Formation Mechanism and Elimination of Small‐Angle Grain Boundary in AlN Grown on (0001) Sapphire Substrate

AlN epilayers were grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by metal‐organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE), and the influence of substrate\u27s surface structure on the formation of in‐plane rotation domain is studied. The surface structure of sapphire substrate is found to change during thermal cleaning and temperature ramp‐up. The oxygen‐terminated surface with monolayer (ML) steps having ABAB stacking is attributed to cause the formation of a small‐angle grain boundary (SAGB). To suppress the formation of such a special grain boundary, the two‐step temperature growth technique was employed. It was found that a proper timing of the low‐temperature buffer layer (LT BL) growth is necessary to eliminate the SAGB. Moreover, the BL growth temperature (Tg) is also found to affect the surface morphology and structural quality of AlN epilayer. The optimized LT BL Tg is found to be 1050°C. The optical emission property by cathodoluminescence (CL) measurements showed higher emission intensity from AlN epilayer without SAGB

Uteluftsventilerad krypgrund, teori och praktik

Uteluftsventilerade krypgrunder är kända för att kunna drabbas av problem med hög relativ luftfuktighet inne i kryputrymmet. Förhållandena som uppstår kan då vara gynnsamma för biologisk påväxt vilket i sin tur kan ha en negativ inverkan på både konstruktionens hållfasthet och inomhusluftens kvalitet. Problem uppstår dels på grund av att krypgrunden förblir för kall sommartid och dels på grund av en hög fuktbelastning från underliggande mark. I denna rapport härleds nya teoretiska samband för att beskriva hur temperaturen vid blindbotten inne i krypgrunden beror av temperaturen inomhus, utomhus och vid grundbotten. Metoden kan användas för att uppskatta hur relativa luftfuktigheten varierar inne i kryputrymmet och hur denna påverkas av olika åtgärder. Forskningsarbetet har här riktat in sig på att undersöka effekten av ventilation kombinerat med värmetillförsel, och en framtagen regleralgoritm påvisar att värmetillförsel kan användas periodvis under kritiska perioder för att öka mängden fukt som ventilation kan föra ut ur krypgrunden.Outdoor air-ventilated crawls spaces are known to face problems caused by a high relative humidity inside the crawl space. The conditions then become favourable for different types of biological fouling. This in turn can have a negative impact on both the structural properties of building materials and the quality of the indoor air. Problems with high relative humidity are partly due to insufficient heating of the crawl space during the summer and partly due to a high moisture load from the ground below. In this report, new theoretical relations are derived that explain how the temperature beneath the floor structure is related to the temperature indoors, outdoors, and at the ground surface. The method can be used to estimate how the relative humidity varies inside the crawl space and how it can be affected by different measures. We have focused on measures based on combinations of controlled ventilation and heating, and developed a control algorithm which suggests that additional heating could be used periodically, during critical periods, to increase the amount of moisture that can be removed from the crawl space using ventilation

A high-performance deep reservoir computing experimentally demonstrated with ion-gating reservoirs

While physical reservoir computing (PRC) is a promising way to achieve low power consumption neuromorphic computing, its computational performance is still insufficient at a practical level. One promising approach to improving PRC performance is deep reservoir computing (deep-RC), in which the component reservoirs are multi-layered. However, all of the deep-RC schemes reported so far have been effective only for simulation reservoirs and limited PRCs, and there have been no reports of nanodevice implementations. Here, as the first nanodevice implementation of Deep-RC, we report a demonstration of deep physical reservoir computing using an ion gating reservoir (IGR), which is a small and high-performance physical reservoir. While previously reported Deep-RC scheme did not improve the performance of IGR, our Deep-IGR achieved a normalized mean squared error of 0.0092 on a second-order nonlinear autoregressive moving average task, with is the best performance of any physical reservoir so far reported. More importantly, the device outperformed full simulation reservoir computing. The dramatic performance improvement of the IGR with our deep-RC architecture paves the way for high-performance, large-scale, physical neural network devices.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure

A density functional study of the effect of hydrogen on electronic properties and band discontinuity at anatase TiO2/diamond interface

Tailoring the electronic states of the dielectric oxide/diamond interface is critical to the development of next generation semiconductor devices like high-power high-frequency field-effect transistors. In this work, we investigate the electronic states of the TiO2/diamond 2 × 1-(100) interface by using first principles total energy calculations. Based on the calculation of the chemical potentials for the TiO2/diamond interface, it is observed that the hetero-interfaces with the C-OTi configuration or with two O vacancies are the most energetically favorable structures under the O-rich condition and under Ti-rich condition, respectively. The band structure and density of states of both TiO2/diamond and TiO2/H-diamond hetero-structures are calculated. It is revealed that there are considerable interface states at the interface of the anatase TiO2/diamond hetero-structure. By introducing H on the diamond surface, the interface states are significantly suppressed. A type-II alignment band structure is disclosed at the interface of the TiO2/diamond hetero-structure. The valence band offset increases from 0.6 to 1.7 eV when H is introduced at the TiO2/diamond interface

Development of a fiber structure in poly(vinylidene fluoride) by a CO(2) laser-heated drawing process

