Characterization of microwave and terahertz dielectric properties of single crystal La2Ti2O7 along one single direction

New generation wireless communication systems require characterisations of dielectric permittivity and loss tangent at microwave and terahertz bands. La₂Ti₂O₇ is a candidate material for microwave application. However, all the reported microwave dielectric data are average value from different directions of a single crystal, which could not reflect its anisotropic nature due to the layered crystal structure. Its dielectric properties at the microwave and terahertz bands in a single crystallographic direction have rarely been reported. In this work, a single crystal ferroelectric La₂Ti₂O₇ was prepared by floating zone method and its dielectric properties were characterized from 1 kHz to 1 THz along one single direction. The decrease in dielectric permittivity with increasing frequency is related to dielectric relaxation from radio frequency to microwave then to terahertz band. The capability of characterizing anisotropic dielectric properties of a single crystal in this work opens the feasibility for its microwave and terahertz applications.     

Carrier dynamics and intervalley scattering in InN

The carrier cooling and the carrier relaxation of an InN thin film illuminated with two excitation energies of 1.53 and 3.06 eV were studied by an ultrafast time-resolved photoluminescence upconversion apparatus. The hot phonon effect could be accounted for longer effective phonon emission times as compared to the theoretical prediction. The rise time and the LO phonon emission time for 3.06 eV excitation were much smaller than those for 1.53 eV excitation. These differences were attributed to the intervalley scattering between the Γ₁ and Γ₃ valleys in InN when carriers were excited with the energy of 3.06 eV. The intervalley scattering times of 250 fs and 2 ps were estimated for the intervalley scattering from the Γ₁ to Γ₃ valley and the reversed scattering process, respectively.     

宽带太赫兹偶极子光电导接收天线研究

太赫兹光电导天线广泛应用于宽带脉冲太赫兹波的检测,是太赫兹光谱和成像系统中的重要器件。偶极子光电导天线由于其结构简单、制作容易成为使用最广泛的一类太赫兹光电导接收天线。衡量太赫兹光电导探测天线的一个重要指标是其响应带宽。针对偶极子天线的探测带宽,分别对天线臂长为10、50、150 m的偶极子天线及一种作为对比的178 m的蝶形天线（Bowtie antenna）进行了实验及理论研究。结果显示其探测带宽随天线臂长增加而减小,与微波天线理论一致。进一步的,采用商用电磁场数值仿真软件进行建模仿真,仿真结果与理论及实验结果具有很好的一致性,证实数值仿真已在很大程度上模拟出实际天线的特性,从而为优化结构参数制作大宽带和高灵敏度的太赫兹天线提供支持。同时,对超半球硅衬底透镜对天线接收频谱的影响也进行了探讨。     

基于石墨烯的波束可重构太赫兹天线

设计了一种工作在太赫兹(THz)频率下的微带八木(QYU)天线.该天线由金属微带传输线、金属反射器、金属半圆形辐射贴片和三组单分子层-石墨烯-贴片导向器组成.由于石墨烯的电导率可电调谐特性,可以通过调整施加在石墨烯导向器上的偏置电压来动态调控天线的辐射方向.通过对天线的基本性能和可调特性系统地模拟和优化,数值结果表明,通过改变加在石墨烯导向器的偏压,天线的主辐射波瓣角φ(方位角)可以在30°-150°的范围内进行扫描,并且具有非常快的调制速度和非常低的回波损耗.该天线非常适合于相控阵雷达等THz波束可重构应用。     

Microstructure and broadband dielectric properties of Zn2SiO4 ceramics with nano-sized TiO2 addition

Zn₂SiO₄ ceramics with nano-sized TiO₂ addition (ZST) were synthesized by conventional solid state method. The association between the new composite's microstructures and dielectric properties reveals that reduced pores, increased density and average grain sizes with increasing sintering temperatures, have contributed to the increased permittivities at kHz and microwave bands; the decrease of the permittivities at 1275 °C is due to the form of twin planes. At the terahertz band, the competition of generating oxygen vacancies and forming them into twin crystallographic shear planes dominates the change of permittivities: the crystallographic shear planes decrease the permittivity at the sintering temperature 1225 °C and 1250 °C, and the high-rate generation of oxygen vacancies at 1275 °C increases the permittivities. The ZST ceramics demonstrate stable permittivity and low dielectric losses (<10^–3 from 10 kHz to microwave band; and <10^–2 at THz range); and the temperature coefficient of resonant frequency is optimized to close zero. These advanced dielectric properties and low sintering temperature (<1300 °C) provide the ZST ceramics great potential in designing microwave and THz devices.     

