Measurements of Nighttime Nitrate Radical Concentrations in the Atmosphere by Long-Path Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy

The long-path differential optical absorption spectroscopy （LP-DOAS） technique was developed to mea- sure nighttime atmospheric nitrate radical （NO3） concentrations. An optimized retrieval method, resulting in a small residual structure and low detection limits, was developed to retrieve NO3. The time series of the NO3 concentration were collected from 17 to 24 March, 2006, where a nighttime average value of 15.8 ppt was observed. The interfering factors and errors are also discussed. These results indicate that the DOAS technique provides an essential tool for the quantification of NO3 concentration and in the study of its effects upon nighttime chemistry.

Exciton optical absorption in asymmetric ZnO/ZnMgO double quantum wells with mixed phases

The optical absorption of exciton interstate transition in Zn1-xlMgxlO/ZnO/Zn1-xcMgxcO/ZnO/Zn1-xrMgxrO asymmetric double quantum wells(ADQWs)with mixed phases of zinc-blende and wurtzite in Zn1-xMgxO for 0.37<x<0.62 is discussed.The mixed phases are taken into account by our weight model of fitting.The states of excitons are obtained by a finite difference method and a variational procedure in consideration of built-in electric fields(BEFs)and the Hartree potential.The optical absorption coefficients(OACs)of exciton interstate transition are obtained by the density matrix method.The results show that Hartree potential bends the conduction and valence bands,whereas a BEF tilts the bands and the combined effect enforces electrons and holes to approach the opposite interfaces to decrease the Coulomb interaction effects between electrons and holes.Furthermore,the OACs indicate a transformation between direct and indirect excitons in zinc-blende ADQWs due to the quantum confinement effects.There are two kinds of peaks corresponding to wurtzite and zinc-blende structures respectively,and the OACs merge together under some special conditions.The computed result of exciton interband emission energy agrees well with a previous experiment.Our conclusions are helpful for further relative theoretical studies,experiments,and design of devices consisting of these quantum well structures.

Visible to deep ultraviolet range optical absorption of electron irradiated borosilicate glass

To study the room-temperature stable defects induced by electron irradiation, commercial borosilicate glasses were irradiated by 1.2 MeV electrons and then ultraviolet（UV） optical absorption（OA） spectra were measured. Two characteristic bands were revealed before irradiation, and they were attributed to silicon dangling bond（E＇-center） and Fe^3＋species,respectively. The existence of Fe3＋was confirmed by electron paramagnetic resonance（EPR） measurements. After irradiation, the absorption spectra revealed irradiation-induced changes, while the content of E＇-center did not change in the deep ultraviolet（DUV） region. The slightly reduced OA spectra at 4.9 eV was supposed to transform Fe3＋species to Fe^2＋species and this transformation leads to the appearance of 4.3 eV OA band. By calculating intensity variation, the transformation of Fe was estimated to be about 5% and the optical absorption cross section of Fe2＋species is calculated to be 2.2 times larger than that of Fe^3＋species. Peroxy linkage（POL, ≡Si–O–O–Si≡）, which results in a 3.7 eV OA band, is speculated not to be from Si–O bond break but from Si–O–B bond, Si–O–Al bond, or Si–O–Na bond break. The co-presence defect with POL is probably responsible for 2.9-eV OA band.

Optical absorption in asymmetrical Gaussian potential quantum dot under the application of an electric field

We theoretically investigate the optical absorption coefficient(OAC)in asymmetrical Gaussian potential quantum dots subject to an applied electric field.Confined wave functions together with energies of electron energies in an effective mass approximation framework are obtained.The OAC is expressed according to the iterative method and the compact-density-matrix approach.Based on our results,OAC is sensitively dependent on external electric field together with the incident optical intensity.Additionally,peak shifts into greater energy as the quantum dot radius decrease.Moreover,the parameters of Gaussian potential have a significant influence on the OAC.

