Time-dependent quantum mechanical wave packet study of the He+H(2) (+)(v,j)-->HeH(+)+H reaction

A detailed three-dimensional time-dependent quantum dynamical study of the He+H(2) (+)(v=0-3,j=0)-->HeH(+)+H reaction is reported for different vibrational v states of H(2) (+) in its ground rotational (j=0) state over a range of translational E(trans) energies on an accurate ab initio potential energy surface published by Palmieri et al. Plots of reaction probability as a function of total energy E reveal a large number of oscillations indicating the presence of a number of reactive scattering resonances. When averaged over total angular momentum J, some of the oscillations survive, indicating that they may be amenable to experimental observation. A comparison of our present results with our earlier results on the McLaughlin-Thompson-Joseph-Sathyamurthy surface and the experimental results from different research groups reveal a good deal of agreement as well as some discrepancies between theory and experiment at the level of state-selected gas phase dynamics.     

3T‐FASDM: Linear discriminant analysis‐based three‐tier face anti‐spoofing detection model using support vector machine

In recent years, to solve the problem of face spoofing, momentous work has been done in this field, but still, there is a need for establishing counter measures to the biometric spoofing attacks. Although trained and evaluated on different databases, impressive results have been achieved in existing face anti‐spoofing techniques, but biometric authentication is a very significant problem as imposters are using lots of reconstructed samples or fake synthetic material or structure that can be used for various attack purposes. For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, this paper explains the security for face anti‐spoofing detection using linear discriminant analysis and validates the results by calculating HTER and accuracy on different databases (i.e., REPLAY ATTACK and CASIA). The proposed model, that is, three‐tier face anti‐spoofing detection model (3T‐FASDM), is used for the detection of the fake biometric user and works well for real‐time applications. The proposed methods tested on a set of state‐of‐the‐art anti‐spoofing features for the face mode gives a very low degree of complexity as 26 general image quality measures are applied to differentiate among legitimate and imposter samples. The outcomes obtained from publically available data show that this technique has improved performance and accuracy by analyzing the HTER and machine learning classifiers that are helpful to differentiate among real and fake traits.     

Visualizing Energy Transfer at Buried Interfaces in Layered Materials Using Picosecond X‐Rays

Understanding the fundamentals of nanoscale heat propagation is crucial for next‐generation electronics. For instance, weak van der Waals bonds of layered materials are known to limit their thermal boundary conductance (TBC), presenting a heat dissipation bottleneck. Here, a new nondestructive method is presented to probe heat transport in nanoscale crystalline materials using time‐resolved X‐ray measurements of photoinduced thermal strain. This technique directly monitors time‐dependent temperature changes in the crystal and the subsequent relaxation across buried interfaces by measuring changes in the c‐axis lattice spacing after optical excitation. Films of five different layered transition metal dichalcogenides MoX₂ [X = S, Se, and Te] and WX₂ [X = S and Se] as well as graphite and a W‐doped alloy of MoTe₂ are investigated. TBC values in the range 10–30 MW m^?2 K^?1 are found, on c‐plane sapphire substrates at room temperature. In conjunction with molecular dynamics simulations, it is shown that the high thermal resistances are a consequence of weak interfacial van der Waals bonding and low phonon irradiance. This work paves the way for an improved understanding of thermal bottlenecks in emerging 3D heterogeneously integrated technologies.     

Meso-structure formation for enhanced organic photovoltaic cells

[reaction: see text] Formation of a controlled fullerene mesophase within an organic host system has enabled us to create high-power conversion efficiency photovoltaics. This mesophase is formed using thermal gradients that provide a fluidic mobility of the fullerenes allowing for greater dispersion of nanocrystalline 1-(3-methoxycarbonyl)propyl-1-phenyl-(6,6)C61 (PCBM) within regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT). From this reorganization of the component materials in the matrix the overall efficiency of the system jumps dramatically from the roughly 2.4% to 5.2%.     

Alkyl Ethers as Traceless Hydride Donors in Brønsted Acid Catalyzed Intramolecular Hydrogen Atom Transfer

A new protocol for the deoxygenation of alcohols and the hydrogenation of alkenes under Brønsted acid catalysis has been developed. The method is based on the use of either a benzyl or isopropyl ether as a traceless hydrogen‐atom donor, and involves an intramolecular hydride transfer as a key step, which is achieved in a regio‐ and stereoselective manner.     

