Elements of Good Training in Anatomic Pathology

The American College of Veterinary Pathologists’ (ACVP’s) 2007–2012 strategic plan recognized the crisis confronting academic training programs and formed a task force to address these concerns. One area of concern identified by the ACVP Training Program Development Task Force was the lack of guidelines to make training more consistent across all programs and provide justification for maintaining or increasing faculty numbers and training resources. Training guidelines for clinical pathology have been outlined in three publications.1,2,4 The current document addresses the need for training guidelines in veterinary anatomic pathology

Grain Size and Texture of Cu2ZnSnS4 Thin Films Synthesized by Cosputtering Binary Sulfides and Annealing: Effects of Processing Conditions and Sodium

We investigate the synthesis of kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) polycrystalline thin films using cosputtering from binary sulfide targets followed by annealing in sulfur vapor at 500 {\deg}C to 650 {\deg}C. The films are the kesterite CZTS phase as indicated by x-ray diffraction, Raman scattering, and optical absorption measurements. The films exhibit (112) fiber texture and preferred low-angle and Sigma3 grain boundary populations which have been demonstrated to reduce recombination in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and CdTe films. The grain growth kinetics are investigated as functions of temperature and the addition of Na. Significantly, lateral grain sizes above 1 um are demonstrated for samples grown on Na-free glass,demonstrating the feasibility for CZTS growth on substrates other than soda lime glass

Enhanced optoelectronic quality of perovskite thin films with hypophosphorous acid for planar heterojunction solar cells

Solution-processed metal halide perovskite semiconductors, such as CH3NH3PbI3, have exhibited remarkable performance in solar cells, despite having non-negligible density of defect states. A likely candidate is halide vacancies within the perovskite crystals, or the presence of metallic lead, both generated due to the imbalanced I/Pb stoichiometry which could evolve during crystallization. Herein, we show that the addition of hypophosphorous acid (HPA) in the precursor solution can significantly improve the film quality, both electronically and topologically, and enhance the photoluminescence intensity, which leads to more efficient and reproducible photovoltaic devices. We demonstrate that the HPA can reduce the oxidized I2 back into I�, and our results indicate that this facilitates an improved stoichiometry in the perovskite crystal and a reduced density of metallic lead

Structural and chemical investigations of CBD- and PVD-CdS buffer layers and interface in Cu(In,Ga)Se2-based thin film solar cells.

It is known that high-efficiency thin film solar cells based on Cu(In,Ga)Se-2 (CIGS) can be obtained using US buffer layers grown by chemical bath deposition (CBD). The highest efficiencies achieved with US buffer layers produced by physical vapor deposition (PVD) are significantly lower. To find reasons for this difference, structural and chemical properties of CBD- and PVD-CdS buffer layers and their interfaces with CIGS were investigated by means of bright-field (BF-TEM), high-resolution (HR-TEM) and energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy (EF-TEM), and also by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). PVD-CdS grains were shown to be clearly larger than the CBD-CdS grains. Also, a large defect density was detected at the PVD-CdS/CIGS interface, which is attributed to the larger lattice mismatch than at the CBD-CdS/CIGS interface. Cu diffusion from CIGS into CdS was found for the CBD- and the PVD-CdS sample. The PVD-CdS/CIGS interface turned out to be quite abrupt, whereas the CBD-CdS/CIGS interface is rather diffuse. The differences in efficiencies of solar cells with CBD- and PVD-CdS buffer layers can partly be explained by referring to the higher defect density and the probable absence of an inversion of the near-interface region from p- to n-type at the PVD-CdS/CIGS interface