Interface Properties of InAs／AlSb Superlattices Characterized by Grazing Incidence X-Ray Reflectivity

Two kinds of superlattice interfaces of InAs/AlSb superlattices are realized in an optimized interface growth process, where one is AlAs-like and the other is InSb-like grown on a relaxed AlSb buffer layer. The superlattice properties such as interface roughness and layer thickness are studied by grazing incidence x-ray reflectivity. The reflectivity curves are simulated by standard software till the simulation curves match well with the experimental curves. The simulation indicates that AlAs-like interfaces are much rougher than InSb-like interfaces. Grazing incidence x-ray reflectivity is also discussed as a powerful tool to assessing the structure properties of superlattices.     

Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of three-dimensional self-assembled quantum dot islands

By three-dimensional kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, the effects of the temperature, the flux rate, the total coverage and the interruption time on the distribution and the number of self-assembled InAs/GaAs(001) quantum dot(QD) islands are studied, which shows that a higher temperature, a lower flux rate and a longer growth time correspond to a better island distribution. The relations between the number of islands and the temperature and the flux rate are also successfully simulated. It is observed that for the total coverage lower than 0.5 ML, the number of islands decreases with the temperature increasing and other growth parameters fixed and the number of islands increases with the flux rate increasing when the deposition is lower than 0.6 ML and the other parameters are fixed.     

Rayleigh–Taylor instability at spherical interfaces of incompressible fluids

Rayleigh–Taylor instability(RTI) of three incompressible fluids with two interfaces in spherical geometry is derived analytically. The growth rate on the two interfaces and the perturbation feedthrough coefficients between two spherical interfaces are derived. For low-mode perturbation, the feedthrough effect from outer interface to inner interface is much more severe than the corresponding planar case, while the feedback from inner interface to the outer interface is smaller than that in planar geometry. The low-mode perturbations lead to the pronounced RTI growth on the inner interface of a spherical shell that are larger than the cylindrical and planar results. It is the low-mode perturbation that results in the difference between the RTI growth in spherical and cylindrical geometry. When the mode number of the perturbation is large enough, the results in cylindrical geometry are recovered.     

Radiation and reflection acoustical fields of an annular phased array

The characteristics of the radiation and reflection acoustical fields of an annular phased array are investigated. The effects of the element number, element radius, interelement spacing, centre frequency, focus position, and other parameters on the radiation acoustical field of the annular phased array is theoretically studied. In experiment, an annular transducer with 8 equal-area elements is designed and fabricated, and a series of experimental measurements are conducted. The radiation acoustical field and its reflection on a liquid-solid interface are theoretically and experimentally studied. The experimental result is in good agreement with the theoretical one.     

Weakly Nonlinear Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Incompressible Fluids with Surface Tension

A weakly nonlinear model is established for incompressible Rayleigh—Taylor instability with surface tension. The temporal evolution of a perturbed interface is explored analytically via the third-order solution. The dependence of the first three harmonics on the surface tension is discussed. The amplitudes of bubble and spike are greatly affected by surface tension. The saturation amplitude of the fundamental mode versus the Atwood number A is investigated with surface tension into consideration. The saturation amplitude decreases with increasing A. Surface tension exhibits a stabilizing phenomenon. It is shown that the asymmetrical development of the perturbed interface occurs much later for large surface tension effect.     

Influence of interface roughness on reflectivity of tungsten/boron-carbide multilayers with variable bi-layer number by X-ray reflection and diffuse scattering

Infuence of interface roughness on the reflectivity of Tungsten/boron-carbide （W/B4C） multilayers varying with bi-layer number, N, is investigated. For W/B4C multilayers with the same design period thickness of 2.5 nm, a real-structure model is used to calculate the variation of reflectivities with N = 50, 100, 150, and 200, respectively. Then, these multilayers are fabricated by a direct current （DC） magnetron sputtering system. Their reflectivity and scattering intensity are measured by an X-ray diffractometer （XRD） working at Cu Kα line. The X-ray reflectivity measurement indicates that the reflectivity is a function of its bi-layer number. The X-ray scattering measured results show that the interface roughness of W/B4C multilayers increases slightly from layer to layer during multilayer growing. The variation of the reflectivity and interface roughness with bi-layer number is accurately explained by the presented realstructure model.     

