Abstract: The time evolution of a wave packet injected into a semiconductor quantum ring is investigated in order to obtain the transmission and reflection probabilities. Within the effective-mass approximation, the time-dependent Schrödinger equation is solved for a system with nonzero width of the ring and leads and finite potential-barrier heights, where we include smooth lead-ring connections. In the absence of a magnetic field, an analysis of the projection of the wave function over the different subband states shows that when the injected wave packet is within a single subband, the junction can scatter this wave packet into different subbands but remarkably at the second junction the wave packet is scattered back into the subband state of the incoming wave packet. If a magnetic field is applied perpendicularly to the ring plane, transmission and reflection probabilities exhibit Aharonov-Bohm (AB) oscillations and the outgoing electrons may end up in different subband states from those of the incoming electrons. Localized impurities, placed in the ring arms, influence the AB oscillation period and amplitude. For a single impurity or potential barrier of sufficiently strong strength, the period of the AB oscillations is halved while for two impurities localized in diametrically opposite points of the ring, the original AB period is recovered. A theoretical investigation of the confined states and time evolution of wave packets in T wires is also made, where a comparison between this system and the lead-ring junction is drawn.

Abstract: The time evolution of a low-energy two-dimensional Gaussian wave packet in ABC-stacked n-layer graphene (ABC-NLG) is investigated. Expectation values of the position (x, y) of center-of-mass and the total probability densities of the wave packet are calculated analytically using the Green's function method. These results are confirmed using an alternative numerical method based on the split-operator technique within the Dirac approach for ABC-NLG, which additionally allows to include external fields and potentials. The main features of the zitterbewegung (trembling motion) of wave packets in graphene are demonstrated and are found to depend not only on the wave packet width and initial pseudospin polarization, but also on the number of layers. Moreover, the analytical and numerical methods proposed here allow to investigate wave packet dynamics in graphene systems with an arbitrary number of layers and arbitrary potential landscapes.

Abstract: The three-dimensional size, morphology and distribution of Ni4Ti3 precipitates in a Ni50.8Ti49.2 polycrystalline shape memory alloy with a heterogeneous microstructure have been investigated using a focused ion beam/scanning electron microscopy slice-and-view procedure. The mean volume, central plane diameter, thickness, aspect ratio and sphericity of the precipitates in the grain interior as well as near to the grain boundary were measured and/or calculated. The morphology of the precipitates was quantified by determining the equivalent ellipsoids with the same moments of inertia and classified according to the Zingg scheme. Also, the pair distribution functions describing the three-dimensional distributions were obtained from the coordinates of the precipitate mass centres. Based on this new data it is suggested that the existence of the heterogeneous microstructure could be due to a very small concentration gradient in the grains of the homogenized material and that the resulting multistage martensitic transformation originates in strain effects related to the size of the precipitates and scale differences of the available B2 matrix in between the precipitates.

Abstract: The three-dimensional (3D) structure and chemical composition of bamboo-like carbon nanotubes including the catalyst particles that are. used during their growth are studied by discrete electron tomography in combination with energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy. It is found that cavities are present in the catalyst particles. Furthermore, only a small percentage of the catalyst particles consist of pure Cu, since a large volume fraction of the particles is oxidized to CU(2)0. These volume fractions are determined quantitatively from 3D reconstructions obtained by discrete tomography.

Abstract: The three-dimensional (3D) distribution of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) grown inside semiconductor contact holes is studied by electron tomography. The use of a specialized tomography holder results in an angular tilt range of ±90°, which means that the so-called missing wedge is absent. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample for this purpose consists of a micropillar that is prepared by a dedicated procedure using the focused ion beam (FIB) but keeping the CNTs intact. The 3D results are combined with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to study the relation between the CNTs and the catalyst particles used during their growth. The reconstruction, based on the full range of tilt angles, is compared with a reconstruction where a missing wedge is present. This clearly illustates that the missing wedge will lead to an unreliable interpretation and will limit quantitative studies

Abstract: The thermodynamic properties of the electron gas in multilayer graphene depend strongly on the number of layers and the type of stacking. Here we analyze how those properties change when we vary the number of layers for rhombohedral stacked multilayer graphene and compare our results with those from a conventional two-dimensional electron gas. We show that the highly degenerate zero-energy Landau level which is partly filled with electrons and partly with holes has a strong influence on the values of the different thermodynamic quantities.

