Materials research plays a vital role in transforming breakthrough scientific ideas into next-generation technology. Similar to the way silicon revolutionized the microelectronics industry, the proper materials can greatly impact the field of plasmonics and metamaterials. Currently, research in plasmonics and metamaterials lacks good material building blocks in order to realize useful devices. Such devices suffer from many drawbacks arising from the undesirable properties of their material building blocks, especially metals. There are many materials, other than conventional metallic components such as gold and silver, that exhibit metallic properties and provide advantages in device performance, design flexibility, fabrication, integration, and tunability. This review explores different material classes for plasmonic and metamaterial applications, such as conventional semiconductors, transparent conducting oxides, perovskite oxides, metal nitrides, silicides, germanides, and 2D materials such as graphene. This review provides a summary of the recent developments in the search for better plasmonic materials and an outlook of further research directions.

/pdf/alternative-plasmonic-materials-beyond-gold-and-silver-1p8fd7ol50.pdf

Alternative Plasmonic Materials: Beyond Gold and Silver

50 Years of Image Analysis

Plasmonics is a research area merging the fields of optics and nanoelectronics by confining light with relatively large free-space wavelength to the nanometer scale - thereby enabling a family of novel devices. Current plasmonic devices at telecommunication and optical frequencies face significant challenges due to losses encountered in the constituent plasmonic materials. These large losses seriously limit the practicality of these metals for many novel applications. This paper provides an overview of alternative plasmonic materials along with motivation for each material choice and important aspects of fabrication. A comparative study of various materials including metals, metal alloys and heavily doped semiconductors is presented. The performance of each material is evaluated based on quality factors defined for each class of plasmonic devices. Most importantly, this paper outlines an approach for realizing optimal plasmonic material properties for specific frequencies and applications, thereby providing a reference for those searching for better plasmonic materials.

/pdf/searching-for-better-plasmonic-materials-4ch9r4cri1.pdf

Searching for better plasmonic materials

Searching for Better Plasmonic Materials

Transparent conductors as solar energy materials: A panoramic review

We have continuously measured in situ reflectance and transmittance of percolating gold films over the entire range of surface coverage P, in the IR regime (1.7 and 2.2 μm). The samples present similar optical and electrical behavior, when compared on a normalized thickness scale. In the fractal region, close to the percolation threshold, the optical properties show a linear dependence on the surface coverage parameter, in agreement with a renormalization argument previously suggested. A strong absorption (about 40%), whose origin is not well understood, is found in the fractal region. The interpretations previously proposed by other authors are not applicable. We conclude that geometrical effects must dominate the optical properties over a large range of surface coverage.

Transmittance and reflectance in situ measurements of semicontinuous gold films during deposition

This paper describes a method for estimating Soft Error Rate (SER) and a systematic approach to identifying SER solutions. Having a good SER estimate is the first step in identifying if a problem exists and what measures are necessary to solve the problem. In this paper, a high performance processor is used as the base framework for discussion since it contains most, if not all, commonly used micro-architecture and circuit techniques associated with any state-of-the-art design. The framework provides a guideline for users to follow and to apply appropriate judgment to their particular problem. One major finding in this paper is that latches/flip-flops and combinational logic contribute significantly to the overall chip Failure-In-Time (FIT) rate. We also discuss potential SER techniques to combat this revelation.

A systematic approach to SER estimation and solutions

This paper gives a review of considerations necessary for the prediction of soft error rates (SERs) for microprocessor designs. It summarizes the physics and silicon process dependencies of soft error mechanisms and describes the determination of SERs for basic circuit types. It reviews the impact of logical and architectural filtering on SER calculations and focuses on the structural filtering of soft radiation events by nodal timing mechanisms.

/pdf/chip-level-soft-error-estimation-method-2vqn7c3jkw.pdf

Chip-level soft error estimation method

The optical reflectance and transmittance of percolating gold films close to the metal-insulator transition were measured over an extended wavelength range: from 25 to 500 \ensuremath{\mu}m It is shown that the inhomogeneous nature of such films controls the optical properties even at such long wavelengths as 500 \ensuremath{\mu}m, where the typical grain size is 10 nm Effective-medium theory is shown to be invalid close to the percolation threshold even at 500 \ensuremath{\mu}m Comparison of the measured data of all the samples with the scaling model of Y Yagil et al [Phys Rev B 43, 11 342 (1991)] yields excellent agreement over the entire wavelength range In particular, the short length scale determined by the anomalous diffusion relation is shown to be the relevant length scale for the optical measurements This scaling model for the optical properties of such films is thus experimentally justified, both qualitatively and quantitatively

Optical properties of thin semicontinuous gold films over a wavelength range of 2.5 to 500 μm

The three CT components with the greatest impact on image quality are the X-ray source, detection system and reconstruction algorithms. In this paper, we focus on the first two. We describe the state-of-the-art of CT detection systems, their calibrations, software corrections and common performance metrics. The components of CT detection systems, such as scintillator materials, photodiodes, data acquisition electronics and anti-scatter grids, are discussed. Their impact on CT image quality, their most important characteristics, as well as emerging future technology trends for each, are reviewed. The use of detection for multi-energy CT imaging is described. An overview of current CT X-ray sources, their evolution to support major trends in CT imaging and future trends is provided.

/pdf/state-of-the-art-of-ct-detectors-and-sources-a-literature-29meitdi4u.pdf

Yoad Yagil

Papers

Transmittance and reflectance in situ measurements of semicontinuous gold films during deposition

A systematic approach to SER estimation and solutions

Chip-level soft error estimation method

Optical properties of thin semicontinuous gold films over a wavelength range of 2.5 to 500 μm

State of the Art of CT Detectors and Sources: A Literature Review