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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

The effect of millisecond flash lamp annealing on electrical and structural properties of ZnO:Al/Si structures

The effect of millisecond flash lamp annealing (FLA) on aluminum doped ZnO (AZO) films and their interface with Si have been studied. The AZO films were deposited by magnetron sputtering on Si (100) substrates. The electrical and structural properties of the film and AZO/Si structures were characterized by current–voltage, capacitance–voltage, and deep level transient spectroscopy measurements, X-ray diffraction, and secondary ion mass spectrometry. The resistivity of the AZO film is reduced to a close to state-of-the-art value of 2 × 10{sup −4} Ω cm after FLA for 3 ms with an average energy density of 29 J/cm{sup 2}. In addition, most of the interfacial defects energy levels are simultaneously annealed out, except for one persisting shallow level, tentatively assigned to the vacancy-oxygen complex in Si, which was not affected by FLA. Subsequent to the FLA, the samples were treated in N{sub 2} or forming gas (FG) (N{sub 2}/H{sub 2}, 90/10%{sub mole}) ambient at 200–500 °C. The latter samples maintained the low resistivity achieved after the FLA, but not the former ones. The interfacial defect level persisting after the FLA is removed by the FG treatment, concurrently as another level emerges at ∼0.18 eV below the conduction band. The electrical data of the AZO films are discussed in term of point defects controlling the resistivity, and it is argued that the FLA promotes formation of electrically neutral clusters of Zink vacancies (V{sub Zn}'s) rather than passivating/compensating complexes between the Al donors and V{sub Zn}'s.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Trapped charge densities in Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-based silicon surface passivation layers

In Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-based passivation layers, the formation of fixed charges and trap sites can be strongly influenced by small modifications in the stack layout. Fixed and trapped charge densities are characterized with capacitance voltage profiling and trap spectroscopy by charge injection and sensing, respectively. Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} layers are grown by atomic layer deposition with very thin (∼1 nm) SiO{sub 2} or HfO{sub 2} interlayers or interface layers. In SiO{sub 2}/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} and HfO{sub 2}/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} stacks, both fixed charges and trap sites are reduced by at least a factor of 5 compared with the value measured in pure Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}. In Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/SiO{sub 2}/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} or Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/HfO{sub 2}/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} stacks, very high total charge densities of up to 9 × 10{sup 12} cm{sup −2} are achieved. These charge densities are described as functions of electrical stress voltage, time, and the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} layer thickness between silicon and the HfO{sub 2} or the SiO{sub 2} interlayer. Despite the strong variation of trap sites, all stacks reach very good effective carrier lifetimes of up to 8 and 20 ms on p- and n-type silicon substrates, respectively. Controlling the trap sites in Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} layers opens the possibility to engineer the field-effect passivation in the solar cells.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS1983

Quantum shot noise in tunnel junctions

The current and voltage fluctuations in a normal tunnel junction are calculated from microscopic theory. The power spectrum can deviate from the familiar Johnson-Nyquist form when the self-capacitance of the junction is small, at low temperatures permitting experimental verification. The deviation reflects the discrete nature of the charge transfer across the junction and should be present in a wide class of similar systems.

Ben-Jacob, E.↗
DOE OSTI2018

MilliKelvin HEMT Amplifiers for Low Noise High Bandwidth Measurement of Quantum Devices

We demonstrate ultra-low power cryogenic high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) amplifiers for measurement of quantum devices. The low power consumption (few uWs) allows the amplifier to be located near the device, at the coldest cryostat stage (typically less than 100 mK). Such placement minimizes parasitic capacitance and reduces the impact of environmental noise (e.g. triboelectric noise in cabling), allowing for improvements in measurement gain, bandwidth and noise. We use custom high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) in GaAs/A1GaAs heterostructures. These HEMTs are known to have excellent performance specifically at mK temperatures, with electron mobilities that can exceed 10 6 cm 2 /Vs, allowing for large gain with low power consumption. Low temperature measurements of custom HEMT amplifiers at T = 4 K show a current sensitivity of 50 pA at 1 MHz bandwidth for 5 mW power dissipation, which is an improvement upon performance of amplifiers using off-the-shelf HEMTs.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2015

Control of strong light-matter coupling using the capacitance of metamaterial nanocavities

