Repositório RCAAP

The conductance of two interacting dots connected to leads is studied. The configuration is such that one dot is embedded into the leads while the other is tunneling-coupled only to the first dot. The effect of the tunneling interaction strength on the conductance is discussed. As the two dot levels cross the Fermi level the low temperature conductance of the system cancels out, due to interference effects. This cancellation persists over a range of gate potential that depends upon the interaction strength: the greater the interaction the larger the range of gate potential where the current vanishes.

We study the scattering phase shift of the Kondo assisted transmission through a quantum dot (QD), considering a model that includes an additional non resonant channel transmission. To compute the phase evolution and the transmission amplitude of the QD, for different temperatures, we describe the QD employing the single Anderson impurity model in the limit of infinity Coulomb repulsion, within the X-boson approach. Our results are consistent with the development of an unusually large phase evolution at around pi in the Kondo valley, observed in recent experiments, and is consistent with others theoretical treatments.

We calculate the spin gap of homogeneous and inhomogeneous spin chains, using the White's density matrix renormalization group technique. We found that the spin gap is related to the ration between the spin velocity and the correlation exponent. We consider a spin superlattice, which is composed of a repeated pattern of two spin-¹/2 XXZ chains with different anisotropy parameters. The behavior of the charge velocity as a function of the anisotropy parameter and the relative size of sub-chains was investigated. We found reasonable agreement between the bosonization results and the numerical ones.

In the framework of the Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory in the limit of a GL parameter much larger than unity, we study theoretically the critical behavior of a mesoscopic superconducting ring with negligible width in the presence of a magnetic field applied perpendicularly to the ring plane. It is assumed that the inner ring edge is in contact with a material whose properties are accounted in the de Gennes boundary condition with a parameter b (de Gennes extrapolation length), while the outer edge is in contact with vacuum. Special attention is devoted to the influence of the different materials contacting the inner ring edge of the superconductor on the features of the phase diagram, as well as the effect of the confinement on such thermodynamic property.

We study the effect of tunneling on the electronic structure of two vertically coupled quantum rings within the spin density functional theory. The ground state configurations of the coupled rings are obtained for a system with 10 electrons as a function of the ring radius and the inter-ring distance. For small ring radius, our results recover those of coupled quantum dots. For large ring radius, new ground state configurations are found in the strong tunneling regime.

A problem of two electrons spatially separated in vertically coupled one-dimensional rings is solved exactly by using the numerical trigonometric sweep method. The change of the level-ordering and the crossover of the curves of the energy levels as a functions of the rings radii, the separation between rings and the magnetic field, applied along the axis, are found and discussed. As the distance between rings tends to zero our results are in an excellent agreement with those obtained previously for the single two-electron one-dimensional ring.

Using a variational procedure within the effective-mass approximation, we have made a theoretical study of the effects of hydrostatic pressure and applied electric fields on the binding energy of a shallow-donor impurity in square-transversal section GaAs-Ga0.7Al0.3As quantum-well wires. The electric field is applied in a plane of the transversal section of the wire and many angular directions are considered. The hydrostatic pressure has been considered both in the direct and indirect gap regime for the Ga0.7Al0.3As material. For the potential barrier that defines the wire region, we consider an x-dependent finite and y-dependent infinite model. The results we present are for the impurity binding energy and considering different values of the wire dimensions, hydrostatic pressure, applied electric field, and the impurity position in the transversal section of the wire.

Thin-film ZnO/CdS/CuIn1-xGa xSe2 solar cells are manufactured with ~20% solar-cell conversion efficiency. The CuIn1-xGa xSe2 (CIGS) absorber exhibits rather different physical properties compared with conventional semiconductors (e.g. Si, GaAs and ZnSe). For instance, (i) the valence-band maximum in CIGS consists of cation-d-anion-p hybridized states. (ii) Cation vacancies have low formation energies and high mobility at room temperature. (iii) The most stable surface of CuIn1-xGa xSe2 is the reconstructed, and otherwise polar, (112) surface. (iv) Solar cells with absorbers containing grain-boundaries outperform cells with crystalline absorbers. In this work, the fundamental physical properties of CIGS, like the electronic structure, the defect formation energies, as well as surface properties are discussed from a theoretical perspective.

Nontraditional approach to explain the thermoelectric cooling is suggested . It is based on the Le Chatelier-Braun thermodynamic principle. New effect of cooling and heating of junction of two materials (barrierless thermoelectric cooling) is theoretically predicted, and this effect is different from the Peltier effect (barrier thermoelectric cooling). The suggested thermoelectric effect must be displayed always at the finite values of the junction surface heat conductivity eta. Barrierless thermoelectric effect occurs even in the case when the conducting materials are identical with the same Peltier coefficients. It is shown that both barrier and barrierless thermoelectric cooling effects always exist simultaneously in the general case. The reasons proving reversibility of the thermoelectric cooling process are resulted.

We present a description of the effect of the surface roughness on the energy straggling associated to the energy loss distributions of protons transmitted through a self supported metallic thin foil. For this purpose we prepared a polycrystalline gold thin films using the standard sputtering method with different deposition rates. The statistics of the surface height distribution induced in these thin films were determined using Atomic Force Microscopy. The measured surface roughness allowed us to quantify the ion energy loss straggling in these samples for different deposition parameters and as a function of the incident ion energy.

The two-photon absorption process is a nonlinear phenomenon that shows very low optical efficiency in bulk semiconductors. For this reason the detection of these processes becomes very difficult from the experimental point of view. Nevertheless, when dealing with semiconductor QD's with few nanometer radii, these transitions are enhanced and the detection is possible. In this contribution we present analytical calculations for the absorption coefficient in CdSe spherical QD's subjected to these second order processes, as a function of the characteristic dot parameters. The intensities of the absorption peaks, as well as the statistical treatment involving QD's ensembles, are also reported.

