Investigation of conductivity of adhesive layer including indium tin oxide particles for multi-junction solar cells

We report connection conductivity ( \(C_{\rm c}\) ) of adhesive which including \(\hbox {In}_2\hbox {O}_3\) – \(\hbox {SnO}_2\) (ITO) particles developed for fabrication of stacked-type-multi-junction solar cells. The commercial 20- \(\upmu \) m sized ITO particles were heated in vacuum at temperature ranging from 800 to 1,300  \(^{\circ }{\rm C}\) for 10 min to increase \(C_{\rm c}\) . 6.2 wt% ITO particles were dispersed in commercial Cemedine adhesive gel to form 100 samples structured with n-type Si/adhesive/n-type Si (n-Si sample) and p-type Si/adhesive/p-type Si (p-Si sample). Current density as a function of voltage (J–V) characteristics gave \(C_{\rm c}\) . It ranged from 4.3 to 1.0 S/cm \(^2\) for the n-Si sample with 800 \(^{\circ }{\rm C}\) heat-treated ITO particles. Its standard deviation was 0.59 S/cm \(^2\) . On the other hand, it ranged from 2.0 to 0.6 S/cm \(^2\) for the p-Si sample with 800  \(^{\circ }{\rm C}\) heat-treated ITO particles. Its standard deviation was 0.22 S/cm \(^2\) . The distribution of \(C_{\rm c}\) mainly resulted from contact efficiency of ITO particles to substrate. We theoretically estimated that present \(C_{\rm c}\) achieved a low loss of the power conversion efficiency ( \(E_{\rm ff}\) ) lower than 0.3 % in the application of fabrication of multi-junction solar cell with an intrinsic \(E_{\rm ff}\) of 30 % and an open circuit voltage above 1.9 V.     

Polymeric N-stage serial-cascaded four-port optical router with scalable 3N channel wavelengths for wideband signal routing application

Device architecture and design scheme of a universal \(N\) -stage cascaded polymer four-port optical router with scalable 3 \(N\) channel wavelengths are proposed. Basic cross-coupling two-microring resonator routing element based on polymer materials is optimized for single-mode transmission, low optical loss and phase-match between microring waveguide and channel waveguide. Then, a one-stage four-port optical router is constructed using four-group basic routing elements, which has 12 possible I/O routing paths and 3 channel wavelengths. The insertion losses of each channel wavelength along every routing path are within the range of 0.04–0.63 dB, the maximum crosstalk between the on-port along each routing path and other off-ports is less than \(-39\)  dB, and the device footprint size is \(\sim \) 0.13 mm \(^{2}\) . Compared with the previously reported four-port silicon optical routers, this device possesses similar ring radius ( \(\sim \) 10  \(\upmu \) m) and device size ( \(<\) 1 mm \(^{2})\) . Aiming at wideband signal routing applications, we then construct a universal \(N\) -stage cascaded polymer four-port optical router possessing scalable 3 \(N\) channel wavelengths. The proposed routing structure has potential application in photonic networks-on-chip, because of low insertion loss, low crosstalk, small footprint size, and scalable wideband 3 \(N\) routing wavelengths.     

