Properties of the transport layer formed at the interface between two polymer films

Electronic transport properties of a 2D boundary layers formed by two films of an organic polymer material are investigated. It is established that the conductivity of such a layer is several orders of magnitude higher than the surface conductivity of individual films forming the experimental structure. Temperature measurements show that transport of charge carriers over this layer can be described using the models of Schottky thermionic emission and hopping transport over trap levels.     

Calculation of transport properties of Co–Ag-based multilayered granular alloys

We calculate electronic transport properties of multilayered granular alloys, composed of discontinuous Co layers embedded in Ag alternated with complete Ag layers. We focus our attention on the conductivity dependance on the shape and size of the clusters. The electronic structure is self-consistently calculated using a tight binding hamiltonian which includes a Hubbard term within the unrestricted Hartree–Fock approximation. We obtain different transport regimes depending on the growth conditions and transport direction.     

High-efficiency p–i–n organic light-emitting diodes with a novel n-doping electron transport layer

We demonstrate p–i–n organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) incorporating an n-doping transport layer which comprises 8-hydroxy-quinolinato lithium (Liq) doped into 4′7-diphyenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (Bphen) as ETL and a p-doping transport layer which includes tetrafluro-tetracyano-quinodimethane (F₄-TCNQ) doped into 4,4′,4″-tris(3-methylphenylphenylamono) triphenylamine (m-MTDATA). In order to examine the improvement in the conductivity of transport layers, hole-only and electron-only devices are fabricated. The current and power efficiency of organic light-emitting diodes have been improved significantly after introducing a novel n-doping (Bphen: 33 wt% Liq) layer as an electron transport layer (ETL) and a p-doping layer composed of m-MTDATA and F₄-TCNQ as a hole transport layer (HTL). Compared with the control device (without doping), the current efficiency and power efficiency of Device C (most efficient) is enhanced by approximately 51% and 89%, respectively, while driving voltage is reduced by 29%. This improvement is attributed to the improved conductivity of the transport layers that leads to the efficient charge balance in the emission zone.     

Modelling of diffusion and conductivity relaxation of oxide ceramics

A two-dimensional square grain model has been applied to simulate simultaneously the diffusion process and relaxation of the dc conduction of polycrystalline oxide materials due to a sudden change of the oxygen partial pressure of the surrounding gas phase. The numerical calculations are performed by employing the finite element approach. The grains are squares of equal side length (average grain size) and the grain boundaries may consist of thin slabs of uniform thickness. An additional (space charge) layer adjacent to the grain boundary cores (thin slabs) either blocking (depletion layer) or highly conductive for electronic charge carriers may surround the grains. The electronic transport number of the mixed ionic-electronic conducting oxide ceramics may be close to unity (predominant electronic conduction). If the chemical diffusion coefficient of the neutral mobile component (oxygen) of the grain boundary core regions is assumed to be higher by many orders of magnitude than that in the bulk, the simulated relaxation curves for mass transport (diffusion) and dc conduction can deviate remarkably from each other. Deviations between the relaxation of mass transport and dc conduction are found in the case of considerably different electronic conductivities of grain boundary core regions, space charge layers, and bulk. On the contrary, the relaxation curves of mass transport and electronic conductivity are in perfect coincidence, when either effective medium diffusion occurs or the effective conductivity is unaffected by the individual conductivities of core regions and possible space charge layers, i.e. the grain boundary resistivity is negligible.     

3D electrothermal simulations of organic LEDs showing negative differential resistance

Organic semiconductor devices show a pronounced interplay between temperature-activated conductivity and self-heating which in particular causes inhomogeneities in the brightness of large-area OLEDs at high power. We consider a 3D thermistor model based on partial differential equations for the electrothermal behavior of organic devices and introduce an extension to multiple layers with nonlinear conductivity laws, which also take the diode-like behavior in recombination zones into account. We present a numerical simulation study for a red OLED using a finite-volume approximation of this model. The appearance of S-shaped current–voltage characteristics with regions of negative differential resistance in a measured device can be quantitatively reproduced. Furthermore, this simulation study reveals a propagation of spatial zones of negative differential resistance in the electron and hole transport layers toward the contact.     

