles of the QM model, while the electrostatic embedding QM/MM method using a static QM region comprising only the solute is unable to do so. The bf-QM/MM method is not explicitly dependent on the details of the QM and MM methods, so long as it is possible to compute QM forces in a small region and MM forces in the rest of the system, as in a conventional QM/MM calculation. It is simple, with only a few parameters needed to control the QM calculation sizes, and allows (but does not require) a varying and adapting QM region which is necessary for simulating solutions.

Large eddy simulations in low-pressure turbines: Effect of wakes at elevated free-stream turbulence

The transition of a separated shear layer over a flat plate, in the presence of periodic wakes and elevated free-stream turbulence (FST), is numerically investigated using Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The upper wall of the test section is inviscid and specifically contoured to impose a streamwise pressure distribution over the flat plate to simulate the suction surface of a low-pressure turbine (LPT) blade. Two different distributions representative of a 'high-lift' and an 'ultra high-lift' turbine blade are examined. Results obtained from the current LES compare favourably with the extensive experimental data previously obtained for these configurations. The LES results are then used to further investigate the flow physics involved in the transition process.In line with experimental experience, the benefit of wakes and FST obtained by suppressing the separation bubble, is more pronounced in 'ultra high-lift' design when compared to the 'high-lift' design. Stronger 'Klebanoff streaks' are formed in the presence of wakes when compared to the streaks due to FST alone. These streaks promoted much early transition. The weak Klebanoff streaks due to FST continued to trigger transition in between the wake passing cycles.The experimental inference regarding the origin of Klebanoff streaks at the leading edge has been confirmed by the current simulations. While the wake convects at local free-stream velocity, its impression in the boundary layer in the form of streaks convects much slowly. The 'part-span' Kelvin-Helmholtz structures, which were observed in the experiments when the wake passes over the separation bubble, are also captured. The non-phase averaged space-time plots manifest that reattachment is a localized process across the span unlike the impression of global reattachment portrayed by phase averaging. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.

Label-free detection of human prostate-specific antigen (hPSA) using film bulk acoustic resonators (FBARs)

Label-free detection of cancer biomarkers using low cost biosensors has promising applications in clinical diagnostics. In this work, ZnO-based thin film bulk acoustic wave resonators (FBARs) with resonant frequency of ∼1.5 GHz and mass sensitivity of 0.015 mg/m2 (1.5 ng/cm2) have been fabricated for their deployment as biosensors. Mouse monoclonal antibody, anti-human prostate-specific antigen (Anti-hPSA) has been used to bind human prostate-specific antigen (hPSA), a model cancer used in this study. Ellipsometry was used to characterize and optimise the antibody adsorption and antigen binding on gold surface. It was found that the best amount of antibody at the gold surface for effective antigen binding is around 1 mg/m2, above or below which resulted in the reduced antigen binding due to either the limited binding sites (below 1 mg/m2) or increased steric effect (above 1 mg/m2). The FBAR data were in good agreement with the data obtained from ellipsometry. Antigen binding experiments using FBAR sensors demonstrated that FBARs have the capability to precisely detect antigen binding, thereby making FBARs an attractive low cost alternative to existing cancer diagnostic sensors. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Modelling of free-space optoelectronic switching with MPLS for storage area networks (SANs)

Low-cost optical switches based on SLMs have conventionally been considered unsuitable for packet switching due to slow reconfiguration time. In this paper, we demonstrate that the constraint of SLM reconfiguration time in a hybrid three-stage electronic/optical switching node architecture can be compensated through the utilization of MPLS label switching mechanism to achieve the best performance for SAN applications. © 2012 SEE.

Designing output-feedback predictive controllers by reverse-engineering existing LTI controllers

An approach to designing a constrained output-feedback predictive controller that has the same small-signal properties as a pre-existing output-feedback linear time invariant controller is proposed. Systematic guidelines are proposed to select an appropriate (non-unique) realization of the resulting state observer. A method is proposed to transform a class of offset-free reference tracking controllers into the combination of an observer, steady-state target calculator and predictive controller. The procedure is demonstrated with a numerical example. © 2013 IEEE.

Free energy surface reconstruction from umbrella samples using Gaussian process regression

We demonstrate how the Gaussian process regression approach can be used to efficiently reconstruct free energy surfaces from umbrella sampling simulations. By making a prior assumption of smoothness and taking account of the sampling noise in a consistent fashion, we achieve a significant improvement in accuracy over the state of the art in two or more dimensions or, equivalently, a significant cost reduction to obtain the free energy surface within a prescribed tolerance in both regimes of spatially sparse data and short sampling trajectories. Stemming from its Bayesian interpretation the method provides meaningful error bars without significant additional computation. A software implementation is made available on www.libatoms.org.