Tensile strain is crucial to expect the direct recombination in germanium (Ge), towards monolithic light sources on silicon (Si). Freestanding beams of Ge are known to produce strong tensile strain, however, it is not trivial to construct a cavity in a freestanding structure. Here, we fabricated Ge micro-disks on freestanding oxide beams, and observed Whispering-Gallery-Modes (WGM) by photolumi...

The morphology, structural and optical properties of void-assisted freestanding HVPE-AlN films were investigated by a combination of non-destructive microscopic and spectroscopic techniques. The freestanding approximately 80 mm thick clear film has a wurtzite crystalline structure with remarkable properties around the central film region. The E2(high)-phonon frequency coincides with reported st...

The presence of van der Waals (vdW) force can lead to mechanical instability in freestanding nano-scale actuators. Most of the previous researches in this area have exclusively focused on modeling the instability in actuators with one actuating components. While, less attention has been paid to actuators consist of two actuating components. Herein, the effect of the vdW force on the instability...

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated with closed- or open-ended freestanding TiO₂ nanotube arrays as photoelectrodes that were decorated with carbon materials and large TiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) to enhance energy conversion efficiency. The energy conversion efficiency of DSSCs based on open-ended freestanding TiO₂ nanotube arrays increased from 4.47% to 5.39%, compared to the DSSCs...

For sensors constructed by freestanding membranes, when the gap between a freestanding membrane and the substrate or between membranes is at micron scale, the effects of near-field radiative heat transfer on the sensors' thermal performance should be considered during sensor design. The radiative heat flux is transferred from a membrane to a plane or from a membrane to a membrane. In the curren...

OBJECTIVE To assess long term compliance with the California Smoke-Free Workplace Law in Los Angeles County freestanding bars and bar/restaurants. DESIGN Population based annual site inspection survey of a random sample of Los Angeles County freestanding bars and bar/restaurants was conducted from 1998 to 2002. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The primary outcomes of interest were patron and employee ...

A new approach to compensate the strong hysteresis nonlinearity in piezoelectric materials is proposed. Based on the inverse multiplicative scheme, the approach avoids models inversion as employed in existing works. The compensator is therefore simple to implement and does not require additional computation as soon as the direct model is available. The proposed compensation technique is valuabl...

We report a comprehensive study of the two-phonon intervalley (2D) Raman mode in graphene monolayers, motivated by recent reports of asymmetric 2D-mode line shapes in freestanding graphene. For photon energies in the range 1.53-2.71 eV, the 2D-mode Raman response of freestanding samples appears as bimodal, in stark contrast with the Lorentzian approximation that is commonly used for supported m...

OBJECTIVE To compare maternal and neonatal birth outcomes and morbidities associated with the intention to give birth in two freestanding midwifery units and two tertiary-level maternity units in New South Wales, Australia. DESIGN Prospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS 494 women who intended to give birth at freestanding midwifery units and 3157 women who intended to give birth at tertiary-...

In this paper we discuss the potential role capital markets will play in health care restructuring. According to theory, agency costs, asymmetric information and strategic interactions cause the cost of capital for nonprofit entities to slope upward. Freestanding nonprofits are particularly disadvantaged in this regard. We conclude that some organizational forms will be less viable due to probl...