Injection statistics simulator for dynamic analysis of noise in mesoscopic devices

We present a model for electron injection from thermal reservoirs which is applied to particle simulations of one-dimensional mesoscopic conductors. The statistics of injected carriers is correctly described from nondegenerate to completely degenerate conditions. The model is validated by comparing Monte Carlo simulations with existing analytical results for the case of ballistic conductors. An excellent agreement is found for average and noise characteristics, in particular, the fundamental unities of electrical and thermal conductances are exactly reproduced.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, 4 PS figures, accepted Semicond. Sci. Techno

Wave excitations of drifting two-dimensional electron gas under strong inelastic scattering

We have analyzed low-temperature behavior of two-dimensional electron gas in polar heterostructures subjected to a high electric field. When the optical phonon emission is the fastest relaxation process, we have found existence of collective wave-like excitations of the electrons. These wave-like excitations are periodic in time oscillations of the electrons in both real and momentum spaces. The excitation spectra are of multi-branch character with considerable spatial dispersion. There are one acoustic-type and a number of optical-type branches of the spectra. Their small damping is caused by quasi-elastic scattering of the electrons and formation of relevant space charge. Also there exist waves with zero frequency and finite spatial periods - the standing waves. The found excitations of the electron gas can be interpreted as synchronous in time and real space manifestation of well-known optical-phonon-transient-time-resonance. Estimates of parameters of the excitations for two polar heterostructures, GaN/AlGaN and ZnO/MgZnO, have shown that excitation frequencies are in THz-frequency range, while standing wave periods are in sub-micrometer region.Comment: 26 pages and 6 figure

06/07/1995 - Nolan Recipient Of Chemistry Awards.pdf

International audienc

12/13/1993 - Initiated Into Phi Alpha Eta Jurges Studzinski.pdf

International audienc

A Computational Tool for Three-Point Hitch Geometry Optimisation Based on Weight-Transfer Minimisation

The weight-transfer effect, consisting of the change in dynamic load distribution between the front and the rear tractor axles, is one of the most impairing phenomena for the performance, comfort, and safety of agricultural operations. Excessive weight transfer from the front to the rear tractor axle can occur during operation or manoeuvring of implements connected to the tractor through the three-point hitch (TPH). In this respect, an optimal design of the TPH can ensure better dynamic load distribution and ultimately improve operational performance, comfort, and safety. In this study, a computational tool (the Optimiser) for the determination of a TPH geometry which minimises the weight-transfer effect is developed. The Optimiser is based on a constrained minimisation algorithm. The objective function to be minimized is related to the tractor front-to-rear axle load transfer during a simulated reference manoeuvre performed with a reference implement on a reference soil. Simulations are based on a dynamic model of the tractor-TPH-implement aggregate. The geometry determined by the Optimiser complies with the ISO-730 Standard functional requirements and other design requirements. The interaction between the soil and the implement during the simulated reference manoeuvre was successfully validated against experimental data. The simulation results show that the adopted reference manoeuvre is effective in triggering the weight-transfer effect, with the front axle load exhibiting a peak-to-peak value of 27.1 kN during the manoeuvre. A benchmark test was conducted starting from the geometry of a commercially available TPH; the test showed that the Optimiser, after 36 iterations, was able to find an optimised TPH geometry which allows to reduce the weight-transfer effect by 14.9%

Evaluating the Impedance Field through several transport models: a comparison

J. APPL. PHYS

Carrier Thermal Conductivity: Analysis and Application to Submicron-Device Simulation

Within a correlation-function (CF) formalism, the kinetic coefficientsof charge carriers in semiconductors are studied under different conditions. For the case of linear response in equilibrium, thetransitions from the non-degenerate to the degenerate regimes as wellas from ballistic to diffusive conditions are discussed within ananalytical model. Generalizing the method to high-field transport innondegenerate semiconductors, the CFs are determined by Monte Carlo (MC) calculations for bulk silicon from which the appropriate thermalconductivity has been obtained and included into the hydrodynamic code HEIELDS. For an n+nn+ submicron structure the temperatureand velocity profiles of the carriers have been calculated with HFIELDS

Anomalous crossover between thermal and shot noise in macroscopic diffusive conductors

We predict the existence of an anomalous crossover between thermal and shot noise in macroscopic diffusive conductors. We first show that, besides thermal noise, these systems may also exhibit shot noise due to fluctuations of the total number of carriers in the system. Then we show that at increasing currents the crossover between the two noise behaviors is anomalous, in the sense that the low frequency current spectral density displays a region with a superlinear dependence on the current up to a cubic law. The anomaly is due to the non-trivial coupling in the presence of the long range Coulomb interaction among the three time scales relevant to the phenomenon, namely, diffusion, transit and dielectric relaxation time.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Vascular tube formation on matrix metalloproteinase-1-damaged collagen

Connective tissue damage and angiogenesis are both important features of tumour growth and invasion. Here, we show that endothelial cells maintained on a three-dimensional lattice of intact polymerised collagen formed a monolayer of cells with a cobblestone morphology. When the collagen was exposed to organ culture fluid from human basal cell tumours of the skin (containing a high level of active matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1)), degradation of the collagen matrix occurred. The major degradation products were the $3over 4$- and $1over 4$-sized fragments known to result from the action of MMP-1 on type I collagen. When endothelial cells were maintained on the partially degraded collagen, the cells organised into a network of vascular tubes. Pretreatment of the organ culture fluid with either tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) or neutralising antibody to MMP-1 prevented degradation of the collagen lattice and concomitantly inhibited endothelial cell organisation into the vascular network. Purified (activated) MMP-1 duplicated the effects of skin organ culture fluid, but other enzymes including MMP-9 (gelatinase B), elastase or trypsin failed to produce measurable fragments from intact collagen and also failed to promote vascular tube formation. Together, these studies suggest that damage to the collagenous matrix is itself an important inducer of new vessel formation