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At least 91 records · Page 5

High mobility AlGaN/GaN heterostructures grown on Si substrates using a large lattice-mismatch induced stress control technology

A large lattice-mismatch induced stress control technology with a low Al content AlGaN layer has been used to grow high quality GaN layers on 4-in. Si substrates. The use of this technology allows for high mobility AlGaN/GaN heterostructures with electron mobility of 2040 cm{sup 2}/(V·s) at sheet charge density of 8.4 × 10{sup 12 }cm{sup −2}. Strain relaxation and dislocation evolution mechanisms have been investigated. It is demonstrated that the large lattice mismatch between the low Al content AlGaN layer and AlN buffer layer could effectively promote the edge dislocation inclination with relatively large bend angles and therefore significantly reduce the dislocation density in the GaN epilayer. Our results show a great potential for fabrication of low-cost and high performance GaN-on-Si power devices.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Characteristics of InGaAsBi with various lattice mismatches on InP substrate

To develop bismuth-containing infrared optoelectronic devices, InGaAsBi/InP films with different lattice mismatches have been investigated. The lattice mismatch was tailored by changing the Bi content in conjunction with the In content simultaneously. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that alloy lattice constants have been extended positively by incorporation of Bi into the crystal lattice. Electrical and optical characteristics were investigated by Hall-effect, optical absorption and photoluminescence measurements. A bandgap shrinking of about 56.4 meV/Bi% was deduced by X-ray diffraction and optical absorption measurements. From the excitation dependent photoluminescence measurement at 10 K, the donor-acceptor pair emissions were inferred for samples containing moderate and high levels of Bi. The temperature dependence of the PL peak energy is as small as 0.06 meV/K in In{sub 0.5}Ga{sub 0.5}As{sub 0.987}Bi{sub 0.013}, which is fairly low compared with that of In{sub 0.5}Ga{sub 0.5}As.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Cation-size mismatch as a predictive descriptor for structural distortion, configurational disorder, and valence-band splitting in II-IV-N2 semiconductors

The II-IV-N2 class of heterovalent ternary nitrides has gained significant interest as alternatives to the III-nitrides for electronic and optoelectronic applications. In this study, we apply first-principles calculations based on density functional theory to systematically investigate the effects of structural distortions due to cation size mismatch on the configurational disorder of the cation sublattice and the valence band structure in this class of materials. We find that larger size mismatch between the group-II and the group-IV cations results in stronger lattice distortions from the ideal hexagonal ratio, which in turn inhibits the propensity of these materials toward octet-rule violating cation disorder. We also demonstrate that the formation energy of a single cation antisite pair, which is fast and simple to calculate, is a strong indicator of a material's propensity toward disorder. Furthermore, the breaking of in-plane symmetry leads to a splitting of the top three valence bands at Γ, which is also directly related to the magnitude of structural distortions. Our work demonstrates that the structural and functional properties of the II-IV-N2 materials can be finely tuned through controllable structural distortions that stem from the choice of cations.

Kute, Malhar (ORCID:0000000214364564)↗

Manipulating the polar mismatch at the LaNi O 3 / SrTi O 3 (111) interface

Heteroepitaxial growth of transition-metal oxide films on the open (111) surface of SrTi O 3 results in significant restructuring due to the polar mismatch. Monitoring the structure and composition on an atomic scale of LaNi O 3 / SrTi O 3 (111) interface as a function of processing conditions has enabled the avoidance of the expected polar catastrophe. Using atomically resolved transmission electron microscopy and spectroscopy as well as low-energy electron diffraction, the structure of the thin film, from interface to the surface, has been studied. Here, we show that the proper processing can lead to a structure that is ordered, coherent with the substrate without intermediate structural phase. Using angle-resolved x-ray photoemission spectroscopy we show that the oxygen content of thin films increases with the film thickness, which indicates that the polar mismatch is avoided by the presence of oxygen vacancies.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Effects of refractive index mismatch in optical CT imaging of polymer gel dosimeters

