To evaluate the appropriateness of the screening strategy for healthcare personnel (HCP) during a hospital-associated Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak, we performed a serologic investigation in 189 rRT-PCR–negative HCP exposed and assigned to MERS patients. Although 20%–25% of HCP experienced MERS-like symptoms, none of them showed seroconversion by plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT).

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:234–238

Large-area vertically aligned silicon nanowire (Si NW) arrays were synthesized with a controlled length (0.3 ˜ 9 μm) by the chemical etching of n-type silicon substrates. Upon their excitation using a fs Ti-sapphire laser pulse (800 nm), their THz emission intensity exhibits strong dependence on their length; the intensity increases sharply up to a length of 3 μm and then decreases slightly, due to the complete absorption of the optical pump power. The Raman scattering spectrum exhibits the same behavior as that of the THz emission. We suggest that the field enhancement by localized surface plasmons induces more efficient THz emission or Raman scattering for the longer Si NWs. The photocurrent measured in a photoelectrochemical cell showed consistently the length dependence with a maximum value at the length of 5 μm.

Electron tomography and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the unique 3-dimensional (3D) structures of twinned Zn3P2 (tetragonal) and InAs (zinc blende) nanowires synthesized by the vapor transport method. The Zn3P2 nanowires adopt a unique superlattice structure that consists of twinned octahedral slice segments having alternating orientations along the axial [111] direction of a pseudocubic unit cell. The apices of the octahedral slice segment are indexed as six equivalent <112> directions at the [111] zone axis. At each 30 degrees turn, the straight and zigzagged morphologies appear repeatedly at the <112> and <011> zone axes, respectively. The 3D structure of the twinned Zn3P2 nanowires is virtually the same as that of the twinned InAs nanowires. In addition, we analyzed the 3D structure of zigzagged CdO (rock salt) nanowires and found that they include hexahedral segments, whose six apices are matched to the <011> directions, linked along the [111] axial direction. We also analyzed the unique 3D structure of rutile TiO2 (tetragonal) nanobelts; at each 90 degree turn, the straight morphology appears repeatedly, while the in-between twisted form appears at the [011] zone axis. We suggest that the TiO2 nanobelts consist of twinned octahedral slices whose six apices are indexed by the <011>/<001> directions with the axial [010] direction.

High-density TiO2-CdS and ZnO-CdS core-shell nanocable arrays were synthesized on large-area Ti substrates. The CdS layers were deposited on the pre-grown vertically-aligned TiO2 (rutile) and ZnO nanowire arrays, with a controlled thickness (10~50 nm), using the vapor transport method. The ZnO-CdS nanocables consisted of single-crystalline wurtzite CdS shells whose [001] direction was aligned along the [001] wire axis of the wurtzite ZnO core, which is distinctive from the polycrystalline shell of the TiO2-CdS nanocables. We fabricated the photoelectrochemical cell using the ZnO-CdS photoelectrode exhibits much more efficient hydrogen generation than that using the TiO2-CdS one.

Single-crystalline rock-salt PbS nanowires (NWs) were synthesized using three different routes; the solvothermal, chemical vapor transport, and gas-phase substitution reaction of pre-grown CdS NWs. They were uniformly grown with the [100] or [110], [112] direction in a controlled manner. In the solvothermal growth, the oriented attachment of the octylamine (OA) ligands enables the NWs to be produced with a controlled morphology and growth direction. As the concentration of OA increases, the growth direction evolves from the [100] to the higher surface-energy [110] and [112] directions. In the synthesis involving chemical vapor transport and the substitution reaction, the use of a lower growth temperature causes the higher surface-energy growth direction to change from [100] to [110]. We fabricated field effect transistors using single PbS NW, which showed intrinsic p-type semiconductor characteristics for all three routes. For the PbS NW with a thinner oxide layer, the carrier mobility was measured to be as high as 10 cm2V−1s−1.

