Structure of the silicon vacancy in 6H-SiC after annealing identified as the carbon vacancy–carbon antisite pair

We investigated radiation-induced defects in neutron-irradiated and subsequently annealed 6H-silicon carbide (SiC) with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), the magnetic circular dichroism of the absorption (MCDA), and MCDA-detected EPR (MCDA-EPR). In samples annealed beyond the annealing temperature of the isolated silicon vacancy we observed photoinduced EPR spectra of spin S=1 centers that occur in orientations expected for nearest neighbor pair defects. EPR spectra of the defect on the three inequivalent lattice sites were resolved and attributed to optical transitions between photon energies of 999 and 1075 meV by MCDA-EPR. The resolved hyperfine structure indicates the presence of one single carbon nucleus and several silicon ligand nuclei. These experimental findings are interpreted with help of total energy and spin density data obtained from the standard local-spin density approximation of the density-functional theory, using relaxed defect geometries obtained from the self-consistent charge density-functional theory based tight binding scheme. We have checked several defect models of which only the photoexcited spin triplet state of the carbon antisite–carbon vacancy pair (CSi-VC) in the doubly positive charge state can explain all experimental findings. We propose that the (CSi-VC) defect is formed from the isolated silicon vacancy as an annealing product by the movement of a carbon neighbor into the vacancy

Fatigue strength of inner knurled interference fit joined by forming and cutting methods

The joining of machine parts by plastic forming is a common method for transmitting forces and torque. In drive trains, the ‘knurled interference fit’ has a high transmission capacity through the combination of frictional connection and form fit. In the present study, the shaft specimen made of C45 steel material is joined with an inner knurled hub made of 16MnCr5 case hardened steel. The influence of the joining process parameters on the torsional fatigue strength of the shaft-hub connection is investigated by means of experimental studies. The most important parameter is the chamfer angle of the knurled hub, which determines the rate of strain hardening in the material and differs between the cutting and forming joining processes. This study shows that knurled interference fit connections joined by forming achieve a higher fatigue strength and a higher maximum static torque than connections joined by cutting

Paramagnetic signature of microcrystalline silicon carbide

Abstract. The most important challenge on the way to optimized solar cells is to make the thickness of the individual layers smaller than the diffusion length of the charge carriers, in order to keep the collection efficiency close to unity. Here, we propose ß-SiC microcrystals grown by a sol-gel based process as a promising acceptor material. The samples are characterized by optical spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). With the help of band structures for selected surface states calculated in the framework of density functional theory (DFT) a possible scenario for the observed acceptor process is discussed

EPR, ESE and pulsed ENDOR study of nitrogen related centers in 4H-SiC wafers grown by different technologies

D-band electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements as well as X and Q-band field-swept Electron Spin Echo (ESE) and pulsed Electron Nuclear Double Resonance (ENDOR) studies were performed on a series of n-type 4H-SiC wafers grown by different techniques including sublimation sandwich method (SSM), physical vapor transport (PVT) and modified Lely method. Depending on the C/Si ratio and the growth temperature the n-type 4H-SiC wafers revealed, besides a triplet due to nitrogen residing on the cubic site (Nc), two nitrogen (N) related EPR spectra with g||=2.0055, g⊥=2.0010 and g||=2.0063, g⊥=2.0005 with different intensities. In the samples with low C/Si ratio the EPR spectrum with g||=2.0055, g⊥=2.0010 consists of a triplet with low intensity which is tentatively explained as a N-related complex, while in the samples with high C/Si ratio the triplet is transformed into one structureless line of high intensity, which is explained as being due to an exchange interaction between N donors. In the samples grown at low temperature with enhanced carbon concentration the EPR line with g||=2.0063, g⊥=2.0005 and a small hyperfine (hf) interaction dominates the EPR spectrum. It is attributed to N on the hexagonal lattice site. The interpretation of the EPR data is supported by activation energies and donor concentrations obtained from Hall effect measurements for three donor levels in this series of 4H-SiC samples

Know Thyself: Behavioral Evidence for a Structural Representation of the Human Body

Background: Representing one's own body is often viewed as a basic form of self-awareness. However, little is known about structural representations of the body in the brain.Methods and Findings: We developed an inter-manual version of the classical "in-between'' finger gnosis task: participants judged whether the number of untouched fingers between two touched fingers was the same on both hands, or different. We thereby dissociated structural knowledge about fingers, specifying their order and relative position within a hand, from tactile sensory codes. Judgments following stimulation on homologous fingers were consistently more accurate than trials with no or partial homology. Further experiments showed that structural representations are more enduring than purely sensory codes, are used even when number of fingers is irrelevant to the task, and moreover involve an allocentric representation of finger order, independent of hand posture.Conclusions: Our results suggest the existence of an allocentric representation of body structure at higher stages of the somatosensory processing pathway, in addition to primary sensory representation

