Strongly correlated electron systems which induce strong electron-electron interaction at ultra-low temperatures have always been an intriguing topic in mesoscopic condensed matter physics. Below 130 mK, a peculiar gap can be found in Al/SiO 2 /Si:P structured tunnelling devices. The gap survives at the base temperature of more than 1800 gauss (30 mK), contrary to the superconductivity of the top Al electrode, which is completely suppressed above 100 gauss. This outcome implies that the observed gap is induced by Coulomb interaction in the heavily doped Si.

The shape of the reflection spectrum is complex and appears to overlap with several signals, because the surface state is uneven due to the natural oxide film, so that the spectrum becomes a complicated signal shape divided into regions 1 and 2 due to diffuse reflection. On the other hand, it is seen that the reflection spectrum after PEO surface treatment is overlapped with several signals. In addition, the reflectance of the energy band varies from 1.32 to 1.46 eV. Usually, the MgO-type oxide film was observed at an energy band of ~4.2 eV. The thickness of the oxide film was increased as the DC voltage was increased by the thin film thickness meter (QuaNix; 7500M) after Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (; PEO) surface treatment. This is because the higher the DC voltage, the easier the binding of the OH- ions in the solution solution and the Mg+ ions of the magnesium alloy. An important part of the bonding of ordinary ions is the energy source (plasma) which can promote bonding. However, when a certain threshold voltage or more is applied, the material is adversely affected. The oxide film of the surface may be destroyed without increasing the thickness of the oxide film, that is, whitening of the material may occur.

Using conventional deposition techniques, we demonstrate a method to fabricate ultra-smooth 10 nm silver films without using a wetting layer or co-depositing another material. The argon working pressure plays a crucial role in achieving an excellent surface flatness for silver films deposited by DC magnetron sputtering on an InP substrate. The formation of ultra-smooth silver thin films is very sensitive to the argon pressure. At the optimum deposition condition, a uniform silver film with an rms surface roughness of 0.81 nm has been achieved.

High contrast grating (HCG) is the structure made up of the sub-wavelength grating of high-index and the surrounding layer of low-index, which reveals high contrast between two materials. Its advantages include high reflectivity over a broad bandwidth, polarization and wavelength selectivity, optical high-Q resonator, and phase modulation. In this work, the HCG structure comprising of indium tin oxide (ITO) and Silicon (Si), for the surrounding layer and the grating layer respectively, was studied. Its theoretical model was established, and transmittance, phase and optical behavior were calculated by rigorous coupled-wave analysis and finite element method. Furthermore, the established structure was fabricated to validate its feasibility. The fabricated structure shows the focusing capability whose length is about 10 μm, and the feasibility of the structure was demonstrated. It is also meaningful that ITO layer can contribute to the fabrication of the HCG structure, leading to enable the structure to be electrical-driven.

A non-invasive method for ion energy distribution measurement at a RF biased surface is proposed for monitoring the property of ion bombardments in capacitively coupled plasma sources. To obtain the ion energy distribution, the measured electrode voltage is analyzed based on the circuit model which is developed with the linearized sheath capacitance on the assumption that the RF driven sheath behaves like a simple diode for a bias power whose frequency is much lower than the ion plasma frequency. The method is verified by comparing the ion energy distribution function obtained from the proposed model with the experimental result taken from the ion energy analyzer in a dual cathode capacitively coupled plasma source driven by a 100 MHz source power and a 400 kHz bias power.

We present tapered nanostructures fabricated on a selective area of gallium phosphide substrates for advanced optoelectronic device applications. A lithography-free fabrication process was accomplished by dry etching of metal nanoparticles. Thermal dewetting of micro-patterned metal thin films provides etch masks for tapered nanostructures. This simple process also allows the formation of plasmonic surfaces with corrugated shapes. Rigorous coupled-wave analysis calculations provide design guidelines for tapered nanostructures on gallium phosphide substrates.

<TEX>$SrTiO_3$</TEX> (STO) single crystal irradiated with a 3-MeV proton beam exhibits blue and green mixed luminescence. However, the same proton beam when used to irradiate STO with a very thin layer of deposited Pt does not show any luminescence. This Pt layer prevents any damage which may otherwise be caused by arcing, which stems from the accumulated surface voltage of tens of kV due to the charge induced by secondary electrons on the surface of the insulator during the ion beam irradiation process. Hence, the luminescence of ion-irradiated STO originates from the modification of the STO surface layer caused by arcing rather than from any direct ion beam irradiation effect. STO treated with atmospheric-pressure plasma, a simple and cost-effective method, also exhibits the same type of blue and green mixed luminescence as STO treated with an ion beam, as the plasma also creates a layer of surface damage due to arcing.

The ion energy distributions (IEDs) arriving at a substrate strongly affect the etching rates in plasma etching processes. In order to determine the IEDs accurately, it is important to obtain the characteristics of radio frequency (rf) sheath at pulsed rf substrates. However, very few studies have been conducted to investigate pulsing effect on IEDs at multiple rf driven electrodes. Therefore, in this work, we extended previous one-dimensional dynamics model for pulsed-bias electrodes. We obtained the IEDs using the developed rf sheath model and observed that numerically solved IEDs are in a good agreement with the experimental results.

Air Gap Membrane Distillation (AGMD) is one of several technologies that can be used to solve problems fresh water availability. AGMD exhibits several advantages, including low conductive heat loss and higher thermal efficiency, due to the presence of an air gap between the membrane and condensation wall. A previous study by Bhardwaj found that the condensation surface properties (materials and contact angle) affected the total collected fresh water in the solar distillation process. However, the process condition differences between solar distillation and AGMD might result in different condensation phenomena. In contrast, N. Miljkovic showed that a hydrophobic surface has higher condensation heat transfer. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, there is no study that investigates the effect of condensation surface properties in AGMD to overall process performance (i.e. flux and thermal efficiency). Thus, in this study, we treated the AGMD condensation surface to make it hydrophobic or hydrophilic. The condensation surface could be made hydrophilic by immersing and boiling plate in deionized (DI) water, which caused the formation of hydrophilic aluminum hydroxide (AlOOH) nanostructures. Afterwards, the treated plate was coated using hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) through plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The result indicated that condensation surface properties do not affect the permeate flux or thermal efficiency significantly. In general, the permeate flux and thermal efficiency for the treated plates were lower than those of the non-treated plate (pristine). However, at a 1 mm and 3 mm air gap, the treated plate outperformed the non-treated plate (pristine) in terms of permeate flux. Therefore, although surface wettability effect was not significant, it still provided a little influence.