The Effect of Planting Density and Supports on the Seed Yield of Mucuna cochinchinensis

Mucuna cochinchinensis was planted for seed production using six planting systems. These comprised combinations of two planting distances; 1. 0 m x 1.0 m and 2.0 m x 2.0 m with three types of supports; no support, individual pole support for each plant or the wire-trellis type of support. Plants using either type of support outyielded the seed production from plants which received no support. Mean yield of normal seeds for unsupported plants, plants with individual support and plants with the wire trellis type of support were 76,677 and 736 kg/ha respectively. The lower yield of normal seeds from unsupported plants resulted from a combination of a lower total seed yield and a higher percentage of rotten seeds. Rotten seeds in unsupported plants comprised 68 percent of total seed yield compared to 38 percent and 33 percent for individually supported and wire-trellis supported plants respectively. Differences between the two types of supports were not significant. Planting distance did not have a significant effect on seed yield. However, for plants without any support there was a higher percentage of ;otten seeds (78%) for the more closely spaced plants than for plants planted at the wider spacing (54%)

Electrical isolation of n-type and p-type InP layers by proton bombardment

The evolution of the sheet resistance(Rs) of n-type and p-type conductive InP layers during proton irradiation and the stability of the formed isolation during postirradiation annealing were investigated. It was found that the threshold dose (Dth) to convert the conductive layer to a highly resistive one is different for n- and p-type samples with similar initial free carrier concentrations. From our results, one infers that the antisite defects and/or related defect complexes formed by the replacement collisions are the carrier trapping centers, where InP is responsible for electron trapping and PIn for the hole trapping. A time dependence of the Rs was observed after each irradiation step to doses of ≅Dth and higher. This time variation is related to metastable processes involving free carriers. The thermal stability of the isolation of n-type samples is limited to temperatures lower than 200 °C, irrespectively of the irradiated dose. For p-type samples the thermal stability of electrical isolation is extended to 450–500 °C.This work was partly supported by Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas (CNPq, Brazil) under Contract No. 200541/ 99-4

Ultrafast trapping times in ion implanted InP

As⁺ and P⁺implantation was performed on semi-insulating (SI) and p-type InP samples for the purpose of creating a material suitable for ultrafast optoelectronic applications. SI InP samples were implanted with a dose of 1×10¹⁶ cm⁻² and p-type InP was implanted with doses between 1×10¹² and 1×10¹⁶ cm⁻². Subsequently, rapid thermal annealing at temperatures between 400 and 700 °C was performed for 30 sec. Hall-effect measurements, double-crystal x-ray diffraction, and time-resolved femtosecond differential reflectivity showed that, for the highest-annealing temperatures, the implanted SI InP samples exhibited high mobility, low resistivity, short response times, and minimal structural damage. Similar measurements on implantedp-type InP showed that the fast response time, high mobility, and good structural recovery could be retained while increasing the resistivity

Evolution of InAs branches in InAs/GaAs nanowire heterostructures

Branched nanowireheterostructures of InAs∕GaAs were observed during Au-assisted growth of InAs on GaAsnanowires. The evolution of these branches has been determined through detailed electron microscopy characterization with the following sequence: (1) in the initial stage of InAsgrowth, the Au droplet is observed to slide down the side of the GaAsnanowire, (2) the downward movement of Aunanoparticle later terminates when the nanoparticle encounters InAsgrowing radially on the GaAsnanowire sidewalls, and (3) with further supply of In and As vapor reactants, the Aunanoparticles assist the formation of InAs branches with a well-defined orientation relationship with GaAs∕InAs core/shell stems. We anticipate that these observations advance the understanding of the kink formation in axial nanowireheterostructures.The Australian Research Council is acknowledged for the financial support of this project. One of the authors M.P. acknowledges the support of an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship

A study of quantum well solar cell structures with bound-to-continuum transitions for reduced carrier recombination

A bound-to-continuum quantum well solar cell structure is proposed, and the band structure and absorption spectra are analyzed by the use of an eight band k⋅p model. The structure is based on quantum wells that only support bound states for the valence band. The absence of bound conduction band states has a number of potential advantages, including a reduction of electron trapping and, therefore, a reduction of quantum well induced photocarrier recombination due to reduced spatial overlap of the electron and hole wavefunctions.Thanks are due to the Australian Research Council for the financial support of this research

Strain relaxation and phonon confinement in self-assembled InAsSb/InP (001) quantum dashes: Effect of deposition thickness and composition

This paper presents a study on the strain relaxation and phonon confinement effect in InAsSb/InP quantum dashes QDashes. The phonon mode with a frequency between that of InAs-like longitudinal optical mode and that of InP transverse optical mode is determined to be originated from InAsSb QDashes. Despite the small height of the QDashes, their phonon frequency is found to be mainly determined by the strain relaxation in the dashes. With increasing InAsSb deposition thickness and Sb composition in InAsSb dashes, the phonon mode shows an upward shift of its frequency due to the increased compressive strain.Financial support from Australian Research Council DP0774366 is gratefully acknowledged

Modulation of terahertz polarization on picosecond timescales using polymer-encapsulated semiconductor nanowires

© OSA 2017. We exploit the photoconductivity of semiconductor nanowires to achieve ultrafast broad-bandwidth modulation of THz pulses. A modulation depth of -8 dB was exhibited by a polarizer consisting of 14 layers of nanowires encapsulated in polymer

Structural characteristics of GaSb∕GaAs nanowire heterostructures grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition

Highly lattice mismatched (7.8%) GaAs∕GaSbnanowireheterostructures were grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition and their detailed structural characteristics were determined by electron microscopy. The facts that (i) no defects have been found in GaSb and its interfaces with GaAs and (ii) the lattice mismatch between GaSb∕GaAs was fully relaxed suggest that the growth of GaSbnanowires is purely governed by the thermodynamics. The authors believe that the low growth rate of GaSbnanowires leads to the equilibrium growth

Three-dimensional electronic spectroscopy of excitons in asymmetric double quantum wells

We demonstrate three-dimensional (3D) electronic spectroscopy of excitons in a double quantum well system using a three-dimensional phase retrieval algorithm to obtain the phase information that is lost in the measurement of intensities. By extending the analysis of two-dimensional spectroscopy to three dimensions, contributions from different quantum mechanical pathways can be further separated allowing greater insight into the mechanisms responsible for the observed peaks. By examining different slices of the complete three-dimensional spectrum, not only can the relative amplitudes be determined, but the peak shapes can also be analysed to reveal further details of the interactions with the environment and inhomogeneous broadening. We apply this technique to study the coupling between two coupled quantum wells, 5.7 nm and 8 nm wide, separated by a 4 nm barrier. Coupling between the heavy-hole excitons of each well results in a circular cross-peak indicating no correlation of the inhomogeneous broadening. An additional cross-peak is isolated in the 3D spectrum which is elongated in the diagonal direction indicating correlated inhomogeneous broadening. This is attributed to coupling of the excitons involving the two delocalised light-hole states and the electron state localised on the wide well. The attribution of this peak and the analysis of the peak shapes is supported by numerical simulations of the electron and hole wavefunctions and the three-dimensional spectrum based on a density matrix approach. An additional benefit of extending the phase retrieval algorithm from two to three dimensions is that it becomes substantially more reliable and less susceptible to noise as a result of the more extensive use of a priori information.The authors gratefully acknowledge the Australian Research Council and Australian National Fabrication Facility for financial support