Abstract: The thermal stability of printed polymer solar cells at elevated temperatures needs to be improved to achieve high-throughput fabrication including annealing steps as well as long-term stability. During device processing, thermal annealing impacts both the organic photoactive layer, and the two interfacial layers make detailed studies of degradation mechanism delicate. A recently identified thermally stable poly[[4,8-bis[(2-ethylhexyl)oxy]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b'-dithiopherie-2,6-diyl] [3-fluoro-2-[(2-ethylhexyl) carbonyl] thieno [3,4-b]thiophenediyl]] : [6,6]-phenyl- C-71-butyric acid methyl ester (PTB7:PC70BM) blend as photoactive layer in combination with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate as hole extraction layer is used here to focus on the impact of electron extraction layer (EEL) on the thermal stability of solar cells. Solar cells processed with densely packed ZnO nanoparticle layers still show 92% of the initial efficiency after constant annealing during 1 day at 140 degrees C, whereas partially covering ZnO layers as well as an evaporated calcium layer leads to performance losses of up to 30%. This demonstrates that the nature and morphology of EELs highly influence the thermal stability of the device. We extend our study to thermally unstable PTB7:[6,6]-phenyl-C-61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC60BM) blends to highlight the impact of ZnO on the device degradation during annealing. Importantly, only 12% loss in photocurrent density is observed after annealing at 140 degrees C during 1 day when using closely packed ZnO. This is in stark contrast to literature and addressed here to the use of a stable double-sided confinement during thermal annealing. The underlying mechanism of the inhibition of photocurrent losses is revealed by electron microscopy imaging and spatially resolved spectroscopy. We found that the double-sided confinement suppresses extensive fullerene diffusion during the annealing step, but with still an increase in size and distance of the enriched donor and acceptor domains inside the photoactive layer by an average factor of 5. The later result in combination with comparably small photocurrent density losses indicates the existence of an efficient transport of minority charge carriers inside the donor and acceptor enriched phases in PTB7:PC60BM blends.

Abstract: The thermal stability of amorphous Al2O3 films (similar to8 and 80 nut thick) deposited by atomic layer deposition on HF-last and thin SiO2 covered (001) Si substrates is studied by transmission electron microscopy. The layers are in- and ex-situ annealed in the same temperature range.

Abstract: The thermal properties of a two-dimensional classical cluster of negatively charged particles bound by a punctual positive charge are presented. The melting phenomenon is analyzed and the features which characterize such a solid-liquid transition are highlighted. We found that the presence of metastable states strongly modifies the melting scenario, and that the melting temperature of the system is determined by the height of the saddle point energy separating the ground state and the metastable state. Due to the particular type of confinement potential considered in this paper, we also found that, at sufficiently large temperature, the cluster can become thermally ionized.

Abstract: The thermal expansion alpha(T) in layered crystals is of fundamental and technological interest. As suggested by I. M. Lifshitz in 1952, in thin solid films (crystalline membranes) a negative contribution to alpha(T) is due to anharmonic couplings between in-plane stretching modes and out-of-plane bending (flexural modes). Genuine in-plane anharmonicities give a positive contribution to alpha(T). The competition between these two effects can lead to a change of sign (crossover) from a negative value of alpha(T) in a temperature (T) range T <= T-alpha to a positive value of alpha(T) for T > T-alpha in layered crystals. Here, we present an analytical lattice dynamical theory of these phenomena for a two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal crystal. We start from a Hamiltonian that comprises anharmonic terms of third and fourth order in the lattice displacements. The in-plane and out-of-plane contributions to the thermal expansion are studied as functions of T for crystals of different sizes. Besides, renormalization of the flexural mode frequencies plays a crucial role in determining the crossover temperature T-alpha. Numerical examples are given for graphene where the anharmonic couplings are determined from experiments. The theory is applicable to other layer crystals wherever the anharmonic couplings are known. (C) 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Abstract: The theoretical investigation on structural, vibrational, and electronic properties of zinc-blende (ZB) AgI were carried out employing first principles density functional theory calculations. Thermoelectric properties then were predicted through semi-classical Boltzmann transport equations within the constant relaxation time approximation. Equilibrium lattice parameter, bulk modulus, elastic constants, and vibrational properties were calculated by using generalized gradient approximation. Calculated properties are in good agreement with available experimental values. Electronic and thermoelectric properties were investigated both with and without considering spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effect which is found to have a strong influence on p-type Seebeck coefficient as well as the power factor of the ZB-AgI. By inclusion of SOC, a reduction of the band-gap and p-type Seebeck coefficients as well as the power factor was found which is the indication of that spin-orbit interaction cannot be ignored for p-type thermoelectric properties of the ZB-AgI. By using deformation potential theory for electronic relaxation time and experimentally predicted lattice thermal conductivity, we obtained aZTvalue 1.69 (0.89) at 400 K for n-type (p-type) carrier concentration of 1.5 x 10(18)(4.6 x10(19)) cm(-3)that makes ZB-AgI as a promising room temperature thermoelectric material.

