Heterojunction Hybrid Devices from Vapor Phase Grown MoS2_{2}

We investigate a vertically-stacked hybrid photodiode consisting of a thin n-type molybdenum disulfide (MoS$_{2}$) layer transferred onto p-type silicon. The fabrication is scalable as the MoS$_{2}$ is grown by a controlled and tunable vapor phase sulfurization process. The obtained large-scale p-n heterojunction diodes exhibit notable photoconductivity which can be tuned by modifying the thickness of the MoS$_{2}$ layer. The diodes have a broad spectral response due to direct and indirect band transitions of the nanoscale MoS$_{2}$. Further, we observe a blue-shift of the spectral response into the visible range. The results are a significant step towards scalable fabrication of vertical devices from two-dimensional materials and constitute a new paradigm for materials engineering.Comment: 23 pages with 4 figures. This article has been published in Scientific Reports. (26 June 2014, doi:10.1038/srep05458

Structure of a model TiO2 photocatalytic interface

The interaction of water with TiO2 is crucial to many of its practical applications, including photocatalytic water splitting. Following the first demonstration of this phenomenon 40 years ago there have been numerous studies of the rutile single-crystal TiO2(110) interface with water. This has provided an atomic-level understanding of the water-TiO2 interaction. However, nearly all of the previous studies of water/TiO2 interfaces involve water in the vapour phase. Here, we explore the interfacial structure between liquid water and a rutile TiO2(110) surface pre-characterized at the atomic level. Scanning tunnelling microscopy and surface X-ray diffraction are used to determine the structure, which is comprised of an ordered array of hydroxyl molecules with molecular water in the second layer. Static and dynamic density functional theory calculations suggest that a possible mechanism for formation of the hydroxyl overlayer involves the mixed adsorption of O2 and H2O on a partially defected surface. The quantitative structural properties derived here provide a basis with which to explore the atomistic properties and hence mechanisms involved in TiO2 photocatalysis

Design and Calibration of a Lightweight Physics-Based Model for Fluid-Mediated Self-Assembly of Robotic Modules

In this paper, we consider a system consisting of multiple floating robotic modules performing self-assembly. Faithfully modeling such a system and its inter-module interactions typically involves capturing the hydrodynamic forces acting on the modules using computationally expensive fluid dynamic modeling tools. This poses restrictions on the usability of the resulting models. Here, we present a new approach towards modeling such systems. First, we show how the hardware and firmware of the robotic modules can be faithfully modeled in a high-fidelity robotic simulator. Second, we develop a physics plugin to recreate the hydrodynamic forces acting on the modules and propose a trajectory-based method for calibrating the plugin model parameters. Our calibration method employs a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, and consists of minimizing the difference between Mean Squared Displacement (MSD) data extracted from real and simulated trajectories of multiple robotic modules

Measurement of the π−\pi^- decay width of Λ5^5_\LambdaHe

We have precisely measured $\Lambda \to p\pi^-$ decay width of \5LHe and demonstrated significantly larger $\alpha$ -$\Lambda$ overlap than expected from the central repulsion $\alpha$-$\Lambda$ potential, which is derived from YNG \Lambda$-nucleon interaction.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Proton asymmetry in non-mesonic weak decay of light hypernuclei

We have obtained the decay asymmetry parameters in non-mesonic weak decay of polarized Lambda-hypernuclei by measuring the proton asymmetry. The polarized Lambda-hypernuclei, 5_Lambda-He, 12_Lambda-C, and 11_Lambda-B, were produced in high statistics via the (pi^+,k^+) reaction at 1.05 GeV/c in the forward angles. Preliminary analysis shows that the decay asymmetry parameters are very small for these s-shell and p-shell hypernuclei.Comment: 4pages, 4figures, International Conference on Hypernuclear and Strange Particle Physics (HYP2003

pi^0 decay branching ratios of 5_Lambda-He and 12_Lambda-C hypernuclei

We precisely measured pi^0 branching ratios of 5_Lambda-He and 12_Lambda-C hypernuclei produced via (pi^+,k^+) reaction. Using these pi^0 branching ratios with the pi^- branching ratios and the lifetimes, we obtained the pi^0 decay widths and the non-mesonic weak decay widths at high statistics with the accuracy of ~5 % (stat) for both hypernuclei.Comment: 4pages, 4figures, International Conference on Hypernuclear and Strange Particle Physics (HYP2003

Exclusive Measurement of the Nonmesonic Weak Decay of ^{5}_{\Lambda}He Hypernucleus

We performed a coincidence measurement of two nucleons emitted from the nonmesonic weak decay (NMWD) of ^{5}_{\Lambda}He formed via the ^{6}Li(\pi^+,K^+) reaction. The energies of two nucleons and the pair number distributions in the opening angle between them were measured. In both np and nn pairs, we observed a clean back-to-back correlation coming from the two-body decay of \Lambda p --> n p and \Lambda n --> n n, respectively. The ratio of the nucleon pair numbers was N_{nn}/N_{np}=0.45 \pm 0.11(stat)\pm 0.03(syst) in the kinematic region of cos(theta_{NN}) < -0.8. Since each decay mode was exclusively detected, the measured ratio should be close to the ratio of \Gamma(\Lambda p --> np)/\Gamma(\Lambda n --> nn). The ratio is consistent with recent theoretical calculations based on the heavy meson/direct quark exchange picture.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. lett., 4 pages, 3 figure

Nucleon-nucleon coincidence measurement in the non-mesonic weak decay of 5_Lambda-He and 12_Lambda-C hypernuclei

We have measured both yields of neutron-proton and neutron-neutron pairs emitted from the non-mesonic weak decay process of 5_Lambda-He and 12_Lambda-C hypernuclei produced via the (pi^+,K^+) reaction for the first time. We observed clean back-to-back correlation of the np- and nn-pairs in the coincidence spectra for both hypernuclei. The ratio of those back-to-back pair yields, Nnn / Nnp, must be close to the ratio of neutron- and proton-induced decay widths of the decay, Gn(Lambda n -> nn)/Gp(Lambda p -> np). The obtained ratios for each hypernuclei support recent calculations based on short-range interactions.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, International Nuclear Physics Conference (INPC 2004), Goteborg, Sweden, June 27 - July 2, 2004, to appear in Nuclear Physics