The aim of this work is to demonstrate the properties of the magnetospheric model around Kerr black holes, so-called the “flywheel” (rotation powered) model. The fly-wheel engine of the BH accretion disk system is applied to the statistics of QSOs/AGNs. Nitta, Takahashi, & Tomimatsu clarified the individual evolution of the Kerr black-hole fly-wheel engine, which is parameterized by black-hole mass, initial Kerr parameter, magnetic field near the horizon, and a dimensionless small parameter. We impose a statistical model for the initial mass function of an ensemble of black holes using the Press-Schechter formalism. With the help of additional assumptions, we can discuss the evolution of the luminosity function and the spatial number density (population) of QSOs/AGNs. The result explains well the decrease of very bright QSOs and decrease of population after z ~ 2.

We are searching for pulsations in cool (< 6000 K) white dwarfs (WDs), hoping to apply asteroseismological techniques to improve our understanding of their structure and the physical processes inside them. This information is important as we use cool WDs to estimate the lower limit of the age of the Galactic disk. Within a spectroscopic and photometric survey of 110 cool WDs by Bergeron, Ruiz, & Legget, we find 28 candidates with appropriate effective temperatures, masses, and chemical compositions for possible pulsations in nonradial g modes with periods similar to those we observe in DAVs. So far, we have observed 4 candidates, but have found no evidence of large variation.

The variability of CD-24 7599 (V=11.48 mag) was discovered by JCC during observing run XCOV7 of the Whole Earth Telescope (WET, Nather et al. 1990) network in February, 1992. The star was observed as an additional target and 117 hours of high-quality temporal spectroscopic observations were obtained.

Our analysis of these data revealed the presence of 7 independent pulsation modes between 27.0 and 38.1 cycles per day (313 – 441 μHz) with semiamplitudes of 2.1 – 10.2 milli-modulation amplitudes (mma). We showed that peaks at linear combination frequencies detected in the power spectra were not due to eigenmodes excited to visible amplitude by resonant mode coupling.

We are trying to reduce the largest uncertainties in using white dwarf stars as Galactic chronometers by understanding the details of carbon crystalliazation that currently result in a 1–2 Gyr uncertainty in the ages of the oldest white dwarf stars. We expect the coolest white dwarf stars to have crystallized interiors, but theory also predicts hotter white dwarf stars, if they are massive enough, will also have some core crystallization. BPM 37093 is the first discovered of only a handful of known massive white dwarf stars that are also pulsating DAV, or ZZ Ceti, variables. Our approach is to use the pulsations to constrain the core composition and amount of crystallization. Here we report our analysis of 4 hours of continuous time series spectroscopy of BPM 37093 with Gemini South combined with simultaneous time-series photometry from Mt. John (New Zealand), SAAO, PROMPT, and Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito (CASLEO, Argentina).

The behavior of threading dislocations during mass transport of GaN was investigated in detail by transmission electron microscopy. Mass transport occurred at the surface. Therefore, growing species are supplied from the in-plane direction. The behavior of threading dislocations was found to be strongly affected by the mass transport process as well as the high crystallographic anisotropy of the surface energy of the facets particular to GaN.

The behavior of threading dislocations during mass transport of GaN was investigated in detail by transmission electron microscopy. Mass transport occurred at the surface. Therefore, growing species are supplied from the in-plane direction. The behavior of threading dislocations was found to be strongly affected by the mass transport process as well as the high crystallographic anisotropy of the surface energy of the facets particular to GaN.

Magnetic semiconductors are of interest for emerging spintronic applications, such as the integration of electronic information processing with magnetic data storage. We report on a new approach - furnace annealing under controlled ambients – aimed at increasing Mn incorporation and synthesizing new magnetic semiconductors with Tc greater than/around room temperature. These annealing treatments are hypothesized to reduce the effect of Mn interstitials. We have obtained preliminary SQUID magnetometry results which indicate ferromagnetic Curie temperatures of around 130 K in (In,Mn) Sb and 60 K in (In, Mn)P. X-ray diffraction was used to characterize phase homogeneity.

