Excellent passivation of thin silicon wafers by HF‐free hydrogen plasma etching using an industrial ICPECVD tool

In this work, hydrogen plasma etching of surface oxides was successfully accomplished on thin (～100 µm) planar n‐type Czochralski silicon wafers prior to intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon [a‐Si:H(i)] deposition for heterojunction solar cells, using an industrial inductively coupled plasma‐enhanced chemical vapour deposition (ICPECVD) platform. The plasma etching process is intended as a dry alternative to the conventional wet‐chemical hydrofluoric acid (HF) dip for solar cell processing. After symmetrical deposition of an a‐Si:H(i) passivation layer, high effective carrier lifetimes of up to 3.7 ms are obtained, which are equivalent to effective surface recombination velocities of 1.3 cm s^–1 and an implied open‐circuit voltage (V_oc) of 741 mV. The passivation quality is excellent and comparable to other high quality a‐Si:H(i) passivation. High‐resolution transmission electron microscopy shows evidence of plasma‐silicon interactions and a sub‐nanometre interfacial layer. Using electron energy‐loss spectroscopy, this layer is further investigated and confirmed to be hydrogenated suboxide layers. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Direct experimental probe of the on-site Coulomb repulsion in the doubly charged fullerene anion C70 2-

Vibrationally resolved photoelectron spectra were obtained for cold C(70)- and C(70)2-. Accurate values for the first and second electron affinities (EA's) of C(70) were measured as 2.765 +/- 0.010 and 0.002 (+0.01/-0.03)eV, respectively, establishing that C(70)-2 is an electronically stable dianion in the gas phase. The difference between the first and second EA (2.75 eV) provides a direct experimental measure for the on-site Coulomb and exchange interactions between the two excess electrons in C(70)-2. Strong electron correlation effects were also observed between the two excess electrons in C(70)-2.     

基于多角度多光谱Stokes参数Q和U测量反演气溶胶偏振相函数

偏振相函数是气溶胶重要的光学参数之一,它对气溶胶复折射指数、粒子尺度和形状都十分敏感。多角度多光谱偏振遥感可以有效获取气溶胶偏振相函数信息。新一代CIMEL太阳-天空偏振辐射计CE318-DP作为高精度地基气溶胶偏振遥感仪器已被引入全球气溶胶自动观测网AERONET(AErosol RObotic NETwork),并作为扩展多波长偏振测量的太阳-天空辐射计观测网SONET(Sun/sky-radiometer Observation NETwork)的主要仪器,已在不同类型气溶胶观测站点积累了多年的偏振数据。但目前偏振反演仅能利用线偏振度或偏振辐亮度。与线偏振度和偏振辐亮度相比,Stokes参数Q和U不仅包含天空光线偏振强度信息还包含偏振方向信息。利用CE318-DP多光谱多角度测量的天空光Stokes参数Q和U反演气溶胶偏振相函数的方法。针对CE318-DP标准主平面偏振观测模式PPP(Polarized Principal Plane)下Stokes参数U对气溶胶特性变化不敏感、信息难以利用的不足,测试了新的平纬圈偏振扫描模式ALMP(ALMucantar Polarization)获取Stokes参数Q和U,并成功应用于偏振相函数的反演。系统分析了340～1 640 nm多光谱通道上典型生物质燃烧型气溶胶和水溶性气溶胶的-P₁₂/P₁₁反演结果并测试了反演方法在晴朗和灰霾不同大气条件下的适用性。无论在主平面还是平纬圈观测几何下,反演结果在可见光和近红外通道上均与真实值具有较好的一致性。进一步讨论了模型中基于气溶胶参数初始值和大气气溶胶参数真实值计算的“大气单次散射/大气散射”的比值近似相等的假设条件在短波通道不能很好地满足是造成紫外波段反演结果偏差较大的原因之一。后续有待进一步提高反演模型在短波通道的适用性,为利用不同光谱通道上-P₁₂/P₁₁的变化特征改进气溶胶微物理参数反演奠定了基础。     

