Characterization of SiPMs is an objective of high importance in almost any research, development, and application of these unique photon detectors. Two decades of characterization method developments ...resulted in a comprehensive and elegant methodology based on a precisely resolved number of fired SiPM cells or the SiPM spectrum. Spectrum fitting procedures are very sensitive to a proper selection of many initial guess values including parameters of minor importance and happen to be unreliable. Moreover, conventional methods are useless for degraded or unresolved SiPM spectra. This challenge was anticipated for SiPM-based detectors of high-luminosity particle calorimeters where a severe radiation degradation of the SiPMs would co-exist with their acceptable performance. To address it, one can measure a mean and variance of SiPM charge responses relying on a priori known Excess Noise Factor of the SiPM but its stability during SiPM degradation is uncertain. This study proposes and evaluates a new approach for the SiPM characterization based on the first three statistical moments (mean, variance, and skewness) of its charge response including skewness. It assumes the Generalized Poisson distribution of the number of fired cells and provides simple closed-form analytical expressions for the parameter estimation. It allows determining a gain, a number of detected photons, and a probability of correlated events directly from raw data. The skewness-based characterization is anticipated to be especially useful for mass testing and continuous monitoring of SiPMs in large-scale experiments due to its simplicity and robustness. Initial evaluations of the method show promising results.
Artificial two-dimensional (2D) materials, which host electronic or spatial structure and properties not typical for their bulk allotropes, can be grown epitaxially on atomically flat surfaces; the ...design and investigation of these materials are thus at the forefront of current research. Here we report the formation of borophene, a planar boron allotrope, on the surface of Ir(111) by exposing it to the flux of elemental boron and consequent annealing. By means of scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory calculations, we reveal the complex structure of this borophene, different from all planar boron allotropes reported earlier. This structure forms as a single phase on iridium substrate in a wide range of experimental conditions and may be then decoupled from the substrate via intercalation. These findings allow for production of large, defect-free borophene sheets and advance theoretical understanding of polymorphism in borophene.
A great variety of two-dimensional (2D) boron allotropes (borophenes) were extensively studied in the past decade in the quest for graphene-like materials with potential for advanced technological ...applications. Among them, the 2D honeycomb boron is of specific interest as a structural analogue of graphene. Recently it has been synthesized on the Al(111) substrate; however it remains unknown to what extent does honeycomb boron behave like graphene. Here we elucidate the structural and electronic properties of this unusual 2D material with a combination of core-level X-ray spectroscopies, scanning tunneling microscopy, and DFT calculations. We demonstrate that in contrast to graphene on lattice-mismatched metal surfaces, honeycomb boron cannot wiggle like a blanket on Al(111), but rather induces reconstruction of the top metal layer, forming a stoichiometric AlB2 sheet on top of Al. Our conclusions from theoretical modeling are fully supported by X-ray absorption spectra showing strong similarity in the electronic structure of honeycomb boron on Al(111) and thick AlB2 films. On the other hand, a clear separation of the electronic states of the honeycomb boron into π- and σ-subsystems indicates an essentially 2D nature of the electronic system in both one-layer AlB2 and bulk AlB2.
Bottom-up strategies can be effectively implemented for the fabrication of atomically precise graphene nanoribbons. Recently, using 10,10'-dibromo-9,9'-bianthracene (DBBA) as a molecular precursor to ...grow armchair nanoribbons on Au(111) and Cu(111), we have shown that substrate activity considerably affects the dynamics of ribbon formation, nonetheless without significant modifications in the growth mechanism. In this paper we compare the on-surface reaction pathways for DBBA molecules on Cu(111) and Cu(110). Evolution of both systems has been studied via a combination of core-level X-ray spectroscopies, scanning tunneling microscopy, and theoretical calculations. Experimental and theoretical results reveal a significant increase in reactivity for the open and anisotropic Cu(110) surface in comparison with the close-packed Cu(111). This increased reactivity results in a predominance of the molecular-substrate interaction over the intermolecular one, which has a critical impact on the transformations of DBBA on Cu(110). Unlike DBBA on Cu(111), the Ullmann coupling cannot be realized for DBBA/Cu(110) and the growth of nanoribbons via this mechanism is blocked. Instead, annealing of DBBA on Cu(110) at 250 °C results in the formation of a new structure: quasi-zero-dimensional flat nanographenes. Each nanographene unit has dehydrogenated zigzag edges bonded to the underlying Cu rows and oriented with the hydrogen-terminated armchair edge parallel to the 1-10 direction. Strong bonding of nanographene to the substrate manifests itself in a high adsorption energy of -12.7 eV and significant charge transfer of 3.46e from the copper surface. Nanographene units coordinated with bromine adatoms are able to arrange in highly regular arrays potentially suitable for nanotemplating.
Spatially resolved dark count rate of SiPMs Engelmann, E.; Popova, E.; Vinogradov, S.
