Improved neutron radiation hardness for Si detectors: Application of low resistivity starting material and or manipulation of N-eff by selective filling of radiation-induced traps at low temperatures

Radiation-induced electrical changes in both space charge region (SCR) of Si detectors and bulk material (BM) have been studied for samples of diodes and resistors made on Si materials with different initial resistivities. The space charge sign inversion fluence (Phi(inv)) has been found to increase linearly with the initial doping concentration (the reciprocal of the resistivity), which gives improved radiation hardness to Si detectors fabricated from low resistivity material. The resistivity of the BM, on the other hand, has been observed to increase with the neutron fluence and approach a saturation value in the order of hundreds k Omega cm at high fluences, independent of the initial resistivity and material type. However, the fluence (Phi(s)), at which the resistivity saturation starts, increases with the initial doping concentrations and the value of Phi(s) is in the same order of that of Phi(inv) for all resistivity samples. Improved radiation hardness can also be achieved by the manipulation of the space charge concentration (N-eff) in SCR, by selective filling and/or freezing at cryogenic temperatures the charge state of radiation-induced traps, to values that will give a much smaller full depletion voltage. Models have been proposed to explain the experimental data.

Material transport in self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dot ensemble

Introducing the growth interruption between the InAs deposition and subsequent GaAs growth in self-assembled quantum dot (QD) structures, the material transport process in the InAs layers has been investigated by photoluminescence and transmission electron microscopy measurement. InAs material in structures without misfit dislocations transfers from the wetting layer to QDs corresponding to the red-shift of PL peak energy due to interruption. On the other hand, the PL peak shifts to higher energy in the structures with dislocations. In this case, the misfit dislocations would capture the InAs material from the surrounding wetting layer and coherent islands leading to the reduction of the size of these QDs. The variations in the PL intensity and Linewidth are also discussed.

Origin of flat-band voltage sharp roll-off in metal gate/high-k/ultrathin- SiO2/Si p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor stacks

The origin of the flat band voltage roll-off (V-FB roll-off) in metal gate/high-k/ultrathin-SiO2/Si metal-oxide-semiconductor stacks is analyzed and a model describing the role of the dipoles at the SiO2/Si interface on the V-FB sharp roll-off is proposed. The V-FB sharp roll-off appears when the thickness of the SiO2 interlayer diminishes to below the oxygen diffusion depth. The results derived using our model agree well with experimental data and provide insights to the mechanism of the V-FB sharp roll-off.

Generation of optimized wavelength-tunable optical pulse from an uncooled gain-switched Fabry-Perot semiconductor laser using optical amplifier as external light injection

We present a novel system design that can generate the optimized wavelength-tunable optical pulse streams from an uncooled gain-switched Fabry-Perot semiconductor laser using an optical amplifier as external light source. The timing jitter of gain-switched laser has been reduced from about 3 ps to 600 fs and the pulse width has been optimized by using our system. The stability of the system was also experimentally investigated. Our results show that an uncooled gain-switched FP laser system can feasibly produce the stable optical pulse trains with pulse width of 18 ps at the repetition frequency of 5 GHz during 7 h continuous working. We respectively proved the system feasibility under 1 GHz, 2.5 GHz and 5 GHz operation. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nanoadhesion of a Power-Law Graded Elastic Material

The Dugdale-Barenblatt model is used to analyze the adhesion of graded elastic materials at the nanoscale with Young's modulus E varying with depth z according to a power law E = E-0(z/c(0))(k) (0 < k < 1) while Poisson's ratio v remains a constant, where E-0 is a referenced Young's modulus, k is the gradient exponent and c(0) is a characteristic length describing the variation rate of Young's modulus. We show that, when the size of a rigid punch becomes smaller than a critical length, the adhesive interface between the punch and the graded material detaches due to rupture with uniform stresses, rather than by crack propagation with stress concentration. The critical length can be reduced to the one for isotropic elastic materials only if the gradient exponent k vanishes.