Effects of shape and dopant on structural, optical absorption,Raman, and vibrational properties of silver and copper quantum clusters: A density functional theory study

We investigate the effects of shape and single-atom doping on the structural, optical absorption, Raman, and vibra- tional properties of Ag13, Ag12CUl, CUl3, and Cul2Agl clusters by using the （time-dependent） density functional the- ory. The results show that the most stable structures are cuboctahedron （COh） for Ag13 and icosahedron （Ih） for CUl3, Agl2CUlcore, and Cul2Aglsur. In the visible-near infrared optical absorption, the transitions consist of the interband and the intraband transitions. Moreover, red shifts are observed as follows： 1） clusters change from Agl2CUlcore to Ag13 to Ag12Culsur with the same motifs, 2） the shapes of pure Agl3 and Agl2CUlcore clusters change from COh to Ih to decahe- dron （Dh）, 3） the shape of Agl2CUlsur clusters changes from Ih to COh to Dh, and 4） the shapes of pure CU13 and Cu12Agl clusters change from Ih to Dh to COb. All of the Raman and vibrational spectra exhibit many significant vibrational modes related to the shapes and the compositions of the clusters. The ranges of vibrational spectra of Ag13, Agl2CUl or CU13, and Cu12Agl clusters become narrower and the vibrational intensities increase as the shape of the clusters changes from Ih to Dh to COh.

Double band-inversions of bilayer phosphorene under strain and their effects on optical absorption

Strain is a powerful tool to engineer the band structure of bilayer phosphorene.The band gap can be decreased by vertical tensile strain or in-plane compressive strain.At a critical strain,the gap is closed and the bilayer phosphorene is turn to be a semi-Dirac semimetal material.If the strain is stronger than the criterion,a band-inversion occurs and it re-happens when the strain is larger than another certain value.For the zigzag bilayer phosphorene ribbon,there are two edge band dispersions and each dispersion curve represents two degenerate edge bands.When the first band-inversion happens,one of the edge band dispersion disappears between the band-cross points while the other survives,and the latter will be eliminated between another pair of band-cross points of the second band-inversion.The optical absorption of bilayer phosphorene is highly polarized along armchair direction.When the strain is turn on,the optical absorption edge changes.The absorption rate for armchair polarized light is decreased by gap shrinking,while that for zigzag polarized light increases.The bandtouch and band-inversion respectively result in the sublinear and linear of absorption curve versus light frequency in low frequency limit.

Effects of Electron-Phonon Interaction on Linear and Nonlinear Optical Absorption in Cylindrical Quantum Wires

The electron-phonon interaction influences on lineax and nonfineax optical absorption in cylindrical quantum wires （CQW） with an infinite confining potential axe investigated. The optical absorption coefficients are obtained by using the compact-density-matrix approach and iterative method, and the numerical results are presented for GaAs CQW. The results show that the electron-phonon interaction makes a distinct influence on optical absorption in CQW. The electron-phonon interaction on the wave functions of electron dominates the values of absorption coefficients and the correction of the electron-phonon effect on the energies of the electron makes the absorption peaks blue shift and become wider. Moreover, the electron-phonon interaction influence on optical absorption with an infinite confining potential is different from that with a finite confining potential.

Linear and Nonlinear Optical Absorptions of a Donor Impurity in Spherical Quantum Dots

An investigation of the optical properties of a hydrogenic donor in spherical parabolic quantum dots hasbeen performed by using the matrix diagonalization method.The optical absorption coefficient between the ground(L=0) and the first excited state (L=1) have been examined based on the computed energies and wave functions.The results are presented as a function of the incident photon energy for the different values of the confinement strength.These results show the effects of the quantum size and the impurity on the optical absorption coefficient of a donorimpurity quantum dot.

Optical Absorption Enhancement Effects of Silver Nanodisk Arrays in the Application of Silicon Solar Cell

Surface plasmon resonance of noble metal nanoparticles leads to the optical absorption enhancement effects,which have great potential applications in solar cell.By using the general numerical method of discrete dipole approximation （DDA）,we study the absorption and scattering properties of two-dimensional square silver nanodisks （2D SSN） arrays on the single crystal silicon solar cell.Based on the effective reflective index model of the single crystal silicon solar cell,we investigate the optical enhancement absorption of light energy by varying the light incident direction,particle size,aspect ratio,and interparticle spacing of the silver nanodisks.The peak values and position of the optical extinction spectra of the 2D square arrays of noble metal nanodisks are obtained with the different array structures.

Effect of Si δ-Doping on the Linear and Nonlinear Optical Absorptions and Refractive Index Changes in InAlN/GaN Single Quantum Wells

In the framework of effective mass approximation, we theoretically investigate the electronic structure of the Si δ-doped InAIN/GaN single quantum well by solving numerically the coupled equations Schrodinger-Poisson self-consistently. The linear, nonlinear optical absorption coefficients and relative refractive index changes are calculated as functions of the doping concentration and its thickness. The obtained results show that the position and the amplitude of the linear and total optical absorption coefficients and the refractive index changes can be modified by varying the doping concentration and its thickness. In addition, it is found that the maximum of the optical absorption can be red-shifted or blue-shifted by varying the doping concentration. The obtained results are important for the design of various electronic components such as high-power FETs and infrared photonic devices.

