Kenji Tsuruta

Few-layer HfS2 transistors.

2D materials are expected to be favorable channel materials for field-effect transistor (FET) with extremely short channel length because of their superior immunity to short-channel effects (SCE). Graphene, which is the most famous 2D material, has no bandgap without additional techniques and this property is major hindrance in reducing the drain leakage. Therefore, 2D materials with finite band gap, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs, e.g. MoS2 WSe2) or phosphorene, are required for the low power consumption FETs. Hafnium disulfide (HfS2) is a novel TMD, which has not been investigated as channel material. We focused on its potential for well-balanced mobility and bandgap properties. The higher electron affinity of Hf dichalcogenides compared with Mo or W chalcogenides facilitates the formation of low resistance contact and staggered heterojunction with other 2D materials. Here we demonstrate the first few layer HfS2 FET with robust current saturation and high current on/off ratio of more than 10^4.HfS2 is the novel transition metal dichalcogenide, which has not been experimentally investigated as the material for electron devices. As per the theoretical calculations, HfS2 has the potential for well-balanced mobility (1,800u2009cm2/V·s) and bandgap (1.2u2009eV) and hence it can be a good candidate for realizing low-power devices. In this paper, the fundamental properties of few-layer HfS2 flakes were experimentally evaluated. Micromechanical exfoliation using scotch tape extracted atomically thin HfS2 flakes with varying colour contrasts associated with the number of layers and resonant Raman peaks. We demonstrated the I-V characteristics of the back-gated few-layer (3.8u2009nm) HfS2 transistor with the robust current saturation. The on/off ratio was more than 104 and the maximum drain current of 0.2u2009μA/μm was observed. Moreover, using the electric double-layer gate structure with LiClO4:PEO electrolyte, the drain current of the HfS2 transistor significantly increased to 0.75u2009mA/μm and the mobility was estimated to be 45u2009cm2/V·s at least. This improved current seemed to indicate superior intrinsic properties of HfS2. These results provides the basic information for the experimental researches of electron devices based on HfS2.

Terahertz wavefront control by tunable metasurface made of graphene ribbons

We propose a tunable metasurface consisting of an array of graphene ribbons on a silver mirror with a SiO2 gap layer to control reflected wavefront at terahertz frequencies. The graphene ribbons exhibit localized plasmon resonances depending on their Fermi levels to introduce abrupt phase shifts along the metasurface. With interference of the Fabry-Perot resonances in the SiO2 layer, phase shift through the system is largely accumulated, covering the 0-to-2π range for full control of the wavefront. Numerical simulations prove that wide-angle beam steering up to 53° with a high reflection efficiency of 60% is achieved at 5 THz within a switching time shorter than 0.6 ps.

Experimental Analysis of Optical Fiber Multimode Interference Structure and its Application to Refractive Index Measurement

We investigated a fiber-based multimode interference phenomenon in the wavelength domain by using a white light source and an optical spectrum analyzer. This phenomenon was produced by a larger-core optical fiber joined at both ends with smaller-core optical fibers. We examined the variation of interference wavelength with changes in the length of the larger-core fiber. The interference wavelengths were blue-shifted and the interference signals were sharpened with an increase in the length of the larger-core fiber. The calculated results agreed well with the measured results. Next, we investigated how the input and output fibers with a small core influence the interference signal characteristics. By comparing the amplitude differences of the interference signal we find the conditions of input and output (I/O) fibers for higher sensitivity. In addition, an interference-signal shift was observed by changing the medium surrounding an multimode interference (MMI) structure. The amount of shift increased at a longer wavelength. This leads to the sensitive detection of the refractive index. Finally, a demonstration of the optical fiber refractometer with a multimode interference structure was given by refractive-index measurements of ethanol/water solutions.

Negative Refraction and Energy-Transmission Efficiency of Acoustic Waves in Two-Dimensional Phononic Crystal: Numerical and Experimental Study

The negative refraction of acoustic waves in a two-dimensional phononic-crystal slab is studied by numerical simulation based on the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method and by ultrasonic measurement. The incident-angle dependences of energy-transmission efficiency in the simulation and experiment are in good agreement in the frequency range of approximately 1.2 MHz. Using the FDTD method, we optimize the efficiency by varying structural parameters such as filling fraction and slab thickness. The effect of deviation from the ideal crystallinity is also evaluated quantitatively via the simulation. These results indicate that an energetically efficient acoustic lens can be fabricated by carefully optimizing the structure of the phononic crystal.

Development of highly efficient transducer for wireless power transmission system by ultrasonic

We developed a fundamental testbed and investigated the suitable transducer for the wireless power transmission (WPT). We also reported experimental results of the transmission efficiency in water by using the commercial transducer (COM) which only designed to match to the acoustic impedance of water and the electric impedance of the transmitter and receiver. In this paper, we investigate the transducer for improving the efficiency based on the Masons equivalent circuit. For deciding a structure and materials of the transducer, we used ANSYS well-known as the multi-physics simulator. In this result, it is confirmed that the transmission efficiency is drastically improved from less than 1% to 60%. In addition, we made designed transducer, and confirmed the systems efficiency is about 50 %. This result suggests that the WPT by acoustic wave is practicable.

