| 1. |
- Tinetti, Giovanna, et al.
(author)
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The EChO science case
- 2015
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In: Experimental astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 40:2-3, s. 329-391
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The discovery of almost two thousand exoplanets has revealed an unexpectedly diverse planet population. We see gas giants in few-day orbits, whole multi-planet systems within the orbit of Mercury, and new populations of planets with masses between that of the Earth and Neptune-all unknown in the Solar System. Observations to date have shown that our Solar System is certainly not representative of the general population of planets in our Milky Way. The key science questions that urgently need addressing are therefore: What are exoplanets made of? Why are planets as they are? How do planetary systems work and what causes the exceptional diversity observed as compared to the Solar System? The EChO (Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory) space mission was conceived to take up the challenge to explain this diversity in terms of formation, evolution, internal structure and planet and atmospheric composition. This requires in-depth spectroscopic knowledge of the atmospheres of a large and well-defined planet sample for which precise physical, chemical and dynamical information can be obtained. In order to fulfil this ambitious scientific program, EChO was designed as a dedicated survey mission for transit and eclipse spectroscopy capable of observing a large, diverse and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. The transit and eclipse spectroscopy method, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allows us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of at least 10(-4) relative to the star. This can only be achieved in conjunction with a carefully designed stable payload and satellite platform. It is also necessary to provide broad instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect as many molecular species as possible, to probe the thermal structure of the planetary atmospheres and to correct for the contaminating effects of the stellar photosphere. This requires wavelength coverage of at least 0.55 to 11 mu m with a goal of covering from 0.4 to 16 mu m. Only modest spectral resolving power is needed, with R similar to 300 for wavelengths less than 5 mu m and R similar to 30 for wavelengths greater than this. The transit spectroscopy technique means that no spatial resolution is required. A telescope collecting area of about 1 m(2) is sufficiently large to achieve the necessary spectro-photometric precision: for the Phase A study a 1.13 m(2) telescope, diffraction limited at 3 mu m has been adopted. Placing the satellite at L2 provides a cold and stable thermal environment as well as a large field of regard to allow efficient time-critical observation of targets randomly distributed over the sky. EChO has been conceived to achieve a single goal: exoplanet spectroscopy. The spectral coverage and signal-to-noise to be achieved by EChO, thanks to its high stability and dedicated design, would be a game changer by allowing atmospheric composition to be measured with unparalleled exactness: at least a factor 10 more precise and a factor 10 to 1000 more accurate than current observations. This would enable the detection of molecular abundances three orders of magnitude lower than currently possible and a fourfold increase from the handful of molecules detected to date. Combining these data with estimates of planetary bulk compositions from accurate measurements of their radii and masses would allow degeneracies associated with planetary interior modelling to be broken, giving unique insight into the interior structure and elemental abundances of these alien worlds. EChO would allow scientists to study exoplanets both as a population and as individuals. The mission can target super-Earths, Neptune-like, and Jupiter-like planets, in the very hot to temperate zones (planet temperatures of 300-3000 K) of F to M-type host stars. The EChO core science would be delivered by a three-tier survey. The EChO Chemical Census: This is a broad survey of a few-hundred exoplanets, which allows us to explore the spectroscopic and chemical diversity of the exoplanet population as a whole. The EChO Origin: This is a deep survey of a subsample of tens of exoplanets for which significantly higher signal to noise and spectral resolution spectra can be obtained to explain the origin of the exoplanet diversity (such as formation mechanisms, chemical processes, atmospheric escape). The EChO Rosetta Stones: This is an ultra-high accuracy survey targeting a subsample of select exoplanets. These will be the bright "benchmark" cases for which a large number of measurements would be taken to explore temporal variations, and to obtain two and three dimensional spatial information on the atmospheric conditions through eclipse-mapping techniques. If EChO were launched today, the exoplanets currently observed are sufficient to provide a large and diverse sample. The Chemical Census survey would consist of > 160 exoplanets with a range of planetary sizes, temperatures, orbital parameters and stellar host properties. Additionally, over the next 10 years, several new ground- and space-based transit photometric surveys and missions will come on-line (e.g. NGTS, CHEOPS, TESS, PLATO), which will specifically focus on finding bright, nearby systems. The current rapid rate of discovery would allow the target list to be further optimised in the years prior to EChO's launch and enable the atmospheric characterisation of hundreds of planets.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Pinto, H., et al.
