Large-scale Graphitic Thin Films Synthesized on Ni and Transferred to Insulators: Structural and Electronic Properties

We present a comprehensive study of the structural and electronic properties of ultrathin films containing graphene layers synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) based surface segregation on polycrystalline Ni foils then transferred onto insulating SiO2/Si substrates. Films of size up to several mm's have been synthesized. Structural characterizations by atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM) and Raman spectroscopy confirm that such large scale graphitic thin films (GTF) contain both thick graphite regions and thin regions of few layer graphene. The films also contain many wrinkles, with sharply-bent tips and dislocations revealed by XTEM, yielding insights on the growth and buckling processes of the GTF. Measurements on mm-scale back-gated transistor devices fabricated from the transferred GTF show ambipolar field effect with resistance modulation ~50% and carrier mobilities reaching ~2000 cm^2/Vs. We also demonstrate quantum transport of carriers with phase coherence length over 0.2 $\mu$m from the observation of 2D weak localization in low temperature magneto-transport measurements. Our results show that despite the non-uniformity and surface roughness, such large-scale, flexible thin films can have electronic properties promising for device applications.Comment: This version (as published) contains additional data, such as cross sectional TEM image

UV continuum emission and diagnostics of hydrogen-containing non-equilibrium plasmas

For the first time the emission of the radiative dissociation continuum of the hydrogen molecule ($a^{3}\Sigma_{g}^{+} \to b^{3}\Sigma_{u}^{+}$ electronic transition) is proposed to be used as a source of information for the spectroscopic diagnostics of non-equilibrium plasmas. The detailed analysis of excitation-deactivation kinetics, rate constants of various collisional and radiative transitions and fitting procedures made it possible to develop two new methods of diagnostics of: (1) the ground $X^{1}\Sigma_{g}^{+}$ state vibrational temperature $T_{\text{vib}}$ from the relative intensity distribution, and (2) the rate of electron impact dissociation (d[\mbox{H_{2}}]/dt)_{\text{diss}} from the absolute intensity of the continuum. A known method of determination of $T_{\text{vib}}$ from relative intensities of Fulcher-$\alpha$ bands was seriously corrected and simplified due to the revision of $d \to a$ transition probabilities and cross sections of $d \gets X$ electron impact excitation. General considerations are illustrated with examples of experiments in pure hydrogen capillary-arc and H$_{2}$+Ar microwave discharges.Comment: REVTeX, 25 pages + 12 figures + 9 tables. Phys. Rev. E, eprint replaced because of resubmission to journal after referee's 2nd repor

Optimal values of rovibronic energy levels for triplet electronic states of molecular deuterium

Optimal set of 1050 rovibronic energy levels for 35 triplet electronic states of $D_2$ has been obtained by means of a statistical analysis of all available wavenumbers of triplet-triplet rovibronic transitions studied in emission, absorption, laser and anticrossing spectroscopic experiments of various authors. We used a new method of the analysis (Lavrov, Ryazanov, JETP Letters, 2005), which does not need any \it a priory \rm assumptions concerning the molecular structure being based on only two fundamental principles: Rydberg-Ritz and maximum likelihood. The method provides the opportunity to obtain the RMS estimates for uncertainties of the experimental wavenumbers independent from those presented in original papers. 234 from 3822 published wavenumber values were found to be spurious, while the remaining set of the data may be divided into 20 subsets (samples) of uniformly precise data having close to normal distributions of random errors within the samples. New experimental wavenumber values of 125 questionable lines were obtained in the present work. Optimal values of the rovibronic levels were obtained from the experimental data set consisting of 3713 wavenumber values (3588 old and 125 new). The unknown shift between levels of ortho- and para- deuterium was found by least squares analysis of the $a^3\Sigma_g^+$, $v = 0$, $N = 0 \div 18$ rovibronic levels with odd and even values of $N$. All the energy levels were obtained relative to the lowest vibro-rotational level ($v = 0$, $N = 0$) of the $a^3\Sigma_g^+$ electronic state, and presented in tabular form together with the standard deviations of the empirical determination. New energy level values differ significantly from those available in literature.Comment: 46 pages, 9 picture

Extreme stiffness hyperbolic elastic metamaterial for total transmission subwavelength imaging

Subwavelength imaging by metamaterials and extended work to pursue total transmission has been successfully demonstrated with electromagnetic and acoustic waves very recently. However, no elastic counterpart has been reported because earlier attempts suffer from considerable loss. Here, for the first time, we realize an elastic hyperbolic metamaterial lens and experimentally show total transmission subwavelength imaging with measured wave field inside the metamaterial lens. The main idea is to compensate for the decreased impedance in the perforated elastic metamaterial by utilizing extreme stiffness, which has not been independently actualized in a continuum elastic medium so far. The fabricated elastic lens is capable of directly transferring subwavelength information from the input to the output boundary. In the experiment, this intriguing phenomenon is confirmed by scanning the elastic structures inside the lens with laser scanning vibrometer. The proposed elastic metamaterial lens will bring forth significant guidelines for ultrasonic imaging techniquesope

On determination of electronic-vibro-rotational term values of diatomic molecules from measured wavenumbers

A method is proposed for determining rovibronic term values of diatomics from experimental data on the wavenumbers of electronic-vibro-rotational spectral lines. In contrast to existing techniques, the new one is based on the Rydberg-Ritz principle only. It is shown that a link between a set of rovibronic term values and a set of wavenumbers of observed rovibronic spectral lines appears when three and more different electronic-vibrational states are pairwise-connected by radiative transitions. The method differs from known techniques in several aspects, namely, it: 1) doesn't need any assumptions concerning an internal structure of a molecule; 2) doesn't involve any intermediate parameters (as molecular constants in traditional techniques); 3) gives an opportunity to use in one-stage optimization procedure all available experimental data obtained for various band systems, by various authors, and in various works; 4) provides in an interactive mode the opportunity to select the experimental values, eliminating rough errors, to revise wrong identifications of spectral lines and to compare various sets of experimental data for mutual consistency; 5) allows to obtain not only an optimal set of rovibronic term values, but also the error bars depending on quantity and quality of existing experimental data. Necessary precondition for use of this method is a preliminary identification of electronic-vibro-rotational lines to certain electronic-vibro-rotational radiative transitions. For this purpose one has to use traditional methods of the analysis of molecular spectra.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, in Russia