Higher crystalline Si volume fractions in hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon ( µc-Si:H) films have been achieved by the hot-wire assisted plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (HWA-PECVD) method compared with those in films by conventional PECVD. µc-Si:H films can also be prepared by HWA-PECVD under typical conditions used for preparing hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films by PECVD, in which the hydrogen-dilution ratio (H2 / SiH4) is ∼ 10. The hot wire seems to produce hydrogen radicals. As a result, the HWA- PECVD method can control hydrogen-radical densities in the RF plasma, and this method can also control the ratio of hydrogen coverage at the surface of the film.

Defects and stress are the most serious issues for growth of AlGaN. Low-temperature deposited (LT -) AlN interlayer between AlGaN and GaN is found to reduce tensile stress during growth, and at the same time suppress the propagation of dislocations having screw components, by which UV-photodetector showing very-low-dark current has been successfully fabricated. However, additional pure-edge dislocations are generated at the LT -interlayer, which resulted in the poor emission property. In addition to the LT -interlayer, lateral growth at the trenched structure was used, thereby achieving crack-free AlGaN and reduction of the density of all types of dislocations in the AlGaN layer. UV light emitting diodes having AlGaN/GaN multi-quantum well active layer was fabricated on the low dislocation density AlGaN. The LED shows strong and sharp UV-emission from GaN-wells.

Hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) films are prepared by hot-wire assisted plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, which controls the hydrogen radical density by filament temperatures, Tf, without changing other conditions. The effect of hydrogen radical on the properties of incorporated hydrogen into μc-Si:H films is studied using infrared absorption and gas effusion spectroscopies. The hydrogen concentration decreases with increasing Tf. The crystalline volume fraction, Xc, increases with Tf and shows a peak at Tf of 1850 °C. Integrated intensities of the modes near 2000 and 2100 cm-1 decrease with increasing Tf. Integrated intensity of the mode near 880 cm-1 shows almost same tendency of Xc. The effect of hydrogen radical on the properties of incorporated hydrogen into μc-Si:H films is discussed.

We report device concepts that exploit spin-orbit coupling for creating spin polarized current sources using nonmagnetic semiconductor resonant tunneling heterostructures, without external magnetic fields. The resonant interband tunneling spin filter exploits large valence band spin-orbit interaction to provide strong spin selectivity. The bi-directional spin pump induces the simultaneous flow of oppositely spin-polarized current components in opposite directions through spin-dependent resonant tunneling. The efficiency of resonant tunneling spin devices can be improved when the effects of structural inversion asymmetry (SIA) and bulk inversion asymmetry (BIA) are combined properly, and incorporated into device design. The current spin polarizations of the proposed devices are electrically controllable, and potentially amenable to high-speed modulation. In principle, the electrically modulated spin-polarized current source could be integrated in optoelectronic devices for added functionality.

The galvanomagnetic effects in the new diluted magnetic semiconductors Pb1−xSnxTe:Yb were studied to determine the parameters of the electronic structure and to elucidate its influence on the magnetic properties. It was found that the temperature dependencies of the resistivity ρ and the Hall coefficient R H have a “metallic” character, however the R H changes in anomalous manner: its value increases more than by order of magnitude and then passes through maximum with increasing the temperature. Upon an increase of the ytterbium concentration the hole concentration decreases by more than order of magnitude. The results were explained assuming a formation of deep ytterbium-induced defect level in the valence band of the alloys, which moves up to its top with increasing the ytterbium concentration and pins the Fermi level within the valence band. The energy position of the Fermi level was calculated in the frame of two-band dispersion law and used to determine the position of Yb level in the alloys. The diagram of the charge carrier energy spectrum under varying the alloy composition was built.

