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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 1,603 records · Page 89
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Intel® DOE Grid Security Enhancement Security in Power System Edge. Final Technical Report

Intel® and its partners, Schneider Electric and LiveData Utilities, were tasked by Department of Energy to explore solutions in two areas of grid security. One, secure the existing communication network and the legacy devices with minimal disruption to the infrastructure, and second, to develop capabilities in semiconductor chips such that they come with built-in security to order to provide secure communication and protection from cyberattacks with minimal effort from operation technology (OT) application developers.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Nanostructure-containing organic-metal halide perovskites

Described herein is a device that includes an alkyl ammonium metal halide perovskite layer, and a nanostructured semiconductor layer in physical contact with the alkyl ammonium metal halide perovskite layer. The alkyl ammonium metal halide perovskite layer may include methyl ammonium cations. The alkyl ammonium metal halide perovskite layer may include anions of at least one of chlorine, bromine, astatine, and/or iodine. The alkyl ammonium metal halide perovskite layer may include cations of a metal in a 2+ valence state. The metal may include at least one of lead, tin, and/or germanium.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Isolation of Single Donors in ZnO

The shallow donor in zinc oxide (ZnO) is a promising semiconductor spin qubit with optical access. Single indium donors are isolated in a commercial ZnO substrate using plasma focused ion beam (PFIB) milling. Quantum emitters are identified optically by spatial and frequency filtering. The indium donor assignment is based on the optical bound exciton transition energy and magnetic dependence. The emission stability of these single donors in terms of both intensity and frequency, alongside their transition linewidths less than twice the lifetime limit, highlight the promise of single In donors as optically accessible spin qubits. Here, the optical stability of single donors after FIB fabrication is promising for optical device integration required for scalable quantum technologies based on single donors in direct band gap semiconductors.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Transistor roadmap projection using predictive full-band atomistic modeling

In this letter, a full band atomistic quantum transport tool is used to predict the performance of double gate metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) over the next 15 years for International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). As MOSFET channel lengths scale below 20 nm, the number of atoms in the device cross-sections becomes finite. At this scale, quantum mechanical effects play an important role in determining the device characteristics. These quantum effects can be captured with the quantum transport tool. Critical results show the ON-current degradation as a result of geometry scaling, which is in contrast to previous ITRS compact model calculations. Geometric scaling has significant effects on the ON-current by increasing source-to-drain (S/D) tunneling and altering the electronic band structure. By shortening the device gate length from 20 nm to 5.1 nm, the ratio of S/D tunneling current to the overall subthreshold OFF-current increases from 18% to 98%. Despite this ON-current degradation by scaling, the intrinsic device speed is projected to increase at a rate of at least 8% per year as a result of the reduction of the quantum capacitance.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Development of a high dynamic range spectroscopic system for observation of neutral hydrogen atom density distribution in Large Helical Device core plasma

We report development of a high dynamic range spectroscopic system comprising a spectrometer with 30% throughput and a camera with a low-noise fast-readout complementary metal-oxide semiconductor sensor. The system achieves a 10{sup 6} dynamic range (∼20 bit resolution) and an instrumental function approximated by a Voigt profile with Gauss and Lorentz widths of 31 and 0.31 pm, respectively, for 656 nm light. The application of the system for line profile observations of the Balmer-α emissions from high temperature plasmas generated in the Large Helical Device is also presented. In the observed line profiles, emissions are detected in far wings more than 1.0 nm away from the line center, equivalent to neutral hydrogen atom kinetic energies above 1 keV. We evaluate atom density distributions in the core plasma by analyzing the line profiles.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

Reducing Spontaneous Orientational Polarization via Semiconductor Dilution Improves OLED Efficiency and Lifetime

Spontaneous orientational polarization (SOP) in the electron-transport layer (ETL) of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) is increasingly recognized as a key factor influencing their performance. Here, we show that SOP is dramatically reduced in the common electron-transport material 2,2',2"-(1,3,5-benzinetriyl)-tris(1-phenyl-1-H-benzimidazole) by coevaporating it together with medium-density polyethylene. Eliminating SOP from the ETL of blue fluorescent OLEDs in this manner reduces their operating voltage by 0.5 V, increases their external quantum efficiency (EQE) by 30%, and leads to a threefold increase in device lifetime. We show that the EQE and lifetime improvements both originate from reduced exciton-polaron annihilation in the emissive layer, and that this leads to a functional relationship between the two quantities that can be used to quantify the rate of annihilation-induced degradation in the device. Furthermore, these results highlight a substantial opportunity to improve OLED performance by controlling SOP through semiconductor dilution and suggest that this capability can be used to systematically isolate and understand exciton-polaron degradation in the pursuit of stable blue OLEDs.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Multiplication of Freestanding Compound Semiconductor Membranes from a Single Wafer by Alternating Growth with 2D Materials