Abstract: The ternary oxides Ba8Ta4Ti3O24 and Ba10Ta7.04Ti1.2O30 were synthesized and their crystal structures and defects were studied by means of X-ray powder diffraction, electron diffraction, and high resolution electron microscopy. The crystal structure of Ba8Ta4Ti3O24 is based on the 8H (cchc)(2) close-packed stacking (a 10.0314 Angstrom, c = 18.869 Angstrom, SG P6(3)/mcm, Z = 3) and that of Ba10Ta7.04Ti1.2O30 and on the 10H (cchcc)(2) close-packed stacking (a = 5.7981 Angstrom, c = 23.755 Angstrom, SG P6(3)/mmc, Z = 1) of BaO3 layers. The structural refinements gave the following values for the R factors for Ba8Ta4Ti3O24 (Ba10Ta7.04Ti1.2O30) R(I) = 0.041 (0.039), R(P) = 0.108 (0.118), and R(wP) = 0.094 (0.099). The main feature of both structures is the presence of two types of face-sharing octahedra (FSO) with different occupancies by Ta atoms, Ti atoms, and vacancies, which results in the formation of a superstructure. It was shown that in the Ba8Ta4Ti3O24 structure these pairs of FSO occur in an ordered fashion and in the Ba10Ta7.04Ti1.2O30 structure in a disordered fashion. The existence of the wide range of solid solutions was shown to be also a consequence of the presence of one of the two types of face-sharing octahedra. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc,

Abstract: The temperature-dependent giant magnetoresistance effect is investigated in a magnetically modulated two-dimensional electron gas, which can be realized by depositing two parallel ferromagnets on the top and bottom of a heterostructure. The effective potential for electrons arising for parallel magnetization allows the electrons to resonantly tunnel through the magnetic barriers, while this is excluded in the anti-parallel situation. Such a discrepancy results in a giant magnetoresistance ratio (MRR), which can be up to 10(31)%. The MRR shows a strong dependence on temperature, but our study indicates that for realistic parameters for a GaAs heterostructure the effect can be as high as 10(4)% at 4 K.

Abstract: The technique of imaging time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) and dual beam depth,profiling has been used to study the composition of the surface of tabular silver halide microcrystals. Analysis of individual microcrystals with a size well below 1 mum from a given emulsion is possible. The method is successfully applied for the characterization of silver halide microcrystals with subpercent global iodide concentrations confined in surface layers with a thickness below 5 nm. The developed TOF-SIMS analytical procedure is explicitly demonstrated for the molecular imaging of adsorbed thiocyanate layers (SCN) at crystal surfaces of individual crystals and for the differentiation of iodide conversion layers synthesized with KI and with AgI micrates (nanocrystals with a size between 10 and 50 nm). It can be concluded that TOF-SIMS as a microanalytical, surface-sensitive technique has some unique properties over other analytical techniques for the study of complex structured surface layers of silver halide microcrystals. This offers valuable information to support the synthesis of future photographic emulsions.

Abstract: The synthesis, electron diffraction (ED), synchrotron X-ray and neutron structure, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and magnetic property studies of La2MnVO6 double perovskite are described. Analysis of the synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction data for La2MnVO6 indicates a disordered arrangement of Mn and V at the B-site of the perovskite structure. Absence of super-lattice reflections in the ED patterns for La2MnVO6 supports the disordered cation arrangement. Room temperature time-of-flight (TOF) neutron powder diffraction (NPD) data show no evidence of cation ordering, in corroboration with the ED and synchrotron studies (orthorhombic Pnma, a = 5.6097(3), b = 7.8837(5) and c = 5.5668(3) ; 295 K, NPD). A comparison of XAS analyses of La2TVO6 with T = Ni and Co shows T2+ formal oxidation state while the T = Mn material evidences a Mn3+ admixture into a dominantly Mn2+ ground state. V-K edge measurements manifest a mirror image behavior with a V4+ state for T = Ni and Co with a V3+ admixture arising in the T = Mn material. The magnetic susceptibility data for La2MnVO6 show ferromagnetic correlations; the observed effective moment, µeff (5.72 µB) is much smaller than the calculated moment (6.16 µB) based on the spin-only formula for Mn2+ (d5, HS) /V4+ (d1), supportive of the partly oxidized Mn and reduced V scenario (Mn3+/V3+).