Origin of the negative differential resistance in the output characteristics of a picene-based thin-film transistor

© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.In this work, we have fabricated and studied p-type picene thin-film transistors. Although the devices exhibited good electrical performance with high field-effect mobility (up to 1.3 cm2/V¿s) and on/off ratios above 105, the output electric characteristics of the devices exhibited a Negative Differential Resistance for higher drain-source voltage. Finally, a possible explanation for this phenomenon is developed.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Colored semi-transparent Cu-Si oxide thin films prepared by magnetron sputtering

Colored semi-transparent Cu-Si oxide thin films have been prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering from a single cathode of copper-silicon composition. Thin films of different composition and optical response were obtained by changing process parameters like the relative amount of copper in the target and the O2/Ar mixture of the reactive plasma gas. The film characteristics were analyzed by several techniques. Their optical properties (refractive index, absorption coefficient, color) have been correlated with the process parameters used in the film preparation as well as with the film stoichiometry and chemistry.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CEN-20072014, MAT2010-18447, MAT2010-21228, CSD2008–00023Junta de Andalucía P09-TEP5283, CTS-518

Improvement of scanning tunneling microscopy resolution with H-sensitized tips

Recent scanning tunneling hydrogen microscopy (STHM) experiments on PTCDA (perylene-3,4,9,10- tetracarboxylic-3,4,9,10-dianhydride)/Au(111) have shown unprecedented intramolecular and intermolecular spatial resolution. The origin of this resolution is studied using an accurate STHM theoretical simulation technique that includes a detailed description of the electronic structure of both the tip and sample. Our results show that H2 molecules are dissociated on the Au tip; the adsorbed H atoms change the density of states at the Fermi level (EF) of the tip, increasing its p-orbital character and reducing the s-orbital contribution. Also, due to the interaction with the H-decorated tip, EF is shifted to the middle of the PTCDA lowest unoccupied molecular orbital peak, increasing dramatically the density of states of the sample at EF. These effects give rise to the enhanced STHM resolutionThis work is supported by Spanish MICIIN under Contract No. FIS2010-16046, the CAM under Contract No. S2009/MAT-1467, and the European Project MINOTOR (Grant No. FP7-NMP-228424). J. I. M. acknowledges funding from Spanish MICINN through Juan de la Cierva Program, E. A. the financial support by Consejería de Educación de la CAM, FSE, and European Project MINOTOR, and C. G. the CSIC JA

Software reference architecture for smart environments: Perception

With the increase of intelligent devices, ubiquitous computing is spreading to all scopes of people life. Smart home (or industrial) environments include automation and control devices to save energy, perform tasks, assist and give comfort in order to satisfy specific preferences. This paper focuses on the proposal for Software Reference Architecture for the development of smart applications and their deployment in smart environments. The motivation for this Reference Architecture and its benefits are also explained. The proposal considers three main processes in the software architecture of these applications: perception, reasoning and acting. This paper centres attention on the definition of the Perception process and provides an example for its implementation and subsequent validation of the proposal. The software presented implements the Perception process of a smart environment for a standard office, by retrieving data from the real world and storing it for further reasoning and acting processes. The objectives of this solution include the provision of comfort for the users and the saving of energy in lighting. Through this verification, it is also shown that developments under this proposal produce major benefits within the software life cycle.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2009-14378-C02-01 (ARTEMISA)Junta de Andalucía TIC-8052 (Simon

An approach to a reference model for a sentient smart city

The interest about Smart City concept has in creased in recent years. In fact, Smart Cities is ex pected to improve cityzens life experience by driv ing the next digital revolution, moving from the personal area (mobile computing, smart home) to the urban area (collective computing and collective intelligence). But the development of Smart Cities is not being as fast as expected. Several problems need to be undertaken in order to achieve the ob jectives of the paradigm. This paper presents an approach to address one of these problems: to or chestrate the platform that is required for gathering information about city, store it in a model and ena ble it for exploitation. The heterogeneity of the po tential data sources available and the complexity of the information nature and structure, make it a non trivial task that have to be solved before commer cial solutions appear and provide specific and non interoperable solutions

Papel del método biplot canónico en el estudio de compuestos volátiles en quesos de composición variable

