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- Kousathanas, A, et al.
(author)
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Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19
- 2022
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-4687 .- 0028-0836. ; 607:7917, s. 97-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2–4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease.
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- Monemar, Bo, 1942-, et al.
(author)
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Recombination of free and bound excitons in GaN
- 2008
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In: Physica status solidi. B, Basic research. - : Wiley. - 0370-1972 .- 1521-3951. ; 245:9, s. 1723-1740
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report on recent optical investigations of free and bound exciton properties in bulk GaN. In order to obtain reliable data it is important to use low defect density samples of low doping. We have used thick GaN layers (of the order of 1 mm) grown by halide vapour phase epitaxy (HVPE) with a residual doping down to <1016 cm-3 in this work. With such samples all polarisation geometries could also easily be exploited. The influence of the surface states on the photoluminescence (PL) experiments is analysed, it is concluded that surface recombination plays an important role for the free exciton (FE) recombination. The electronic structure of the FEs is discussed in detail, including the influence of spin-exchange and polariton effects, and compared with polarised PL spectra at 2 K. The detailed structure of excited states from the PL spectra is discussed, but further data are needed to fully explain all the peaks observed. The polarized FE spectra at room temperature allow a determination of the bandgap as 3.437 eV at 290 K, assuming an exciton binding energy of 25 meV. The PL transient of the A FE is very short (about 100 ps) for the no-phonon (NP) line interpreted as dominated by nonradiative surface recombination. The longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon replicas of the A FE exhibit a longer decay of about 1.4 ns at 2 K, suggested to represent the bulk lifetime of the FE. The corresponding decay time at 290 K is 9 ns in our samples, a value that might be affected by nonradiative recombination. The Si and O donor bound exciton (DBE) spectra with sharp NP lines at 3.4723 eV and 3.4714 eV respectively, are well resolved together with the so-called two-electron transitions (TETs) and several optical phonon replicas. The electronic structure of the DBE states including excited rotational states is discussed and compared with experiment. The well-resolved TET lines allow an accurate determination of the ground state binding energy of the Si donor as 30.4 meV and 33.2 meV for the O donor. The PL transients of the DBEs reveal a non-exponential decay for the NP lines. The DBE NP transient lineshape is assumed to be influenced by optical dispersion and scattering in the vicinity of exciton resonances, as well as by surface effects. The DBE decay time can most properly be deduced from the PL decay of the respective TETs and LO replicas, leading to values in the range of 1.1-1.8 ns. These values differ significantly from previous theoretical predictions, where values about two orders of magnitude shorter were obtained. A tentative discussion of the main observed features of acceptor bound excitons (ABEs), which are much less studied in GaN, is given. A decay time of about 0.9 ns for the shallowest 3.466 eV ABE is estimated, i.e. shorter than that for the shallow donor BEs. © 2008 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.
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- Monemar, Bo, et al.
(author)
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Transient photoluminescence of shallow donor bound excitons in GaN
- 2010
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In: Physical Review B. Condensed Matter and Materials Physics. - : American Physical Society. - 1098-0121 .- 1550-235X. ; 82, s. 235202-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present a detailed study of photoluminescence transients for neutral donor bound excitons (DBEs) in GaN, notably the ON donor DBE at 3.4714 eV and the SiGa DBE at 3.4723 eV. The studied samples are thick strain free nominally undoped bulk GaN samples, with a spectroscopic linewidth <0.5 meV at 2 K. The photoluminescence (PL) decay curves for these no-phonon (NP) lines are strongly nonexponential, and do not allow a proper assessment of the characteristic BE decay time. The decay of the LO-phonon replicas as well as the so-called two-electron transitions (TETs) at lower energies show a nicely exponential behavior, and allow extraction of DBE decay times of about 1.1 ns for the Si DBE and 1.8 ns for the O DBE, respectively. The initial nonexponential decay behavior of the NP lines has been studied in both the common front surface excitation-detection mode and with detection in transmission through the sample. This initial decay is explained as related to scattering processes in the near surface region, involving the DBEs and free excitons (FEs). Light scattering processes may also contribute to this complex decay shape. The DBE-LO-phonon decay does not discriminate between the O and Si DBEs because of spectral overlap involving different LO modes. The TET decays at 2 K are very different for transitions related to the DBE ground state and DBE excited states (going to p-like donor final states), for T>10 K thermalization between the DBE ground state and DBE excited states produces a common decay time. Thermalization between free and bound excitons appears to occur above about 20 K, when the DBE decay follows the FE decay. A simple two-level modeling of exciton capture and recombination for the PL decay curves of the FE and the DBEs, as commonly used in the literature, is shown to be generally inadequate. A broad PL background in the TET spectral region is suggested to be related to a radiative Auger process, where the DBEs recombine while leaving the donors ionized.
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- Jarasiunas, K., et al.