A flexible scintillation light apparatus for rare event searches

Compelling experimental evidences of neutrino oscillations and their implication that neutrinos are massive particles have given neutrinoless double beta decay ( \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) ) a central role in astroparticle physics. In fact, the discovery of this elusive decay would be a major breakthrough, unveiling that neutrino and antineutrino are the same particle and that the lepton number is not conserved. It would also impact our efforts to establish the absolute neutrino mass scale and, ultimately, understand elementary particle interaction unification. All current experimental programs to search for \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) are facing with the technical and financial challenge of increasing the experimental mass while maintaining incredibly low levels of spurious background. The new concept described in this paper could be the answer which combines all the features of an ideal experiment: energy resolution, low cost mass scalability, isotope choice flexibility and many powerful handles to make the background negligible. The proposed technology is based on the use of arrays of silicon detectors cooled to 120 K to optimize the collection of the scintillation light emitted by ultra-pure crystals. It is shown that with a 54 kg array of natural CaMoO \(_4\) scintillation detectors of this type it is possible to yield a competitive sensitivity on the half-life of the \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) of \(^{100}\) Mo as high as \(\sim \) \(10^{24}\)  years in only 1 year of data taking. The same array made of \(^{40}\) Ca \(^{\mathrm {nat}}\) MoO \(_4\) scintillation detectors (to get rid of the continuous background coming from the two neutrino double beta decay of \(^{48}\) Ca) will instead be capable of achieving the remarkable sensitivity of \(\sim \) \(10^{25}\)  years on the half-life of \(^{100}\) Mo \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) in only 1 year of measurement.     

Refractive index changes and nuclear activation upon irradiation of lithium niobate crystals with different low-mass,high-energy ions

Refractive index changes \(\Delta n\) in lithium niobate crystals upon irradiation with high-energy protons, deuterons, \(^3\) He, and \(^4\alpha \) particles (up to 14 MeV/nucleon) are created, and the accompanying, unwanted nuclear activation is investigated. The measurements give answers to the question which ion is the best choice depending on the requirements: largest values of \(\Delta n\) are achieved with \(^4\alpha \) particles, low nuclear activation with deuterons, or the best tradeoff between \(\Delta n\) and activation with \(^3\) He, respectively.     

Modeling of HOT (111) HgCdTe MWIR detector for fast response operation

The paper reports on photoelectrical performance of the mid-wave infrared (MWIR) (111) HgCdTe high operating temperature detector for the fast response conditions. Detector structure was simulated with software APSYS by Crosslight Inc. The detailed analysis of the time response as a function of device architecture and applied voltage was performed pointing out optimal working conditions. The time response of the MWIR HgCdTe detector with 50 % cut-off wavelength of \(\lambda _{c} \approx 5.3\, \upmu \hbox {m}\) at \(T = 200\)  K was estimated at the level of \(\tau _{s} \approx \) 2,500 ps for \(V = 100\)  mV and series resistance \(R_{Series} = 510\,\Omega \) . The series resistance’s reduction enables to reach \(\tau _{s}\approx 60\!-\!500\)  ps.     

Antineutrino science in KamLAND

The primary goal of KamLAND is a search for the oscillation of \({\bar{\nu }}_\mathrm{e}\) ’s emitted from distant power reactors. The long baseline, typically 180 km, enables KamLAND to address the oscillation solution of the “solar neutrino problem” with \({\bar{\nu }}_{e} \) ’s under laboratory conditions. KamLAND found fewer reactor \({\bar{\nu }}_{e} \) events than expected from standard assumptions about \(\overline{\nu }_e\) propagation at more than 9 \(\sigma \) confidence level (C.L.). The observed energy spectrum disagrees with the expected spectral shape at more than 5 \(\sigma \) C.L., and prefers the distortion from neutrino oscillation effects. A three-flavor oscillation analysis of the data from KamLAND and KamLAND + solar neutrino experiments with CPT invariance, yields \(\Delta m_{21}^2 \) = [ \(7.54_{-0.18}^{+0.19} \times \) 10 \(^{-5}\) eV \(^{2}\) , \(7.53_{-0.18}^{+0.19} \times \) 10 \(^{-5}\) eV \(^{2}\) ], tan \(^{2}\theta _{12}\) = [ \(0.481_{-0.080}^{+0.092} \) , \(0.437_{-0.026}^{+0.029} \) ], and sin \(^{2}\theta _{13}\) = [ \(0.010_{-0.034}^{+0.033} \) , \(0.023_{-0.015}^{+0.015} \) ]. All solutions to the solar neutrino problem except for the large mixing angle region are excluded. KamLAND also demonstrated almost two cycles of the periodic feature expected from neutrino oscillation effects. KamLAND performed the first experimental study of antineutrinos from the Earth’s interior so-called geoneutrinos (geo \({\bar{\nu }}_{e} \) ’s), and succeeded in detecting geo \({\bar{\nu }}_{e} \) ’s produced by the decays of \(^{238}\) U and \(^{232}\) Th within the Earth. Assuming a chondritic Th/U mass ratio, we obtain \(116_{-27}^{+28} {\bar{\nu }}_{e}\) events from \(^{238}\) U and \(^{232}\) Th, corresponding a geo \({\bar{\nu }}_{e}\) flux of \(3.4_{-0.8}^{+0.8}\times \) 10 \(^{6}\) cm \(^{-2}\)  s \(^{-1}\) at the KamLAND location. We evaluate various bulk silicate Earth composition models using the observed geo \({\bar{\nu }}_{e} \) rate.     

