Sharif Digital Repository

In collisional and ponderomotive predominant regimes, the propagation of microwave in rectangular waveguide filled with collisional plasma is investigated numerically. The dominant mode is excited through an evacuated waveguide and then enters a similar and co-axis waveguide filled with plasma. In collisional predominant regime, the amplitude of electric field is oscillated along propagation path; outset of propagation path due to the electron-ion collision, the intensity oscillations are reduced. Afterward, under competition between the collisional nonlinearity and absorption, the intensity is increased, so the electron density peak is created in middle of waveguide. In ponderomotive... 

X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) of Cu1-xTl xBa2Ca2Cu3O10-δ (Cu1-xTlx-1223) superconductors thin films is studied. These films were prepared by amorphous phase epitaxy method on the SrTiO 3 substrate. This compound has Cu1-xTlxBa 2O4-δ charge reservoir layer and three CuO 2 planes. The atoms in the CuO2 planes have strong covalent bonding, while the some of the atoms in Cu1-xTl xBa2O4-δ charge reservoir, such as oxygen (Oδ) have predominantly secondary bonding and could be removed from the unit cell. The deliberate or inadvertent removal of the oxygen from the unit cell may change the charge state of the constituent atoms in the charge reservoir layer. The charge state of the atoms in... 

In this paper, the effect of basic parameters of laser and plasma on controlling self-focusing is investigated, and based on the introduced effective parameter for self-focusing (EPSF), the effects of laser wavelength, the initial spot size of laser beam, the initial intensity of laser, and the plasma electron density on self-focusing are discussed. It is found that the relativistic self-focusing strongly depend on the laser wavelength and the beam intensity. The nonlinear effect of beam intensity on the introduced parameter EPSF indicates that after an increasing region for focusing, the self-focusing effect decreases at ultrarelativistic intensities. The effect of the initial beam spot... 

Electrochemical activity of TiO2 nanotube arrays (NTAs) is restricted by a wide band gap of TiO2. To overcome this restriction, we considered systematic research on two effective methods of doping of TiO2 NTAs such as the N-doping and electrochemical reductive doping and predicting the proper application of them. Band gap narrowing was occurred from 3.16 eV for undoped TiO2 NTAs to 2.9 and 2.7 eV at N-doped and self-doped TiO2 ones respectively. The electrochemical responses of the TiO2 NTAs before and after doping were examined by cyclic Voltammetry (CV) curve. To understand the electrochemical behavior of the undoped and doped TiO2 NTAs, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was... 

Nanostructured materials have attracted much attention in recent decades. Nowadays, there are numerous nanomaterials with several applications. The ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method is a cost-effective and adaptable technique based on an aerosol process for synthesizing nanoparticles and depositing thin films. The technique is capable of synthesizing metal, oxide, and composite nanomaterials with precisely controllable morphologies and chemical compositions using metal salts in aqueous solvents. More importantly, it is popular, as evident from the growing number of studies being conducted on the technique. Here, we review studies conducted on basic principles and applications of the... 

The modulation transfer function (MTF) is well known as a crucial parameter in quality assurance of computed tomography (CT) scanners, which provides detailed information of both contrast and resolution of CT images. Different methods have been introduced and developed to calculate the MTF of CT scanners. However, a robust methodology which accurately estimates the MTF of CT scanners under the use of every range of object electron density and tube current-time product (mAs) has not been reported so far. To this aim, a new wavelet-based circular edge method for MTF measurement has been presented in this work. Owning to the edge spread function (ESF) susceptibility to noise, the approach was... 

Efficient electron transport layers (ETLs) play a pivotal role in the performance of solar cells. In recent years, Indium sulfide (In2S3) has been studied as a promising ETL in CuInGaS(e)2, Cu2ZnSnS(e)4, and perovskite solar cells. Despite several studies on spray-deposited In2S3, there is no complete experimental investigation on In2S3 thin films. The effect of the molar ratio of S/In and the type of indium precursor on the structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties of sprayed-In2S3 layers has been studied. Films were characterized using x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical transmission (UV-Vis), Mott-Schottky analysis, four-point probe, and... 

A batch extraction of an essential amino acid, phenylalanine, from an aqueous solution of different concentrations by an Emulsion Liquid Membrane (ELM) was developed using D2EHPA as a cationic carrier, Span 80 as the surfactant, paraffin, and kerosene as the diluents, and HCl as the internal electrolyte. All effective parameters such as the initial pH of the aqueous external phase, the electrolyte concentration in the aqueous internal phase, carrier, and surfactant concentration in the emulsion, the volume ratio of the organic to aqueous internal phase (Roi), the volume ratio of the W/O emulsion to the aqueous external phase (Rew) and time were examined and optimized using the Taguchi... 

