Carbon precipitation and diffusion in SiGeC alloys under silicon self-interstitial injection

In this work we investigate the diffusion and precipitation of supersaturated substitutional carbon in 200-nm-thick SiGeC layers buried under a silicon cap layer of 40 nm. The samples were annealed in either inert (N₂) or oxidizing (O₂) ambient at 850 °C for times ranging from 2 to 10 h. The silicon self-interstitial (I) flux coming from the surface under oxidation enhances the C diffusion with respect to the N₂-annealed samples. In the early stages of the oxidation process, the loss of C from the SiGeC layer by diffusion across the layer/cap interface dominates. This phenomenon saturates after an initial period (2–4 h), which depends on the C concentration. This saturation is due to the formation and growth of C-containing precipitates that are promoted by the I injection and act as a sink for mobile C atoms. The influence of carbon concentration on the competition between precipitation and diffusion is discussed. Received: 19 October 2001 / Accepted: 19 December 2001 / Published online: 20 March 2002 / Published online: 20 March 2002     

Stochastic analysis in life office management: applications to large annuity portfolios

The paper deals with the riskiness analysis for a large portfolio of life annuities. By means of the limiting distribution of the present value of the portfolio, in the first part of the paper a model for evaluating the investment and the projection risks is presented. In the second part, with regard to the investment risk's effects, the insolvency risk is measured considering the cumulative probability distribution function of the discounted average cost per policy. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Harmonic and intermodulation distortion modeling in IM-DD multi-band radio over fiber links exploiting injection locked lasers

A comprehensive numerical tool has been developed for the evaluation of the performances of Radio over Fiber (RoF) links intended for wireless signal distribution.At the transmitter end an appropriate set of rate equations allows to model the optical source as a solitary laser or as an appropriately injection locked laser. The optical channel is modeled putting into account the combined effect of fiber dispersion, laser source non ideal performances (e.g. non-linear effects, frequency chirp), and quadratic detection of the receiving photodiode. The simulation model developed can be a useful tool at the design stage allowing a preliminary evaluation of the characteristics of real RoF links.     

A non-isothermal Ginzburg–Landau model in superconductivity: Existence,uniqueness and asymptotic behaviour

In this paper we study a Ginzburg–Landau model which describes the behaviour of a superconducting material including thermal effects. We extend the traditional formulation of the problem, by introducing the temperature as an additional state variable. Accordingly, together with the Gor’kov–Eliashberg system, we introduce an evolution equation for the absolute temperature. We examine in detail the case which allows only variations of the concentration of superconducting electrons and of the temperature, neglecting the electromagnetic field. For this problem existence and uniqueness of the solution are shown. Finally we analyze the asymptotic behaviour of the solutions, proving that the system possesses a global attractor.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Comment on</Emphasis>¶Low temperature specific heat of blue bronze K <Emphasis Type="Bold">0.30</Emphasis>MoO <Emphasis Type="Bold">3</Emphasis>, by J. Odin,J.C. Lasjaunias,K. Biljaković, K. Hasselbach,and P. Monceau

Eur. Phys. J. B 24, 315 (2001) Here we comment on a recently published paper on the presence of a phason contribution in the low temperature heat capacity data of the charge-density-wave compounds K_0.3MoO₃ and (TaSe₄)₂I. We have shown that the anomaly in the C _P / T ³ data reported by Odin et al. is straightforwardly interpreted in terms of low energy phonon modes resulting from the peculiar topology of these compounds. Received 21 February 2002 Published online 19 July 2002     

A Relaxation Scheme for Solving the Boltzmann Equation Based on the Chapman-Enskog Expansion

Abstract In [16] a visco-elastic relaxation system, called the relaxed Burnett system, was proposed by Jinand Slemrod as a moment approximation to the Boltzmann equation. The relaxed Burnett system is weaklyparabolic, has a linearly hyperbolic convection part, and is endowed with a generalized eotropy inequality. Itagrees with the solution of the Boltzmann equation up to the Burnett order via the Chapman-Enskog expansion. We develop a one-dimensional non-oscillatory numerical scheme based on the relaxed Burnett system forthe Boltzmann equation. We compare numerical results for stationary shocks based on this relaxation scheme,and those obtained by the DSMC (Direct Simulation Monte Carlo), by the Navier-Stokes equations and bythe extended thermodynamics with thirteen moments (the Grad equations). Our numerical experiments showthat the relaxed Burnett gives more accurate approximations to the shock profiles of the Boltzmann equationobtained by the DSMC, for a range of Mach numbers for hypersonic flows, th     

Thin-walled Beams: A Derivation of Vlassov Theory via Γ-Convergence

This paper deals with the asymptotic analysis of the three-dimensional problem for a linearly elastic cantilever having an open cross-section which is the union of rectangles with sides of order ε and ε ², as ε goes to zero. Under suitable assumptions on the given loads and for homogeneous and isotropic material, we show that the three-dimensional problem Γ-converges to the classical one-dimensional Vlassov model for thin-walled beams.