Effect of Thickness of the p-AlGaN Electron Blocking Layer on the Improvement of ESD Characteristics in GaN-Based LEDs

The following letter presents a study regarding GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with p-type AlGaN electron blocking layers (EBLs) of different thicknesses. The study revealed that the LEDs could endure higher electrostatic discharge (ESD) levels as the thickness of the AlGaN EBL increased. The observed improvement in the ESD endurance ability could be attributed to the fact that the thickened p-AlGaN EBL may partly fill the dislocation-related pits that occur on the surface of the InGaN-GaN multiple-quantum well (MQW) and that are due to the strain and the low-temperature-growth process. If these dislocation-related pits are not partly suppressed, they will eventually result in numerous surface pits associated with threading dislocations that intersect the InGaN-GaN (MQW), thereby reducing the ESD endurance ability. The results of the experiment show that the ESD endurance voltages could increase from 1500 to 6000 V when the thickness of the p-AlGaN EBL in the GaN LEDs is increased from 32.5 to 130 nm, while the forward voltages and light output powers remained almost the same.     

Use of recycled copper slag for blended cements

Copper slag is a by‐product generated during smelting to extract copper metal from the ore. The copper slag obtained may exhibit pozzolanic activity and may therefore be used in the manufacture of addition‐containing cements. In this paper the effect of the incorporation of the copper slag in cement is measured. Blends of copper slag with Portland cement generally possess properties equivalent to Portland cement containing fly ash, but very different to the silica fume incorporation. Copper slag and fly ash reduce the heat of hydration more effectively than silica fume in mortars. The replacement of 30% cement by copper slag reduces the flexural and compressive strength in a similar way to fly ash; however, after 28 days, the reduction is less than the percentage of substitution. Hydrated calcium aluminate phases were analysed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The pozzolanic activity of copper slag is similar to that of fly ash and higher than silica fume. In the presence of low water/cement ratios, certain pozzolanic materials produce a very compact cement paste that limits the space available for hydration products, a determining factor in the formation of hydrated calcium aluminates. SEM was found to be a useful analytical technique when aluminates are formed and can be clearly detected by XRD. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Second-order stresses and strains in heterogeneous steels: Self-consistent modeling and X-ray diffraction analysis

Theoretical and experimetal methods have been developed to characterize the effect of mechanical loading on the mesoscopic and macroscopic mechanical state of polycrystalline materials. Ferritic and austenitic single-phase materials were first analyzed, then phase interaction was studied in a multiductile phase material (austeno-ferritic duplex steel) and a natural reinforced composite (pearlitic steel). The theoretical method is based on the self-consistent approach in which elastic and plastic characteristics of the phases have been applied through the micromechanical behavior of single-crystal-using slip systems and microscopic hardening. The effects of a crystallographic texture and phase interaction during loading and after unloading were studied. The elastic and plastic anisotropy of the grains having the same crystallographic orientation were assessed by diffraction strain analysis. The simulation was compared with the experiments performed using the X-ray diffraction technique. In the considered duplex and pearlitic steels, it was observed that the ferrite stress state is much lower than the austenite and cementite ones. The results of diffraction strain distribution have showed the pertinence of the models and give valuable information, for example, for the yield stress and the hardening parameters of each phase in a two-phase material.     

Visibility of collaboration on the Web

The emerging influence of new information and communication technologies (ICT) on collaboration in science and technology has to be considered. In particular, the question of the extent to which collaboration in science and in technology is visible on the Web needs examining. Thus the purpose of this study is to examine whether broadly similar results would occur if solely Web data was used rather than all available bibliometric co-authorship data. For this purpose a new approach of Web visibility indicators of collaboration is examined. The ensemble of COLLNET members is used to compare co-authorship patterns in traditional bibliometric databases and the network visible on the Web. One of the general empirical results is a high percentage (78%) of all bibliographic multi- authored publications become visible through search of engines in the Web. One of the special studies has shown Web visibility of collaboration is dependent on the type of bibliographic multi-authored papers. The social network analysis (SNA) is applied to comparisons between bibliographic and Web collaboration networks. Structure formation processes in bibliographic and Web networks are studied. The research question posed is to which extent collaboration structures visible in the Web change their shape in the same way as bibliographic collaboration networks over time. A number of special types of changes in bibliographic and Web structures are explained. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.