Quantum Measures on Finite Effect Algebras with the Riesz Decomposition Properties

One kind of generalized measures called quantum measures on finite effect algebras, which fulfil the grade-2 additive sum rule, is considered. One basis of vector space of quantum measures on a finite effect algebra with the Riesz decomposition property (RDP for short) is given. It is proved that any diagonally positive symmetric signed measure \(\lambda \) on the tensor product \(E\otimes E\) can determine a quantum measure \(\mu \) on a finite effect algebra \(E\) with the RDP such that \(\mu (x)=\lambda (x\otimes x)\) for any \(x\in E\) . Furthermore, some conditions for a grade-2 additive measure \(\mu \) on a finite effect algebra \(E\) are provided to guarantee that there exists a unique diagonally positive symmetric signed measure \(\lambda \) on \(E\otimes E\) such that \(\mu (x)=\lambda (x\otimes x)\) for any \(x\in E\) . At last, it is showed that any grade- \(t\) quantum measure on a finite effect algebra \(E\) with the RDP is essentially established by the values on a subset of \(E\) .     

Pesin’s Entropy Formula for Systems Between C^1 and C^{1+\alpha }

In this article we give a new observation of Pesin’s entropy formula, motivated from Mañé’s proof of (Ergod Theory Dyn Sys 1:95–102, 1981). Let \(M\) be a compact Riemann manifold and \(f:\,M\rightarrow M\) be a \(C^1\) diffeomorphism on \(M\) . If \(\mu \) is an \(f\) -invariant probability measure which is absolutely continuous relative to Lebesgue measure and nonuniformly-H \(\ddot{\text {o}}\) lder-continuous(see Definition 1.1), then we have Pesin’s entropy formula, i.e., the metric entropy \(h_\mu (f)\) satisfies $$\begin{aligned} h_{\mu }(f)=\int \sum _{\lambda _i(x)> 0}\lambda _i(x)d\mu , \end{aligned}$$ where \(\lambda _1(x)\ge \lambda _2(x)\ge \cdots \ge \lambda _{dim\,M}(x)\) are the Lyapunov exponents at \(x\) with respect to \(\mu .\) Nonuniformly-H \(\ddot{\text {o}}\) lder-continuous is a new notion from probabilistic perspective weaker than \(C^{1+\alpha }.\)      

Line intensity measurements of methane’s \nu _3-band using a cw-OPO

We report on absolute line strength measurements of P(1), R(0) and R(1) singlet lines in the \(3.3\,\upmu\hbox {m}\,\nu _{3}\) (C–H stretching) band of methane \(^{12}\hbox {CH}_4\) at reference temperature \(T=296\)  K. Line strength measurements are performed at low pressure \((P \le 1\hbox { Torr})\) using direct absorption spectroscopy technique based on a widely tunable continuous-wave singly resonant optical parametric oscillator. The \(1\sigma \) overall accuracy in line strength determinations ranges between 7 and 8 % mostly limited by pressure and frequency measurements. A comparison with previous reported values is made. Our results show good agreement with the HITRAN 2012 database.     

