3,025 research outputs found
Barrier-controlled carrier transport in microcrystalline semiconducting materials: Description within a unified model
A recently developed model that unifies the ballistic and diffusive transport
mechanisms is applied in a theoretical study of carrier transport across
potential barriers at grain boundaries in microcrystalline semiconducting
materials. In the unified model, the conductance depends on the detailed
structure of the band edge profile and in a nonlinear way on the carrier mean
free path. Equilibrium band edge profiles are calculated within the trapping
model for samples made up of a linear chain of identical grains. Quantum
corrections allowing for tunneling are included in the calculation of electron
mobilities. The dependence of the mobilities on carrier mean free path, grain
length, number of grains, and temperature is examined, and appreciable
departures from the results of the thermionic-field-emission model are found.
Specifically, the unified model is applied in an analysis of Hall mobility data
for n-type microcrystalline Si thin films in the range of thermally activated
transport. Owing mainly to the effect of tunneling, potential barrier heights
derived from the data are substantially larger than the activation energies of
the Hall mobilities. The specific features of the unified model, however,
cannot be resolved within the rather large uncertainties of the analysis.Comment: REVTex, 19 pages, 9 figures; to appear in J. Appl. Phy
Extended Quantum Dimer Model and novel valence-bond phases
We extend the quantum dimer model (QDM) introduced by Rokhsar and Kivelson so
as to construct a concrete example of the model which exhibits the first-order
phase transition between different valence-bond solids suggested recently by
Batista and Trugman and look for the possibility of other exotic dimer states.
We show that our model contains three exotic valence-bond phases (herringbone,
checkerboard and dimer smectic) in the ground-state phase diagram and that it
realizes the phase transition from the staggered valence-bond solid to the
herringbone one. The checkerboard phase has four-fold rotational symmetry,
while the dimer smectic, in the absence of quantum fluctuations, has massive
degeneracy originating from partial ordering only in one of the two spatial
directions. A resonance process involving three dimers resolves this massive
degeneracy and dimer smectic gets ordered (order from disorder).Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in J. Stat. Mec
Estimation of Direct and Indirect Economic Losses Caused by a Flood With Long‐Lasting Inundation: Application to the 2011 Thailand Flood
River floods are common natural disasters that cause serious economic damage worldwide. In addition to direct economic damage, such as the destruction of physical assets, floods with long‐lasting inundation cause direct and indirect economic losses within and outside the affected area. Direct economic losses include loss of opportunity, due to interruption of business activities, and the costs associated with emergency measures such as cleaning, while indirect economic losses affect sectors within the trade and supply network. Few studies have explicitly estimated direct and indirect economic losses in several sectors, due to the difficulty of modeling inundation depth and period at finer scales. Here we developed a global modeling framework to estimate the direct and indirect economic losses associated with floods using a computable general equilibrium model and a global river and inundation model, which can simulate the flood extent, depth, and period. Application of the method to the 2011 Thailand flood demonstrated that the estimated economic losses due to business interruption in the industry and service sectors totaled 22.0 billion). The estimated indirect economic losses reduced the gross domestic product of Thailand by 4.81% in 2011, without considering transboundary effects, and will cause more than 0.5% reduction in gross domestic product even in 2030, resulting in $55.3 billion of total losses from 2011 to 2030. Comprehensive estimation of direct and indirect economic losses facilitates understanding of various types of flood‐related economic risks during and after a flood
Asynchronous Co-eating Through Video Message Exchange: Support for Making Video Messages
[HCII 2020]12th International Conference, CCD 2020, Held as Part of the 22nd HCI International Conference, HCII 2020, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 19–24, 2020, Proceedings, Part IIPart of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 12193)Co-Eating, i.e., eating meals in the company of other people, has been widely recognized as good for both physical and mental health. However, the chances of co-eating have drastically decreased for families living separately and for older people living alone. To cope with this problem, we propose a framework of “asynchronous co-eating” that enables virtual co-eating through video message exchanges, which does not necessarily require people to eat simultaneously. This framework is aimed to maintain frequent communication between family members and promote ordinary types of co-eating when possible. To make this process easy for both older people and their distant family members, we designed a video message exchange scheme with an omnidirectional camera and a topic recommendation mechanism. With preliminary experiments, we obtained results that suggest our framework has the potential to be beneficial
A mobile antineutrino detector with plastic scintillators
We propose a new type segmented antineutrino detector made of plastic
scintillators for the nuclear safeguard application. A small prototype was
built and tested to measure background events. A satisfactory unmanned field
operation of the detector system was demonstrated. Besides, a detailed Monte
Carlo simulation code was developed to estimate the antineutrino detection
efficiency of the detector.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures; accepted for publication in Nuclear Instruments
and Methods in Physics Research
Chemo-Sensitive Running Droplet
Chemical control of the spontaneous motion of a reactive oil droplet moving
on a glass substrate under an aqueous phase is reported. Experimental results
show that the self-motion of an oil droplet is confined on an acid-treated
glass surface. The transient behavior of oil-droplet motion is also observed
with a high-speed video camera. A mathematical model that incorporates the
effect of the glass surface charge is built based on the experimental
observation of oil-droplet motion. A numerical simulation of this mathematical
model reproduced the essential features concerning confinement within a certain
chemical territory of oil-droplet motion, and also its transient behavior. Our
results may shed light on physical aspects of reactive spreading and a
chemotaxis in living things.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figure
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