1,086 research outputs found
Analysis of defect structure in silicon. Characterization of samples from UCP ingot 5848-13C
Statistically significant quantitative structural imperfection measurements were made on samples from ubiquitous crystalline process (UCP) Ingot 5848 - 13 C. Important trends were noticed between the measured data, cell efficiency, and diffusion length. Grain boundary substructure appears to have an important effect on the conversion efficiency of solar cells from Semix material. Quantitative microscopy measurements give statistically significant information compared to other microanalytical techniques. A surface preparation technique to obtain proper contrast of structural defects suitable for QTM analysis was perfected
Analysis of defect structure in silicon. Characterization of SEMIX material. Silicon sheet growth development for the large area silicon sheet task of the low-cost solar array project
Statistically significant quantitative structural imperfection measurements were made on samples from ubiquitous crystalline process (UCP) Ingot 5848 - 13C. Important correlation was obtained between defect densities, cell efficiency, and diffusion length. Grain boundary substructure displayed a strong influence on the conversion efficiency of solar cells from Semix material. Quantitative microscopy measurements gave statistically significant information compared to other microanalytical techniques. A surface preparation technique to obtain proper contrast of structural defects suitable for quantimet quantitative image analyzer (QTM) analysis was perfected and is used routinely. The relationships between hole mobility and grain boundary density was determined. Mobility was measured using the van der Pauw technique, and grain boundary density was measured using quantitative microscopy technique. Mobility was found to decrease with increasing grain boundary density
Multiplex coherent raman spectroscopy detector and method
A multiplex coherent Raman spectrometer (10) and spectroscopy method rapidly detects and identifies individual components of a chemical mixture separated by a separation technique, such as gas chromatography. The spectrometer (10) and method accurately identify a variety of compounds because they produce the entire gas phase vibrational Raman spectrum of the unknown gas. This is accomplished by tilting a Raman cell (20) to produce a high-intensity, backward-stimulated, coherent Raman beam of 683 nm, which drives a degenerate optical parametric oscillator (28) to produce a broadband beam of 1100-1700 nm covering a range of more than 3000 wavenumber. This broadband beam is combined with a narrowband beam of 532 nm having a bandwidth of 0.003 wavenumbers and focused into a heated windowless cell (38) that receives gases separated by a gas chromatograph (40). The Raman radiation scattered from these gases is filtered and sent to a monochromator (50) with multichannel detection
Translating musculoskeletal bioengineering into tissue regeneration therapies.
Musculoskeletal injuries and disorders are the leading cause of physical disability worldwide and a considerable socioeconomic burden. The lack of effective therapies has driven the development of novel bioengineering approaches that have recently started to gain clinical approvals. In this review, we first discuss the self-repair capacity of the musculoskeletal tissues and describe causes of musculoskeletal dysfunction. We then review the development of novel biomaterial, immunomodulatory, cellular, and gene therapies to treat musculoskeletal disorders. Last, we consider the recent regulatory changes and future areas of technological progress that can accelerate translation of these therapies to clinical practice
Phase field modeling of electrochemistry I: Equilibrium
A diffuse interface (phase field) model for an electrochemical system is
developed. We describe the minimal set of components needed to model an
electrochemical interface and present a variational derivation of the governing
equations. With a simple set of assumptions: mass and volume constraints,
Poisson's equation, ideal solution thermodynamics in the bulk, and a simple
description of the competing energies in the interface, the model captures the
charge separation associated with the equilibrium double layer at the
electrochemical interface. The decay of the electrostatic potential in the
electrolyte agrees with the classical Gouy-Chapman and Debye-H\"uckel theories.
We calculate the surface energy, surface charge, and differential capacitance
as functions of potential and find qualitative agreement between the model and
existing theories and experiments. In particular, the differential capacitance
curves exhibit complex shapes with multiple extrema, as exhibited in many
electrochemical systems.Comment: v3: To be published in Phys. Rev. E v2: Added link to
cond-mat/0308179 in References 13 pages, 6 figures in 15 files, REVTeX 4,
SIUnits.sty. Precedes cond-mat/030817
Thermodynamic instabilities in one dimensional particle lattices: a finite-size scaling approach
One-dimensional thermodynamic instabilities are phase transitions not
prohibited by Landau's argument, because the energy of the domain wall (DW)
which separates the two phases is infinite. Whether they actually occur in a
given system of particles must be demonstrated on a case-by-case basis by
examining the (non-) analyticity properties of the corresponding transfer
integral (TI) equation. The present note deals with the generic Peyrard-Bishop
model of DNA denaturation. In the absence of exact statements about the
spectrum of the singular TI equation, I use Gauss-Hermite quadratures to
achieve a single-parameter-controlled approach to rounding effects; this allows
me to employ finite-size scaling concepts in order to demonstrate that a phase
transition occurs and to derive the critical exponents.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, subm. to Phys. Rev.
