High-speed single-photon counting detectors have many applications, including optical communications, quantum information, spectroscopy of ultrafast quantum phenomena in biology and solid-state physics, semiconductor processing. Of particular interest would be a detector that exhibits both ultrafast count rates ≥ GHz and high single-photon detection efficiency at near-infrared wavelengths (1550 nm); however, this combination is not available with current technologies. InGaAs avalanche ...

Il monitoraggio strutturale, dati i suoi recenti sviluppi, costituisce un campo di ricerca che investe sempre più settori. In particolare trova grandi possibilità di applicazione in quello aerospaziale, dove è evidente la necessità di sviluppare tecniche di sensing strutturale tramite le quali ottenere un aumento dei livelli di sicurezza con bassi costi di realizzazione e manutenzione. L'attività di ricerca svolta dall'Unità di Napoli dell'IMM-CNR, relativa allo sviluppo di tecniche ...

Fra i semiconduttori ad ampia banda proibita il GaN si è imposto all'attenzione internazionale poiché avendo una banda diretta ha permesso la realizzazione di LED e LASER a stato solido nel blu ultravioletto ed a luce bianca. Tale interesse si è rivelato una driving force importante per il miglioramento della qualità elettronica del materiale fino a renderla accettabile anche per altre applicazioni quali la realizzazione di dispositivi di potenza (alte tensioni, alte correnti, alte frequenze ...

Increasing pollution due to vehicular traffic and industrial activities is a major problem nowadays, especially in larger cities or industrial areas. Capillary air quality monitoring is mandatory to ensure healthy living conditions, but available air quality monitoring systems are bulky and expensive. Simple low-cost systems based on solid state gas sensors were recently proposed. However, lack of selectivity of MOX gas sensors is one of the major issues in applications where single compounds ...

La cleanroom presente presso l'Unità di Napoli dell'Istituto per la Microelettronica e Microsistemi (IMM) nasce nel 2006 per consentire l'esecuzione di una serie di attività di ricerca di punta nei settori dell'optoelettronica, dei microsistemi, della sensoristica avanzata. L'allestimento di questo laboratorio è stato finanziato da un progetto MIUR di potenziamento delle strutture di ricerca per le aree di obiettivo 1 e gran parte delle apparecchiature ed impianti in esso collocate ed ...

Per far fronte alla inarrestabile domanda di immagazzinamento di informazioni nei settori più svariati dell'economia e della società moderna la ricerca scientifica ha prodotto degli sforzi enormi grazie ai quali la densità degli hard disk dei computer è più che raddoppiata ogni anno negli ultimi anni. Purtroppo però la tecnologia esistente ha raggiunto limiti fisici che impediscono la possibilità di immagazzinare sempre più informazioni in spazi sempre più piccoli. Ricorrendo ad una ...

In this focus we will report on the first single electron transistors (SET) fabricated on silicon/germanium heterostructures whose critical dimensions are in the nanometer scale. The evolution of fabrication techniques in large scale integrated circuit (LSI) have lead to reduction of the size of the electronic devices into the submicron scale. In parallel a large increase in the circuit operating speed and device density is observed. CMOS technology is presently used in microelectronics and ...

The magnetic anisotropy determines the orientation and the stability of the magnetization which is a crucial parameter for a large part of the technological applications. The possibility of modify the magnetic anisotropy of small clusters by changing the shape, composition and dimensions makes such systems of evident applicative interest. A study of the anisotropy and magnetic momenta of metallic clusters constituted by 1÷100 atoms of Co and deposited onto a crystalline substrate of Pt(111) ...

Conventional batteries are already unable to deliver power in more and more shrunk volumes maintaining the requirements of long duration and light weight. A possible solution to overcome these limits is the use of miniaturised fuel cell. The fuel cell offers a greater gravimetric energy density compared to conventional batteries. They are typically realised using an electrolyte material, usually a polymer membrane (proton exchange type), that is encapsulated between electrodes. Fuel cell ...

The SQUID (acronym of Superconducting Quantum Inteference Device) is one of the most important devices in the framework of the "small scale" applications of Superconductivity. It is based on the magnetic flux quantisation in a superconducting ring and on the Josephson Effect. In magnetometer configuration, a SQUID is the most sensitive detector of magnetic field; it is able to measure a magnetic field of the order of some billions times smaller than the earth magnetic field. SQUID magnetometers ...

