Structural Properties of Boron-Doped Germanium-Tin Alloys Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Boron-doped Ge_1?x Sn _x alloys with atomic fractions of tin up to x = 0.08 were grown on n-Ge(001) substrates using solid-source molecular beam epitaxy, in order to study their structural properties. The total boron concentration in the alloys was ~ 10¹⁸ cm^?3 as measured by secondary-ion mass spectroscopy, which also indicated low amounts of impurities such as carbon and oxygen. More than 90% of the Sn atoms occupied substitutional lattice sites in the alloy as determined by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. High-resolution x-ray diffraction showed that the boron-doped Ge_1?x Sn _x alloys were single crystals that were completely strained with low defect densities and coherent interfaces for thickness up to 90 nm, and for Sn composition of 8%. The boron-doped Ge_1?x Sn _x /n-Ge formed p–n junctions with conventional rectifying characteristics, indicating that the boron produced electrically active acceptor states.     

Survivability using traffic balancing and backup resource reservation in multi‐domain optical networks

Survivability in the geographically distributed backbone multi‐domain optical networks (MDONs) is critical because of issues related to its size, usage of resources, and domain management policies of the comprising domains. In MDONs, the emerging scheduled traffic is increasingly multivendor, multimedia, and periodic. It is high during the office (working) hours and low during the non‐office (non‐working) hours in a day. A connection failure during the office hours may result in huge amount of information being lost. Towards providing an acceptable level of service even when a connection fails, we first provide traffic balancing (TB) based solutions where the intra/inter‐domain traffic is slided (S1‐TB), shifted (S2‐TB), or slided as well as shifted (S3‐TB) based on the service level agreement between the client and domain service provider. Of the above solutions, the solution based on sliding as well as shifting (S3‐TB) performs best, and hence for further improvement in S3‐TB, we incorporate backup multiplexing with advance backup resource reservation (BRR) and evaluate the performance of the strategy and report results. The performance evaluation of the above strategies is compared with the existing extended path shared protection (EPSP) by a simulator developed in MATLAB and tested on three‐domain and five‐domain standard network topologies, on the metrics of blocking probability, network resource utilization ratio, network capacity utilized by backup route, wavelength link used per backup lightpath, and a newly introduced metric, network resource utilization index. As compared with the existing strategy EPSP, the S3‐TB and S3‐TB with BRR showed improved performance on all the metrics.     

Modelling strategies for the incorporation and correction of optical effects in EUVL

Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) is a leading candidate for the 22 nm node lithography and beyond. However, there are still some critical problems before EUVL may be deployed in high-volume manufacturing. One of the critical problems is to estimate the EUVL aerial image formation for optical proximity correction (OPC) in order to compensate for EUVL effects such as shadowing and flare. This study discusses aerial image formation through modeling of optical transfer function to assimilate optical diffraction, long range layout dependent flare effects, and shadowing effects due to non-telecentric imaging optics in the EUV case. Hence, after optimizing optical process parameters to model the EUV aerial image, this study will investigate OPC modeling methods employed to compensate these optical effects in the mask design flow.     

Reduction of sidelobe levels in multicarrier radar signals via the fusion of hill patterns and geometric progression

Multi-carrier waveforms have several advantages over single-carrier waveforms for radar communication. Employing multi-carrier complementary phase-coded (MCPC) waveforms in radar applications has recently attracted significant attention. MCPC radar signals take advantage of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing properties, and several authors have explored the use of MCPC signals and the difficulties associated with their implementation. The sidelobe level and peak-to-mean-envelope-power ratio (PMEPR) are the key issues that must be addressed to improve the performance of radar signals. We propose a scheme that applies pattern-based scaling and geometric progression methods to enhance sidelobe and PMEPR levels in MCPC radar signals. Numerical results demonstrate the improvement of sidelobe and PMEPR levels in the proposed scheme. Additionally, autocorrelations are obtained and analyzed by applying the proposed scheme in extensive simulation experiments.     

Full-wave nonlinear analysis of nonradiative dielectric guide circuits including lumped elements

This paper describes the full-wave numerical analysis of complex nonradiative dielectric (NRD) guide structures including linear or nonlinear lumped elements. The numerical results described in this paper, validated through experimentation, show that the method is suitable for NRD guide and similar circuits. Nonlinear analysis of a single-ended NRD guide mixer is carried out, and the results are experimentally verified. Nonlinear harmonic-balance analysis of a novel leaky-wave balanced mixer circuit with very good tolerance of manufacturing inaccuracies in NRD guide configuration in Ka-band is then carried out. Due to curved segments, and orders of magnitude difference in the dimensions of different parts, the analysis of this component requires certain simplifying assumptions. How these can be implemented without sacrificing much accuracy is described. Until now, the design of NRD guide components, especially those using nonlinear effects, has been mostly trial-and-error-based. Here we demonstrate that a more systematic approach is possible.     