Efficient Algorithms for the Two-Dimensional Ising Model with a Surface Field

The bond propagation and site propagation algorithms are extended to the two-dimensional (2D) Ising model with a surface field. With these algorithms we can calculate the free energy, internal energy, specific heat, magnetization, correlation functions, surface magnetization, surface susceptibility and surface correlations. The method can handle continuous and discrete bond and surface-field disorder and is especially efficient in the case of bond or site dilution. To test these algorithms, we study the wetting transition of the 2D Ising model, which was solved exactly by Abraham. We can locate the transition point accurately with a relative error of \(10^{-8}\) . We carry out the calculation of the specific heat and surface susceptibility on lattices with sizes up to \(200^2 \times 200\) . The results show that a finite jump develops in the specific heat and surface susceptibility at the transition point as the lattice size increases. For lattice size \(320^2 \times 320\) the parallel correlation length exponent is \(1.86\) , while Abraham’s exact result is \(2.0\) . The perpendicular correlation length exponent for lattice size \(160^2\times 160\) is \(1.05\) , whereas its exact value is \(1.0\) .     

Optimal N-Point Configurations on the Sphere: “Magic” Numbers and Smale’s 7th Problem

This paper inquires into the concavity of the map \(N\mapsto v_s(N)\) from the integers \(N\ge 2\) into the minimal average standardized Riesz pair-energies \(v_s(N)\) of \(N\) -point configurations on the sphere \(\mathbb {S}^2\) for various \(s\in \mathbb {R}\) . The standardized Riesz pair-energy of a pair of points on \(\mathbb {S}^2\) a chordal distance \(r\) apart is \(V_s(r)= s^{-1}\left( r^{-s}-1 \right) \) , \(s \ne 0\) , which becomes \(V_0(r) = \ln \frac{1}{r}\) in the limit \(s\rightarrow 0\) . Averaging it over the \(\left( \begin{array}{c} N\\ 2\end{array}\right) \) distinct pairs in a configuration and minimizing over all possible \(N\) -point configurations defines \(v_s(N)\) . It is known that \(N\mapsto v_s(N)\) is strictly increasing for each \(s\in \mathbb {R}\) , and for \(s<2\) also bounded above, thus “overall concave.” It is (easily) proved that \(N\mapsto v_{-2}^{}(N)\) is even locally strictly concave, and that so is the map \(2n\mapsto v_s(2n)\) for \(s<-2\) . By analyzing computer-experimental data of putatively minimal average Riesz pair-energies \(v_s^x(N)\) for \(s\in \{-1,0,1,2,3\}\) and \(N\in \{2,\ldots ,200\}\) , it is found that the map \(N\mapsto {v}_{-1}^x(N)\) is locally strictly concave, while \(N\mapsto {v}_s^x(N)\) is not always locally strictly concave for \(s\in \{0,1,2,3\}\) : concavity defects occur whenever \(N\in {\mathcal {C}}^{x}_+(s)\) (an \(s\) -specific empirical set of integers). It is found that the empirical map \(s\mapsto {\mathcal {C}}^{x}_+(s),\ s\in \{-2,-1,0,1,2,3\}\) , is set-theoretically increasing; moreover, the percentage of odd numbers in \({\mathcal {C}}^{x}_+(s),\ s\in \{0,1,2,3\}\) is found to increase with \(s\) . The integers in \({\mathcal {C}}^{x}_+(0)\) are few and far between, forming a curious sequence of numbers, reminiscent of the “magic numbers” in nuclear physics. It is conjectured that these new “magic numbers” are associated with optimally symmetric optimal-log-energy \(N\) -point configurations on \(\mathbb {S}^2\) . A list of interesting open problems is extracted from the empirical findings, and some rigorous first steps toward their solutions are presented. It is emphasized how concavity can assist in the solution to Smale’s \(7\) th Problem, which asks for an efficient algorithm to find near-optimal \(N\) -point configurations on \(\mathbb {S}^2\) and higher-dimensional spheres.     