Metallic nanocavities with deep subwavelength mode volumes can lead to dramatic changes in the behavior of emitters placed in their vicinity. The resulting collocation and interaction often leads to strong coupling. We present for the first time experimental evidence that the Rabi splitting is directly proportional to the electrostatic capacitance associated with the metallic nanocavity. As a result, the system analyzed consists of different metamaterial geometries with the same resonance wavelength coupled to intersubband transitions in quantum wells.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Cross-correlation measurement of quantum shot noise using homemade transimpedance amplifiers

We report a cross-correlation measurement system, based on a new approach, which can be used to measure shot noise in a mesoscopic conductor at milliKelvin temperatures. In contrast to other measurement systems in which high-speed low-noise voltage amplifiers are commonly used, our system employs homemade transimpedance amplifiers (TAs). The low input impedance of the TAs significantly reduces the crosstalk caused by unavoidable parasitic capacitance between wires. The TAs are designed to have a flat gain over a frequency band from 2 kHz to 1 MHz. Low-noise performance is attained by installing the TAs at a 4 K stage of a dilution refrigerator. Our system thus fulfills the technical requirements for cross-correlation measurements: low noise floor, high frequency band, and negligible crosstalk between two signal lines. Using our system, shot noise generated at a quantum point contact embedded in a quantum Hall system is measured. The good agreement between the obtained shot-noise data and theoretical predictions demonstrates the accuracy of the measurements.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS2007

Increasing Linear Dynamic Range of a CMOS Image Sensor

A generic design and a corresponding operating sequence have been developed for increasing the linear-response dynamic range of a complementary metal oxide/semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor. The design provides for linear calibrated dual-gain pixels that operate at high gain at a low signal level and at low gain at a signal level above a preset threshold. Unlike most prior designs for increasing dynamic range of an image sensor, this design does not entail any increase in noise (including fixed-pattern noise), decrease in responsivity or linearity, or degradation of photometric calibration. The figure is a simplified schematic diagram showing the circuit of one pixel and pertinent parts of its column readout circuitry. The conventional part of the pixel circuit includes a photodiode having a small capacitance, CD. The unconventional part includes an additional larger capacitance, CL, that can be connected to the photodiode via a transfer gate controlled in part by a latch. In the high-gain mode, the signal labeled TSR in the figure is held low through the latch, which also helps to adapt the gain on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Light must be coupled to the pixel through a microlens or by back illumination in order to obtain a high effective fill factor; this is necessary to ensure high quantum efficiency, a loss of which would minimize the efficacy of the dynamic- range-enhancement scheme. Once the level of illumination of the pixel exceeds the threshold, TSR is turned on, causing the transfer gate to conduct, thereby adding CL to the pixel capacitance. The added capacitance reduces the conversion gain, and increases the pixel electron-handling capacity, thereby providing an extension of the dynamic range. By use of an array of comparators also at the bottom of the column, photocharge voltages on sampling capacitors in each column are compared with a reference voltage to determine whether it is necessary to switch from the high-gain to the low-gain mode. Depending upon the built-in offset in each pixel and in each comparator, the point at which the gain change occurs will be different, adding gain-dependent fixed pattern noise in each pixel. The offset, and hence the fixed pattern noise, is eliminated by sampling the pixel readout charge four times by use of four capacitors (instead of two such capacitors as in conventional design) connected to the bottom of the column via electronic switches SHS1, SHR1, SHS2, and SHR2, respectively, corresponding to high and low values of the signals TSR and RST. The samples are combined in an appropriate fashion to cancel offset-induced errors, and provide spurious-free imaging with extended dynamic range.

Pain, Bedabrata↗
DOE OSTI2018

Dielectric Properties of Oligonucleotides on the Surface of Si Nanosandwich Structures

Planar silicon nanostructures that are formed as a very narrow silicon quantum well confined by delta-barriers heavily doped with boron are used to study the dielectric properties of DNA oligonucleotides deposited onto the surface of the nanostructures. The capacitance characteristics of the silicon nanostructures with oligonucleotides deposited onto their surface are determined by recording the local tunneling current- voltage characteristics by means of scanning tunneling microscopy. The results show the possibility of identifying the local dielectric properties of DNA oligonucleotide segments consisting of repeating G–C pairs. These properties apparently give grounds to correlate the segments with polymer molecules exhibiting the properties of multiferroics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Dependence of the photovoltaic performance of pseudomorphic InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well solar cells on the active region thickness

