Advances in wide bandgap SiC for optoelectronics

Silicon carbide (SiC) has played a key role in power electronics thanks to its unique physical properties like wide bandgap, high breakdown field, etc. During the past decade, SiC is also becoming more and more active in optoelectronics thanks to the progress in materials growth and nanofabrication. This paper will review the advances in fluorescent SiC for white light-emitting diodes, covering the poly-crystalline doped SiC source material growth, single crystalline epitaxy growth of fluorescent SiC, and nanofabrication of SiC to enhance the extraction efficiency for fluorescent SiC based white LEDs.     

Equatorial contra axial polar substituents. The relation of a chemical reaction to stereochemical substituent constants

The established rates of glycoside hydrolysis reactions were analyzed using free energy relationship plots based on substituent constants that depend on whether the substituent is axial or equatorial. In all cases good correlations were found when assuming either that the transition state had a charged ring-oxygen atom or that it had a charged anomeric carbon atom. The spontaneous hydrolysis of 2,4-dinitrophenyl beta-glycopyranosides and the acidic hydrolysis of methyl beta-D-glycopyranosides were found to give a good correlation, when 100% charge at the ring-oxygen in the transition state of these reactions is assumed. The acidic hydrolysis of methyl alpha-glycopyranosides was found to give good correlations regardless of whether 100% charge at the ring-oxygen or 100% charge at the anomeric carbon was assumed. The findings clearly demonstrate how crucial the stereochemistry of even remote polar substituents is for their electronic effect on chemical reaction.     

Compound Poisson Approximation of the Number of Exceedances in Gaussian Sequences

Consider a finite sequence of Gaussian random variables. Count the number of exceedances of some level a, i.e. the number of values exceeding the level. Let this level and the length of the sequence increase simultaneously so that the expected number of exceedances remains fixed. It is well-known that if the long-range dependence is not too strong, the number of exceeding points converges in distribution to a Poisson distribution. However, for sequences with some individual large correlations, the Poisson convergence is slow due to clumping. Using Steins method we show that, at least for m-dependent sequences, the rate of convergence is improved by using compound Poisson as approximating distribution. An explicit bound for the convergence rate is derived for the compound Poisson approximation, and also for a subclass of the compound Poisson distribution, where only clumps of size two are considered. Results from numerical calculations and simulations are also presented.     

A microfluidic system enabling Raman measurements of the oxygenation cycle in single optically trapped red blood cells

Using a lab-on-a-chip approach we demonstrate the possibility of selecting a single cell with certain properties and following its dynamics after an environmental stimulation in real time using Raman spectroscopy. This is accomplished by combining a micro Raman set-up with optical tweezers and a microfluidic system. The latter gives full control over the media surrounding the cell, and it consists of a pattern of channels and reservoirs defined by electron beam lithography that is moulded into rubber silicon (PDMS). Different buffers can be transported through the channels using electro-osmotic flow, while the resonance Raman response of an optically trapped red blood cell (RBC) is simultaneously registered. This makes it possible to monitor the oxygenation cycle of the cell in real time and to investigate effects like photo-induced chemistry caused by the illumination. The experimental set-up has high potential for in vivo monitoring of cellular drug response using a variety of spectroscopic probes.     

Quantitative analysis of WC grain shape in sintered WC-Co cemented carbides

The morphology of WC grains is examined by ab initio calculations, and by transmission electron microscopy in a WC-Co cemented carbide. Two compositions are studied to determine the effect of carbon chemical potential on the shape development. The WC grains are found to be truncated triangles, and the grain morphology is adequately reproduced by the ab initio calculations. The energy difference between the two types of grain facets is shown to be due to the formation of stronger bonds with more covalent character between low coordinated W and Co atoms at one type of facet.     

Object characterization with refractometric digital Fourier holography

We demonstrate a digital holographic method in which two different substances in a blend are discerned. The method requires only one set of exposures and one reconstruction in the plane of focus. The phase is unwrapped by Flynn's discontinuity algorithm to produce an image of the variation of the optical distance of the illuminating wave. Objects with indices of refraction that are higher and lower than the mounting liquid are detected as regions in which the phase is increased and decreased, respectively. We also present a method for calculating the volume distribution of substrates in a sample. The method is experimentally demonstrated with crystals of NaCl and KCl.     

Low-temperature thermal conductivity of superconductors with gap nodes

We report a detailed analytic and numerical study of electronic thermal conductivity in d-wave superconductors. We compare theory of the crossover at low temperatures from T dependence to T(3) dependence for increasing temperature with recent experiments on YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7) in zero magnetic field for T approximately [0.04 K,0.4 K] by Hill et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 027001 (2004)]. Transport theory, including impurity scattering and inelastic scattering within strong-coupling superconductivity, can consistently fit the temperature dependence of the data in the lower half of the temperature regime. We discuss the conditions under which we expect power-law dependences over wide temperature intervals.     

Narrowband bulk Bragg grating optical parametric oscillator

A narrowband, pulsed optical parametric oscillator (OPO) whose output coupler is a bulk glass Bragg grating is demonstrated. The OPO is based on periodically poled KTiOPO4 and is pumped by a pulsed, frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm, generating a signal at 975 nm with a total efficiency of 35%. This novel and compact device shows a spectral bandwidth of 0.16 nm (50 GHz), a decrease by a factor of 20 compared with that when a conventional mirror is used. By using a folded cavity, we demonstrate tunable radiation with a tuning range of 60 nm and maintained spectral bandwidth.