The Distribution of the Area Under a Bessel Excursion and its Moments

A Bessel excursion is a Bessel process that begins at the origin and first returns there at some given time \(T\) . We study the distribution of the area under such an excursion, which recently found application in the context of laser cooling. The area \(A\) scales with the time as \(A \sim T^{3/2}\) , independent of the dimension, \(d\) , but the functional form of the distribution does depend on \(d\) . We demonstrate that for \(d=1\) , the distribution reduces as expected to the distribution for the area under a Brownian excursion, known as the Airy distribution, deriving a new expression for the Airy distribution in the process. We show that the distribution is symmetric in \(d-2\) , with nonanalytic behavior at \(d=2\) . We calculate the first and second moments of the distribution, as well as a particular fractional moment. We also analyze the analytic continuation from \(d<2\) to \(d>2\) . In the limit where \(d\rightarrow 4\) from below, this analytically continued distribution is described by a one-sided Lévy \(\alpha \) -stable distribution with index \(2/3\) and a scale factor proportional to \([(4-d)T]^{3/2}\) .     

Maximal Distance Travelled by N Vicious Walkers Till Their Survival

We consider N Brownian particles moving on a line starting from initial positions \(\mathbf{{u}}\equiv \{u_1,u_2,\ldots u_N\}\) such that \(0 . Their motion gets stopped at time \(t_s\) when either two of them collide or when the particle closest to the origin hits the origin for the first time. For \(N=2\) , we study the probability distribution function \(p_1(m|\mathbf{{u}})\) and \(p_2(m|\mathbf{{u}})\) of the maximal distance travelled by the \(1^{\text {st}}\) and \(2^{\text {nd}}\) walker till \(t_s\) . For general N particles with identical diffusion constants \(D\) , we show that the probability distribution \(p_N(m|\mathbf{u})\) of the global maximum \(m_N\) , has a power law tail \(p_i(m|\mathbf{{u}}) \sim {N^2B_N\mathcal {F}_{N}(\mathbf{u})}/{m^{\nu _N}}\) with exponent \(\nu _N =N^2+1\) . We obtain explicit expressions of the function \(\mathcal {F}_{N}(\mathbf{u})\) and of the N dependent amplitude \(B_N\) which we also analyze for large N using techniques from random matrix theory. We verify our analytical results through direct numerical simulations.     

Local Central Limit Theorem for Determinantal Point Processes

We prove a local central limit theorem (LCLT) for the number of points \(N(J)\) in a region \(J\) in \(\mathbb R^d\) specified by a determinantal point process with an Hermitian kernel. The only assumption is that the variance of \(N(J)\) tends to infinity as \(|J| \rightarrow \infty \) . This extends a previous result giving a weaker central limit theorem for these systems. Our result relies on the fact that the Lee–Yang zeros of the generating function for \(\{E(k;J)\}\) —the probabilities of there being exactly \(k\) points in \(J\) —all lie on the negative real \(z\) -axis. In particular, the result applies to the scaled bulk eigenvalue distribution for the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (GUE) and that of the Ginibre ensemble. For the GUE we can also treat the properly scaled edge eigenvalue distribution. Using identities between gap probabilities, the LCLT can be extended to bulk eigenvalues of the Gaussian Symplectic Ensemble. A LCLT is also established for the probability density function of the \(k\) -th largest eigenvalue at the soft edge, and of the spacing between \(k\) -th neighbors in the bulk.     

Scaling Limits and Critical Behaviour of the 4-Dimensional n-Component |\varphi |^4 Spin Model

We consider the \(n\) -component \(|\varphi |^4\) spin model on \({\mathbb {Z}}^4\) , for all \(n \ge 1\) , with small coupling constant. We prove that the susceptibility has a logarithmic correction to mean field scaling, with exponent \(\frac{n+2}{n+8}\) for the logarithm. We also analyse the asymptotic behaviour of the pressure as the critical point is approached, and prove that the specific heat has fractional logarithmic scaling for \(n =1,2,3\) ; double logarithmic scaling for \(n=4\) ; and is bounded when \(n>4\) . In addition, for the model defined on the \(4\) -dimensional discrete torus, we prove that the scaling limit as the critical point is approached is a multiple of a Gaussian free field on the continuum torus, whereas, in the subcritical regime, the scaling limit is Gaussian white noise with intensity given by the susceptibility. The proofs are based on a rigorous renormalisation group method in the spirit of Wilson, developed in a companion series of papers to study the 4-dimensional weakly self-avoiding walk, and adapted here to the \(|\varphi |^4\) model.     