Dynamic investigation of the finite dissolution of silicon particles in aluminum melt with a lower dissolution limit

The finite dissolution model of silicon particles in the aluminum melt is built and calculated by the finite difference method, and the lower dissolution limit of silicon particles in the aluminum melt is proposed and verified by experiments, which could be the origin of microinhomogeneity in aluminum-silicon melts. When the effects of curvature and interface reaction on dissolution are not considered; the dissolution rate first decreases and later increases with time. When the effects of curvature and interface reaction on dissolution are considered, the dissolution rate first decreases and later increases when the interface reaction coefficient （k） is larger than 10 1, and the dissolution rate first decreases and later tends to be constant when k is smaller than 10-3. The dissolution is controlled by both diffusion and interface reaction when k is larger than 10-3, while the dissolution is controlled only by the interface reaction when k is smaller than 10-4.     

Coupling between velocity and interface perturbations in cylindrical Rayleigh–Taylor instability

Rayleigh–Taylor instability(RTI) in cylindrical geometry initiated by velocity and interface perturbations is investigated analytically through a third-order weakly nonlinear(WN) model. When the initial velocity perturbation is comparable to the interface perturbation, the coupling between them plays a significant role. The difference between the RTI growth initiated only by a velocity perturbation and that only by an interface perturbation in the WN stage is negligibly small. The effects of the mode number on the first three harmonics are discussed respectively. The low-mode number perturbation leads to large amplitudes of RTI growth. The Atwood number and initial perturbation dependencies of the nonlinear saturation amplitude of the fundamental mode are analyzed clearly. When the mode number of the perturbation is large enough,the WN results in planar geometry are recovered.     

The influence of interface modifier on photodetachment of negative ions in an electric field near a metal surface

Based on closed-orbit theory,the influence of an interface modifier on the photodetachment of H- in an electric field near a metal surface is studied.It is demonstrated that the interface strengthens the oscillations in the photodetachment cross section.However,when the electric field environments are different,the strengthening oscillations are caused by different sources.When the electric field direction is upward,the interface enhances the oscillations by shortening the period and the action of the closed orbit.When the electric field direction is downward,the interface strengthens the oscillations either by extending the coherent energy range or by increasing the total number of the closed orbits.We hope that our results will be conducive to the understanding of the photodetachment process of negative ions near interfaces,cavities and ion traps.     

Modeling of silicon-nanocrystal formation in amorphous silicon/silicon dioxide multilayer structure

The formation process of silicon-nanocrystals （Si-NCs） in the amorphous silicon/silicon dioxide （a-Si/SiO2） multilayer structure during thermal annealing is theoretically studied with a modified model based on the Gibbs free energy variation. In this model, the concept of average effective interfacial free energy variation is introduced and the whole formation process consisting of nucleation and subsequent growth is considered. The calculating results indicate that there is a lower limit of the silicon layer thickness for forming Si-NCs in a-Si/SiO2 multilayer, and the oxide interfaces cannot constrain their lateral growth. Furthermore, by comparing the results for a-Si/SiO2 and a-Si/SiNx multilayers, it is found that the constraint on the crystal growth from the dielectric interfaces depends on the difference between interfacial free energies.     

