Frequency-dependent C(V) spectroscopy of the hole system in InAs quantum dots

The hole system in InAs quantum dots was investigated by frequency-dependent capacitance–voltage spectroscopy. Up to eight distinct charging peaks could be observed and the energy difference between the individual peaks could be estimated. All charging peaks decrease with increasing measurement frequency; however, the lower the energy of the hole level the stronger the decrease. A comparison with the results of the electron system in similar quantum dots yields that for all hole levels the effective mass in the barrier is much larger than in the electron system.     

Generalizing the Disappearing Act: A Reply to István Aranyosi

In “The Reappearing Act” István Aranyosi postulates a new way of seeing to solve a puzzle posed in “The Disappearing Act;” an object that is exactly shaded can be seen simply by virtue of its contrast with its environment – just like a shadow. This object need not reflect, refract, absorb or block light. To undermine the motive for this heretical innovation, I generalize the puzzle to situations involving inexact shading. Aranyosi cannot extend his solution to these variations because he needs to conserve principles of camouflage. On the bright side, the solution to the puzzle that I propose in my book Seeing Dark Things does extend to these variations.     

Colorability of Planar Graphs with Isolated Nontriangular Faces

By a hole graph we mean a 2-connected planar graph where no two nontriangular faces have a vertex in common. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a hole graph to be 3-colorable.Acknowledgments. This paper was prepared in framework of the exchange program between the Austrian and Slovak Academies of Sciences. The third author was active at Department of Mathematics, Vanderbilt University and Fakulta prírodných vied, ilinská univerzita v iline.Mathematics Subject Classification (1991): 05C15     

An investigation into melt flow dynamics during repetitive pulsed laser drilling of transparent media

This paper presents an investigation into the dynamics of repetitive pulsed laser drilling of a visually transparent media using a CO₂ laser source. This enabled the use of a high-speed imaging system for observing, in real time, the behaviour of the drilling process in the laser drilled cavity of 1.5 mm diameter holes of up to 18.5 mm in depth. The work revealed that the instantaneous drilling velocity within each laser pulse can vary considerably from the average drilling velocity as a result of the non-uniform temporal pulse shape and the oscillation of the melt ejection rate. During beam breakthrough, both upward and downward melt ejections were observed to occur inside the drilled hole for a short period of time, after which the material was ejected through the exit end of the holes. It has been shown in this work that the downward melt flow velocity increases with hole depth for a positively tapered hole (from 0.09 to 1.43 m/s) and decreases with hole depth for a negatively tapered hole geometry (from 0.4 to 0.1 m/s), as a result of the change in the assist gas velocity inside the drilled hole with respect to the hole taper geometry. The mechanisms of forming the positively and negatively tapered holes in the transparent media have been correlated with the hole geometry and melt flow velocity. The work has demonstrated a new method of studying the melt dynamics in laser drilling.     

Hole diameter effect on flow characteristics of wake behind porous fences having the same porosity

The hole diameter effect on the flow characteristics of wake behind porous fences has been investigated experimentally in a circulating water channel having a test section of 300^w×200^h×1200^l (mm). Three porous fences having different hole diameters of d=1.4,2.1,2.8 mm were tested in this study, but they have the same =38.5% geometric porosity. One thousand instantaneous velocity fields for each fence were measured consecutively by the hybrid PTV system employing a high-speed CCD camera. Free stream velocity was fixed at 10 cm/sec and the corresponding Reynolds number based on the fence height was Re=2,985. Consequently, the fence with the smallest hole diameter d=1.4 mm (d_1.4) decreases the streamwise velocity component and increases the vertical velocity component. Among the three hole diameters tested in this study, the d_1.4 fence has the largest turbulence intensity in the shear layer developed from the fence top. Regardless of the hole diameter, however, all three fences having the same porosity reduce the reduction of turbulent intensity in the lower region below the fence height (y/H<1).     

Control of Thickness of PEDOT Electrodeposits on Glass/ITO Electrodes from Organic Solutions and its Use as Anode in Organic Solar Cells

Poly-ethylendioxythiophene (PEDOT) was electropolymerized from the monomer EDOT in acetonitrile (ACN) containing Bu₄N⁺ClO₄^-, BF₄^- or PF₆^- ions as supporting electrolyte. The electrode used was transparent electrodes (Glass/ITO) in order to generate the anode of an organic solar cell (OSC). Potentiodynamic and potentiostatic electropolymerization techniques were used to make the conducting polymer deposits (E-PEDOT), which were obtained as a thin film onto the ITO surface. It was possible to control the thickness of the electrodeposited films in the range of 15 to 200 nm measured by AFM. With the thinner films (until 100 nm), it was observed that its absorbance at 700 nm was linearly dependent with their thickness and it was possible to obtain an equation that was used to measure the films thickness of future experiments. The E-PEDOT films were successfully used for constructing OSC's and the efficiency values found were equivalent or slightly superior to those found with the classical PEDOT:PSS anode.     

Impact of work function of back contact of perovskite solar cells without hole transport material analyzed by device simulation

The impact of the work function of a metal back contact on lead methylammonium tri-iodide based perovskite solar cells without hole transport material (HTM) was analyzed using device simulation. The elimination of the HTM is attractive in terms of the simplification of device structure and fabrication process. In the solar cell, a back junction is formed by the perovskite absorber and metal back contact. The device simulation revealed that the elimination of the HTM did not change the built-in voltage (V_bi) of the device when the work function of the metal back contact (?_M) was similar to the valence band maximum of the absorber (E_{v_absorber}). In the HTM-free structure, V_bi showed a high value if ?_M was equal to or deeper than E_{v_absorber}. In contrast, when ?_M was shallower than E_{v_absorber}, V_bi monotonically decreased, resulting in the decrease in open-circuit voltage of the device. The results showed the importance of the ?_M matching to maintain V_bi, which is useful guideline for the design of the HTM-free perovskite solar cells.     

Measurement of residual stresses in polymeric parts by indentation method

An indentation method was studied as a means of measuring the residual stress in an injection molded polymeric specimen because destructive methods restrict the reuse of measured parts and it is not possible to apply them to small and complicated parts. The load-displacement curve was measured for indentation at stressed and non-stressed positions. Residual stress distribution of the injection molded part was calculated by comparing the load-displacement curve results with respect to the indentation depth. The residual stresses measured by the indentation method were reliable because they were in good agreement with numerical results and those measured by the hole drilling method. The indentation method can be utilized to measure the residual stresses in polymeric parts for practical applications, particularly for small or complicated parts.     

Sulfonation of a flexible and unexpected electrically conductive polysulfone and its performance in perovskites solar cells

The effect of sulfonation on polysulfone regarding its electrical properties is studied and discussed. In addition to the effect of percentage of sulfonation, the thickness of thin films and the ultraviolet (UV) treatment also were evaluated and reported. The results indicate that percentage of sulfonation is the most important effect, even over thickness. As the sulfonation percentage was increased, better electrical performance (fill factor and power conversion efficiency) was obtained because the sulfonate groups impart a kind of vacancy into the polymer structure, showing comparable energy level to that of conventional poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS).In addition, the UV treatment not only cleans the film's surface but also polarizes the polymeric's surface improving the polysulfone performance, which was 24% better, at least, respect to that obtained without UV treatment. The obtained results open the possibility to optimize sulfonated polysulfones that could be used in inverted hybrid perovskite solar cells.