2,254 research outputs found
Local conductivity and the role of vacancies around twin walls of (001)-BiFeO3 thin films
BiFeO3 thin films epitaxially grown on SrRuO3-buffered (001)-oriented SrTiO3
substrates show orthogonal bundles of twin domains, each of which contains
parallel and periodic 71o domain walls. A smaller amount of 109o domain walls
are also present at the boundaries between two adjacent bundles. All as-grown
twin walls display enhanced conductivity with respect to the domains during
local probe measurements, due to the selective lowering of the Schottky barrier
between the film and the AFM tip (see S. Farokhipoor and B. Noheda, Phys. Rev.
Lett. 107, 127601 (2011)). In this paper we further discuss these results and
show why other conduction mechanisms are discarded. In addition we show the
crucial role that oxygen vacancies play in determining the amount of conduction
at the walls. This prompts us to propose that the oxygen vacancies migrating to
the walls locally lower the Schottky barrier. This mechanism would then be less
efficient in non-ferroelastic domain walls where one expects no strain
gradients around the walls and thus (assuming that walls are not charged) no
driving force for accumulation of defects
Electrical transport across Au/Nb:SrTiO3 Schottky interface with different Nb doping
We have investigated electron transport in Nb doped SrTiO single crystals
for two doping densities. We find that the resistivity and mobility are
temperature dependent in both whereas the carrier concentration is almost
temperature invariant. We rationalize this using the hydrogenic theory for
shallow donors. Further, we probe electrical transport across Schottky
interfaces of Au on TiO terminated n-type SrTiO. Quantitative analysis
of macroscopic I-V measurements reveal thermionic emission dominated transport
for the low doped substrate whereas it deviates from such behavior for the high
doped substrate. This work is relevant for designing devices to study
electronic transport using oxide-semiconductors.Comment: 10 Pages, 3 Figure
Sacrificing Accuracy for Reduced Computation: Cascaded Inference Based on Softmax Confidence
We study the tradeoff between computational effort and accuracy in a cascade
of deep neural networks. During inference, early termination in the cascade is
controlled by confidence levels derived directly from the softmax outputs of
intermediate classifiers. The advantage of early termination is that
classification is performed using less computation, thus adjusting the
computational effort to the complexity of the input. Moreover, dynamic
modification of confidence thresholds allow one to trade accuracy for
computational effort without requiring retraining. Basing of early termination
on softmax classifier outputs is justified by experimentation that demonstrates
an almost linear relation between confidence levels in intermediate classifiers
and accuracy. Our experimentation with architectures based on ResNet obtained
the following results. (i) A speedup of 1.5 that sacrifices 1.4% accuracy with
respect to the CIFAR-10 test set. (ii) A speedup of 1.19 that sacrifices 0.7%
accuracy with respect to the CIFAR-100 test set. (iii) A speedup of 2.16 that
sacrifices 1.4% accuracy with respect to the SVHN test set
Terahertz photoresponse of a quantum Hall edge-channel diode
The Teraherz (THz) photoresponse of a two-dimensional electron gas in the
quantum Hall regime is investigated. We use a sample structure which is
topologically equivalent to a Corbino geometry combined with a cross-gate
technique. This quasi-Corbino geometry allows us to directly investigate the
THz-induced transport between adjacent edge-states, thus avoiding bulk effects.
We find a pronounced photo voltage at zero applied bias, which rapidly
decreases when an external current bias is applied. The photo voltage and its
dependence on the bias current can be described using the model of an
illuminated photodiode, resulting from the reconstruction of the Landau bands
at the sample edge. Using the sample as a detector in a Fourier transform
spectrometer setup, we find a resonant response from which we extract a reduced
effective cyclotron mass. The findings support a non-bolometric mechanism of
the induced photo voltage and the proposed edge-channel diode model.Comment: 5 pages, 5 eps-figures, accepted for Phys. Rev.