The Zn1−xMnxO thin films were grown on Al2O3 (0001) substrates by an r.f. magnetron sputtering method. The film grown with employing buffer layer shows mirror-like surface, while the film grown without buffer layer shows the columnar-structured configuration. The mirror-like Zn0.93Mn0.07O thin films have the single crystalline phase with (000ℓ) orientation normal to the substrate surface and show the UV emission originated from the near band-edge-emission for the measurements of x-ray diffraction and photoluminescence, respectively. The mirror-like Zn0.93Mn0.07O film clearly showed a hysteresis loop, which is obvious evidence of ferromagnetism, and the Curie temperature was determined to be 68 K for the characterization of the temperature-dependent magnetization.

We make a detailed analysis of each possible spin-orbit coupling of zincblende narrow-gap cylindrical quantum dots built in a two-dimensional electron gas. These couplings are related to both bulk (Dresselhaus) and structure (Rashba) inversion asymmetries. We study the competition between electron-electron and spin-orbit interactions on electronic properties of 2-electron quantum dots.

We review our recent work on spin effects in low-dimensional electron gases studied using far-infrared photoconductivity technique. We measure the spin-orbit coupling parameter α via spectroscopy by detecting the combined resonance. Detailed filling-factor dependent study shows the collective nature of this excitation, in accordance to theoretical predictions that both Kohn and Larmor theorem are broken for long-wavelength excitations that changes both the Landau and spin quantum numbers. We find that the long spin-relaxation time of a two-dimensional electron gas results in a novel bolometric spin effect, which gives rise to a substantial photo resistance change by reversing the spin polarization of electrons at the Fermi-level.

The effect of Rashba spin-orbit coupling on the transport properties of InGaAs/InP quantum wire structures is investigated. The geometry of the wire structures was defined by selective wet chemical etching. For wires without a gate a clear beating pattern, due to the presence of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling, is observed for wires with a width down to 600 nm. For narrower wires no beating pattern is found. The experimental observations are explained by contribution of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling to the one-dimensional magnetosubbands. By depleting the one-dimensional conductor by means of a gate electrode the Rashba coupling strength could be controlled.

We use the self-interaction corrected (SIC) local spin-density (LSD) approximation to investigate the groundstate valency configuration of Mn impurities in p-type ZnO. In Zn1−xMnxO, we find the localized Mn2+ configuration to be preferred energetically. When codoping Zn1−xMnxO with N, we find that four d-states stay localized at the Mn site, while the remaining d-electron charge transfers into the hole states at the top of the valence bands. If the Mn concentration [Mn] is equal to the N concentration [N], this results in a scenario without carriers to mediate long range order. If on the other hand [N] is larger than [Mn], the N impurity band is not entirely filled, and carrier mediated ferromagnetism becomes theoretically possible.

Magnetization measurements were performed as a function of magnetic field H and temperature T on samples of nine different materials including clear fused quartz, cartridge brass, G-10 glass-reinforced epoxy, acetal homopolymer, glass-filled acetal, phenolic, and other plastics. A small yet distinct amount of ferromagnetic or paramagnetic impurities is observed in all the materials investigated in this study except quartz. In contrast, the magnetic response of quartz is typical of a diamagnet over the temperature range 5 K to 300 K. The volume susceptibility is equal to −4.4×10−7 (cgs) over the whole temperature range.

We present analytical expressions for the D'yakonov-Perel' spin relaxation rates under the combined action of bulk and structural inversion asymmetry for [111] zincblende heterostructures when terms up to linear and third order in k are included in the Hamiltonian. We see for [111] heterostructures that, under the right conditions, the lowest-order-in-k component of the spin relaxation tensor can be made to vanish for all spin components at the same time. We study how the inclusion of terms of higher order in k affects these results. We finally discuss a proposal for a resonant spin lifetime transistor (RSLT) using the spin lifetime tuning concepts presented above, where the characteristics of the [111] device give the designer an added degree of freedom on the direction of the injected spins.

We report theoretical and experimental observation of photoexcitated hole spin selection in GaAs/GaAlAs n-i-n in resonant tunneling diodes. When subjected to magnetic and electric parallel fields, the spin splitted hole levels leads to several peak structure in the transmissivity. These experimental results are interpreted as an evidence of tunneling transport through spin polarized hole levels of non-magnetic diodes.