Hybrid silicon nanocrystal (Si-NC)/poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) films serve as the active layers of quantum dot/polymer hybrid photovoltaics. To achieve effective photovoltaic properties, it is necessary to enhance the charge carrier mobility and carrier density of the P3HT films. A 50- and 12-fold enhancement of the hole mobility and hole density, respectively, was achieved along the out-of-p...

In this work we demonstrate an integrated microfluidic/photonic architecture for performing dynamic optofluidic trapping and transport of particles in the evanescent field of solid core waveguides. Our architecture consists of SU-8 polymer waveguides combined with soft lithography defined poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microfluidic channels. The forces exerted by the evanescent field result in b...

Flexible strain sensors are fabricated by using a simple and low-cost inkjet printing technology of graphene-PEDOT:PSS (poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)) conductive ink. The inkjet-printed thin-film resistors on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate exhibit an excellent optical transmittance about 90% over visible wavelength range from 400 to 800 nm. While external m...

Poly (lactic) acid (PLA) composites have made their way into various applications that may require thermoforming to produce 3D shapes. Wrinkles are common in many forming processes and identification of the forming parameters to prevent them in the useful part of the mechanical component is a key consideration. Better prediction of such defects helps to significantly reduce the time required fo...

In this paper, a reduced-rank scheme with joint iterative optimization is presented for direction of arrival estimation. A rank-reduction matrix and an auxiliary reduced-rank parameter vector are jointly optimized to calculate the output power with respect to each scanning angle. Subspace algorithms to estimate the rank-reduction matrix and the auxiliary vector are proposed. Simulations are per...

We consider the direction finding problem in time-varying arrays composed of identically oriented subarrays displaced by unknown vector translations. A new eigenstructure-based estimator is proposed for such a class of partly calibrated sensor arrays.

Anisotropy in material structure leads to distinct anisotropy in mechanical and thermal properties for polymer materials. In this work, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) thin films are fabricated using the spin coating technique for investigation of anisotropic thermal transport. Raman spectroscopy study of spincoated P3HT films confirms the partially aligned molecular structure. Based on the main ...