Brillouin optical time-domain analysis for geotechnical monitoring

In this paper, we show some recent experimental applications of Brillouin optical time-domain analysis （BOTDA） based sensors for geotechnical monitoring. In particular, how these sensors can be applied to detecting early movements of soil slopes by the direct embedding of suitable fiber cables in the ground is presented. Furthermore, the same technology can be used to realize innovative inclinometers, as well as smart foundation anchors.

High gain-bandwidth product Ge/Si tunneling avalanche photodiode with high-frequency tunneling effect

This study presents a theoretical investigation of a novel Ge/Si tunneling avalanche photodiode（TAPD）with an ultra-thin barrier layer between the absorption and p＋ contact layer. A high-frequency tunneling effect is introduced into the structure of the barrier layer to increase the high-frequency response when frequency is larger than 0.1 GHz, and the-3 dB bandwidth of the device increases evidently. The results demonstrate that the avalanche gain and-3 dB bandwidth of the TAPD can be influenced by the thickness and bandgap of the barrier layer.When the barrier thickness is 2 nm and the bandgap is 4.5 eV, the avalanche gain loss is negligible and the gainbandwidth product of the TAPD is 286 GHz, which is 18% higher than that of an avalanche photodiode without a barrier layer. The total noise in the TAPD was an order of magnitude smaller than that in APD without barrier layer.

Numerical simulation of the performance of the a-Si:H/a-SiGe:H/a-SiGe:H tandem solar cell

The computer program AMPS-1D（analysis of microelectronic and photonic structures） has been employed to simulate the performance of the a-Si：H/a-SiGe：H/a-SiGe：H triple-junction solar cell at the radiation of AM1.5G（100 mW/cm2/ and room temperature. Firstly, three sub-cells with band gaps of 1.8, 1.6 and 1.4 eV are simulated, respectively. The simulation results indicate that the density of defect states is an important factor, which affects the open circuit voltage and the filling factor of the solar cell. The two-step current matching method and the control variate method are employed in the simulation. The results show that the best solar cell performance would be achieved when the intrinsic layer thickness from top to bottom is set to be 70, 180 and 220 nm, respectively. We also optimize the tunnel-junction structure of the solar cell reasonably, the simulation results show that the open circuit voltage, filling factor and conversion efficiency are all improved and the S-shape current density–voltage curve disappears during optimizing the tunnel-junction structure. Besides, the diagram of the energy band and the carrier recombination rate are also analyzed. Finally, our simulation data are compared to the experimental data published in other literature. It is demonstrated that the numerical results agree with the experimental ones very well.