The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields,
11/2018, Letnik:
78, Številka:
11
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
In this work we present a novel method for the spatially resolved characterization of crystal defects in SiPMs. The contribution of crystal defects to the
DCR
is evaluated by exploiting the effect of ...“hot carrier luminescence” (HCL), which is light that is emitted during the Geiger mode operation of avalanche photodiodes (SiPM micro-cells). Spatially confined regions with an enhanced light emission intensity (hotspots) are identified within the active areas of SiPM micro-cells. By correlating the detected light intensity and the
DCR
, a significant contribution of up to 56% of the
DCR
can be attributed to less than 5% of the micro-cells. The analysis of the temperature dependence of the emitted light identifies the Shockley-Read-Hall-Generation to be the dominant mechanism responsible for the occurrence of hotspots. The motivation of this work is to generate a deeper understanding of the origin of hotspots in order to suppress their contribution to the
DCR
of SiPMs.
Atomically precise graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) can be fabricated via thermally induced polymerization of halogen containing molecular precursors on metal surfaces. In this paper the effect of ...substrate reactivity on the growth and structure of armchair GNRs (AGNRs) grown on inert Au(111) and active Cu(111) surfaces has been systematically studied by a combination of core-level X-ray spectroscopies and scanning tunneling microscopy. It is demonstrated that the activation threshold for the dehalogenation process decreases with increasing catalytic activity of the substrate. At room temperature the 10,10′-dibromo-9,9′-bianthracene (DBBA) precursor molecules on Au(111) remain intact, while on Cu(111) a complete surface-assisted dehalogenation takes place. Dehalogenation of precursor molecules on Au(111) only starts at around 80 °C and completes at 200 °C, leading to the formation of linear polymer chains. On Cu(111) tilted polymer chains appear readily at room temperature or slightly elevated temperatures. Annealing of the DBBA/Cu(111) above 100 °C leads to intramolecular cyclodehydrogenation and formation of flat AGNRs at 200 °C, while on the Au(111) surface the formation of GNRs takes place only at around 400 °C. In STM, nanoribbons have significantly reduced apparent height on Cu(111) as compared to Au(111), 70 ± 11 pm versus 172 ± 14 pm, independently of the bias voltage. Moreover, an alignment of GNRs along low-index crystallographic directions of the substrate is evident for Cu(111), while on Au(111) it is more random. Elevating the Cu(111) substrate temperature above 400 °C results in a dehydrogenation and subsequent decomposition of GNRs; at 750 °C the dehydrogenated carbon species self-organize in graphene islands. In general, our data provide evidence for a significant influence of substrate reactivity on the growth dynamics of GNRs.
A very rich Fe-C phase diagram makes the formation of graphene on iron surfaces a challenging task. Here we demonstrate that the growth of graphene on epitaxial iron films can be realized by chemical ...vapor deposition at relatively low temperatures, and that the formation of carbides can be avoided in excess of the carbon-containing precursors. The resulting graphene monolayer creates a novel periodically corrugated pattern on Fe(110). Using low-energy electron microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy, we show that it is modulated in one dimension forming long waves with a period of ∼4 nm parallel to the 001 direction of the substrate, with an additional height modulation along the wave crests. The observed topography of the graphene/Fe superstructure is well reproduced by density functional theory calculations, and found to result from a unique combination of the lattice mismatch and strong interfacial interaction, as probed by core-level photoemission and x-ray absorption spectroscopy.
Microtubules are dynamic tubulin polymers responsible for many cellular processes, including the capture and segregation of chromosomes during mitosis. In contrast to textbook models of tubulin ...self-assembly, we have recently demonstrated that microtubules elongate by addition of bent guanosine triphosphate tubulin to the tips of curving protofilaments. Here we explore this mechanism of microtubule growth using Brownian dynamics modeling and electron cryotomography. The previously described flaring shapes of growing microtubule tips are remarkably consistent under various assembly conditions, including different tubulin concentrations, the presence or absence of a polymerization catalyst or tubulin-binding drugs. Simulations indicate that development of substantial forces during microtubule growth and shortening requires a high activation energy barrier in lateral tubulin-tubulin interactions. Modeling offers a mechanism to explain kinetochore coupling to growing microtubule tips under assisting force, and it predicts a load-dependent acceleration of microtubule assembly, providing a role for the flared morphology of growing microtubule ends.
Graphite fluorides with different structural types (C y F) n (y = 2.5, 2, and 1) and room temperature graphite fluorides were studied by solid state NMR and NEXAFS. Data extracted from those two ...techniques are complementary, providing information about the C–F bonding and the hybridization character of the carbon atom valence states. The comparison of data obtained by different methods such as NMR, Raman, and X-ray absorption leads to similar conclusions regarding the chemical bonding in fluorographites. Several major configurations of fluorinated graphites are discussed, that is, planar sheets with mainly sp2 hybridization in room temperature graphite fluorides and corrugated sheets with sp3 hybridization in covalent high temperature graphite fluoride. Different references such as highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), graphitized carbon nanodiscs (graph-CNDs) and nanodiamonds (NDs) have also been investigated for comparison.
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