A wide-band gap oxide alloy, BeZnO, is proposed and studied in this letter. The BeZnO films were deposited on sapphire substrates by our hybrid beam deposition growth method. The value of the energy band gap of BeZnO can be efficiently engineered to vary from the ZnO band gap ͑3.4 eV͒ to that of BeO ͑10.6 eV͒. BeZnO can be used for fabricating films and heterostructures of ZnO-based electronic and photonic devices and for other applications. Changes in the measured energy band gap and lattice constant values with Be content are described for BeZnO alloys.

Infrared carbon stars without visible counterparts are generally known as extreme carbon stars. We have selected a subset of these stars with absorption features in the 10-13 µm range, which has been tentatively attributed to silicon carbide (SiC). We add three new objects meeting these criterion to the seven previously known, bringing our total sample to ten sources. We also present the result of radiative transfer modeling for these stars, comparing these results to those of previous studies. In order to constrain model parameters, we use published mass-loss rates, expansion velocities and theoretical dust condensation models to determine the dust condensation temperature. These show that the inner dust temperatures of the dust shells for these sources are significantly higher than previously assumed. This also implies that the dominant dust species should be graphite instead of amorphous carbon. In combination with the higher condensation temperature we show that this results in a much higher acceleration of the dust grains than would be expected from previous work. Our model results suggest that the very optically thick stage of evolution does not coincide with the timescales for the superwind, but rather, that this is a very short-lived phase. Additionally, we compare model and observational parameters in an attempt to find any correlations. Finally, we show that the spectrum of one source, IRAS 17534−3030, strongly implies that the 10-13 µm feature is due to a solid state rather than a molecular species.

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Aims. The SiC optical constants are fundamental inputs for radiative transfer (RT) models of astrophysical dust environments. However, previously published values contain errors and do not adequately represent the bulk physical properties of the cubic (β) SiC polytype usually found around carbon stars. We provide new, uncompromised optical constants for β-and α-SiC derived from single-crystal reflectance spectra and investigate quantitatively (i) whether there is any difference between α-and β-SiC that can be seen in infrared (IR) spectra and optical functions and (ii) whether weak features from λ ∼ 12.5−13.0 µm need to be fitted. Methods. We measured mid-and far-IR reflectance spectra for two samples of 3C (β-)SiC and four samples of 6H (α-)SiC. For the latter group, we acquired polarized data (E⊥c, E c orientations). We calculated the real and imaginary parts of the complex refractive index (n(λ) + ik(λ)) and the ideal absorption coefficients via classical dispersion fits to our reflectance spectra. Results. We find that β-SiC and E⊥c α-SiC have almost identical optical functions but that n(λ) and k(λ) for E c α-SiC are shifted to lower frequency. Peak positions determined for both 3C (β-) and 6H (α-)SiC polytypes agree with Raman measurements and show that a systematic error of 4 cm −1 exists in previously published IR analyses, attributable to inadequate resolution of older instruments for the steep, sharp modes of SiC. Weak modes are present for samples with impurities. Our calculated absorption coefficients are much higher than laboratory measurements. Whereas astrophysical dust grain sizes remain fairly unconstrained, SiC grains larger than about 1 µm in diameter will be opaque at frequencies near the peak center. Conclusions. Previous optical constants for SiC do not reflect the true bulk properties, and they are only valid for a narrow grain size range. The new optical constants presented here will allow narrow constraints to be placed on the grain size and shape distribution that dominate in astrophysical environments.

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