Purpose: Proposing an image reconstruction technique, algebraic reconstruction technique-refraction correction (ART-rc). The proposed method takes care of refractive index mismatches present in gel dosimeter scanner at the boundary, and also corrects for the interior ray refraction. Polymer gel dosimeters with high dose regions have higher refractive index and optical density compared to the background medium, these changes in refractive index at high dose results in interior ray bending. Methods: The inclusion of the effects of refraction is an important step in reconstruction of optical density in gel dosimeters. The proposed ray tracing algorithm models the interior multiple refraction at the inhomogeneities. Jacob’s ray tracing algorithm has been modified to calculate the pathlengths of the ray that traverses through the higher dose regions. The algorithm computes the length of the ray in each pixel along its path and is used as the weight matrix. Algebraic reconstruction technique and pixel based reconstruction algorithms are used for solving the reconstruction problem. The proposed method is tested with numerical phantoms for various noise levels. The experimental dosimetric results are also presented. Results: The results show that the proposed scheme ART-rc is able to reconstruct optical density inside the dosimeter better than the results obtained using filtered backprojection and conventional algebraic reconstruction approaches. The quantitative improvement using ART-rc is evaluated using gamma-index. The refraction errors due to regions of different refractive indices are discussed. The effects of modeling of interior refraction in the dose region are presented. Conclusions: The errors propagated due to multiple refraction effects have been modeled and the improvements in reconstruction using proposed model is presented. The refractive index of the dosimeter has a mismatch with the surrounding medium (for dry air or water scanning). The algorithm reconstructs the dose profiles by estimating refractive indices of multiple inhomogeneities having different refractive indices and optical densities embedded in the dosimeter. This is achieved by tracking the path of the ray that traverses through the dosimeter. Extensive simulation studies have been carried out and results are found to be matching that of experimental results.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

WE-AB-BRA-01: 3D-2D Image Registration for Target Localization in Spine Surgery: Comparison of Similarity Metrics Against Robustness to Content Mismatch

Purpose: In image-guided spine surgery, mapping 3D preoperative images to 2D intraoperative images via 3D-2D registration can provide valuable assistance in target localization. However, the presence of surgical instrumentation, hardware implants, and soft-tissue resection/displacement causes mismatches in image content, confounding existing registration methods. Manual/semi-automatic methods to mask such extraneous content is time consuming, user-dependent, error prone, and disruptive to clinical workflow. We developed and evaluated 2 novel similarity metrics within a robust registration framework to overcome such challenges in target localization. Methods: An IRB-approved retrospective study in 19 spine surgery patients included 19 preoperative 3D CT images and 50 intraoperative mobile radiographs in cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine regions. A neuroradiologist provided truth definition of vertebral positions in CT and radiography. 3D-2D registration was performed using the CMA-ES optimizer with 4 gradient-based image similarity metrics: (1) gradient information (GI); (2) gradient correlation (GC); (3) a novel variant referred to as gradient orientation (GO); and (4) a second variant referred to as truncated gradient correlation (TGC). Registration accuracy was evaluated in terms of the projection distance error (PDE) of the vertebral levels. Results: Conventional similarity metrics were susceptible to gross registration error and failure modes associated with the presence of surgical instrumentation: for GI, the median PDE and interquartile range was 33.0±43.6 mm; similarly for GC, PDE = 23.0±92.6 mm respectively. The robust metrics GO and TGC, on the other hand, demonstrated major improvement in PDE (7.6 ±9.4 mm and 8.1± 18.1 mm, respectively) and elimination of gross failure modes. Conclusion: The proposed GO and TGC similarity measures improve registration accuracy and robustness to gross failure in the presence of strong image content mismatch. Such registration capability could offer valuable assistance in target localization without disruption of clinical workflow. G. Kleinszig and S. Vogt are employees of Siemens Healthcare.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Scalable solution-phase epitaxial growth of symmetry-mismatched heterostructures on two-dimensional crystal soft template

Epitaxial heterostructures with precisely controlled composition and electronic modulation are of central importance for electronics, optoelectronics, thermoelectrics, and catalysis. In general, epitaxial material growth requires identical or nearly identical crystal structures with small misfit in lattice symmetry and parameters and is typically achieved by vapor-phase depositions in vacuum. We report a scalable solution-phase growth of symmetry-mismatched PbSe/Bi 2 Se 3 epitaxial heterostructures by using two-dimensional (2D) Bi 2 Se 3 nanoplates as soft templates. The dangling bond–free surface of 2D Bi 2 Se 3 nanoplates guides the growth of PbSe crystal without requiring a one-to-one match in the atomic structure, which exerts minimal restriction on the epitaxial layer. With a layered structure and weak van der Waals interlayer interaction, the interface layer in the 2D Bi 2 Se 3 nanoplates can deform to accommodate incoming layer, thus functioning as a soft template for symmetry-mismatched epitaxial growth of cubic PbSe crystal on rhombohedral Bi 2 Se 3 nanoplates. We show that a solution chemistry approach can be readily used for the synthesis of gram-scale PbSe/Bi 2 Se 3 epitaxial heterostructures, in which the square PbSe (001) layer forms on the trigonal/hexagonal (0001) plane of Bi 2 Se 3 nanoplates. We further show that the resulted PbSe/Bi 2 Se 3 heterostructures can be readily processed into bulk pellet with considerably suppressed thermal conductivity (0.30 W/m·K at room temperature) while retaining respectable electrical conductivity, together delivering a thermoelectric figure of merit ZT three times higher than that of the pristine Bi 2 Se 3 nanoplates at 575 K. Our study demonstrates a unique epitaxy mode enabled by the 2D nanocrystal soft template via an affordable and scalable solution chemistry approach. It opens up new opportunities for the creation of diverse epitaxial heterostructures with highly disparate structures and functions.

