Organic Single-Crystal Field-Effect Transistors

We present an overview of recent studies of the charge transport in the field effect transistors on the surface of single crystals of organic low-molecular-weight materials. We first discuss in detail the technological progress that has made these investigations possible. Particular attention is devoted to the growth and characterization of single crystals of organic materials and to different techniques that have been developed for device fabrication. We then concentrate on the measurements of the electrical characteristics. In most cases, these characteristics are highly reproducible and demonstrate the quality of the single crystal transistors. Particularly noticeable are the small sub-threshold slope, the non-monotonic temperature dependence of the mobility, and its weak dependence on the gate voltage. In the best rubrene transistors, room-temperature values of $\mu$ as high as 15 cm$^2$/Vs have been observed. This represents an order-of-magnitude increase with respect to the highest mobility previously reported for organic thin film transistors. In addition, the highest-quality single-crystal devices exhibit a significant anisotropy of the conduction properties with respect to the crystallographic direction. These observations indicate that the field effect transistors fabricated on single crystals are suitable for the study of the \textit{intrinsic} electronic properties of organic molecular semiconductors. We conclude by indicating some directions in which near-future work should focus to progress further in this rapidly evolving area of research.Comment: Review article, to appear in special issue of Phys. Stat. Sol. on organic semiconductor

The coupling of a hearing aid loudspeaker membrane to visco-thermal air layers

Hearing aids and their components are becoming smaller. This presents new problems for the acoustical components, such as the loudspeaker. A circular membrane of a hearing aid loudspeaker is modeled in this paper. Neglecting air influences, the membrane and its suspension behave as a mass spring system. However, under operating conditions, thin layers of air on both sides of the membrane influence its behavior. Air can enter and leave these layers at certain locations on the circular edge of the layer. Since these air layers are thin, visco-thermal effects may have to be taken into account. Therefore, the air layers are not modeled by the wave equation, but by the low reduced frequency model that takes these visco-thermal effects into account. The equations of this model are solved in a polar coordinate system, using a wave-based method. The other acoustical parts of the hearing aid loudspeaker, and the membrane itself are modeled by simple lumped models. The emphasis in this paper is on the coupling of the viscothermal air layer model to the mechanical model of the membrane. Coupling of the air layer to other acoustical parts by using an impedance as boundary condition for the layer model, is also described. The resulting model is verified by experiments. The model and the measurements match reasonably well, considering the level of approximation with lumped parts

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

Supersymmetry and LHC

The motivation for introduction of supersymmetry in high energy physics as well as a possibility for supersymmetry discovery at LHC (Large Hadronic Collider) are discussed. The main notions of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) are introduced. Different regions of parameter space are analyzed and their phenomenological properties are compared. Discovery potential of LHC for the planned luminosity is shown for different channels. The properties of SUSY Higgs bosons are studied and perspectives of their observation at LHC are briefly outlined.Comment: Lectures given at the 9th Moscow International School of Physics (XXXIV ITEP Winter School of Physics

Influence of the gate leakage current on the stability of organic single-crystal field-effect transistors

We investigate the effect of a small leakage current through the gate insulator on the stability of organic single-crystal field-effect transistors (FETs). We find that, irrespective of the specific organic molecule and dielectric used, leakage current flowing through the gate insulator results in an irreversible degradation of the single-crystal FET performance. This degradation occurs even when the leakage current is several orders of magnitude smaller than the source-drain current. The experimental data indicate that a stable operation requires the leakage current to be smaller than $10^{-9} \ \mathrm{A/cm}^2$. Our results also suggest that gate leakage currents may determine the lifetime of thin-film transistors used in applications.Comment: submitted to Appl. Phys. Let

Соціально-правова та етична природа мусульманської сім‘ї

Relative sea-level variations during the late Pleistocene can only be reconstructed with the knowledge of ice-sheet history. On the other hand, the knowledge of regional and global relative sea-level variations is necessary to learn about the changes in ice volume. Overcoming this problem of circularity demands a fully coupled system where ice sheets and sea level vary consistently in space and time and dynamically affect each other. Here we present results for the past 410 000 years (410 kyr) from the coupling of a set of 3-D ice-sheet-shelf models to a global sea-level model, which is based on the solution of the gravitationally self-consistent sea-level equation. The sea-level model incorporates the glacial isostatic adjustment feedbacks for a Maxwell viscoelastic and rotating Earth model with coastal migration. Ice volume is computed with four 3-D ice-sheet-shelf models for North America, Eurasia, Greenland and Antarctica. Using an inverse approach, ice volume and temperature are derived from a benthic δ18O stacked record. The derived surface-air temperature anomaly is added to the present-day climatology to simulate glacial–interglacial changes in temperature and hence ice volume. The ice-sheet thickness variations are then forwarded to the sea-level model to compute the bedrock deformation, the change in sea-surface height and thus the relative sea-level change. The latter is then forwarded to the ice-sheet models. To quantify the impact of relative sea-level variations on ice-volume evolution, we have performed coupled and uncoupled simulations. The largest differences of ice-sheet thickness change occur at the edges of the ice sheets, where relative sea-level change significantly departs from the ocean-averaged sea-level variations