The homoleptic organocerium complex Ce{C(SiHMe2 )3 }3 (1) reacts with B(C6 F5 )3 to produce the zwitterionic bis(alkyl) hydridoborato Ce{C(SiHMe2 )3 }2 HB(C6 F5 )3 (2). NMR and IR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography indicate that each alkyl ligand contains two bridging Ce↼H-Si interactions in both 1 and 2. Compound 2 serves as a precatalyst for the hydrosilylation of acrylates to give α-sily...

The ubiquitous low-energy excitations, known as two-level tunneling systems (TLSs), are one of the universal phenomena of amorphous solids. Low temperature elastic measurements show that e-beam amorphous silicon (a-Si) contains a variable density of TLSs which diminishes as the growth temperature reaches 400 °C. Structural analyses show that these a-Si films become denser and more structurally ...

O. Jambois, B. Garrido, P. Pellegrino, Josep Carreras, and A. Pérez-Rodríguez EME, Departament d’Electrónica, IN2UB, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain J. Montserrat Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona (IMB-CNM, CSIC), Bellaterra 08193, Barcelona, Spain C. Bonafos, G. BenAssayag, and S. Schamm Nanomaterials Group, CEMES-CNRS, 29 rue J. Marvig, 31055 Toul...

A fundamental strategy to enhance optical transmission through a continuous metallic film based on strong interference dominated by interface phase shift is developed. In a metallic film coated with a thin semiconductor film, both transmission and absorption are simultaneously enhanced as a result of dramatically reduced reflection. For a 50-nm-thick Ag film, experimental transmission enhanceme...

Ab initio molecular dynamics calculations of deuterium desorbing from Si(100) have been performed in order to monitor the energy redistribution among the hydrogen and silicon degrees of freedom during the desorption process. The calculations show that part of the potential energy at the transition state to desorption is transferred to the silicon lattice. The deuterium molecules leave the surfa...

The synthesis of luminescent nanometer-scale Si clusters by spark ablation from a crystalline Si substrate is described. The cluster source, described in the text, generates clusters in a flowing Ar stream at atmospheric‘ pressure. Electron microscopy reveals that the clusters have diameters in the 2-4 nm size range. The luminescence spectra of the clusters, similar to that of porous Si, are pr...

We previously demonstrated highly stable backchannel cut and back-channel passivated amorphous silicon thin-film transistors (a-Si:H TFTs) made at 300C on 2.9-inch x 2.9-inch clear plastic substrates [1]. Mechanical stress in the TFT stack causes the substrate to expand or contract, which easily results in misalignment between consecutive device layers [2,3]. Therefore we developed three selfal...

Nanostructuring has been shown to be fruitful in addressing the problems of high-capacity Si anodes. However, issues with the high cost and poor Coulombic e ciencies of nanostructured Si still need to be resolved. Si microparticles are a low-cost alternative but, unlike Si nanoparticles, su er from unavoidable particle fracture during electrochemical cycling, thus making stable cycling in a rea...

Conductive-probe atomic force microscopy (CP-AFM) measurements reveal the existence of a conductive channel at the interface between p-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and n-type crystalline silicon (c-Si) as well as at the interface between n-type a-Si:H and p-type c-Si. This is in good agreement with planar conductance measurements that show a large interface conductance. It is de...

Advanced composite electrodes containing multiple active components are often used in lithium-ion batteries for practical applications. The performance of such heterogeneous composite electrodes can in principle be enhanced by tailoring the concurrent reaction dynamics in multiple active components for promoting their collective beneficial effects. However, the potential of this design principl...