The canonical biplot method (CB) is used to determine the discriminatory power of volatile chemical compounds in cheese. These volatile compounds were used as variables in order to differentiate among 6 groups or populations of cheeses (combinations of two seasons (winter and summer) with 3 types of cheese (cow, sheep and goat’s milk). We analyzed a total of 17 volatile compounds by means of gas chromatography coupled with mass detection. The compounds included aldehydes and methyl-aldehydes, alcohols (primary, secondary and branched chain), ketones, methyl-ketones and esters in winter (WC) and summer (SC) cow’s cheeses, winter (WSh) and summer (SSh) sheep’s cheeses and in winter (WG) and summer (SG) goat’s cheeses. The CB method allows differences to be found as a function of the elaboration of the cheeses, the seasonality of the milk, and the separation of the six groups of cheeses, characterizing the specific volatile chemical compounds responsible for such differences.El m.todo biplot can.nico (CB) se utiliza para determinar el poder discriminatorio de compuestos qu.micos vol.tiles en queso. Los compuestos vol.tiles se utilizan como variables con el fin de diferenciar entre los 6 grupos o poblaciones de quesos (combinaciones de dos temporadas (invierno y verano) con 3 tipos de queso (vaca, oveja y cabra). Se analizan un total de 17 compuestos vol.tiles por medio de cromatograf.a de gases acoplada con detecci.n de masas. Los compuestos incluyen aldeh.dos y metil-aldeh.dos, alcoholes (primarios de cadena, secundaria y ramificada), cetonas, metil-cetonas y .steres. Los seis grupos de quesos son, quesos de vaca de invierno (WC) y verano (SC); quesos de oveja de invierno (WSh) y verano (SSh) y quesos de cabra de invierno (WG) y verano (SG). El m.todo CB permite la separaci.n de los seis grupos de quesos y encontrar las diferencias en funci.n del tipo y estacionalidad de la leche, caracterizando los compuestos qu.micos vol.tiles espec.ficos responsables de tales diferencias

Back junction n-type silicon heterojunction solar cells with V2O5 hole-selective contact

Postprint (published version

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Program for Cannabis Use Cessation in First-Episode Psychosis Patients: A 1-Year Randomized Controlled Trial

Despite the negative influence of cannabis use on the development and prognosis of first-episode psychosis (FEP), there is little evidence on effective specific interventions for cannabis use cessation in FEP. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of a specific cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for cannabis cessation (CBT-CC) with treatment as usual (TAU) in FEP cannabis users. In this single-blind, 1-year randomized controlled trial, 65 participants were randomly assigned to CBT-CC or TAU. The primary outcome was the reduction in cannabis use severity. The CBT-CC group had a greater decrease in cannabis use severity and positive psychotic symptoms over time, and a greater improvement in functioning at post-treatment than TAU. The treatment response was also faster in the CBT-CC group, reducing cannabis use, anxiety, positive and general psychotic symptoms, and improving functioning earlier than TAU in the follow-up. Moreover, patients who stopped and/or reduced cannabis use during the follow-up, decreased psychotic symptoms and increased awareness of disease compared to those who continued using cannabis. Early intervention based on a specific CBT for cannabis cessation, may be effective in reducing cannabis use severity, in addition to improving clinical and functional outcomes of FEP cannabis users

Heat capacities of different amine aqueous solutions at pressures up to 25 MPa for CO2 capture

Producción CientíficaA high-pressure flow calorimeter is used to determine isobaric heat capacities for aqueous solutions of some amines such as MEA, DEA TEA, DMAE, MDEA, PZ from T = (293.15 to 353.15) K and up to 25 MPa. The experimental device can measure heat capacities with an estimated total uncertainty better than 1% for a coverage factor k = 2. The isobaric heat capacity values are analysed in conjunction with their temperature and pressure dependencies. Furthermore, empirical equations are proposed to fit isobaric heat capacities as functions of temperature and pressure for given conditions, for this kind of mixtures, obtaining standard deviations within the uncertainty of the measurements. Finally, DMAE shows the highest value of heat capacity and TEA the lowest value, when they are compared at the same conditions of temperature, pressure and composition.Junta de Castilla y León - EU-FEDER (VA280P18 y CLU-2019-04)Fellowship “Beatriz Galindo Senior” (BEAGAL18/00259

V2Ox-based hole-selective contacts for c-Si interdigitated back-contacted solar cells

Over the last few years, transition metal oxide layers have been proposed as selective contacts both for electrons and holes and successfully applied to silicon solar cells. However, better published results need the use of both a thin and high quality intrinsic amorphous Si layer and TCO (Transparent Conductive Oxide) films. In this work, we explore the use of vanadium suboxide (V2Ox) capped with a thin Ni layer as a hole transport layer trying to avoid both the intrinsic amorphous silicon layer and the TCO contact layer. Obtained figures of merit for Ni/V2Ox/c-Si(n) test samples are saturation current densities of 175 fA cm-2 and specific contact resistance below 115 mO cm2 on 40 nm thick V2Ox layers. Finally, the Ni/V2Ox stack is used with an interdigitated back-contacted c-Si(n) solar cell architecture fully fabricated at low temperatures. An open circuit voltage, a short circuit current and a fill factor of 656 mV, 40.7 mA cm-2 and 74.0% are achieved, respectively, leading to a power conversion efficiency of 19.7%. These results confirm the high potential of Ni/V2Ox stacks as hole-selective contacts on crystalline silicon photovoltaics.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version