Dependence of Optical Absorption in Silicon Nanostructures on Size of Silicon Nanoparticles

The amorphous silicon nanoparticles （Si NPs） embedded in silicon nitride （SiNx） films prepared by helicon wave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition （HWP-CVD） technique are studied. From Raman scattering investigation, we determine that the deposited film has the structure of silicon nanocrystals embedded in silicon nitride （nc-Si/SiNx） thin film at a certain hydrogen dilution amount. The analysis of optical absorption spectra implies that the Si NPs is affected by quantum size effects and has the nature of an indirect-band-gap semiconductor. Further, considering the effects of the mean Si NP size and their dispersion on oscillator strength, and quantum-confinement, we obtain an analytical expression for the spectral absorbance of ensemble samples. Gaussian as well as lognormal size-distributions of the Si NPs are considered for optical absorption coefficient calculations. The influence of the particle size-distribution on the optical absorption spectra was systematically studied. We present the fitting of the optical absorption experimental data with our model and discuss the results.

Effect of Initialization Technical Parameters on Optical Absorption of Ge_2Sb_2Te_5 Thin Films

The optical absorption properties of phase-change optical recording thin films subjected to various initialization conditions were investigated. The effects of initialization power and velocity on optical constants of the Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films were also studied. The energy gap of Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films subjected to various initialization conditions was also obtained. It was found that the optical energy gap of the Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films increased with either increasing initialization laser power or decreasing initialization velocity, with peak of 0.908 eV at laser power of 1000 mW or initialization velocity of 4.0 m/s, but the continued increasing initialization laser power or decreasing initialization velocity resulted in the decrease of the optical energy gap. The change of the optical energy gap was discussed on the basis of amorphous crystalline transformation.

Excitonic optical absorption in semiconductors under intense terahertz radiation

The excitonic optical absorption of GaAs bulk semiconductors under intense terahertz （THz） radiation is investigated numerically. The method of solving initial-value problems, combined with the perfect matched layer technique, is used to calculate the optical susceptibility. In the presence of a driving THz field, in addition to the usual exciton peaks, 2p replica of the dark 2p exciton and even-THz-photon-sidebands of the main exciton resonance emerge in the continuum above the band edge and below the main exciton resonance. Moreover, to understand the shift of the position of the main exciton peak under intense THz radiation, it is necessary to take into consideration both the dynamical Franz-Keldysh effect and ac Stark effect simultaneously. For moderate frequency fields, the main exciton peak decreases and broadens due to the field-induced ionization of the excitons with THz field increasing. However, for high frequency THz fields, the characteristics of the exciton recur even under very strong THz fields, which accords with the recent experimental results qualitatively.

Optical absorption and electromagnetically induced transparency in semiconductor quantum well driven by intense terahertz field

An approach for solving the excitonic absorption in a semiconductor quantum well driven by an intense terahertz field is presented.The formalism relies on the stationary single-photon Schro¨dinger equation in the full quantum mechanical framework.The optical absorption dynamics in both weak and strong couplings are discussed and compared.The excitonic absorption spectra show the Autler-Townes doublets for the resonance terahertz field,a replica peak for the non-resonance terahertz field,and the electromagnetically induced transparency phenomenon for modulating the decay rate of the second electron state in the weak coupling.In particular,the electromagnetically induced transparency phenomenon window range is discussed.In the strong coupling region,the multi-order energy level resonance splitting due to the strong optical field is found.There are three（non-resonance terahertz field） or four（resonance terahertz field） peaks in the optical absorption spectra.This work provides a simple and convenient approach to deal with the optical absorption in the exciton system.

Hydrogenic donor impurity states and intersubband optical absorption spectra of monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides in dielectric environments

The hydrogenic donor impurity states and intersubband optical absorption spectra in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides(ML TMDs) under dielectric environments are theoretically investigated based on a two-dimensional(2D)nonorthogonal associated Laguerre basis set. The 2D quantum confinement effect together with the strongly reduced dielectric screening results in the strong attractive Coulomb potential between electron and donor ion, with exceptionally large impurity binding energy and huge intersubband oscillator strength. These lead to the strong interaction of the electron with light in a 2D regime. The intersubband optical absorption spectra exhibit strong absorption lines of the non-hydrogenic Rydberg series in the mid-infrared range of light. The strength of the Coulomb potential can be controlled by changing the dielectric environment. The electron affinity difference leads to charge transfer between ML TMD and the dielectric environment, generating the polarization-electric field in ML TMD accompanied by weakening the Coulomb interaction strength. The larger the dielectric constant of the dielectric environment, the more the charge transfer is, accompanied by the larger polarization-electric field and the stronger dielectric screening. The dielectric environment is shown to provide an efficient tool to tune the wavelength and output of the mid-infrared intersubband devices based on ML TMDs.

