1/40Boys Lacrosse: Morristown vs. Morristown-Beard, April 23, 2025.st1{fill-rule:evenodd;clip-rule:evenodd;fill:#2a2a2a}By Mike Kinney | NJ Advance Media for NJ.comPerhaps the best way to make yourself truly understandable to Michael Urbach over the next day or so is to address him while executing a handstand
The senior spent pretty much all Wednesday afternoon on his head
and his viewpoint from that position was a mighty good one
Urbach turned away Morristown shooters 19 times
including five in the first quarter to help his team seize initial momentum
and an astounding nine in the fourth as the Colonials’ dominated possession in those final 12 minutes
With his fabulous play between the pipes and the sturdy efforts of his defenders
Morristown-Beard was able to snap a two-game losing streak by gutting out a 5-3 victory in a cross-divisional NJILL battle at Morristown’s field
He’s kept us in a lot of games and our defense has been awesome this season,” first-year head coach Steve Manitta said
Junior Christian Jones scored the decisive fourth goal when he scooped up a deflected save by Morristown goalie Jake Buonocore and stuffed it home to snap a 3-3 tie with 2:35 to go in the third quarter
Freshman Luke Harmaty netted his second goal of the game off a feed by sophomore Jude Franco to complete the scoring with 1:24 left in that quarter
and then Urbach handled matters from there to keep the score that way and raise the Crimsons’ record to 6-4
They were just 4-14 last season and 2-16 in 2023
Urbach made all the saves a sold veteran goalie would be expected to make
but also posted a number of outstanding rejections at the doorstep on man-down and in transition
The only thing Urbach didn’t stop was talking about the gritty play of senior Ryan Novak
We’ve got coaches in here that really fight for us,” Urbach said
all those guys really helped me out; always do,” he said
We’ve lost to these guys the past few years.”
Morristown (4-3) had plenty of chances to win another
but simply found the goal impenetrable after senior Henry Moronski had given the Colonials a 3-2 lead with a garbage goal of his own
Moronski charged onto the loose ball and dunked with 7:56 left in the third quarter
Morristown would unleash 20 shots over the next 19:55
“That’s just kind of what I’m like and what I’m supposed to do I don’t know
The Crimson defense also has confidence in Urbach
and it is reflected in their aggressiveness in their man-to-man defense
they will press out in search of turnovers
Anderson is particularly adept at knocking the ball to the carpet
is one of the top poles in the state of New Jersey
I’ve never coached an athlete like Nick,” Manitta said
Manitta may be in his first season at Morristown-Beard
He started the Roxbury lacrosse program in 1993
and was Star-Ledger Coach of the Year in 2002 while at Chatham
After compiling a 148-118 record in 13 combined seasons at those two schools
Manitta was an assistant coach at Drew University and had head-coaching stints at Mercy College
Manhattan University and Sussex Community College
“We haven’t been a winning team in a long time here
And these coaches have really set the culture and changed things around,“ Urbach said
”So I’m really excited about the future and rest of the season."
Senior Kevin Sokolowski - a standout for the boys basketball team that also enjoyed a turnaround season - gave the Crimson the initial lead off a pass from sophomore and basketball teammate Mason Schwartz with 4:40 to go in the first quarter
Harmaty scored unassisted with 39 seconds left in the period for a 2-0 lead
Morristown knotted the score the following quarter with an unassisted goal by senior Gavin Pietrella with 2:41 to go
and a strike from freshman Ethan Alexopoulos with 56 seconds to go
Mike Kinney can be reached at mkinney@njadvancemedia.com
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Researchers studied individuals with Urbach-Wiethe disease
a rare condition that selectively damages the BLA
While patients were just as generous as controls toward close friends
they were significantly more selfish toward strangers and acquaintances
These findings suggest that the BLA doesn’t create prosocial behavior
but regulates when and how it occurs depending on social context
Together with colleagues from the universities in Lausanne
researchers from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) have studied a very special group of patients and established that the “basolateral amygdala” (part of the limbic system) plays an important role in this
In the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
they describe that this region calibrates social behaviour
This disease causes selective damage to the so-called basolateral amygdala (for short: BLA) without impacting other areas of the brain
Credit: Neuroscience NewsProsocial behaviour
the neuronal mechanisms that determine this behaviour vis-à-vis different social constellations are not yet fully understood
so the question remains: How does prosocial behaviour change depending on how much
decision-makers care about each other emotionally
Researching this objectively is no easy task
a special research environment presented itself in South Africa
head of the “Comparative Psychology” research team at HHU and lead author of the study in PNAS: “It was a unique opportunity to work on site with a group of patients who suffer from the extremely rare ‘Urbach-Wiethe Disease’.”
This disease causes selective damage to the so-called basolateral amygdala (for short: BLA) without impacting other areas of the brain
The emotional life and social behaviour of Urbach-Wiethe subjects differ
they find it difficult to recognise the emotional meaning of facial expressions
There are less than 150 known cases worldwide
but a larger group of Urbach-Wiethe subjects lives in Namaqualand in northern South Africa
“These patients represent a quasi-natural experimental environment for questions about prosocial behaviour,” adds Professor Kalenscher
exactly those areas of the brain are affected
which are believed to play a key role in compassionate behaviour toward others.”
Switzerland and South Africa conducted so-called “dictator games” with the study participants – a special constellation from game theory in which the participants are asked to distribute sums of money
The participants were allowed to decide how much money they wanted to share with other people – close friends
co-author of the study and doctoral researcher at HHU: “The results were clear: Individuals with BLA damage were just as generous toward people they were close to as healthy control participants
as soon as it came to individuals with whom they had less of an emotional connection
The study authors therefore conclude that the BLA is not fundamentally necessary for altruism
but that it helps regulate the degree of generosity depending on the social distance between individuals
the natural tendency to prioritise personal well-being over that of others dominates
meaning that affected individuals tend to act more selfishly
Only a strong emotional attachment – like that between best friends – brings about greater generosity
Lüpken: “Our study shows that the amygdala does not generally promote or inhibit prosocial behaviour
but rather regulates when and to what extent we act in a prosocial way.”
These findings explain the biological foundations for human social behaviour
They can also be important for gaining a better understanding of other conditions such as autism or psychopathy where social decisions are often different from those of healthy people
Professor Kalenscher places the findings in a wider context: “Social decisions are not only shaped by our upbringing or culture
They are in fact also strongly anchored in the mechanisms of our brain
it may be possible to develop targeted therapies to help individuals with social behaviour issues regulate their decision-making processes better.”
Author: Arne ClaussenSource: HHUContact: Arne Claussen – HHUImage: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: The findings will appear in PNAS
Neuroscience News is an online science magazine offering free to read research articles about neuroscience
He was a graduate of Oswego High School and served his country in the U.S
Bill had been employed as a salesman for several years at the Fulton Typewriter Store
a bus driver with the Golden Sun Bus Company and the Oswego City School District
Bill was known for his wanting to help those in need which led him to volunteer as driver with Mental Health and Wellness Services
Bill enjoyed spending his time playing tennis
bowling and teaching his grandchildren how to fish and they loved their “boy’s night” & “girl’s night” sleepovers at grandma and grandpa’s
Melissa (Adnan) Bdour of Fulton and John (Karina) Urbach of Kissimmee
Catherine Urbaitis of Texas; 18 grandchildren; 14 great grandchildren as well as several nieces and nephews
A Celebration of Life will be held from 3 to 5 p.m.
Condolences for Bill’s family may be left at www.brownfuneralhomefulton.com
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passed away peacefully at Parkwood hospital on September 2
Survived by his wife of 50 years Valentine Urbach; son Brian Jr.