Keeping in Touch with One's Self: Multisensory Mechanisms of Self-Consciousness

BACKGROUND: The spatial unity between self and body can be disrupted by employing conflicting visual-somatosensory bodily input, thereby bringing neurological observations on bodily self-consciousness under scientific scrutiny. Here we designed a novel paradigm linking the study of bodily self-consciousness to the spatial representation of visuo-tactile stimuli by measuring crossmodal congruency effects (CCEs) for the full body. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We measured full body CCEs by attaching four vibrator-light pairs to the trunks (backs) of subjects who viewed their bodies from behind via a camera and a head mounted display (HMD). Subjects made speeded elevation (up/down) judgments of the tactile stimuli while ignoring light stimuli. To modulate self-identification for the seen body subjects were stroked on their backs with a stick and the felt stroking was either synchronous or asynchronous with the stroking that could be seen via the HMD. We found that (1) tactile stimuli were mislocalized towards the seen body (2) CCEs were modulated systematically during visual-somatosensory conflict when subjects viewed their body but not when they viewed a body-sized object, i.e. CCEs were larger during synchronous than during asynchronous stroking of the body and (3) these changes in the mapping of tactile stimuli were induced in the same experimental condition in which predictable changes in bodily self-consciousness occurred. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These data reveal that systematic alterations in the mapping of tactile stimuli occur in a full body illusion and thus establish CCE magnitude as an online performance proxy for subjective changes in global bodily self-consciousness

Soil water content effects on net ecosystem CO2 exchange and actual evapotranspiration in a Mediterranean semiarid savanna of Central Chile

Biosphere-atmosphere water and carbon fluxes depend on ecosystem structure, and their magnitudes and seasonal behavior are driven by environmental and biological factors. We studied the seasonal behavior of net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE), Gross Primary Productivity (GPP), Ecosystem Respiration (RE), and actual evapotranspiration (ETa) obtained by eddy covariance measurements during two years in a Mediterranean Acacia savanna ecosystem (Acacia caven) in Central Chile. The annual carbon balance was −53 g C m−2 in 2011 and −111 g C m−2 in 2012, showing that the ecosystem acts as a net sink of CO2, notwithstanding water limitations on photosynthesis observed in this particularly dry period. Total annual ETa was of 128 mm in 2011 and 139 mm in 2012. Both NEE and ETa exhibited strong seasonality with peak values recorded in the winter season (July to September), as a result of ecosystem phenology, soil water content and rainfall occurrence. Consequently, the maximum carbon assimilation rate occurred in wintertime. Results show that soil water content is a major driver of GPP and RE, defining their seasonal patterns and the annual carbon assimilation capacity of the ecosystem, and also modulating the effect that solar radiation and air temperature have on NEE components at shorter time scales.This work was funded by FONDECYT projects 1120713 and 1170429, a grant from the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) [grant number CRN3056], which is supported by the US National Science Foundation [grant number GEO-1128040], and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness project GEI Spain (CGL2014-52838-C2-1-R), including ERDF founds. F. Bravo-Martínez is grateful to CONICYT for the grants “Formación de Capital Humano Avanzado-2009′′, “Beca de Apoyo al término de la tesis doctoral-2012′′, and CORFO INNOVA Grant N° 09CN14-5704. We thank to Enrique Pérez Sanchez-Cañete and Borja Ruíz- Reverter for technical support. We also thank “CODELCO–División Andina” for use of the site. C. Montes acknowledges the NASA Postdoctoral Program and to Universities Space Research Association

Advanced capabilities for materials modelling with Quantum ESPRESSO

Quantum ESPRESSO is an integrated suite of open-source computer codes for quantum simulations of materials using state-of-the-art electronic-structure techniques, based on density-functional theory, density-functional perturbation theory, and many-body perturbation theory, within the plane-wave pseudopotential and projector-augmented-wave approaches. Quantum ESPRESSO owes its popularity to the wide variety of properties and processes it allows to simulate, to its performance on an increasingly broad array of hardware architectures, and to a community of researchers that rely on its capabilities as a core open-source development platform to implement their ideas. In this paper we describe recent extensions and improvements, covering new methodologies and property calculators, improved parallelization, code modularization, and extended interoperability both within the distribution and with external software