Efficient Ruddlesden–Popper Perovskite Light‐Emitting Diodes with Randomly Oriented Nanocrystals

Ruddlesden–Popper phase (RP‐phase) perovskites that consist of 2D perovskite slabs interleaved with bulky organic ammonium (OA) are favorable for light‐emitting diodes (LEDs). The critical limitation of LED applications is that the insulating OA arranged in a preferred orientation limits charge transport. Therefore, the ideal solution is to achieve a randomly connected structure that can improve charge transport without hampering the confinement of the electron–hole pair. Here, a structurally modulated RP‐phase metal halide perovskite (MHP), (PEA)₂(CH₃NH₃)_m?1Pb_mBr_3m+1 is introduced to make the randomly oriented RP‐phase unit and ensure good connection between them by applying modified nanocrystal pinning, which leads to an increase in the efficiency of perovskite LEDs (PeLEDs). The randomly connected RP‐phase MHP forces contact between inorganic layers and thereby yields efficient charge transport and radiative recombination. Combined with an optimal dimensionality, (PEA)₂(CH₃NH₃)₂Pb₃Br₁₀, the structurally modulated RP‐phase MHP exhibits increased photoluminescence quantum efficiency, from 0.35% to 30.3%, and their PeLEDs show a 2,018 times higher current efficiency (20.18 cd A^?1) than in the 2D PeLED (0.01 cd A^?1) and 673 times than in the 3D PeLED (0.03 cd A^?1) using the same film formation process. This approach provides insight on how to solve the limitation of RP‐phase MHP for efficient PeLEDs.     

Physical Layer Security for Wireless Powered Massive MIMO Decode and Forward Relay Systems with Hardware Impairments: Performance Analysis

In this paper, the issue of secrecy capacity of wireless powered massive MIMO dual hop relay system with a single antenna eavesdropper having non ideal hardware is addressed. The relay harvests energy in a proportionate manner and passes it to destination through beamforming with classical decode and forward relaying protocol. The relay has no channel state information (CSI) of passive eavesdropper but has CSI of the legitimate channel. The work presented in this paper focuses on the analysis of the difference in system performance with ideal and non ideal hardware, bounded by strict outage probability. The performance (in terms of secrecy outage capacity) is studied with hardware impairments (HWIs) defined for all network elements, i.e., source, relay, destination and passive eavesdropper. It is also observed that compared to ideal hardware, there is significant degradation in performance due to HWIs.

     

Thinning of 2D and 3D Fractal Antenna Arrays with Bounded and Unbounded Fractal Distribution Functions for Celestial Communications

Fractal antenna arrays are geometry‐based thinned arrays having multiband applications. The major challenge of these arrays is their large number of elements at higher expansion factors. This article presents the thinning of fractal antenna arrays while maintaining an appropriate balance between the side lobe level and beam width by using various quantized fractal distribution functions. A 2D square fractal antenna array and 3DSierpinski gasket antenna array are considered in this article to validate the proposed distribution functions. Nearly one third of the antenna elements are thinned in each successive iteration except in the case of a one‐count distribution function. The proposed technique can simplify practical implementation and exhibits better performance for various parameters such as the side lobe level, side lobe angle, and half power beam width than fully populated fractal antenna arrays.     

Nanocellulose characteristics from the inner and outer layer of banana pseudo-stem prepared by TEMPO-mediated oxidation

Many tonnes of agricultural wastes are generated annually, which contains a relatively high amount of cellulose; banana pseudo-stem is one waste type that is a promising material for nanocellulose production. This research characterised nanocellulose from inner and outer layers of banana pseudo-stem as a preliminary research strategy for designing biodegradable packaging material from banana pseudo-stem nanocellulose. Nanocellulose was successfully prepared through TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine 1-oxyl)-mediated oxidation. The extracted nanocellulose from both the inner and outer layers had observed widths of approximately 7–35 nm and long fibrillated fibre. They had high negative zeta potential (lower than ?33.6) that provided good colloidal stability. The purity of the nanocellulose was high as demonstrated by ¹³C solid-state NMR and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Nanocellulose from both layers was significantly more crystalline than the raw materials. Thermal stability of nanocellulose sourced from inner and outer layers was relatively similar, with degradation temperature of approximately 220 °C, which was slightly lower than the degradation temperature of its native form (232 °C for inner layer and 261 °C for outer layer).