Single-crystal compound semiconductors, such as III-N and III-V, are important building blocks for functional devices due to their high electron mobilities, wide range of bandgaps, and excellent optoelectronic properties. However, current methods to produce their freestanding membranes for heterointegration suffer from slow processes or poor material quality. Here, we demonstrate an approach to grow and harvest multiple wafer-scale single-crystal membranes with high throughput by introducing weak van der Waals interfaces between epitaxial layers. This is achieved by directly growing two-dimensional (2D) materials on compound semiconductors in their native deposition systems, which enables alternating growth of 2D material and compound semiconductor epitaxial layers in a single run. Each epilayer in the multi-stack structure is then sequentially harvested by mechanical exfoliation, producing multiple freestanding single-crystal membranes with extremely high throughput from a single wafer, primed for integration in mixed-dimensional heterostructures.

Han, Ne Myo↗
DOE OSTI2022

Multiplication of Freestanding Compound Semiconductor Membranes from a Single Wafer by Alternating Growth with 2D Materials

Single-crystal compound semiconductors, such as III-N and III-V, are important building blocks for functional devices due to their high electron mobilities, wide range of bandgaps, and excellent optoelectronic properties. However, current methods to produce their freestanding membranes for heterointegration suffer from slow processes or poor material quality. Here, we demonstrate an approach to grow and harvest multiple wafer-scale single-crystal membranes with high throughput by introducing weak van der Waals interfaces between epitaxial layers. This is achieved by directly growing two-dimensional (2D) materials on compound semiconductors in their native deposition systems, which enables alternating growth of 2D material and compound semiconductor epitaxial layers in a single run. Each epilayer in the multi-stack structure is then sequentially harvested by mechanical exfoliation, producing multiple freestanding single-crystal membranes with extremely high throughput from a single wafer, primed for integration in mixed-dimensional heterostructures.

Han, Ne Myo↗
DOE OSTI2015

Low-frequency noise in MoSe{sub 2} field effect transistors

One of the important performance metrics of emerging nanoelectronic devices, including low dimensional Field Effect Transistors (FETs), is the magnitude of the low-frequency noise. Atomically thin 2D semiconductor channel materials such as MoX{sub 2} (X ≡ S, Se) have shown promising transistor characteristics such as I{sub ON}/I{sub OFF} ratio exceeding 10{sup 6} and low I{sub OFF}, making them attractive as channel materials for next generation nanoelectronic devices. However, MoS{sub 2} FETs demonstrated to date exhibit high noise levels under ambient conditions. In this letter, we report at least two orders of magnitude smaller values of Hooge parameter in a back-gated MoSe{sub 2} FET (10 atomic layers) with nickel S/D contacts and measured at atmospheric pressure and temperature. The channel dominated regime of noise was extracted from the total noise spectrum and is shown to follow a mobility fluctuation model with 1/f dependence. The low noise in MoSe{sub 2} FETs is comparable to other 1D nanoelectronic devices such as carbon nanotube FETs (CNT-FETs) and paves the way for use in future applications in precision sensing and communications.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2013

Antiferromagnetic half-metals, gapless half-metals, and spin gapless semiconductors: The D0{sub 3}-type Heusler alloys

High-spin-polarization materials are desired for the realization of high-performance spintronic devices. We combine recent experimental and theoretical findings to theoretically design several high-spin-polarization materials in binary D0{sub 3}-type Heusler alloys: gapless (zero-gap) half-metallic ferrimagnets of V{sub 3}Si and V{sub 3}Ge, half-metallic antiferromagnets of Mn{sub 3}Al and Mn{sub 3}Ga, half-metallic ferrimagnets of Mn{sub 3}Si and Mn{sub 3}Ge, and a spin gapless semiconductor of Cr{sub 3}Al. The high spin polarization, zero net magnetic moment, zero energy gap, and slight disorder compared to the ternary and quaternary Heusler alloys make these binary materials promising candidates for spintronic applications. All results are obtained by the electronic structure calculations from first-principles.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Method for fabricating pixelated silicon device cells

A method, apparatus and system for flexible, ultra-thin, and high efficiency pixelated silicon or other semiconductor photovoltaic solar cell array fabrication is disclosed. A structure and method of creation for a pixelated silicon or other semiconductor photovoltaic solar cell array with interconnects is described using a manufacturing method that is simplified compared to previous versions of pixelated silicon photovoltaic cells that require more microfabrication steps.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Colloidal Quantum Shells: An Emerging 2D Semiconductor for Energy Applications

