We present the synthesis of highly crystalline metallic rhenium trioxide (ReO3) nanowires via a simple physical vapor transport at 300 °C for the first time. Based on HRTEM, the ReO3 nanowires exhibit a core of perfect cubic perovskite‐type single crystal structure with a shell of thin amorphous and disordered structures of less than 2 nm in the near surface layers. Possibly this is due to proton intercalation induced by the surface reaction of single crystal ReO3 with water.
We report on wet etching of photomodified regions in crystalline sapphire using KOH solution. Tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses (150 fs at 800 nm wavelength) were used to create void structures enclosed in an amorphised sapphire shell inside the bulk of a crystalline host. The diameter of the amorphous regions can be controlled by pulse energy and was typically 0.5–1.5 µm. The etching rate depends on the distance between adjacent irradiation spots, pulse energy, concentration of etchant and ultrasonic agitation.
The efficiency of a photovoltaic cell is directly proportional to its open circuit voltage. This in turn is eventually set by the donor‐acceptor energy gap, i.e. the energy of the intermolecular charge‐transfer state in organic solar cells. In this letter we study diindenoperylene (DIP) as a new molecular acceptor. We show that planar heterojunctions of thiophene derivatives and DIP yield extraordinarily high open circuit voltages (Voc) of approximately 1.2 V for poly(3‐hexylthiophene) and almost 1.4 V for heat treated α‐sexithiophene. Those values are close to the maximum Voc attainable for these material systems.
We report the fabrication procedure and the characterization of an Al0.3Ga0.7As solar cell containing high‐density GaAs strain‐free quantum dots grown by droplet epitaxy. The production of photocurrent when two sub‐bandgap energy photons are absorbed simultaneously is demonstrated. The high quality of the quantum dot/barrier pair, allowed by the high quality of nanostructured strain‐free materials, opens new opportunities for quantum dot based solar cells.
We demonstrate by a Monte Carlo simulation that the reflection of quasi‐ballistically accelerated electrons at the interfaces of an In0.52Al0.48As/In0.53Ga0.47As/In0.52Al0.48As double‐heterojunction structure is able to generate current oscillations at frequencies in the THz range. The possibility of taking advantage of this mechanism to generate THz signals has been demonstrated in structures with well dimension close to the electron ballistic transport length in In0.53Ga0.47As.
Epitaxial TiC/SiC multilayers were grown by magnetron sputtering at a substrate temperature of 550 °C, where SiC is normally amorphous. The epitaxial TiC template induced growth of cubic SiC up to a thickness of ～2 nm. Thicker SiC layers result in a direct transition to growth of the metastable amorphous SiC followed by renucleation of nanocrystalline TiC layers.
Light‐induced degradation of charge carrier lifetime was observed in indium‐doped silicon. After defect formation, an annealing step at 200 °C for 10 min deactivates the defect and the initial charge carrier lifetime is fully recovered. The observed time range of the defect kinetics is similar to the well known defect kinetics of the light‐induced degradation in boron‐doped samples. Differences between defect formation in boron‐ and indium‐doped silicon are detected and discussed. A new model based on an acceptor self‐interstitial ASi–Sii defect is proposed and established with experimental findings and existing ab‐initio simulations.
ZnO thin films with a rippled surface structure were used as electron‐collecting layers of inverted organic photovoltaics (OPVs). Using additional ultrathin layers of ZnO and TiO2 fabricated using atomic layer deposition (ALD), not only the power‐conversion efficiency of the OPVs could be increased (up to 3.5%), but also the photovoltaic performance became nearly constant within 100 days without any additional encapsulations of the solar cells under ambient conditions.
By means of first‐principles calculations we predict the stability of silicene as buckled honeycomb lattice on passivated substrates of group‐IV(111)1 × 1 surfaces. The weak van‐der‐Waals interaction between silicene and substrates does not destroy its linear bands forming Dirac cones at the Brillouin zone corners. Only very small fundamental gaps are opened around the Fermi level.
