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.

Optical Characterization of 4H-,6H-and 15R-SiC Crystals

The optical absorption of 4H-, 6H- and 15R-SiC single crystals has been measured at room temperature. The band gaps were calculated, and the reasons for band gap shrinking were discussed. Influence of free carder concentration was considered. The fast- and second-order Raman spectra of 4H-, 6H- and 15R-SiC samples were analyzed. Raman spectra of disorder structure in 6H-SiC grown by Lely method were given and simulated. The low wave-number Raman spectrum is a reliable method to distinguish the SiC polytypes. We analyzed the similarity of the second-order Raman spectra of all polytypes.

Optical properties of core/shell spherical quantum dots

In this study,the effects of quantum dot size on the binding energy,radiative lifetime,and optical absorption coefficient of exciton state in both GaN/AlxGa1-xN core/shell and AlxGa1-xN/GaN inverted core/shell quantum dot structures are studied.For the GaN/AlxGa1-xN core/shell structure,the variation trend of binding energy is the same as that of radiation lifetime,both of which increase first and then decrease with the increase of core size.For AlxGa1-xN/GaN inverted core/shell structure,the binding energy decreases first and then increases with core size increasing,and the trends of radiation lifetime varying with core size under different shell sizes are different.For both structures,when the photon energy is approximately equal to the binding energy,the peak value of the absorption coefficient appears,and there will be different peak shifts under different conditions.

Optical and structural properties of Ge-ion-implanted fused silica after annealing in different ambient conditions

Ge^＋ ions are implanted into fused silica glass at room temperature and a fluence of 1 × 10^17 cm^-2. The as-implanted samples are annealed in O2, N2 and Ar atmospheres separately. Ge^0, GeO and GeO2 coexist in the as-implanted and annealed samples. Annealing in different atmospheres at 600℃ leads each composite to change its content. After annealing at 1000℃, there remains some amount of Ge^0 in the substrates. However, the content of Ge decreases due to out-diffusion. After annealing in N2, Si N composite is formed. The absorption peak of GeO appears at 240 nm after annealing in O2 atmosphere, and a new absorption peak occurs at 418 nm after annealing in N2 atmosphere, which is attributed to the Si N composite. There is no absorption peak appearing after annealing in Ar atmosphere. Transmission electron microscopic images confirm the formation of Ge nanoparticles in the as-implanted sample and GeO2 nanoparticles in the annealed sample. In the present study, the GeO content and the GeO2 content depend on annealing temperature and atmosphere. Three photolumineseence emission band peaks at 290, 385 and 415 nm appear after ion implantation and they become strong with the increase of annealing temperature below 700℃ and their photoluminescences recover to the values of as-grown samples after annealing at 700℃. Optical absorption and photoluminescence depend on the annealing temperature and atmosphere.

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.

Characterization and Saturable Absorption Property of Graphene Oxide on Optical Fiber by Optical Deposition

We prepared graphene oxide（GO） saturable absorber（SA） successfully through optical deposition method, which is a simple but effective approach to deposit various materials onto substrate under the effects of light, and investigated several factors that influence the optical deposition result of GO onto optical fiber end, including poly（methyl methacrylate）（PMMA） concentration, light intensity, light mode, and deposition time. The efficient optically deposited GO preserving its nonlinearity guaranteed by GO/PMMA composite formation was also demonstrated. The GO SA prepared by optical deposition shows superior saturable absorption property with modulation depth and nonsaturable loss of 6% and 40%, respectively.

The influence of nickel dopant on the microstructure and optical properties of SnO2 nano-powders

The microstructure and optical properties of Ni-doped SnO2 nano-powders are studied in detail. By Ni-doping, not only the grain size reduces, but also the grain shape changes from nano-rods to spherical particles. The crystallization becomes better with annealing temperature increasing. The band gap energy decreases as nickel doping level increases. The sp-d hybridization and alloying effect due to amorphous SnO2-x phase should be responsible for the band gap narrowing effect. Nickel dopant does not change the photoluminescence （PL） peak positions.

Theoretical study of M_(6)X_(2) and M_(6)XX'structure(M=Au,Ag;X,X'=S,Se):Electronic and optical properties,ability of photocatalytic water splitting,and tunable properties under biaxial strain

MoS_(2),a transition metal dichalcogenide(TMDC),has attracted significant amount of attention due to its direct bandgap,tunability and optical properties.Recently,a novel structure consisting of MoS_(2) and noble metal nanoclusters has been reported.Inspired by this,first principle calculations are implemented to predict the structures of M_(6)X_(2) and M_(6)XX'(M=Au,Ag;X,X'=S,Se).The calculated bandgap,band edge position,and optical absorption of these structures prove that the silver compounds(Ag_(6)X_(2) and Ag_(6)XX')have great potential for catalytic water splitting.In addition,biaxial strain(tensile strain and compressive strain)is applied to adjust the properties of these materials.The bandgap presents a quasi-linear trend with the increase of the applied strain.Moreover,the transition between the direct and indirect bandgap is found.The outstanding electronic and optical properties of these materials provide strong evidence for their application in microelectronic devices,photoelectric devices,and photocatalytic materials.

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.

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.

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.

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.