A review of the electrical properties of semiconductor nanowires: Insights gained from terahertz conductivity spectroscopy

Accurately measuring and controlling the electrical properties of semiconductor nanowires is of paramount importance in the development of novel nanowire-based devices. In light of this, terahertz (THz) conductivity spectroscopy has emerged as an ideal non-contact technique for probing nanowire electrical conductivity and is showing tremendous value in the targeted development of nanowire devices. THz spectroscopic measurements of nanowires enable charge carrier lifetimes, mobilities, dopant concentrations and surface recombination velocities to be measured with high accuracy and high throughput in a contact-free fashion. This review spans seminal and recent studies of the electronic properties of nanowires using THz spectroscopy. A didactic description of THz time-domain spectroscopy, optical pump–THz probe spectroscopy, and their application to nanowires is included. We review a variety of technologically important nanowire materials, including GaAs, InAs, InP, GaN and InN nanowires, Si and Ge nanowires, ZnO nanowires, nanowire heterostructures, doped nanowires and modulation-doped nanowires. Finally, we discuss how THz measurements are guiding the development of nanowire-based devices, with the example of single-nanowire photoconductive THz receivers.The authors gratefully acknowledge EPSRC (UK) for research funding. H J Joyce gratefully acknowledges the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 for her research fellowship.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from IOP via https://doi.org/10.1088/0268-1242/31/10/10300

Generation of propagating spin waves from regions of increased dynamic demagnetising field near magnetic antidots

Journal article and accompanying data and mediaThe article appeared in Applied Physics Letters 107, 162401 (2015); doi: 10.1063/1.4933263 and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4933263We have used Brillouin Light Scattering and micromagnetic simulations to demonstrate a point-like source of spin waves created by the inherently nonuniform internal magnetic field in the vicinity of an isolated antidot formed in a continuous film of yttrium-iron-garnet. The field nonuniformity ensures that only well-defined regions near the antidot respond in resonance to a continuous excitation of the entire sample with a harmonic microwave field. The resonantly excited parts of the sample then served as reconfigurable sources of spin waves propagating (across the considered sample) in the form of caustic beams. Our findings are relevant to further development of magnonic circuits, in which point-like spin wave stimuli could be required, and as a building block for interpretation of spin wave behavior in magnonic crystals formed by antidot arrays.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)Russian Foundation for Basic ResearchRussian Science FoundationScholarship of the President of Russian Federatio

Field-Controlled Phase-Rectified Magnonic Multiplexer

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via the DOI in this record.The article plus associated .mif files is in ORE: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/18265The mechanism used to alter the features of propagating spin waves is a key component underpinning the functionality of high-frequency magnonic devices. Here, using experiment and micromagnetic simulations, we demonstrate the feasibility of a magnonic multiplexer in which the spin-wave beam is toggled between device output branches by the polarity of a small global bias magnetic field. Due to the anisotropy inherent in the dispersion of magnetostatic spin waves, the phase fronts of the output spin waves are asymmetrically tilted relative to the direction of the beam propagation (group velocity). We show how the phase tilts could be (partly) rectified in the magnonic waveguides of variable widths.This work was supported in part by the U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under Project EP/L019876/1 and Project EP/P505526/1, in part by the Russian Science Foundation under Project 14–19-00760, in part by the Scholarship of the President of Russian Federation (SP-313.2015.5), and in part by the Russian Foundation under Projects 14-07-00273 and 15-37-51253

Magnonic beam splitter: The building block of parallel magnonic circuitry

We demonstrate a magnonic beam splitter that works by inter-converting magnetostatic surface and backward-volume spin waves propagating in orthogonal sections of a T-shaped yttrium iron garnet structure. The inter-conversion is enabled by the overlap of the surface and volume spin wave bands. This overlap results from the demagnetising field induced along the transversely magnetised section(-s) of the structure and the quantization of the transverse wave number of the propagating spin waves (which are therefore better described as waveguide modes). In agreement with numerical micromagnetic simulations, our Brillouin light scattering imaging experiments reveal that, depending on the frequency, the incident fundamental waveguide magnonic modes may also be converted into higher order waveguide modes. The magnonic beam splitter demonstrated here is an important step towards the development of parallel logic circuitry of magnonics.The research leading to these results has received funding from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project No. 14-07-00273), the Grant from Russian Science Foundation (Project No. 14-19-00760), the Scholarship of the President of Russian Federation (SP-313.2015.5), and from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of the United Kingdom (Project Nos. EP/L019876/1 and EP/P505526/1)

Emergence of structure in mouse embryos: Structural Entropy morphometry applied to digital models of embryonic anatomy

