Depletion Layers and Domain Walls in Semiconducting Ferroelectric Thin Films

Commonly used ferroelectric perovskites are also wide-band-gap semiconductors. In such materials, the polarization and the space-charge distribution are intimately coupled, and this Letter studies them simultaneously with no a priori ansatz on either. In particular, we study the structure of domain walls and the depletion layers that form at the metal-ferroelectric interfaces. We find the coupling between polarization and space charges leads to the formation of charge double layers at the 90° domain walls, which, like the depletion layers, are also decorated by defects like oxygen vacancies. In contrast, the 180° domain walls do not interact with the defects or space charges. Implications of these results to domain switching and fatigue in ferroelectric devices are discussed

Modified theory of gravity and the history of cosmic evolution

A continuous transition from early Friedmann-like radiation era through to late time cosmic acceleration passing through a long Friedmann-like matter dominated era followed by a second phase of radiation era has been realized in modified theory of gravity containing a combination of curvature squared term, a linear term, a three-half term and an ideal fluid. Thus the history of cosmic evolution is explained by modified theory of gravity singlehandedly. The second phase of radiation-like era might provide an explanation to the hydrogen and helium reionization at low redshift.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, Astrophys Space Sci (2014

Effect of doping on polarization profiles and switching in semiconducting ferroelectric thin films

This paper proposes a theory to describe the polarization and switching behavior of ferroelectrics that are also wide-gap semiconductors. The salient feature of our theory is that it does not make any a priori assumption about either the space charge distribution or the polarization profile. The theory is used to study a metal-ferroelectric-metal capacitor configuration, where the ferroelectric is n-type doped. The main result of our work is a phase diagram as a function of doping level and thickness that shows different phases, namely, films with polarization profiles that resemble that of undoped classical ferroelectrics, paraelectric, and a new head-to-tail domain structure. We have identified a critical doping level, which depends on the energy barrier in the Landau energy and the built-in potential, which is decided by the electronic structures of both the film and the electrodes. When the doping level is below this critical value, the behavior of the films is almost classical. We see a depleted region, which extends through the film when the film thickness is very small, but is confined to two boundary layers near the electrodes for large film thickness. When the doping level is higher than the critical value, the behavior is classical for only very thin films. Thicker films at this doping level are forced into a tail-to-tail configuration with three depletion layers, lose their ferroelectricity, and may thus be described as nonlinear dielectric or paraelectric. For films which are doped below the critical level, we show that the field required for switching starts out at the classical coercive field for very thin films, but gradually decreases

Non-coding RNAs in skin cancers: An update

AbstractSkin cancers are the most common form of cancer in humans. They can largely be categorized into Melanoma and Non-melanoma skin cancers. The latter mainly includes Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) and Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC), and have a higher incidence than melanomas. There has been a recent emergence of interest in the role of non-coding RNA's in pathogenesis of skin cancers. The transcripts which lack any protein coding capacity are called non-coding RNA. These non-coding RNA are further classified based on their length; small non-coding RNA (<200 nucleotides) and long non-coding RNA (>200 nucleotides). ncRNA They are involved at multiple transcriptional, post transcriptional and epigenetic levels, modulating cell proliferation, angiogenesis, senescence and apoptosis. Their expression pattern has also been linked to metastases, drug resistance and long term prognosis. They have both diagnostic and prognostic significance for skin cancers, and can also be a target for future therapies for cutaneous malignancies. More research is needed to further utilize their potential as therapeutic targets

Transmission wavefront shearing interferometry for photoelastic materials

A general analysis and experimental validation of transmission wavefront shearing interferometry for photoelastic materials are presented. These interferometers applied to optically isotropic materials produce a single interference pattern related to one phase term, but when applied to photoelastic materials, they produce the sum of two different interference patterns with phase terms that are the sum and difference, respectively, of two stress-related phase terms. The two stress-related phase terms may be separated using phase shifting and polarization optics. These concepts are experimentally demonstrated using coherent gradient sensing in full field for a compressed polycarbonate plate with a V-shaped notch with good agreement with theoretical data. The analysis may be applied to any wavefront shearing interferometer by modifying parameters describing the wavefront shearing distance

Disclination-mediated thermo-optical response in nematic glass sheets

Nematic solids respond strongly to changes in ambient heat or light, significantly differently parallel and perpendicular to the director. This phenomenon is well characterized for uniform director fields, but not for defect textures. We analyze the elastic ground states of a nematic glass in the membrane approximation as a function of temperature for some disclination defects with an eye towards reversibly inducing three-dimensional shapes from flat sheets of material, at the nano-scale all the way to macroscopic objects, including non-developable surfaces. The latter offers a new paradigm to actuation via switchable stretch in thin systems.Comment: Specific results for spiral defects now added. References to Witten, Mahadevan and Ben Amar now added

Model Reduction and Neural Networks for Parametric PDEs

We develop a general framework for data-driven approximation of input-output maps between infinite-dimensional spaces. The proposed approach is motivated by the recent successes of neural networks and deep learning, in combination with ideas from model reduction. This combination results in a neural network approximation which, in principle, is defined on infinite-dimensional spaces and, in practice, is robust to the dimension of finite-dimensional approximations of these spaces required for computation. For a class of input-output maps, and suitably chosen probability measures on the inputs, we prove convergence of the proposed approximation methodology. Numerically we demonstrate the effectiveness of the method on a class of parametric elliptic PDE problems, showing convergence and robustness of the approximation scheme with respect to the size of the discretization, and compare our method with existing algorithms from the literature