No abstract available

[en] Carrier transport and recombination are modeled for a heterojunction diode containing defect traps. Here, particular attention is given to the role of band-to-trap tunneling and how it is affected by band offsets at the junction. Tunneled states are characterized by numerical solution of the Schrodinger equation, and the interaction with traps is treated assuming capture and emission by the multi-phonon mechanism. It is shown that tunneling can increase carrier recombination at defects by orders magnitude in the presence of large band offsets. This explains why InGaP/GaAs/GaAs Npn HBTs with displacement damage from energetic particle irradiation have higher carrier recombination in the emitter-base depletion region.

[en] X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements of iron nano-islands grown on graphene and covered with a Au film for passivation reveal that the oxidation through defects in the Au film spontaneously leads to the formation of magnetite nano-particles (i.e, Fe_3O_4). The Fe nano-islands (20 and 75 monolayers; MLs) are grown on epitaxial graphene formed by thermally annealing 6HSiC(0001) and subsequently covered, in the growth chamber, with nominal 20 layers of Au. Our X-ray absorption spectroscopy and XMCD measurements at applied magnetic fields show that the thin film (20 ML) is totally converted to magnetite whereas the thicker lm (75 ML) exhibits properties of magnetite but also those of pure metallic iron. Temperature dependence of the XMCD signal (of both samples) shows a clear transition at T_V ≈ 120 K consistent with the Verwey transition of bulk magnetite. These results have implications on the synthesis of magnetite nano-crystals and also on their regular arrangements on functional substrates such as graphene.

[en] Compositional and charge disorder in ferroelectric relaxors lies at the heart of the unusual properties of these systems, such as aging and non-ergodicity, polarization rotations, and a host of temperature and field-driven phase transitions. However, much information about the field-dynamics of the polarization in the prototypical ferroelectric relaxor (1-x)Pb(Mg_1_/_3Nb_2_/_3)O_3_-_xPbTiO_3 (PMN-xPT) remains unprobed at the mesoscopic level. We use a piezoresponse force microscopy-based dynamic multimodal relaxation spectroscopy technique, enabling the study of ferroelectric switching and polarization relaxation at mesoscopic length scales, and carry out measurements on a PMN-0.28PT sample with minimal polishing. Results indicate that beyond a threshold DC bias the average relaxation increases as the system attempts to relax to the previous state. Phenomenological fitting reveals the presence of mesoscale heterogeneity in relaxation amplitudes and clearly suggests the presence of two distinct amplitudes. Independent component analysis reveals the presence of a disorder component of the relaxation, which is found to be strongly anti-correlated with the maximum piezoresponse at that location, suggesting smaller disorder effects where the polarization reversal is large and vice versa. The disorder in the relaxation amplitudes is postulated to arise from rhombohedral and field-induced tetragonal phase in the crystal, with each phase associated with its own relaxation amplitude. As a result, these studies highlight the crucial importance of the mixture of ferroelectric phases in the compositions in proximity of the morphotropic phase boundary in governing the local response and further highlight the ability of PFM voltage and time spectroscopies, in conjunction with big-data multivariate analyses, to locally map disorder and correlate it with parameters governing the dynamic behavior

[en] Three dimensional topological insulators are insulators with topologically protected surface states that can have a high band velocity and high mobility at room temperature. This then suggests electronic applications that exploit these surface states, but the lack of a band gap poses a fundamental difficulty. We report a first principles study based on density functional theory for thin Bi₂Se₃ films in the context of a field effect transistor. It is known that a gap is induced in thin layers due to hybridization between the top and bottom surfaces, but it is not known whether it is possible to use the topological states in this type of configuration. In particular, it is unclear whether the benefits of topological protection can be retained to a sufficient degree. We also show that there is a thickness regime in which the small gap induced by hybridization between the two surfaces is sufficient to obtain transistor operation at room temperature, and furthermore, that the band velocity and spin texture that are important for the mobility are preserved for Fermi levels of relevance to device application.

[en] For ductile metals, dynamic fracture occurs principally through void nucleation, growth, and coalescence at heterogeneities in the microstructure. Previous experimental research on high purity metals has shown that microstructural features, such as grain boundaries, inclusions, vacancies, and heterogeneities, can act as initial void nucleation sites. In addition, other research on two-phase materials has also highlighted the importance of the properties of a second phase itself in determining the dynamic response of the overall material. But, previous research has not investigated the effects of the distribution of a second phase on damage nucleation and evolution. To approach this problem in a systematic manner, two copper alloys with 1% lead materials, with the same Pb concentration but different Pb distributions, have been investigated. A new CuPb alloy was cast with a more homogeneous distribution of Pb as compared to a CuPb where the Pb congregated in large “stringer” type configurations. These materials were shock loaded at ~1.2 GPa and soft recovered. In-situ free surface velocity information, and post mortem metallography, reveals that even though the spall strength of both the materials were similar, the total extent and details of damage in the materials varied by 15%. This then suggests that altering the distribution of Pb in the Cu matrix leads to the creation of more void nucleation sites and also changed the rate of void growth.

[en] We use molecular dynamics to study the chemical sputtering of boronized and oxidized amorphous carbon surfaces by deuterium irradiation in the range of impact energies of 5–30 eV. We report the sputtering yield as well as mass, energy, and angular spectra of ejected atoms and molecules of both virgin and deuterium saturated BCO surfaces and compare them with our data for a deuterated BC surface and existing theoretical and experimental results for amorphous C:D surfaces. Boron significantly suppresses the erosion of carbon, while the presence of oxygen results in further suppression.

[en] In this paper, we report systematic measurements of the dispersion of long wavelength spin waves for a wide range of wave vectors for the magnetic field along the three principal directions defining the forward volume, backward volume and Damon-Eshbach modes of a 9.72 μm thick film of an yttrium iron garnet obtained using lithographically patterned, multi-element, spatially resonant, antennas. Overall good agreement is found between the experimental data for the backward volume and Damon-Eshbach modes and the magnetostatic theory of Damon and Eshbach. Also, good agreement is found between the experimental data for the forward volume mode and the theory of Damon and van de Vaart.

[en] In this study, the evolution and characterization of single-isolated-ion-strikes are investigated by combining atomistic simulations with selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns generated from these simulations. Five molecular dynamics simulations are performed for a single 20 keV primary knock-on atom in bulk crystalline Si. The resulting cascade damage is characterized in two complementary ways. First, the individual cascade events are conventionally quantified through the evolution of the number of defects and the atomic (volumetric) strain associated with these defect structures. These results show that (i) the radiation damage produced is consistent with the Norgett, Robinson, and Torrens model of damage production and (ii) there is a net positive volumetric strain associated with the cascade structures. Second, virtual SAED patterns are generated for the resulting cascade-damaged structures along several zone axes. The analysis of the corresponding diffraction patterns shows the SAED spots approximately doubling in size, on average, due to broadening induced by the defect structures. Furthermore, the SAED spots are observed to exhibit an average radial outward shift between 0.33% and 0.87% depending on the zone axis. Finally, this characterization approach, as utilized here, is a preliminary investigation in developing methodologies and opportunities to link experimental observations with atomistic simulations to elucidate microstructural damage states.

[en] Here, a recent article [McAlister et al., J. Appl. Phys. 122, 144501 (2017)] claims to show the existence of ⁿew'' higher order re-entrant post modes. Indeed, such modes do exist and are known to scientists and engineers for a very long time as modes of a foreshortened quarter-wave coaxial resonator. It is a textbook problem. In this comment, I briefly review the higher order modes in such cavities and provide relevant references.