2D crystals↗

Statistical Approach for Determining the Sandia Array Performance Model Coefficients that Considers String-Level Mismatch

Commonly used performance models, such as PVsyst, Sandia Array Performance Model (SAPM), and PV LIB, treat the PV array as being constructed of identical modules. Each of the models attempts to account for mismatch losses by applying a simple percent reduction factor to the overall estimated power. The present work attempted to reduce uncertainty of mismatch losses by determining a representative set of performance coefficients for the SAPM that were developed from a characterization of a sample of modules. This approach was compared with current practice, where only a single module’s thermal and electrical properties are testing. However, the results indicate that minimal to no improvements in model predictions were achieved.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Polarization mismatch errors in radio phase interferometers.

An analysis is presented which deals with the effects of polarization mismatch errors on the accuracy of a phase interferometer used for position location of unknown emitters relative to known calibration emitters. Closed-form expressions for the induced phase difference between interferometer antennas are derived for several combinations of receiving and transmitting antenna polarizations. Errors contributed by mechanical misalignment between antennas, as well as effects of power loss attributable to polarization mismatch, are also considered. The analysis leads to the conclusion that circularly polarized interferometer and transmitter antennas are best suited for the position location application, if it is assumed that polarization tracking of the interferometer antennas is not available. It is shown that a reasonable amount of ellipticity can be tolerated before the phase error becomes significant.

Muehldorf, E. I.↗

The effect of a visual/motion display mismatch in a single axis compensatory tracking task

An experiment was performed to determine the effect of a performance mismatch between the visual and motion display systems on a real time piloted aircraft simulation. Pilots performed a compensatory roll tracking task with dynamics typical of medium jet transports. Between 0 and 10 rad/sec, visual and motion system responses were equivalent to either unity or a first order lag at 4.8 rad/sec. Pilot describing functions and error scores were calculated. Results show that the mismatch between visual and motion display systems has no significant effect. It is the absence of high frequency visual and/or motion cues which significantly affects pilot performance.

Shirachi, D. K.↗

In-flight simulation with pilot-center of gravity offset and velocity mismatch

Similarity transformations which preserve modal characteristics and pilot's acceleration cues in in-flight simulation are presented. The model transformation for lateral acceleration matching is developed. A velocity-mismatch example, based on a VRA simulation of the Space Shuttle, illustrates that acceleration matching is achieved at the expense of mismatching in cues which are secondary to the simulated piloting task, while primarily cues are preserved. The approach is applicable for both implicit and explicit model-following, and it can easily be extended to the longitudinal case.

Stengel, R. F.↗

The impact of mismatch on the performance of coded narrow-band FM with limiter/discriminator detection

An examination of the impact of mismatch on the performance of convolutionally encoded/Viterbi decoded narrow-band FM with limiter/discriminator detection is presented. Attention was given to the potential gain available by the combination of this type of system in terms of hard and soft decision decoding. Soft decision decoding was demonstrated to offer only approximately 0.3 dB better performance than hard decision coding. It was also shown, through a technique involving the number of clicks occurring in each detection interval, that both soft and hard decision decoding bit error probability performance could be improved. It is concluded that the mismatch between the coding channel and the decoding metric of the Viterbi algorithm is responsible for reducing the difference between hard and soft decoding metrics.

Simon, M. K.↗

A review and summary of cell and module mismatch losses from theoretical and experimental studies

Studies on power loss due to photovoltaic (PV) cell and module parameter mismatch were reviewed. The losses result from the current voltage (I-V) characteristics of cells which vary over a manufactured lot. The peak power and the peak power I-V point vary from cell to cell. The largest parameter variation occurs in the cell photocurrent generation and the most significant loss occurs in series connections since all cells are essentially limited by the lowest photocurrent. Most theoretical studies address only photocurrent variation effects, which consider shunt and series resistance, ideality factor and saturation current to be comparatively insignificant. One study is identified which specifically configured the study of mismatch loss effects. Experimental results consist of estimates based on limited data not taken from specially configured tests.