A classical-map simulation of two-dimensional electron fluid: an extension of classical-map hypernetted-chain theory beyond the hypernetted-chain approximation

A method for numerically simulating quantum systems is proposed and applied to the two-dimensional electron fluid at T = 0. This method maps quantum systems onto classical ones in the spirit of the classical-map hypernetted-chain theory and performs simulations on the latter. The results of the simulations are free from the assumption of the hypernetted-chain approximation and the neglect of the bridge diagrams. A merit of this method is the applicability to systems with geometrical complexity and finite sizes including the cases at finite temperatures. Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations are performed corresponding to two previous proposals for the quantum temperature and an improvement in the description of the diffraction effect. It is shown that one of these two proposals with the improved diffraction effect gives significantly better agreement with quantum Monte Carlo results reported previously for the range of 5≤r(s)≤40. These results may serve as the basis for the application of this method to finite non-periodic systems like quantum dots and systems at finite temperatures.

Cross-Polarized Surface-Enhanced Infrared Spectroscopy by Fano-Resonant Asymmetric Metamaterials

Plasmonic metamaterials have overcome fundamental limitations in conventional optics by their capability to engineer material resonances and dispersions at will, holding great promise for sensing applications. Recent demonstrations of metamaterial sensors, however, have mainly relied on their resonant nature for strong optical interactions with molecules, but few examples fully exploit their functionality to manipulate the polarization of light. Here, we present cross-polarized surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) by the Fano-resonant asymmetric metamaterial allowing for strong background suppression as well as significant field enhancement. The metamaterial is designed to exhibit the controlled Fano resonance with the cross-polarization conversion property at 1730u2009cm−1, which spectrally overlaps with the C=O vibrational mode. In the cross-polarized SEIRA measurement, the C=O mode of poly(methyl methacrylate) molecules is clearly observed as a distinct dip within a Fano-resonant transmission peak of the metamaterial. The vibrational signal contrast is then improved based on the cross-polarized detection scheme where only the light interacting with the metamaterial-molecular coupled system is detected by totally eliminating the unwanted background light. Our metamaterial approach achieves the zeptomole sensitivity with a large signal-to-noise ratio in the far-field measurement, paving the way toward the realization of ultrasensitive IR inspection technologies.

Density-Functional Analysis on Vacancy Orbital and its Elastic Response of Silicon

Recent experiments on ultrasonic measurements of non-doped and boron-doped silicon indicate that vacancies in crystalline silicon can be detected through the elastic softening at low temperature. This is attributed to enhanced response of electronic quadrupole localized at the vacancies to the elastic strain. In the present work, the electronic quadrupole moment of the vacancy orbital in silicon and their strain susceptibility are evaluated quantitatively by using the density-functional method. We show the orbital of gap state is localized around vacancy but extended over several neighbors. The effect of applied magnetic field on the vacancy orbital and its multipole structures are also investigated. We find that the results obtained from these calculations are consistent with the ultrasonic experiments.

Performance limit of daytime radiative cooling in warm humid environment

Daytime radiative cooling potentially offers efficient passive cooling, but the performance is naturally limited by the environment, such as the ambient temperature and humidity. Here, we investigate the performance limit of daytime radiative cooling under warm and humid conditions in Okayama, Japan. A cooling device, consisting of alternating layers of SiO2 and poly(methyl methacrylate) on an Al mirror, is fabricated and characterized to demonstrate a high reflectance for sunlight and a selective thermal radiation in the mid-infrared region. In the temperature measurement under the sunlight irradiation, the device shows 3.4 °C cooler than a bare Al mirror, but 2.8 °C warmer than the ambient of 35 °C. The corresponding numerical analyses reveal that the atmospheric window in λ = 16 ∼ 25 μm is closed due to a high humidity, thereby limiting the net emission power of the device. Our study on the humidity influence on the cooling performance provides a general guide line of how one can achieve practical passive cooling in a warm humid environment.

Design of non-reciprocal acoustic waveguides by indirect interband transitions

We numerically demonstrate a non-reciprocal acoustic waveguide by utilizing the indirect interband transition between two guided modes. The waveguide, consisting of a water core sandwiched between parallel steel plates, is designed to support symmetric and asymmetric guided modes with different frequencies and wavevectors. Dynamic mode conversion is then achieved by applying spatio-temporal density modulation in the core of the waveguide to induce both frequency and wavevector shifts of the incident guided wave. Numerical simulations prove that the phase matching condition is satisfied only for the forward propagation, not for the backward one, thus realizing the non-reciprocal acoustic waveguide. Our approach based on a linear dynamic system may achieve wide-band tunable operation with a low-energy consumption, paving the way toward the sophisticated acoustic diode applications.