We investigate the photovoltaic performance of pseudomorphic In{sub 0.1}Ga{sub 0.9}N/GaN multiple-quantum well (MQW) solar cells as a function of the total active region thickness. An increase in the number of wells from 5 to 40 improves the short-circuit current and the open-circuit voltage, resulting in a 10-fold enhancement of the overall conversion efficiency. Further increasing the number of wells leads to carrier collection losses due to an incomplete depletion of the active region. Capacitance-voltage measurements point to a hole diffusion length of 48 nm in the MQW region.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Merged-Element Transmon

Transmon qubits are ubiquitous in the pursuit of quantum computing using superconducting circuits. However, they have some drawbacks that still need to be addressed. Most importantly, the scalability of transmons is limited by the large device footprint needed to reduce the participation of the lossy capacitive parts of the circuit. In this work, we investigate and evaluate losses in an alternative device geometry, namely, the merged-element transmon (mergemon). To this end, we replace the large external shunt capacitor of a traditional transmon with the intrinsic capacitance of a Josephson junction and achieve an approximately 100 times reduction in qubit dimensions. We report the implementation of the mergemon using a sputtered Nb–amorphous-Si–Nb trilayer film. In an experiment below 10 mK, the frequency of the readout resonator, capacitively coupled to the mergemon, exhibits a qubit-state-dependent shift in the low-power regime. The device also demonstrates the single-photon and multiphoton transitions that represent a weakly anharmonic system in two-tone spectroscopy. The transition spectra are explained well with master-equation simulations. Here, a participation-ratio analysis identifies the dielectric loss of the amorphous-Si tunnel barrier and its interfaces as the dominant source for qubit relaxation. We expect the mergemon to achieve high coherence for relatively small device dimensions when implemented with a low-loss, epitaxially grown, and lattice-matched trilayer.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2017

Charge density at the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/Si interface in Metal–lnsulator–Semiconductor devices: Semiclassical and quantum mechanical descriptions

In this paper, a quantum correction computation of the inversion layer of charge density was investigated. This study is carried out for a one-dimensional Metal–lnsulator–Semiconductor (MIS) structure with (100) oriented P-type silicon as substrate. The purpose of this paper is to point out the differences between the semiclassical and quantum-mechanical charge description at the interface Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/Si, and to identify some electronic properties of our MIS device using different thickness of the high-k oxide and diverse temperature with different carrier statitics (Fermi–Dirak statitics and Boltzmann statitics). In particular, the calculations of capacitance voltage (C–V), sheet electron density, a relative position of subband energies and their wave functions are performed to examine qualitatively and quantitatively the electron states and charging mechanisms in our device.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Charge transport in zirconium doped anatase nanowires dye-sensitized solar cells: Trade-off between lattice strain and photovoltaic parameters

Zirconium (Zr) is doped up to 5 at. % in anatase TiO{sub 2} nanowires by electrospinning and used as working electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells. Variations observed in the photovoltaic parameters were correlated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, open circuit voltage decay, and X-ray diffraction measurements. Results show that homovalent substitution of Zr in TiO{sub 2} increased the chemical capacitance and electron diffusion coefficient which in turn decreased charge transport resistance and charge transit time. However, lattice strain due to size mismatch between the Zr{sup 4+} and Ti{sup 4+} ions decreased open circuit voltage and fill factor thereby setting a trade-off between doping concentration and photovoltaic properties.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

In situ electrical characterization of palladium-based single electron transistors made by electromigration technique

We report the fabrication of single electron transistors (SETs) by feedback-controlled electromigration of palladium and palladium-nickel alloy nanowires. We have optimized a gradual electromigration process for obtaining devices consisting of three terminals (source, drain and gate electrodes), which are capacitively coupled to a metallic cluster of nanometric dimensions. This metal nanocluster forms into the inter-electrode channel during the electromigration process and constitutes the active element of each device, acting as a quantum dot that rules the electron flow between source and drain electrodes. The charge transport of the as-fabricated devices shows Coulomb blockade characteristics and the source to drain conductance can be modulated by electrostatic gating. We have thus achieved the fabrication and in situ measurement of palladium-based SETs inside a liquid helium cryostat chamber.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Capacitive and magnetoresistive origin of magnetodielectric effects in Sm-substituted spiral antiferromagnet BiMnFe{sub 2}O{sub 6}

