Plastic shear significantly reduces the phase transformation (PT) pressure when compared to hydrostatic conditions. Here, a paradoxical result was obtained: PT of graphitelike hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) to superhard wurtzitic boron nitride under pressure and shear started at about the same pressure ( approximately 10 GPa) as under hydrostatic conditions. In situ x-ray diffraction measurement and modeling of the turbostratic stacking fault concentration (degree of disorder) and PT in hBN were performed. Under hydrostatic pressure, changes in the disorder were negligible. Under a complex compression and shear loading program, a strain-induced disorder was observed and quantitatively characterized. It is found that the strain-induced disorder suppresses PT which compensates the promotion effect of plastic shear. The existence of transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) was also proved during strain-induced PT. The degree of disorder is proposed to be used as a physical measure of plastic straining. This allows us to quantitatively separate the conventional plasticity and transformation-induced plasticity. Surprisingly, it is found that TRIP exceeds the conventional plasticity by a factor of 20. The cascade structural changes were revealed, defined as the reoccurrence of interacting processes including PTs, disordering, conventional plasticity, and TRIP. In comparison with hydrostatic loading, for the same degree of disorder, plastic shear indeed reduces the PT pressure (by a factor of 3-4) while causing a complete irreversible PT. The analytical results based on coupled strain-controlled kinetic equations for disorder and PT confirm our conclusions.

The fabrication and testing of Teflon AF-coated channels on silicon and bonding of the same to a similarly coated glass wafer are described. With water or aqueous solutions in such channels, the channels exhibit much better light conduction ability than similar uncoated channels. Although the loss is greater than extruded Teflon AF tubes, light throughput is far superior to channels described in the literature consisting of [110] planes in silicon with 45 sidewalls. Absorbance noise levels under actual flow conditions using an LED source, an inexpensive photodiode and a simple operational amplifier circuitry was 1 10 4 absorbance units over a 10-mm path length (channel 0.17-mm deep 0.49-mm wide), comparable to many commercially available macroscale flow-through absorbance detectors. Adherence to Beer's law was tested over a 50-fold concentration range of an injected dye, with the linear 2 relating the concentration to the observed absorbance being 0.9993. Fluorescence detection was tested with fluorescein as the test solute, a high brightness blue LED as the excitation source and an inexpensive miniature PMT. The concentration detection limit was 3 10 9 M and the corresponding mass detection limit was estimated to be 5 10 16 mol.

Ultraviolet light-emitting diodes grown on Si(111) by gas-source molecular-beam epitaxy with ammonia are described. The layers are composed of superlattices of AlGaN/GaN and AlN/AlGaInN. The layers are doped n and p type with Si and Mg, respectively. Hole concentration of 4×1017 cm−3, with a mobility of 8 cm2/Vs, is measured in Al0.4Ga0.6N/GaN. We demonstrate effective n- and p-type doping of structures based on AlN/AlGaInN. Light-emitting diodes based on these structures show light emission between 290 and 334 nm.

Ultraviolet light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) with emission wavelength as short as 280 nm, grown by gas source molecular beam epitaxy with ammonia, are described. The typical multi‐quantum well (MQW) structure LED consists of an AlN buffer layer deposited on Si(111) or sapphire, followed by a (Al)GaN buffer layer and two superlattice structures, n‐ and p‐type, with the MQW active region placed between them. Room temperature Hall measurements of n‐ and p‐type AlN/AlGaInN superlattice structures show average hole concentrations of 1 × 1018 cm—3, with mobility of 3–4 cm2/Vs, and electron concentrations of 3 × 1019 cm—3, with mobility of 10–20 cm2/Vs. Room temperature electroluminescence spectra of mesa‐etched devices show predominant emission at 280 nm.

We report high resolution x-ray diffraction studies of the relaxation of elastic strain in GaN grown on SiC(0001). The GaN layers were grown with thickness ranging from 0.29to30μm. High level of residual elastic strain was found in thin (0.29to0.73μm thick) GaN layers. This correlates with low density of threading screw dislocations of 1-2×107cm−2, observed in a surface layer formed over a defective nucleation layer. Stress was found to be very close to what is expected from thermal expansion mismatch between the GaN and SiC. A model based on generation and diffusion of point defects accounts for these observations.