Grandson Ryder; Great granddaughter Brooklyn; extended family Tammy Curzon (Harry)
Memorial donations in his memory may be made to Diabetes Association Canada or to Kidney Foundation. www.wgyoungfuneralhome.com
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School of Special Education
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Germany. In 1937 he immigrated with his family to the United States where they settled in New York City. He graduated from the Walden School in Manhattan. His undergraduate degree was in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon with subsequent degrees from George Washington University in engineering administration and law
Pennsylvania and they were happily married for 52 years
Peter spent the first 20 years of his career in the U.S
Patent Office and later establishing and managing the National Technical Information Service. During this time
he also served as a lieutenant in the Coast Guard Reserve. After leaving the government service
Peter started an electronic publishing company
Pergamon International Information Corporation. His business was located in McLean
which developed patent information products
a part of the Pergamon Publishing Group. He also served on the Boards of several Pergamon companies in the U.S
and Europe. Peter finished his career at Reed Elsevier
serving as VP of Electronic Publishing for Reed Publishing U.S. While with Pergamon and Reed
Peter also served on the Board of the Copyright Clearance Center serving as Chairman for seven years
His first retirement for 15 years was to Sunapee
New Hampshire where he skied daily during the winter months
and worked on fundraising for and the building of a new town library. His second retirement was in Cornelius
North Carolina which was much more sedentary and closer to family
He is survived by his son Michael and wife Suzane and their three children
NJ and his son Steven and wife Jennifer and their two children
memorial donations may be made in Memory of Peter Urbach to Abbott Library Foundation
Raymer-Kepner Funeral Home is serving the Urbach family. Condolences and memories may be shared at www.kepnerfh.com
Metrics details
absorption onset sharpness is characterized by temperature-dependent Urbach energies
structural disorder causing localized exponential-tail states
and dynamic disorder from electron-phonon scattering
Applicability of this exponential-tail model to disordered solids has been long debated
exponential fittings are routinely applied to sub-gap absorption analysis of organic semiconductors
we elucidate the sub-gap spectral line-shapes of organic semiconductors and their blends by temperature-dependent quantum efficiency measurements
We find that sub-gap absorption due to singlet excitons is universally dominated by thermal broadening at low photon energies and the associated Urbach energy equals the thermal energy
This is consistent with absorptions obtained from a convolution of Gaussian density of excitonic states weighted by Boltzmann-like thermally activated optical transitions
A simple model is presented that explains absorption line-shapes of disordered systems
and we also provide a strategy to determine the excitonic disorder energy
Our findings elaborate the meaning of the Urbach energy in molecular solids and relate the photo-physics to static disorder
crucial for optimizing organic solar cells for which we present a revisited radiative open-circuit voltage limit
This has revived ambitions to ultimately achieve industrial scale low-cost photovoltaics with low embodied manufacturing energy
While chemists have been productively synthesizing new materials
understanding of the opto-electronic properties lags behind – particularly in relation as to why these new NFA blends are so effective at photogeneration with low voltage losses
A particular area of intense interest is light absorption and how it is related to molecular dipole moments and their energetic disorder
this is also a very relevant question for the fundamental solid-state physics of molecular and disordered semiconductors
energetic disorder critically determines dominant radiative loss mechanisms limiting the open-circuit voltage in optoelectronic applications
The sub-gap \(\alpha\) generally follows the expression
the origin of the static disorder is of great importance for the classification and future development of organic semiconductors and their electro-optical properties
it has remained unclear how this important Figure-of-merit relates to the Urbach energy
we show that the exciton sub-gap absorption in organic semiconductors
is generally characterized by Urbach tails with characteristic energies equivalent to the thermal energy \({kT}\) as demonstrated by temperature-dependent external quantum efficiency (EQE) measurements (k is the Boltzmann constant)
these Urbach tails are often convoluted with Gaussian line-shapes induced by trap states and/or CT states
Urbach energies larger than \({kT}.\) A simple model
combining the Gaussian distributed DOS with Boltzmann-like thermally activated optical transitions
is shown to reproduce the absorption profiles and to give an estimate for the Gaussian static disorder
the exciton sub-gap absorption is found to be composed of two regimes: near the onset
the sub-gap absorption is dominated by Gaussian static disorder resulting in strongly energy dependent Urbach energies
while thermal broadening dominates at energies well below the gap
where the Urbach energy approaches \({kT}\)
using an (energy-independent) Urbach energy as a probe for the static disorder in organic solar cells is meaningless
the effect of exciton static disorder and thermal broadening on the expected radiative voltage losses and power conversion efficiency (PCE) in organic solar cells based on low offset D:A blends is clarified
EQE measurements have been frequently employed in the past to determine \({E}_{{\rm{U}}}\)
a previous lack of sensitivity in the EQE measurements has led to speculative assumptions about the spectral range of trap state absorptions
exponential tails and associated \({E}_{{\rm{U}}}\) in organic semiconductors
exponential fits can be forced on to EQE spectra resulting in a rather arbitrary \({E}_{{\rm{U}}}\) dependent on the spectral range of the fitting
More insight can instead be gained from the apparent Urbach energy (\({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}\)) here defined as:
For a true exponential tail in the form of Eq. 1
\({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}\) is constant in the sub-gap spectral region and given by \({E}_{{\rm{U}}}\)
Schematic illustration of the energetic offset \(({E}_{{\rm{opt}}}-{E}_{{\rm{CT}}})\) decreasing from left to right
Gaussian fits in the spectral range of CT state and trap state absorption are performed where possible
the EQE tail has the form \({e}^{E/{kT}}\)
and \({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}\) roughly equals \({kT}\) in the spectral range that is dominated by the absorption of the acceptor
\({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}\) shows a \(2{kT}{\lambda }_{{\rm{CT}}}/({E}_{{\rm{CT}}}+{\lambda }_{{\rm{CT}}}-E)\) dependence in the spectral range of CT absorption
the CT state absorption can no longer be discerned from the EQE spectra
the \(\alpha\) tail in the spectral range of LEs remains dominant down to the energy range of mid-gap state excitation
the \({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}\) in the LE-dominated sub-gap absorption range finally saturates and reaches a broad plateau where \({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}\approx {kT}\)
\({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}\) is around 22 meV in this case
Normalized sub-gap EQE and \({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}\) spectra of inverted PM6:Y6
PBDB-T:EH-IDTBR and neat IT-4F solar cells at different temperatures
\({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}\) as a function of \({kT}\) for all tested materials systems including a commercial a-Si:H thin-film solar cell
an extrapolation to \(T=0\) implies that \({E}_{{\rm{U}},{\rm{S}}}\approx 0\)
suggesting the lack of an exponential tail state distribution in these systems
These observations raise the question: what is the role of static disorder in shaping the \({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}\) spectra
This is indeed not what we observe in experiments
Schematic representation of the disorder regimes dominating \(\alpha\) in the absence of CT absorption comprising (i) static disorder \({\sigma }_{{\rm{s}}}\,\)close to the band edge
where \({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}={kT}\)
and (iii) deep trap state absorption well below the gap
\({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}\) reaches \({kT}\) at \(\alpha \left(E\right)\) values 3 to 4 orders of magnitudes below \({\alpha }_{{\rm{sat}}}\)
while this is 6 orders below \({\alpha }_{{\rm{sat}}}\) for \({\sigma }_{{\rm{s}}}=\) 100 meV at room temperature
\(\alpha \left(E\right)\) eventually becomes dominated by deep trap state absorption
resulting in an artificial increase in \({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}\) and a concomitant deviation from \({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}={kT}\)