We consider the dynamical properties of a simple model of vibrational surface modes. We obtain the exact spectrum of surface excitations and discuss their dynamical features. In addition to the usually discussed localized and oscillatory regimes we also find a second phase transition where the surface mode frequency becomes purely imaginary and describes an overdamped regime. Noticeably, this transition has an exact correspondence to the oscillatory - overdamped transition of the standard oscillator with a frictional force proportional to velocity.

We study the influence of the interfaces on the dispersion relation, energy and power flow of polaritons propagating in coaxial cylinders. We consider an infinite coaxial cylinder of internal and external radii designated by a and b, respectively, submitted to a magnetic dc field applied parallel to the z-axes. The presence of a magnetic field causes significant alterations in the modes of propagation of polaritons. The numerical results are obtained for the surface polaritons propagating in semiconductors cylinders of GaAs in presence of magnetic fields of 5 kG.

In this work we study the surface scattering mechanisms from rough surfaces of a multimode quasi-1D waveguide (conducting quantum wires). The square-gradient scattering mechanism, which was missed in existing studies of the transport through surface-corrugated waveguides, is discovered. The main attention is paid to the interplay between the new mechanism and the known one, as well as its effect on the waveguide transport properties. For any value of the roughness height sigma, the square-gradient terms in the expression for the wave-scattering length (electron mean-free path) are dominant, provided the correlation length Rc of the surface disorder is small enough.

Photon stimulated ion desorption (PSID) from condensed carbon dioxide has been studied for photon excitation energies ranging from 93 to 193 eV. PSID studies have been performed at the Brazilian synchrotron light source (LNLS), Campinas, during a multi-bunch operation mode of the storage ring. The results showed that after photon excitation several ions desorbed from the CO2 films: C+ , O+ , CO+ and O2+. PSID experiments showed that ion desorption was enhanced only at the Si resonance excitations. When the thickness of the CO2 was ~ 500 L or higher, almost no desorption yield was observed. The study of the dependence of the relative partial ion yield on the photon excitation showed that the X-ray induced Electron Stimulated Desorption (XESD) mechanism has to be invoked to explain the origin of the desorbed ions in the energy region studied.

The structural and optical properties of nanocrystalline GaN and GaN:H films grown by RF-magnetron sputtering are focused here. The films were grown using a Ga target and a variety of deposition parameters (N2/H2/Ar flow rates, RF power, and substrate temperatures). Si (100) and fused silica substrates were used at relatively low temperatures (Ts < 420K). The main effects resulting from the deposition parameters variations on the films properties were related to the presence of hydrogen in the plasma. The X-ray diffraction analysis indicates that the grain sizes ( ~ 15nm) and the crystallized volume fraction significantly decrease when hydrogen is present in the plasma. The optical absorption experiments indicate that the hydrogenated films have absorption edges very similar to that of GaN single crystal films reported in the literature, while the non-hydrogenated samples present larger absorption tails encroaching into the gap energies.

Mo thin films have been deposited using a DC magnetron sputtering system with an S-gun configuration electrode and characterized electrically and morphologically. The influence of the sputtering gas pressure and glow discharge (GD) power, on the electrical resistivity of Mo thin films and on the contact resistivity of Mo to Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) films was determined through an exhaustive parameter study. This study also allowed us to find the conditions to deposit Mo films with suitable properties for its use as back contact of solar cells based on CIGS. Resistivities smaller than 1x10-4 omega.cm and contact resistivities smaller than 0.3 omegacm² were found. Mo films with these characteristics are suitable for back contacts in solar cells based on CIGS. It was also found that the Mo thin films, deposited by DC magnetron sputtering on CIGS thin films, act effectively as ohmic contacts. The main contribution of this work was to obtain Mo thin films with adequate properties to be used as back contact for CIGS based solar cells using a DC sputtering system with S-gun configuration electrode, which allows growing the film with better surface quality and at a higher deposition rate than those deposited using the conventional planar RF sputtering system.

Adherent and low-stress a-C:H films were deposited on Ti6Al4V and stainless steel substrates using PECVD and IBAD techniques. An amorphous silicon interlayer was applied to improve the adhesion of the a-C:H films on the metal substrates. The XPS technique was employed to analyze the chemical bondings within the interfaces. The elemental composition and atomic density of the films were determined by ion beam analysis. The film microstructure was studied by means of Raman scattering spectroscopy. The mechanical properties were determined by means of stress and hardness measurements. The adherence was evaluated by means of scratch tests. The tests showed that the composition, the microstructure, and the mechanical properties of the films depend on the intensity of the ion bombardment and on the ion current.

Ti-6Al-4V samples have been treated by PIII processing at different temperatures (400-800 º C), treatment time (30-150 min) and plasma potential (100 and 420 V). Hardness measurements results showed an enhancement of the hardness for all implanted samples. XRD results detected the Ti2N phase and the best corrosion resistance was found for the samples processed at higher temperature and lower PIII time.

In this work, the influence of the substrate bias on the crystalline structure and surface composition of Ti6Al4V thin films prepared by rf magnetron sputtering were studied. Samples were grown onto two different types of substrates: AISI 420 steel and common glass using a Ti6Al4V (99.9 %) target. Substrate bias was varied from -100V to -200 V. Samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDX), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). It was observed that the increase of the substrate voltage improved the crystallinity of the deposited films. The stoichiometry of the deposited thin films was studied by EDX and found to be slightly different from that of the target material. Finally, the passive film spontaneously formed on the deposited films upon exposure to the laboratory atmosphere was studied by XPS. The composition of the passive film is rather complex since it contains several forms of oxidized titanium and vanadium as well as Al2O3.