BiMnFe{sub 2}O{sub 6} exhibits a spiral antiferromagnetic ordering below 212 K and a reentrant spin glass transition at 34 K. Further, magnetic and dielectric anomalies occur at the same temperature (T = 170 K) with a significant magnetodielectric effect. Upon substitution of Sm{sup 3+} for Bi{sup 3+} ions in Bi{sub 1−x}Sm{sub x}MnFe{sub 2}O{sub 6} (x = 0.1 and 0.2), the dielectric anomaly shifts to low temperatures (T = 135 and 72 K, respectively), whereas the magnetic anomaly develops into a weak ferromagnetism. For x = 0.2, the weak ferromagnetism occurs in a wide temperature range (90–201 K). Below 90 K, it undergoes a transition to an antiferromagnetic state. In contrast to the parent compound (x = 0), the magnetodielectric effect is observed both in the antiferromagnetic region (T < 90 K) with a maximum at the dielectric anomaly (72 K) and also in the weak ferromagnetic region. It has been shown that the magnetodielectric effect in the antiferromagnetic region has an intrinsic capacitive origin while that observed at the weak ferromagnetic region originates from magnetoresistance.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Spatial mapping and statistical reproducibility of an array of 256 one-dimensional quantum wires

We utilize a multiplexing architecture to measure the conductance properties of an array of 256 split gates. We investigate the reproducibility of the pinch off and one-dimensional definition voltage as a function of spatial location on two different cooldowns, and after illuminating the device. The reproducibility of both these properties on the two cooldowns is high, the result of the density of the two-dimensional electron gas returning to a similar state after thermal cycling. The spatial variation of the pinch-off voltage reduces after illumination; however, the variation of the one-dimensional definition voltage increases due to an anomalous feature in the center of the array. A technique which quantifies the homogeneity of split-gate properties across the array is developed which captures the experimentally observed trends. In addition, the one-dimensional definition voltage is used to probe the density of the wafer at each split gate in the array on a micron scale using a capacitive model.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

A scanning resonator for probing quantum coherent devices

Superconducting resonators with high quality factors are extremely sensitive detectors of the complex impedance of materials and devices coupled to them. This capability has been used to measure losses in multiple different materials and, in the case of circuit quantum electrodynamics (circuit QED), has been used to measure the coherent evolution of multiple different types of qubits. Here, we report on the implementation of a scanning resonator for probing quantum coherent devices. Our scanning setup enables tunable coherent coupling to systems of interest without the need for fabricating on-chip superconducting resonators. We measure the internal quality factor of our resonator sensor in the single-photon regime to be >104 and demonstrate capacitive imaging using our sensor with zeptoFarad sensitivity and micron spatial resolution at milliKelvin temperatures. We then use our setup to characterize the energy spectrum and coherence times of multiple transmon qubits with no on-chip readout circuitry. Our experiments introduce a new tool for using circuit QED to measure existing and proposed qubit platforms.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2014

Permanent polarization and charge distribution in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs): Insights from near-infrared charge-modulation spectroscopy of an operating OLED

Vapor-deposited Alq{sub 3} layers typically possess a strong permanent electrical polarization, whereas NPB layers do not. (Alq{sub 3} is tris(8-quinolinolato)aluminum(III); NPB is 4,4′-bis[N-(1-naphthyl)-N-phenylamino]biphenyl.) The cause is a net orientation of the Alq{sub 3} molecules with their large dipole moments. Here we report on consequences for an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) with an NPB hole-transport layer and Alq{sub 3} electron-transport layer. The discontinuous polarization at the NPB|Alq{sub 3} interface has the same effect as a sheet of immobile negative charge there. It is more than compensated by a large concentration of injected holes (NPB{sup +}) when the OLED is running. We discuss the implications and consequences for the quantum efficiency and the drive voltage of this OLED and others. We also speculate on possible consequences of permanent polarization in organic photovoltaic devices. The concentration of NPB{sup +} was measured by charge-modulation spectroscopy (CMS) in the near infrared, where the NPB{sup +} has a strong absorption band, supplemented by differential-capacitance and current-voltage measurements. Unlike CMS in the visible, this method avoids complications from modulation of the electroluminescence and electroabsorption.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