127 research outputs found
Image-Force Barrier Lowering of Schottky Barriers in Two-Dimensional Materials as a Function of Metal Contact Angle
Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors are a promising solution for the
miniaturization of electronic devices and for the exploration of novel physics.
However, practical applications and demonstrations of physical phenomena are
hindered by high Schottky barriers at the contacts to 2D semiconductors. While
the process of image-force barrier lowering (IFBL) can considerably decrease
the Schottky barrier, IFBL is not fully understood for the majority of
prevalent contact geometries. We introduce a novel technique to determine the
IFBL potential energy with application spanning far beyond that of any existing
method. We do so by solving Poisson's equation with the boundary conditions of
two metal surfaces separated by an angle Omega. We then prove that our result
can also be obtained with the method of images provided a non-Euclidean,
cone-manifold space is used. The resulting IFBL is used to calculate the
expected contact resistance of the most prevalent geometric contacts. Finally,
we investigate contact resistance and show how the stronger IFBL counteracts
the effect of larger depletion width with increasing contact angle. We find
that top contacts experience lower contact resistance than edge contacts.
Remarkably, our results identify tunable parameters for reducing Schottky
barriers and likewise contact resistance to edge-contacted 2D materials,
enhancing potential applications.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure
Theoretical study of scattering in graphene ribbons in the presence of structural and atomistic edge roughness
We investigate the diffusive electron-transport properties of charge-doped
graphene ribbons and nanoribbons with imperfect edges. We consider different
regimes of edge scattering, ranging from wide graphene ribbons with (partially)
diffusive edge scattering to ribbons with large width variations and
nanoribbons with atomistic edge roughness. For the latter, we introduce an
approach based on pseudopotentials, allowing for an atomistic treatment of the
band structure and the scattering potential, on the self-consistent solution of
the Boltzmann transport equation within the relaxation-time approximation and
taking into account the edge-roughness properties and statistics. The resulting
resistivity depends strongly on the ribbon orientation, with zigzag (armchair)
ribbons showing the smallest (largest) resistivity and intermediate ribbon
orientations exhibiting intermediate resistivity values. The results also show
clear resistivity peaks, corresponding to peaks in the density of states due to
the confinement-induced subband quantization, except for armchair-edge ribbons
that show a very strong width dependence because of their claromatic behavior.
Furthermore, we identify a strong interplay between the relative position of
the two valleys of graphene along the transport direction, the correlation
profile of the atomistic edge roughness, and the chiral valley modes, leading
to a peculiar strongly suppressed resistivity regime, most pronounced for the
zigzag orientation.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
Rare mutations in SQSTM1 modify susceptibility to frontotemporal lobar degeneration
Mutations in the gene coding for Sequestosome 1 (SQSTM1) have been genetically associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Paget disease of bone. In the present study, we analyzed the SQSTM1 coding sequence for mutations in an extended cohort of 1,808 patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), ascertained within the European Early-Onset Dementia consortium. As control dataset, we sequenced 1,625 European control individuals and analyzed whole-exome sequence data of 2,274 German individuals (total n = 3,899). Association of rare SQSTM1 mutations was calculated in a meta-analysis of 4,332 FTLD and 10,240 control alleles. We identified 25 coding variants in FTLD patients of which 10 have not been described. Fifteen mutations were absent in the control individuals (carrier frequency < 0.00026) whilst the others were rare in both patients and control individuals. When pooling all variants with a minor allele frequency < 0.01, an overall frequency of 3.2 % was calculated in patients. Rare variant association analysis between patients and controls showed no difference over the whole protein, but suggested that rare mutations clustering in the UBA domain of SQSTM1 may influence disease susceptibility by doubling the risk for FTLD (RR = 2.18 [95 % CI 1.24-3.85]; corrected p value = 0.042). Detailed histopathology demonstrated that mutations in SQSTM1 associate with widespread neuronal and glial phospho-TDP-43 pathology. With this study, we provide further evidence for a putative role of rare mutations in SQSTM1 in the genetic etiology of FTLD and showed that, comparable to other FTLD/ALS genes, SQSTM1 mutations are associated with TDP-43 pathology
Progress in gene therapy for neurological disorders
Diseases of the nervous system have devastating effects and are widely distributed among the population, being especially prevalent in the elderly. These diseases are often caused by inherited genetic mutations that result in abnormal nervous system development, neurodegeneration, or impaired neuronal function. Other causes of neurological diseases include genetic and epigenetic changes induced by environmental insults, injury, disease-related events or inflammatory processes. Standard medical and surgical practice has not proved effective in curing or treating these diseases, and appropriate pharmaceuticals do not exist or are insufficient to slow disease progression. Gene therapy is emerging as a powerful approach with potential to treat and even cure some of the most common diseases of the nervous system. Gene therapy for neurological diseases has been made possible through progress in understanding the underlying disease mechanisms, particularly those involving sensory neurons, and also by improvement of gene vector design, therapeutic gene selection, and methods of delivery. Progress in the field has renewed our optimism for gene therapy as a treatment modality that can be used by neurologists, ophthalmologists and neurosurgeons. In this Review, we describe the promising gene therapy strategies that have the potential to treat patients with neurological diseases and discuss prospects for future development of gene therapy
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