16—THE PREPARATION,FINE STRUCTURE,AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF PARTLY METHYLATED COTTON FABRICS

Cotton fabric has been methylated under a variety of conditions. The extent of methylation has been shown to be dependent on the time of methylation and on the degree of swelling or disruption of structure. The latter is caused by the alkali pretreatment or by the swelling of the partly methylated cellulose. Fabric physical properties have been measured and the influence of the methylation treatment has been examined.     

A simple technique for examining frozen hydrated specimens in the scanning electron microscope.

The use of a wide angle backscattered electron detector in a scanning electron microscope, which has the capability of the specimen chamber pressure being controlled independently of the column pressure, provides a simple technique for examining frozen hydrated specimens. Large specimens have been examined within 1 min of being placed on the stub and have been examined for many hours without charging artefacts or distortion due to dehydration.     

Controlling and monitoring interfacial reactions in composites of azidosilane modified glass filled polyethylene

Model composites of spherical glass particles dispersed in a matrix of high density polyethylene were prepared with controlled variations in the interfacial structure. Dynamic-mechanical measurements of the composites in the melt state were recorded. The physical properties are found to relate to the morphology, bonding, reactivity, and other characteristics of the interfacial region which can be controlled by the applied chemistry. The interfacial reactions can be monitored in-sity by dynamic-mechanical analysis and differential scanning calorimetry.     

Elucidating the Origins of Subgap Tail States and Open‐Circuit Voltage in Methylammonium Lead Triiodide Perovskite Solar Cells

Recombination via subgap trap states is considered a limiting factor in the development of organometal halide perovskite solar cells. Here, the impact of active layer crystallinity on the accumulated charge and open‐circuit voltage (V_oc) in solar cells based on methylammonium lead triiodide (CH₃NH₃PbI₃, MAPI) is demonstrated. It is shown that MAPI crystallinity can be systematically tailored by modulating the stoichiometry of the precursor mix, where small quantities of excess methylammonium iodide (MAI) improve crystallinity, increasing device V_oc by ≈200 mV. Using in situ differential charging and transient photovoltage measurements, charge density and charge carrier recombination lifetime are determined under operational conditions. Increased V_oc is correlated to improved active layer crystallinity and a reduction in the density of trap states in MAPI. Photoluminescence spectroscopy shows that an increase in trap state density correlates with faster carrier trapping and more nonradiative recombination pathways. Fundamental insights into the origin of V_oc in perovskite photovoltaics are provided and it is demonstrated why highly crystalline perovskite films are paramount for high‐performance devices.     

Scaling the Aspect Ratio of Nanoscale Closely Packed Silicon Vias by MacEtch: Kinetics of Carrier Generation and Mass Transport

Metal‐assisted chemical etching (MacEtch) has shown tremendous success as an anisotropic wet etching method to produce ultrahigh aspect ratio semiconductor nanowire arrays, where a metal mesh pattern serves as the catalyst. However, producing vertical via arrays using MacEtch, which requires a pattern of discrete metal disks as the catalyst, has often been challenging because of the detouring of individual catalyst disks off the vertical path while descending, especially at submicron scales. Here, the realization of ordered, vertical, and high aspect ratio silicon via arrays by MacEtch is reported, with diameters scaled from 900 all the way down to sub‐100 nm. Systematic variation of the diameter and pitch of the metal catalyst pattern and the etching solution composition allows the extraction of a physical model that, for the first time, clearly reveals the roles of the two fundamental kinetic mechanisms in MacEtch, carrier generation and mass transport. Ordered submicron diameter silicon via arrays with record aspect ratio are produced, which can directly impact the through‐silicon‐via technology, high density storage, photonic crystal membrane, and other related applications.     

Data-dependent sampling of two-dimensional signals

Samples taken at scattered points of a finite-support two-dimensional signal can be interpolated to recover an approximation of the original signal. Given a bound on the number of samples, where should they be placed to enable the most accurate reconstruction? Or, given an error bound for the reconstruction, what is the minimum number of samples required, and where should they be placed? In this paper we introduce search schemes that provide good candidate solutions to these problems, for digital signals. Natural Neighbour Interpolation is used in iterative sample removal and movement processes to obtain sparse sample patterns. For pictures and Digital Elevation Models, fewer samples are required if the interpolant is onlyC ⁰ continuous at the data sites, than if it isC ¹. Retained samples lie on the ridges and valleys of the laplacian.     

Performance and Modeling of the MWIR HgCdTe Electron Avalanche Photodiode

The operation of the mid-wave infrared (MWIR) HgCdTe cylindrical electron injection avalanche photodiode (e-APD) is described. The measured gain and excess noise factor are related to the collection region fill factor. A two-dimensional diffusion model calculates the time-dependent response and steady-state pixel point spread function for cylindrical diodes, and predicts bandwidths near 1 GHz for small geometries. A 2 μm diameter spot scan system was developed for point spread function and crosstalk measurements at 80 K. An electron diffusion length of 13.4 μm was extracted from spot scan data. Bandwidth data are shown that indicate bandwidths in excess of 300 MHz for small unit cells geometries. Dark current data, at high gain levels, indicate an effective gain normalized dark density count as low as 1000 counts/μs/cm² at an APD gain of 444. A junction doping profile was determined from capacitance–voltage data. Spectral response data shows a gain-independent characteristic.     

Mechanical behavior of mismatch strain-driven microcantilever

A model of mechanical behavior of microcantilever due to mismatch strain during deposition of MEMS structures is derived. First, a microcantilever, modeled as an Euler-Bernoulli beam, is subjected to deposition of another material and a linear ordinary differential equation which considers the through-thickness variation of the mismatch strain is derived. Second, the deposition analysis is experimentally realized by electroplating of nickel onto an atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilever beam. Young's modulus of the electroplated nickel film is determined by using Sader's method and elementary beam theory. The deflection of the AFM cantilever is in-situ measured as a function of the electroplated thin film thickness through the optical method of AFM and the mismatch strain with the through-thickness variation is determined from the experiment results.