Deep trap state absorption is typically observed 6 orders of magnitude below \({\alpha }_{{\rm{sat}}}\) limiting the spectral range dominated by thermal broadening
Based on these considerations, we estimate that it is possible to observe \({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}\approx {kT}\) only when \({\sigma }_{{\rm{s}}}\) \(<\) 100 meV (see Supplementary Fig. 10)
Other conditions that must be met are: (i) the neat phase absorption of one component is spectrally separated from the other neat phase absorption
as well as from the CT states and trap states; (ii) the dynamic range of the EQE (or \(\alpha\)) measurement is sufficiently wide to measure photocurrent at wavelengths well below the absorption onset of the neat material (\(E \,<\
{E}_{{\rm{opt}}}-{\sigma }_{{\rm{s}}}^{2}/{kT}\)); and (iii) optical cavity effects are not significant
Exponential sub-gap EQE spectra previously reported in literature for BHJs often do not fulfill these requirements
explaining reported Urbach energies much larger than \({kT}\)
the \({E}_{{\rm{U}}}^{{\rm{app}}}\) spectra introduced here do not suffer from the short fitting ranges of previous of \({E}_{{\rm{U}}}\) measurements
we have shown that an exponential distribution of tail states cannot explain the sub-gap spectral line-shape associated with singlet absorption
nor CT or trap state absorption in organic semiconductors
assuming \({{\rm{EQE}}}_{{\rm{max }}}=1\) and ideal charge collection
representing the ideal case with no sub-gap absorption
is included as indicated by the black solid line
The PCE decreases with respect to the SQ limit as \({\sigma }_{{\rm{s}}}\) increases
The SQ limit is not expected to be reached even for vanishing \({\sigma }_{{\rm{s}}}\) due to the thermal broadening
Finally, Fig. 5b shows the corresponding effect of \({\sigma }_{{\rm{s}}}\) on the radiative limit of the PCE
Compared to the SQ limit of the PCE (indicated by black solid line)
the presence of the sub-gap absorption results in a PCE peak loss of around 1.5 % for \({\sigma }_{{\rm{s}}}=0\)
the radiative PCE limit is further lowered
with the PCE peak deceasing with increasing \({\sigma }_{{\rm{s}}}\)
to minimize \(\Delta {V}_{{\rm{OC}}}^{{\rm{RAD}}}\)
it is important to minimize \({\sigma }_{{\rm{s}}}\)
will still be present due to thermal broadening
this loss is inherent to all organic solar cells
and needs to be taken into account in low offset systems where excitons dominate the sub-gap absorption
we have shown that the exciton sub-gap absorption in organic semiconductors is dominated by Gaussian static disorder near the onset
while thermal broadening dominates at lower photon energies
we find that for a large number of organic semiconductors
the Urbach energy in the sub-gap absorption regime dominated by thermal broadening equals the thermal energy \({kT}\) within the variations caused by optical interference
While exponential absorption tails have been previously observed mainly in non-fullerene systems
we show that this property is universal for organic semiconductors and consistent with a Gaussian density of excitonic states undergoing Boltzmann-like thermally activated optical transitions
The static disorder is shown to arise from the width of the Gaussian DOS and to broaden the absorption onset at energies close to the optical gap
Using our model for the sub-gap excitonic absorption tail
it is possible to discriminate spectral regimes dominated by static disorder (where the Urbach energy is strongly dependent on the energy) and thermal broadening (\({E}_{{\rm{U}}}={kT}\))
as well as to reproduce the temperature dependence of absorption coefficient due to excitons
This modified view of the sub-gap absorption coefficient in disordered organic semiconductors clarifies a longstanding debate concerning the shape of the DOS and the relevance of an Urbach description in these important and intriguing materials
we demonstrate the implications of exciton static disorder and thermal broadening on the radiative open-circuit voltage losses in organic solar cells based on low offset D:A blends
Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) was purchased from Heraeus
Zinc acetate dihydrate and PCDTBT (Poly[N-9′-heptadecanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4′,7′-di-2-thienyl-2′,1′,3′-benzothiadiazole)]) were purchased from Sigma Aldrich
PC70BM ([6,6]-Phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester) and EH-IDTBR were purchased from Solarmer (Beijing)
BQR (benzodithiophene-quaterthiophene-rhodanine) was provided by Prof
m-MTDATA (4,4′,4”-Tris[(3-methylphenyl) phenylamino]triphenylamine) was purchased from Ossila
IT-4F (3,9-bis(2-methylene-((3-(1,1-dicyanomethylene)-6,7-difluoro)-indanone))-5,5,11,11-tetrakis(4-hexylphenyl)-dithieno[2,3-d:2′,3′-d’]-s-indaceno[1,2-b:5,6-b’]dithiophene)
PM6 (Poly[(2,6-(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl-3-fluoro)thiophen-2-yl)-benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b’]dithiophene))-alt-(5,5-(1′,3′-di-2-thienyl-5′,7′-bis(2-ethylhexyl)benzo[1′,2′-c:4′,5′-c’]dithiophene-4,8-dione)])
Y6 (2,2′-((2Z,2′Z)-((12,13-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-3,9-diundecyl-12,13-dihydro-[1,2,5]thiadiazolo[3,4-e]thieno[2”,3”:4′,5′]thieno[2′,3′:4,5]pyrrolo[3,2-g]thieno[2′,3′:4,5]thieno[3,2-b]indole-2,10-diyl)bis(methanylylidene))bis(5,6-difluoro-3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-indene-2,1-diylidene))dimalononitrile)
ITIC (3,9-bis(2-methylene-(3-(1,1-dicyanomethylene)-indanone))-5,5,11,11-tetrakis(4-hexylphenyl)-dithieno[2,3-d:2′,3′-d’]-s-indaceno[1,2-b:5,6-b’]dithiophene)
PBDB-T (Poly[(2,6-(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)-benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b’]dithiophene))-alt-(5,5-(1′,3′-di-2-thienyl-5′,7′-bis(2-ethylhexyl)benzo[1′,2′-c:4′,5′-c’]dithiophene-4,8-dione)]) and PTB7-Th (Poly[4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b’]dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-(4-(2-ethylhexyl)-3-fluorothieno[3,4-b]thiophene-)-2-carboxylate-2–6-diyl)]) were purchased from Zhi-yan (Nanjing) Inc
Solar cells were fabricated with either a conventional architecture Indium tin oxide (ITO)/PEDOT:PSS/active layer/Ca/Al or inverted architecture ITO/ZnO/active layer/MoO3/Ag
Commercial ITO coated glass substrates from Ossila were cleaned in an aqueous solution of Alconox at 60 °C
followed by an ultrasonic bath in deionize water
The cleaned substrates were dried with nitrogen
30 nm of PEDOT:PSS was spin-coated at 6000 rpm for 30 s onto precleaned ITO substrates and annealed at 155 °C for 15 min
20 nm of calcium (Ca) and 100 nm of Aluminum (Al) were vacuum deposited at 10−6 Tor defining an active area of 4 mm2
For the inverted device architecture with 30 nm of ZnO
a solution of 200 mg of zinc acetate dihydrate in 2-methoxyethanol (2 ml) and ethanolamine (56 µl) was prepared and stirred overnight under ambient conditions
The ZnO layer formed upon spin-coating the solution at 4000 rpm followed by thermal annealing at 200 °C for 60 min
7 nm of MoO3 and 100 nm of Ag were vacuum deposited at 10−6 Tor defining an active area of 4 mm2
BQR:PC70BM devices were prepared using with the conventional architecture ITO/PEDOT:PSS/BQR:PC70BM/Ca/Al
BQR and PC70BM were dissolved in toluene (24 mg/ml with the donor:acceptor ratio of 1:1) and stirred at 60 °C for 3 h
the BQR:PC70BM solution was spin-coated at 1000 rpm on the PEDOT:PSS layer to form a 100 nm thick film
m-MTDATA:PC70BM devices: Equimolar solutions of PC70BM and m-MTDATA in dichloromethane (DCM) with a concentration of 19.4 mmol/l were prepared
To obtain a series of solutions with different molar ratios of m-MTDATA:PC70BM (5 mol%
1 µl and 0 µl of m-MTDATA in DCM were added to 1 ml of PC70BM in DCM
The solutions were spin-coated at a spin rate of 800 rpm to get an active layer thickness of around 90 nm
PM6:Y6 devices: PM6:Y6 was dissolved in chloroform (CF) solution (14 mg ml−1 with 0.5 vol.% 1-Chloronaphthalene [CN]) with a donor:acceptor ratio of 1:1.2
and spin-coated (3000 rpm) on ZnO to form a 100 nm thick film
The as cast active layers were thermally annealed at 110 °C for 10 min
PM6:ITIC devices: PM6:ITIC was dissolved in chlorobenzene (CB) solution (18 mg ml−1 with 0.5 vol.% DIO) with a donor:acceptor ratio of 1:1
and spin-coated (1000 rpm) on ZnO to form a 100 nm thick film
The active layers were further treated with thermal annealing at 100 °C for 10 min
PBDB-T:EH-IDTBR devices: PBDB-T:EH-IDTBR was dissolved in CB solution (14 mg ml−1) with a donor:acceptor ratio of 1:1
and spin-coated (800 rpm) on ZnO to form a 100 nm thick film
PBDB-T:ITIC devices: PBDB-T:ITIC was dissolved in CB solution (14 mg ml−1 with 0.5 vol.% DIO) with a donor:acceptor ratio of 1:1
PTB7-Th:ITIC devices: PTB7-Th:ITIC was dissolved in CB solution (14 mg ml−1 with 1 vol.% 1,8-diiodooctane [DIO]) with a donor:acceptor ratio of 1:1.4
PBDB-T:PC70BM devices: PBDB-T:PC70BM was dissolved in CB solution (14 mg ml−1 with 3 vol.% DIO) with a donor:acceptor ratio of 1:1.4
Then the as-cast films were rinsed with 80 μL of methanol at 4000 rpm for 20 s to remove the residual DIO
PBDB-T:IT-4F devices: PBDB-T:IT-4F was dissolved in CB solution (14 mg ml−1 with 0.5 vol.% DIO) with a donor:acceptor ratio of 1:1
