Influence of thermal annealing duration of buffer layer on the crystalline quality of In0.82Ga0.18As grown on InP substrate by LP-MOCVD

In_0.82Ga_0.18As epilayers were grown on InP substrates using a two-step growth technique by LP-MOCVD. A homogeneous low-temperature (450 °C) In_0.82Ga_0.18As buffer layer was introduced to improve the crystalline quality of epilayers. The influence of low-temperature buffer layer deposition condition, such as thermal annealing duration, on the crystalline quality of the In_0.82Ga_0.18As epilayer was investigated. Double-crystal X-ray diffraction measurement, Hall measurement, and Raman scattering spectrum were used to evaluate the In_0.82Ga_0.18As epilayers. Atomic force microscope was used to study the surface morphology. It is found that the In_0.82Ga_0.18As epilayer, with buffer layer thermal annealing for 5 min, exhibits the best crystalline quality. The change of the surface morphology of the buffer layer after thermal annealing treatment was suggested to explain the phenomenon.     

Effect of reaction systems and surfactant additives on the morphology evolution of hydroxyapatite nanorods obtained via a hydrothermal route

Well-dispersed hydroxyapatite (HA) nanorods with different morphologies were synthesized by a hydrothermal method in oleic acid, ethanol and water reaction system, and the surfactant assisted modifications effect was also comparatively studied. The structure and morphology of samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. The effect of reaction systems and surfactant additives on the morphology evolution of HA nanorods were discussed in detail. The results showed that the controlled experimental conditions in the systems, such as the content ratio of oleic acid/ethanol, pH value and the content ratio of Ca/P source had an significant effect on the morphology evolution of as-prepared HA nanorods. Further, the selected surfactant additives, such as cetyltriethylammnonium bromide (CTAB), sodium dodecyl sulfate (K12) also play an important role in the formation of the uniform morphology of HA nanorods. Some possible formation mechanisms of the HA nanorods in the present reaction systems is proposed.     

The improvement of moisture resistance and thermal stability of Ca3SiO4Cl2:Eu phosphor coated with SiO2

Green-emitting phosphors Ca₃SiO₄Cl₂:Eu²⁺ were prepared by the high temperature solid-state method. Sol-gel process was adopted to encapsulate the as-prepared phosphors with tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) as silicon coating reagent. Fluorescence spectrometer, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns were employed to characterize the emission spectra, the surface morphologies and the phase structures, respectively. The chemical stability testing was operated by the method of soaking the phosphors in deionized water and roasting them at different temperatures. The results indicated that the surfaces of the green phosphors were evenly coated by SiO₂ and the phase structure of the coated phosphors remained the same as the uncoated samples. The luminance centre of Eu²⁺ did not shift after surface treatment and the luminance intensity of coated phosphors was lower than that of the uncoated samples. The results demonstrated that the water-resistance stability of the coated phosphor was improved to some degree because the pH value and the luminance intensity variation were both smaller than the uncoated phosphor after steeping within the same time. Moreover, the thermal stability of coated phosphors was enhanced obviously compared to the original samples based on the temperature dependent emission spectra measurement.     

Piezoelectric coefficients of cross-linked polypropylene films stretched at elevated temperatures

Cross-linked polypropylene (XPP) foams are modified by a hot-stretching process and charged to be piezoelectric. The results show that a piezoelectric d₃₃ -coefficient of 308pC/N is obtained for sample with an elongation ratio of 200%. The dynamic d₃₃ value is smaller than the quasi-static value, which is probably due to the rise of Young’s modulus with increasing frequency. All the samples show pressure-independent d₃₃ in the range up to 30 kPa. Improved d₃₃ was obtained in the sample rough surface exposed to the corona during charging. Compared to linear PP, the stretched XPP shows pressure independence of d₃₃ in larger range.     

Simulation for light power distribution of 3D InGaN/GaN MQW LED with textured surface

In this paper, we introduce a full 3D simulation for light power distribution of an InGaN/GaN MQW LED with a textured surface. Device simulation was performed with the APSYS software to get power distribution of light sources inside the LED. Based on this, ray tracing simulation was carried out to get light power distribution outside the LED. During the process of ray tracing, the textured surface was treated as a special material interface whose reflectivity, transmittance and refraction angle are obtained with a Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method instead of using the usual Fresnel formulas for normal material interfaces. By comparing the ray tracing results with and without the textured surface, we found that the textured surface yields a smoother transmitted power distribution and greatly improved power extraction efficiency, which are comparable to experiment. These effects may be further improved by optimizing the texture geometry.     

Specific heat of graphene nanoribbons

We studied the specific heat of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) using an extended force constant model. We found that at low temperature, the specific heat decreases, and its variation with temperature increases with increasing GNR width. However, the specific heat increases with increasing GNR width after crossing a chaotic region. Free boundary conditions, -CHOH-terminated and armchair-edge-induced phonon nondegeneracy, shift and distortion and localized vibrational modes significantly influence GNR specific heat compared with periodic boundary conditions and bare and zigzag edges in GNRs. Finally, we found a uniform expression for specific heat vs. width at every temperature except for the chaotic region.