Influence of single layer thickness on the performance of undoped and Mg-doped CuCrO<Subscript>2</Subscript> thin films by sol–gel processing

Transparent conductive thin films of copper chromium oxide were processed on borosilicate glass by sol–gel technique. The resistivity of the films was decreased by lowering the single layer thickness of multi-layer stacks deposited by dip-coating, as well as by doping with magnesium. The additional effort of increasing the number of coating cycles from four to fifteen and sintering after each coating resulted in denser films with increased crystallite size. But whereas conductivity was improved by this procedure, the transmittance of the thin films simultaneously dropped by more than 10%. The optimum values obtained for an Mg-doped sample were ρ = 0.38Ω cm at T = 26.8%.     

Creating and transporting Trojan wave packets

Nondispersive localized Trojan wave packets with n(i) ~ 305 moving in near-circular Bohr-like orbits are created and transported to localized near-circular Trojan states of higher n, n(f) ~ 600, by driving with a linearly polarized sinusoidal electric field whose period is slowly increased. The protocol is remarkably efficient with over 80% of the initial atoms being transferred to the higher n states, a result confirmed by classical trajectory Monte Carlo simulations.     

Long-range corrected hybrid functionals for π-conjugated systems: dependence of the range-separation parameter on conjugation length

Long-range corrected (range-separated hybrid) functionals represent a relatively new class of functionals for generalized Kohn-Sham theory that have proven to be very successful, for instance, when it comes to predicting ionization potentials and energy gaps for a wide range of molecules and solids. The results obtained from long-range corrected density functional theory approaches can be improved dramatically, if the range-separation parameter (ω) is optimized for each system separately. In this work, we have optimized ω for a series of π-conjugated molecular systems of increasing length by forcing the resulting functionals to obey the ionization potential-theorem, i.e., that their highest occupied eigenvalue be equal to the ΔSCF ionization potential. The optimized ω values are observed to vary substantially from their default values for the functionals. For highly conjugated chains such as oligoacenes and polyenes, we find that the characteristic length scale of the range-separation, i.e., 1/ω, grows almost linearly with the number of repeat units, for saturated alkane chains, however, 1/ω quickly saturates after 5-6 repeat units. For oligothiophenes, we find that 1/ω grows linearly for the shorter oligomers but then saturates at around 10 repeat units. Our results point to a close relation between the optimal range-separation parameter and the degree of conjugation in the system.     

Selective palladium-loaded MIL-101 catalysts

Palladium nanoparticles (NPs) of different mean particle size have been synthesized in the host structure of the porous coordination polymer (or metal-organic framework: MOF) MIL-101. The metal-organic chemical vapor deposition method was used to load MIL-101 with the Pd precursor complex [(η(5)-C(5)H(5))Pd(η(3)-C(3)H(5))]. Loadings higher than 50 wt.% could be accomplished. Reduction of the Pd precursor complex with H(2) gave rise to Pd NPs inside the MIL-101 (Pd@MIL-101). The reduction conditions, especially the temperature, allows us to make size-conform (size of the Pd NPs correlates with the size of the cavities of the host structure of MIL-101) and undersized Pd NPs. The Pd@MIL-101 samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, IR spectroscopy, Brauner-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis, elemental analysis, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Catalytic studies, hydrogenation of ketones, were performed with selected Pd@MIL-101 catalysts. Activity, selectivity, and recyclability of the catalyst family are discussed.     

Very thin,highly‐conductive ZnO:Al front electrode on textured glass as substrate for thin‐film silicon solar cells

A very thin (250 nm), highly conductive (annealed), non‐texturized DC‐sputtered aluminum‐doped zinc oxide layer (ZnO:Al) deposited on a textured glass is used as substrate for thin‐film silicon solar cells. Compared to the classical approach, where wet‐chemically texturized ZnO:Al on planar glass is used, this approach allows a reduction in the as‐deposited ZnO:Al thickness of almost 70% while at the same time, thanks to the good light trapping capability of the glass texture the efficiency of the cells was maintained at the high level of 10.9%.

     

Linear equations and heights over division algebras

We make a start on the investigation of “small” solutions to systems of homogeneous linear equations over non-commutative division algebras. In this paper we prove some upper and lower bounds for the sizes of solutions to such systems. To measure solutions and coefficient matrices we define heights which satisfy natural invariance and finiteness properties.