Complete spin polarization of electrons in semiconductor layers and quantum dots
We demonstrate that non-equilibrium electrons in thin nonmagnetic
semiconductor layers or quantum dots can be fully spin polarized by means of
simultaneous electrical spin injection and extraction. The complete spin
polarization is achieved if the thin layers or quantum dots are placed between
two ferromagnetic metal contacts with moderate spin injection coefficients and
antiparallel magnetizations. The sign of the spin polarization is determined by
the direction of the current. Aplications of this effect in spintronics and
quantum information processing are discussed
Analytical device model for graphene bilayer field-effect transistors using weak nonlocality approximation
We develop an analytical device model for graphene bilayer field-effect
transistors (GBL-FETs) with the back and top gates. The model is based on the
Boltzmann equation for the electron transport and the Poisson equation in the
weak nonlocality approximation for the potential in the GBL-FET channel. The
potential distributions in the GBL-FET channel are found analytically. The
source-drain current in GBL-FETs and their transconductance are expressed in
terms of the geometrical parameters and applied voltages by analytical formulas
in the most important limiting cases. These formulas explicitly account for the
short-gate effect and the effect of drain-induced barrier lowering. The
parameters characterizing the strength of these effects are derived. It is
shown that the GBL-FET transconductance exhibits a pronounced maximum as a
function of the top-gate voltage swing. The interplay of the short-gate effect
and the electron collisions results in a nonmonotonic dependence of the
transconductance on the top-gate length.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure
High-frequency spin valve effect in ferromagnet-semiconductor-ferromagnet structure based on precession of injected spins
New mechanism of magnetoresistance, based on tunneling-emission of spin
polarized electrons from ferromagnets (FM) into semiconductors (S) and
precession of electron spin in the semiconductor layer under external magnetic
field, is described. The FM-S-FM structure is considered, which includes very
thin heavily doped (delta-doped) layers at FM-S interfaces. At certain
parameters the structure is highly sensitive at room-temperature to variations
of the field with frequencies up to 100 GHz. The current oscillates with the
field, and its relative amplitude is determined only by the spin polarizations
of FM-S junctions at relatively large bias voltage.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, (v2) new plot with a dependence of current J on
magnetic field H added in Fig.2 (top panel), minor amendments in the text;
(v3) minor typos corrected. To appear in Phys. Rev. Letter
Myocardial fibrosis in stroke survivors
Stroke survivors are most likely to die of cardiac death, yet few undergo comprehensive cardiac assessment to look for reversible causes. Myocardial fibrosis (MF) is not only the hallmark of cardiomyopathy, but also a substrate for sudden cardiac death, ventricular tachyarrhythmia and heart failure. Procollagen carboxyl-terminal telopeptide (PICP) was found to be a marker of MF. The relationship between PICP and cardiac abnormalities in stroke survivors is unknown. We recently showed that MF in stroke survivors can be treated by spironolactone and amiloride in a randomised placebo-controlled cross-over study with reduction in PICP levels and QTc [1]
Dynamic avalanche breakdown of a p-n junction: deterministic triggering of a plane streamer front
We discuss the dynamic impact ionization breakdown of high voltage p-n
junction which occurs when the electric field is increased above the threshold
of avalanche impact ionization on a time scale smaller than the inverse
thermogeneration rate. The avalanche-to-streamer transition characterized by
generation of dense electron-hole plasma capable to screen the applied external
electric field occurs in such regimes. We argue that the experimentally
observed deterministic triggering of the plane streamer front at the electric
field strength above the threshold of avalanche impact ionization but yet below
the threshold of band-to-band tunneling is generally caused by field-enhanced
ionization of deep-level centers. We suggest that the process-induced sulfur
centers and native defects such as EL2, HB2, HB5 centers initiate the front in
Si and GaAs structures, respectively. In deep-level free structures the plane
streamer front is triggered by Zener band-to-band tunneling.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Electric field induced charge injection or exhaustion in organic thin film transistor
The conductivity of organic semiconductors is measured {\it in-situ} and
continuously with a bottom contact configuration, as a function of film
thickness at various gate voltages. The depletion layer thickness can be
directly determined as a shift of the threshold thickness at which electric
current began to flow. The {\it in-situ} and continuous measurement can also
determine qualitatively the accumulation layer thickness together with the
distribution function of injected carriers. The accumulation layer thickness is
a few mono layers, and it does not depend on gate voltages, rather depends on
the chemical species.Comment: 4 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.
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