Phase Diagram of the Half-Filled Ionic Hubbard Model

We study the phase diagram of the ionic Hubbard model (IHM) at half-filling using dynamical mean field theory (DMFT), with two impurity solvers, namely, iterated perturbation theory (IPT) and continuous time quantum Monte Carlo (CTQMC). The physics of the IHM is governed by the competition between the staggered potential $\Delta$ and the on-site Hubbard U. In both the methods we find that for a finite $\Delta$ and at zero temperature, anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) order sets in beyond a threshold $U=U_{AF}$ via a first order phase transition below which the system is a paramagnetic band insulator. Both the methods show a clear evidence for a transition to a half-metal phase just after the AFM order is turned on, followed by the formation of an AFM insulator on further increasing U. We show that the results obtained within both the methods have good qualitative and quantitative consistency in the intermediate to strong coupling regime. On increasing the temperature, the AFM order is lost via a first order phase transition at a transition temperature $T_{AF}(U, \Delta)$ within both the methods, for weak to intermediate values of U/t. But in the strongly correlated regime, where the effective low energy Hamiltonian is the Heisenberg model, IPT is unable to capture the thermal (Neel) transition from the AFM phase to the paramagnetic phase, but the CTQMC does. As a result, at any finite temperature T, DMFT+CTQMC shows a second phase transition (not seen within DMFT+IPT) on increasing U beyond $U_{AF}$. At $U_N > U_{AF}$, when the Neel temperature $T_N$ for the effective Heisenberg model becomes lower than T, the AFM order is lost via a second order transition. In the 3-dimensonal parameter space of $(U/t,T/t,\Delta/t)$, there is a line of tricritical points that separates the surfaces of first and second order phase transitions.Comment: Revised versio

Aerosol-Jet-Assisted Thin-Film Growth of CH3NH3PbI3 Perovskites—A Means to Achieve High Quality, Defect-Free Films for Efficient Solar Cells

AbstractA high level of automation is desirable to facilitate the lab‐to‐fab process transfer of the emerging perovskite‐based solar technology. Here, an automated aerosol‐jet printing technique is introduced for precisely controlling the thin‐film perovskite growth in a planar heterojunction p–i–n solar cell device structure. The roles of some of the user defined parameters from a computer‐aided design file are studied for the reproducible fabrication of pure CH3NH3PbI3 thin films under near ambient conditions. Preliminary power conversion efficiencies up to 15.4% are achieved when such films are incorporated in a poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate‐perovskite‐phenyl‐C71‐butyric acid methyl ester type device format. It is further shown that the deposition of atomized materials in the form of a gaseous mist helps to form a highly uniform and PbI2 residue‐free CH3NH3PbI3 film and offers advantages over the conventional two‐step solution approach by avoiding the detrimental solid–liquid interface induced perovskite crystallization. Ultimately, by integrating full 3D motion control, the fabrication of perovskite layers directly on a 3D curved surface becomes possible. This work suggests that 3D automation with aerosol‐jet printing, once fully optimized, could form a universal platform for the lab‐to‐fab process transfer of solution‐based perovskite photovoltaics and steer development of new design strategies for numerous embedded structural power applications

Germanium nanocrystals embedded in silicon dioxide for floating gate memory devices

Metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors with tri-layer structure consisting of rf magnetron sputtered grown germanium (Ge) nanocrystals (NCs) and silicon dioxide (SiO2) layers sandwiched between thermally grown tunnel and sputtered grown cap oxide layers of SiO2 were fabricated on p-Si substrates. Plane view transmission electron micrographs revealed the formation of spherically shaped and uniformly distributed Ge NCs. The optical and electronic characteristics of tri-layer structures were studied through photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements, respectively. Frequency dependent electrical properties of the structures have been studied. The optical emission characteristics support the confinement of the carriers in Ge NCs embedded in oxide matrices. An anticlockwise hysteresis in C-V characteristics suggests electron injection and trapping in Ge NCs. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/2785

Room temperature giant baroresistance and magnetoresistance and its tunability in Pd doped FeRh

We report room temperature giant baro-resistance ($\approx$128\%) in $Fe_{49}(Rh_{0.93}Pd_{0.07})_{51}$. With the application of external pressure and magnetic field the temperature range of giant baro-resistance ($\approx$600\% at 5K and 19.9 kbar and 8 Tesla) and magnetoresistance ($\approx$-85\% at 5K and 8 tesla) can be tuned from 5 K to well above room temperature. As the AFM state is stabilized at room temperature under external pressure, it shows giant room temperature magnetoresistance ($\approx$-55\%) with magnetic field. Due to coupled magnetic and latticel changes, the isothermal change in room temperature resistivity with pressure (in the absence of applied magnetic field) as well as magnetic field (under various constant pressure) can be scaled together to a single curve when plotted as a function of X = T + 12.8*H - 7.2*P

Environment-induced dynamical chaos

We examine the interplay of nonlinearity of a dynamical system and thermal fluctuation of its environment in the ``physical limit'' of small damping and slow diffusion in a semiclassical context and show that the trajectories of c-number variables exhibit dynamical chaos due to the thermal fluctuations of the bath.Comment: Revtex, 4 pages and 4 figure

Influence of Electron Transport Layer (TiO2) Thickness and Its Doping Density on the Performance of CH3NH3PbI3-Based Planar Perovskite Solar Cells

Simulation studies are vital to understanding solar cell performance and in optimal device design for high-efficiency solar cells. Cell performance is sensitive to many factors, including device architecture, energy band alignment at the interfaces, materials used for photogeneration, charge extraction, doping density and thickness of various layers. The role of electron transport layer (ETL) thickness and its doping density on device performance is explored in this work. As the ETL thickness is increased from 10 nm to 200 nm, both fill factor (FF) and efficiency remain high up to 40 nm, at 0.85 and 28.04%, respectively, and beyond 40 nm, they decrease gradually due to a sharp increase in series resistance, reaching zero at 200 nm. However, J(sc) and V-oc remained unchanged up to an ETL thickness of about 150 nm and 160 nm, respectively. These results were confirmed by contour plots of the simulated V-oc, J(sc), FF and efficiency results. We observed that when ETL approached 200 nm, J(sc) and V-oc decreased to zero and 0.88 V, respectively. This can be attributed to very high series resistance and recombination in the cell. Donor concentration variation in the ETL from 10(17)/cm(3) to 10(20)/cm(3) has much less impact on J(sc), and V-oc remains unchanged. However, fill factor and efficiency improved, which might be due to an increase in conductivity in the ETL. Our result shows that for an optimized device, with an AM 1.5 spectrum, a cell efficiency of 29.64% was achieved with V-oc, J(sc) and fill factor of 1.241 V, 28.70 mA/cm(2) and 0.83, respectively