A Reaction Diffusion Model Of Pattern Formation In Clustering Of Adatoms On Silicon Surfaces

We study a reaction diffusion model which describes the formation of patterns on surfaces having defects. Through this model, the primary goal is to study the growth process of Ge on Si surface. We consider a two species reaction diffusion process where the reacting species are assumed to diffuse on the two dimensional surface with first order interconversion reaction occuring at various defect sites which we call reaction centers. Two models of defects, namely a ring defect and a point defect are considered separately. As reaction centers are assumed to be strongly localized in space, the proposed reaction-diffusion model is found to be exactly solvable. We use Green's function method to study the dynamics of reaction diffusion processes. Further we explore this model through Monte Carlo (MC) simulations to study the growth processes in the presence of a large number of defects. The first passage time statistics has been studied numerically. Copyright 2012 Author(s). This article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4757592]Microelectronics Research Cente

Modeling the Field Emission Current Fluctuation in Carbon Nanotube Thin Films

Owing to their distinct properties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have emerged as promising candidate for field emission devices. It has been found experimentally that the results related to the field emission performance show variability. The design of an efficient field emitting device requires the analysis of the variabilities with a systematic and multiphysics based modeling approach. In this paper, we develop a model of randomly oriented CNTs in a thin film by coupling the field emission phenomena, the electron-phonon transport and the mechanics of single isolated CNT. A computational scheme is developed by which the states of CNTs are updated in time incremental manner. The device current is calculated by using Fowler-Nordheim equation for field emission to study the performance at the device scale.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Microelectromechanical systems vibration powered electromagnetic generator for wireless sensor applications

This paper presents a silicon microgenerator, fabricated using standard silicon micromachining techniques, which converts external ambient vibrations into electrical energy. Power is generated by an electromagnetic transduction mechanism with static magnets positioned on either side of a moving coil, which is located on a silicon structure designed to resonate laterally in the plane of the chip. The volume of this device is approximately 100 mm3. ANSYS finite element analysis (FEA) has been used to determine the optimum geometry for the microgenerator. Electromagnetic FEA simulations using Ansoft’s Maxwell 3D software have been performed to determine the voltage generated from a single beam generator design. The predicted voltage levels of 0.7–4.15 V can be generated for a two-pole arrangement by tuning the damping factor to achieve maximum displacement for a given input excitation. Experimental results from the microgenerator demonstrate a maximum power output of 104 nW for 0.4g (g=9.81 m s1) input acceleration at 1.615 kHz. Other frequencies can be achieved by employing different geometries or material

Wheat breeding

In a normal harvest about 90 per cent of Western Australia\u27s wheat production is exported overseas, where it is used in a wide range of products including noodles, bread, steamed bread, chapattis and biscuits Wheat breeders in W.A. therefore have the problem of developing new varieties suited to many end uses, not all of which have the same quality requirements

Agility of vortex-based nanocontact spin torque oscillators

We study the agility of current-tunable oscillators based on a magnetic vortex orbiting around a point contact in spin-valves. Theory predicts frequency-tuning by currents occurs at constant orbital radius, so an exceptional agility is anticipated. To test this, we have inserted an oscillator in a microwave interferometer to apply abrupt current variations while time resolving its emission. Using frequency shift keying, we show that the oscillator can switch between two stabilized frequencies differing by 25% in less than ten periods. With a wide frequency tunability and a good agility, such oscillators possess desirable figures of merit for modulation-based rf applications.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure

Effective inhomogeneous inflation: curvature inhomogeneities of the Einstein vacuum

We consider spatially averaged inhomogeneous universe models and argue that, already in the absence of sources, an effective scalar field arises through foliating and spatially averaging inhomogeneous geometrical curvature invariants of the Einstein vacuum. This scalar field (the `morphon') acts as an inflaton, if we prescribe a potential of some generic form. We show that, for any initially negative average spatial curvature, the morphon is driven through an inflationary phase and leads - on average - to a spatially flat, homogeneous and isotropic universe model, providing initial conditions for pre-heating and, by the same mechanism, a possibly natural self-exit.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Class. Quant. Grav. as Fast Track Communicatio