94 research outputs found
A Decade of Integrated Reporting Studies: State of the Art and Future Research Implications
Purpose – Over the past decade, researchers have witnessed an exponential growth in the number of publications on IR. This paper aims to understand the state of the art of the research field and to highlight the areas where further academic research is needed, guiding developments in theory, research, policy and practices.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors apply the dynamic literature review method called “Systematic Literature Network Analysis”, which combines systematic literature review and bibliographic network analysis. Furthermore, to overcome some of the limitations connected to the methodology, the authors integrate the literature with a manual content analysis of papers.
Findings – IR adoption and practices and their determinants represent the most analyzed aspects of literature. Over time, attention has been paid to more specific issues, such as the relationship between IR and other disclosure mechanisms, IR quality and its assurance, the critical analysis of the IR framework and principles and difficulties in IR adoption. Although the literature on IR can be considered to be in its mature stage, many aspects are still under-researched, so there is plenty of space for future research.
Originality/value – The authors propose the following main issues as subjects to be investigated in future studies: IR is not simply an evolution of sustainability reporting, but an innovative communication tool; the debate on who the recipients of value are (shareholders or stakeholders) and on what the definition of value adopted by IR is still remains an open issue; more attention should be given to the role of IR as a managerial tool, which could support strategy formation and communication, and influence internal processes of performance
measurement and evaluation; what the future of IR will be in light of recent EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and new ISSB’s standards is still an open question. From a methodological perspective, little is known about structured approaches in accounting studies. The authors confirm how methodologies, such as that of this paper, may be exploited as a tool to support dynamic analysis for setting the agendas for future studies in the accounting field
Dopant metrology in advanced FinFETs
Ultra-scaled FinFET transistors bear unique fingerprint-like device-to-device
differences attributed to random single impurities. This paper describes how,
through correlation of experimental data with multimillion atom tight-binding
simulations using the NEMO 3-D code, it is possible to identify the impurity's
chemical species and determine their concentration, local electric field and
depth below the Si/SiO interface. The ability to model the
excited states rather than just the ground state is the critical component of
the analysis and allows the demonstration of a new approach to atomistic
impurity metrology.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Magnetic Field Probing of an SU(4) Kondo Resonance in a Single Atom Transistor
Semiconductor nano-devices have been scaled to the level that transport can
be dominated by a single dopant atom. In the strong coupling case a Kondo
effect is observed when one electron is bound to the atom. Here, we report on
the spin as well as orbital Kondo ground state. We experimentally as well than
theoretically show how we can tune a symmetry transition from a SU(4) ground
state, a many body state that forms a spin as well as orbital singlet by
virtual exchange with the leads, to a pure SU(2) orbital ground state, as a
function of magnetic field. The small size and the s-like orbital symmetry of
the ground state of the dopant, make it a model system in which the magnetic
field only couples to the spin degree of freedom and allows for observation of
this SU(4) to SU(2) transition.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review
Letter
Heterointerface effects on the charging energy of shallow D- ground state in silicon: the role of dielectric mismatch
Donor states in Si nanodevices can be strongly modified by nearby insulating
barriers and metallic gates. We report here experimental results indicating a
strong reduction in the charging energy of isolated As dopants in Si FinFETs
relative to the bulk value. By studying the problem of two electrons bound to a
shallow donor within the effective mass approach, we find that the measured
small charging energy may be due to a combined effect of the insulator
screening and the proximity of metallic gates.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Thermionic Emission as a tool to study transport in undoped nFinFETs
Thermally activated sub-threshold transport has been investigated in undoped
triple gate MOSFETs. The evolution of the barrier height and of the active
cross-section area of the channel as a function of gate voltage has been
determined. The results of our experiments and of the Tight Binding simulations
we have developed are both in good agreement with previous analytical
calculations, confirming the validity of thermionic approach to investigate
transport in FETs. This method provides an important tool for the improvement
of devices characteristics.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure, 1 tabl
Lifetime enhanced transport in silicon due to spin and valley blockade
We report the observation of Lifetime Enhanced Transport (LET) based on
perpendicular valleys in silicon by transport spectroscopy measurements of a
two-electron system in a silicon transistor. The LET is manifested as a
peculiar current step in the stability diagram due to a forbidden transition
between an excited state and any of the lower energy states due perpendicular
valley (and spin) configurations, offering an additional current path. By
employing a detailed temperature dependence study in combination with a rate
equation model, we estimate the lifetime of this particular state to exceed 48
ns. The two-electron spin-valley configurations of all relevant confined
quantum states in our device were obtained by a large-scale atomistic
tight-binding simulation. The LET acts as a signature of the complicated valley
physics in silicon; a feature that becomes increasingly important in silicon
quantum devices.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. (The current version (v3) is the result of
splitting up the previous version (v2), and has been completely rewritten
Comment: Superconducting transition in Nb nanowires fabricated using focused ion beam
In a recent paper Tettamanzi et al (2009 Nanotechnology \bf{20} 465302)
describe the fabrication of superconducting Nb nanowires using a focused ion
beam. They interpret their conductivity data in the framework of thermal and
quantum phase slips below . In the following we will argue that their
analysis is inappropriate and incomplete, leading to contradictory results.
Instead, we propose an interpretation of the data within a SN proximity model.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure accepted in Nanotechnolog
A hybrid double-dot in silicon
We report electrical measurements of a single arsenic dopant atom in the
tunnel-barrier of a silicon SET. As well as performing electrical
characterization of the individual dopant, we study series electrical transport
through the dopant and SET. We measure the triple points of this hybrid double
dot, using simulations to support our results, and show that we can tune the
electrostatic coupling between the two sub-systems.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure
Evolutionary Meta Layout of Graphs
A graph drawing library is like a toolbox, allowing experts to select and configure a specialized algorithm in order to meet the requirements of their diagram visualization application. However, without expert knowledge of the algorithms the potential of such a toolbox cannot be fully exploited. This gives rise to the question whether the process of selecting and configuring layout algorithms can be automated such that good layouts are produced. In this paper we call this kind of automation "meta layout." We propose a genetic representation that can be used in meta heuristics for meta layout and contribute new metrics for the evaluation of graph drawings. Furthermore, we examine the use of an evolutionary algorithm to search for optimal solutions and evaluate this approach both with automatic experiments and a user study. The results confirm that our methods can actually help users to find good layout configurations
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