High‐Performance Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Photodetectors Enhanced by Self‐Assembled Monolayer Doping

Most doping research into transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) has been mainly focused on the improvement of electronic device performance. Here, the effect of self‐assembled monolayer (SAM)‐based doping on the performance of WSe₂‐ and MoS₂‐based transistors and photodetectors is investigated. The achieved doping concentrations are ≈1.4 × 10¹¹ for octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) p‐doping and ≈10¹¹ for aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) n‐doping (nondegenerate). Using this SAM doping technique, the field‐effect mobility is increased from 32.58 to 168.9 cm² V^?1 s in OTS/WSe₂ transistors and from 28.75 to 142.2 cm² V^?1 s in APTES/MoS₂ transistors. For the photodetectors, the responsivity is improved by a factor of ≈28.2 (from 517.2 to 1.45 × 10⁴ A W^?1) in the OTS/WSe₂ devices and by a factor of ≈26.4 (from 219 to 5.75 × 10³ A W^?1) in the APTES/MoS₂ devices. The enhanced photoresponsivity values are much higher than that of the previously reported TMD photodetectors. The detectivity enhancement is ≈26.6‐fold in the OTS/WSe₂ devices and ≈24.5‐fold in the APTES/MoS₂ devices and is caused by the increased photocurrent and maintained dark current after doping. The optoelectronic performance is also investigated with different optical powers and the air‐exposure times. This doping study performed on TMD devices will play a significant role for optimizing the performance of future TMD‐based electronic/optoelectronic applications.     

Motivation,commitment and the use of incentives in partnerships and alliances

The use of incentives in partnering and alliancing has been seen as an important way of reinforcing collaboration in the short term and helping to build trust between clients and contractors in the long term. Yet only rarely has the impact of incentives on such relationships been discussed, let alone subjected to systematic investigation. This is despite a wealth of theory and research which brings into question the use of incentives and reinforcers as ways of generating motivation and commitment. Drawing upon this theoretical knowledge base and using evidence from a number of case studies of partnerships and alliances, this paper demonstrates how a number of important cognitive and social dimensions affect the use and impact of incentives, sometimes in ways contrary to those intended. The conclusion drawn is that there are important limitations to the use of incentives as means of reinforcing collaboration and developing commitment and trust, and that this raises questions more generally about the assumptions that underlie many of the practical ‘tools and techniques’ commonly associated with partnering and alliancing.     

Semi-transparent thin film solar cells by a solution process

Easily processed, low cost, and highly efficient solar cells are desirable for photovoltaic conversion of solar energy to electricity. We present the fabrication of precursor solution processed CuInGaS2 (CIGS) thin film solar cells on transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates. The CIGS absorber film was prepared by a spin-coating method, followed by two successive heat treatment processes. The first annealing process was on a hot plate at 300 °C for 30 min in air to remove carbon impurities in the film; this was followed by a sulfurization process at 500 °C in an H₂S(1%)/Ar environment to form a polycrystalline CIGS film. The absorber film with an optical band-gap of 1.52 eV and a thickness of about 1.1 µm was successfully synthesized. Because of the usage of a transparent glass substrate, a bifacial CIGS thin film device could be achieved; its power conversion efficiency was measured to be 6.64% and 0.96% for front and rear illumination, respectively, under standard irradiation conditions.     

A family of parallel QR factorization algorithms

Rapid computation of the QR factorization of a matrix is fundamental to many scientific and engineering problems. The paper presents a family of algorithms parameterized by the number of processors available P, arithmetic grain aggregation parameters g₁, g₂, …, g_P, and communication grain aggregation parameter h, which computer the QR factorization of a matrix A ∈ C^{m × n} with minimal latency. The approach is particularly well suited for dedicated distributed memory architectures such as linear arrays of INMOS Transputers, Texas Instruments C40s or Analog Devices 21060s.     

Polynomial methods for the structured singular value with real parameters

We consider the structured singular value problem with real parametric uncertainty only. Using techniques from algebraic geometry, we propose two algorithms that in principle can yield the precise value of the structured singular value at a fixed frequency. Their ability to do so depends upon their ability to find all common roots to a system of polynomial equations. The first algorithm is applicable to problems with two real parameters each of multiplicity two. The second algorithm is applicable to problems with n distinct real parameters. These algorithms have proved useful in applications to aerospace control law analysis.     

The performance of a distributed combat simulation with the time warp operating system

This paper analyzes the performance of a discrete-event combat simulation executed on a parallel processor under control of the Time Warp Operating System. Time Warp is in a class of distributed simulation methods called Optimistic methods which have proven to be useful over a wide range of simulations. The combat simulation used for this performance study, called STB88, is a division-corps model incorporating a number of different types of computations. The speed-up for three versions of this model on the Caltech/JPL Mark III Hypercube and the BBN Butterfly parallel processors was measured relative to an efficient sequential execution of the same model on the same hardware. The results indicate that STB88 version 1 achieves a speed-up of 28.6 on 60 Mark III processors, while STB88 version 2 achieves a speed-up of 36.8 on 100 Butterfly processors. Version 3 of STB88 achieved a speed-up of 38.5 on 128 Mark III processors. The versions differed only in their interface to Time Warp. On the Butterfly, the sequential execution completed in 2 hours, while the 100 processor execution completed in 3.2 minutes.     

State of the Art: The Immunomodulatory Role of MSCs for Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) has generally been introduced as a degenerative disease; however, it has recently been understood as a low-grade chronic inflammatory process that could promote symptoms and accelerate the progression of OA. Current treatment strategies, including corticosteroid injections, have no impact on the OA disease progression. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) based therapy seem to be in the spotlight as a disease-modifying treatment because this strategy provides enlarged anti-inflammatory and chondroprotective effects. Currently, bone marrow, adipose derived, synovium-derived, and Wharton’s jelly-derived MSCs are the most widely used types of MSCs in the cartilage engineering. MSCs exert immunomodulatory, immunosuppressive, antiapoptotic, and chondrogenic effects mainly by paracrine effect. Because MSCs disappear from the tissue quickly after administration, recently, MSCs-derived exosomes received the focus for the next-generation treatment strategy for OA. MSCs-derived exosomes contain a variety of miRNAs. Exosomal miRNAs have a critical role in cartilage regeneration by immunomodulatory function such as promoting chondrocyte proliferation, matrix secretion, and subsiding inflammation. In the future, a personalized exosome can be packaged with ideal miRNA and proteins for chondrogenesis by enriching techniques. In addition, the target specific exosomes could be a gamechanger for OA. However, we should consider the off-target side effects due to multiple gene targets of miRNA.