Institute for Microstructural Sciences

A new alternating copolymer of dithienosilole and thienopyrrole-4,6-dione (PDTSTPD) possesses both a low optical bandgap (1.73 eV) and a deep highest occupied molecular orbital energy level (5.57 eV). The introduction of branched alkyl chains to the dithienosilole unit was found to be critical for the improvement of the polymer solubility. When blended with PC(71)BM, PDTSTPD exhibited a power conversion efficiency of 7.3% on the photovoltaic devices with an active area of 1 cm(2).

In this paper, the concept of characteristic length introduced in the definition of the dynamic tortuosity by Johnson, Koplik, and Dashen [J. Fluid Mech. 176, 379 (1987)] is extended to express the frequency dependence of the bulk modulus of the saturating fluid at high frequencies. A general phenomenological frequency dependence for this dynamic bulk modulus is obtained using the expression for the dynamic tortuosity. The theoretical predictions for dynamic tortuosity and bulk modulus are compared with experimental results obtained from acoustic measurements on a rigid-frame porous material saturated with air.

We demonstrate coupling and entangling of quantum states in a pair of vertically aligned, self-assembled quantum dots by studying the emission of an interacting electron-hole pair (exciton) in a single dot molecule as a function of the separation between the dots. An interaction-induced energy splitting of the exciton is observed that exceeds 30 millielectron volts for a dot layer separation of 4 nanometers. The results are interpreted by mapping the tunneling of a particle in a double dot to the problem of a single spin. The electron-hole complex is shown to be equivalent to entangled states of two interacting spins.

We observe spin blockade due to Pauli exclusion in the tunneling characteristics of a coupled quantum dot system when two same-spin electrons occupy the lowest energy state in each dot. Spin blockade only occurs in one bias direction when there is asymmetry in the electron population of the two dots, leading to current rectification. We induce the collapse of the spin blockade by applying a magnetic field to open up a new spin-triplet current-carrying channel.

A new low-band-gap thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione-based copolymer, PBDTTPD, has been designed and synthesized. PBDTTPD is soluble in chloroform or o-dichlorobenzene upon heating and shows a broad absorption in the visible region. The HOMO and LUMO energy levels were estimated to be at -5.56 and -3.75 eV, respectively. These electrochemical measurements fit well with an optical bandgap of 1.8 eV. When blended with PC(71)BM, this polymer demonstrated a power conversion efficiency of 5.5% in a bulk-heterojunction photovoltaic device having an active area of 1.0 cm(2).

Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) is being increasingly used for the fabrication of transparent dielectric optical films and coatings. This involves single-layer, multilayer, graded index, and nanocomposite optical thin film systems for applications such as optical filters, antireflective coatings, optical waveguides, and others. Beside their basic optical properties (refractive index, extinction coefficient, optical loss), these systems very frequently offer other desirable “functional” characteristics. These include hardness, scratch, abrasion, and erosion resistance, improved adhesion to various technologically important substrate materials such as polymers, hydrophobicity or hydrophilicity, long-term chemical, thermal, and environmental stability, gas and vapor impermeability, and others. In the present article, we critically review the advances in the development of plasma processes and plasma systems for the synthesis of thin film high and low index optical materials, and in the control of plasma–surface interactions leading to desired film microstructures. We particularly underline those specificities of PECVD, which distinguish it from other conventional techniques for producing optical films (mainly physical vapor deposition), such as fabrication of graded index (inhomogeneous) layers, control of interfaces, high deposition rate at low temperature, enhanced mechanical and other functional characteristics, and industrial scaleup. Advances in this field are illustrated by selected examples of PECVD of antireflective coatings, rugate filters, integrated optical devices, and others.

Linearly polarized femtosecond light pulses, focused inside fused silica to an intensity that leads to multiphoton ionization, produce arrayed planes of modified material having their normal parallel to the laser polarization. The planes are < or = 10 nm thick and are spaced at approximately lambda/2 in the medium for free space wavelengths of both 800 and 400 nm. By slowly scanning the sample under a fixed laser focus, order is maintained over macroscopic distances for all angles between the polarization and scan direction. With the laser polarization parallel to the scan direction we produce long-range Bragg-like gratings. We discuss how local field enhancement influences dielectric ionization, describe how this leads to nanoplane growth, why the planes are arrayed, and how long-range order is maintained.

A new temperature performance record of 199.5 K for terahertz quantum cascade lasers is achieved by optimizing the lasing transition oscillator strength of the resonant phonon based three-well design. The optimum oscillator strength of 0.58 was found to be larger than that of the previous record (0.41) by Kumar et al. [Appl. Phys. Lett. 94, 131105 (2009)]. The choice of tunneling barrier thicknesses was determined with a simplified density matrix model, which converged towards higher tunneling coupling strengths than previously explored and nearly perfect alignment of the states across the injection and extraction barriers at the design electric field. At 8 K, the device showed a threshold current density of 1 kA/cm2, with a peak output power of ∼ 38 mW, and lasing frequency blue-shifting from 2.6 THz to 2.85 THz with increasing bias. The wavelength blue-shifted to 3.22 THz closer to the maximum operating temperature of 199.5 K, which corresponds to ∼ 1.28ħω/κB. The voltage dependence of laser frequency is related to the Stark effect of two intersubband transitions and is compared with the simulated gain spectra obtained by a Monte Carlo approach.

