Investigation and MASH Full-Scale Crash Testing of the Practice of Raising Blockouts on W-Beam Rail Systems

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) clarifies appropriate height measures for W-beam guardrails. Identification of existing locations where rail height is lower than recommended by FHWA is common. A research study was conducted to investigate the crashworthiness of raising blockouts on posts to restore barrier height and provide clarification on implementation of such methodology. The researchers evaluated the crashworthiness of raising blockouts by conducting a full-scale Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) Crash Test 3-11 of a 28-in. W-beam guardrail system with composite blockouts raised 4 in. on posts. The 28-in. W-beam guardrail system with raised composite blockouts contained and redirected the 2270P vehicle, and it performed acceptably for MASH Test 3-11. The results of this study include guidance on the procedure for raising blockout mounting height on steel posts to achieve recommended rail height for a W-beam guardrail.

Solid-phase crystallization of ultra-thin amorphous Ge layers on insulators

A simple method to form ultra-thin (< 20 nm) semiconductor layers with a higher mobility on a 3D-structured insulating surface is required for next-generation nanoelectronics. We have investigated the solid-phase crystallization of amorphous Ge layers with thicknesses of 10−80 nm on insulators of SiO2 and Si3N4. We found that decreasing the Ge thickness reduces the grain size and increases the grain boundary barrier height, causing the carrier mobility degradation. We examined two methods, known effective to enhance the grain size in the thicker Ge (>100 nm). As a result, a relatively high Hall hole mobility (59 cm2/Vs) has been achieved with a 20-nm-thick polycrystalline Ge layer on Si3N4, which is the highest value among the previously reported works.

Low-temperature formation of Mg/n-type 4H-SiC ohmic contacts with atomically flat interface by lowering of Schottky barrier height

To obtain an ohmic contact with a flat interface using a low-temperature process, we investigated the behavior of Schottky barrier height (SBH) at the Mg/n-type 4H-SiC interface to low-temperature annealing. Our results revealed that annealing at 200 °C reduced SBH; a low SBH of 0.28 eV was obtained on the lightly doped substrate. Atomic force microscopy measurements revealed negligible increase in the surface roughness after Mg deposition and annealing. Using the low-temperature process, a contact resistivity of 6.5 × 10−5 Ω⋅cm2 was obtained on the heavily doped substrate, which is comparable to Ni/4H-SiC subjected to annealing of above 950 °C.

The influences of parabolic potential and magnetism on strongly coupled polaron characteristics within asymmetric Gaussian quantum wells

In this research, the effects of magnetism and parabolic potential on strongly coupled polaron characteristics within asymmetric Gaussian quantum wells (AGQWs) were investigated. To do so, the following six parameters were studied, temperature, AGQW barrier height, Gaussian confinement potential (GCP) width, confinement strengths along the directions of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], as well as magnetic field cyclotron frequency. The relationships among frequency oscillation, AGQW parameters and polaron ground state energy in RbCl crystal were studied based on linear combination operator and Lee–Low–Pines unitary transformation. It was concluded that ground state energy absolute value was decreased by increasing GCP width and temperature, and increased with the increase of confinement strength along [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] directions, cyclotron frequency of magnetic field and barrier height of AGQW. It was also found that vibrational frequency was increased by enhancing confinement strengths along the directions of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], magnetic field cyclotron frequencies, barrier height AGQW and temperature and decreased with the increase of GCP width.