Field Effect Transistors on Rubrene Single Crystals with Parylene Gate Insulator

We report on fabrication and characterization of the organic field effect transistors (OFETs) on the surface of single crystals of rubrene. The parylene polymer film has been used as the gate insulator. At room temperature, these OFETs exhibit the p-type conductivity with the field effect mobility up to 1 cm^2/Vs and the on/off ratio ~ 10^4. The temperature dependence of the mobility is discussed.Comment: 3 page

Field-Effect Transistors on Tetracene Single Crystals

We report on the fabrication and electrical characterization of field-effect transistors at the surface of tetracene single crystals. We find that the mobility of these transistors reaches the room-temperature value of $0.4 \ cm^2/Vs$. The non-monotonous temperature dependence of the mobility, its weak gate voltage dependence, as well as the sharpness of the subthreshold slope confirm the high quality of single-crystal devices. This is due to the fabrication process that does not substantially affect the crystal quality.Comment: Accepted by Appl. Phys. Lett, tentatively scheduled for publication in the November 24, 2003 issu

Kinetics of viral self-assembly: the role of ss RNA antenna

A big class of viruses self-assemble from a large number of identical capsid proteins with long flexible N-terminal tails and ss RNA. We study the role of the strong Coulomb interaction of positive N-terminal tails with ss RNA in the kinetics of the in vitro virus self-assembly. Capsid proteins stick to unassembled chain of ss RNA (which we call "antenna") and slide on it towards the assembly site. We show that at excess of capsid proteins such one-dimensional diffusion accelerates self-assembly more than ten times. On the other hand at excess of ss RNA, antenna slows self-assembly down. Several experiments are proposed to verify the role of ss RNA antenna.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, several experiments are proposed, a new idea of experiment is adde

Towards spin injection from silicon into topological insulators: Schottky barrier between Si and Bi2Se3

A scheme is proposed to electrically measure the spin-momentum coupling in the topological insulator surface state by injection of spin polarized electrons from silicon. As a first approach, devices were fabricated consisting of thin (<100nm) exfoliated crystals of Bi2Se3 on n-type silicon with independent electrical contacts to silicon and Bi2Se3. Analysis of the temperature dependence of thermionic emission in reverse bias indicates a barrier height of 0.34 eV at the Si-Bi2Se3 interface. This robust Schottky barrier opens the possibility of novel device designs based on sub-band gap internal photoemission from Bi2Se3 into Si

Groundwater characteristics at Seabee Hook, Cape Hallett, Antarctica

Seabee Hook is a low lying gravel spit adjacent to Cape Hallett, northern Victoria Land, in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica and hosts an Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) rookery. Dipwells were inserted to monitor changes in depth to, and volume of, groundwater and tracer tests were conducted to estimate aquifer hydraulic conductivity and groundwater velocity. During summer (November–February), meltwater forms a shallow, unconfined, aquifer perched on impermeable ice cemented soil. Groundwater extent and volume depends on the amount of snowfall as meltwater is primarily sourced from melting snow drifts. Groundwater velocity through the permeable gravel and sand was up to 7.8 m day−1, and hydraulic conductivities of 4.7 × 10−4 m s−1 to 3.7 × 10−5 m s−1 were measured. The presence of the penguin rookery, and the proximity of the sea, affects groundwater chemistry with elevated concentrations of salts (1205 mg L−1 sodium, 332 mg L−1 potassium) and nutrients (193 mg L−1 nitrate, 833 mg L−1 ammonia, 10 mg L−1 total phosphorus) compared with groundwater sourced away from the rookery, and with other terrestrial waters in Antarctica

Rapid Manufacturing of Silicon Carbide Composites

From the earliest days of SFF technology development, a viable technique for the direct manufacture of fully-functional parts has been a major technology goal. While direct metal methods have been demonstrated for a variety of metals including aluminum, steel and titanium, they have not reached wide commercial application due to processing speed, final material properties and surface finish. In this paper the development of an SLS-based rapid manufacturing (RM) platform is reviewed. The core of this platform is a thermosetting binder system for preform parts in contrast to the thermoplastic materials currently available for SLS. The preforms may include metal and/or ceramic powders. A variety of fully functional parts can be prepared from different combinations of materials and post processing steps including binder pyrolysis, free-standing alloy infiltration, room temperature polymer infiltration and machining. The main issues of these steps are reviewed followed by a discussion about the support of RM. This paper is an intermediate report additional materials, applications, process models and product design strategies will be incorporated into the project in the next year.Mechanical Engineerin

SLS Materials Development Method for Rapid Manufacturing

As soon as SFF technology development began to make Rapid Prototyping possible the interest in Rapid Manufacturing (RM) began to grow. The advantages in terms of functional integration, elimination of tooling and fixtures and mass customization make a compelling case for RM, leading some in the field to call it the next industrial revolution. Yet without the materials properties necessary to provide the function and variety currently available from mass production methods, the application of RM will remain limited. Developing new materials for the SLS process, one immediate step toward a larger portfolio of RM materials, is very challenging. The formation of high quality SLS parts relies on appropriate powder characteristics, thermal cycles and sintering behavior. Based on a brief examination of the key factors in SLS processing and a research project to develop a new binder material for Silicon Carbide composites, a systematic materials development method is proposed in this paper. The method provides guidance for introducing new SLS materials, support for educating new SLS users and researchers and direction for several future research projects.Mechanical Engineerin

Design and standalone characterisation of a capacitively coupled HV-CMOS sensor chip for the CLIC vertex detector

The concept of capacitive coupling between sensors and readout chips is under study for the vertex detector at the proposed high-energy CLIC electron positron collider. The CLICpix Capacitively Coupled Pixel Detector (C3PD) is an active High-Voltage CMOS sensor, designed to be capacitively coupled to the CLICpix2 readout chip. The chip is implemented in a commercial $180$ nm HV-CMOS process and contains a matrix of $128\times128$ square pixels with $25$ $\mu$m pitch. First prototypes have been produced with a standard resistivity of $\sim20$ $\Omega$cm for the substrate and tested in standalone mode. The results show a rise time of $\sim20$ ns, charge gain of $190$ mV/ke$^{-}$ and $\sim40$ e$^{-}$ RMS noise for a power consumption of $4.8$ $\mu$W/pixel. The main design aspects, as well as standalone measurement results, are presented.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables. Work carried out in the framework of the CLICdp collaboratio

Spin-polarized electronic structures and transport properties of Fe-Co alloys

The electrical resistivities of Fe-Co alloys owing to random alloy disorder are calculated using the Kubo-Greenwood formula. The obtained electrical esistivities agree well with experimental data quantitatively at low temperature. The spin-polarization of Fe50Co50 estimated from the conductivity (86%) has opposite sign to that from the densities of the states at the Fermi level (-73%). It is found that the conductivity is governed mainly by s-electrons, and the s-electrons in the minority spin states are less conductive due to strong scattering by the large densities of the states of d-electrons than the majority spin electrons.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure