Mini-stop bands in single heterojunction photonic crystal waveguides

Spectral characteristics of mini-stop bands (MSB) in line-defect photonic crystal (PhC) waveguides and in heterostructure PhC waveguides having one abrupt interface are investigated. Tunability of the MSB position by air-fill factor heterostructure PhC waveguides is utilized to demonstrate different filter functions, at optical communication wavelengths, ranging from resonance-like to wide band pass filters with high transmission. The narrowest filter realized has a resonance-like transmission peak with a full width at half maximum of 3.4 nm. These devices could be attractive for coarse wavelength selection (pass and drop) and for sensing applications.Support from the Swedish Research Council (VR) is gratefully acknowledged

The Existence of Einstein Static Universes and their Stability in Fourth order Theories of Gravity

We investigate whether or not an Einstein Static universe is a solution to the cosmological equations in $f(R)$ gravity. It is found that only one class of $f(R)$ theories admits an Einstein Static model, and that this class is neutrally stable with respect to vector and tensor perturbations for all equations of state on all scales. Scalar perturbations are only stable on all scales if the matter fluid equation of state satisfies $c_s^2>\frac{\sqrt{5}-1}{6}\approx 0.21$. This result is remarkably similar to the GR case, where it was found that the Einstein Static model is stable for $c_s^2>{1/5}$.Comment: Minor changes, To appear in PR

A GPS-Less Localization and Mobility Modelling (LMM) System for Wildlife Tracking

Existing wildlife tracking solutions typically use sensor nodes with specialised facilities, such as long-range radio, solar array of cells and Global Positioning System (GPS). This introduces additional manufacturing cost, increased energy and memory consumptions and increased sensor node weight. This paper proposes a novel Localization and Mobility Modelling (LMM) system, that can carry out wildlife tracking by merely using low-cost, lightweight sensor nodes and using short-range peer-to-peer communication facilities only, i.e. without the need for any specialised facilities. This is done by using two computationally simple operations, which are: (i) aggregated data collections from sensor nodes via peer-to-peer communications in a distributed manner, and (ii) estimation of sensor nodes' movement traces using trilateration. The computational load placed on each sensor node is just that of data collection and aggregation, whereas movement traces estimation is carried out on a backend server, separated from the sensor nodes. In the design of the LMM system, we have: (i) carried out an empirical evaluation of different parameter value settings for data collection to develop a Multi-Zone Multi-Hierarchy (MZMH) communication structure, (ii) demonstrated a novel use of an Aggregation based Topology Learning (ATL) protocol for collecting sensor nodes' topology data using peer-to-peer multi-hop communications, and (iii) used a novel Location Estimation (LE) method for estimating sensor nodes' movement traces from the collected topology data. The evaluation results show that the LMM system can accurately estimate sensor nodes' movement traces but with significantly less energy and memory costs, demonstrating its cost-efficiency as compared to the related wildlife tracking solutions. © 2020 IEEE

Fabrication of submicrometer InP pillars by colloidal lithography and dry etching

A simple method for the fabrication of submicrometer InP pillars with large surface area coverage has been developed based on a combination of colloidal lithography and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching technique using Cl 2/H2/CH4/Ar chemistry. Pillars with different sizes could be fabricated by using colloidal SiO2 particles with different sizes dispersed on the sample serving as masks. Pillars with lateral diameters as small as 60 nm and aspect ratios as high as 10:1 have been obtained. The effects of etch parameters such as radio-frequency power, ICP power, and etching time on pillar fabrication are investigated. By a suitable choice of etch parameters and utilizing erosion of colloidal (mask) SiO 2 particle during etching, the height of the pillars as well as their shape can be modified from nearly cylindrical to conical shapes. Such a control on the shape of the structures in addition to the large surface coverage could be useful for applications in photovoltaics and for the fabrication of photonic crystals. For instance, continuous grading of the refractive index can be obtained for surfaces covered with conical pillars, which can be used as antireflecting surfaces in solar cells or for light extraction in light emitting diodes

p-GaAs nanowire MESFETs with near-thermal limit gating

Difficulties in obtaining high-performance p-type transistors and gate insulator charge-trapping effects present two major challenges for III-V complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) electronics. We report a p-GaAs nanowire metal-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MESFET) that eliminates the need for a gate insulator by exploiting the Schottky barrier at the metal-GaAs interface. Our device beats the best-performing p-GaSb nanowire metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET), giving a typical sub-threshold swing of 62 mV/dec, within 4% of the thermal limit, on-off ratio $\sim 10^{5}$, on-resistance ~700 k$\Omega$, contact resistance ~30 k$\Omega$, peak transconductance 1.2 $\mu$S/$\mu$m and high-fidelity ac operation at frequencies up to 10 kHz. The device consists of a GaAs nanowire with an undoped core and heavily Be-doped shell. We carefully etch back the nanowire at the gate locations to obtain Schottky-barrier insulated gates whilst leaving the doped shell intact at the contacts to obtain low contact resistance. Our device opens a path to all-GaAs nanowire MESFET complementary circuits with simplified fabrication and improved performance

Carrier dynamics in InP nanopillar arrays fabricated by low-damage etching

We present a comprehensive characterization of the optical quality of InP nanopillars (NPs) fabricated by a top down approach using micro-photoluminescence (μ-PL), time-resolved PL, and cathodoluminescence (CL). A lattice matched InGaAs layer provided beneath the 1 μm tall NPs functions as a “detector” in CL for monitoring carrier diffusion in InP NP. Carrier feeding to the InGaAs layer indicated by a double exponential PL decay is confirmed through CL mapping. Carrier lifetimes of over 1 ns and the appreciably long diffusion lengths (400–700 nm) in the InP NPs indicate very low surface damage making them attractive for optoelectronic applications.The work was performed within the Linne Center for Advanced Optics and Photonics [Grant No.: 349-2007-8664] funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR). Support from the EU network of excellence “Nanophotonics for Energy Efficiency” [Grant No.: 248855] and from “Nanordsun” [Grant No.: 10048] funded by Nordic Innovation centre are also acknowledged. S.N. and N.S. acknowledge the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan for partially supporting their PhD studies (scholarship). The CL study was done in the nmC@LU with support from VR and Kurt Alice Wallenberg (KAW) foundation. The authors thank M. Hammar and J. Berggren for the MOVPE growth

Power-law cosmic expansion in f(R) gravity models

We show that within the class of f(R) gravity theories, FLRW power-law perfect fluid solutions only exist for R^n gravity. This significantly restricts the set of exact cosmological solutions which have similar properties to what is found in standard General Relativity.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Large-scale perturbations on the brane and the isotropy of the cosmological singularity

We present the complete set of propagation and constraint equations for the kinematic and non-local first order quantities which describe general linear inhomogeneous and anisotropic perturbations of a flat FRW braneworld with vanishing cosmological constant and decompose them in the standard way into their scalar, vector and tensor contributions. A detailed analysis of the perturbation dynamics is performed using dimensionless variables that are specially tailored for the different regimes of interest; namely, the low energy GR regime, the high energy regime and the dark energy regime. Tables are presented for the evolution of all the physical quantities, making it easy to do a detailed comparison of the past asymptotic behaviour of the perturbations of these models. We find results that exactly match those obtained in the analysis of the spatially inhomogeneous $G_{2}$ braneworld cosmologies presented recently; i.e., that isotropization towards the ${\cal F}_b$ model occurs for $\gamma > 4/3$.Comment: 13 pages, revtex

The Trouble with de Sitter Space

In this paper we assume the de Sitter Space version of Black Hole Complementarity which states that a single causal patch of de Sitter space is described as an isolated finite temperature cavity bounded by a horizon which allows no loss of information. We discuss the how the symmetries of de Sitter space should be implemented. Then we prove a no go theorem for implementing the symmetries if the entropy is finite. Thus we must either give up the finiteness of the de Sitter entropy or the exact symmetry of the classical space. Each has interesting implications for the very long time behavior. We argue that the lifetime of a de Sitter phase can not exceed the Poincare recurrence time. This is supported by recent results of Kachru, Kallosh, Linde and Trivedi.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure. v2: added fifth section with comments on long time stability of de Sitter space, in which we argue that the lifetime can not exceed the Poincare recurrence time. v3: corrected a minor error in the appendi