We have studied the temperature dependence of resistivity, \ensuremath{\rho}, for a two-dimensional electron system in silicon at low electron densities ${\mathit{n}}_{\mathit{s}}$\ensuremath{\sim}${10}^{11}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}2}$, near the metal-insulator transition. The resistivity was empirically found to scale with a single parameter ${\mathit{T}}_{0}$, which approaches zero at some critical electron density ${\mathit{n}}_{\mathit{c}}$ and increases as a power ${\mathit{T}}_{0}$\ensuremath{\propto}\ensuremath{\Vert}${\mathit{n}}_{\mathit{s}}$-${\mathit{n}}_{\mathit{c}}$${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Vert}}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\beta}}}$ with \ensuremath{\beta}=1.6\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.1 both in metallic (${\mathit{n}}_{\mathit{s}}$&gt;${\mathit{n}}_{\mathit{c}}$) and insulating (${\mathit{n}}_{\mathit{s}}$${\mathit{n}}_{\mathit{c}}$) regions. This dependence was found to be sample independent. We have also studied the diagonal resistivity at Landau-level filling factor \ensuremath{\nu}=3/2, where the system is known to be in a true metallic state at high magnetic field and in an insulating state at low magnetic field. The temperature dependencies of resistivity at B=0 and \ensuremath{\nu}=3/2 were found to be identical. These behaviors suggest a true metal-insulator transition in the two-dimensional electron system in silicon at B=0, in contrast with the well-known scaling theory.

Superlattices of $\mathrm{Si}/{\mathrm{SiO}}_{2}$ have been grown at room temperature with atomic layer precision using state of the art molecular beam epitaxy and ultraviolet ozone treatment. Photoluminescence was observed at wavelengths across the visible range for Si layer thicknesses $1&lt;d&lt;3\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}$. The fitted peak emission energy $E(\mathrm{eV}){\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1.60+0.72d}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ is in accordance with effective mass theory for quantum confinement by the wide-gap ${\mathrm{SiO}}_{2}$ barriers and also with the bulk amorphous Si band gap. Measurements of the conduction and valence band shifts by x-ray techniques correlate with $E(d)$, confirming the role of quantum confinement and indicating a direct band-to-band recombination mechanism.

Transport measurements are presented on a class of electrostatically defined lateral dots within a high mobility two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). The design allows Coulomb blockade (CB) measurements to be performed on a single lateral dot containing 0, 1 to over 50 electrons. The CB measurements are enhanced by the spin polarized injection from and into 2DEG magnetic edge states. This combines the measurement of charge with the measurement of spin through spin-blockade spectroscopy. The results of Coulomb and spin-blockade spectroscopy for the first 45 electrons enable us to construct the addition spectrum of a lateral device. We also demonstrate that a lateral dot containing a single electron is an effective local probe of a 2DEG edge.

Abstract Polarization management is very important for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and their applications. Due to geometrical anisotropy and fabrication inaccuracies, the characteristics of the guided transverse‐electrical (TE) and transverse‐magnetic (TM) modes are generally different. Polarization‐dependent dispersion and polarization‐dependent loss are such manifestations in PICs. These issues become more severe in high index contrast structures such as nanophotonic waveguides made of silicon‐on‐insulator (SOI), which has been regarded as a good platform for optical interconnects because of the compatibility with CMOS processing. Recently, polarization division multiplexing (PDM) with coherent detection using silicon photonics has also attracted much attention. This trend further highlights the importance of polarization management in silicon PICs. The authors review their work on polarization management for silicon PICs using the polarization independence and polarization diversity methods. Polarization issues and solutions in PICs made of SOI nanowires and ridge waveguides are discussed.