Lambarski, T. J.↗

Thermal expansion mismatch and oxidation in thermal barrier coatings

Thermal barrier coatings (TBC) for advanced gas turbine blades have been under intensive development during the last several years. This investigation is intended to achieve a clearer understanding of the mechanical behavior of plasma sprayed zirconia-yttria TBCs, involving a nickle-chromium-aluminum bond coat. The near term objectives are to study the stress states in a relatively simple model TBC subjected to steady state thermal loading. The resulting thermal expansion mismatch and oxidation have been primary targets for the study. The finite element approach and the effects of thermal mismatch and oxidation are described. A proposed mechanism for oxidation induced coating failure is also presented.

Chang, G. C.↗

Numerical study of supersonic combustors by multi-block grids with mismatched interfaces

A three dimensional, finite rate chemistry, Navier-Stokes code was extended to a multi-block code with mismatched interface for practical calculations of supersonic combustors. To ensure global conservation, a conservative algorithm was used for the treatment of mismatched interfaces. The extended code was checked against one test case, i.e., a generic supersonic combustor with transverse fuel injection, examining solution accuracy, convergence, and local mass flux error. After testing, the code was used to simulate the chemically reacting flow fields in a scramjet combustor with parallel fuel injectors (unswept and swept ramps). Computational results were compared with experimental shadowgraph and pressure measurements. Fuel-air mixing characteristics of the unswept and swept ramps were compared and investigated.

Moon, Young J.↗

Numerical study of supersonic combustors by multi-block grids with mismatched interfaces

A three-dimensional, finite-rate chemistry, Navier-Stokes code has been extended to a multi-block with mismatched interface code for practical calculations of supersonic combustors. To ensure global conservation, a conservative algorithm was used for the treatment of mismatched interfaces. The extended code was checked against one test case, i.e., a generic supersonic combustor with transverse fuel injection, examining solution accuracy, convergence, and local mass flux error. After testing, the code was used to simulate the chemically reacting flow fields in a scramjet combustor with parallel fuel injectors (unswept and swept ramps). Computational results were compared with experimental shadowgraph and pressure measurements. Fuel-air mixing characteristics of the unswept and swept ramps were compared and investigated.

Moon, Young J.↗

Lattice-mismatched In(0.40)Al(0.60)As window layers for indium phosphide solar cells

The efficiency of indium phosphide (InP) solar cells is limited by its high surface recombination velocity (approximately 10(exp 7) cm/s). This might be reduced by a wide-bandgap window layer. The performance of InP solar cells with wide-bandgap (1.8 eV) lattice-mismatched In(0.40)Al(0.60)As as a window layer was calculated. Because the required window layer thickness is less than the critical layer thickness, growth of strained (pseudomorphic) layers without interfacial misfit dislocations should be possible. Calculations using the PC-lD numerical code showed that the efficiencies of baseline and optimized p(+)n (p-on-n) cells are increased to more than 22 and 24 percent, (air mass zero (AMO), 25 C), respectively for a lattice-mismatched In(0.40)Al(0.60)As window layer of 10-nm thickness. Currently, most cell development work has been focused on n(+)p (n-on-p) structures although comparatively little improvement has been found for n(+)p cells.

Jain, Raj K.↗

Nucleation, growth, and strain relaxation of lattice-mismatched 3-5 semiconductor epitaxial layers

We have investigated the early stages of evolution of highly strained 2-D InAs layers and 3-D InAs islands grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on (100) and (111)B GaAs substrates. The InAs epilayer/GaAs substrate combination has been chosen because the lattice-mismatch is severe (approximately 7.2 percent), yet these materials are otherwise very similar. By examining InAs-on-GaAs composites instead of the more common In(x)Ga(1-x)As alloy we remove an additional degree of freedom (x) and thereby simplify data interpretation. A matrix of experiments is described in which the MOCVD growth parameters - susceptor temperature, Thin flux, and AsH3 flux - have been varied over a wide range. Scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and electron microprobe analysis have been employed to observe the thin film surface morphology. In the case of 3-D growth, we have extracted activation energies and power-dependent exponents that characterize the nucleation process. As a consequence, optimized growth conditions have been identified for depositing approximately 250 A thick (100) and (111)B oriented InAs layers with relatively smooth surfaces. Together with preliminary data on the strain relaxation of these layers, the above results on the evolution of thin InAs films indicate that the (111)B orientation is particularly promising for yielding lattice-mismatched films that are fully relaxed with only misfit dislocations at the epilayer/substrate interface.

Welser, R. E.↗