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The human serotonin transporter (SERT) terminates neurotransmission by removing serotonin from the synaptic cleft, which is an essential process that plays an important role in depression. In addition to natural substrate serotonin, SERT is also the target of the abused drug cocaine and, clinically used antidepressants, escitalopram, and paroxetine. To date, few studies have attempted to investigate the unbinding mechanism underlying the orthosteric and allosteric modulation of SERT. In this article, the conserved property of the orthosteric and allosteric sites (S1 and S2) of SERT was revealed by combining the high resolutions of x-ray crystal structures and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The residues Tyr95 and Ser438 located within the S1 site, and Arg104 located within the S2 site in SERT illustrate conserved interactions (hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions), as responses to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Van der Waals interactions were keys to designing effective drugs inhibiting SERT and further, electrostatic interactions highlighted escitalopram as a potent antidepressant. we found that cocaine, escitalopram, and paroxetine, whether the S1 site or S2 site, were more competitive. According to this potential of mean force (PMF) simulations, the new insights reveal the principles of competitive inhibitors that lengths of trails from central SERT to an opening were ~18Å for serotonin and ~22Å for the above-mentioned three drugs. Furthermore, the distance between the natural substrate serotonin and cocaine (or escitalopram) at the allosteric site was ~3Å. Thus, it can be inferred that the potent antidepressants tended to bind at deeper positions of the S1 or S2 site of SERT in comparison to the substrate. Continuing exploring the processes of unbinding four ligands against the two target pockets of SERT, this study observed a broad pathway in which serotonin, cocaine, escitalopram (at the S1 site), and paroxetine all were pulled out to an opening between MT1b and MT6a, which may be helpful to understand the dissociation mechanism of antidepressants.

To study the effects of lanthanide ions on the geometrically frustrated antiferromagnets and their magnetic properties, we grew high-quality single crystals of LnCu3(OH)6Br3 (Ln = Nd, Sm, and Eu) by hydrothermal method and studied their crystal structures and magnetic properties. The refinements of the crystal structure referred to the powder x-ray diffraction data show that LnCu3(OH)6Br3 adopt a Kapellasite-type layer structure, which is isostructural to their chlorine analogue. Magnetic susceptibilities demonstrate that LnCu3(OH)6Br3 have strong antiferromagnetic coupling and a pronounced magnetic frustration effect. Magnetization measurements indicate canted antiferromagnetic ordering of Cu2+ ions around 16 K within the kagomé plane and weak ferromagnetic coupling. Moreover, shoulder-like anomalies in specific heat around 16 K could be a signature of emergent of magnetic ordering. The low-temperature negative magnetization and specific heat of LnCu3(OH)6Br3 (Ln = Nd, Sm, and Eu) indicate that Ln 3+ ions induce more exotic magnetic ground state properties.

A novel normally-off AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) with a p-GaN Schottky hybrid gate (PSHG) is proposed, and compared with the conventional p-GaN normally-off AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. This structure can be realized by selective etching of p-GaN layer, which enables the Schottky junction and PN junction to control the channel charge at the same time. The direct current (DC) and switching characteristics of the PSHG HEMTs are simulated by Slivaco TCAD, and the p-GaN HEMTs and conventional normally-on HEMTs are also simulated for comparison. The simulation results show that the PSHG HEMTs have a higher current density and a lower on-resistance than p-GaN HEMTs, which is more obvious with the decrease of p-GaN ratios of the PSHG HEMTs. The breakdown voltage and threshold voltage of the PSHG HEMTs are very close to those of the p-GaN HEMTs. In addition, the PSHG HEMTs have a higher switching speed than the conventional normally-on HEMTs, and the p-GaN layer ratio has no obvious effect on the switching speed.

The degradation mechanism of GaN-based near-ultraviolet (NUV, 320–400 nm) light emitting diodes (LEDs) with low-indium content under electrical stress is studied from the aspect of defects. A decrease in the optical power and an increase in the leakage current are observed after electrical stress. The defect behaviors are characterized using deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) measurement under different filling pulse widths. After stress, the concentration of defects with the energy level of 0.47–0.56 eV increases, accompanied by decrease in the concentration of 0.72–0.84 eV defects. Combing the defect energy level with the increased yellow luminescence in photoluminescence spectra, the device degradation can be attributed to the activation of the gallium vacancy and oxygen related complex defect along dislocation, which was previously passivated with hydrogen. This study reveals the evolution process of defects under electrical stress and their spatial location, laying a foundation for manufacture of GaN-based NUV LEDs with high reliability.

AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) were irradiated with heavy ions at various fluences. After irradiation by 2.1 GeV181 Ta32+ ions, the electrical characteristics of the devices significantly decreased. The threshold voltage shifted positively by approximately 25% and the saturation currents decreased by approximately 14%. Defects were induced in the band gap and the interface between the gate and barrier acted as tunneling sites, which increased the gate current tunneling probability. According to the pulsed output characteristics, the amount of current collapse significantly increased and more surface state traps were introduced after heavy ion irradiation. The time constants of the induced surface traps were mainly less than 10 μs.

The performance degradation of gate-recessed metal–oxide–semiconductor high electron mobility transistor (MOS-HEMT) is compared with that of conventional high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) under direct current (DC) stress, and the degradation mechanism is studied. Under the channel hot electron injection stress, the degradation of gate-recessed MOS-HEMT is more serious than that of conventional HEMT devices due to the combined effect of traps in the barrier layer, and that under the gate dielectric of the device. The threshold voltage of conventional HEMT shows a reduction under the gate electron injection stress, which is caused by the barrier layer traps trapping the injected electrons and releasing them into the channel. However, because of defects under gate dielectrics which can trap the electrons injected from gate and deplete part of the channel, the threshold voltage of gate-recessed MOS-HEMT first increases and then decreases as the conventional HEMT. The saturation phenomenon of threshold voltage degradation under high field stress verifies the existence of threshold voltage reduction effect caused by gate electron injection.

The magnetism and magnetocaloric effect (MCE) of rare-earth-based tungstate compounds R 3BWO9 (R = Gd, Dy, Ho) have been studied by magnetic susceptibility, isothermal magnetization, and specific heat measurements. No obvious long-range magnetic ordering can be found down to 2 K. The Curie–Weiss fitting and magnetic susceptibilities under different applied fields reveal the existence of weak short-range antiferromagnetic couplings at low temperature in these systems. The calculations of isothermal magnetization exhibit a giant MCE with the maximum changes of magnetic entropy being 54.80 J/kg⋅K at 2 K for Gd3BWO9, 28.5 J/kg⋅K at 6 K for Dy3BWO9, and 29.76 J/kg⋅K at 4 K for Ho3BWO9, respectively, under a field change of 0–7 T. Especially for Gd3BWO9, the maximum value of magnetic entropy change ( − Δ S M max ) and adiabatic temperature change ( − Δ T ad max ) are 36.75 J/kg⋅K and 5.56 K for a low field change of 0–3 T, indicating a promising application for low temperature magnetic refrigeration.

A novel vertical InN/InGaN heterojunction tunnel FET with hetero T-shaped gate as well as polarization-doped source and drain region (InN-Hetero-TG-TFET) is proposed and investigated by Silvaco-Atlas simulations for the first time. Compared with the conventional physical doping TFET devices, the proposed device can realize the P-type source and N-type drain region by means of the polarization effect near the top InN/InGaN and bottom InGaN/InN heterojunctions respectively, which could provide an effective solution of random dopant fluctuation (RDF) and the related problems about the high thermal budget and expensive annealing techniques due to ion-implantation physical doping. Besides, due to the hetero T-shaped gate, the improvement of the on-state performance can be achieved in the proposed device. The simulations of the device proposed here in this work show I ON of 4.45 × 10−5 A/μm, I ON/I OFF ratio of 1013, and SS avg of 7.5 mV/dec in InN-Hetero-TG-TFET, which are better than the counterparts of the device with a homo T-shaped gate (InN-Homo-TG-TFET) and our reported lateral polarization-induced InN-based TFET (PI-InN-TFET). These results can provide useful reference for further developing the TFETs without physical doping process in low power electronics applications.

PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 (PZT) gate insulator with the thickness of 30 nm is grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) in AlGaN/GaN metal–insulator–semiconductor high electron mobility transistors (MIS-HEMTs). The ferroelectric effect of PZT AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMT is demonstrated. The polarization charge in PZT varies with different gate voltages. The equivalent polarization charge model (EPCM) is proposed for calculating the polarization charge and the concentration of two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). The threshold voltage (V th) and output current density (I DS) can also be obtained by the EPCM. The theoretical values are in good agreement with the experimental results and the model can provide a guide for the design of the PZT MIS-HEMT. The polarization charges of PZT can be modulated by different gate-voltage stresses and the V th has a regulation range of 4.0 V. The polarization charge changes after the stress of gate voltage for several seconds. When the gate voltage is stable or changes at high frequency, the output characteristics and the current collapse of the device remain stable.