Neat ITIC devices: ITIC was dissolved in CF solution (10 mg ml−1) and spin-coated on ZnO (2000 rpm) to form a 70 nm thick film
Neat IT-4F devices: IT-4F was dissolved in CF solution (10 mg ml−1) and spin-coated on ZnO (2000 rpm) to form a 70 nm thick film
Neat PBDB-T devices: PBDB-T was dissolved in CF solution (10 mg ml−1) and spin-coated on ZnO (3000 rpm) to form a 70 nm thick film
Neat Y6 devices: Y6 was dissolved in CF solution (16 mg ml−1) and spin-coated on ZnO (3000 rpm) to form a 70 nm thick film
A homebuilt setup including a Perkin Elmer UV/VIS/NIR spectrometer (LAMBDA 950) as a source for monochromatic light was used
The light was chopped at 273 Hz and directed onto the device under test (DUT)
The resulting photocurrent was amplified by a low noise current amplifier (FEMTO DLPCA-200) and measured with the Stanford SR860 lock-in amplifier
the DUT was mounted in an electrically shielded and temperature controlled Linkam sample stage
An integration time up to 1000 s was used for detecting wavelengths above 1500 nm
NIST‐calibrated silicon and Ge photodiodes from Newport were used as a calibration reference
The temperature inside the Linkam sample stage was set to −120 to 60 °C by the Linkam T96 temperature controller in combination with an LNP96 liquid nitrogen pump
The commercial amorphous silicon thin film solar cell
used for temperature dependent EQE measurements
was manufactured by TRONY with the part number sc80125s-8
The EQE associated with CT states and mid-gap states were routinely fitted in accordance with the standard Marcus charge-transfer formalism
The associated EQEs are given by \({{\rm{EQE}}}_{{\rm{CT}}}\left(E\right)=g(E,{E}_{{\rm{CT}}},{\lambda }_{{\rm{CT}}},{f}_{{\rm{CT}}})\) and \({{\rm{EQE}}}_{{\rm{t}}}\left(E\right)=g(E,{E}_{{\rm{t}}},{\lambda }_{{\rm{t}}},{f}_{{\rm{t}}})\) for CT and mid-gap state absorption
Here, \({f}_{j}\), \({E}_{j}\) and \({\lambda }_{j}\) are fitting parameters. All fit parameters obtained in this work are summarized in Supplementary Table 1
The EQEs are assumed to be related to their respective absorption coefficients as\(\,{\alpha }_{{\rm{CT}}}\left(E\right)\propto {{\rm{EQE}}}_{{\rm{CT}}}\left(E\right)\) and \({\alpha }_{{\rm{t}}}\left(E\right)\propto {{\rm{EQE}}}_{{\rm{t}}}\left(E\right)\) (neglecting interference effects)
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request
Molecular optimization enables over 13% efficiency in organic solar cells
The long-wavelength edge of photographic sensitivity and of the electronic Absorption of Solids
Disorder and the optical-absorption edge of hydrogenated amorphous silicon
and localized modes in ternary semiconductors
Alloying induced degradation of the absorption edge of InAsxSb1-x
Absorption edge of impure gallium arsenide
Temperature dependence of the Urbach optical absorption edge: a theory of multiple phonon absorption and emission sidebands
Erratum: “Band edge optical absorption in intrinsic silicon: assessment of the indirect transition and disorder models” [J
Toward a unified theory of Urbach’s rule and exponential absorption edges
Electronic properties of doped semiconductors
Light absorption of poly(3-hexylthiophene) single crystals
Charge-generating mid-gap trap states define the thermodynamic limit of organic photovoltaic devices
Relating the open-circuit voltage to interface molecular properties of donor:acceptor bulk heterojunction solar cells
Beyond Langevin recombination: how equilibrium between free carriers and charge transfer states determines the open-circuit voltage of organic solar cells
How to interpret absorption and fluorescence spectra of charge transfer states in an organic solar cell
Temperature dependence of the spectral line-width of charge-transfer state emission in organic solar cells; static vs
The role of delocalization and excess energy in the quantum efficiency of organic solar cells and the validity of optical reciprocity relations
Design rules for minimizing voltage losses in high-efficiency organic solar cells
Harvesting the full potential of photons with organic solar cells
High-efficiency organic solar cells with low non-radiative recombination loss and low energetic disorder
Interfacial disorder in efficient polymer solar cells: the impact of donor molecular structure and solvent additives
Charge transport in disordered organic photoconductors a Monte Carlo simulation study
Sub-bandgap absorption in organic solar cells: experiment and theory
Relationship between energetic disorder and open-circuit voltage in bulk heterojunction organic solar cells
Determining ultralow absorption coefficients of organic semiconductors from the sub‐bandgap photovoltaic external quantum efficiency
Limitations of charge transfer state parameterization using photovoltaic external quantum efficiency
Spectral dependence of the internal quantum efficiency of organic solar cells: Effect of charge generation pathways
Efficient charge generation by relaxed charge-transfer states at organic interfaces
Probing the pathways of free charge generation in organic bulk heterojunction solar cells
Charge transfer state versus hot exciton dissociation in polymer-fullerene blended solar cells
Direct correlation of charge transfer absorption with molecular donor:acceptor interfacial area via photothermal deflection spectroscopy
Charge carrier transport and generation via trap-mediated optical release in organic semiconductor devices
Intrinsic detectivity limits of organic near‐infrared photodetectors
Strong light-matter coupling for reduced photon energy losses in organic photovoltaics
Temperature-dependent charge-transfer-state absorption and emission reveal the dominant role of dynamic disorder in organic solar cells
Static versus electron-phonon disorder in amorphous Si: H and its alloys
Urbach edge of crystalline and amorphous silicon: a personal review
Accurate determination of the Urbach energy of a-Si:H thin films by correction for the interference effect
Electron-transfer reactions involving non-linear spin-boson interactions
The role of different reorganization energies within the Zusman theory of electron transfer
Measuring energetic disorder in organic semiconductors using the photogenerated charge-separation efficiency
Single-junction organic photovoltaic cells with approaching 18% efficiency
Effect of mixed layer crystallinity on the performance of mixed heterojunction organic photovoltaic cells
Approaching disorder-free transport in high-mobility conjugated polymers
Detailed balance limit of efficiency of p-n junction solar cells
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This work was funded through the Welsh Government’s Sêr Cymru II Program ‘Sustainable Advanced Materials’ (Welsh European Funding Office − European Regional Development Fund)
is recipient of a UKRI EPSRC Doctoral Training Program studentship
is funded by a studentship through the Sêr Cymru II Program
is a Rising Star Fellow also funded through the Welsh Government’s Sêr Cymru II ‘Sustainable Advanced Materials’ Program (European Regional Development Fund
Welsh European Funding Office and Swansea University Strategic Initiative)
This work was also funded by UKRI through the EPSRC Program Grant EP/T028511/1 Application Targeted Integrated Photovoltaics
provided the overall leadership of the project
assisted with \({{\rm{EQE}}}_{{\rm{PV}}}\) measurements
All co-authors contributed in the development of the manuscript which was initially drafted by C.K
The authors declare no competing interests
Peer review information Nature Communications thanks Martijn Kemerink and the other
reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24202-9
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St Kilda artist Anthea Kemp has been awarded the 2025 Theodore Urbach Landscape Prize and Studio Scholarship
The $10,000 prize supports artists working in the field of Australian landscape painting
who volunteers with seed banks and conservation groups
uses painting to explore the ecological rhythms of the landscape and the human role in caring for Country
This year’s winner was selected from 23 applicants
Jarrad Martyn and Kate McKenzie Lewis were named runners-up
Five finalists were invited to present their work to a judging panel chaired by SAM artistic director Danny Lacy
RMIT associate professor and SAM board member Dr Drew Pettifer
Wangaratta Art Gallery director Rachel Arndt
and equity trustees representative for the Theodore Urbach Landscape Painting Scholarship Briar Stevens
“The strength of applicants over the first two iterations of The Urbach has been remarkable
and is a testament to the opportunities that this uniquely tailored initiative offers in the development of artists’ professional practices and connection with the community of Shepparton,” Mr Hagger said
“We were impressed by the calibre and diversity of the submissions we received this year
which showcased the many unique ways in which the Australian landscape can be interpreted,” SAM curator Caroline Esbenshade said
“We’re excited to continue pushing the boundaries of how we understand and engage with the genre
expanding the horizon of Australian landscape painting
“I’m looking forward to working with Anthea
finding ways to support her development as well as to support her in sharing her knowledge and passion for conservation with the community.”