Rapid and uniform heating by CO(2) laser radiation can fix the position where necking occurs. Therefore, this study investigated the development of a fiber structure in poly(vinylidene fluoride) in continuous drawing by in situ measurement using synchrotron X-ray radiation with a time resolution of several hundred microseconds. Two neck-deformation behaviors were observed in the laser drawing: a moderate neck deformation under low drawing stress and a steep neck deformation under high drawing stress. The low drawing stress resulted in a mixture of alpha- and beta-crystals in which the beta-crystal was formed within 1ms after the necking, earlier than the alpha-crystal. The development of the fiber structure under high drawing stress was almost complete in less than 1 ms, and the developed structure contained only beta-crystals. Small-angle X-ray scattering images showed meridional streaks at low drawing stress, whereas a four-pointed pattern occurred under high drawing stress. Low drawing stress generated a long periodic structure that was defective in the periodic regularity of crystalline and amorphous regions, although the molecular chains were nearly oriented along the fiber axis. The high drawing stress resulted in a well-packed structure of adjacent fibrils with alternating amorphous and crystalline regions. Polymer Journal (2010) 42, 657-662; doi: 10.1038/pj.2010.53; published online 23 June 2010ArticlePOLYMER JOURNAL. 42(8):657-662 (2010)journal articl

Impedance analysis of Al2O3/H-terminated diamond metal-oxide-semiconductor structures

Impedance spectroscopy (IS) analysis is carried out to investigate the electrical properties of the metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structure fabricated on hydrogen-terminated single crystal diamond. The low-temperature atomic layer deposition Al2O3 is employed as the insulator in the MOS structure. By numerically analysing the impedance of the MOS structure at various biases, the equivalent circuit of the diamond MOS structure is derived, which is composed of two parallel capacitive and resistance pairs, in series connection with both resistance and inductance. The two capacitive components are resulted from the insulator, the hydrogenated-diamond surface, and their interface. The physical parameters such as the insulator capacitance are obtained, circumventing the series resistance and inductance effect. By comparing the IS and capacitance-voltage measurements, the frequency dispersion of the capacitance-voltage characteristic is discussed

Assembly of a high-dielectric constant thin TiOX layer directly on H-terminated semiconductor diamond

A high-dielectric constant (high-k) TiOx thin layer was fabricated on hydrogen-terminated diamond (H-diamond) surface by low temperature oxidation of a thin titanium layer in ambient air. The metallic titanium layer was deposited by sputter deposition. The dielectric constant of the resultant TiOx was calculated to be around 12. The capacitance density of the metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) based on the TiOx/H-diamond was as high as 0.75 µF/cm2 contributed from the high-k value and the very thin thickness of the TiOx layer. The leakage current was lower than 10-13 A at reverse biases and 10-7A at the forward bias of -2 V. The MOS field-effect transistor based on the high-k TiOx/H-diamond was demonstrated. The utilization of the high-k TiOx with a very thin thickness brought forward the features of an ideally low subthreshold swing slope of 65 mV per decade and improved drain current at low gate voltages. The advantages of the utilization high-k dielectric for diamond MOSFETs are anticipated

Prospective identification, isolation, and systemic transplantation of multipotent mesenchymal stem cells in murine bone marrow

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are defined as cells that undergo sustained in vitro growth and can give rise to multiple mesenchymal lineages. Because MSCs have only been isolated from tissue in culture, the equivalent cells have not been identified in vivo and little is known about their physiological roles or even their exact tissue location. In this study, we used phenotypic, morphological, and functional criteria to identify and prospectively isolate a subset of MSCs (PDGFRα+Sca-1+CD45−TER119−) from adult mouse bone marrow. Individual MSCs generated colonies at a high frequency and could differentiate into hematopoietic niche cells, osteoblasts, and adipocytes after in vivo transplantation. Naive MSCs resided in the perivascular region in a quiescent state. This study provides the useful method needed to identify MSCs as defined in vivo entities

An Overview of High-k Oxides on Hydrogenated-Diamond for Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Capacitors and Field-Effect Transistors

Thanks to its excellent intrinsic properties, diamond is promising for applications of high-power electronic devices, ultraviolet detectors, biosensors, high-temperature tolerant gas sensors, etc. Here, an overview of high-k oxides on hydrogenated-diamond (H-diamond) for metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors and MOS field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) is demonstrated. Fabrication routines for the H-diamond MOS capacitors and MOSFETs, band configurations of oxide/H-diamond heterointerfaces, and electrical properties of the MOS and MOSFETs are summarized and discussed. High-k oxide insulators are deposited using atomic layer deposition (ALD) and sputtering deposition (SD) techniques. Electrical properties of the H-diamond MOS capacitors with high-k oxides of ALD-Al2O3, ALD-HfO2, ALD-HfO2/ALD-Al2O3 multilayer, SD-HfO2/ALD-HfO2 bilayer, SD-TiO2/ALD-Al2O3 bilayer, and ALD-TiO2/ALD-Al2O3 bilayer are discussed. Analyses for capacitance-voltage characteristics of them show that there are low fixed and trapped charge densities for the ALD-Al2O3/H-diamond and SD-HfO2/ALD-HfO2/H-diamond MOS capacitors. The k value of 27.2 for the ALD-TiO2/ALD-Al2O3 bilayer is larger than those of the other oxide insulators. Drain-source current versus voltage curves show distinct pitch-off and p-type channel characteristics for the ALD-Al2O3/H-diamond, SD-HfO2/ALD-HfO2/H-diamond, and ALD-TiO2/ALD-Al2O3/H-diamond MOSFETs. Understanding of fabrication routines and electrical properties for the high-k oxide/H-diamond MOS electronic devices is meaningful for the fabrication of high-performance H-diamond MOS capacitor and MOSFET gas sensors