Grüneisen parameters of a hexagonal close-packed lattice

A program has been developed to study the effect of central forces on the Grüneisen parameters of a hexagonal close-packed lattice. Calculations are presented for the normal modes, the contributions to the Grüneisen parameters, polarization vectors and the two independent effective Grüneisen parameters, γ′ and γ″, for this lattice as a function of T/θ_D.     

An element-free Galerkin forward solver for the complete-electrode model in electrical impedance tomography

An element-free Galerkin method (EFGM) is used for solving forward problem based on the complete electrode model (CEM) in electrical impedance tomography (EIT). The EFGM requires only nodal data and has the ability of providing mesh-independent solutions because no element connectivity is needed to be used in this method. However, direct imposition of Dirichlet boundary conditions for the EFGM is difficult because the shape functions employed in this method do not have the property of Dirac delta function. Solving the EIT forward problem based on the CEM by the EFGM, the effects of electrodes and contact impedances are taken into account and the complete solution of equations is provided without imposing Dirichlet boundary conditions. The numerical results are validated with experimental results obtained from a 2D circular homogeneous phantom, and the performance of the EFGM compared with the finite element method is also illustrated. Moreover, results obtained from the EFGM are presented for an inhomogeneous numerical phantom.     

Fowler-Nordheim tunneling in implanted MOS devices

Current-voltage curves of thermally oxidized silicon with polysilicon gates have been measured and interpreted with the Fowler-Nordheim model of tunneling of electrons through the energy barrier at one of the interfaces of the dielectric. The measurements were done on wafers which have been implanted with various doses As⁺ ions. From the F-N curves the barrier height and the pre-exponential term have been extracted. The barrier height and the pre-exponential term decrease substantially if the dose was larger than 10¹⁴/cm². Although the Fowler-Nordheim plots shifted and had different slopes, it is shown that the expression following from the model is still applicable. It was verified whether the current density was homogeneous over the area.When however the As⁺ implantation was performed with the gate as a mask, the Fowler-Nordheim curves turned out to be kinked. This kinked curve suggests that it is composed of two straight lines. The steep part of the curve is thought to correspond to the unimplanted region under the gate and the flat part to the implanted region at the side-wall. This phenomenon can have important implications for self-aligned source and drain implantation techniques.The lowering of the barrier and the pre-exponential term by implantation is interpreted in terms of trap-assisted tunneling.     

Nondestructive evaluation of forced delamination in glass fiber-reinforced composites by terahertz and ultrasonic waves

Glass fiber-reinforced composite laminates in polyetherimide resin have been studied via terahertz imaging and ultrasonic C-scans. The forced delamination is created by inserting Teflon film between various layers inside the samples prior to consolidating the laminates. Using reflective pulsed terahertz imaging, we find high-resolution, low-artifact terahertz C-scan and B-scan images locating and sizing the delamination in three dimensions. Furthermore, terahertz imaging enables us to determine the thicknesses of the delamination and of the layers constituting the laminate. Ultrasonic C-scan images are also successfully obtained; however, in our samples with small thickness-to-wavelength ratio, detailed ultrasonic B-scan images providing quantitative information in depth cannot be obtained by 5 MHz or 10 MHz focused transducers. Comparative analysis between terahertz imaging and ultrasonic C-scans with regard to spatial resolution is carried out demonstrating that terahertz imaging provides higher spatial resolution for imaging, and can be regarded as an alternative or complementary modality to ultrasonic C-scans for this class of glass fiber-reinforced composites.     

Figure of merit for integrated bipolar transistors

The maximum frequency of operation, ω_max, which is the frequency of operation when the unilateral power gain goes to zero, and ω_T, the unity current gain-bandwidth product, are used as figures of merit for bipolar transistors. Both of these figures of merit are inadequate for state-of-the-art integrated bipolar devices. This is because ω_max is based on neutralizing the feedback between the transistor output and input circuitry by complex networks which are quite impractical in integrated circuits, and ω_T is obtained with the output short circuited and thus has no relevance to a practical application.In this paper, we argue the case for using ω_PT the frequency at which the power transferred between identical amplifiers goes to unity as a practical figure of merit for the integrated bipolar transistor.