Surface enhanced covalency and its effect on the surface states ofd-band metal oxides

The effect of electron-electron interactions on the surface states of ionicd-band oxides is reported. The local density of states of surface cations in the valence band region is significantly increased when surface states occur in the band gap. Coulomb repulsion associated with thissurface enhanced covalency tends to force surface states out of the band gap. These results suggest an explanation of recent experiments on SrTiO₃ and TiO₂.     

Algebraic properties and the finite rank problem for Toeplitz operators on the Segal-Bargmann space

We study three different problems in the area of Toeplitz operators on the Segal-Bargmann space in Cn. Extending results obtained previously by the first author and Y.L. Lee, and by the second author, we first determine the commutant of a given Toeplitz operator with a radial symbol belonging to the class Sym_>0(Cn) of symbols having certain growth at infinity. We then provide explicit examples of zero-products of non-trivial Toeplitz operators. These examples show the essential difference between Toeplitz operators on the Segal-Bargmann space and on the Bergman space over the unit ball. Finally, we discuss the “finite rank problem”. We show that there are no non-trivial rank one Toeplitz operators Tf for f∈Sym_>0(Cn). In all these problems, the growth at infinity of the symbols plays a crucial role.     

Influence of the annealing atmosphere on the properties of LiCoPO4–graphitic carbon foams composites

The investigation on the properties of LiCoPO₄–graphitic carbon foams (LCP-GCF) composites is reported in this work. The diffraction analysis (XRD) on powders confirmed the presence of LiCoPO₄ as major crystalline phase and Li₄P₂O₇ and Co₂P as secondary phases. The morphological investigation of the composites shows a layer of crystalline spongy-like material on the surface of the GCF for t?=?0 h and of acicular crystallites with different dimensions (5–50 μm) for t?≥?0.1 h. The voltammetric curves (cyclic voltammogramms) show mean values of reduction potential above 5.0 V independently of the annealing time. The LCP-GCF composites deliver a discharge-specific capacity of 76mAh g^?1 (t?=?0 h) and of 102mAh g^?1 (t?=?0.1 h) at a discharge rate of C/10 and room temperature. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy data reveal a decrease of the electrical resistance and the improvement of the Li-ion conductivity as a function of the annealing time.     

Ends of iterated function systems

Guided by classical concepts, we define the notion of ends of an iterated function system and prove that the number of ends is an upper bound for the number of nondegenerate components of its attractor. The remaining isolated points are then linked to idempotent maps. A commutative diagram illustrates the natural relationships between the infinite walks in a semigroup and components of an attractor in more detail. We show in particular that, if an iterated function system is one-ended, the associated attractor is connected, and ask whether every connected attractor (fractal) conversely admits a one-ended system.     

X‐ray excited optical luminescence from crystalline silicon

Synchrotron based X‐ray excited optical luminescence (XEOL) has been measured with many direct bandgap semiconductors. We present XEOL measurements on crystalline silicon (Si), obtained despite of its indirect bandgap and the consequently low luminescence efficiency. Spectra of monocrystalline and multicrystalline (mc) Si at room temperature are compared to theoretical spectra. A possible application in the synchrotron‐based research on mc‐Si is exemplified by combining XEOL, X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and microscope images of grain boundaries. This approach can be utilized to investigate the recombination activity of metal precipitates, to analyze areas of different lifetimes on mc‐Si samples and to correlate additional material parameters to XRF measurements. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Improved growth of solution‐deposited thin films on polycrystalline Cu(In,Ga)Se2

CdS and Zn(O,S) grown by chemical bath deposition (CBD) are well established buffer materials for Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) solar cells. As recently reported, a non‐contiguous coverage of CBD buffers on CIGS grains with {112} surfaces can be detected, which was explained in terms of low surface energies of the {112} facets, leading to deteriorated wetting of the chemical solution on the CIGS surface. In the present contribution, we report on the effect of air annealing of CIGS thin films prior to the CBD of CdS and Zn(O,S) layers. In contrast to the growth on the as‐grown CIGS layers, these buffer lay‐ ers grow densely on the annealed CIGS layer, even on grains with {112} surfaces. We explain the different growth behavior by increased surface energies of CIGS grains due to the annealing step, i.e., due to oxidation of the CIGS surface. Reference solar cells were processed and completed by i‐ZnO/ZnO:Al layers for CdS and by (Zn,Mg)O/ZnO:Al for Zn(O,S) buffers. For solar cells with both, CdS and Zn(O,S) buffers, air‐annealed CIGS films with improved buffer coverage resulted in higher power‐conversion efficiencies, as compared with the devices containing as‐grown CIGS layers. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Photoemission Spectroscopy and Electronic Structures of LiMn2O4

We study the electronic structures of LiMn2O4 by x-ray and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS, UPS） and resonant photoelectron spectroscopy （RPES）. XPS data suggest that the average oxidation state of Mn ions is 3.55, probably due to the small amount of lithium oxides on the surface. UPS and RPES data imply that Mn ions are in a high spin state, and RPES results show strong Mn3d-O2p hybridization in the LiMn2O4 valence band.     

Interface formation in CdTe solar cells: Nucleation of CdTe on CdS(0001) and (10$ \bar 1 $0)

The growth of CdTe on (0001) and (10 0) surfaces of CdS was studied using low energy electron diffraction and photoelectron spectroscopy. The results indicate oriented growth of the CdTe films with a faster nucleation of CdTe on CdS(0001), explaining the preferred (111) orientation of CdTe films on polycrystalline substrates. The faster nucleation on the (0001) surface is attributed to the formation of a stable CdS(0001):Te surface termination, which is identified from surface sensitive Te 4d spectra and a 2√3 × 2√3 surface reconstruction. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Giant improvement of time-delayed feedback control by spatio-temporal filtering

Control of spatio-temporal chaos by the time-delay autosynchronization method is improved by several orders of magnitude. Unstable time periodic patterns are efficiently stabilized if one employs filters and couplings which originate from the Floquet eigenvalue problem of the unstable orbit. We illustrate our scheme by an application to a globally coupled reaction-diffusion model which describes charge transport in semiconductor devices.