Ms Kemp will receive $5000 in prize money and a $5000 stipend to support a three-month studio residency at SAM from May 1 to July 31
she plans to work with the Euroa Arboretum on Taungurung and Yorta Yorta Country to develop a new series of paintings responding to her on-site research
to Jack and Doreen (Peterson) Urbach of Lisbon
He excelled in many school athletics growing up
He had a son named Forrest (Madaus) in 1994
Jeff met Tana (formerly Rae) in Valley City
He has two daughters and three grandsons by marriage
Jeff pursued his love of the outdoors throughout the years as an avid hunter and fisherman
priding himself on knowing the best locations for success and happily passing that knowledge to his friends and family
Jeff is preceded in death by his son Forrest
He is survived by his mother Doreen Thompson; brother Kris (Jennifer) Urbach; niece Kali Urbach; wife
Tana; stepdaughters (Trista and Kayla) and three grandsons
There will be a private family gathering at a later date
The Lerud Mathias Funeral Home in Valley City
ND is assisting Jeff’s family with arrangements
An online guestbook and tribute page can be found at www.lerudmathias.com
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Due to the large number of industrial applications of transparent conductive oxides (TCOs)
this study focuses on one of the most important metal oxides
The RF-magnetron sputtering method was used to fabricate NiO thin films on both quartz and silicon substrates at room temperature under flow of Argon and Oxygen
The sputtered samples were annealed in N2 atmosphere at 400
Using the AFM micrographs and WSXM 4.0 software
Advanced surface parameters were obtained by the Shannon entropy through a developed algorithm
and the power spectral density and fractal succolarity were extracted by related methods
Optical properties were studied using a transmittance spectrum to achieve the optical bandgap
Photoluminescence properties also showed interesting results in accordance with optical properties
electrical characterizations and I–V measurements of the NiO/Si heterojunction device demonstrated that it can be used as a good diode device
facilitating the characterization of micro or nanoscale surfaces
The study of the distribution of topographic heights and their spatial complexity on surfaces of technological interest has provided great support in the optimization and fabrication of surfaces with improved physical properties
Such analyzes allow an optimization of the manufacturing process of thin films and have been widely used in the study of the surface of thin films of technological interest
it was observed that decreasing crystallite size generates rougher surfaces
This fact is important because other works have shown that surfaces with spatial patterns with more homogeneous distribution are less prone to failures
through advanced fractal and fractal parameters
that the roughest surfaces have more uniform spatial patterns and approximately ideal surface percolation
confirming the increase in topographic homogeneity according to the increase in annealing temperature
NiO thin films were prepared by RF reactive sputtering method and the effect of annealing temperature on the structure and electrical properties were studied
We also studied statistical parameters related to the surfaces of these thin films using topographic images obtained by the AFM technique
It is worth mentioning that all the parameters presented in this work are in accordance with the international standard ISO 25178-2:2012
we made use of two other fractal parameters
which were surface entropy and fractal succolarity
3D morphological and optical analysis of the films so that a complete analysis of the optical-morphological-structural relationship of the films can be obtained
which we believe to be of great importance for the optimization of the fabrication processes of these thin films
the as-deposited NiO films on silicon substrate (Si/NiO) were separately loaded to sputtering system to make front metal platinum contacts
a shadow mask with 1.0 mm diameter circular dots was used
whole back Si side of sample were coated with aluminum via sputtering system
The platinum and aluminum metals were used to obtained ohmic-type contact behavior
we aim to study only rectifying behavior of the p-NiO/n-Si heterojunction
The DEKTAK3 profilometer measured the thickness of films
X-ray diffraction (XRD) was carried out on STOE-XRD diffractometer using Cu- Kα line (λ = 0.15406 nm) in the range of 10–90 degree
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) micrograph in contact mode was done by an Auto probe CP instrument from Park Scientific
having area of 1 × 1 µm2 and 256 × 256 pixel resolution each one
The Varian Cary-500 spectrophotometer was applied for optical properties also photoluminescence properties were examined by Cary Eclipse spectrometer 320 nm excitation wavelength were performed
The electrical calculations were done by current–voltage measurement by solar simulator (SIM-1030) and Palm Sense
The I-V curve was calculated under 1000 W/m2 of light source for Si/NiO heterojunction
All measurements were performed at room temperature
where pij is the probability of having or not having outliers in terms of heights. Using Eq. (2)
entropy was normalized in order to obtain uniform and non-uniform height distribution patterns:
\(E_{\max }^{(2)}\) is the surface with uniform minimum patterns and \(E_{\min }^{(2)}\) is the non-uniform pattern surface
we calculated the \(E_{\max }^{(2)}\) values that were represented by the symbol E
The PSD of samples was also obtained, being calculated using the box counting method by the WSXM software, and from a linearized graph of the PSDs, we obtained the Hurst Coefficients (HC) of the spectra using Eq. (3):
y) of pressure applied to the calculated box
NiO thin films deposited on Si and Quartz
X-ray diffraction spectrum of NiO thin films with different annealing temperatures
Scherrer's formula was used to calculate the size of crystallite for film with thickness of 200 nm37
when λ = 0.154 nm is the X-Ray wavelength, \(\theta\) is diffraction angle and \(h\), \(k\), \(l\) are Miller indices. The results are listed in Table 2
The NiO thin film grown on quartz substrate compared to silicon one shows an increase in the lattice parameter but decrease in the crystallite size
and the crystallite size is much smaller than in the quartz substrate
We assume that the adhesion of NiO to the silicon substrate is much greater than that of quartz
Because NiO atoms that disperse on the surface of silicon
so they have more adhesion to Si than similar atoms
the surface adhesion of NiO to similar atoms is much higher and many crystallites larger is formed
there are two main peaks related to crystal planes (111) and (200) in a thin film of NiO
When increases annealing temperature the crystal plane (111) decreases and (200) peaks increase
A change in crystallite size was confirmed according by the optical analysis of the thin films
the band gap of the thin films has increased with increasing temperature
Representative 3-D AFM micrographs of (a) #1
The insets represent the height distribution of each thin film
Abbott–Firestone curves of the samples
The mechanism behind the formation of leptokurtic surfaces (Sku > 3) of #3 and #5 may be associated with a strongly anisotropic behavior linked to the organization of NiO grains along the film
Average PSD and linear fit of the fractal region of the PSD spectra of (a) #1
the annealing temperature increases the topographic roughness and spatial complexity of NiO thin films deposited onto quartz substrate and dictates the formation of more homogeneous and uniform surfaces
The transmittance spectra of prepared NiO thin films on quartz substrate with different annealing temperatures
higher temperatures of annealing have changed the crystal quality of the thin films or their surface uniformity
The structure of the wave spectrum in the transmittance spectrum of the annealed thin films shows that the interference and surface reflections of these films have created constructive and destructive interferences that the transmittance spectrum is in the form of a wave with valleys and peaks
But we do not see such a spectrum in unannealed samples
dT/dλ of NiO thin films on quartz substrate with different annealing temperatures
In the case of calculating the absorption coefficient by transmission spectra, the below equation was used to plotting α is plotted versus photon energy (Fig. 8). There, d is the thickness of films.
Adsorption coefficient of NiO thin films on quartz substrate with different annealing temperatures
The absorption coefficient of the annealed NiO films shows that with increasing the annealing temperature
the absorption edge has not changed much and only with increasing temperature
the adsorption edge has become slightly softer
Determination of optical gap band of NiO thin films on quartz substrate with different annealing temperatures
Width of localized states gives Eu, it means that in diagram of Lnα versus photon energy is the slope of line which has been summarized in Table 5
In Fig. 9, the diagram (αhν)2 is plotted in terms of E to calculate the bandgap values of the annealed NiO thin films, and the values obtained are given in Table 6
The Urbach energy values of the NiO thin films also show that increasing the temperature increases the Urbach energy and the localized states in the bandgap
which means that we have traps in the valance band that reduce the bandgap
R is the reflectance of NiO thin film as a function of wavelength and t is thickness of NiO thin film
To evaluate the band gap of Si/NiO thin film associated to their direct allowed transition and Tauc relation, (αhν)2 vs. hν is presented in Fig. 10. The evaluated band gap of Si/NiO and Q/NiO were measured from the linear line hν–intercept value. The band gap values are more near each other since substrate has a little effect on NiO band gaps.
Determination of optical gap band of NiO thin films on silicon (#1) and quartz (#2) substrates
The improvement of crystal microstructures reduces the scattering caused by defects
the increase in the transmission of nickel oxide layers occurs with the increase of the annealing temperature and the improvement of the microstructure
The PL spectra of as deposited and annealed NiO thin films.
The PL spectra of Si/NiO heterojunction with gaussian fitting of four emissions
Current–voltage diagram for NiO thin film grown on silicon
Schematic representations of the band energy and charge transfer for an n-Si/p-NiO heterojunction under light illumination.