A semiempirical kinetic model is presented which maps out the thermal budget for processing of strained layer devices through epitaxial growth and postgrowth anneals. Misfit strain relaxation in Si1−xGex/Si heterostructures by the injection and propagation of a/2 〈110〉 60°-type misfit dislocations has been studied for a range of geometries and dimensions. Strained layer superlattices, Si1−xGex alloy layers, 0&amp;lt;x&amp;lt;0.3, and alloy layers with unstrained Si capping layers of thickness 0 to 400 nm were grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on (100) Si substrates and subjected to post-growth thermal cycles. Velocity and nucleation rate data from Nomarski interference microscopy of defect-etched surfaces were correlated with electron beam induced current microscopy transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction results to define Arrhenius relationships for misfit dislocation injection rates and propagation velocities. A unified kinetic model for misfit strain relaxation that incorporates both nucleation and propagation is then developed, which is applicable for all heterostructures and thermal cycles in the low dislocation density regime &amp;lt;103 mm−1. Nonuniform strain distribution in graded device heterostructures is considered by defining the effective stress acting on misfit dislocations for an arbitrary geometry. The effective stress was varied from 0 to 750 MPa in Si1−xGex/Si heterostructures by varying both layer dimensions and Ge concentration. Misfit dislocation nucleation rates varied from 10−3 to 103 mm−2 s−1 and misfit extension velocities of 25 nm s−1 to 2 mm s−1 were obtained over the temperature range 450–1000 °C for anneals of duration 5–2000 s. Activation energies, stress exponents, and prefactors in the Arrhenius relations were found to be independent of Ge concentration, effective stress, and heterostructure geometry allowing a comprehensive model to be developed. The onset of strain relaxation during epitaxial growth cycles (the ‘‘apparent critical thickness’’ or metastability limit) characteristic of molecular-beam epitaxy and chemical vapor deposition was measured and correlated with the simulation of misfit dislocation injection and propagation in typical growth sequences. The kinetic model is also used to define the maximum time-temperature envelope, or thermal budget (t, T), for the misfit dislocation-free processing of Si1−xGex/Si heterostructures subjected to post-growth thermal treatme

The direction of emission of photoexcited electrons in semiconductors is controlled by adjusting the relative phase difference between a midinfrared radiation and its second harmonic. This is achieved by using quantum interference of electrons produced with one- and two-photon bound-to-free intersubband transitions in AlGaAs/GaAs quantum well superlattices.

The electronic structure of lens-shaped self-assembled quantum dots is studied as a function of the dot size, the confining potential, and the magnetic field. The parabolic confining potential and its corresponding energy spectrum are shown to be an excellent approximation. The magnetoexciton spectrum is calculated and compared with recent experiments. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.

We show that the reaction mechanism in , and Li/SnO cells is common. During the first discharge, the oxygen bonded to tin (as SnO) reacts with lithium to give metallic tin (which can be present as clusters of a few atoms) and lithia. The tin reacts with further lithium to the composition limit of . During charge the Li is removed from the lithium‐tin alloy. The other components of the glass are inert with respect to lithium, and we call the atoms which make up these phases "spectator atoms." Using X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and electrochemical methods, we show that size of the initial tin regions which form is inversely proportional to the spectator:Sn atom ratio. However, during cycling, all of these materials show the subsequent aggregation of the tin atoms into clusters which grow with cycle number until they reach a saturated size. The final cluster size is larger for materials with smaller X:Sn ratio. We propose a speculative model, which predicts the saturated Sn cluster size, as a function of the spectator:Sn ratio. © 1999 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.

Abstract We review our recent experimental efforts towards developing photonic and biophotonic applications of femtosecond laser induced self‐organized planar nanocracks inside fused silica glass. Our results show that sub‐diffraction limited, periodic, planar cracks can be produced, organized, erased and rewritten and basically controlled inside fused silica glass where they can be diagnosed optically using form birefringence. The high degree of control over these self‐replicated periodic structures allows us to investigate applications in micro‐ and nanofluidics, porous capillaries for biofiltering and rewritable data storage for harsh environments.

Mobilities and quantum lifetimes have been measured in a selection of two-dimensional (2D) electron gases with spacer layers between 1.5 and 40 nm and mobilities up to 180 ${\mathrm{m}}^{2}$/V s. Dingle plots (used to determine the quantum lifetime) were sometimes nonlinear, clearly indicating inhomogeneities in the 2D electron gases. For samples with good Dingle plots, the quantum lifetimes were roughly 10 times longer than is predicted by conventional calculations. The discrepancy is attributed to the treatment in these calculations of the small-angle-scattering events associated with the remote ionized donors. A modified calculation in which correlations between the small-angle-scattering events are considered provides better agreement with experiment for both the quantum lifetimes and the mobilities.

Self-assembled strained semiconductor nanostructures have been grown on GaAs substrates to fabricate quantum dot infrared photodetectors. State-filling photoluminescence experiments have been used to probe the zero-dimensional states and revealed four atomic-like shells (s,p,d,f) with an excitonic intersublevel energy spacing which was adjusted to ∼60 meV. The lower electronic shells were populated with carriers by n doping the heterostructure, and transitions from the occupied quantum dot states to the wetting layer or to the continuum states resulted in infrared photodetection. We demonstrate broadband normal-incidence detection with a responsivity of a few hundred mA/W at a detection wavelength of ∼5 μm.

Unprocessed single-walled carbon nanotubes suspended in air at room temperature emit bright, sharply peaked band gap photoluminescence. This is in contrast with measurements taken from nanotubes lying on the flat surface for which no luminescence was detected. Each individual nanotube has a luminescence peak of similar linewidth ( approximately 13 meV), with different species emitting at various different wavelengths spanning at least 1.0 to 1.6 microm. A strong enhancement of photoluminescence intensity is observed when the excitation wavelength is resonant with the second Van Hove singularity, unambiguously confirming the origin of the photoluminescence.