145 research outputs found
The merits and limitations of local impact ionization theory
Multiplication measurements on GaAs p+-i-n+s with i-region thicknesses, w, between 1 μm and 0.025 μm and Monte Carlo (MC) calculations of the avalanche process are used to investigate the applicability of the local ionization theory. The local expressions for multiplication are able to predict the measured values surprisingly well in p+-i-n+s with i-region thicknesses, w, as thin as 0.2 μm before the effect of dead-space, where carriers have insufficient energy to ionize, causes significant errors. Moreover, only a very simple correction to the local expressions is needed to predict the multiplication accurately where the field varies rapidly in abrupt one-sided p+-n junctions doped up to 1018 cm-3. However, MC modeling also shows that complex dead-space effects cause the local ionization coefficients to be increasingly unrepresentative of the position dependent values in the device as w is reduced below 1 μm. The success of the local model in predicting multiplication is therefore attributed to the dead-space information already being contained within the experimentally determined values of local coefficients. It is suggested that these should therefore be thought of as effective coefficients which, despite the presence of dead-space effects, can be still be used with the existing local theory for efficiently quantifying multiplication and breakdown voltages
Avalanche noise characteristics of thin GaAs structures with distributed carrier generation
It is known that both pure electron and pure hole injection into thin GaAs multiplication regions gives rise to avalanche multiplication with noise lower than predicted by the local noise model. In this paper, it is shown that the noise from multiplication initiated by carriers generated throughout a 0.1 μm avalanche region is also lower than predicted by the local model but higher than that obtained with pure injection of either carrier type. This behavior is due to the effects of nonlocal ionization brought about by the dead space; the minimum distance a carrier has to travel in the electric field to initiate an ionization even
Detection of Atmospheric Cherenkov Radiation Using Solar Heliostat Mirrors
The gamma-ray energy region between 20 and 250 GeV is largely unexplored.
Ground-based atmospheric Cherenkov detectors offer a possible way to explore
this region, but large Cherenkov photon collection areas are needed to achieve
low energy thresholds. This paper discusses the development of a Cherenkov
detector using the heliostat mirrors of a solar power plant as the primary
collector. As part of this development, we built a prototype detector
consisting of four heliostat mirrors and used it to record atmospheric
Cherenkov radiation produced in extensive air showers created by cosmic ray
particles.Comment: 16 latex pages, 8 postscript figures, uses psfig.sty, to be published
in Astroparticle Physic
The STACEE-32 Ground Based Gamma-ray Detector
We describe the design and performance of the Solar Tower Atmospheric
Cherenkov Effect Experiment detector in its initial configuration (STACEE-32).
STACEE is a new ground-based gamma ray detector using the atmospheric Cherenkov
technique. In STACEE, the heliostats of a solar energy research array are used
to collect and focus the Cherenkov photons produced in gamma-ray induced air
showers. The large Cherenkov photon collection area of STACEE results in a
gamma-ray energy threshold below that of previous detectors.Comment: 45 pages, 25 figures, Accepted for publication in Nuclear Instruments
and Methods
Collapse of the vortex-lattice inductance and shear modulus at the melting transition in untwinned
The complex resistivity of the vortex lattice in an
untwinned crystal of 93-K has been measured at frequencies
from 100 kHz to 20 MHz in a 2-Tesla field ,
using a 4-probe RF transmission technique that enables continuous measurements
versus and temperature . As is increased, the inductance increases steeply to a cusp
at the melting temperature , and then undergoes a steep collapse
consistent with vanishing of the shear modulus . We discuss in detail
the separation of the vortex-lattice inductance from the `volume' inductance,
and other skin-depth effects. To analyze the spectra, we consider a weakly
disordered lattice with a low pin density. Close fits are obtained to
over 2 decades in . Values of the pinning parameter
