Over the past 20 years, many designer drugs derived from controlled substances have been widely distributed as easily available psychoactive substances and have become a serious problem in Japan. In order to determine the absolute structures of four new designer drugs derived from medicines (methylphenidate and phenmetrazine) X-ray single-crystal structure analyses were performed using the BL26B1 beamline of synchrotron radiation facility SPring-8. The results show that the molecular configuration of these designer drugs (having two asymmetric carbons), which were distributed in the illegal drug market had threo-forms as found for methylphenidate and phenmetrazine.

The range of polishing-induced subsurface damage remaining in a commercially available production grade 4H-SiC (0001) epi-ready substrate was evaluated by the observation from the (-1100) cleavage plane using two kinds of highly strain-sensitive characterization methods. Firstly, the analysis using electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) with a submicron spatial resolution was conducted on the exposed cross sectional plane. Then, for the further quantitative evaluation excluding the influence of roughness or contamination of the cleavage plane, a synchrotron X-ray micro-diffraction experiment was carried out. The range of the subsurface damage evaluated in those experiments was ensured by confirming none of additional strain inserted at the cleavage, as compared with the damage-free substrate prepared by high temperature thermal etching. As a result, the depth of the residual strained region below polishing-induced scratches at the surface was estimated to be in the range of a few microns, which is much deeper than the previously reported value of 100 nm by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy. It suggests a potential of EBSD for the conventional tool to characterize even a small amount of strain in SiC single crystal.

BaTiO3/SrTiO3(001) epitaxial thin films were prepared at various growth rates by pulsed laser deposition, and their heterostructures were evaluated by synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements and cross-sectional scanning transmission electron microscopy observations. In a film grown at a low deposition rate (0.01 nm/s), misfit dislocations are found near the interface and a fully relaxed BaTiO3 thin film grows epitaxially on the substrate. On the other hand, a film grown at a high deposition rate (0.04 nm/s) consists of strained and relaxed BaTiO3 lattices. Our results showed that the critical thickness of BaTiO3/SrTiO3(001) epitaxial thin films can be controlled by the deposition rate and that the critical thickness increases with increasing the deposition rate, and by adjusting the deposition rate we were able to prepare epitaxial thin films consisting of fully strained BaTiO3, partially strained BaTiO3 or fully relaxed BaTiO3. We have also achieved the growth controlling of BaTiO3 thin films on SrTiO3(001) substrates with SrRuO3 bottom electrode layer.

The reasons why the open circuit voltage (Voc) of high-x CuIn1-xGaxSe2 (CIGS)/ZnO solar cells remain low are discussed. Here it is shown that the Voc ceiling can be interpreted simply on the basis of a model that the valence-band energy (Ev) of CIGS is almost immovable irrespective of x. When the conduction-band energy (Ec) of ZnO is lower than that of high-x CIGS (DEc<0), the built-in potential (Vbi) of a CIGS/ZnO junction is equivalent to the flat-band potential (Vbi) that arises from the separation between the Fermi energies of the two materials. If the Ev (and therefore the Fermi energy) of p-type CIGS is constant with increasing x, the Vbi and Voc that follows the Vbi remain unchanged since the Fermi energy of ZnO is constant. This unchangeable Voc reduces the conversion efficiency of high-x CIGS cells in cooperation with reduced photocurrents due to a larger bandgap. A positive offset, ΔEc>o gives rise to a photoelectrons barrier in the conduction-band that partially cancels Voc, thus the Voc of a low-x CIGS cell is governed by the Ec of CIGS. Based upon this concept, a material selection guideline is given for the windows and transparent electrodes appropriate for high-x CIGS absorbers-based solar cells.

Using EBIC and EDX measurements, CIGS solar cells prepared under several different conditions were observed and characterized. The results of EBIC and EDX measurements suggest that Cd plays an important role in the forming of a buried pn-junction in the CIGS layer via diffusion, and de-emphasize the possibility of the formation of the hetero pn-junction at the CdS/CIGS heterointerface. The correlation of the extent of the space charge region and the observed shift in the pn-junction location with the diffusion of the constituent elements in CIGS was investigated.

We have fabricated CIGS:Fe polycrystalline thin films using a standard three-stage method, and investigated the effects of Fe doping on cell performances. The Ga / (In+Ga) ratio was varied between 0.3 ˜ 1.0 (= CGS), and the Fe concentration was varied between 0.0 ˜ 1.2 mol%. The films were characterized by various means, including the cell performance. Increment of the grain size with higher Fe content was observed. Redshift with higher Fe content was observed in the absorbance spectra. The spectral response of the fabricated solar cells deteriorated with higher Fe content, from the long wavelength side.

We performed x-ray diffraction measurements by using highly brilliant synchrotron radiation on epitaxial Pb(Zr0.35Ti0.65)O3 film capacitor structures. Small regions of 300-nm-thick epitaxial Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films with Pt and SrRuO3 top electrodes were measured after applying various numbers of switching cycles of the electric field. Epitaxial Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films were prepared on epitaxial (100)cSrRuO3/(100)SrTiO3 substrates by pulsed-metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The volume faction of c-domain and remanent polarization was plotted against the number of switching cycles. In the both capacitors, the Vc increased as the switching cycle increased independent of fatigue behavior.