Integrated optical cross strip polarizer concept

Passing across an abrupt junction from a thick vertically bimodal waveguide to a thinner single mode segment, guided light can undergo complete destructive interference, provided that the geometry and the phases of the modes in the initial segment are properly adjusted. We propose to employ this effect to realize a simple polarizer configuration, using a strip that is etched from a planar waveguide. A beam of light is made to pass the strip perpendicularly. The light enters from the single mode waveguide outside the strip into the strip segment, which is configured to support two modes. At the end of the strip, apart from reflections, the amount of power that is guided in the following lower segment depends on the local phases of the two modes. These phases are different for TE and TM light, hence we may expect a polarization dependent power transfer, resulting in polarizer performance for a properly selected geometry. The paper describes in detail the modeling of the device in terms of rigorous mode expansion. Design guidelines and tolerance requirements for geometric and material parameters are discussed. For typical Si₃N₄/SiO₂ materials, our calculations predict a peak performance of 34 dB polarization discrimination and 0.3 dB insertion loss for a device with a total length of about 12 m that selects TE polarization at a wavelength of 1.3 m.     

High-resolution infrared spectra of NCCN and NCCN

High-resolution spectra of ¹⁵N¹²C¹²C¹⁵N and ¹⁴N¹³C¹³C¹⁴N have been measured and analyzed from 200 to 3600 cm⁻¹. All the vibrational levels below 900 cm⁻¹ have been observed and characterized. The Fermi resonance between ν₂ and 2ν₄ has been studied and the resonance constant has been determined for several cases. Several Σ⁻ states have been directly observed for the first time for each isotopomer, the (0001111)0f, (0011111)0f, and (0002222)0f states. The pattern of the energy levels for clusters of l-type resonance coupled levels, such as 0001131,3, has been determined for cyanogen for the first time. Among other things this involved the determination of the vibrational l-type resonance constant, r₄₅. Many of the power series constants, α_i and x_ij, and higher order constants have been determined.     

Bending insensitivity of fiber Bragg gratings in suspended-core optical fibers

This Letter presents simulation and experimental results that explore bending insensitivity of fiber Bragg gratings in suspended-core optical fibers. The implementation of thin silica bridge in the fibers enhances index contrast of the fiber core and reduces bending-induced strain transfer to the fiber core. This fiber design lead to a reduction of over 7 times in strain-induced fiber Bragg grating resonant peak shifts in the suspended-core fiber compared with that in standard telecommunication fiber, and an 0.14 dB bending loss at a bending radius of 6.35 mm.     

Local optical properties, electron densities, and london dispersion energies of atomically structured grain boundaries

Quantitative analysis of spatially resolved valence electron energy-loss spectra shows strong physical property contrasts for Sigma5 and near Sigma13 grain boundaries in Fe-doped SrTiO3, resulting in London dispersion interaction energies of 14 to 50 mJ/m(2) between the adjacent grains. The determination of local physical properties of grain boundary cores and the appreciable contribution of long-range London dispersion to interface energies provides new information on formation and control of interfaces in materials.     

High-pressure phase transition of Bi2Fe4O9

The high-pressure behaviour of Bi2Fe4O9 was analysed by in situ powder and single-crystal x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Pressures up to 34.3(8) GPa were generated using the diamond anvil cell technique. A reversible phase transition is observed at approximately 6.89(6) GPa and the high-pressure structure is stable up to 26.3(1) GPa. At higher pressures the onset of amorphization is observed. The crystal structures were refined from single-crystal data at ambient pressure and pressures of 4.49(2), 6.46(2), 7.26(2) and 9.4(1) GPa. The high-pressure structure is isotypic to the high-pressure structure of Bi2Ga4O9. The lower phase transition pressure of Bi2Fe4O9 with respect to that of Bi2Ga4O9 (16 GPa) confirms the previously proposed strong influence of cation substitution on the high-pressure stability and the misfit of Ga3+ and Fe3+ in tetrahedral coordination at high pressure. A fit of a second-order Birch–Murnaghan equation of state to the p–V data results in K0 = 74(3) GPa for the low-pressure phase and K0 = 79(2) GPa for the high-pressure phase. The mode Grüneisen parameters were obtained from Raman-spectroscopic measurements.