Low-dimensional semiconductors hold strong promise for future energy applications. These nanomaterials are inexpensive to process and offer a broad spectrum of attractive quantum-mechanical properties. The notorious problem of low-dimensional nanostructures, however, lies in their limited performance under high energetic loads, when more than one exciton per particle is created. Multiple excitons undergo fast annihilation, causing efficiently roll-off in energy-intensive applications, including high-brightness LEDs, X-ray scintillators, and solar cells. In this prospective, we will highlight an emerging type of low-dimensional semiconductors that allows avoiding such multi-exciton (MX) energy losses. Recently demonstrated colloidal quantum shells benefit from the spatial separation of multiple excitons, which leads to extraordinary improvements to MX lifetimes and MX quantum yield. This makes quantum shell morphology an attractive candidate for solution-processed optical and electrical devices. In this Focus Review, we compare the optoelectronic properties of quantum shells against other low-dimensional semiconductors and discuss their emerging opportunities in solid-state lighting and energy-harvesting applications.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

Observation of Rashba zero-field spin splitting in a strained germanium 2D hole gas

We report the observation, through Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in the magnetoresistance, of spin splitting caused by the Rashba spin-orbit interaction in a strained Ge quantum well epitaxially grown on a standard Si(001) substrate. The Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations display a beating pattern due to the spin split Landau levels. The spin-orbit parameter and Rashba spin-splitting energy are found to be 1.0 × 10{sup −28 } eVm{sup 3} and 1.4 meV, respectively. This energy is comparable to 2D electron gases in III-V semiconductors, but substantially larger than in Si, and illustrates the suitability of Ge for modulated hole spin transport devices.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

Wafer-Scale Synthesis of 2D Materials by an Amorphous Phase-Mediated Crystallization Approach

The interest in the wafer-scale growth of two-dimensional (2D) materials, including transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), has been rising for transitioning from lab-scale devices to commercial-scale systems. Among various synthesis techniques, physical vapor deposition, such as pulsed laser deposition (PLD), has shown promise for the wafer-scale growth of 2D materials. However, due to the high volatility of chalcogen atoms (e.g., S and Se), films deposited by PLD usually suffer from a lack of stoichiometry and chalcogen deficiency. To mitigate this issue, excess chalcogen is necessary during the deposition, which results in problems like uniformity or not being repeatable. This study demonstrates a condensed-phase or amorphous phase-mediated crystallization (APMC) approach for the wafer-scale synthesis of 2D materials. This method uses a room-temperature PLD process for the deposition and formation of amorphous precursors with controlled thicknesses, followed by a post-deposition crystallization process to convert the amorphous materials to crystalline structures. This approach maintains the stoichiometry of the deposited materials throughout the deposition and crystallization process and enables the large-scale synthesis of crystalline 2D materials (e.g., MoS 2 and WSe 2 ) on Si/SiO 2 substrates, which is critical for future wafer-scale electronics. We show that the thickness of the layers can be digitally controlled by the number of laser pulses during the PLD phase. Optical spectroscopy is used to monitor the crystallization dynamics of amorphous layers as a function of annealing temperature. The crystalline quality, domain sizes, and the number of layers were explored using nanoscale and atomistic characterization (e.g., AFM, STEM, and EDS) along with electrical characterization to explore process–structure–performance relationships. Finally, this growth technique is a promising method that could potentially be adopted in conventional semiconductor industries for wafer-scale manufacturing of next-generation electronic and optoelectronic devices.

2D electronics↗
DOE OSTI2018

Donor/Acceptor Charge-Transfer States at Two-Dimensional Metal Halide Perovskite and Organic Semiconductor Interfaces

Metal halide perovskite semiconductors with small exciton binding energy have been widely used in perovskite solar cells and achieved rapid progress in terms of device performance. However, the strong excitonic nature of two-dimensional (2D) perovskites with small n values remains underexploited (n represents the number of inorganic monolayer sheets sandwiched between bulky organic cation layers). In this work, we report experimental evidence of donor/acceptor charge-transfer (CT) states formed at 2D metal halide perovskite/organic semiconductor heterojunctions, with a corresponding increase in photocurrent production for these excitonic materials. Furthermore, it is found that the size of the organic cation in the 2D perovskite layer plays a critical role in the CT process. Here, the ability to dissociate excitons in 2D perovskites by interfacing with an organic semiconductor in a donor/acceptor configuration opens up new opportunities for exploiting the excitonic nature of low-dimensional perovskites in applications such as solar cells, photodetectors, light-emitting devices, and light–matter interactions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Metal–semiconductor transition in atomically thin Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}Co{sub 2}O{sub 8} nanosheets