(author)
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First-principles studies of the effect of (001) surface terminations on the electronic properties of the negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy defect in diamond
- 2012
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In: Physical Review B. Condensed Matter and Materials Physics. - 1098-0121 .- 1550-235X. ; 86:4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Density functional calculations have been carried out on (001)-orientated slabs of diamond with different surface terminations. A negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy defect (NV-) is placed in the middle of the slab approximately 1 nm from each surface and the effect of the surface on the internal optical transition in NV- investigated. The calculations show that the chemical nature of the surface is important. We find that although the clean surface does not lead to charge transfer between the defect and the surface, there is a splitting of the empty excited state, the final state in optical absorption, arising from a strong hybridization of the surface and defect bands. This leads to a broadening of the 1.945-eV transition of the NV- defect. OH- and F-terminated surfaces have no surface states in the band gap and again charge transfer between the defect and surface does not occur. The splitting of the e levels responsible for the optical transitions for OH or F termination is similar to that found in periodic boundary condition simulations for bulk diamond where the defects are separated by 1 nm, and thus the calculations show that hydroxylated or fluorinated surfaces give favorable optical properties.
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| 4. |
- Smith, A., et al.
(author)
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LunarEX-a proposal to cosmic vision
- 2009
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In: Experimental Astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 23:3, s. 711-740
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)
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| 5. |
- Tiwari, Amit K., et al.
(author)
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Bromine functionalisation of diamond : an ab initio study
- 2012
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In: Physica Status Solidi (a) applications and materials science. - : Wiley. - 1862-6300 .- 1862-6319. ; 209:9, s. 1703-1708
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Immobilisation of organic molecules on diamond surfaces is of great interest for biomedical applications. While H, F and Cl terminations, as a linker, have been studied extensively, the bromination of diamond is not fully understood. We have performed ab initio simulations to investigate the chemisorption of Br onto C- and H-terminated diamond (100) surfaces. We find that due to steric interaction, 100% surface coverage of Br is not stable, however, surface coverage up to around 50% is theoretically achievable. The chemisorption energies corresponding to lower surface coverages of Br are found comparable to those of hydrogen. Partial surface coverages (25 and 50%) of Br on C-terminated diamond exhibit nearly equal positive electron affinities of 0.45 and 0.52 eV, respectively. Addition of hydrogen reduces the electron affinity and for 25% of Br on an otherwise H-terminated surface, a negative electron affinity of 0.57 eV is calculated.
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| 6. |
- Tiwari, Amit K., et al.
(author)
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Calculated electron affinity and stability of halogen-terminated diamond
- 2011
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In: Physical Review B. Condensed Matter and Materials Physics. - 1098-0121 .- 1550-235X. ; 84:24
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The chemical termination of diamond has a dramatic impact on its electrical and chemical properties, where hydrogen and oxygen termination produce negative and positive electron affinities, respectively. However, the impact of halogen termination is not fully understood. We show that for low-index surfaces, 100% fluorinated surfaces exhibit chemically stable positive electron affinities in the 1.17 to 2.63 eV range, whereas 100% chlorination is energetically unfavorable. At lower coverage the positive electron affinity is smaller, being a combination of halogen-terminated and unterminated sites. For mixed halogen and hydrogen termination, a wide range of negative and positive electron affinities can be achieved by varying the relative concentrations of adsorbed species.