A triple-mode hexa-standard reconfigurable TI cross-coupled ΣΔ modulator

Hardware reconfigurability is an attractive solution for modern multi-standard wireless systems. This paper analyses the performance and implementation of an efficient triple-mode hexa-standard reconfigurable sigma-delta (∑?) modulator designed for six different wireless communication standards. Enhanced noise-shaping characteristics and increased digitisation rate, obtained by time-interleaved cross-coupling of ∑? paths, have been utilised for the modulator design. Power/hardware efficiency and the capability to acclimate the requirements of wide hexa-standard specifications are achieved by introducing an advanced noise-shaping structure, the dual-extended architecture. Simulation results of the proposed architecture using Hspice shows that the proposed modulator obtains a peak signal-to-noise ratio of 83.4/80.2/67.8/61.5/60.8/51.03 dB for hexa-standards, i.e. GSM????????/Bluetooth/GPS/WCDMA/WLAN/WiMAX standards with significantly less hardware and low operating frequency. The proposed architecture is implemented in 45 nm CMOS process using a 1 V supply and 0.7 V input range with a power consumption of 1.93 mW. Both architectural- and transistor-level simulation results prove the effectiveness and feasibility of this architecture to accomplish multi-standard cellular communication characteristics.     

Hybrid connection algorithm: A strategy for efficient restoration in WDM optical networks

In present communication, we propose a modified resource allocation strategy, namely, hybrid connection algorithm, for achieving efficient restoration in WDM optical networks. The main theme of the algorithm is that, while attempting connection establishment, a wavelength is reserved in advance for providing resources for backup lightpaths. The analysis and the comparison of the proposed strategy with other existing strategies has been undertaken using metrics such as, restoration efficiency, number of wavelength links used by primary and backup lightpaths, and the percent link utilization. The proposed strategy provides 100% restoration efficiency and much better performance than the existing techniques.     

Effects of manufacturing tolerances on the electrical performance of suspended and inverted microstrip lines

Effects of manufacturing tolerances in the dimensions and parameters of suspended and inverted microstrip lines on the electrical performance of these lines have been studied through sensitivity analysis. The closed-form expressions recently given by Pramanick and Bhartia for the analysis of these lines have been used to derive the mathematical expressions for various sensitivities and the dependence of sensitivities on the aspect ratios and on the substrate dielectric constant has been depicted graphically. Generally speaking, the effects of tolerances are seen to be reflected much more sharply in the sensitivities of the characteristic impedance than in those of the effective dielectric constant. Many other useful inferences are also drawn from the sensitivity graphs. The conclusions are presented in tabular form, so as to be of direct help to the user.     

Chalcogenide Phase Change Material for Active Terahertz Photonics

The strikingly contrasting optical properties of various phases of chalcogenide phase change materials (PCM) has recently led to the development of novel photonic devices such as all‐optical non‐von Neumann memory, nanopixel displays, color rendering, and reconfigurable nanoplasmonics. However, the exploration of chalcogenide photonics is currently limited to optical and infrared frequencies. Here, a phase change material integrated terahertz metamaterial for multilevel nonvolatile resonance switching with spatial and temporal selectivity is demonstrated. By controlling the crystalline proportion of the PCM film, multilevel, non‐volatile, terahertz resonance switching states with long retention time at zero hold power are realized. Spatially selective reconfiguration at sub‐metamaterial scale is shown by delivering electrical stimulus locally through designer interconnect architecture. The PCM metamaterial also features ultrafast optical modulation of terahertz resonances with tunable switching speed based on the crystalline order of the PCM film. The multilevel nonvolatile, spatially selective, and temporally tunable PCM metamaterial will provide a pathway toward development of novel and disruptive terahertz technologies including spatio‐temporal terahertz modulators for high speed wireless communication, neuromorphic photonics, and machine‐learning metamaterials.     

Morphology and structural properties of pH-responsive amphiphilic peptides

Protein nanomaterials at the peptide level have shown great potential for medical applications. Peptides change their morphological conformation because of changes in self-assembly properties when they are exposed to changes in solvent composition or pH. Two 15-residue peptide sequences, KhK (KKKFLIVIGSIIKKK) and Alternating Kh (KFLKKIVKIGKKSII), were designed for the purpose of determining the role of peptide sequence on solution morphology and conformation. KhK solutions exhibited a random coil to helical transition when solvent conditions were changed from water to a trifluorethanol/water solution at acidic pH. Alternating Kh solutions, however, demonstrated primarily random coil character under similar solvent and pH conditions as determined by circular dichroism spectroscopy and 2D-1H-1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. At basic pH, circular dichroism spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy analysis demonstrated that random coil character increased at basic pH for KhK, whereas Alternating Kh exhibited an increase in beta-sheet character. Further analysis by transmission electron microscopy showed marked differences in the peptide solution morphology. Peptide particle aggregation and fiber formation were significantly affected by solvent composition and pH values for both peptide sequences.