(a) dV/d(lnI)-I and (b) H(I)-I plots of NiO/Si heterojunction device at 300 K
the change in diode parameters was related to the structural and morphological properties of prepared thin films
it may be originated from multi-level recombination channels because of more defects of junction’s interface it means that optimization of growth process can be considered as an effective way to increase the interface properties
The NiO thin films with 200 nm thickness were grown on Si and quartz substrates by RF reactive sputtering then annealed in 400
The structure and electrical properties of the prepared thin films were used to modify and classify the NiO films according to their applications
The NiO thin films have a cubic crystal structure with (111) and (200) planes
and the crystallite sizes decreased with increasing annealing temperature
The comparison of crystalline structure and morphology properties showed that the type of substrate dictates the formation of surfaces with different vertical growth dynamics also the grain thinning under annealing temperature increase when crystallite size decrease
The Abbott-Firestone curves confirms that the height distribution of film deposited on quartz substrate is more centralized
the fractal behavior of samples is also well supported by the PSD analysis
the percolative analysis of surface microtexture of films shows that the as prepared films display different characteristics
In the case of the annealing temperature study
we found that this parameter increases the topographic roughness and spatial complexity of films deposited onto quartz substrate and determines the formation of more homogeneous and uniform surfaces
The NiO thin films were dark and became transparent after annealing with 85% transmittance and their optical bandgap was between 3.60 and 3.80 eV
The ideality factor by Cheung–Cheung’s method was 3.05 and the barrier potential was larger than the standard method
it was in good agreement with previous studies
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request
Synthesis of Cu-Al-Zn-O nanocomposite: effect of annealing on the physical properties
Microstructure and micromorphology of ZnO thin films: Case study on Al doping and annealing effects
Microstructures and optoelectronic properties of nickel oxide films deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering at various working pressures of pure oxygen environment
Solid-state synthesis and electrochemical property of SnO2/NiO nanomaterials
optical and photo-catalytic activity of nanocrystalline NiO thin films
Tailoring the textured surface of porous nanostructured NiO thin films for thedetection of pollutant gases
Preferred orientations of NiO films prepared by plasma-enhanced metalorganic chemical vapor deposition
Nickel oxide electrochromic thin films prepared by reactive DC magnetron sputtering
optical and electrical properties of NiO nanostructure thin film
Thin (NiO)1–x(Al2O3)x Al doped and Al coated NiO layers for gas detection with HSGFET
Structure and optical properties of nanocrystalline NiO thin film synthesized by sol–gel spin-coating method
Transparent conducting lithium-doped nickel oxide thin films by spray pyrolysis technique
Chemical vapor deposition of nickel oxide films from bis-π-cyclopentadienyl-nickel
Influence of AZO amorphous structure on n-AZO/p-Cu2O heterojunction diode photoluminescence properties
Effect of sputtering power on the physical properties of dc magnetron sputtered copper oxide thin films
Physical properties of copper oxide thin films prepared by dc reactive magnetron sputtering under different oxygen partial pressures
Effect of the substrate temperature on the properties of the RF sputtered TiO2 thin films
Synthesis and enhanced gas-sensing properties of ultra-long NiO nanowires assembled with NiO nanocrystals
NiO nanotubes assembled in pores ofporous anodic alumina and their optical absorption properties
Gas sensing properties of p-type hollow NiO hemispheres prepared by polymeric colloidal templating method
Solution plasma synthesized nickel oxide nanoflowers: An effective NO2 sensor
Synthesis of cactus-like NiO nanostructure and their gas-sensing properties
Single-crystalline porous NiO nanosheets prepared from -Ni(OH)2 nanosheets: magnetic property and photocatalytic activity
Micromorphology analysis of TiO2 thin films by atomic force microscopy images: The influence of postannealing
Topographic characterization of zirconia-based ceramics by atomic force microscopy: A case study on different laser irradiations
Nanoscale stereometric evaluation of BiZn05Ti05O3 thin films grown by RF magnetron sputtering
Characterization of sputtered NiO thin films
optical and electrical properties of p NiO/n Si heterojunction diodes
Characterization of areal surface texture (Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
The areal field parameters characterization of areal surface texture (Berlin
Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg) 15–43 (2013)
Stereometric characterization of kefir microbial films associated with Maytenus rigida extract
WSXM: A software for scanning probe microscopy and a tool for nanotechnology
Superficial characterization of kefir biofilms associated with Açaí and Cupuaçu extracts
Statistical estimation of the shannon entropy
de Melo, R.H.C., & Conci, A. Succolarity: Defining a method to calculate this fractal measure. In 15th Int. Conf. Syst. Signals Image Process, 291–294, https://doi.org/10.1109/IWSSIP.2008.4604424 (2008)
P-type electrical conduction in transparent thin films of CuAlO2
Strong deep-level-emission photoluminescence in NiO nanoparticles
Solution using a codoping method to unipolarity for the fabrication of p-Type ZnO
electrical and opticalstudies of Nickel Oxide thin films
Roughness of ground and hard-turned surfaces on the basis of 3D parameters
Contact of rough surfaces with asymmetric distribution of asperity heights
Morphological and multifractal properties of Cr thin films deposited onto different substrates
Lacunarity exponent and Moran index: A complementary methodology to analyze AFM images and its application to chitosan films
Advanced spatial investigation of 3D nanoscale topography of DyMnO3 thin films
Effect of Fe doping on the surface morphology and supercapacitor properties of Sr(OH)2 thin films: A fractal approach
volume 3 of Oxford Master Series in Physics
Structural and optical properties of ZnO and Ni:ZnO thin films: the trace of post-annealing
Structural and optical characterization of ZnO and AZO thin films: the influence of post-annealing
The characterization of amorphous AZO n/Si p hetrojunction diode for solar cell application
X-ray line broadening from filed aluminium and wolfram
optical and electrical properties of sputtered NiO thin films for gas detection
Vertically aligned and interconnected nickel oxide nanowalls fabricated by hydrothermal route
The characteristics of ZnS/Si heterojunction diode fabricated by thermionic vacuum arc
optical and electrical properties of n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunction prepared by ultrasonic spray
Effect of NiOx’s film thickness on the electrical properties of Ni/p–NiOx/n-Si structures
Improving the optical and electrical properties of NiO/n-Si photodiode by Li dopant
Nanostructured-NiO/Si heterojunction photodetector
p-NiO/n+-Si single heterostructure for one diode-one resistor memory applications
Extraction of Schottky diode parameters from forward current–voltage characteristics
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The authors thank CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Código Financeiro 001)
and FAPEAM (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas
010/2021—CT&I ÁREAS PRIORITÁRIAS) for the financial support
as well as the infrastructure of Analytical Center/UFAM
We also would like to thank the Laboratório de Síntese de Nanomateriais e Nanoscopia (LSNN) associated with the Sistema Nacional de Laboratórios em Nanotecnologias (SisNANO)—Processo CNPq 442601/2019-0
Quantum Technologies Research Center (QTRC)
Amir Hossein Salehi shayegan & Mahdi Astani Doudaran
Development and Innovation Management (DMCDI)
Laboratory of Synthesis of Nanomaterials and Nanoscopy
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33713-y
Journal of the Australian Ceramic Society (2025)
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics (2025)
Wyoming's Source for High School Sports News - Casper Sports
Powell's Nate Urbach finally called it a career
Then he earned a half dozen more state titles in his tenure in Powell
The Panthers had an unbelievable run from 2012-2015 where they won the 3A state championship in each of those years
This was a time where 3A wrestling was very
Powell had a whopping five individual state champions in 2014 and four in 2015
Panther wrestlers were winning multiple state crowns in their prep careers His first boss at Powell High School is the current Commissioner of the Wyoming High School Activities Association
Wrestling is not an easy sport to coach with the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat on display just about every day
Urbach was named Coach of the Year nine times in his career and was the NHSACA Region
He is part of the 2021 Hall of Fame class of the Wyoming Coaches Association and is a worthy inductee
We talked with Urbach at the WCA banquet last month in Casper about his career and his induction
- University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players
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His Panther squads won 6 state wrestling championships.\nRead More
After 22 years of coaching wrestling, Powell's Nate Urbach finally called it a career. Before coming to Wyoming, Urbach coached in Rushville, Nebraska, and won three state championships. Then he earned a half dozen more state titles in his tenure in Powell. The Panthers had an unbelievable run from 2012-2015 where they won the 3A state championship in each of those years. This was a time where 3A wrestling was very, very competitive.
Under Urbach's guidance, Powell had a whopping five individual state champions in 2014 and four in 2015. More often than not, Panther wrestlers were winning multiple state crowns in their prep careers His first boss at Powell High School is the current Commissioner of the Wyoming High School Activities Association, Ron Laird.
Wrestling is not an easy sport to coach with the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat on display just about every day. To that extent, Urbach was named Coach of the Year nine times in his career and was the NHSACA Region, 7 Coach of the Year, twice.
He is part of the 2021 Hall of Fame class of the Wyoming Coaches Association and is a worthy inductee. We talked with Urbach at the WCA banquet last month in Casper about his career and his induction. Enjoy!
Text description provided by the architects. The Urbach Tower is a unique wood structure. The design of the tower emerges from a new self-shaping process of the curved wood components. This pioneering development constitutes a paradigm shift in timber manufacturing from elaborate and energy-intensive mechanical forming processes that require heavy machinery to a process where the material shapes entirely by itself.