An impact of multi-layered structures of modern optoelectronic devices on their thermal properties

Phonon scattering at layer boundaries reducing efficiency of heat extraction from volumes of modern multi-layered electronic devices is believed to be one of the most important obstacles to their further miniaturization. Therefore the main goal of this work is to examine theoretically thermal conductivities of thin semiconductor layers as a function of their thickness using, as a typical example, the GaAs layer between two AlAs or (AlGa)As layers. Applicability of various possible theoretical approaches to a heat transport in such a structure is discussed. However, theory of the nanoscale thermal transport has been found to be still at an immature stage. Nevertheless, following the phonon-radiative-transfer approach of Chen and Tien derived from the Boltzmann transport equation, the RT (=300 K) GaAs thermal conductivity has been found to be dramatically reduced from its bulk value of 44 W/mK, to only 1.05 W/mK for the 20-nm layer and even to 0.15 W/mK for 2-nm layer, which is in a general agreement with experimental results. However, this approach has happened to give distinctly incorrect results for relatively small composition changes of successive layers. Then reasonable values of effective thermal conductivities should be extracted from thermal conductivities determined experimentally for similar devices.     

First-principles analysis of phonon thermal transport properties of two-dimensional WS_2/WSe_2 heterostructures

The van der Waals(vdW)heterostructures of bilayer transition metal dichalcogenide obtained by vertically stacking have drawn increasing attention for their enormous potential applications in semiconductors and insulators.Here,by using the first-principles calculations and the phonon Boltzmann transport equation(BTE),we studied the phonon transport properties of WS2/WSe2 bilayer heterostructures(WS2/WSe2-BHs).The lattice thermal conductivity of the ideal WS2/WSe2-BHs crystals at room temperature(RT)was 62.98 W/mK,which was clearly lower than the average lattice thermal conductivity of WS2 and WSe2 single layers.Another interesting finding is that the optical branches below 4.73 THz and acoustic branches have powerful coupling,mainly dominating the lattice thermal conductivity.Further,we also noticed that the phonon mean free path(MFP)of the WS2/WSe2-BHs(233 nm)was remarkably attenuated by the free-standing monolayer WS2(526 nm)and WSe2(1720 nm),leading to a small significant size effect of the WS2/WSe2-BHs.Our results systematically demonstrate the low optical and acoustic phonon modes-dominated phonon thermal transport in heterostructures and give a few important guidelines for the synthesis of van der Waals heterostructures with excellent phonon transport properties.     

Charge carrier transport and d.c. conductivity in thin polycrystalline p-terphenyl films2

The electrical conductivity and charge carrier mobility in thin polycrystalline p-terphenyl layers have been measured. The transport and conductivity were interpreted in terms of a hopping mechanism. The activation energies of mobility and conductivity were obtained, and the density of states in the vicinity of the Fermi level 10²⁰ cm^?3 eV^?1 was estimated. The height of the potential barrier around the impurity levels changed according to the Poole-Frenkel effect.     

Hopping conductivity and Coulomb correlations in 2D arrays of Ge/Si quantum dots

The temperature and magnetic-field dependences of the conductivity associated with hopping transport of holes over a 2D array of Ge/Si(001) quantum dots with various filling factors are studied experimentally. A transition from the Éfros-Shklovski? law for the temperature dependence of hopping conductivity to the Arrhenius law with an activation energy equal to 1.0–1.2 meV is observed upon a decrease in temperature. The activation energy for the low-temperature conductivity increases with the magnetic field and attains saturation in fields exceeding 4 T. It is found that the magnetoresistance in layers of quantum dots is essentially anisotropic: the conductivity decreases in an increasing magnetic field oriented perpendicularly to a quantum dot layer and increases in a magnetic field whose vector lies in the plane of the sample. The absolute values of magnetoresistance for transverse and longitudinal field orientations differ by two orders of magnitude. The experimental results are interpreted using the model of many-particle correlations of holes localized in quantum dots, which lead to the formation of electron polarons in a 2D disordered system.     

Improving the performance of perovskite solar cells with glycerol-doped PEDOT:PSS buffer layer

In this paper, we investigate the effects of glycerol doping on transmittance, conductivity and surface morphology of poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate))(PEDOT:PSS) and its influence on the performance of perovskite solar cells.. The conductivity of PEDOT:PSS is improved obviously by doping glycerol. The maximum of the conductivity is 0.89 S/cm when the doping concentration reaches 6 wt%, which increases about 127 times compared with undoped. The perovskite solar cells are fabricated with a configuration of indium tin oxide(ITO)/PEDOT:PSS/CH_3NH_3PbI_3/PC_(61)BM/Al, where PEDOT:PSS and PC_(61)BM are used as hole and electron transport layers, respectively. The results show an improvement of hole charge transport as well as an increase of short-circuit current density and a reduction of series resistance, owing to the higher conductivity of the doped PEDOT:PSS. Consequently, it improves the whole performance of perovskite solar cell. The power conversion efficiency(PCE) of the device is improved from 8.57% to 11.03% under AM 1.5 G(100 mW/cm~2 illumination) after the buffer layer has been modified.     