Two-Dimensional Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Incompressible Fluids at Arbitrary Atwood Numbers

The Rayleigh-Taylor instability in two-dimensional incompressible fluids at arbitrary Atwood numbers is studied by expanding the perturbation velocity potential to third order. The second and third harmonic generation effects of single-mode perturbation are analyzed, as well as the nonlinear correction to the exponential growth of the fundamental modulation. The mode coupling coefficients are dependent on the Atwood numbers. Our simulations support the weakly nonlinear results. We find that the ratio of the nonlinear saturation amplitude ηs and the perturbation wavelength λ is dependent on the Atwood number AT and the relation is ηs/λ=（1/π）[√2/5/√（1＋3AT2 ）].     

Long—Range Effects on the Pyroelectric Coefficient of Ferroelectric Superlattice

Long-range effects on the pyroelectric coefficient of a ferroelectric superlattice consisting of two different ferroelectric materials are investigated based on the transverse Ising model.The effects of the interfacial coupling and the thickness of one period on the pyroelectric coefficient of the ferroelectric superlattics are studied by taking into account the long-range interaction.It is found that with the increase of the strength of the long-range interaction,the pyroelectric coefficient decreases when the temperature is lower than the phase transition temperature;the mumber of the pyroelectric peaks decreases gradually and the phase transition temperature increases,It is also found that with the decrease of the interfacial coupling and the thickness of one period.the phase transition temperature and the number of the pyroelectric peaks decrease.     

Weakly Nonlinear Rayleigh–Taylor Instability in Cylindrically Convergent Geometry

The Rayleigh–Taylor instability(RTI) in cylindrical geometry is investigated analytically through a second-order weakly nonlinear(WN) theory considering the Bell–Plesset(BP) effect. The governing equations for the combined perturbation growth are derived. The WN solutions for an exponentially convergent cylinder are obtained. It is found that the BP and RTI growths are strongly coupled, which results in the bubble-spike asymmetric structure in the WN stage. The large Atwood number leads to the large deformation of the convergent interface. The amplitude of the spike grows faster than that of the bubble especially for large mode number m and large Atwood number A. The averaged interface radius is small for large mode number perturbation due to the mode-coupling effect.     

Protein Folding in Nano-Sized Cylinders

The folding of a model protein confined in a nano-sized cylinder is studied by the off-lattice Go^-like model. The entropy and anisotropy effects of confinement on thermodynamics and dynamics for folding are investigated. Our results show that due to reduction of the search on conformations, the folding rate can be sped up and the thermodynamic stability is enhanced at the cost of the decrease of folding cooperativity. In addition, it is found that these are shape-dependent. Folding is optimized in a cylinder with an appropriate shape when the volume is fixed. This is probably related to the shape of the protein molecule. Furthermore, our results also suggest that there is an orientational transition for the protein molecule following the variation of the radius of cylinder.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of cylindrical Richtmyer-Meshkov instability

The microscopic-scale Richtmyer-Meshkov(RM) instability of a single-mode Cu-He interface subjected to a cylindrically converging shock is studied through the classical molecular dynamics simulation. An unperturbed interface is first considered to examine the flow features in the convergent geometry, and notable distortions at the circular inhomogeneity are observed due to the atomic fluctuation. Detailed processes of the shock propagation and interface deformation for the single-mode interface impacted by a converging shock are clearly captured. Different from the macroscopic-scale situation, the intense molecular thermal motions in the present microscale flow introduce massive small wavelength perturbations at the single-mode interface, which later significantly impede the formation of the roll-up structure. Influences of the initial conditions including the initial amplitude,wave number and density ratio on the instability growth are carefully analyzed. It is found that the late-stage instability development for interfaces with a large perturbation does not depend on its initial amplitude any more. Surprisingly, as the wave number increases from 8 to 12, the growth rate after the reshock drops gradually. The distinct behaviors induced by the amplitude and wave number increments indicate that the present microscopic RM instability cannot be simply characterized by the amplitude over wavelength ratio(η). The pressure history at the convergence center shows that the first pressure peak caused by the shock focusing is insensitive to η, while the second one depends heavily on it.     

