Suppressing Effects of Ag Wetting Layer on Surface Conduction of Er Silicide/Si(001) Nanocontacts

Current-voltage electrical characteristics of Er silicide/Si（001） nanocontacts are measured in situ in a scanning tunneling microscopy system. Introduced as a new technique to suppress surface leakage conduction on Si（001）,a silver wetting layer is evaporated onto the substrate surface kept at room temperature with Er Si2 nanoislands already existing. The effects of the silver layer on the current-voltage characteristics of nanocontacts are discussed.Our experimental results reveal that the silver layer at coverage of 0.4–0.7 monolayer can suppress effectively the current contribution from the surface conduction path. After the surface leakage path of nanocontacts is obstructed, the ideality factor and the Schottky barrier height are determined using the thermionic emission theory, about 2 and 0.5 eV, respectively. The approach adopted here could shed light on the intrinsic transport properties of metal-semiconductor nanocontacts.

Electron transport layer driven to improve the open-circuit voltage of CH_3NH_3PbI_3 planar perovskite solar cells

Suitable electron transport layers are essential for high performance planar perovskite heterojunction solar cells. Here, we use ZnO electron transport layer sputtered under oxygen-rich atmosphere at room temperature to decrease the hydroxide and then suppress decomposition of perovskite films. The perovskite films with improved crystallinity and morphology are achieved. Besides, on the ZnO substrate fabricated at oxygen-rich atmosphere, open-circuit voltage of the CH_3NH_3PbI_3-based perovskite solar cells increased by 0.13 V.A high open-circuit voltage of 1.16 V provides a good prospect for the perovskite-based tandem solar cells. The ZnO sputtered at room temperature can be easily fabricated industrially on a large scale, therefore, compatible to flexible and tandem devices. Those properties make the sputtered ZnO films promising as electron transport materials for perovskite solar cells.

Active vibration control of piezoelectric bonded smart structures using PID algorithm

Thin-walled structures are sensitive to vibrate under even very small disturbances. In order to design a suitable controller for vibration suppression of thin-walled smart structures, an electro-mechanically coupled finite element（FE） model of smart structures is developed based on first-order shear deformation（FOSD） hypothesis. Considering the vibrations generated by various disturbances, which include free and forced vibrations, a PID control is implemented to damp both the free and forced vibrations. Additionally, an LQR optimal control is applied for comparison.The implemented control strategies are validated by a piezoelectric layered smart plate under various excitations.

A Rational Design of Heterojunction Photocatalyst Cd S Interfacing with One Cycle of ALD Oxide

Photo-corrosion is one of the major obstacles for CdS application in wet chemical fields, and atomic layer deposition （ALD） has been proposed as an effective way to suppress the corrosion. Here, prior to ALD coating, CdS, one facilely corrosive photocatalyst, was synthesized via hydrothermal synthesis to access the fundamental corrosion mechanism and the according corrosive sites. X-ray photoelectron spectros- copy （XPS） and X-ray diffraction （XRD） demonstrated that the failure of catalytic decomposition of methylene blue originated from the formation of soluble CdSO4 by oxidizing S2 of as-prepared CdS. High resolu- tion transmission electron microscopy （HRTEM） further identified the active sites in the V-shaped regions ofCdS nanoparticles, confirmed by the simulated electric field distribution. To rationally coat oxides on CdS, the right candidates and their thicknesses have been considered by our tunneling model with trans- fer matrix method based on quantum mechanism, upon which the thickness of protective layer should be less than 0.5 nm to maintain a high tunneling probability, and thus one cycle of ALD TiO2 or AbO3 was proposed to passivate the CdS powder to balance the carrier transportation and corrosion suppres- sion. Based on HRTEM results, we found that the active V-shaped region was covered by ALD oxides （TiO2 or AbO3）. For each case, no soluble CdSO4 has been found before and after photocatalytic reactions based XPS measurements. Importantly, we noticed that with the passivation of one cycle of ALD, the catalyst＇s lifetime was elongated up to 〉14 times higher than that of the as-prepared CdS.