Determination of doping effects on Si and GaAs bulk samples properties by photothermal investigations

The knowledge of doping effects on optical and thermal properties of semiconductors is crucial for the development of opto-electronic compounds. The purpose of this work is to investigate these effects by mirage effect technique and spectroscopic ellipsometry SE.

The near gap optical spectra are obtained from photothermal signal for differently doped Si and GaAs bulk samples. However, the above bandgap absorption is determined from SE. These spectra show that absorption in the near IR increases with dopant density and also the bandgap shifts toward low energies. This behavior is due to free carrier absorption which could be obtained by subtracting phonon-assisted absorption from the measured spectrum. This carrier absorption is related to the dopant density through a semi-empirical model.

We have also used the photothermal signal phase to measure the influence of doping on thermal diffusivity.     

Viscoelastic behaviour of ferro- and antiferroelectric phases

We have investigated the viscoelastic behaviour exhibited by chiral smectic C* phases in homeotropic orientation. For an appropriate scattering geometry and using the light scattering technique, the orientational diffusivities associated with the Goldsone mode in ferro- and antiferroelectric phases of C₁₁thiobenzoate and C₈tolane compounds have been measured. (SmC_A*) is about 100 times weaker than (SmC*). This divergence may be largely attributed to the mode of the molecular arrangement in ferro- and antiferroelectric phases, in spite of the same helical structure observed in the two phases.     

The Schatten–von Neumann class associated with the Gabor–Riemann–Liouville operator

Periodica Mathematica Hungarica - In this paper, we define the localization operator associated with the Riemann–Liouville operator, and show that it is not only bounded, but it is also in...     

Regenerative,low-cost and switchable photoelectrochemical sensor for detection of Cu2+ using MnO2-GO heterojunction

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - In this work, we investigate the properties of manganese dioxide (MnO2) and graphene oxide (GO) to develop a new photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensor-based...     

A generalization of Fan��s matching theorem

We introduce a generalized coercivity type condition for setvalued maps defined on topological spaces endowed with a generalized convex structure and we extend Fan’s matching theorem.     

Modification and generalization of some methods to improve the accuracy of α-determination in the 1/E1+α epithermal neutron spectrum

Some methods described in the literature for the determination of α in the 1/E^1+α epithermal neutron spectrum are critically reviewed with respect to their accuracy. The multi resonance—detector method with Cd-covered irradiations, as used by SCHUMANN and ALBERT, is generalized by subtracting the epithermal 1/v-tail and by introducing the effective resonance energy, as defined by RYVES. The two-detector method of RYVES is modified by using Cd-ratio measurements, thus eliminating the introduction of systematic errors due to the inaccuracy of absolute nuclear data. The adapted methods are applied in channel 15 of the Thetis reactor (Gent). Research Associate of the “Nationaal Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek”     

A scenario-based stochastic model for supplier selection in global context with multiple buyers,currency fluctuation uncertainties,and price discounts

Suppliers network in the global context under price discounts and uncertain fluctuations of currency exchange rates have become critical in today’s world economy. We study the problem of suppliers’ selection in the presence of uncertain fluctuations of currency exchange rates and price discounts. We specifically consider a buyer with multiple sites sourcing a product from heterogeneous suppliers and address both the supplier selection and purchased quantity decision. Suppliers are located worldwide and pricing is offered in suppliers’ local currencies. Exchange rates from the local currencies of suppliers to the standard currency of the buyer are subject to uncertain fluctuations overtime. In addition, suppliers offer discounts as a function of the total quantity bought by the different customer’ sites over the time horizon irrespective of the quantity purchased by each site.     

Development of dry derivatization and headspace solid-phase microextraction technique for the GC-ECD determination of haloacetic acids in tap water

A simple, fast and efficient liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) technique using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME), in conjunction with gas chromatography-electron capture detection (GC-ECD) has been developed for the determination of haloacetic acids (HAAs) in tap water. The analytical procedure involves LLE, evaporation of extraction solvent to dryness, derivatization of HAAs into their methyl esters with acidic methanol, HS-SPME using 100-μm polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) fiber, and GC-ECD determination. The derivatization process was optimized in dry conditions to achieve maximum sensitivity using the following conditions: esterification for 10 min at 55°C in 50 μL methanol, 30 μL sulphuric acid and 0.1 g anhydrous sodium sulphate. The HS-SPME conditions were also optimized and good sensitivity was obtained at a sampling temperature of 25°C, an absorption time of 10 min and a desorption time of 2 min. The linear calibration curves were observed for the concentration ranging from 0.1 to 200 μg/L with the correlation coefficients (R ²) greater than 0.993 and the relative standard deviation (RSD) less than 12%. The method detection limits of all analytes ranging from 0.02 to 0.7 μg/L were obtained. The proposed method is compared directly to standard EPA method 552.2 in drinking water, and significant advantage in terms of selectivity was observed. Finally the optimized procedure was applied to the analysis of HAAs in Bizerte drinking water. The studied HAA were detected in all the water samples and the concentration of total HAA5 ranged from 17.8 to 70.3 μg/L.     

On Observer Design for a Class of Nonlinear Systems Including Unknown Time-Delay

The observer design for nonlinear systems with unknown, bounded, time-varying delays, on both input and state, is still an open problem for researchers. In this paper, a new observer design for a class of nonlinear system with unknown, bounded, time-varying delay was presented. For the proof of the observer stability, a Lyapunov–Krasovskii function was chosen. Sufficient assumptions are provided to prove the practical stability of the proposed observer. Furthermore, the exponential convergence of the observer was proved in the case of a constant time delay. Simulation results were shown to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed strategy.

     

Experimental analysis of the linear and nonlinear behaviour of composites with delaminations

An analysis of the linear and nonlinear vibration responses of composites with delaminations is presented. The effect of delamination size on the linear and nonlinear vibration response is studied. The composite material used in this paper is a glass fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) having delaminations at the plies interfaces. The experimental procedure consists in inducing the specimen on its resonance flexural modes with different excitation levels (amplitudes) for six bending modes and for each delamination length. The presence of the nonlinearity introduced by the delamination was clearly identified by the variation of natural frequencies for increasing excitation levels. Then, nonlinear elastic parameters for progressive delamination length were determined and discussed for the first six bending modes. The linear and the nonlinear elastic parameters were compared in their sensitive modes.