Cumulant approach to the two-dimensional magneto-conductivity problem

The validity of assumptions involved in experimental evaluations of the g-factor of electrons in (100) surface inversion layers of p-silicon from Shubnikov-De Haas oscillations of the surface conductivity by the method of tilted megnetic fields is discussed on the basis of the transport theory of a two-dimensional electron-impurity system. The self-consistent Born approximation is shown to be insufficient to this task, and an alternative cumulant approach is discussed. Contrary to recent work, the cumulant approach is introduced in a simple manner, avoiding the path-integral formalism.     

Performance characteristics of composite film electrolytes for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells

This paper reports on the estimated performance of a cell with a three-layer electrolyte, consisting of one gadolinia-doped ceria (GDC) layer, one yttria-stabilised zirconia (YSZ) electronblocking layer and one CGO-YSZ solid solution interlayer, the latter being used to avoid solid-state reaction and interdiffusion between YSZ and GDC, in comparison to a cell with a double-layer YSZ-CGO composite electrolyte. For a constant temperature and overall cell oxygen potential as boundary conditions, the open circuit voltage, the voltage under operating conditions and the oxygen potential profile inside the electrolyte are related to the ionic and electronic transport properties of the materials involved and are calculated as a function of the thickness of the layers involved and the relative positions of the YSZ and GDC layers. Thermodynamic stability of the electrolyte is shown to depend upon the transport properties of the materials and primarily the electronic conductivity of the air-side layers. To determine the particular ionic and electronic contributions for conduction of the materials involved, conductivity was measured as a function of the oxygen partial pressure and temperature, using the standard four point d.c. method. Based on the calculations, performed the conditions are discussed under which a functionally graded composite electrolyte YSZ-CGO can be effective for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Paper presented at the 6th Euroconference on Solid State Ionics, Cetraro, Calabria, Italy, Sept. 12–19, 1999. TMR Grant Holder     

Thermal transport in twisted few-layer graphene

Twisted graphene possesses unique electronic properties and applications, which have been studied extensively. Recently, the phonon properties of twisted graphene have received a great deal of attention. To the best of our knowledge,thermal transports in twisted graphene have been investigated little to date. Here, we study perpendicular and parallel transports in twisted few-layer graphene(T-FLG). It is found that perpendicular and parallel transports are both sensitive to the rotation angle θ between layers. When θ increases from 0° to 60°, perpendicular thermal conductivity κ_(||) first decreases and then increases, and the transition angle is θ = 30°. For the parallel transport, the relation between thermal conductivity κand θ is complicated, because intra-layer thermal transport is more sensitive to the edge of layer than their stacking forms. However, the dependence of interlayer scattering on θ is similar to that of κ⊥. In addition, the effect of layer number on the thermal transport is discussed. Our results may provide references for designing the devices of thermal insulation and thermal management based on graphene.     

Features of the conductivity of the quasi-one-dimensional compound TiS3

The structure and transport properties of single crystal whiskers of the TiS₃ quasi-one-dimensional semiconductor have been investigated. The anisotropy of the conductivity in the plane of layers (ab) has been measured as a function of the temperature. The anisotropy at 300 K is 5 and increases with a decrease in the temperature. Features on the temperature dependences of the conductivity along and across the chains are observed at 59 and 17 K. Near the same temperatures the form of the current-voltage characteristics measured along the chains is qualitatively changed. The current-voltage characteristics below 60 K exhibit nonlinearity and have a threshold form below 10 K. The results indicate possible phase transitions and the collective conduction mechanism at low temperatures.     

Extension of Planck’s law to steady heat flux across nanoscale gaps

Recent experiments report that the radiative heat conductance through a narrow vacuum gap between two flat surfaces increases as the inverse square of the width of the gap. Such a significant increase of thermal conductivity has attracted much interest because of numerous promising applications in nanoscale heat transfer and because of the lack of its theoretical explanation. It is shown here that the radiative heat transport across narrow layers can be described in terms of conventional theory adjusted to non-equilibrium structures with a steady heat flux.     

