Abstract: In this work we attempt to elucidate the chronological and geographical origin of deeply coloured and black glass dating between 100 bc and ad 300 on the basis of their major and trace element compositions. Samples from the western and eastern parts of the Roman Empire were analysed. Analytical data were obtained by means of a scanning electron microscope – energy-dispersive system (SEM-EDS, 63 samples analysed) and laser ablation – inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS, 41 samples analysed). Among the glass fragments analysed, dark brown, dark purple and dark green hues could be distinguished. Only among the dark green fragments could a clear compositional distinction be observed between fragments dated to the periods before and after ad 150. In the early samples (first century bc to first century ad), iron, responsible for the green hue, was introduced by using impure sand containing relatively high amounts of Ti. In contrast, a Ti-poor source of iron was employed, containing Sb, Co and Pb in trace quantities, in order to obtain the dark green colour in the later glass samples. The analytical results obtained by combining SEM-EDS and LA-ICP-MS are therefore consistent with a differentiation of glassmaking recipes, detectable in glass composition, occurring in the period around ad 150.

Abstract: Two state-of-the-art methods for non-invasive visualization of subsurface (or overpainted) pictorial layers present in painted works of art are employed to study Le portrait, painted by Belgian artist Rene Magritte in 1935. X-ray radiography, a commonly used method for the nondestructive inspection of paintings, had revealed the presence of an underlying figurative composition, part of an earlier Magritte painting entitled La pose enchantee (1927) which originally depicted two full length nude female figures with exaggerated facial features. On the one hand, macroscopic X-ray fluorescence analysis (MA-XRF), a method capable of providing information on the distribution of the key chemical elements present in many artists' pigments, was employed. The ability of the X-rays to penetrate the upper layer of paint enabled the imaging of the facial features of the female figure and provided information on Magritte's palette for both surface and hidden composition. On the other hand, visible and near infrared hyperspectral imaging spectroscopies in transmission mode were also used, especially in the area of the table cloth in order to look through the upper representation and reveal the pictorial layer(s) below. MA-XRF provided elemental information on the pigment distributions in both the final painting and the prior whereas the transmission mode provided information related to preparatory sketches as well as revealing differences between the paints used in both compositions. These results illustrate very well the manner in which the two imaging methods complement each other, both in the sense of providing different types of information on the nature and presence of paint components/pigments and in the sense of being optimally suited to easily penetrate through different types of overpaint.

Abstract: Vortices carrying fractions of a flux quantum are predicted to exist in multiband superconductors, where vortex core can split between multiple band-specific components of the superconducting condensate. Using the two-component Ginzburg-Landau model, we examine such vortex configurations in a two-band superconducting slab in parallel magnetic field. The fractional vortices appear due to the band-selective vortex penetration caused by different thresholds for vortex entry within each band-condensate, and stabilize near the edges of the sample. We show that the resulting fractional vortex configurations leave distinct fingerprints in the static measurements of the magnetization, as well as in ac dynamic measurements of the magnetic susceptibility, both of which can be readily used for the detection of these fascinating vortex states in several existing multiband superconductors. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

Abstract: Moire patterns in the pseudo-magnetic field and in the strain profile of graphene (GE) when put on top of a hexagonal lattice substrate are predicted from elasticity theory. The van der Waals interaction between GE and the substrate induces out-of-plane deformations in graphene which results in a strain field, and consequently in a pseudo-magnetic field. When the misorientation angle is about 0.5 degrees, a three-fold symmetric strain field is realized that results in a pseudo-magnetic field very similar to the one proposed by F. Guinea, M. I. Katsnelson, and A. K. Geim [Nature Phys. 6, 30 (2010)]. Our results show that the periodicity and length of the pseudo-magnetic field can be tuned in GE by changing the misorientation angle and substrate adhesion parameters and a considerable energy gap (23 meV) can be obtained due to out-of-plane deformation of graphene which is in the range of recent experimental measurements (20-30 meV). (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

Abstract: Complementary logic based on tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs) would drastically reduce power consumption thanks to the TFET's potential to obtain a sub-60 mV/dec subthreshold swing (SS). However, p-type TFETs typically do not meet the performance of n-TFETs for direct bandgap III-V configurations. The p-TFET SS stays well above 60 mV/dec, due to the low density of states in the conduction band. We therefore propose a source configuration in which a highly doped region is maintained only near the tunnel junction. In the remaining part of the source, the hot carriers in the exponential tail of the Fermi-Dirac distribution are blocked by reducing the doping degeneracy, either with a source section with a lower doping concentration or with a heterostructure. We apply this concept to n-p-i-p configurations consisting of In0.53Ga0.47As and an InP-InAs heterostructure. 15-band quantum mechanical simulations predict that the configurations with our source design can obtain sub-60 mV/dec SS, with an on-current comparable to the conventional source design. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