This shape change is only driven by the wood’s characteristic shrinking during a decrease of moisture content. Components for the 14 m tall tower are designed and manufactured in a flat state and transform autonomously into the final predicted curved shapes during the industry-standard technical drying. This opens up new and unexpected architectural possibilities for wood structures, using a sustainable, renewable, and locally sourced building material.
It serves as a landmark building for the City of Urbach’s contribution to the Remstal Gartenschau 2019
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20232:20 - 3:40 pm Eastern Time (US)Hybrid In-Person Event and Zoom WebinarSchwartz 110
Alice Urbach had her own cooking school in Vienna
but in 1938 she was forced to flee to England
became an intelligence officer in the struggle against the Nazis
Returning to the ruins of Vienna in the late 1940s
she discovers that her bestselling cookbook has been published under someone else's name
the historian Karina Urbach - Alice's granddaughter - sets out to uncover the truth behind the stolen cookbook
and tells the story of a family torn apart by the Nazi regime
survived the horror and losses of the Holocaust to begin a new life in America
Dr Karina Urbach is a German/British historian and prize-winning novelist
She took her PhD at the University of Cambridge and did her second doctorate (Habilitation) in 2009
Karina has taught at German and British Universities and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the IHR
She researched her latest project at the Institute for Advanced Study
How the Nazis stole my grandmother’s cookbook was translated into six languages and became an award-winning documentary
Karina writes the regular column Blast from the Past for the German Tageszeitung (TAZ)
She has contributed to the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Literary Review, Die Zeit, Die Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) and has been a talking head in BBC
Brandeis is funded by donations from people like you
If you enjoy what we do and would like to help us continue this important work
Center for German and European StudiesMandel Center for the Humanities
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This work focuses on the compositional dependences in parameters that govern the optical properties of (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x amorphous alloys in the wide spectral range from above the phonons and to the inter-band electronic transitions
We studied the absorption edge fluctuations that are linked to the variations of the bandgap Eg
and average halfwidth <FWHM> of Raman bands in amorphous (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x alloys at various temperatures
Obtained results reveal the compositional trends in the influence of the disordering on the absorption processes in studied alloys
These aspects may explain the interest to the properties of the crystalline phase of these compounds
Among its attractive features is the simple cell structure with high scalability; it is non-volatile
has a relatively high read/write operation speed (<10 ns)
and a long cycle life (>1012 operations)
These applications employ the property contrast between amorphous and the crystalline states of GSTs
the long-term stability of the amorphous phase plays one of the crucial roles in reliability of corresponding devices
which directly revealed a correlation between anharmonicity
While modeling the dielectric function of some phase-change alloys in the amorphous state12
it was shown that quite small deviations in ε2 can cause pronounced differences at the calculated reflectance spectra
Introduction an additional constant ε2 to the dielectric function could significantly improve the quality of the fit of the experimental data
It was assumed that additional constant ε2 corresponds to the contribution of absorption present in the amorphous samples studied
Analysis of the decrease of the additional constant ε2 upon cooling and annealing was interpreted as shrinking absorption by defect states
caused by a non-reversible decrease in the number of defect states upon relaxation
However this approach does not give one a chance to evaluate the width of the Urbach-Martienssen tails formed by localized and additional states
there is a lack of the information on the compositional dependences in the Urbach-Martienssen tails in amorphous phase-change alloys
The latter might bring insight to the understanding of the influence of the disordering on the optical properties of the amorphous state in phase-change alloys
This study is aimed to reveal the compositional dependences in parameters that govern the optical properties of (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x amorphous alloys in the wide spectral range from the phonons to the inter-band electronic transitions
By focusing on the absorption edge fluctuations that are linked to the variations of the bandgap Eg
and the width of Urbach-Martienssen tails EU in amorphous (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x alloys
we expect to reveal the compositional trends in the influence of the structural and thermal disordering on the absorption processes in studied amorphous alloys
The dielectric function of amorphous (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x samples: () Ge1Sb2Te4
The dielectric constants εinf were determined as values of ε1 at 0.07 eV
The positions of the Eg are marked as vertical dashed lines and were determined by applying the α10k-criterion
Inset: The dielectric constants εinf of studied alloys
Solid line is calculated by applying the Clausius-Mossotti relation
Dispersion of the absorption coefficients α in amorphous (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x samples: () Ge1Sb2Te4, () Ge2Sb2Te5, () Ge3Sb2Te6, () GeTe. Straight dashed lines correspond to the linear approximation by using the Eq. 3
Inset: the compositional dependence in the Urbach energy EU in (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x samples
Straight trend line is shown for the visualization of the compositional dependence
Trend line is shown for the visualization of the compositional dependence
Inset: The compositional increase of the average halfwidth <FWHM> in studied amorphous (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x samples
Parameters that govern optical properties of the studied (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x alloys at 300 K (Table 1) exhibit compositional evolutions
Increase in the width of localized states EU that reflects in the widening of the optical bang-gap Eg is consistent with evolution of the Tauc parameter B1/2 and the average halfwidth <FWHM> of Raman bands
The compositional changes in B1/2 and <FWHM> evidence the increase of the disordering in the GeTe-rich amorphous (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x alloys
Temperature dependence of the absorption coefficient in amorphous Ge3Sb2Te6 with linear approximation according to Eq. 3
Horizontal dashed lines determine the range of the approximation
Vertical dashed lines indicate the position of the optical Eg at the extreme temperatures
Inset: Optical bandgap Eg(T) as a function of EU(T) for studied (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x alloys: () Ge1Sb2Te4
This dependence demonstrates correlation between Eg(T) and EU(T)
and therefore we can conclude that the contribution of the thermally-induced disorder EU(dyn.) to EU(T) should be alsmost equal for all studied amorphous (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x alloys without any compositional dependences
we observed systematic trends in the optical properties of amorphous (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x alloys in the IR
The dielectric constant εinf obeys the Clausius-Mossotti relation and can be determined by the polarizabilities of the material’s constituent atoms
The evolution of the dielectric function around the fundamental absorption edge reveals the systematic changes in the optical bandgap width Eg and in the width of the localized electronic states EU
The compositional increment in EU can be explained by increasing of the disorder in GeTe-rich amorphous (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x alloys
This conclusion is supported by corresponding trends in the Tauc parameter B1/2 and in the average halfwidth <FWHM> of Raman bands
The low-temperature data enabled us to analyze the contributions of the structural and thermal-induced disorder into the temperature dependence of EU and Eg
While no compositional trends in the contribution of thermal-induced disorder can be traced
there is a systematic increase of the structural disorder in GeTe-rich amorphous (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x alloys
This might be due to the fact that reducing the concentration of vacancies in GeTe-rich GSTs leads to the broader distributions of bond lengths and bond angles that worsen long-range ordering in studied amorphous (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x alloys
Obtained results may enable one to optimize the tailored optical properties of amorphous (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x alloys
The latter is quite important for their technological applications which require the long-term stability and the absence of the drift effects
In this study we have chosen several phase-change alloys along the (GeTe)x(Sb2Te3)1−x compositional line: Ge1Sb2Te4 (x = 0.5)
To prepare the samples for optical measurements
the 150 nm Al layer was deposited onto a glass substrate
The phase-change films (1,000 nm) were d.c
sputtering-deposited with LS 320 von Ardenne system (background pressure 4 × 10−7 mbar
operating in the constant power mode by using 20–25 W) with stoichiometric targets of 99.99% purity
In each sputter session 4 samples of a certain compound have been prepared: 3 samples were used for the optical measurements to provide the repeatability of the data
one reference sample w used to determine the thickness of the phase-change layer by using a profilometer
Reflectance spectra were measured within the energy range from 0.05 up to 1 eV with a resolution of 2 meV
using Bruker IFS 66 v/s spectrometer equipped with the continuous flow Cryovac cryostat
in the sample temperature range from 5 up to 400 K
a glass substrate coated with the 150 nm Au layer was used
it acted as an almost ideal mirror in the studied energy range
Reflectance spectra of the reference sample and the studied one were measured subsequently to exclude drift effects
the final spectrum was obtained by dividing the measured spectrum by the reference one
The angle of incidence of the incoming beam was kept constant at 10° with respect to the surface normal