Dynamic behaviors of mode III interfacial crack under a constant loading rate

In an earlier study on intersonic crack propagation, Gao et al. (J. Mech. Phys. Solids 49: 2113-2132, 2001) described molecular dynamics simulations and continuum analysis of the dynamic behaviors of a mode II dominated crack moving along a weak plane under a constant loading rate. The crack was observed to initiate its motion at a critical time after the onset of loading, at which it is rapidly accelerated to the Rayleigh wave speed and propagates at this speed for a finite time interval until an intersonic daughter crack is nucleated at a peak stress at a finite distance ahead of the original crack tip. The present article aims to analyze this behavior for a mode III crack moving along a bi-material interface subject to a constant loading rate. We begin with a crack in an initially stress-free bi-material subject to a steadily increasing stress. The crack initiates its motion at a critical time governed by the Griffith criterion. After crack initiation, two scenarios of crack propagation are investigated: the first one is that the crack moves at a constant subsonic velocity; the second one is that the crack moves at the lower shear wave speed of the two materials. In the first scenario, the shear stress ahead of the crack tip is singular with exponent -1/2, as expected; in the second scenario, the stress singularity vanishes but a peak stress is found to emerge at a distance ahead of the moving crack tip. In the latter case, a daughter crack supersonic with respect to the softer medium can be expected to emerge ahead of the initial crack once the peak stress reaches the cohesive strength of the interface.

Behavior of crystalline silicon under huge electronic excitations: A transient thermal spike description

Recent experimental works devoted to the phenomena of mixing observed at metallic multilayers Ni/Si irradiated by swift heavy ions irradiations make it necessary to revisit the insensibility of crystalline Si under huge electronic excitations. Knowing that Ni is an insensitive material, such observed mixing would exist only if Si is a sensitive material. In order to extend the study of swift heavy ion effects to semiconductor materials, the experimental results obtained in bulk silicon have been analyzed within the framework of the inelastic thermal spike model. Provided the quenching of a boiling ( or vapor) phase is taken as the criterion of amorphization, the calculations with an electron-phonon coupling constant g(300 K) = 1.8 x 10(12) W/cm(3)/K and an electronic diffusivity D-e(300 K) = 80 cm(2)/s nicely reproduce the size of observed amorphous tracks as well as the electronic energy loss threshold value for their creation, assuming that they result from the quenching of the appearance of a boiling phase along the ion path. Using these parameters for Si in the case of a Ni/Si multilayer, the mixing observed experimentally can be well simulated by the inelastic thermal spike model extended to multilayers, assuming that this occurs in the molten phase created at the Ni interface by energy transfer from Si. (C) 2009 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

Robust Tris-Cyclometalated Iridium(III) Phosphors with Ligands for Effective Charge Carrier Injection/Transport: Synthesis, Redox, Photophysical, and Electrophosphorescent Behavior

With the target to design and develop new functionalized green triplet light emitters that possess distinctive electronic properties for robust and highly efficient phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PHOLEDs), a series of bluish-green to yellow-green phosphorescent tris-cyclometalated homoleptic iridium(III) complexes [Ir(ppy-X)(3)] (X=SiPh3, GePh3, NPh2, POPh2, OPh, SPh, SO2Ph, Hppy=2-phenylpyridine) have been synthesized and fully characterized by spectroscopic, redox, and photophysical methods

Design and synthesis of near-IR luminescent mesoporous materials covalently linked with tris(8-hydroxyquinolinate) lanthanide(III) complexes

By using the bifunctional ligand, 8-hydroxyquinoline-functionalized organosilane (Q-Si), the new mesoporous material Q-MCM-41 covalently bonded with 8-hydroxyquinoline was synthesized. Through the ligand exchange reaction, the new near-infrared (NIR) luminescent mesoporous LnQ(3)-MCM-41 (Ln = Er, Nd, Yb) materials were prepared by linking the lanthanide quinolinate complexes to the ordered mesoporous Q-MCM-41 material. The LnQ(3)-MCM-41 materials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction and N-2 adsorption/desorption, and they all show the characteristic mesoporous structure of MCM-41 with highly uniform pore size distributions.

Rectangular AgIn(WO4)(2) nanotubes: A promising photoelectric material

Rectangular AgIn(WO4)(2) nanotubes with a diameter range of 80 to 120 nm and length up to 2 mu m have been synthesized by a hydrothermal method. These nanotubes exhibit interesting white light emissions when using 320 nm as the excitation wavelength. A photocatalytic reaction for water decomposition to evolve K, was performed under UV irradiation, and the rate of H, evolution is nearly seven times that of the sample prepared by a solid-state reaction, which shows much higher photocatalytic activities compared with their bulk counterparts.

