Scuola superiore di Catania

About: Scuola superiore di Catania is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Complex network & Graphene. The organization has 103 authors who have published 271 publications receiving 16218 citations.

Optical and electronic properties of fluorene/thiophene/benzothiadiazole pseudorandom copolymers for photovoltaic applications

Abstract: A new family of 9,9-bisalkylfluorene (F)/thiophene (T)/benzothiadiazole (B) π-conjugated copolymers for organic solar cells is reported. The structure of the reported copolymers is pseudorandom: in turn each F, T, B monomer unit is alternated to the other randomly distributed two units. Voltammetric, UV–visible, and photoluminescence measurements have been carried out to assess the optical and electronic properties of the synthesized materials. The occurring of photoinduced charge transfer towards a fullerene electron acceptor was investigated by photoluminescence quenching and light-induced electron spin resonance experiments. The copolymer having alternating thiophene monomer units and randomly distributed fluorene and benzothiadiazole units exhibits the most promising characteristics; the photophysic study shows that such polymer/fullerene blend could represent a novel and cheaper material to be used as convenient donor–acceptor system for polymer solar cells.

Fast detection of nonlinearity and nonstationarity in short and noisy time series

Abstract: We introduce a statistical method to detect nonlinearity and nonstationarity in time series, that works even for short sequences and in the presence of noise The method has a discrimination power similar to that of the most advanced estimators on the market, yet it depends only on one parameter, is easier to implement and faster Applications to real data sets reject the null hypothesis of an underlying stationary linear stochastic process with a higher confidence interval than the best known nonlinear discriminators up to date

Visible emission from bismuth-doped yttrium oxide thin films for lighting and display applications.

Abstract: Due to the great development of light sources for several applications from displays to lighting, great efforts are devoted to find stable and efficient visible emitting materials. Moreover, the requirement of Si compatibility could enlarge the range of applications inside microelectronic chips. In this scenario, we have studied the emission properties of bismuth doped yttrium oxide thin films grown on crystalline silicon. Under optical pumping at room temperature a stable and strong visible luminescence has been observed. In particular, by the involvement of Bi ions in the two available lattice sites, the emission can be tuned from violet to green by changing the excitation wavelength. Moreover, under electron beam at low accelerating voltages (3 keV) a blue emission with high efficiency and excellent stability has been recorded. The color is generated by the involvement of Bi ions in both the lattice sites. These peculiarities make this material interesting as a luminescent medium for applications in light emitting devices and field emission displays by opening new perspectives for the realization of silicon-technology compatible light sources operating at room temperature.

Robustness of a quantum key distribution with two and three mutually unbiased bases

Abstract: We study the robustness of various protocols for quantum key distributions. We first consider the case of qutrits and study quantum protocols that employ two and three mutually unbiased bases. We then derive the optimal eavesdropping strategy for two mutually unbiased bases in dimension 4 and generalize the result to a quantum key distribution protocol that uses two mutually unbiased bases in arbitrary finite dimensions.