To extend the studied spectral range we measured ellipsometry spectra in the range from 0.7 to 2 eV using a Woolam M-2000 UI with angles of incidence of 60 and 69 at room temperature
The ellipsometer was equipped with a InGaAs diode array
as well as silicon charge-coupled device camera that served as detectors in the NIR and the VIS/UV ranges correspondingly
The light sources were deuterium and halogen lamps
The relative measurement error for the optical measurements was 0.2% in the used wavelength range
The dielectric constant εinf was determined at 0.1 eV
Reversible Electrical Switching Phenomena in Disordered Structures
Rapid reversible light‐induced crystallization of amorphous semiconductors
Resonant bonding in crystalline phase-change materials
Unique Bond Breaking in Crystalline Phase Change Materials and the Quest for Metavalent Bonding
Disorder-induced localization in crystalline phase-change materials
Phase change materials: Towards a universal memory
High Speed Overwritable Phase Change Optical Disk Material
Phase-change materials for rewriteable data storage
Phase-change materials for non-volatile photonic applications
Compositional dependencies in the vibrational properties of amorphous Ge-As-Se and Ge-Sb-Te chalcogenide alloys studied by Raman spectroscopy
Anharmonicity of the vibrational modes of phase-change materials: A far-infrared
Relation between bandgap and resistance drift in amorphous phase change materials
Sb2Te3) pseudobinary thin films studied with spectroscopic ellipsometry
Disorder and the Optical-Absorption Edge of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon
Influence of composition on optical and dispersion parameters of thermally evaporated non-crystalline Cd50S50−xSex thin films
Optical properties and phase change transition in Ge2Sb2Te5 flash evaporated thin films studied by temperature dependent spectroscopic ellipsometry
Investigation of the optical and electronic properties of Ge2Sb2Te5 phase change material in its amorphous
Optical Properties and Electronic Structure of Amorphous Germanium
Temperature dependent optical constants of amorphous Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films
and Sb2Te3 from ellipsometry and density functional theory
optical absorption and photoconductivity in amorphous semiconductors
Direct evidence for phase transition in thin Ge1Sb4Te7 films using in situ UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy and Raman scattering studies
Direct Evidence for a Systematic Evolution of Optical Band Gap and Local Disorder in Ag
A systematic evolution of optical band gap and local ordering in Ge1Sb2Te4 and Ge2Sb2Te5 materials revealed by in situ optical spectroscopy
Correlation between optical absorption redshift and carrier density in phase change materials
Investigations on phase change characteristics of Ti-doped Ge2Sb2Te5 system
Electronic Properties of Amorphous and Crystalline Ge2Sb2Te5 Films
The Moss rule and the influence of doping on the optical dielectric constant of semiconductors—I
Network topology and thermal annealing dependence of some physical properties in amorphous Sn–Sb–Se films
Impact of disorder on optical reflectivity contrast of epitaxial Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films
Far-Infrared and Raman Spectroscopy Investigation of Phonon Modes in Amorphous and Crystalline Epitaxial GeTe-Sb2Te3 Alloys
Designing epitaxial GeSbTe alloys by tuning the phase
Electrical and optical properties of epitaxial binary and ternary GeTe-Sb2Te3 alloys
Interplay between Structural and Thermoelectric Properties in Epitaxial Sb2+ xTe3 Alloys
CoRa: An Innovative Software for Raman Spectroscopy
Cody disorder: Absorption-edge relationships in hydrogenated amorphous silicon
Temperature dependence of semiconductor band gaps
Temperature dependence of band gaps in semiconductors: Electron-phonon interaction
Temperature dependent optical absorption in hydrogenated silicon from amorphous to crystalline state
Optical Properties of Amorphous and Polycrystalline Stibnite (Sb2S3) Films
Urbach-Martienssen Tails in the Absorption Spectra of Layered Ternary Semiconductor TlGaS2
Thermal and elastic properties of Ge-Sb-Te based phase-change materials
Specific heat of (GeTe)x (Sb2Te3)1−x phase-change materials: The impact of disorder and anharmonicity
Local order in amorphous Ge2Sb2Te5 and GeSb2Te4
The relationship between the distribution of electronic states and the optical absorption spectrum of an amorphous semiconductor: An empirical analysis
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Author gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the DAAD (German academic exchange service)
as well as from SFB 917 ‘Resistively Switching Chalcogenides for Future Electronics - Structure
RWTH Aachen University for the support in the providing the facilities to perform the experiments
Lashkaryov Institute of Semiconductor Physics of NAS of Ukraine
The author declares no competing interests
Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42634-8
Journal of the Australian Ceramic Society (2023)
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Feinstein, J. et al. Nature Neurosci. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.3323 (2013)
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The Mannelly Award was created this year to honor college football’s top senior long snapper
who played 16 seasons with the Chicago Bears and is the franchise’s all-time leader with 245 games played
Urbach moved into the starting long snapper role last season and handled the snapping duties for Nebraska’s punt unit in each of the final 10 games of 2018. As the long snapper, he helped Isaac Armstrong post the ninth-best punting average (43.6) in school history in his first season as NU’s punter
including a pair of stops against nationally ranked Michigan and recovered a fumble in the victory over Illinois
The semifinalists will be announced on Nov
16 with the finalists being announced on Nov
The winner and trophy presentation will be on Dec
The Patrick Mannelly Award is proudly presented by Bernie’s Book Bank
a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing book ownership among at-risk children
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We look at what Rob Urbach accomplished in his six years at the helm of our sport’s governing body
USA Triathlon’s CEO Rob Urbach left his position on May 8
He was the ninth person to hold the position
and was one of the highest-paid executives in the triathlon industry
No members of USAT’s staff or board wished to comment on his departure
USAT did state that the search for the next CEO has begun and no additional information will be given until the position is filled
Urbach came to USAT from a job as Managing Director at Cortview Capital Markets
where he handled mergers and acquisitions for the company’s sports industry clients
the world’s largest sports marketing and management firm
Urbach had no experience working in the triathlon industry
but he’d been an avid triathlete since the early days of the sport
competing in his first Ironman World Championship in 1982 at just 20 years old
Urbach oversaw what is unquestionably USAT’s most successful period of professional racing
Although the Collegiate Recruitment Program was started under previous Executive Director Skip Gilbert
the success of the program wasn’t fully realized until last summer’s Olympics
when USAT collegiate recruit Gwen Jorgensen won America’s first triathlon gold medal
athletes haven’t had the same level of success
has become the most dominant on the ITU circuit
Urbach came to USAT with the nearly impossible task of continuing the membership and financial momentum from Skip Gilbert’s six years of leadership
Gilbert was in charge during the biggest boom in triathlon’s short history and saw membership rise from less than 60,000 to more than 135,000 between 2006 and 2011
He was forced to resign after a conflict of interest arose from hiring his wife’s interior design firm to decorate USAT’s new offices in Colorado Springs
Doubling membership and revenue during Urbach’s six years at the till proved impossible
especially in the midst of a global economic recession and the bursting of the U.S
USAT has more or less maintained membership numbers since peaking at more than 500,000 full-time and one-day members in 2012
But it did see its first significant drop in membership last year with a 9 percent decrease
USAT has reached all-time highs in revenue
The incoming CEO will certainly have his or her hands full to meet or exceed Urbach’s success from a financial standpoint
Perhaps the most lasting impact of Urbach’s legacy will be triathlon’s approval by the NCAA as an emerging women’s sport and USAT’s commitment to grow the sport among high school and collegiate athletes
USAT announced $2.6 million to help grow NCAA triathlon
as well as a grant program aimed at developing high school triathlon teams
Currently only two D1 schools—Arizona State and East Tennessee State—have established varsity women’s programs
but 12 other schools are receiving multi-year grants from USAT to create varsity triathlon squads
One of the biggest flops of Urbach’s tenure was the introduction of the “Retro Tri Series” in 2013
which aimed to grow membership and participation by establishing events with a lower barrier to entry
The distances for these events were extremely short and some weren’t timed
Athletes were encouraged to participate with “retro” gear
The series never really took off and fizzled out after the 2015 season
One of Urbach’s proudest accomplishments was the Super Sprint Series events he helped get off the ground in Las Vegas and Milwaukee
which were part of major events like the annual Interbike trade show and USAT Age-Group Nationals
Much like Major League Triathlon and Super League
spectator-friendly races with live media coverage
If USAT seeks to reach a broader base of new members
a continued commitment to spectator-and TV-friendly races needs to remain a priority
Whoever the USAT Board selects as its next CEO
the challenges and opportunities will be immense
They will have to think creatively to improve membership numbers and the sponsorship dollars that come with them
They also must continue to diversify triathlon by working hard to appeal to three demographics the sport has struggled to attract: women
Whether the advent of NCAA women’s triathlon and Jorgensen gold medal performance can attract more young women to the sport remains to be seen
but that’s one of many opportunities and challenges facing USAT’s next leader
2017: This article has been altered from its original version to clarify that 12 schools are now running varsity triathlon programs
to include information on the Super Sprint Series
and information about Ubach’s impact on USAT’s revenue