ALBERT

Description: The influence of light stimulation and photogenerated carriers on the process of dopant surface segregation during growth is studied in molecular beam epitaxially grown Si-doped GaAs structures. The magnitude of surface segregation decreases under illumination by above-bandgap photons, wherein splitting of the quasi Fermi levels reduces the band bending at the growth surface and raises the formation energy of compensating defects that can enhance atomic diffusion. We further show that light-stimulated epitaxy can be used as a practical approach to diminish dopant carry-forward in device structures and improve the performance of inverted modulation-doped quantum wells.

Description: The ternary alloy GaAs 1–x Bi x is a potentially important material for infrared light emitting devices, but its use has been limited by poor optical quality. We report on the synthesis of GaAs 1–x Bi x epi-layers that exhibit narrow, band edge photoluminescence similar to other ternary GaAs based alloys, e.g., In y Ga 1– y As. The measured spectral linewidths are as low as 14 meV and 37 meV at low temperature (6 K) and room temperature, respectively, and are less than half of previously reported values. The improved optical quality is attributed to the use of incident UV irradiation of the epitaxial surface and the presence of a partial surface coverage of bismuth in a surfactant layer during epitaxy. Comparisons of samples grown under illuminated and dark conditions provide insight into possible surface processes that may be altered by the incident UV light. The improved optical quality now opens up possibilities for the practical use of GaAs 1–x Bi x in optoelectronic devices.

Description: Context. In the era of massive spectroscopy surveys, automated stellar parameter pipelines and their validation are extremely important for an efficient scientific exploitation of the spectra. Aims. We undertake a critical and comprehensive comparison of the radial velocities and the main stellar atmosphere parameters for stars in common between the latest data releases from the Apache Point Observatory Galaxy Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) and the Large sky Area Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) surveys. Methods. APOGEE is a high-resolution (R = 22 500) spectroscopic survey with high signal-to-noise ratio that is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The latest data release, SDSS DR14, comprises APOGEE spectra for 263 444 stars, together with main stellar parameters and individual abundances for up to 20 chemical species. LAMOST is a low-resolution (R = 1800) optical spectroscopic survey also in the Northern Hemisphere, where 4000 fibers can be allocated simultaneously. LAMOST DR3 contains 3 177 995 stars. Results. A total of 42 420 dwarfs and giants stars are in common between the APOGEE DR14 – LAMOST DR3 stellar catalogs. A comparison between APOGEE and LAMOST RVs shows a clear offset of 4.54 ± 0.03 km s−1, with a dispersion of 5.8 km s−1, in the sense that APOGEE radial velocities are higher. We observe a small offset in the effective temperatures of about 13 K, with a scatter of 155 K. A small offset in [Fe/H] of about 0.06 dex together with a scatter of 0.13 dex is also observed. We note that the largest offset between the surveys occurs in the surface gravities. Using only surface gravities in calibrated red giants from APOGEE DR14, with which there are 24 074 stars in common, a deviation of 0.14 dex is found with substantial scatter (0.25 dex). There are 17 482 red giant stars in common between APOGEE DR14 and those in LAMOST tied to APOGEE DR12 via the code called the Cannon. There is generally good agreement between the two data-sets. However, we find that the differences in the stellar parameters depend on effective temperature. For metal-rich stars, a different trend for the [Fe/H] discrepancies is found. Surprisingly, we see no correlation between the internal APOGEE DR14 – DR12 differences in Teff and those in DR14 – LAMOST tied to DR12, where a correlation should be expected since LAMOST has been calibrated to APOGEE DR12. We find no correlation either between the [Fe/H] discrepancies, suggesting that LAMOST/Cannon is not well coupled to the APOGEE DR12 stellar parameter scale. An [Fe/H] dependence between the stellar parameters in APOGEE DR12 and those in DR14 is reported. We find a weak correlation in the differences between APOGEE DR14 – DR12 and LAMOST on DR12 surface gravity for stars hotter than 4800 K and in the log g range between 2.0 and 2.8 dex. We do not observe an [Fe/H] dependency in the gravity discrepancies.

Description: We provide homogeneous optical (UBVRI) and near-infrared (NIR, JHK) time series photometry for 254 cluster (ω Cen, M 4) and field RR Lyrae (RRL) variables. We ended up with more than 551 000 measurements, of which only 9% are literature data. For 94 fundamental (RRab) and 51 first overtones (RRc) we provide a complete optical/NIR characterization (mean magnitudes, luminosity amplitudes, epoch of the anchor point). The NIR light curves of these variables were adopted to provide new light-curve templates for both RRc and RRab variables. The templates for the J and the H bands are newly introduced, together with the use of the pulsation period to discriminate among the different RRab templates. To overcome subtle uncertainties in the fit of secondary features of the light curves we provide two independent sets of analytical functions (Fourier and periodic Gaussian series). The new templates were validated by using 26 ω Cen and Bulge RRLs. We find that the difference between the measured mean magnitude along the light curve and the mean magnitude estimated by using the template on a single randomly extracted phase point is better than 0.01 mag (σ = 0.04 mag). We also validated the template on variables for which at least three phase points were available, but without information on the phase of the anchor point. We find that the accuracy of the mean magnitudes is also ∼0.01 mag (σ = 0.04 mag). The new templates were applied to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) globular cluster Reticulum and by using literature data and predicted PLZ relations we find true distance moduli μ = 18.47 ± 0.10 (rand.) ± 0.03 (syst.) mag (J) and 18.49 ± 0.09 ± 0.05 mag (K). We also used literature optical and mid-infrared data and we found a mean μ of 18.47 ± 0.02 ± 0.06 mag, suggesting that Reticulum is ∼1 kpc closer than the LMC.