6,883 research outputs found
Effects of Bulk and Surface Conductivity on the Performance of CdZnTe Pixel Detectors
We studied the effects of bulk and surface conductivity on the performance of
high-resistivity CdZnTe (CZT) pixel detectors with Pt contacts. We emphasize
the difference in mechanisms of the bulk and surface conductivity as indicated
by their different temperature behaviors. In addition, the existence of a thin
(10-100 A) oxide layer on the surface of CZT, formed during the fabrication
process, affects both bulk and surface leakage currents. We demonstrate that
the measured I-V dependencies of bulk current can be explained by considering
the CZT detector as a metal-semiconductor-metal system with two back-to-back
Schottky-barrier contacts. The high surface leakage current is apparently due
to the presence of a low-resistivity surface layer that has characteristics
which differ considerably from those of the bulk material. This surface layer
has a profound effect on the charge collection efficiency in detectors with
multi-contact geometry; some fraction of the electric field lines originated on
the cathode intersects the surface areas between the pixel contacts where the
charge produced by an ionizing particle gets trapped. To overcome this effect
we place a grid of thin electrodes between the pixel contacts; when the grid is
negatively biased, the strong electric field in the gaps between the pixels
forces the electrons landing on the surface to move toward the contacts,
preventing the charge loss. We have investigated these effects by using CZT
pixel detectors indium bump bonded to a custom-built VLSI readout chip
Single-electron current sources: towards a refined definition of ampere
Controlling electrons at the level of elementary charge has been
demonstrated experimentally already in the 1980's. Ever since, producing an
electrical current , or its integer multiple, at a drive frequency has
been in a focus of research for metrological purposes. In this review we first
discuss the generic physical phenomena and technical constraints that influence
charge transport. We then present the broad variety of proposed realizations.
Some of them have already proven experimentally to nearly fulfill the demanding
needs, in terms of transfer errors and transfer rate, of quantum metrology of
electrical quantities, whereas some others are currently "just" wild ideas,
still often potentially competitive if technical constraints can be lifted. We
also discuss the important issues of read-out of single-electron events and
potential error correction schemes based on them. Finally, we give an account
of the status of single-electron current sources in the bigger framework of
electric quantum standards and of the future international SI system of units,
and briefly discuss the applications and uses of single-electron devices
outside the metrological context.Comment: 55 pages, 38 figures; (v2) fixed typos and misformatted references,
reworded the section on AC pump
Spike detection using the continuous wavelet transform
This paper combines wavelet transforms with basic detection theory to develop a new unsupervised method for robustly detecting and localizing spikes in noisy neural recordings. The method does not require the construction of templates, or the supervised setting of thresholds. We present extensive Monte Carlo simulations, based on actual extracellular recordings, to show that this technique surpasses other commonly used methods in a wide variety of recording conditions. We further demonstrate that falsely detected spikes corresponding to our method resemble actual spikes more than the false positives of other techniques such as amplitude thresholding. Moreover, the simplicity of the method allows for nearly real-time execution
A simulation of the single scan accuracy of a two-dimensional pulsed surveillance radar
Bibliography: leaves 194-198.The following dissertation considers the single-scan two-dimensional positional accuracy of a pulsed surveillance radar. The theoretical aspects to the positional accuracy are considered and a generalized analytical approach is presented. Practical position estimators are often complex, and theoretical predictions of their performance generally yield unfriendly mathematical equations. In order to evaluate the performance of these estimators, a simulation method is described based on replicating the received video signal. The accuracy of such a simulation is determined largely by the accuracy of the models applied, and these are considered in detail. Different azimuth estimation techniques are described, and their performances are evaluated with the aid of the signal simulation. The best azimuth accuracy performance is obtained with the class of analogue processing estimators, but they are found to be more susceptible to interference than their binary processing counterparts. The class of binary processing estimators offer easily implemented techniques which are relatively insensitive to radar cross-section scintillation characteristics. A hybrid estimator, using both analogue and binary processing, is also evaluated and found to give an improved accuracy performance over the binary processing method while still maintaining the relative insensitivity to radar cross-section fluctuation
Electron Spin for Classical Information Processing: A Brief Survey of Spin-Based Logic Devices, Gates and Circuits
In electronics, information has been traditionally stored, processed and
communicated using an electron's charge. This paradigm is increasingly turning
out to be energy-inefficient, because movement of charge within an
information-processing device invariably causes current flow and an associated
dissipation. Replacing charge with the "spin" of an electron to encode
information may eliminate much of this dissipation and lead to more
energy-efficient "green electronics". This realization has spurred significant
research in spintronic devices and circuits where spin either directly acts as
the physical variable for hosting information or augments the role of charge.