Optical Absorption Properties of Electron Beam Evaporated a-Si_(1-x)Gd_x Films

Optical absorption properties of electron beam evaporated a-Si films(a-Si_(1-x)Gd_x films)are studied for various composition x.It is shown from the experimental results that variation of chemical composition in this kind of materials will lead to a change in near infrared absorption.For 0.1 at%<x<1.0 at%,the changes of op- tical absorption in the films are more sensitive.The optical band gap narrows with increasing content x from 1.52 to 1.36 eV.Doping Gd element properly will be able to compensate the dangling bonds in a-Si films to improve thermal stability and mechanical properties of a-Si films.

2D Nb_(2)CT_(x) MXene/MoS_(2) heterostructure construction for nonlinear optical absorption modulation

Two-dimensional(2D)nonlinear optical mediums with high and tunable light modulation capability can significantly stimulate the development of ultrathin,compact,and integrated optoelectronics devices and photonic elements.2D carbides and nitrides of transition metals(MXenes)are a new class of 2D materials with excellent intrinsic and strong light-matter interaction characteristics.However,the current understanding of their photo-physical properties and strategies for improving optical performance is insufficient.To address this issue,we rationally designed and in situ synthesized a 2D Nb_(2)C/MoS_(2) heterostructure that outperforms pristine Nb2C in both linear and nonlinear optical performance.Excellent agreement between experimental and theoretical results demonstrated that the Nb_(2)C/MoS_(2) inherited the preponderance of Nb_(2)C and MoS_(2) in absorption at different wavelengths,resulting in the broadband enhanced optical absorption characteristics.In addition to linear optical modulation,we also achieved stronger near infrared nonlinear optical modulation,with a nonlinear absorption coefficient of Nb_(2)C/MoS_(2) being more than two times that of the pristine Nb_(2)C.These results were supported by the band alinement model which was determined by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS)experiment and first-principal theory calculation.The presented facile synthesis approach and robust light modulation strategy pave the way for broadband optoelectronic devices and optical modulators.

Transient Intersubband Optical Absorption in Double Quantum Well Structure

The microscopic equations of motion including many-body effects are derived to study the intersubband polarization in the double quantum well structure induced by an ultrafast pumping infrared light. Based on the selfconsistent field theory, the transient probe absorption coefficient is calculated. These calculations are beyond the previous steady-state assumption. Transient probe absorption spectra are calculated under different pumping intensity and various pump probe delay.

Microstructure and optical absorption of Au-MgF2 nanoparticle cermet films

The microstructure and optical absorption of Au-MgF2 nanoparticle cermet films with different Au contents are studied. The microstructural analysis shows that the films are mainly composed of the amorphous MgF2 matrix with embedded fcc Au nanoparticles with a mean size of 9.8-21.4nm. Spectral analysis suggests that the surface plasma resonance （SPR） absorption peak of Au particles appears at λ=492-537nm. With increasing Au content, absorption peak intensity increases, profile narrows and location redshifts. Theoretical absorption spectra are calculated based on Maxwell-Garnett theory and compared with experimental spectra.

Influences of hydrogen dilution on microstructure and optical absorption characteristics of nc-SiO_x:H film

By using the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition（PECVD） technique, amorphous silicon oxide films containing nanocrystalline silicon grain（nc-Si O x：H） are deposited, and the bonding configurations and optical absorption properties of the films are investigated. The grain size can be well controlled by varying the hydrogen and oxygen content,and the largest size is obtained when the hydrogen dilution ratio R is 33. The results show that the crystallinity and the grain size of the film first increased and then decreased as R increased. The highest degree of crystallinity is obtained at R = 30.The analyses of bonding characteristics and light absorption characteristics show that the incorporation of hydrogen leads to an increase of overall bonding oxygen content in the film, and the film porosity first increases and then decreases. When R = 30, the film can be more compact, the optical absorption edge of the film is blue shifted, and the film has a lower activation energy.