X-ray Reflectivity (XR) measurements allow an atomic scale determination of the morphological characteristics of thin films, such as their thickness and surface roughness. In the present work, the Energy Dispersive (ED) variant of the conventional XR technique is used in-situ to obtain, for the first time, the (minimal) morphological changes of gas sensing thin films of Ruthenium Phtalocyanine (RuPc)2 upon working. The real-time collection of Reflectivity spectra during the exposure of the films ...

Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are considered as the next generation of light sources for illumination. They are lighter, thinner, more efficient and easier for large area applications than usual LEDs. In addition, OLEDS offer wide tunability over a broad spectral coverage, by varying the chemical structure of the emissive species or by modifying the device structures. This work identifies for the first time the fundamental process occurring in polymeric light emitting devices by ...

For the modern information systems there an increased interest to explicitly represent the underlying conceptual layer. In this contest a reach bag of software tools have been developed to aggregate and manage the information in conceptual packaging structures (Octapy Framework), structure to render in a graphic mode. The graphic visualization is chosen in a such a way that it is possible to associate the action corresponding to the user interaction (Visual Interaction Module -IGM). The ...

High temperature and high power applications of microsystems require sensors or devices that cannot be built in Si due to the limitation of some of its physical properties. Among wide bandgap semiconductors, silicon carbide (SiC) is to date the only one commercially available in relatively large diameter wafers with the electronic purity and quality. Furthermore, it has a high thermal conductivity, three times higher than Si and comparable to Cu, 10-fold breakdown field strength which allows ...

The qualification of trade marks of agro-industrial products is consumer oriented with a growing demand of objective methods to assess production, preservation and market distribution methods. Monitoring volatile organic compounds (VOC) in traces it's an approach that requires instrumentation adequate in sensitivity, selectivity and reliability. Solid state sensors give only a very limited answer to this demand. Our approach is based on the development of instrumentation based on mass ...

Optical diagnosis of breast tumour has been of growing interest in the last few years due to its non invasive character and to the chance of obtaining information complementary to x-ray mammograms. In fact, the principal tissue components, as oxy- and deoxy-haemoglobin, lipid and water, exhibit different light absorption properties in the spectral range from 600 nm to 1000 nm. Thus in principle, it is possible to distinguish different breast structures on the basis of their light ...

Electronic Noses are devices able to generate digital maps of complex odors. Their working principles are aimed at reproducing the human olfactive system. The sensitivity of these artificial sensors, in fact, is comparable to that of human olfactive receptors; their data processing is similar to the sensing events occurring inside the olfactive bulbs and the resulting odor classification is carried out by Neural Networks or Statistic Multi-Component Analysis which reproduce both the learning and ...

The fabrication of new nanostructured materials is a rapidly growing field with strong possibilities of applications. Particular attention is actually devoted to overcome the superparamagnetic limit of nanoparticles by means of the controlled manipulation of the shape and magnetocrystalline anisotropies and to the development of composite elements for magnetic memories and sensors. The activity of the institute in that field is specifically dedicated to the synthesis and to investigate the ...

Le dimensioni geometriche raggiunte dai transistor MOSFET (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) sono ormai tali da rendere alla portata della capacità tecnologica di un moderno impianto di produzione di circuiti integrati ad altissima densità (ULSI) la realizzazione di dispositivi elettronici la cui operazione è dominata da fenomeni quantistici e da effetti legati all'energia coulombiana associata al trasferimento di singoli elettroni. Tali effetti, da tempo studiati nell'ambito ...

Optical fibre sensor for NO2 based on metal-phthalocyanines of This project has been developed in collaboration with the IFAC-CNR and with the PRODOTEC srl in the PF MSTA II Introduction Material chemistry and particularly the synthesis and characterisation of new materials is allowing the design and the development of many new chemical sensors which are opening highly exciting perspectives in the area of chemical sensing. The optical fibre sensor for NO2 consists on the utilisation of an ...

An important goal has been reached regarding shape representation with reduced dimensionality for three-dimensional objects (refer to "Curve skeletonization of surface-like objects in 3D images guided by voxel classification", S. Svensson, I. Nyström, G. Sanniti di Baja, Pattern Recognition Letters, 23/12 1419-1426, 2002). It is well-known that skeletonization is a process to extract from a two-dimensional object a set of arcs and curves, called skeleton, that is a sketched and faithful ...

There is a prevailing hypothesis that multiple sclerosis (MS) is a polygenic immune-mediated disease. So far only one genetic factor has been identified located in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II, specifically DR15, DQ6. However, there is no convincing evidence of a common susceptibility locus. We have identified a pedigree of Pennsylvania Dutch extraction, in which MS segregates with an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern. We have collected blood samples from 18 family members, seven ...