Two-Dimensional Bunch-Resolved Optical Beam Diagnostics at BESSY II

BESSY II ist eine Strahlungsquelle der dritten Generation, die vom Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH für Experimente mit Synchrotronstrahlung betrieben wird. Mehrere Betriebsmodi werden am BESSY II Speicherring angeboten bzw. entwickelt, um die Anforderungen der vielfältigen Nutzergemeinde zu erfüllen. Dazu gehören nicht nur ein komplexes Füllmuster im Standardnutzerbetrieb, sondern auch spezielle Betriebsmodi mit kurzen Pulsen oder das sogenannte Transverse Resonant Island Buckets Separationsschema. Die Komplexität des Füllmusters erfordert eine pulsaufgelöste Strahldiagnose für die Inbetriebnahme und zur Sicherstellung der langfristigen Qualität des Beschleunigerbetriebs. Ferner werden für den Kurzpulsbetrieb Pulslängenmessungen mit ps Auflösung benötigt. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wird zu diesem Zweck eine neue Diagnoseplattform mit mehreren Strahlrohren aufgebaut. Jeweils ein Strahlrohr ist für transversale Strahlgrößenmessungen und für longitudinale Strahldiagnose vorgesehen. Beide Strahlrohre sind mit Messapperaturen für pulsaufgelöste Messungen ausgestattet. Hauptfokus dieser Arbeit liegen auf dem Design, der Installation und den Verbesserungen dieser Strahlrohre und den zugehörigen Meßgeräten in Kombination mit spezifischen Anwendungen in der Strahldiagnose an BESSY II. Im Allgemeinen erfordern Kopplungen zwischen Zeit- und Raumkoordinaten pulsselektive und korrelierte Detektionsmethoden mehrerer Parameter. Daher sind die longitudinale Diagnose sowie die Streak Kamera so optimiert worden, dass die direkte Abbildung des transversalen Strahlprofils möglich ist und sogar interferometrische Strahlgrößenmessungen durchführbar. Zusätzlich zur Zeitachse der Streak Kamera kann entweder die horizontale oder die vertikale Dimension des Strahls abgebildet werden und dadurch sind 2D-Messungen möglich. Mit dieser Methode wurden mehrere pulsaufgelöste 2D-Messungen durchgeführt und Analysemethoden entwickelt.BESSY II is a third generation light source operated by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH for experiments with synchrotron radiation. Multiple operation modes are offered or are under development at the BESSY II storage ring to serve the needs of its diverse user community. This does not only include a complex fill pattern in standard operation, but also special operation modes featuring short pulses or the new transverse resonant island buckets separation scheme. The complexity of the fill pattern requires bunch-resolved diagnostics for commissioning and to ensure the long-term quality of accelerator operation. In addition, short pulse operation demands bunch length measurements with ps resolution. For this purpose a new diagnostics platform featuring multiple beamlines is set up. One beamline is dedicated for transverse beam size measurements and one for longitudinal diagnostics. Both beamlines are equipped with fast gated devices for bunch-resolved measurements. Design, installation and improvements of these beamlines and the measuring devices are the main focus of this work, together with specific BESSY II bunch diagnostics applications. In general, coupling between time- and space-coordinates do call for bunch-selective and correlated multi-parameter detection methods. Thus, the longitudinal diagnostics beamline and the streak camera have been made capable of direct transverse beam-profile imaging and even interferometric beam size measurements are feasible. Either the horizontal or vertical beam dimension can be imaged in addition to the time axis of the streak camera and 2D measurements are possible. Taking advantage of these capabilities, multiple bunch-resolved 2D measurements have been performed and analysis methods have been developed

Interferometric Beam Size Monitor for BESSY II

The upgrade of the BESSY II storage ring to BESSY VSR demands additional beam diagnostics for machine commissioning, development and ensuring long term quality and stability of user operation. In particular bunch resolved diagnostics are required because of the complex fill pattern to serve different user requests at the same time. Presently, transverse beam size measurements are performed with X ray pinhole monitor systems, which do not provide bunch resolved information. Alternative methods to measure the transverse beam size using synchrotron radiation in the visible spectrum are interferometric techniques, which can also be upgraded efficiently to bunch resolved systems. Therefore a double slit interferometer has been designed. The system has been successfully commissioned and the experimental results are discussed and compared with existing pinhole system

Charge transport modelling of perovskite solar cells and organic thermoelectrics

To develop new materials to convert light or heat to usable electrical energy, we need a thorough understanding of the physical processes that play at the micro- and nanoscale.We developed a simulation software for solar cells that we continuously update with the latest interests of the research community. We have added new features that allow better simulation of a new type of solar cell, namely, the perovskite solar cell. The beauty of this type of solar cell is that it can have good power-conversion efficiency, despite many defects being present in constituent materials. Typically, focus is placed on reducing the number of defects to increase efficiency. We, however, looked at ways of optimizing efficiency for a given (large) number of defects because reducing the defect density is tricky in reality. Besides using this software ourselves, we have also made it open-source for other researchers to use.Next to our research in solar cells, we have also looked at organic thermoelectrics, in which heat is converted to electrical energy. These organic materials are especially well suited for low-temperature application, such as body head harvesting. We found that electron-electron interactions are likely a big problem in these materials. These interactions can reduce the conversion efficiency dramatically, so it is of high importance to reduce these in the next generation of materials

Carrier-carrier Coulomb interactions reduce power factor in organic thermoelectrics

