Optical Characterisation of MOVPE Grown Vertically Correlated InAs/GaAs Quantum Dots

Structures with self-organised InAs quantum dots in a GaAs matrix were grown by the low pressure metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy (LP-MOVPE) technique. Photoluminescence in combination with photomodulated reflectance spectroscopy were used as the main characterisation methods for the growth optimisation. Results show that photoreflectance spectroscopy is an excellent tool for characterisation of QD structures wetting layers (thickness and composition) and for identification of spacers in vertically stacked QDs structures.Comment: Submitted on behalf of TIMA Editions (http://irevues.inist.fr/tima-editions

Inkjet printed structures sintered with intense pulse light

V tomto článku je zkoumána možnost využití intenzivního pulzního světla pro spékání stříbrného inkoustu nanášeného na PET (Polyethylentereftalát) substrát Inkjet tiskem. Natištěné struktury byly postupně osvěcovány různými kombinacemi délky a energie pulzu. Zkoumán byl také vliv vícenásobného osvícení jedné struktury na změnu výsledného odporu. Výsledky spékání intenzivním pulzním světlem byly porovnány s konvenční laboratorní sušárnou. Bylo zjištěno, že pomocí intenzivního pulzní světla lze dosáhnout hodnot výsledného elektrického odporu o 83 % nižších v porovnání s laboratorní sušárnou.the CTU SGS grant no. SGS20/176/OHK3/3T/13The possibility of using intense pulsed light to sinter silver ink deposited on a PET (poly(ethylene terephthalate)) substrate by Inkjet printing is investigated. Variations of pulse length and energy are sequentially applied to the printed structures. Furthermore, the effect of multiple illuminations of a single structure on the change in the resulting resistivity is studied. The results of sintering with intense pulsed light are compared with a conventional laboratory oven. It was found that by using intense pulsed light, values of the resulting electrical resistivity could be achieved 83% lower compared to the laboratory oven

Nanostructures Defined by The Local Oxidation of Ferromagnetic GaMnAs Layer

The results of Local Anodic Oxidation (LAO) on the thin GaMnAs layers are reported. The ferromagnetic GaMnAs layers were prepared by low temperature MBE growth in a Veeco Mod Gen II machine. The LAO process was performed with the AFM microscope Smena NT-MDT placed in the sealed box with the controlled humidity in the range 45-80%. The oxide was grown in the semi-contact mode of the AFM. Sample was positively biased with respect to the AFM tip with the bias from 6 to 24 V. The conductive diamond coated AFM tips with the radius 30 nm were utilized for the oxidation. The tip speed during the oxidation was changed from 400 nm/s to 1.5 μm/s. The tip force was also changed during the oxidation. The height of oxide nanolines increases with applied voltage from 3 to 18 nm. The width of these lines was approximately 100 nm at half of the maximum

Evidence of Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation in a Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome—Scoring Models and Severe Illness

Background: Viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHF) are considered to be a serious threat to public health worldwide with up to 100 million cases annually. The general hypothesis is that disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is an important part of the pathogenesis. The study objectives were to study the variability of DIC in consecutive patients with acute hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), and to evaluate if different established DIC-scores can be used as a prognostic marker for a more severe illness. Method and Findings: In a prospective study 2006–2008, data from 106 patients with confirmed HFRS were analyzed and scored for the presence of DIC according to six different templates based on criteria from the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH). The DIC-scoring templates with a fibrinogen/CRP-ratio were most predictive, with predictions for moderate/severe illness (p,0.01) and bleeding of moderate/major importance (p,0.05). With these templates, 18.9–28.3 % of the patients were diagnosed with DIC. Conclusions: DIC was found in about one fourth of the patients and correlated with a more severe disease. This supports that DIC is an important part of the pathogenesis in HFRS. ISTH-scores including fibrinogen/CRP-ratio outperform models without. The high negative predictive value could be a valuable tool for the clinician. We also believe that our findings coul

Roflumilast in moderate-to-severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease treated with longacting bronchodilators: two randomised clinical trials

Background Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have few options for treatment. The efficacy and safety of the phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor roflumilast have been investigated in studies of patients with moderate-to-severe COPD, but not in those concomitantly treated with longacting inhaled bronchodilators. The effect of roflumilast on lung function in patients with COPD that is moderate to severe who are already being treated with salmeterol or tiotropium was investigated. Methods In two double-blind, multicentre studies done in an outpatient setting, after a 4-week run-in, patients older than 40 years with moderate-to-severe COPD were randomly assigned to oral roflumilast 500 mu g or placebo once a day for 24 weeks, in addition to salmeterol (M2-127 study) or tiotropium (M2-128 study). The primary endpoint was change in prebronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1s (FEV(1)). Analysis was by intention to treat. The studies are registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00313209 for M2-127, and NCT00424268 for M2-128. Findings In the salmeterol plus roflumilast trial, 466 patients were assigned to and treated with roflumilast and 467 with placebo; in the tiotropium plus roflumilast trial, 371 patients were assigned to and treated with roflumilast and 372 with placebo. Compared with placebo, roflumilast consistently improved mean prebronchodilator FEV(1) by 49 mL (p<0.0001) in patients treated with salmeterol, and 80 mL (p<0.0001) in those treated with tiotropium. Similar improvement in postbronchodilator FEV(1) was noted in both groups. Furthermore, roflumilast had beneficial effects on other lung function measurements and on selected patient-reported outcomes in both groups. Nausea, diarrhoea, weight loss, and, to a lesser extent, headache were more frequent in patients in the roflumilast groups. These adverse events were associated with increased patient withdrawal. Interpretation Roflumilast improves lung function in patients with COPD treated with salmeterol or tiotropium, and could become an important treatment for these patients

Effect of the substrate crystalline orientation on the surface morphology and boron incorporation into epitaxial diamond layers

Epitaxial growth of diamond is critically important for the fabrication of diamond-based electronic devices. The emerging study of the epitaxial diamond growth on the (113) vicinal surfaces evidences highly needed high growth rates and low structural defects concentrations with both p- and n-type doping. In this work, we compare the morphology and dopant concentration incorporation of heavily boron-doped (113) epitaxial diamond layers with conventionally studied (100) and (111) epitaxial layers. Epitaxial layers were grown using resonance cavity Microwave Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (MWPECVD) system. The surface morphology of epitaxial layers was studied by optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy, whereas the boron incorporation homogeneity was determined by Raman spectroscopy mapping

MOSFET GATE CURRENT MODELLING USING MONTE-CARLO METHOD

The new technique for determining the probability of hot-electron travel through the gate oxide is presented. The technique is based on the Monte Carlo method and is used in MOSFET gate current modelling. The calculated values of gate current are compared with experimental results from direct measurements on MOSFET test chips