Photocatalysis appears as an interesting approach for different applications, with the possibility of using sunlight a sustainable and renewable source energy [...]

We analyze the development of the German knowledge base measured by co-classifications of patents by German inventors and relate this technological development to changes in the structure of the underlying inventor networks. Our central hypothesis states that technologies which become more central to the knowledge base are also characterized by a higher connectedness of the inventor network. We...

The mechanical-electrical coupling properties of piezoelectric semiconductors endow these materials with novel device applications in microelectromechanical systems, sensors, human-computer interfaces, etc. When an applied strain is exerted on a piezoelectric semiconductor, piezoelectric charges are generated at the surface or interface of the semiconductor, which can be utilized to control the...

Artificial photosynthesis relies on the availability of semiconductors that are chemically stable and can efficiently capture solar energy. Although metal oxide semiconductors have been investigated for their promise to resist oxidative attack, materials in this class can suffer from chemical and photochemical instability. Here we present a methodology for evaluating corrosion mechanisms and ap...

Particle accelerators usually require high voltage and high power. Typically, the high voltage/power generation utilizes a topology with an energy store and switching mechanisms to extract that stored energy. The switches may be active or passive devices. Active switches are hard or soft vacuum tubes, or semiconductors. When required voltages exceed tens of kilovolts, numerous semiconductors ar...

Hall effect measurements are important for elucidating the fundamental charge transport mechanisms and intrinsic mobility in organic semiconductors. However, Hall effect studies frequently reveal an unconventional behavior that cannot be readily explained with the simple band-semiconductor Hall effect model. Here, we develop an analytical model of Hall effect in organic field-effect transistors...

Excitonic effects are crucial to optical properties, and the exciton binding energy E(b) in technologically important semiconductors varies from merely a few meV to about 100 meV. This large variation, however, is not well understood. We investigate the relationship between the electronic band structures and exciton binding energies in semiconductors, employing first-principles calculations bas...

The modified Becke-Johnson exchange potential [F. Tran and P. Blaha, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 226401 (2009)] (TB-mBJ) yields very accurate electronic band structures and gaps for various types of semiconductors and insulators (e.g., sp semiconductors, noble-gas solids, and transition-metal oxides). However, the TB-mBJ potential has, for a few groups of solids, the tendency to underestimate the ban...

Thin film transistors based on high-mobility organic semiconductors are prone to contact problems that complicate the interpretation of their electrical characteristics and the extraction of important material parameters such as the charge carrier mobility. Here we report on the gated van der Pauw method for the simple and accurate determination of the electrical characteristics of thin semicon...

Organic solid/solid wetting deposition (OSWD) is an easy, low cost method to prepare epitaxial monolayers of organic semiconductors under ambient conditions. This chapter describes various approaches to induce complexity into highly ordered monolayers with Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (STM): nanomanipulated self-assembly aiming towards molecular data storage, locally guided selfassembly to ac...