In this review article, we discuss and elucidate some of these ideas, and
highlight their strengths and weaknesses. Many of them can potentially reduce
energy dissipation significantly, but unfortunately are error-prone and
unreliable. Moreover, there are serious obstacles to their technological
implementation that may be difficult to overcome in the near term.
This review addresses three constructs: (1) single devices or binary switches
that can be constituents of Boolean logic gates for digital information
processing, (2) complete gates that are capable of performing specific Boolean
logic operations, and (3) combinational circuits or architectures (equivalent
to many gates working in unison) that are capable of performing universal
computation.Comment: Topical Revie
Enhanced Optoelectronic Response in Bilayer Lateral Heterostructures of Transition Metal Dichalcogenides
Two-dimensional lateral heterojunctions are basic components for low-power
and flexible optoelectronics. In contrast to monolayers, devices based on
few-layer lateral heterostructures could offer superior performance due to
their lower susceptibility to environmental conditions. Here, we report the
controlled synthesis of multi-junction bilayer lateral heterostructures based
on MoS2-WS2 and MoSe2-WSe2, where the hetero-junctions are created via
sequential lateral edge-epitaxy that happens simultaneously in both the first
and the second layer. With respect to their monolayer counterparts, bilayer
lateral heterostructures yield nearly one order of magnitude higher
rectification currents. They also display a clear photovoltaic response, with
short circuit currents ~103 times larger than those extracted from the
monolayers, in addition to room-temperature electroluminescence. The superior
performance of bilayer heterostructures significantly expands the
functionalities of 2D crystals
Towards single-electron metrology
We review the status of the understanding of single-electron transport (SET)
devices with respect to their applicability in metrology. Their envisioned role
as the basis of a high-precision electrical standard is outlined and is
discussed in the context of other standards. The operation principles of single
electron transistors, turnstiles and pumps are explained and the fundamental
limits of these devices are discussed in detail. We describe the various
physical mechanisms that influence the device uncertainty and review the
analytical and numerical methods needed to calculate the intrinsic uncertainty
and to optimise the fabrication and operation parameters. Recent experimental
results are evaluated and compared with theoretical predictions. Although there
are discrepancies between theory and experiments, the intrinsic uncertainty is
already small enough to start preparing for the first SET-based metrological
applications.Comment: 39 pages, 14 figures. Review paper to be published in International
Journal of Modern Physics
Probability and Statistics for Particle Physicists
Lectures presented at the 1st CERN Asia-Europe-Pacific School of High-Energy
Physics, Fukuoka, Japan, 14-27 October 2012. A pedagogical selection of topics
in probability and statistics is presented. Choice and emphasis are driven by
the author's personal experience, predominantly in the context of physics
analyses using experimental data from high-energy physics detectors.Comment: Updated version of lectures given at the First Asia-Europe-Pacific
School of High-Energy Physics, Fukuoka, Japan, 14-27 October 2012. Published
as a CERN Yellow Report (CERN-2014-001) and KEK report
(KEK-Proceedings-2013-8), K. Kawagoe and M. Mulders (eds.), 2014, p. 219.
Total 28 pages, 36 figure
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