Imaging quality is a critical component of compressive imaging in real applications. In this study, we propose a compressive imaging method based on multi-scale modulation and reconstruction in the spatial frequency domain. Theoretical analysis and simulation show the relation between the measurement matrix resolution and compressive sensing (CS) imaging quality. The matrix design is improved to provide multi-scale modulations, followed by individual reconstruction of images of different spatial frequencies. Compared with traditional single-scale CS imaging, the multi-scale method provides high quality imaging in both high and low frequencies, and effectively decreases the overall reconstruction error. Experimental results confirm the feasibility of this technique, especially at low sampling rate. The method may thus be helpful in promoting the implementation of compressive imaging in real applications.

Parity-time (PT) symmetry/anti-parity-time (APT) symmetry in non-Hermitian systems reveal profound physics and spawn intriguing effects. Recently, it has been introduced into diffusive systems together with the concept of exceptional points (EPs) from quantum mechanics and the wave systems. With the aid of convection, we can generate complex thermal conductivity and imitate various wavelike dynamics in heat transfer, where heat flow can be “stopped” or moving against the background motion. Non-Hermitian diffusive systems offer us a new platform to investigate the heat wave manipulation. In this review, we first introduce the construction of APT symmetry in a simple double-channel toy model. Then we show the phase transition around the EP. Finally, we extend the double-channel model to the four-channel one for showing the high-order EP and the associated phase transition. In a general conclusion, the phase difference of adjacent channels is always static in the APT symmetric phase, while it dynamically evolves or oscillates when the APT symmetry is broken.

A novel CMOS image sensor (CIS) pinned photodiode (PPD) pixel, named as O-T pixel, is proposed and investigated by TCAD simulations. Compared with the conventional PPD pixel, the proposed pixel features the overlapping gate (OG) and the temporary storage diffusing (TSD) region, based on which the several-nanosecond-level charge transfer could be achieved and the complete charge transfer from the PPD to the floating node (FD) could be realized. And systematic analyses of the influence of the doping conditions of the proposed processes, the OG length, and the photodiode length on the transfer performances of the proposed pixel are conducted. Optimized simulation results show that the total charge transfer time could reach about 5.862 ns from the photodiode to the sensed node and the corresponding charge transfer efficiency could reach as high as 99.995% in the proposed pixel with 10 μm long photodiode and 2.22 μm long OG. These results demonstrate a great potential of the proposed pixel in high-speed applications.

In this work, AlGaN/GaN FinFETs with different fin widths have been successfully fabricated, and the recessed-gate FinFETs are fabricated for comparison. The recessed-gate FinFETs exhibit higher transconductance value and positive shift of threshold voltage. Moreover, with the fin width of the recessed-gate FinFETs increasing, the variations of both threshold voltage and the transconductance increase. Next, transfer characteristics of the recessed-gate FinFETs with different fin widths and recessed-gate depths are simulated by Silvaco software. The relationship between the threshold voltage and the AlGaN layer thickness has been investigated. The simulation results indicate that the slope of threshold voltage variation reduces with the fin width decreasing. Finally, a simplified threshold voltage model for recessed-gate FinFET is established, which agrees with both the experimental results and simulation results.

A novel GaN-based vertical heterostructure field effect transistor (HFET) with nonuniform doping superjunctions (non-SJ HFET) is proposed and studied by Silvaco-ATLAS, for minimizing the specific on-resistance (R on A) at no expense of breakdown voltage (BV). The feature of non-SJ HFET lies in the nonuniform doping concentration from top to bottom in the n- and p-pillars, which is different from that of the conventional GaN-based vertical HFET with uniform doping superjunctions (un-SJ HFET). A physically intrinsic mechanism for the nonuniform doping superjunction (non-SJ) to further reduce R on A at no expense of BV is investigated and revealed in detail. The design, related to the structure parameters of non-SJ, is optimized to minimize the R on A on the basis of the same BV as that of un-SJ HFET. Optimized simulation results show that the reduction in R on A depends on the doping concentrations and thickness values of the light and heavy doping parts in non-SJ. The maximum reduction of more than 51% in R on A could be achieved with a BV of 1890 V. These results could demonstrate the superiority of non-SJ HFET in minimizing R on A and provide a useful reference for further developing the GaN-based vertical HFETs.