Origin of current instability in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures

We propose a mechanism to explain the electric instability often observed in modulation-doped heterostructures GaAs/AlGaAs when current is passed along the heterostructure layers. The instability is caused by hot electron transport in AlGaAs layer that is not only heavily doped, but also strongly compensated due to the presence of DX-centers. This layer contains a large-scale random potential of significant magnitude, which strongly affects electron transport. The heating of electrons in the percolation cluster net and electron transfer from the cluster into the random potential wells result in the appearance of latent negative differential conductivity causing the current instability. When the instability gives rise to the formation of a high electric field domain, one of the domain walls blocks the current flow through the two-dimensional electron gas. Experimental results supporting this mechanism are given.     

碳纳米管的热导率:从弹道到扩散输运

采用非平衡分子动力学方法研究了300 K和1000 K时（5,5）碳纳米管热导率随长度的变化.在室温下,碳纳米管长度小于40 nm时热导率与长度呈线性关系,此时导热处于弹道输运阶段,单位面积弹道热导为5.88×10⁹ Wm^-2K^-1．随着碳纳米管长度的增加,其热导率逐渐增加,但增加速度随长度逐渐减小,此时导热处于弹道—扩散输运阶段,并随长度的增加从以弹道输运为主向以扩散输运为主转变．长度大于10 μm时由于弹道输运可以忽略,导热近似达到完全 关键词： 碳纳米管 热导率 弹道输运 低维导热     

考虑界面散射的金属纳米线热导率修正

理论分析了声子和电子输运对Cu, Ag金属纳米线热导率的贡献. 采用镶嵌原子作用势模型描述纳米尺寸下金属原子间的相互作用, 应用平衡分子动力学方法和Green-Kubo函数模拟了金属纳米线的声子热导率; 采用玻尔兹曼输运理论和Wiedemann-Franz定律计算电子热导率; 并通过散射失配模型和Mayadas-Shatzkes模型引入晶界散射的影响. 在此基础上, 考察分析了纳米线尺度和温度的影响. 研究结果表明: Cu, Ag纳米线热导率的变化规律相似; 电子输运对金属纳米线的导热占主导地位, 而声子热导率的贡献也不容忽视; 晶界散射导致热导率减小, 尤其对电子热导率作用显著; 纳米线总热导率随着温度的升高而降低; 随着截面尺寸减小而减小, 但声子热导率所占份额有所增加. 关键词： 纳米线 热导率 表面散射 晶界散射     

Contactless measurement of the conductivity of II–VI epitaxial layers by means of the partially filled waveguide method

We report the contactless determination of the conductivity, the mobility and the carrier concentration of II–VI semiconductors by means of the technique of the partially filled waveguide at a microwave frequency of 9 GHz. The samples are CdHgTe epitaxial layers, grown on CdZnTe substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. The conductivity is determined from the transmission coefficient of the sample in the partially filled waveguide. For the analysis of the experimental data, the complex transmission coefficient is calculated by a rigorous multi-mode matching procedure. By varying the conductivity of the sample, we obtain an optimum fit of the calculated data to the experimental results. Comparison with conductivity data determined by the van der Pauw method shows that our method allows to measure the conductivity with good accuracy. The behaviour of the transmission coefficient of the sample is discussed in dependence on the layer conductivity, the layer thickness and the dielectric constant of the substrate. The calculations require to consider in detail the distribution of the electromagnetic fields in the sample region. The usual assumption of a hardly disturbed TE₁₀ mode cannot be used in our case. By applying a magnetic field in extraordinary Voigt configuration, galvanomagnetic measurements have been carried out which yield the mobility and thus the carrier concentration. These results are also in good agreement with van der Pauw transport measurements.     

Magnetoresistance effect in A 2(FeMo)Ox double perovskites (A = Sr, Ca; 5.90≤x≤6.05)

The dependences of magnetic, electric, and magnetotransport properties on oxygen non stoichiometry were investigated in compounds of Ca₂(FeMo)O_x and Sr₂(FeMo)O_x (5.90≤x≤6.05). The regular trends in behavior of the magnetization, resistance, and magnetoresistance of samples of these series are determined. It is established that the magnetoresistance is composed of two parts that appear as a result of magnetic ordering in grain-boundary layers and of the intergrain transport of spin-polarized charge carriers. The electronic transport in the samples is assumed to be governed by percolation processes between grains which have a metallic type of conductivity and are separated by insulating spacers.