Thermally induced changes in optical and electrical properties of SnSb

Sulfosalt SnSb2S4 films for optical and electrical applications have been prepared on glass substrates by thermal evaporation and subsequently thermally annealed in vacuum at temperatures from 100 to 200 °C. The optical and structural properties of the films were studied as a function of the annealing temperature. The SnSb2S4 films exhibit a polycrystalline structure and undergo abrupt changes in electrical and optical properties at a transition temperature of 140 °C. After annealing below the transition temperature, the films are highly resistive with a dominant amorphous component, but when annealed above this temperature, the samples exhibit p+-type semiconductor behaviour with a dominant crystalline componen

An Eco-Friendly Synthetic Approach for Copper Nanoclusters and Their Potential in Lead Ions Sensing and Biological Applications

A new preparation route for high-luminescent blue-emission pepsin copper nanoclusters (Pep-CuNCs) is introduced in this work. The synthesized nanoclusters are based on a pepsin molecule, which is a stomach enzyme that works to digest proteins that exist in undigested food. Here, we have developed an eco-friendly technique through microwave-assisted fast synthesis. The resulting copper nanoclusters (CuNCs) exhibit significant selectivity towards Pb(II) ions. The pepsin molecule was utilized as a stabilizer and reducing agent in the production procedure of Pep-CuNCs. The characteristics of the resulting Pep-CuNCs were studied in terms of size, surface modification, and composition using various sophisticated techniques. The CuNCs responded to Pb(II) ions through the fluorescence quenching mechanism of the CuNCs’ fluorescence. Thus, great selectivity of Pep-CuNCs towards Pb(II) ions was observed, allowing sensitive determination of this metal ion at lab-scale and in the environment. The CuNCs have detection limits for Pb(II) in very tenuous concentration at a nanomalar scale (11.54 nM). The resulting Pep-CuNCs were utilized significantly to detect Pb(II) ions in environmental samples. Additionally, the activity of Pep-CuNCs on different human tumor cell lines was investigated. The data for the observed behavior indicate that the Pep-CuNCs displayed their activity against cancer cells in a dose dependent manner against most utilized cancer cell lines

Engineering of electronic and optical properties of PbS thin films via Cu doping

Copper-doped PbS polycrystalline thin films were deposited by chemical bath deposition by adding small amount of Cu (y(solution) = [Cu2+]/[Pb2+]) between 0.5 and 2 at%. The composition, structure, morphology, optical and electrical properties of the films were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), UV-visible near infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) spectrophotometry and Hall effect measurements. The XRD studies showed that the undoped films have PbS face centered cubic structure with (111) preferential orientation, while preferential orientation changes to (200) plane with increasing Cu doping concentration. The AFM and SEM measurements indicated that the film surfaces consisted of nanosized grains with pyramidal shape. Optical band gap was blue shifted from 0.72 eV to 1.69 eV with the increase in Cu doping concentration. The film obtained with the [Cu2+]/[Pb2+] ratio equal to 1.5 at% Cu showed the minimum resistivity of 0.16 Omega cm at room temperature and optimum value of optical band gap close to 1.5 eV. 1.5 at% Cu-doped PbS thin films exhibit the best optical and electrical properties, suitable for solar cells applications. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Effect of Passivation on Microwave Power Performances of AlGaN/GaN/Si HEMTs

This paper reports on the use of plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) grown on silicon substrate. Surface passivation effects on AlGaN/GaN HEMTs were studied using SiO2/SiN dielectric layers grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The direct current measurement, pulsed characteristics and microwave small-signal characteristics were studied before and after passivation. An improvement of drain-source current density and the extrinsic transconductance was observed on the passivated HEMTs when compared with the unpassivated HEMTs. An enhancement of cut-off frequency (ft) and maximum power gain (fmax) was also observed for the devices with full SiO2/SiN passivation. A good correlation is found between pulsed and power measurements