Rigorous Confidence Intervals on Critical Thresholds in 3 Dimensions

We extend the method of Balister, Bollobás and Walters (Phys. Rev. E 76:011110, 2007) for determining rigorous confidence intervals for the critical threshold of two dimensional lattices to three (and higher) dimensional lattices. We describe a method for determining a full confidence interval and apply it to show that the critical threshold for bond percolation on the simple cubic lattice is between \(0.2485\) and \(0.2490\) with \(99.9999\,\%\) confidence, and the critical threshold for site percolation on the same lattice is between \(0.3110\) and \(0.3118\) with \(99.9999\,\%\) confidence.     

NMR in Magnetic Field of the Earth: Pre-Polarization of Nuclei with Alternating Magnetic Field

The polarization of nuclei in the low static magnetic field \(B_0\) with an alternating magnetic field \(B^{*} (B^{*} \gg B_0)\) at a very low frequency \(f_m\) (but \(f_m\gg 1\) / \({T_1}\) , where \(T_1\) is the spin-lattice relaxation time) has been investigated. The question of the optimization of the energy consumption during the pre-polarization is also considered. The possibilities of the method are illustrated by the observation of nuclear magnetic resonance signals from a few liquids.     

The flavour of natural SUSY

We study the screening effect for the multiparton interactions (MPI) for proton–deuteron collisions in the kinematics where one parton belonging to the deuteron has small \(x_1\) , so the leading twist shadowing is present, while the second parton ( \(x_2\) ) is involved in the interaction in the kinematics where shadowing effects are small. We find that the ratio of the shadowing and the impulse approximation terms is approximately a factor of 2 larger for MPI than for the single parton distributions. We also calculate the double parton antishadowing (DPA) contribution to the cross section due to the independent interactions of the partons of the projectile proton with two nucleons of the deuteron and find that shadowing leads to a strong reduction of the DPA effect. For example, for the resolution scale \(Q_1^2 \sim 4\)   \(\text{ GeV }^2\) of the interaction with parton \(x_1\) we find that shadowing reduces the DPA effect by \(\sim \) 30 %. It is argued that in the discussed kinematics the contribution of the interference diagrams, which correspond to the interchange of partons between the proton and neutron, constitutes only a small correction to the shadowing contributions.     

Generation of vacuum ultraviolet radiation by intracavity high-harmonic generation toward state detection of single trapped ions

Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation around 159 nm is obtained toward direct excitation of a single trapped \(^{115}\hbox {In}^{+}\) ion. An efficient fluoride-based VUV output coupler is employed for intracavity high-harmonic generation of a Ti:S oscillator. Using this coupler, where we measured its reflectance to be about 90 %, an average power reaching 6.4  \(\upmu\) W is coupled out from a modest fundamental power of 650 mW. When a single comb component out of 1.9  \(\times\)  10 \(^{5}\) teeth is resonant to the atomic transition, 100s of fluorescence photons per second will be detectable under a realistic condition.     

Static Magnetic Susceptibility of the Systems with Anisotropic Kondo Interaction

We theoretically investigated the static magnetic susceptibility in the heavy fermion compounds YbRh \(_2\) Si \(_2\) and YbIr \(_2\) Si \(_2\) . The molecular field approximation together with the renormalization of the Kondo interaction by the high-energy conduction electron excitations results in the Curie–Weiss law and Van Vleck susceptibility with temperature-dependent Curie and Weiss parameters.