Transmission of doughnut light through a bull's eye structure

We experimentally investigate the extraordinary optical transmission of doughnut light through a bull's eye structure. Since the intensity is vanished in the center of the beam, almost all the energy reaches the circular corrugations (not on the hole), excite surface plasmons which propagate through the hole and reradiate photons. The transmitted energy is about 57 times of the input energy on the hole area. It is also interesting that the transmitted light has a similar spatial shape with the input light although the diameter of the hole is much smaller than the wavelength of light.Comment: 3 pages,4 figure

A New Two-Dimensional Functional Material with Desirable Bandgap and Ultrahigh Carrier Mobility

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors with direct and modest bandgap and ultrahigh carrier mobility are highly desired functional materials for nanoelectronic applications. Herein, we predict that monolayer CaP3 is a new 2D functional material that possesses not only a direct bandgap of 1.15 eV (based on HSE06 computation), and also a very high electron mobility up to 19930 cm2 V-1 s-1, comparable to that of monolayer phosphorene. More remarkably, contrary to the bilayer phosphorene which possesses dramatically reduced carrier mobility compared to its monolayer counterpart, CaP3 bilayer possesses even higher electron mobility (22380 cm2 V-1 s-1) than its monolayer counterpart. The bandgap of 2D CaP3 can be tuned over a wide range from 1.15 to 0.37 eV (HSE06 values) through controlling the number of stacked CaP3 layers. Besides novel electronic properties, 2D CaP3 also exhibits optical absorption over the entire visible-light range. The combined novel electronic, charge mobility, and optical properties render 2D CaP3 an exciting functional material for future nanoelectronic and optoelectronic applications

Radiative thermal switch via metamaterials made of vanadium dioxide-coated nanoparticles

In this work, a thermal switch is proposed based on the phase-change material vanadium dioxide (VO2) within the framework of near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT). The radiative thermal switch consists of two metamaterials filled with core-shell nanoparticles, with the shell made of VO2. Compared to traditional VO2 slabs, the proposed switch exhibits a more than 2-times increase in the switching ratio, reaching as high as 90.29% with a 100 nm vacuum gap. The improved switching effect is attributed to the capability of the VO2 shell to couple with the core, greatly enhancing heat transfer with the insulating VO2, while blocking the motivation of the core in the metallic state of VO2. As a result, this efficiently enlarges the difference in photonic characteristics between the insulating and metallic states of the structure, thereby improving the ability to rectify the NFRHT. The proposed switch opens pathways for active control of NFRHT and holds practical significance for developing thermal photon-based logic circuits

Investigation of ultra-thin Al₂O₃ film as Cu diffusion barrier on low-k (k=2.5) dielectrics

Ultrathin Al(2)O(3) films were deposited by PEALD as Cu diffusion barrier on low-k (k=2.5) material. The thermal stability and electrical properties of the Cu/low k system with Al(2)O(3) layers with different thickness were studied after annealing. The AES, TEM and EDX results revealed that the ultrathin Al(2)O(3) films are thermally stable and have excellent Cu diffusion barrier performance. The electrical measurements of dielectric breakdown and TDDB tests further confirmed that the ultrathin Al(2)O(3) film is a potential Cu diffusion barrier in the Cu/low-k interconnects system