Pre- And post-adoption beliefs about the diffusion and continuation of biogas-based cooking fuel technology in Pakistan

A high level of acceptance and adoption is necessary to facilitate the widespread utilization of renewable energy technologies for cooking, as such utilization is essential for displacing the population's massive dependence on fossil fuels and solid biomass. Economic and demographic aspects have been the focus of recent literature in exploring the adoption phenomenon of biogas technology. However, literature to date has given little attention to the behavioral factors and the perceptions of the end-users. Our study does not only include behavioral factors, but it employs a hybrid model to explore the continued attentions of users based on their post-adoption beliefs and performance expectations. Using a survey conducted in Pakistan in 2017, the study conducts a multivariate analysis through structural equation modeling to measure the effect of pre- and post-adoption beliefs and expectation on adoption and the continuing intention of households towards biogas technology. Results show that the acceptance of the households towards biogas technology is highly influenced by their perceptions on the benefits, as well as their trust in the technology. The perceived cost and risk attached to the technology are found to be negatively correlated with the acceptance. Households' intentions to continue the use of biogas technology is highly influenced by the satisfaction level of the users of biogas technology. With the integrated model of adoption and continuation, the study illustrates the dynamic process in obtaining a deeper understanding of a user's behavior to better formulate the policies for increasing the rate of technology adoption

High-field magnetoexcitons in unstrained GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs quantum dots

The magnetic field dependence of the excitonic states in unstrained GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs quantum dots is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The diamagnetic shift for the ground and the excited states are studied in magnetic fields of varying orientation. In the theoretical study, calculations are performed within the single band effective mass approximation, including band nonparabolicity, the full experimental three-dimensional dot shape and the electron-hole Coulomb interaction. These calculations are compared with the experimental results for both the ground and the excited states in fields up to 50 Tesla. Good agreement is found between theory and experiment

Influence of symmetry and Coulomb-correlation effects on the optical properties of nitride quantum dots

The electronic and optical properties of self-assembled InN/GaN quantum dots (QDs) are investigated by means of a tight-binding model combined with configuration interaction calculations. Tight-binding single particle wave functions are used as a basis for computing Coulomb and dipole matrix elements. Within this framework, we analyze multi-exciton emission spectra for two different sizes of a lens-shaped InN/GaN QD with wurtzite crystal structure. The impact of the symmetry of the involved electron and hole one-particle states on the optical spectra is discussed in detail. Furthermore we show how the characteristic features of the spectra can be interpreted using a simplified Hamiltonian which provides analytical results for the interacting multi-exciton complexes. We predict a vanishing exciton and biexciton ground state emission for small lens-shaped InN/GaN QDs. For larger systems we report a bright ground state emission but with drastically reduced oscillator strengths caused by the quantum confined Stark effect.Comment: 15 pages, 17 figure

Photon trains and lasing : The periodically pumped quantum dot

We propose to pump semiconductor quantum dots with surface acoustic waves which deliver an alternating periodic sequence of electrons and holes. In combination with a good optical cavity such regular pumping could entail anti-bunching and sub-Poissonian photon statistics. In the bad-cavity limit a train of equally spaced photons would arise.Comment: RevTex, 5 pages, 1 figur

Electrical properties of ZnO–BaTiO3–ZnO heterostructures with asymmetric interface charge distribution

We report on capacitance-voltage, current-voltage, Sawyer–Tower, and transient current switching measurements for a ZnO–BaTiO3–ZnO heterostructure deposited on (001) silicon by using pulsed laser deposition. The triple-layer structure reveals asymmetric capacitance- and current-voltage hysteresis and cycling-voltage dependent Sawyer–Tower polarization drift. We explain our findings by coupling of the ferroelectric (BaTiO3) and piezoelectric (ZnO) interface charges and parallel polarization orientation of the ZnO layers causing asymmetric space charge region formation under positive and negative bias. The transient current characteristics suggest use of this structure as nonvolatile memory device

Multi-criteria multi-stakeholder decision analysis using a fuzzy-stochastic approach for hydrosystem management

The conventional methods used to solve multi-criteria multi-stakeholder problems are less strongly formulated, as they normally incorporate only homogeneous information at a time and suggest aggregating objectives of different decision-makers avoiding water–society interactions. In this contribution, Multi-Criteria Group Decision Analysis (MCGDA) using a fuzzy-stochastic approach has been proposed to rank a set of alternatives in water management decisions incorporating heterogeneous information under uncertainty. The decision making framework takes hydrologically, environmentally, and socio-economically motivated conflicting objectives into consideration. The criteria related to the performance of the physical system are optimized using multi-criteria simulation-based optimization, and fuzzy linguistic quantifiers have been used to evaluate subjective criteria and to assess stakeholders' degree of optimism. The proposed methodology is applied to find effective and robust intervention strategies for the management of a coastal hydrosystem affected by saltwater intrusion due to excessive groundwater extraction for irrigated agriculture and municipal use. Preliminary results show that the MCGDA based on a fuzzy-stochastic approach gives useful support for robust decision-making and is sensitive to the decision makers' degree of optimism

The influence of surface stress on the equilibrium shape of strained quantum dots

The equilibrium shapes of InAs quantum dots (i.e., dislocation-free, strained islands with sizes >= 10,000 atoms) grown on a GaAs (001) substrate are studied using a hybrid approach which combines density functional theory (DFT) calculations of microscopic parameters, surface energies, and surface stresses with elasticity theory for the long-range strain fields and strain relaxations. In particular we report DFT calculations of the surface stresses and analyze the influence of the strain on the surface energies of the various facets of the quantum dot. The surface stresses have been neglected in previous studies. Furthermore, the influence of edge energies on the island shapes is briefly discussed. From the knowledge of the equilibrium shape of these islands, we address the question whether experimentally observed quantum dots correspond to thermal equilibrium structures or if they are a result of the growth kinetics.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B (February 2, 1998). Other related publications can be found at http://www.rz-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm