Chaos at Interface Brings Order into Oxide/Silicon Structure

Integration of oxides with silicon fuses advanced functional properties with a mature technological platform. In particular, direct EuO/Si contact holds high promise for spintronics but requires single-crystalline epitaxial films with atomically sharp interfaces. The standard approach employing regular 2D superstructures of metal atoms on the Si surface fails to meet the challenge. Here, an alternative route is designed and shown to solve the problem. This route avoids regular templates; the chaotic 2D distribution of metal atoms on the Si surface prevents stabilization of unwanted crystal orientations. Thus, the disordered submonolayer phase at the interface promotes order in oxide/Si coupling, as witnessed by a combination of diffraction techniques and high-resolution electron microscopy. The results not only mark tangible progress in manufacturing EuO/Si contacts but also provide a general framework for monolithic integration of functional oxides with semiconductor substrates.     

Oriented Crystallization of Mixed‐Cation Tin Halides for Highly Efficient and Stable Lead‐Free Perovskite Solar Cells

As the most promising lead‐free branch, tin halide perovskites suffer from the severe oxidation from Sn²⁺ to Sn⁴⁺, which results in the unsatisfactory conversion efficiency far from what they deserve. In this work, by facile incorporation of methylammonium bromide in composition engineering, formamidinium and methylammonium mixed cations tin halide perovskite films with ultrahighly oriented crystallization are synthesized with the preferential facet of (001), and that oxidation is suppressed with obviously declined trap density. MA⁺ ions are responsible for that impressive orientation while Br^‐ ions account for their bandgap modulation. Depending on high quality of the optimal MA_0.25FA_0.75SnI_2.75Br_0.25 perovskite films, their device conversion efficiency surges to 9.31% in contrast to 5.02% of the control formamidinium tin triiodide perovskite (FASnI₃) device, along with almost eliminated hysteresis. That also results in the outstanding device stability, maintaining above 80% of the initial efficiency after 300 h of light soaking while the control FASnI₃ device fails within 120 h. This paper definitely paves a facile and effective way to develop high‐efficiency tin halide perovskites solar cells, optoelectronic devices, and beyond.     

Modulation spectroscopy study of a strained layer GaAs/GaAsP multiple quantum well structure

Using contactless electroreflectance (CER) and piezoreflectance at 300 K we have characterized a GaAs/GaAs_1?xP_x multiple quantum well (MQW) structure, “GaAs” (nominal) and GaAsP epilayers grown by chloride transport chemical vapor deposition on GaAs (001) substrates. From a detailed lineshape fit to the CER data from the epilayers we have determined the energies of the fundamental band gap and hence the phosphorous composition. The nominal “GaAs” epilayers were found to have phosphorous compositions of about 2.5–3.2%, a result of the phosphorous diffusion between growth chambers in the reactor. The GaAs_1?xP_x epilayer had x=0.29. For the GaAs_0.97P_0.03/GaAs_0.71P_0.29MQW comparison between the experimentally observed energies of a number of quantum transitions with a theoretical envelope function calculation, including the effects of strain in the barriers, made it possible to evaluate the unstrained conduction band offset parameter Q_c=0.50±0.05. Our value for this parameter is discussed in relation to other works. Atomic force microscopy was employed to investigate the surface morphology of the 230 Å GaAsP top layer of the MQW in addition to a 2000 Å GaAsP epilayer. From the absence of any cross-hatch pattern associated with misfit dislocations on the former we concluded that the GaAsP in the MQW is pseudomorphic. On the other hand the 2000 Å epilayer exhibited signs of strain relaxation.     

Universal Interface between Functional Oxides and Silicon

Integration of crystalline oxides with silicon provides a versatile platform to extend and advance silicon technology. The interface between oxide and Si controls the structure and functional properties of the resulting material. In particular, the formation of a submonolayer metal phase on silicon is the standard approach to stabilize the epitaxial growth of oxides. However, fundamental questions—a) whether the interface transforms in the process of the synthesis; and b) if it is possible to control the interface and its electronic structure by varying the submonolayer template—remain unanswered. The present study employs MBE synthesis of EuO and SrO on Si(001) to demonstrate that the structure of the oxide/Si interface does not depend on the type of the template, its symmetry, and stoichiometry. Chemical transformations of the templates converging into the same 2D product are detected in situ by electron diffraction. Then, the common interfacial structure of 1D periodicity is visualized by high-resolution electron microscopy. The study provides insights into the process of oxide integration with silicon but also sets the limits in designing oxide/Si interfaces.     

Research on orotron oscillator with dispersive open resonant system

Theoretical and experimental results of an investigation into a new resonant system have been obtained. This system is named the sphere-corner-echelette open resonator (SCEOR) due to the employment of a mirror that was formed by two echelettes at the angles of 45° to the resonator axis. It turns ont that this resonator is excited on the specific modes not unique to others oscillating systems. There are presented the results of the experimental research of the orotron oscillator with the SCEOR. The spectrum of this device contains only the fundamental modes such as theT E M ₀₀₆,T E M ₀₀₇,T E M ₀₀₈. The efficiency of the orotron is improved, when all other factors are the same the orotron with a much used sphere-cylindrical open resonator.     

