In situ trap properties in CCDs: the donor level of the silicon divacancy

The silicon divacancy is one of the main defects of concern in radiation damage studies of Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) and, being immobile at room temperature, the defect is accessible to a variety of characterisation techniques. As such, there is a large amount of (often conflicting) information in the literature regarding this defect. Here we study the donor level of the divacancy, one of three energy levels which lie between the silicon valence and conduction bands. The donor level of the divacancy acts as a trap for holes in silicon and therefore can be studied through the use of a p-channel CCD. The method of trap-pumping, linked closely to the process of pocket-pumping, has been demonstrated in the literature over the last two years to allow for in-situ analysis of defects in the silicon of CCDs. However, most work so far has been a demonstartion [sic] of the techinique [sic]. We begin here to use the technique for detailed studies of a specific defect centre in silicon, the donor level of the divacancy. The trap density post-irradiation can be found, and each instance of the trap identified independently of all others. Through the study of the trap response at different clocking frequencies one can measure directly the defect emission time constant, and through tracking this at different temperatures, it is possible to use Shockley-Read-Hall theory to calculate the trap energy level and cross-section. A large population of traps, all with parameters consistent with the donor level of the divacancy, has been studied, leading to a measure of the distribution of properties. The emission time constant, energy level and cross-section are found to have relatively large spreads, significantly beyond the small uncertainty in the measurement technique. This spread has major implications on the correction of charge transfer inefficiency effects in space applications in which high precision is required

A planar Gunn diode operating above 100 GHz

We show the experimental realization of a 108-GHz planar Gunn diode structure fabricated in GaAs/AlGaAs. There is a considerable interest in such devices since they lend themselves to integration into millimeter-wave and terahertz integrated circuits. The material used was grown by molecular beam epitaxy, and devices were made using electron beam lithography. Since the frequency of oscillation is defined by the lithographically controlled anode-cathode distance, the technology shows great promise in fabricating single chip terahertz sources

Charge transfer efficiency in a p-channel CCD irradiated cryogenically and the impact of room temperature annealing

It is important to understand the impact of the space radiation environment on detector performance, thereby ensuring that the optimal operating conditions are selected for use in flight. The best way to achieve this is by irradiating the device using appropriate mission operating conditions, i.e. holding the device at mission operating temperature with the device powered and clocking. This paper describes the Charge Transfer Efficiency (CTE) measurements made using an e2v technologies p-channel CCD204 irradiated using protons to the 10 MeV equivalent fluence of 1.24×109 protons.cm-2 at 153 K. The device was held at 153 K for a period of 7 days after the irradiation before being allowed up to room temperature where it was held at rest, i.e. unbiased, for twenty six hours to anneal before being cooled back to 153 K for further testing, this was followed by a further one week and three weeks of room temperature annealing each separated by further testing. A comparison to results from a previous room temperature irradiation of an n-channel CCD204 is made using assumptions of a factor of two worse CTE when irradiated under cryogenic conditions which indicate that p-channel CCDs offer improved tolerance to radiation damage when irradiated under cryogenic conditions

Differential item functioning due to gender between depression and anxiety items among Chilean adolescents

Although much is known about the higher prevalence of anxiety and depressive disorders among adolescent females, less is known about the differential item endorsement due to gender in items of commonly scales used to measure anxiety and depression. We conducted a study to examine if adolescent males and females from Chile differed on how they endorsed the items of the Youth Self-Report (YSR) anxious/depressed problem scale. We used data from a cross-sectional sample consisting of 925 participants (Mean age = 14, SD=1.3, 49% females) of low to lower-middle socioeconomic status. A two-parameter logistic (2PL) IRT DIF model was fit. Results revealed differential item endorsement (DIF) by gender for six of the 13 items with adolescent females being more likely to endorse a depression item while males were found more likely to endorse anxiety items. Findings suggest that items found in commonly utilized measures of anxiety and depression symptoms may not equally capture true levels of these behavioral problems among adolescent males and females. Given the high levels of mental disorders in Chile and surrounding countries, further attention should be focused on increasing the number of empirical studies examining potential gender differences in the assessment of mental health problems among Latin American populations to better aid our understanding of the phenomenology and determinants of these problems in the region.R01 HD033487 - NICHD NIH HHS; R01 DA021181-05 - NIDA NIH HHS; R01 DA021181 - NIDA NIH HH

Iodopentafluorobenzene: Electronic state spectroscopy by high resolution vacuum ultraviolet photoabsorption and photoelectron spectroscopy

The electronic transitions of iodopentafluorobenzene (C6F5I) have been investigated experimentally for the first time by high-resolution photoabsorption spectroscopy in the energy range 3.6 – 10.7 eV. The character of the valence excited states has been discussed taking into account calculations available in the literature. The ionisation energies of the molecule in its electronic ground state have been measured by high-resolution He(I) photoelectron spectroscopy. The energies of the ionic bands are shifted by about 0.5 eV compared to the earliest literature values but they agree with the most recently published measurements. All the spectra presented in this paper represent highest resolution measurements of their kind for iodopentafluorobenzene. The absolute photoabsorption cross sections have been used to model photolysis rates and residence times in the terrestrial atmosphere

The SMILE Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) CCD design and development

SMILE, the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, is a joint science mission between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The spacecraft will be uniquely equipped to study the interaction between the Earth’s magnetosphere-ionosphere system and the solar wind on a global scale. SMILE’s instruments will explore this science through imaging of the solar wind charge exchange soft X-ray emission from the dayside magnetosheath, simultaneous imaging of the UV northern aurora and in-situ monitoring of the solar wind and magnetosheath plasma and magnetic field conditions. The Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) is the instrument being designed to observe X-ray photons emitted by the solar wind charge exchange process at photon energies between 200 eV and 2000 eV. X-rays will be collected using a focal plane array of two custom-designed CCDs, each consisting of 18 µm square pixels in a 4510 by 4510 array. SMILE will be placed in a highly elliptical polar orbit, passing in and out of the Earth’s radiation belts every 48 hours. Radiation damage accumulated in the CCDs during the mission’s nominal 3-year lifetime will degrade their performance (such as through decreases in charge transfer efficiency), negatively impacting the instrument’s ability to detect low energy X-rays incident on the regions of the CCD image area furthest from the detector outputs. The design of the SMILE-SXI CCDs is presented here, including features and operating methods for mitigating the effects of radiation damage and expected end of life CCD performance. Measurements with a PLATO device that has not been designed for soft X-ray signal levels indicate a temperature-dependent transfer efficiency performance varying between 5 × 10−5 and 9 × 10−4 at expected End of Life for 5.9 keV photons, giving an initial set of measurements from which to extrapolate the performance of the SXI CCDs

Fit for what?: towards explaining Battlegroup inaction

The thrust of this paper concerns the case of the European Battlegroup (BG) non-deployment in late 2008, when the United Nations requested European military support for the United Nations Organisation Mission peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The argument is built on the fact that when, in official documents, the EU approaches the European security and ESDP/CSDP's military crisis management policy and interventions, it makes strong references to the United Nations and the UN Charter Chapter VII's mandate of restoring international peace and security. Such references make it seem that supporting the UN when it deals with threats and crises is a primary concern of the EU and the member states. These allusions lead to the main contention of this paper, that there is much ambivalence in these indications. The paper develops its argument from one key hypothesis; namely, that the non-deployment of a European BG in the DRC, at the end of 2008, constitutes a useful case study for detecting a number of ambiguities of the EU in respect of its declarations in the official documents establishing the European military crisis management intervention structure