Abstract: The interband optical absorption in Si/SiO2 quantum wells is calculated as function of the well width (W) and the evolution from an indirect to a direct gap material as function of the well width is investigated. In order to compute the electron states in the conduction band, the 30-band k . p model is employed, whereas the 6-band Luttinger-Kohn model is used for the hole states. We found that the effective direct band gap in the quantum well agrees very well with the W-2 scaling result of the single-band model. The interband matrix elements for linear polarized light oscillate with the quantum well width, which agrees qualitatively with a single band calculation. Our theoretical results indicate that the absorption can be maximized by a proper choice of the well width. However, the obtained absorption coefficients are at least an order of magnitude smaller than for a typical direct semiconductor even for a well width of 2 nm. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

Abstract: Using density functional theory, we obtain the mechanical and thermal properties of MX2 monolayers (where M = Cr, Mo, W and X = O, S, Se, Te). The C-centered phonon frequencies (i.e., A(1), A(2)'', E ', and E ''), relative frequency values of A(1), and E ' modes, and mechanical properties (i.e., elastic constants, Young modulus, and Poisson's ratio) display a strong dependence on the type of metal and chalcogenide atoms. In each chalcogenide (metal) group, transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) with W (O) atom are found to be much stiffer. Consistent with their stability, the thermal expansion of lattice constants for TMDCs with O (Te) is much slower (faster). Furthermore, in a heterostructure of these materials, the difference of the thermal expansion of lattice constants between the individual components becomes quite tiny over the whole temperature range. The calculated mechanical and thermal properties show that TMDCs are promising materials for heterostructures. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

Abstract: We report an innovative method to explore the optimal experimental settings to detect light atoms from scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) images. Since light elements play a key role in many technologically important materials, such as lithium-battery devices or hydrogen storage applications, much effort has been made to optimize the STEM technique in order to detect light elements. Therefore, classical performance criteria, such as contrast or signal-to-noise ratio, are often discussed hereby aiming at improvements of the direct visual interpretability. However, when images are interpreted quantitatively, one needs an alternative criterion, which we derive based on statistical detection theory. Using realistic simulations of technologically important materials, we demonstrate the benefits of the proposed method and compare the results with existing approaches.

Abstract: The available synthesized silicene-like structures have been only realized on metallic substrates which are very different from the standalone buckled silicene, e. g., the Dirac cone of silicene is destroyed due to lattice distortion and the interaction with the substrate. Using graphene bilayer as a scaffold, a route is proposed to synthesize silicene with electronic properties decoupled from the substrate. The buckled hexagonal arrangement of silicene between the graphene layers is found to be very similar to the theoretically predicted standalone buckled silicene which is only very weakly van der Waals coupled to the graphene layers with a graphite-like interlayer distance of 3.42 angstrom and without any lattice distortion. We found that these stacked layers are stable well above room temperature. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.

Abstract: The structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of single layers of Iron Dichloride (FeCl2) were calculated using first principles calculations. We found that the 1T phase of the single layer FeCl2 is 0.17 eV/unit cell more favorable than its 1H phase. The structural stability is confirmed by phonon calculations. We found that 1T-FeCl2 possess three Raman-active (130, 179, and 237 cm(-1)) and one infrared-active (279 cm(-1)) phonon branches. The electronic band dispersion of the 1T-FeCl2 is calculated using both gradient approximation of Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof and DFT-HSE06 functionals. Both functionals reveal that the 1T-FeCl2 has a half-metallic ground state with a Curie temperature of 17 K. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

Abstract: We have grown epitaxial Cr-doped V2O3 thin films with Cr concentrations between 0% and 20% on (0001)-Al2O3 by oxygen-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. For the highly doped samples (>3%), a regular and monotonous increase of the resistance with decreasing temperature is measured. Strikingly, in the low doping samples (between 1% and 3%), a collapse of the insulating state is observed with a reduction of the low temperature resistivity by up to 5 orders of magnitude. A vacuum annealing at high temperature of the films recovers the low temperature insulating state for doping levels below 3% and increases the room temperature resistivity towards the values of Cr-doped V2O3 single crystals. It is well-know that oxygen excess stabilizes a metallic state in V2O3 single crystals. Hence, we propose that Cr doping promotes oxygen excess in our films during deposition, leading to the collapse of the low temperature insulating state at low Cr concentrations. These results suggest that slightly Cr-doped V2O3 films can be interesting candidates for field effect devices. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

Abstract: In situ doped epitaxial Si: P films with P concentrations > 1 x 10(21) at./cm(3) are suitable for source-drain stressors of n-FinFETs. These films combine the advantages of high conductivity derived from the high P doping with the creation of tensile strain in the Si channel. It has been suggested that the tensile strain developed in the Si: P films is due to the presence of local Si3P4 clusters, which however do not contribute to the electrical conductivity. During laser annealing, the Si3P4 clusters are expected to disperse resulting in an increased conductivity while the strain reduces slightly. However, the existence of Si3P4 is not proven. Based on first-principles simulations, we demonstrate that the formation of vacancy centered Si3P4 clusters, in the form of four P atoms bonded to a Si vacancy, is thermodynamically favorable at such high P concentrations. We suggest that during post epi-growth annealing, a fraction of the P atoms from these clusters are activated, while the remaining part goes into interstitial sites, thereby reducing strain. We corroborate our conjecture experimentally using positron annihilation spectroscopy, electron spin resonance, and Rutherford backscattering ion channeling studies. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.