Near-infrared emission from novel tris(8-hydroxyquinolinate)lanthanide(III) complexes-functionalized mesoporous SBA-15

A novel mesoporous material covalently bonded with 8-hydroxyquinoline (HQ) was synthesized (designated as Q-SBA-15). The 5-formyl-8-hydroxyquinoline grafted to.(3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane, that is, alkoxysilane modified 8-hydroxyquinoline (Q-Si), was used as one of the precursors for the preparation of the Q-SBA-15 material. On the basis of the other function of the Q-Si of coordinating to lanthanide (Ln) ions, for the first time, the LnQ(3) complexes (Ln = Er, Nd, Yb) have been covalently bonded to the SBA-15 materials.

Tin (IV) phthalocyanine oxide: An air-stable semiconductor with high electron mobility

Air-stable n-type field effect transistors were fabricated with an axially oxygen substituted metal phthalocyanine, tin (IV) phthalocyanine oxide (SnOPc), as active layers. The SnOPc thin films showed highly crystallinity on modified dielectric layer, and the electron field-effect mobility reached 0.44 cm(2) V-1 s(-1). After storage in air for 32 days, the mobility and on/off ratio did not obviously change. The above results also indicated that it is an effective approach of seeking n-type semiconductor by incorporating the appropriate metal connected with electron-withdrawing group into pi-pi conjugated system.

Ethylene polymerization, and the copolymerizations of ethylene with hexene or norbornene with highly active mono(beta-enaminoketonato) vanadium(III) catalysts

Five novel vanadium(III) complexes [PhN = C(R-2)CHC(R-1)O]VCl2(THF)(2) (4a: R-1 = Ph, R-2 = CF3; 4b: R-1 =t-Bu, R-2 = CF3; 4c: R-1 = CF3, R-2 = CH3; 4d: R-1 = Ph, R-2 = CH3; 4e: R-1 = Ph, R-2 = H) have been synthesized and characterized. On activation with Et2AlCl, all the complexes, in the presence of ethyl trichloroacetate (ETA) as a promoter, are highly active precatalysts for ethylene polymerization, and produce high molecular weight and linear polymers. Catalyst activities more than 16.8 kg PE/mmolv h bar and weight-average molecular weights higher than 173 kg/ mol were observed under mild conditions.

The near-infrared optical properties of an Nd (III) complex and its potential application in electroluminescence

A trivalent neodymium ion (Nd3+) complex Nd(PM)(3)(TP)(2) was synthesized, and its optical properties was studied by introducing Judd-Ofelt theory to calculate the radiative transition rate and the radiative decay time of the F-4(3/2) -> (4)l(J), transitions in this Nd(III) complex. The strong emissions of this complex at near-infrared region were owing to the efficient energy transfer from ligands to center metal ion. The potential application of this complex in NIR electroluminescence was studied by fabricating several devices. The maximum NIR irradiance was obtained as 2.1 mW/m(2) at 16.5 V.

Lead(IV) dioxide: an effective electron injection material to realize high-efficiency inverted top-emitting organic light-emitting diodes

Lead(IV) dioxide (PbO2) has been used as the electron injection layer (EIL) to realize high-efficiency inverted top-emitting organic light-emitting diodes (I-TOLEDs). It can be seen that the inserting of the PbO2 EIL significantly reduces operational voltage, thus greatly improving the current efficiency and power efficiency of fabricated I-TOLEDs. The 10-(2-benzothiazolyl)-1, 1, 7, 7-tetramethyl-2, 3, 6, 7-tetrahydro-1H, 5H, 11H-[1] benzopyrano [6, 7, 8-ij] quinolizin-11-one (C545T)-based I-TOLEDs with the PbO2 EIL exhibit a maximum current efficiency of 31.6 cd A(-1) and a maximum power efficiency of 14.3 lm W-1, which are both higher than 22.5 cd A(-1) and 5.4 lm W-1 of the I-TOLEDs with LiF as the EIL respectively. A detailed analysis with respect to the role mechanism of PbO2 in electron injection has been presented. The improvement in EL performance is attributed to the formation of the interfacial dipoles at the electrode interface due to charge transfer between PbO2 and Alq(3).