The changes of holographic characteristics of photopolymer induced by temperature

The changes of holographic characteristics of photopolymer induced by temperature are studied experi-mentally. The results show that the exposure sensitivity increases with the increase of temperature. Themaximum diffraction efficiency and the final maximum diffraction efficiency increase with the increaseof temperature when the temperature is lower than Tg (glass transition temperature), while they decreasewith the increase of temperature when the temperature is higher than Tg. The effect of the change oftemperature on the saturation refractive index modulation is very weak.     

Emitter of hetero-junction solar cells created using pulsed rapid thermal annealing

In this paper, we use a pulsed rapid thermal processing (RTP) approach to create an emitter layer of hetero-junction solar cell. The process parameters and crystallization behaviour are studied. The structural, optical and electric properties of the crystallized films are also investigated. Both the depth of PN junction and the conductivity of the emitter layer increase with the number of RTP pulses increasing. Simulation results show that efficiencies of such solar cells can exceed 15% with a lower interface recombination rate, but the highest efficiency is 11.65% in our experiments.     

Quantum Statistical Calculation of Exchange Bias

The phenomenon of exchange bias of ferromagnetic (FM) films, which are coupled with an antiferromagnetic (AFM) film, is studied by Heisenberg model by use of the many-body Green‘s function method of quantum statistical theory for the uncompensated case. Exchange bias HE and coercivity Hc are calculated as functions of the FM film thickness L, temperature, the strength of the exchange interaction across the interface between FM and AFM and the anisotropy of the FM. Hc decreases with increasing L when the FM film is beyond some thickness. The dependence of the exchange bias HE on the FM film thickness and on temperature is also qualitatively in agreement with experiments.     

Study of highly excited vibrational dynamics of HCP integrable system with dynamic potential methods

Highly excited vibrational dynamics of phosphaethyne(HCP) integrable system are investigated based on its dynamic potentials. Taking into consideration the 2:1 Fermi resonance between H–C–P bending vibrational mode and C–P stretching vibrational mode, it is found that the effects of H–C stretching vibrational mode on vibrational dynamic features of the HCP integrable system are significant and regularly vary with Polyad numbers(P number). The geometrical profiles of the dynamic potentials and the corresponding fixed points are sensitive to the variation of H–C stretching vibrational strength when P numbers are small, but are not sensitive when P numbers become larger and the corresponding threshold values become lower. The phase space trajectories of different energy levels in a designated dynamic potential(P = 28) were studied and the results indicated that the dynamic potentials govern the various dynamic environments in which the vibrational states lie. Furthermore, action integrals of the energy levels contained in dynamic potential(P = 28) were quantitatively analyzed and elucidated. It was determined that the dynamic environments could be identified by the numerical values of the action integrals of trajectories of phase space, which is equivalent with dynamic potentials.     

Effects of filler loading and surface modification on electrical and thermal properties of epoxy/montmorillonite composite

Epoxy-based composites containing montmorillonite(MMT) modified by silylation reaction with γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane(γ-APTES) and 3-(glycidyloxypropyl) trimethoxysilane(GPTMS) are successfully prepared.The effects of filler loading and surface modification on the electrical and thermal properties of the epoxy/MMT composites are investigated. Compared with the pure epoxy resin, the epoxy/MMT composite, whether MMT is surface-treated or not, shows low dielectric permittivity, low dielectric loss, and enhanced dielectric strength. The MMT in the epoxy/MMT composite also influences the thermal properties of the composite by improving the thermal conductivity and stability.Surface functionalization of MMT not only conduces to the better dispersion of the nanoparticles, but also significantly affects the electric and thermal properties of the hybrid by influencing the interfaces between MMT and epoxy resin.Improved interfaces are good for enhancing the electric and thermal properties of nanocomposites. What is more, the MMT modified with GPTMS rather than γ-APTES is found to have greater influence on improving the interface between the MMT filler and polymer matrices, thus resulting in lower dielectric loss, lower electric conductivity, higher breakdown strength, lower thermal conductivity, and higher thermal stability.