We synthesized Ge and Ge1-xMx (M = Mn, Co, and Fe, x ≤ 0.2) nanowires using thermal vapour transport method. All nanowires consisted of single-crystalline Ge nanocrystals grown uniformly with the [111] direction. High-resolution X-ray diffraction pattern shows no cluster formation for all Ge1-xMx nanowires. The Mn and Fe doping decreases the lattice constant, but not Co doping. X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurement revealed that the Mn2+ and Fe2+ ions preferentially occupy the tetrahedral sites, substituting for Ge. We suggest that the Mn or Fe ions produce dopant-acceptor hybridization with host defects in p-type Ge, but not Co ions. The magnetic moment of Mn2+ ions reaches a maximum for x = ∼ 0.1, which is much larger than that of the Fe2+ ions. The magnetization measurement also confirms the room-temperature ferromagnetism of Mn-doped Ge nanowires, which is maximized at x = ∼ 0.1. We conclude that the Mn ions are most efficiently doped into the Ge nanowires to form a ferromagnetic semiconductor.

In this study, we have investigated the structure of nickel-cobalt silicide to understand its behavior at high temperature. Nickel-cobalt silicide was formed after two-step RTP at 500°C and 700°C respectively. We could observe by TEM that nickel-cobalt silicide consists of a structure which seems to be a Ni-Co-Si ternary phase. No nickel silicide phases and cobalt silicide phases were detected in nickel-cobalt silicide by XRD. From XPS depth profile, we could confirm that there is a cobalt composition gradient along the silicide.

Semi-insulating undoped GaN films were grown based on controlling the size of the nucleation sites through a special two-step growth method: First, 16 nm LT-GaN was annealed at 950 ° with a ramping time of 4 min, then the GaN was grown at this temperature for 1 min. Second, the growth temperature was increased to 1020° with a ramping time of 2 min and the GaN layer finally grown at 1020 ° for 40 min. The film grown by this sequence exhibited sheet resistance of up to 109 Ω/sq with mirror-like surface morphology. By slow ramping to 950° in the initial phase of growth, smaller grain sizes and higher nuclei densities were formed and the columnar growth mode along the c direction was dominant. The observation of higher resistance in two-step growth is believed due to the increased misorientation of nuclei when the growth proceeds during temperature ramping to 1020°. The fabricated saw filter on semi-insulating GaN exhibited a high velocity of 5342 m/s at center frequencies of 133.57 MHz and an electromechanical coupling coefficient(k2) of about 0.763 %, which was enhanced due to the improvement of surface morphology with high sheet resistance by the two- step ramping technique.

The effects of the isoelectronic Al-doping of GaN grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition were investigated for the first time using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Hall measurements, photoluminescence (PL), and time-resolved PL. When a certain amount of Al was incorporated into the GaN films, the room temperature photoluminescence intensity of the films was approximately two orders larger than that of the undoped GaN. More importantly, the electron mobility significantly increased from 130 for the undoped sample to 500 cm2/Vs for the sample grown at a TMAl flow rate of 10 νmol/min, while the unintentional background concentration only increased slightly relative to the TMAl flow. The incorporation of Al as an isoelectronic dopant into GaN was easy during MOCVD growth and significantly improved the optical and electrical properties of the film. This was believed to result from a reduction in the dislocation-related non-radiative recombination centers or certain other defects due to the isoelectronic Al-doping.

MeV ion induced damage and annealing behavior in Si are reported using 3 ion species such as B, P and Si. Si self implantations were done to reveal the intrinsic behavior of secondary defect formation by excluding the possibility of chemical interactions between substrate atoms and dopant atoms. Experimental results of B and P implantations were compared to those of Si. TEM observations showed that interstitial type secondary defects are exclusively formed at around Rp. DCXRD rocking curve analyses indicated that an isolated layer of (+) strain is built up at around Rp after strain relaxation by annealing. Sources for secondary defects were thought to be Si self interstitials. Atomistic mechanisms of secondary defect formation and the effect of ion species on them are discussed.