and shear modulus obtained show that collapses by
over 4 decades at , whereas remains finite.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, Phys. Rev. B, in pres
OSETI with STACEE: A Search for Nanosecond Optical Transients from Nearby Stars
We have used the STACEE high-energy gamma-ray detector to look for fast
blue-green laser pulses from the vicinity of 187 stars. The STACEE detector
offers unprecedented light-collecting capability for the detection of
nanosecond pulses from such lasers. We estimate STACEE's sensitivity to be
approximately 10 photons per square meter at a wavelength of 420 nm. The stars
have been chosen because their characteristics are such that they may harbor
habitable planets and they are relatively close to Earth. Each star was
observed for 10 minutes and we found no evidence for laser pulses in any of the
data sets.Comment: 38 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrobiolog
Universality of Frequency and Field Scaling of the Conductivity Measured by Ac-Susceptibility of a Ybco-Film
Utilizing a novel and exact inversion scheme, we determine the complex linear
conductivity from the linear magnetic ac-susceptibility
which has been measured from 3\,mHz to 50\,MHz in fields between 0.4\,T and
4\,T applied parallel to the c-axis of a 250\,nm thin disk. The frequency
derivative of the phase and the dynamical scaling of
above and below provide clear evidence for a
continuous phase transition at to a generic superconducting state. Based
on the vortex-glass scaling model, the resulting critical exponents and
are close to those frequently obtained on films by other means and
associated with an 'isotropic' vortex glass. The field effect on
can be related to the increase of the glass coherence length,
.Comment: 8 pages (5 figures upon request), revtex 3.0, APK.94.01.0
Behavioral plasticity in a benthic bivalve enhances tolerance of microalgal grazers to ocean warming and acidification
Very high energy observations of the BL Lac objects 3C 66A and OJ 287
Using the Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment (STACEE), we
have observed the BL Lac objects 3C 66A and OJ 287. These are members of the
class of low-frequency-peaked BL Lac objects (LBLs) and are two of the three
LBLs predicted by Costamante and Ghisellini to be potential sources of very
high energy (>100 GeV) gamma-ray emission. The third candidate, BL Lacertae,
has recently been detected by the MAGIC collaboration. Our observations have
not produced detections; we calculate a 99% CL upper limit of flux from 3C 66A
of 0.15 Crab flux units and from OJ 287 our limit is 0.52 Crab. These limits
assume a Crab-like energy spectrum with an effective energy threshold of 185
GeV.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figures, Accepted for publication in Astroparticle
Physic
Hall Effect and Resistivity in High-Tc Superconductors: The Conserving Approximation
The Hall coefficient (R_H) of high-Tc cuprates in the normal state shows the
striking non-Fermi liquid behavior: R_H follows a Curie-Weiss type temperature
dependence, and |R_H|>>1/|ne| at low temperatures in the under-doped compounds.
Moreover, R_H is positive for hole-doped compounds and is negative for
electron-doped ones, although each of them has a similar hole-like Fermi
surface. In this paper, we give the explanation of this long-standing problem
from the standpoint of the nearly antiferromagnetic (AF) Fermi liquid. We
consider seriously the vertex corrections for the current which are
indispensable to satisfy the conservation laws, which are violated within the
conventional Boltzmann transport approximation. The obtained total current J_k
takes an enhanced value and is no more perpendicular to the Fermi surface due
to the strong AF fluctuations. By virtue of this mechanism, the anomalous
behavior of R_H in high-Tc cuprates is neutrally explained. We find that both
the temperature and the (electron, or hole) doping dependences of R_H in
high-T_c cuprates are reproduced well by numerical calculations based on the
fluctuation-exchange (FLEX) approximation, applied to the single-band Hubbard
model. We also discuss the temperature dependence of R_H in other nearly AF
metals, e.g., V_2O_3, kappa-BEDT-TTF organic superconductors, and heavy fermion
systems close to the AF phase boundary.Comment: 19 pages, to appear in Phys. Rev. B, No.59, Vol.22, 199
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