Epitaxial growth in dislocation-free strained alloy films: Morphological and compositional instabilities
The mechanisms of stability or instability in the strained alloy film growth
are of intense current interest to both theorists and experimentalists. We
consider dislocation-free, coherent, growing alloy films which could exhibit a
morphological instability without nucleation. We investigate such strained
films by developing a nonequilibrium, continuum model and by performing a
linear stability analysis. The couplings of film-substrate misfit strain,
compositional stress, deposition rate, and growth temperature determine the
stability of film morphology as well as the surface spinodal decomposition. We
consider some realistic factors of epitaxial growth, in particular the
composition dependence of elastic moduli and the coupling between top surface
and underlying bulk of the film. The interplay of these factors leads to new
stability results. In addition to the stability diagrams both above and below
the coherent spinodal temperature, we also calculate the kinetic critical
thickness for the onset of instability as well as its scaling behavior with
respect to misfit strain and deposition rate. We apply our results to some real
growth systems and discuss the implications related to some recent experimental
observations.Comment: 26 pages, 13 eps figure
Driven Dynamics: A Probable Photodriven Frenkel-Kontorova Model
In this study, we examine the dynamics of a one-dimensional Frenkel-Kontorova
chain consisting of nanosize clusters (the ''particles'') and photochromic
molecules (the ''bonds''), and being subjected to a periodic substrate
potential. Whether the whole chain should be running or be locked depends on
both the frequency and the wavelength of the light (keeping the other
parameters fixed), as observed through numerical simulation. In the locked
state, the particles are bound at the bottom of the external potential and
vibrate backwards and forwards at a constant amplitude. In the running state,
the initially fed energy is transformed into directed motion as a whole. It is
of interest to note that the driving energy is introduced to the system by the
irradiation of light, and the driven mechanism is based on the dynamical
competition between the inherent lengths of the moving object (the chain) and
the supporting carrier (the isotropic surface). However, the most important is
that the light-induced conformational changes of the chromophore lead to the
time-and-space dependence of the rest lengths of the bonds.Comment: 4 pages,5 figure
VPLanet: The Virtual Planet Simulator
We describe a software package called VPLanet that simulates fundamental
aspects of planetary system evolution over Gyr timescales, with a focus on
investigating habitable worlds. In this initial release, eleven physics modules
are included that model internal, atmospheric, rotational, orbital, stellar,
and galactic processes. Many of these modules can be coupled simultaneously to
simulate the evolution of terrestrial planets, gaseous planets, and stars. The
code is validated by reproducing a selection of observations and past results.
VPLanet is written in C and designed so that the user can choose the physics
modules to apply to an individual object at runtime without recompiling, i.e.,
a single executable can simulate the diverse phenomena that are relevant to a
wide range of planetary and stellar systems. This feature is enabled by
matrices and vectors of function pointers that are dynamically allocated and
populated based on user input. The speed and modularity of VPLanet enables
large parameter sweeps and the versatility to add/remove physical phenomena to
assess their importance. VPLanet is publicly available from a repository that
contains extensive documentation, numerous examples, Python scripts for
plotting and data management, and infrastructure for community input and future
development.Comment: 75 pages, 34 figures, 10 tables, accepted to the Proceedings of the
Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Source code, documentation, and examples
available at https://github.com/VirtualPlanetaryLaboratory/vplane
Apparent phase transitions in finite one-dimensional sine-Gordon lattices
We study the one-dimensional sine-Gordon model as a prototype of roughening
phenomena. In spite of the fact that it has been recently proven that this
model can not have any phase transition [J. A. Cuesta and A. Sanchez, J. Phys.
A 35, 2373 (2002)], Langevin as well as Monte Carlo simulations strongly
suggest the existence of a finite temperature separating a flat from a rough
phase. We explain this result by means of the transfer operator formalism and
show as a consequence that sine-Gordon lattices of any practically achievable
size will exhibit this apparent phase transition at unexpectedly large
temperatures.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
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