ALBERT

Description: The coherent superposition of two anti-phased thermal wave fields creates a zone of destructive interference which is extremely sensitive to the presence of defects without any reference measurements. Combining a high power laser with a spatial light modulator allows modulating phase and amplitude of an illuminated surface that induces spatially and temporally controlled thermal wave fields. The position and depth of defects are reconstructed from analysis of the amplitude and phase of the resulting photothermal signal. The proposed concept is experimentally validated and supported by numerical modeling.

Description: A rigorous framework to study direct band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) in homo- and hetero-junction semiconductor nanodevices is introduced. An interaction Hamiltonian coupling conduction and valence bands (CVBs) is derived using a multiband envelope method. A general form of the BTBT probability is then obtained from the linear response to the “CVBs interaction” that drives the system out of equilibrium. Simple expressions in terms of the one-electron spectral function are developed to compute the BTBT current in two- and three-dimensional semiconductor structures. Additionally, a two-band envelope equation based on the Flietner model of imaginary dispersion is proposed for the same purpose. In order to characterize their accuracy and differences, both approaches are compared with full-band, atomistic quantum transport simulations of Ge, InAs, and InAs-Si Esaki diodes. As another numerical application, the BTBT current in InAs-Si nanowire tunnel field-effect transistors is computed. It is found that both approaches agree with high accuracy. The first one is considerably easier to conceive and could be implemented straightforwardly in existing quantum transport tools based on the effective mass approximation to account for BTBT in nanodevices.

Description: The objective of this letter is to convey two essential principles of biological computing— synchronization and memory —in an electronic circuit with two van der Pol (vdP) oscillators coupled via a memristive device. The coupling was mediated by connecting the gate terminals of two programmable unijunction transistors through a resistance-capacitance network comprising an Ag-TiO x -Al memristive device. In the high resistance state the memristance was in the order of MΩ, which leads to two independent self-sustained oscillators characterized by the different frequencies f 1 and f 2 and no phase relation between the oscillations. Depending on the mediated pulse amplitude, the memristive device switched to the low resistance state after a few cycles and a frequency adaptation and phase locking were observed. The experimental results are underlined by theoretically considering a system of two coupled vdP equations. This experiment may pave the way to larger neuromorphic networks in which the coupling parameters (through memristive devices) can vary in time and strength and are able to remember the history of applied electrical potentials.

Description: In this work, we report on kinetic Monte-Carlo calculations of resistive switching and the underlying growth dynamics of filaments in an electrochemical metallization device consisting of an Ag/TiO 2 /Pt sandwich-like thin film system. The developed model is not limited to (i) fast time scale dynamics and (ii) only one growth and dissolution cycle of metallic filaments. In particular, we present results from the simulation of consecutive cycles. We find that the numerical results are in excellent agreement with experimentally obtained data. Additionally we observe an unexpected filament growth mode that is in contradiction to the widely acknowledged picture of filament growth but consistent with recent experimental findings.

Description: A new ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometer operating at 94 GHz to investigate paramagnetic centers on single crystal surfaces is described. It is particularly designed to study paramagnetic centers on well-defined model catalysts using epitaxial thin oxide films grown on metal single crystals. The EPR setup is based on a commercial Bruker E600 spectrometer, which is adapted to ultrahigh vacuum conditions using a home made Fabry Perot resonator. The key idea of the resonator is to use the planar metal single crystal required to grow the single crystalline oxide films as one of the mirrors of the resonator. EPR spectroscopy is solely sensitive to paramagnetic species, which are typically minority species in such a system. Hence, additional experimental characterization tools are required to allow for a comprehensive investigation of the surface. The apparatus includes a preparation chamber hosting equipment, which is required to prepare supported model catalysts. In addition, surface characterization tools such as low energy electron diffraction (LEED)/Auger spectroscopy, temperature programmed desorption (TPD), and infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRAS) are available to characterize the surfaces. A second chamber used to perform EPR spectroscopy at 94 GHz has a room temperature scanning tunneling microscope attached to it, which allows for real space structural characterization. The heart of the UHV adaptation of the EPR experiment is the sealing of the Fabry-Perot resonator against atmosphere. To this end it is possible to use a thin sapphire window glued to the backside of the coupling orifice of the Fabry Perot resonator. With the help of a variety of stabilization measures reducing vibrations as well as thermal drift it is possible to accumulate data for a time span, which is for low temperature measurements only limited by the amount of liquid helium. Test measurements show that the system can detect paramagnetic species with a density of approximately 5 × 10 11 spins/cm 2 , which is comparable to the limit obtained for the presently available UHV-EPR spectrometer operating at 10 GHz (X-band). Investigation of electron trapped centers in MgO(001) films shows that the increased resolution offered by the experiments at W-band allows to identify new paramagnetic species, that cannot be differentiated with the currently available methodology.

Description: We have measured the microwave resistance of highly conducting perovskite oxide SrMoO 3 thin film coplanar waveguides. The epitaxial SrMoO 3 thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition and showed low mosaicity and smooth surfaces with a root mean square roughness below 0.3 nm. Layer-by-layer growth could be achieved for film thicknesses up to 400 nm as monitored by reflection high-energy electron diffraction and confirmed by X-ray diffraction. We obtained a constant microwave resistivity of 29  μ Ω·cm between 0.1 and 20 GHz by refining the frequency dependence of the transmission coefficients. Our result shows that SrMoO 3 is a viable candidate as a highly conducting electrode material for all-oxide microwave electronic devices.

Description: The transformation of multi-dimensional potential energy surfaces (PESs) from a grid-based multimode representation to an analytical one is a standard procedure in quantum chemical programs. Within the framework of linear least squares fitting, a simple and highly efficient algorithm is presented, which relies on a direct product representation of the PES and a repeated use of Kronecker products. It shows the same scalings in computational cost and memory requirements as the potfit approach. In comparison to customary linear least squares fitting algorithms, this corresponds to a speed-up and memory saving by several orders of magnitude. Different fitting bases are tested, namely, polynomials, B-splines, and distributed Gaussians. Benchmark calculations are provided for the PESs of a set of small molecules.

Description: In order to reduce the operation count in vibration correlation methods, e.g., vibrational configuration interaction (VCI) theory, a tensor decomposition approach has been applied to the analytical representations of multidimensional potential energy surfaces (PESs). It is shown that a decomposition of the coefficients within the individual n -mode coupling terms in a multimode expansion of the PES is feasible and allows for convenient contractions of one-dimensional integrals with these newly determined factor matrices. Deviations in the final VCI frequencies of a set of small molecules were found to be negligible once the rank of the factors matrices is chosen appropriately. Recommendations for meaningful ranks are provided and different algorithms are discussed.