We apply an information-theoretic measure to anatomical models of the Edinburgh Mouse Atlas Project. Our goal is to quantify the anatomical complexity of the embryo and to understand how this quantity changes as the organism develops through time. Our measure, Structural Entropy, takes into account the geometrical character of the intermingling of tissue types in the embryo. It does this by a mathematical process that effectively imagines a point-like explorer that starts at an arbitrary place in the 3D structure of the embryo and takes a random path through the embryo, recording the sequence of tissues through which it passes. Consideration of a large number of such paths yields a probability distribution of paths making connections between specific tissue types, and Structural Entropy is calculated from this (mathematical details are given in the main text). We find that Structural Entropy generally decreases (order increases) almost linearly throughout developmental time (4–18 days). There is one `blip’ of increased Structural Entropy across days 7–8: this corresponds to gastrulation. Our results highlight the potential for mathematical techniques to provide insight into the development of anatomical structure, and also the need for further sources of accurate 3D anatomical data to support analyses of this kind

A new Mississippian tetrapod from Fife, Scotland, and its environmental context.

The Visean stage of the Mississippian was a time of rapid tetrapod diversification which marks the earliest appearance of temnospondyls, microsaurs and the limbless aïstopods. Tetrapod finds from this stage are very rare and only a dozen sites are known worldwide. Here we announce the discovery of a new Visean site in Fife, Scotland, of Asbian age, and from it describe a new species of the baphetoid Spathicephalus. These specimens represent the oldest known baphetoid by three million years, yet belong to the most specialized members of the clade. Unlike typical baphetoids with large marginal teeth and palatal fangs characteristic of early tetrapods, spathicephalids had very broad flattened heads with a dentition consisting of a large number of small, uniform teeth. Spathicephalids were probably one of the earliest tetrapod groups to use suction feeding on small, aquatic prey. Palynological and sedimentological analysis indicates that the new fossil bed was deposited in a large, stratified, freshwater lake that became increasingly saline.Natural Environment Research Council. Grant Numbers: NE/J020621/1, NE/J020729/1, NE/J021091/1, NE/J022713/1, NEJ021067/

On Tackling the Limits of Resolution in SAT Solving

The practical success of Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) solvers stems from the CDCL (Conflict-Driven Clause Learning) approach to SAT solving. However, from a propositional proof complexity perspective, CDCL is no more powerful than the resolution proof system, for which many hard examples exist. This paper proposes a new problem transformation, which enables reducing the decision problem for formulas in conjunctive normal form (CNF) to the problem of solving maximum satisfiability over Horn formulas. Given the new transformation, the paper proves a polynomial bound on the number of MaxSAT resolution steps for pigeonhole formulas. This result is in clear contrast with earlier results on the length of proofs of MaxSAT resolution for pigeonhole formulas. The paper also establishes the same polynomial bound in the case of modern core-guided MaxSAT solvers. Experimental results, obtained on CNF formulas known to be hard for CDCL SAT solvers, show that these can be efficiently solved with modern MaxSAT solvers

Use of Caval Subtraction 2D Phase-Contrast MR Imaging to Measure Total Liver and Hepatic Arterial Blood Flow: Preclinical Validation and Initial Clinical Translation

Purpose To validate caval subtraction two-dimensional (2D) phase-contrast magnetic resonance (MR) imaging measurements of total liver blood flow (TLBF) and hepatic arterial fraction in an animal model and evaluate consistency and reproducibility in humans. Materials and Methods Approval from the institutional ethical committee for animal care and research ethics was obtained. Fifteen Sprague-Dawley rats underwent 2D phase-contrast MR imaging of the portal vein (PV) and infrahepatic and suprahepatic inferior vena cava (IVC). TLBF and hepatic arterial flow were estimated by subtracting infrahepatic from suprahepatic IVC flow and PV flow from estimated TLBF, respectively. Direct PV transit-time ultrasonography (US) and fluorescent microsphere measurements of hepatic arterial fraction were the standards of reference. Thereafter, consistency of caval subtraction phase-contrast MR imaging-derived TLBF and hepatic arterial flow was assessed in 13 volunteers (mean age, 28.3 years ± 1.4) against directly measured phase-contrast MR imaging PV and proper hepatic arterial inflow; reproducibility was measured after 7 days. Bland-Altman analysis of agreement and coefficient of variation comparisons were undertaken. Results There was good agreement between PV flow measured with phase-contrast MR imaging and that measured with transit-time US (mean difference, -3.5 mL/min/100 g; 95% limits of agreement [LOA], ±61.3 mL/min/100 g). Hepatic arterial fraction obtained with caval subtraction agreed well with those with fluorescent microspheres (mean difference, 4.2%; 95% LOA, ±20.5%). Good consistency was demonstrated between TLBF in humans measured with caval subtraction and direct inflow phase-contrast MR imaging (mean difference, -1.3 mL/min/100 g; 95% LOA, ±23.1 mL/min/100 g). TLBF reproducibility at 7 days was similar between the two methods (95% LOA, ±31.6 mL/min/100 g vs ±29.6 mL/min/100 g). Conclusion Caval subtraction phase-contrast MR imaging is a simple and clinically viable method for measuring TLBF and hepatic arterial flow. Online supplemental material is available for this article