Gettering by heat thermal processing: application in crystalline silicon solar cells

The aim of this work is to getter unwanted impurities from solar grade crystalline silicon (Si) wafers and then to enhance their electronic properties. This was done by forming a sacrificial porous silicon (PS) layer on both sides of the Si wafers and by performing infrared (IR) thermal annealing treatments (at around 950 °C) in a SiCl₄/N₂ controlled atmosphere. The process allows concentrating unwanted impurities in the PS layer and near the PS/silicon interface. These treatments reduce the resistivity by about two orders of magnitude at a depth of about 40 μm and improve the minority carrier diffusion length from 75 to 210 μm. This gettering method was also tested on silicon wafers where grooved fingers and back contacts were achieved using a chemical vapor etching (CVE) method. Front buried metallic contacts and small holes for local back surface field were then achieved after the gettering stage in order to realize silicon solar cells. It was shown that the photovoltaic parameters of gettered silicon solar cells were improved as regard to ungettered ones.     

Spectral discretization of Darcy’s equations with pressure dependent porosity

We consider the flow of a viscous incompressible fluid in a rigid homogeneous porous medium provided with boundary conditions on the pressure around a circular well. When the boundary pressure presents high variations, the permeability of the medium depends on the pressure, so that the model is nonlinear. We propose a spectral discretization of the resulting system of equations which takes into account the axisymmetry of the domain and of the flow. We prove optimal error estimates and present some numerical experiments which confirm the interest of the discretization.     

Monomiale Ideale und mengentheoretische vollständige Durchschnitte

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Vibrational analysis of amino acids and short peptides in hydrated media. I. L-glycine and L-leucine

Raman scattering and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) attenuated transmission reflectance (ATR) spectra of two alpha-amino acids (alpha-AAs), i.e., glycine and leucine, were measured in H2O and D2O (at neutral pH and pD). This series of observed vibrational data gave us the opportunity to analyze vibrational features of both AAs in hydrated media by density functional theory (DFT) calculations at the B3LYP/6-31++G* level. Harmonic vibrational modes calculated after geometry optimization on the clusters containing each AA and 12 surrounding water molecules, which represent primary models for hydration scheme of amino acids, allowed us to assign the main observed peaks.     

Spectral discretization of the vorticity, velocity and pressure formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations

We consider the Navier–Stokes equations in a two- or three-dimensional domain provided with non standard boundary conditions which involve the normal component of the velocity and the tangential components of the vorticity. We write a variational formulation of this problem with three independent unknowns, the vorticity, the velocity and the pressure, and prove the existence of a solution for this problem. Next we propose a discretization by spectral methods which relies on this formulation. In the two-dimensional case, we prove quasi-optimal error estimates for the three unknowns. We conclude with some numerical experiments.

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Résumé Nous considérons les équations de Navier–Stokes dans un domaine biou tri-dimensionnel, munies de conditions aux limites non usuelles portant sur la composante normale de la vitesse et la ou les composantes tangentielles du tourbillon. Nous écrivons une formulation variationnelle de ce problème qui comporte trois inconnues indépendantes: le tourbillon, la vitesse et la pression. Nous prouvons que ce problème admet au moins une solution. Nous proposons une discrétisation par méthodes spectrales construite à partir de cette formulation. Dans le cas bidimensionnel, nous établissons des majorations quasi-optimales de l'erreur pour les trois inconnues. Nous concluons par quelques expériences numériques.

     

Local order in aqueous NaCl solutions and pure water: X-ray scattering and molecular dynamics simulations study

The microstructures of pure water and aqueous NaCl solutions over a wide range of salt concentrations (0-4 m) under ambient conditions are characterized by X-ray scattering and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. MD simulations are performed with the rigid SPC water model as a solvent, while the ions are treated as charged Lennard-Jones particles. Simulated data show that the first peaks in the O...O and O...H pair correlation functions clearly decrease in height with increasing salt concentration. Simultaneously, the location of the second O...O peak, the signature of the so-called tetrahedral structure of water, gradually disappears. Consequently, the degree of hydrogen bonding in liquid water decreases when compared to pure fluid. MD results also show that the hydration number around the cation decreases as the salt concentration increases, which is most likely because some water molecules in the first hydration shell are occasionally substituted by chlorine. In addition, the fraction of contact ion pairs increases and that of solvent-separated ion pairs decreases. Experimental data are analyzed to deduce the structure factors and the pair correlation functions of each system. X-ray results clearly show a perturbation of the association structure of the solvent and highlight the appearance of new interactions between ions and water. A model of intermolecular arrangement via MD results is then proposed to describe the local order in each system, as deduced from X-ray scattering data.     

Ring extensions with some finiteness conditions on the set of intermediate rings

A ring extension R ⊆ S is said to be FO if it has only finitely many intermediate rings. R ⊆ S is said to be FC if each chain of distinct intermediate rings in this extension is finite. We establish several necessary and sufficient conditions for the ring extension R ⊆ S to be FO or FC together with several other finiteness conditions on the set of intermediate rings. As a corollary we show that each integrally closed ring extension with finite length chains of intermediate rings is necessarily a normal pair with only finitely many intermediate rings. We also obtain as a corollary several new and old characterizations of Prüfer and integral domains satisfying the corresponding finiteness conditions.     

Selective Detection of Dopamine in Presence of Ascorbic Acid by Use of Glassy‐Carbon Electrode Modified with Amino‐β‐Cyclodextrin and Carbon Nanotubes

A glassy carbon electrode modified with per‐6‐amino‐β‐cyclodextrin (β‐CDNH₂) and functionalized single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT‐COOH) was elaborated. This structure was investigated for the detection of dopamine acid (DA) in presence of ascorbic acid (AA). The sensor behavior was studied by cyclic voltammetry, square wave voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The analysis results show that the electrode modification with CD derivative improves the sensitivity and selectivity of the DA recognition; the electrochemical response was further improved by introduction of SWCNT‐COOH. The sensor shows good and reversible linear response toward DA within the concentration range of 7×10^?7–10^?4 M with a detection limit of 5×10^?7 M.     

Minimale Erzeugendensysteme und minimale Primteiler von monomialen Radikalidealen

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