Highly Mismatched Alloys for Intermediate Band Solar Cells

It has long been recognized that the introduction of a narrow band of states in a semiconductor band gap could be used to achieve improved power conversion efficiency in semiconductor-based solar cells. The intermediate band would serve as a ''stepping stone'' for photons of different energy to excite electrons from the valence to the conduction band. An important advantage of this design is that it requires formation of only a single p-n junction, which is a crucial simplification in comparison to multijunction solar cells. A detailed balance analysis predicts a limiting efficiency of more than 50% for an optimized, single intermediate band solar cell. This is higher than the efficiency of an optimized two junction solar cell. Using ion beam implantation and pulsed laser melting we have synthesized Zn{sub 1-y}Mn{sub y}O{sub x}Te{sub 1-x} alloys with x<0.03. These highly mismatched alloys have a unique electronic structure with a narrow oxygen-derived intermediate band. The width and the location of the band is described by the Band Anticrossing model and can be varied by controlling the oxygen content. This provides a unique opportunity to optimize the absorption of solar photons for best solar cell performance. We have carried out systematic studies of the effects of the intermediate band on the optical and electrical properties of Zn{sub 1-y}Mn{sub y}O{sub x}Te{sub 1-x} alloys. We observe an extension of the photovoltaic response towards lower photon energies, which is a clear indication of optical transitions from the valence to the intermediate band

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo

Synthesis and optical properties of II-O-VI highly mismatched alloys

We have synthesized ternary and quaternary diluted II-VI oxides using the combination of O ion implantation and pulsed laser melting. CdO{sub x}Te{sub 1-x} thin films with x up to 0.015, and the energy gap reduced by 150 meV were formed by O{sup +}-implantation in CdTe followed by pulsed laser melting. Quaternary Cd{sub 0.6}Mn{sub 0.4}O{sub x}Te{sub 1-x} and Zn{sub 0.88}Mn{sub 0.12}O{sub x}Te{sub 1-x} with mole fraction of incorporated O as high as 0.03 were also formed. The enhanced O incorporation in Mn-containing alloys is believed to be due to the formation of relatively strong Mn-O bonds. Optical transitions associated with the lower (E{sub -}) and upper (E{sub +}) conduction subbands resulting from the anticrossing interaction between the localized O states and the extended conduction states of the host are clearly observed in these quaternary diluted II-VI oxides. These alloys fulfill the criteria for a multiband semiconductor that has been proposed as a material for making high efficiency, single-junction solar cells

The Physics of the B Factories

This work is on the Physics of the B Factories. Part A of this book contains a brief description of the SLAC and KEK B Factories as well as their detectors, BaBar and Belle, and data taking related issues. Part B discusses tools and methods used by the experiments in order to obtain results. The results themselves can be found in Part C

The Future of Precision Medicine : Potential Impacts for Health Technology Assessment

Objective Precision medicine allows health care interventions to be tailored to groups of patients based on their disease susceptibility, diagnostic or prognostic information or treatment response. We analyse what developments are expected in precision medicine over the next decade and consider the implications for health technology assessment (HTA) agencies. Methods We perform a pragmatic review of the literature on the health economic challenges of precision medicine, and conduct interviews with representatives from HTA agencies, research councils and researchers from a variety of fields, including digital health, health informatics, health economics and primary care research. Results Three types of precision medicine are highlighted as likely to emerge in clinical practice and impact upon HTA agencies: complex algorithms, digital health applications and ‘omics’-based tests. Defining the scope of an evaluation, identifying and synthesizing the evidence and developing decision analytic models will more difficult when assessing more complex and uncertain treatment pathways. Stratification of patients will result in smaller subgroups, higher standard errors and greater decision uncertainty. Equity concerns may present in instances where biomarkers correlate with characteristics such as ethnicity, whilst fast-paced innovation may reduce the shelf-life of guidance and necessitate more frequent reviewing. Discussion Innovation in precision medicine promises substantial benefits to patients, but will also change the way in which some health services are delivered and evaluated. As biomarker discovery accelerates and AI-based technologies emerge, the technical expertise and processes of HTA agencies will need to adapt if the objective of value for money is to be maintained

AlSb photonic detectors for gamma-ray spectroscopy. Progress report, October 1994--August 1995

Aluminum antimony (AlSb) is an indirect band gap semiconductor with Eg of about 1.62 eV at 300 K and about 1.75 eV at 77 K. This material, is extremely difficult to obtain in single crystal form because of the very high reactivity of aluminum with oxygen, and the high volatility of antimony. Moreover, molten AlSb reacts with nearly all crucible materials available. Since Welker`s first attempts in 1952, only very few different experimental approaches have been used to grow single crystals of AlSb, e.g. by Bridgman, Czochralski and MBE. All experimental results, however, indicate that many of the properties of AlSb, e.g. carrier concentration, electron-hole mobility and carrier life-time, differ significantly from the theoretically predicted values. The main objective of this research period has been to develop a method leading to improved crystallographic and electronic quality of AlSb crystals, making them more suitable for device applications. The research program was aimed along the following two directions: (1) study the growth of AlSb via Bridgman, Czochralski and THM techniques; (2) comprehensive characterization of grown material, related to the use of compounds for high energy gamma detectors. Variables in the growth study were growth temperature, equilibrium pressure, growth rate, doping, crucible material, seeding and encapsulation. The characterization study included crystallographic quality (grain size, etch pits, precipitates, inclusions), electronic quality (conductivity type, carrier concentration and mobility), optical properties (spectral absorption, photoconductivity, persistent absorption) and others (SIMS, EPR)