Organic semiconductors are excellent candidates for low temperature thermoelectric generators. However, such thermoelectric applications require materials be doped and highly conductive. Here, we show how doping affects the Seebeck coefficient in organic semiconductors using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. Employing a hopping transport approach, we demonstrate that at high dopant loading, carrier-carrier interactions can reduce the Seebeck coefficient. This results in systems with intrinsic disorder, still following Heike's formula for thermopower at high dopant density. Reducing these carrier-carrier interactions results in an increased Seebeck coefficient and power factor. Specifically, a realistic reduction in carrier-carrier interactions can increase the power factor by more than a factor 15, increasing ZT above 1 for organic thermoelectrics

Voltage Deficit in Wide Bandgap Perovskite Solar Cells:The Role of Traps, Band Energies, and Effective Density of States

Wide-bandgap ((Formula presented.) 1.7 eV) perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are plagued by relatively low open-circuit voltages. This is problematic as they are key to achieving perovskite silicon tandems, which can boost the potential of silicon solar cells. Performance in PSCs is widely considered to be limited by recombination at the interface between the perovskite and the transport layer (TL). Here, a number of design rules to increase the open-circuit voltage of wide-bandgap PSCs are introduced. A numerical device model that includes a detailed description of the interfacial recombination processes is presented. The combined effects of interface traps, ions, band alignment, and transport properties are introduced to identify the critical parameters for improving the open-circuit voltage. A large number of devices are simulated by picking random combinations of parameters and are looked for trends. It is shown that interface recombination can be suppressed by reducing the minority carrier density close to the interface with the TLs. It is demonstrated that the alignment of energy levels is only part of the story; the effective densities of states are of equal importance. The results pave the way to achieving high open-circuit voltages, despite a significant density of interface defects

Identification of the dominant recombination process for perovskite solar cells based on machine learning

Over the past decade, perovskite solar cells have become one of the major research interests of the photovoltaic community, and they are now on the brink of catching up with the classical inorganic solar cells, with efficiency now reaching up to 25%. However, significant improvements are still achievable by reducing recombination losses. The aim of this work is to develop a fast and easy-to-use tool to pinpoint the main losses in perovskite solar cells. We use large-scale drift-diffusion simulations to get a better understanding of the light intensity dependence of the open-circuit voltage and how it correlates to the dominant recombination process. We introduce an automated identification tool using machine learning methods to pinpoint the dominant loss using the light intensity-dependent performances as an input. The machine learning was trained using >2 million simulations and gives an accuracy of the prediction up to 82%. Le Corre et al. demonstrate the application of machine learning methods to identify the dominant recombination process in perovskite solar cells with 82% accuracy. The machine learning algorithms are trained and tested using large-scale drift-diffusion simulations, and their applicability on real solar cells is also demonstrated on devices previously reported

Marker assisted approach for incorporating durable rust resistance in popular Indian wheat cultivars

Item does not contain fulltextParkinson disease (PD) is common in long term care (LTC) facilities. The number of institutionalized patients with PD will rise sharply in the coming decades because of 2 concurrent phenomena: aging of the population leads to an increased PD prevalence and improved quality of care has led to a prolonged survival in advanced disease stages. Only a few studies have investigated the prevalence and clinical characteristics of patients with PD in LTC facilities. Even fewer studies have addressed the treatment strategies used to support these institutionalized patients, who are mostly in advanced stages of the disease. The available evidence suggests that current management of patients with PD in LTC facilities is less than optimal. In the Netherlands, and we suspect in many other countries, there are no formal guidelines for treating patients with PD who have been admitted to a LTC facility. In this review, we describe the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and clinical management of patients with PD in LTC settings. We also address potentially modifiable elements of care and provide several recommendations to improve the management of PD in these facilities. We conclude by suggesting a possible guide for future research in this area

Electrical Conductivity of Doped Organic Semiconductors Limited by Carrier-Carrier Interactions

High electrical conductivity is a prerequisite for improving the performance of organic semiconductors for various applications and can be achieved through molecular doping. However, often the conductivity is enhanced only up to a certain optimum doping concentration, beyond which it decreases significantly. We combine analytical work and Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate that carrier-carrier interactions can cause this conductivity decrease and reduce the maximum conductivity by orders of magnitude, possibly in a broad range of materials. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we disentangle the effect of carrier-carrier interactions from carrier-dopant interactions. Coulomb potentials of ionized dopants are shown to decrease the conductivity, but barely influence the trend of conductivity versus doping concentration. We illustrate these findings using a doped fullerene derivative for which we can correctly estimate the carrier density at which the conductivity maximizes. We use grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering to show that the decrease of the conductivity cannot be explained by changes to the microstructure. We propose the reduction of carrier-carrier interactions as a strategy to unlock higher-conductivity organic semiconductors

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Voltage Deficit in Wide Bandgap Perovskite Solar Cells: The Role of Traps, Band Energies, and Effective Density of States

Wide-bandgap ((Formula presented.) 1.7 eV) perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are plagued by relatively low open-circuit voltages. This is problematic as they are key to achieving perovskite silicon tandems, which can boost the potential of silicon solar cells. Performance in PSCs is widely considered to be limited by recombination at the interface between the perovskite and the transport layer (TL). Here, a number of design rules to increase the open-circuit voltage of wide-bandgap PSCs are introduced. A numerical device model that includes a detailed description of the interfacial recombination processes is presented. The combined effects of interface traps, ions, band alignment, and transport properties are introduced to identify the critical parameters for improving the open-circuit voltage. A large number of devices are simulated by picking random combinations of parameters and are looked for trends. It is shown that interface recombination can be suppressed by reducing the minority carrier density close to the interface with the TLs. It is demonstrated that the alignment of energy levels is only part of the story; the effective densities of states are of equal importance. The results pave the way to achieving high open-circuit voltages, despite a significant density of interface defects