Multilayered Distributed Routing for Power Efficient MANET Performance

In this paper a new power efficient routing algorithm for MANETs with self-organizing and self-routing features is described and its performance analyzed in different simulation scenarios. The algorithm has the logic of a non-cooperative routing algorithm based on the evaluation of a weight parameter, the latter being a function of properties of the MANET nodes related to the nominal available power and the transmission range. A self-estimation of this weight parameter for each node is introduced in the routing process based on the status and functional history of the node. The routing is based on network layering, formation of service areas in each layer and choice of nodes from these areas to have the functionality of default gateways. The proposed algorithm, named service zone gateway prediction (SZGP), is a hybrid type of routing mechanism, incorporating pre-computed multipath hop-by-hop distributed routing, with a periodically updated hierarchical multilayered structure. The results from the simulation experiments show that the performance of the proposed SZGP algorithm in relation to the basic performance parameters such as packet delivery ratio, delay and throughput are similar to those of the well-known AODV algorithm, but in relation to power efficiency the proposed algorithm outperforms AODV significantly. This is due to the fact that such an approach reduces the overall number of broadcasts in the network and ensures a reliable and energy efficient connection by balancing the load among the nodes.     

Sub‐5 nm Dendrimer Directed Self‐Assembly with Large‐Area Uniform Alignment by Graphoepitaxy

Directed self‐assembly (DSA) using soft materials is an important method for producing periodic nanostructures because it is a simple, cost‐effective process for fabricating high‐resolution patterns. Most of the previously reported DSA methods exploit the self‐assembly of block copolymers, which generates a wide range of nanostructures. In this study, cylinders obtained from supramolecular dendrimer films with a high resolution (<5 nm) exhibit planar ordering over a macroscopic area via guiding topographical templates with a high aspect ratio (>10) and high spatial resolution (≈20 nm) of guiding line patterns. Theoretical and experimental studies reveal that this property is related to geometrical anchoring on the meniscus region and physical surface anchoring on the sidewall. Furthermore, this DSA of dendrimer cylinders is demonstrated by the non‐regular geometry of the patterned template. The macroscopic planar alignment of the dendrimer nanostructure reveals an extremely small feature size (≈4.7 nm) on the wafer scale (>16 cm²). This study is expected to open avenues for the production of a large family of supramolecular dendrimers with different phases and feature dimensions oriented by the DSA approach.     

Special Important Aspects of the Thomson Effect

A comprehensive study of the mechanisms of heating and cooling originating from an electrical current in semiconductor devices is reported. The variation in temperature associated with the Peltier effect is not related to the presence of heat sources and sinks if the heat flux is correctly determined. The Thomson effect is commonly regarded as a heat source/sink proportional to the Thomson coefficient, which is added to the Joule heating. In the present work, we will show that this formulation of the Thomson effect is not sufficiently clear. When the heat flux is correctly defined, the Thomson heat source/sink is proportional to the Seebeck coefficient. In the conditions in which the Peltier effect takes place, the temperature gradient is created, and, consequently, the Thomson effect will occur naturally.     

Eigen electromagnetic oscillations in the waveguide-dielectric resonator with two-layer filling

The method of the solution problem on the eigen oscillations spectrum of electromagnetic field in the waveguide-dielectric resonator with the two-layer dielectric element was presented. The numerical calculations of the resonance frequencies for theHE ₁₁₁-,E ₀₁₁- andH ₀₁₁-oscillations types in the investigated structure were performed. The calculation results were correlated with experimental data.     

Activation of Oxygen‐Stabilized Sulfur for Li and Na Batteries

The sulfur‐based cathode materials suffer severely from poor cycling stability and low utilization, incurred by their stepwise reaction mechanism that generates polysulfide intermediates and the subsequent irreversible losses. In this work, those issues are significantly relieved by entrapping sulfur species in carbon host rich in oxygen functionalities. Sulfur species in such C/S composite are highly stabilized by their interaction with oxygen, and can deliver a reversible capacity of 508 mAh/(g of S) for 2000 cycles when coupled with Li, representing the best cycling stability up to date. More interestingly, extra capacity can be accessed by simply prelithiating the oxygen‐stabilized C/S composites down to 0.6 V for a few cycles, which enables a high capacity of 1621 mAh/(g of S) that eventually stabilizes at 820 mAh/(g of S) for 600 cycles. The mechanism for this electrochemical activation process is investigated with both spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques, which reveal that the inactive sulfur bonded to oxygen is liberated in the initial deep lithiation precycles and becomes electrochemically active. The oxygen‐stabilized sulfur can also be coupled with Na anode to form Na/S cell, confirming that the formation of S?O interaction in C/S composite generates promising sulfur‐based cathode materials for Li–S and Na–S batteries.