In this Letter, a novel modified anodization was utilized to synthesize high‐aspect‐ratio, top‐open and ultraflat‐surface TiO2 nanotubes. The interruption of voltage during anodization leads to the formation of a double‐layered structure. Due to the weak mechanical connection between the upper and the underlying layer, the two parts can be easily detached. Compared with the conventional ultrasonication method to remove the clusters of nanotubes where rough surfaces resulted, this efficient and reliable strategy may facilitate further applications of TiO2 nanotubes in diverse conditions.
We report on the photoconductance in two‐dimensional arrays of gold nanorods. The arrays are formed by a combination of droplet deposition and stamping methods. We find that the plasmon induced photoconductance is sensitive to the linear polarization of the exciting photons consistent with the excitation of the longitudinal surface plasmon resonance of the nanorods.
An original approach is proposed to study the magnetic phase separation phenomenon. It is based on the registration of the noise‐like FMR Fine Structure (FMR FS) caused by the magnetic interparticle dipole–dipole interaction between spatially separated ferromagnetic regions. Data obtained for a La0.7Pb0.3MnO3 single crystal point to the existence of spatially separated ferromagnetic regions. It is shown that FMR FS of the La0.7Pb0.3MnO3 single crystal is temperature reversible and disappears at the maximum of magnetoresistance.
Write‐once–read‐many‐times memory (WORM) devices were fabricated using Ti/Au and Au as top contacts on ZnO thin films on Si. Electrical characterization shows that both types of WORM devices have large resistance OFF/ON ratio (R ratio), small resistance distribution range, long retention and good endurance. WORM devices with Au top contact have better performance of higher R ratio because of a larger work function of Au compared to Ti.
Organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs) based on interconnected nanowire networks of P3HT have been successfully fabricated by using a mixed‐solvent method. The nanowire network density can be tuned by controlling the anisole/chlorobenzene ratio of mixed solvents. The obtained field‐effect mobility, threshold voltage and the ratio of on‐state current and off‐state current (Ion/Ioff) was 0.0435 cm2/V s, –10 V and 1.75 × 104, respectively. The three‐dimensional and interconnected nanowire structure of the networks can enhance the charge transport in P3HT.
Persistent layer‐by‐layer growth is demonstrated for pulsed‐laser homoepitaxy of ZnO thin films on $(000\bar 1)$ ZnO single crystals. Employing interval pulsed‐laser deposition (PLD), RHEED oscillations are stabilized over a film thickness of about 90 nm. For interval pulsed laser deposited films a considerably decreased root‐mean‐square surface roughness of 0.26 nm was found, in comparison to 0.74 nm for conventional PLD. A small asymmetry in the X‐ray diffraction (XRD) 2θ –ω scan reveals compressive strain in the thin film being slightly larger for interval PLD as compared to conventional PLD. The FWHM of the photoluminescence (PL) I6 line is higher with about 500 µeV as compared to 350 µeV for the conventional PLD. Consequently, both XRD as well as PL indicate a slightly higher amount of charged defects for the interval PLD.
Electric control of magnetism is demonstrated in a multiferroic metal–organic framework with a perovskite structure. A moderate electric field of a few kV/cm applied during the cooling process is able to cause a large (more than 50%) change of the magnetization at low temperature. This significant magnetoelectric effect is ascribed to the electric field manipulation of orientation of hydrogen bonds that modify the superexchange interaction between metal ions.
Quasi‐aligned molybdenum oxide nanowires are synthesized on silicon substrate by a thermal evaporation method, at a low temperature of 550 °C without using any catalyst. The diameter of these nanowires is about 100 nm, with steps in the top to form a sharp tip. The field emission measurement shows that these nanowires have strong electron field emission abilities, with high field enhancement factor and a relatively low turn‐on field of 2.16 V µm–1, suggesting that these molybdenum oxide nanowire arrays might be promising candidates as field emitters.