Two-dimensional layered materials have attracted considerable attention since the discovery of graphene. Here we demonstrate that the layered Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}Co{sub 2}O{sub 8} (BSCO) can be mechanically exfoliated into single- or few-layer nanosheets. The BSCO nanosheets with four or more layers display bulk metallic characteristics, while the nanosheets with three or fewer layers have a layer-number-dependent semiconducting characteristics. Charge transport in bilayer or trilayer BSCO nanosheets exhibits Mott 2D variable-range-hopping (VRH) conduction throughout 2 K–300 K, while the charge transport in monolayers follows the Mott-VRH law above a crossover temperature of 75 K, and is governed by Efros and Shklovskii-VRH laws below 75 K. Disorder potentials and Coulomb charging both contribute to the transport gap of these nanodevices. Our study reveals a distinct layer number-dependent metal-to-semiconductor transition in a new class of 2D materials, and is of great significance for both fundamental investigations and practical devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Distinguishing bulk and surface recombination in CdTe thin films and solar cells using time-resolved terahertz and photoluminescence spectroscopies

Understanding the nature of recombination and its dependence on defects and interfaces is essential for engineering materials and contacts for higher open circuit voltage (V oc ) and power conversion efficiency in photovoltaic (PV) devices. Time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) has conventionally been used to evaluate recombination, but carrier redistribution often dominates the response at short times. In this work, we report on the quantification of carrier dynamics and recombination mechanisms by complementary use of both time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy (TRTS) and TRPL combined with numerical modeling of the continuity equations and Poisson’s equation. We have demonstrated this approach using CdTe thin films. A thin film stack with CdTe fabricated by vapor transport deposition and treated with CdCl 2 exhibited a bulk lifetime of 1.7 ± 0.1 ns, negligible CdTe/CdS interface recombination velocity, and back surface recombination velocity of 6.3 ± 1.3 x10 4 cm/s. In contrast, a film stack without CdCl 2 treatment had a bulk lifetime of only 68 ± 12 ps and a higher interface recombination velocity of 4 ± 2 x10 8 cm/s. By determining the locus and mechanisms of performance-limiting recombination, we can accelerate the development of thin-film PVs with higher V oc and efficiency. While the method has been demonstrated here using CdTe, it is also applicable to perovskites, Cu(InGa)Se 2 , Cu2ZnSn(S,Se) 4, and emerging technologies.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Impact of Arsenic- and Indium-Terminated InGaAs Stressors on Carrier Confinement, Strain, Defects, and Transport Properties of Tensile-Strained Ge

Device-quality tensile-strained Ge (ε-Ge) grown on a large bandgap semiconductor with superior electrical and optical carrier confinement is essential for group-IV-based optoelectronics. Properties of ε-Ge active layers synthesized on In 0.24 Ga 0.76 As buffers with two different surface terminations─arsenic-rich and indium-rich─were experimentally demonstrated, highlighting the factors not considered in theoretical calculations. High-resolution X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy analyses of these ε-Ge/In 0.24 Ga 0.76 As heterostructures confirmed the fully strained (1.6%) and partially relaxed (0.82%) nature of the ε-Ge bonded with arsenic-terminated (Ge As-terminated ) and indium-terminated (Ge In-terminated ) In 0.24 Ga 0.76 As stressors, respectively. High-resolution cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy showed a coherent, sharp, and fully strained ε-Ge/In 0.24 Ga 0.76 As heterointerface in the Ge As-terminated heterostructure, whereas microtwin defects were present in the Ge In-terminated heterostructure. These heterostructures were further characterized by evaluating the minority carrier lifetimes, high for Ge As-terminated (525 ns) and low for Ge In-terminated (69 ns), using the photoconductive decay technique. Moreover, band alignment was constructed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, where the Ge As-terminated heterostructure revealed that both holes and electrons were confined within the ε-Ge active layer as a type-I band alignment with ΔE V, As-terminated = 0.22 eV and ΔE C,As-terminated = 0.38 eV. On the other hand, the Ge In-terminated heterostructure exhibited a type-II band alignment with ΔE V,In-terminated = – 0.02 eV and ΔE C,In-terminated = 0.53 eV. Furthermore, the magnetotransport properties revealed high mobility (321 cm 2 /(V s)) with single-electron transport in Ge As-terminated heterostructure and low mobility (3.34 cm 2 /(V s)) with multihole transport in the Ge In-terminated heterostructure. Therefore, preferring the ε-Ge on the arsenic-rich surface of In 0.24 Ga 0.76 As stressor over the indium-rich surface during material synthesis offers device-quality materials with high carrier lifetime and superior carrier confinement, which can provide an opportunity to fabricate efficient group-IV-based optoelectronic devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