We have obtained the x-ray phase contrast images of the activated carbon/carbon (AC/C) composite used as electrodes in an electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC). To improve the spatial resolution, the beam size of x-ray transmitted from a sample were expanded by using asymmetric Bragg diffraction (asymmetric factor b) of analyzer crystal. Since the analyzer crystals were placed in (+, -) arrangements in both vertical and horizontal directions, the total magnification factor was 1/b2 for each direction. By using the 511 asymmetric Bragg diffraction of Si (100) analyzer with an asymmetric factor of 0.207, we could obtain the magnification factor of about 23.3. We applied this optical system to the AC/C composite. The phase contrast image corresponding to the carbon particles with the diameter of about 10 μm could be detected with the spatial resolution of 5 μm. Furthermore, we also obtained realtime images of bubble formation and movement during the overcharging of an EDLC with the time resolution of 30 frames number per second.

Recently, we introduced various acceptor impurities into MBE-grown ultra-pure GaAs by conventional high-energy ion implantation and found many novel shallow emissions associated with acceptor-acceptor pairs. Most of these emissions were easily quenched by extremely small amount of residual donor atoms which were unintentionally introduced during doping processes. For the interpretation of impurity effects, the usage of mass-separated atom as dopant source was strongly suggested. Along this consideration, we developed combined ion beam and molecular beam epitaxy (CIBMBE) technology, in which damage-free doping with high mass purity (M/ΔM=100) is expected to be possible. We here present the results of low-energy (100 eV) carbon ion doping using CIBMBE method. Samples were prepared asa function of growth temperature (Tg=400-700°C) and ion beam current. Net hole concentration, |NA-ND| as high as ~1×1020 cm-3 was obtained in as-grown samples. In 2K photoluminescence spectra, emissions due to acceptor-acceptor pairs exhibit specific energy shift with growing |NA-ND|. Results indicate that carbon doping can be made efficiently even at Tg as low as 500°C without any post heat treatment. These results also tell that by CIBMBE method no serious radiation damages are produced and the undesired impurity contamination can be considerably suppressed.

C-doped GaAs films were prepared by novely a developed, combined ion beam and molecular beam method (CIBMBE) as a function of hyperthermal (30–500 eV) energies (EC+) of carbon ion (C+) beam. Ion beams of a fixed beam current density were impinged during molecular beam epitaxy growth of GaAs at substrate temperature of 550 °C. Low temperature (2 K) photoluminescence (PL) has been used to characterize the samples together with Hall effects measurements at room temperature. Through the spectral evolution of an emission denoted by [g-g]β which is a specific emission relevant to acceptor-acceptor pairs, the activation rate was confirmed to increase with increasing EC+ for EC+ lower than 170 eV. It was explicitly demonstrated that the most effective Ec+ to establish highest activation rate is located at ~170 eV. This growing activation rate was suggested to be attributed to the enhanced migration of both impinged C and host constituent atoms with increasing EC+. This surmise was supported also by Hall effect measurements which revealed the maximum net hole concentration ( |NA-ND| ) for EC+=170 eV. For EC+ higher than ~170 eV, increasing EC+ was found to induce the reduction of activation rate. It was suggested that this observation is ascribed not to the formation of C donors but to the enhanced sputtering effect of impinged C+ ions with increasing EC+.

Low energy (100 eV) impinging of carbon (C+) ions was made during molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) of GaAs using combined ion beam and molecular beam epitaxy (CIBMBE) technologies for the growth temperature ( Tg ) between 500 °C and 590 °C. 2 K photoluminescence (PL), Raman scattering and Hall effect measurements were made for the samples. In the PL spectra two specific emissions, “g” and [g-g], were observed which are closely associated with acceptor impurities. PL and Hall effect measurements indicate that C atoms were very efficiently introduced during MBE growth by CIBMBE and were both optically and electrically well activated as acceptors even at Tg=500 °C. The results reveal that defect-free impurity doping without subsequent annealing can be achieved by CIBMBE method.

Photoluminescence (PL) measurements have been carried out as a function of temperature and of excitation power on heavily magnesium (Mg) implanted ultra-pure indium phosphide (InP) with a dose concentration, [Mg], ranging from l×lO15cm-3 to 3×1020cm−3. Several undefined emissions have been observed; a strong emission, Z, emerges near the band-acceptor emission for [Mg]= 3×1020cm−3 and two novel emissions, Y1 and Y3 appear below the energy of donor-acceptor pair emission for [Mg] smaller than 3×1018cm−3. In order to obtain more explanation on such emission, temperature and excitation power dependence of the emissions were investigated. Temperature dependent PL experiments revealed that Z is composed of three emissions named ZA, ZBand ZC. Measured activation energies suggest Z represents a pair type transition associated with Mg acceptors. While, Y1 and Y3 emissions are attributed to donor-acceptor type transition because of a significant blue-shift with increasing excitation power.