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| 7. |
- Tiwari, Amit K., et al.
(author)
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Effect of different surface coverages of transition metals on the electronic and structural properties of diamond
- 2012
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In: Physica Status Solidi (a) applications and materials science. - : Wiley. - 1862-6300 .- 1862-6319. ; 209:9, s. 1697-1702
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The presence of adsorbate species on diamond surfaces, even in relatively small concentrations, strongly influences electrical, chemical and structural properties. Despite the technological significance, coverage of diamond by transition metals has received relatively little attention. In this paper, we present the results of density functional calculations examining up to a mono-layer of transition metals on the (001) diamond surface. We find that addition of carbide forming species, such as Ti, results in significantly higher adsorption energies at all surface coverages relative to non-carbide forming species. For monolayer coverage by Cu, and sub-monolayer coverage by Ti, we find a negative electron affinity. We propose that based upon the electron affinities and binding energies, metal-terminated (001) diamond surfaces are promising candidates for electron emission device applications.
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| 8. |
- Tiwari, Amit K., et al.
(author)
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Electronic and structural properties of diamond (001) surfaces terminated by selected transition metals
- 2012
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In: Physical Review B. Condensed Matter and Materials Physics. - 1098-0121 .- 1550-235X. ; 86:15
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The presence of adsorbate species on diamond surfaces, even in small concentrations, strongly influences electrical, chemical, and structural properties. Despite the technological significance, coverage of diamond by transition metals has received relatively little attention. In this paper, we present the results of density functional calculations examining up to a monolayer of selected metals (Cu, Ni, Ti, and V) on the (001) diamond surface. We find that addition of carbide forming species (Ti and V) results in significantly higher adsorption energies at all surface coverages relative to those of the non-carbide-forming species. For monolayer coverage by Cu or Ni, and submonolayer coverage by Ti and V, we find large, negative electron affinities. We propose that based upon the electron affinities and binding energies, metal-terminated (001) diamond surfaces are promising candidates for electron emission device applications
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| 9. |
- Tiwari, Amit K., et al.
(author)
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Thermodynamic stability and electronic properties of F- and Cl-terminated diamond
- 2012
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In: Physica Status Solidi (a) applications and materials science. - : Wiley. - 1862-6300 .- 1862-6319. ; 209:9, s. 1709-1714
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The chemical termination of diamond has important consequences for its electrical and chemical properties. Despite the impressive potential for various scientific and technological applications, halogen termination of diamond is not fully understood. We find using first principle atomistic simulation that 100% fluorinated diamond (100) surface exhibit a chemically stable positive electron affinity of 2.13 eV, whereas 100% chlorination is energetically unfavourable. The positive electron affinity of halogenated diamond generally increases with increasing surface coverage. For mixed halogen and hydrogen termination, a wide range of negative and positive electron affinities can be achieved theoretically by varying the relative concentrations of adsorbed species.
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| 10. |
- Tiwari, Amit Kumar, et al.
(author)
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Transition metal oxide-diamond interfaces for electron emission applications
- 2013
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In: Silicon carbide and related materials 2012. - Durnten-Zurich : Trans Tech Publications Inc.. - 9783037856246 ; , s. 761-764
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Diamond surfaces with suitable adsorbed chemical species can exhibit both negative and positive electron affinities, arising from the complex electrostatic interplay between adsorbates and surface carbon atoms of diamond lattice. We present the results of density functional calculations into the energetics and the electron affinity of diamond (100) surfaces terminated with the oxides of selected transition metals. We find that for a correct stoichiometry, oxides of transition metals, such as Ti and Zn, exhibit a large negative electronic affinity of around 3 eV. The desorption of transition metal oxides is found to be highly endothermic. We therefore propose that transition metal oxides are promising for the surface coating of diamond-based electron emitters, as these exhibit higher thermal stability in comparison to the commonly used Cs-O termination, while retaining the advantage of inducing a large negative electron affinity
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