Electrical and photoelectric properties of electrochemically fabricated SnO2/Cd0.4Zn0.6S/CdTe solar cells

Solar cells based on SnO₂/Cd_0.4Zn_0.6S/CdTe heterostructures are fabricated by electrochemical deposition, and the dependences of their electrical and photoelectric properties on the thermal annealing conditions are studied. It is shown that thermal annealing reduces the tunnel currents by almost two orders of magnitude. The best conditions of thermal annealing are determined (t = 300°C and τ = 9 min). These conditions provide the highest photosensitivity of the heterostructures under study (I _sc ≈ 21.2 mA/cm², U _oc ≈ 813 mV, and η = 14.7%).     

Waveguide probe structures for a multilayer magnetodielectric: An inverse problem

Direct and inverse problems are considered for diffraction by an open end of a rectangular waveguide (RW) with a flange that adjoins a piecewise inhomogeneous planar layered lossy medium. Also considered are similar diffraction problems for a junction of an RW and a rectangular resonator filled with a multilayer medium and a junction of two RWs, one of which contains a multilayer plate. Such open and shielded waveguide probe structures (WPSs) are used for determination and nondestructive testing of parameters of multilayer samples. The direct problem is formulated on the basis of admittance and impedance algorithms with consideration for losses existing in the medium, flange, and screens. In this case, the approximation of the given aperture field allows obtainment of explicit solutions for open and shielded WPSs in the form of integrals. Solution of the inverse problem that lies in determining thicknesses, permittivities, and permeabilities of the layers from measured values of the magnitude of the reflection coefficient is obtained by minimizing the corresponding least-squares error and by constructing artificial neural networks. In order to increase the accuracy, it is proposed to use a two-port of errors and perform measurements for several positions of the sample with respect to the flange and different impedance conditions behind the sample.     

Photoemission of polarized electrons from InAlGaAs/GaAs superlattices with minimum conduction band offsets

Photoemission of polarized electrons from heterostructures based on InAlGaAs/GaAs superlattices with minimum conduction-band offsets is investigated. The comparison of the excitation energy dependence of the photoemission polarization degree with the calculated spectra make it possible to determine the polarization losses at different stages of the photoemission. A maximum polarization of P = 91% and a quantum yield of 0.14% are close to the best results obtained for photocathodes on the basis of strained semiconductor superlattices.     

Towards intelligent dressing

The aim of this article is to state the principles of an intelligent monitoring and control system for the grinding machine, comprising the dressing process as well as grinding stability.     

Equivalent electrical network of the DNA molecule

The variation of current density with bias or temperature is examined for DNA molecules of different configuration. To this end, the DNA molecule is represented as an equivalent electrical network whose behavior is then simulated with PSPICE. The results are found to be in close agreement with ones obtained within a physical model. It is established that the electrical response of a DNA molecule to an applied electric field depends on the boundary conditions and the potential profile along the molecule. This finding should contribute to the creation of a complete library of DNA-molecule configurations with prescribed electrical properties.     

Detecting and characterising returns in a pulsed ladar system

A new multi-spectral laser radar (ladar) system based on the time-correlated single photon counting, time-of-flight technique has been designed to detect and characterise distributed targets at ranges of several kilometres. The system uses six separated laser channels in the visible and near infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The authors present a method to detect the numbers, positions, heights and shape parameters of returns from this system, used for range profiling and target classification. The algorithm has two principal stages: non-parametric bump hunting based on an analysis of the smoothed derivatives of the photon count histogram in scale space, and maximum likelihood estimation using Poisson statistics. The approach is demonstrated on simulated and real data from a multi-spectral ladar system, showing that the return parameters can be estimated to a high degree of accuracy.     

All-optical seed pulse extraction for packet synchronization based on self-induced effects in a vertical-cavity semiconductor gate

Self-induced effects in a passive polarization-independent vertical-cavity semiconductor gate are investigated numerically and experimentally. We demonstrate all-optical seed-pulse extraction for synchronization of differential phase-shift keying and ON-OFF keying packets at 10 Gb/s. Our results provide evidence that vertical-cavity gates, exploiting saturable absorption in semiconductor quantum-wells, exhibit attractive performances in terms of efficiency, power consumption, and polarization independency.     

The colored revolution of bioimaging

This paper provides an overview of the main aspects of modern fluorescence microscopy. It covers the principles of fluorescence and highlights the key discoveries in the history of fluorescence microscopy. The paper also discusses the optics of fluorescence microscopes and examines the various types of detectors. It also discusses the signal and image processing challenges in fluorescence microscopy and highlights some of the present developments and future trends in the field.     

Dynamics of liquid-filled spacecraft

A method is presented for simulating coupled liquid-solid dynamics. An important example of a coupled liquid-solid system is a satellite carrying fuel. The dynamics of the satellite and the onboard fuel influence each other, which may lead to satellite motion that is uncontrollable. For better understanding of the complex dynamics of coupled systems, a numerical model is developed. The model consists of two parts. The first part that solves the liquid motion is only briefly discussed here. The focus in this paper is on the way in which the dynamics of the liquid and the solid body are coupled. For this, the governing equations are presented in which terms appear that represent the force and torque on the solid body due to the sloshing liquid. The governing equations are rewritten such that the discrete approximation of these equations can be integrated in a stable manner for arbitrary liquid/solid mass ratios. Results are presented demonstrating the stability of the present model. A grid-refinement study and a time-step analysis are performed. Finally, the flat-spin motion of a satellite, partially filled with liquid, that flew in 1992 as part of the Wet Satellite Model experiment is studied. Results from the simulation are compared with the actual flight data.