Herein, we deposited CuInSe2(CISe) thin films by using aqueous spray deposition method and post selenization process. The effect of different indium precursor salts including indium chloride, indium nitrate and indium acetate on the structural, morphological, optical and electrical properties of sprayed CISe layers has been studied by using x-ray diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM-EDS), optical transmission (UV–Vis), Mott-Schottky analysis, I–V dark measurements. Although all the deposited thin films show a chalcopyrite tetragonal ordering structure of CISe, the crystallinity, morphology, and electrical characteristics are strongly influenced by the type of... 

This work focused on the spray pyrolysis deposition of Cu2SnS3 (CTS) thin films using a stable basic solution. The effect of the most important parameters including the substrate temperature and copper concentration on the structural, optical and electrical properties of as-deposited thin films was investigated. Qualified thin films with suitable microstructure and composition could be deposited at 370℃. XRD and Raman analysis while confirming the pure CTS film formation, show that as the Cu/Sn decreases, the crystal structure layers are changed from the tetragonal phase to the cubic phase mixed with Sn-rich phases. The optical study shows its band gap between 1.08 and 1.2 eV for different... 

This study reveals that the type of carrier material affects the stoichiometry of the anaerobic conversion and the metabolism in cultures enriched with polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs) and helps increase the biological phosphorus removal performance. PAO-enriched biofilms were cultivated in two identical lab-scale sequencing batch reactors containing different carrier types: a typical moving bed bioreactor carrier (MBBR) and a novel carbon-based moving carrier type (CBMC) coated by activated carbon particles. The experiments were conducted at various influent PO43- concentrations (14, 17, 20 mg-PO43--P/L) and two aeration periods (220 and 460 min) under similar operating... 

The synthesis of modified versions of deoxyribonucleic acid is an area that is receiving much attention. The replacement of the nitrogen atom on the nucleobases with boron atom has provided insight into deoxyribonucleic acid and ribonucleic acid stability, recognition, and replication at the atomic level. In the present research, we investigated a detailed density functional theory study of the structural, tautomeric, base-pairing ability, bond dissociation energy, and electronic properties of two boron analogues (i.e., boron substitutions at 4-position and 5-position of uracil) of uracil nucleobase. The effects of these modifications on theirs acid-base properties have been considered. Our... 

Semiconducting lead sulfide film was deposited on Stainless Steel (SS) electrode by cyclic voltammetry (CV) at room temperature. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry were used to investigate the electrochemical properties of PbS film in Na2SO4 solution. The voltammetric results showed that oxidative dissolution of PbS film occurred at about 0.21 V vs. Ag/AgCl and total film detachment from the surface occurs with increasing potential. It is concluded that the electrode surface was not passivated by sulfur produced from oxidative dissolution of PbS film. Also, cathodic reduction of the film continued to beyond the hydrogen evolution at -1.35 V vs. Ag/AgCl.... 

In this work propagation of a high frequency electromagnetic wave in underdense plasma in presence of an external magnetic field is investigated. When a constant magnetic field perpendicular to the motion of electrons is applied, then the electrons rotate around the magnetic field lines and generate electromagnetic part in the wake with a nonzero group velocity. By using of the Maxwell equations and nonlinear differential equation for the electric field a direct one-dimensional (1D) procedure for calculating hydrodynamic equations are developed and the electric and magnetic field profiles in the plasma are investigated. It is shown that by using the external (dc) magnetic field in constant... 

The novel idea of the Hydromagnetic Micropump and Flow Controller (HMFC) is used in this paper to construct a laboratory setup capable of bidirectional pumping and controlling the flow in microtubes. A laboratory setup, which contains no moving parts, is integrated with a pressure-driven flow setup to make the presented HMFC device. The device operation is based on controllable motion of magnetic particles, added to the carrier fluid, caused by the magnetic field, produced by solenoids located just next to the microtube. The magnitude of these forces is proportional to the strength and gradient of magnetic field which, in turn, is related to the electrical current and arrangement of the... 

We introduce an effective method for copper indium sulfide selenide (CISSe) doping with different alkali metals (Li, Na and K) based on a pre-deposited alkali chloride layer. A simple and fast spray method is used for pre-deposition of alkali chloride layer (LiCl, NaCl, KCl) on substrate surface before spray pyrolysis deposition of copper indium disulfide CuInS2 (CIS) films followed by selenization. The different properties of alkali-doped CISSe films by the alkali chloride pre-deposition (ACPD) method were compared to the post-deposition treatment (PDT) method. Based on FESEM images, a highly compact film with large grains can be obtained for CISSe films doped with K(∼0.72 μm) and Na (∼0.56... 

CdS is conventionally used as the n-type buffer layer in chalcopyrite (CIG(S, Se)) and Kesterite (CZT(S, Se)) solar cells. CdS is toxic and there are wide attempts to find substitutes for it. Here, we suggest SnS2 as a possible alternative. SnS2 films were deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD), characterized to estimate carrier concentration and electron affinity values, and the obtained values were used to model a CZT(S, Se) solar cell. The experimental values of a benchmark CZT(S, Se) cell with efficiency of 12.3% were employed to obtain the density and energy position of defects in CZT(S, Se) and validating the model. We observed that SnS2 results in almost identical performance as...