(author)
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Optical characterization of defect-related carrier recombination and transport features in GaN substrates and CVD diamonds
- 2009
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In: Materials Science Forum, Vols. 600-603. ; , s. 1301-1304
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Defect related carrier recombination and transport properties have been investigated in differently doped HVPE GaN substrates and CVD diamond layers. Carrier generation by interband transitions or by deep-defect photoexcitation were realized for studies of GaN samples by using picosecond pulses at 351 nm or 527 nm. This allowed to create favorable conditions for radiative and nonradiative recombination in the crystals and reveal peculiarities of photoelectrical properties of high and low density plasma in undoped, doped, and compensated GaN. In CVD diamonds, carrier diffusion length was found equal to ~ 0.5 �m and non-dependent on nitrogen density, while the carrier lifetime varied from 0.2 to 0.6 ns.
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- Lin, Yuanbao, et al.
(author)
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18.9% Efficient Organic Solar Cells Based on n-Doped Bulk-Heterojunction and Halogen-Substituted Self-Assembled Monolayers as Hole Extracting Interlayers
- 2022
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In: Advanced Energy Materials. - : Wiley. - 1614-6840 .- 1614-6832. ; 12:45
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The influence of halogen substitutions (F, Cl, Br, and I) on the energy levels of the self-assembled hole-extracting molecule [2-(9H-Carbazol-9-yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid (2PACz), is investigated. It is found that the formation of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of [2-(3,6-Difluoro-9H-carbazol-9-yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid (F-2PACz), [2-(3,6-Dichloro-9H-carbazol-9-yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid (Cl-2PACz), [2-(3,6-Dibromo-9H-carbazol-9-yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid (Br-2PACz), and [2-(3,6-Diiodo-9H-carbazol-9-yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid (I-2PACz) directly on indium tin oxide (ITO) increases its work function from 4.73 eV to 5.68, 5.77, 5.82, and 5.73 eV, respectively. Combining these ITO/SAM electrodes with the ternary bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) system PM6:PM7-Si:BTP-eC9 yields organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells with power conversion efficiency (PCE) in the range of 17.7%-18.5%. OPVs featuring Cl-2PACz SAMs yield the highest PCE of 18.5%, compared to cells with F-2PACz (17.7%), Br-2PACz (18.0%), or I-2PACz (18.2%). Data analysis reveals that the enhanced performance of Cl-2PACz-based OPVs relates to the increased hole mobility, decreased interface resistance, reduced carrier recombination, and longer carrier lifetime. Furthermore, OPVs featuring Cl-2PACz show enhanced stability under continuous illumination compared to ITO/PEDOT:PSS-based cells. Remarkably, the introduction of the n-dopant benzyl viologen into the BHJ further boosted the PCE of the ITO/Cl-2PACz cells to a maximum value of 18.9%, a record-breaking value for SAM-based OPVs and on par with the best-performing OPVs reported to date.
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9. |
- Malinauskas, T., et al.
(author)
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All-optical characterization of carrier lifetimes and diffusion lengths in MOCVD-, ELO-, and HVPE- grown GaN
- 2007
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In: Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol. 300. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-0248. ; , s. 223-227
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The metrological capability of the picosecond four-wave mixing (FWM) technique for evaluation of the photoelectrical properties of GaN heterostructures grown on sapphire, silicon carbide, and silicon substrates as well as of free-standing GaN films is demonstrated. Carrier recombination and transport features have been studied in a wide excitation, temperature, and dislocation density (from ∼1010 to 106 cm-2) range, exploring non-resonant refractive index modulation by a free carrier plasma. The studies allowed to establish the correlations between the dislocation density and the carrier lifetime, diffusion length, and stimulated emission threshold, to reveal a competition between the bimolecular and nonradiative recombination, and to verify the temperature dependence of bimolecular recombination coefficient in the 10-300 K temperature range. It was shown that the FWM technique is more advantageous than the time-resolved photoluminescence technique for determination of carrier lifetimes in high quality thick III-nitride layers. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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- Malinauskas, T, et al.
(author)
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Contribution of dislocations to carrier recombination and transport in highly excited ELO and HYPE GaN layers
- 2006
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In: Physica status solidi. B, Basic research. - : Wiley. - 0370-1972 .- 1521-3951. ; 243:7, s. 1426-1430
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Nonequilibrium carrier dynamics has been investigated in ELO and HYPE grown GaN layers in a wide temperature and excitation range by using the time-resolved picosecond FWM technique. Carrier lifetime in the samples at 300 K increased up to 2.8-5.1 ns in accordance with the decreasing threading dislocation density from 4 x 10(7) cm(-2) (ELO) to mid 106 cm(-2) in HYPE layers. At T < 100 K, the hyperbolic shape of FWM kinetics indicated carrier density dependent radiative lifetimes, which gradually decreased at lower temperatures to a few hundreds of ps. The dominance of bimolecular recombination in HVPE layers at 10-40 K was demonstrated by the exposure characteristic of FWM, that has shown a sublinear growth of carrier density with excitation, N proportional to I-1/2. Numerical fitting of the set of FWM kinetics at various T confirmed the temperature dependence of bimolecular recombination coefficient B proportional to T-1/5 and provided its value B = 2 x 10(-11) cm(3)/s at 300 K and 3.2 x 10(-9) cm(3)/s at 9 K. The measured bipolar diffusion coefficients allowed determination of carrier diffusion length of 0.8-1 mu m at 300 K and its dependence on dislocation density and temperature. (c) WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
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