arXiv subjects

Hyun Myung Jang

Publications and source records attributed to Hyun Myung Jang.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Polarization-wave propagation as a biophysical mechanism of visual cognition

Recent experimental studies indicate that visual cognition is accompanied by slowly propagating biophysical travelling waves in cortical tissue. Here we propose polarization waves as a coherent physical framework for visual cognition. We first compute the propagation of scalar potential fields generated by impressed ionic currents in the primary visual cortex using a telegraph-type model and extract the velocity of the moving potential ridge. By exploiting the linear convolution structure, we then demonstrate that the scalar potential field and the polarization wave, arising from slowly oscillating neuronal dipoles, propagate with identical velocities. Remarkably, this velocity coincides with the independently predicted propagation speed of the cognitively inferred modulated wave (~1.5 cm/s). Because ionic influx entering a single optic-nerve channel integrates signals from more than a hundred photoreceptors, the resulting polarization field necessarily spans a distribution of wave numbers. We show that amplitudes of such multi-k polarization waves undergo dispersive spreading in time, which possibly suppresses cross-channel interference in visual perception.

q-bio.NC↗

arXiv2025

Exciton Bohr radius of lead halide perovskites for photovoltaic and light-emitting applications

Exciton Bohr radius (a_B) and exciton binding energy (E_b) of metal halide perovskites are two prime quantities in their applications to both light-emitting diode displays and photovoltaic devices. We develop a reliable theoretical method of simultaneously finding a_B and ε_r^c (dielectric constant) based on the net exciton energy above the bulk band gap. It is estimated that a_B under the dielectric confinement is substantially smaller than a_B in the absence of dielectric confinement: 4.36 nm vs. 5.61 nm in the case of CH3NH3PbBr3. We attribute the enhanced a_B to variations of ε_r^c and the electron-hole correlation energy. We also develop a simple method of finding E_b based on the same net exciton energy. Using this, we attribute the well-known difference in E_b between organic bromide perovskites and iodide counterparts to ε_r^c and explain that iodide perovskites are more suited than bromide counterparts in photovoltaic applications, which require smaller E_b for efficient charge-carriers transport.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Electron-Hole Separation in Ferroelectric Oxides for Efficient Photovoltaic Responses

Despite their potential to exceed the theoretical Shockley-Queisser limit, ferroelectric photovoltaics (FPVs) have performed inefficiently due to their extremely low photocurrents. Incorporating Bi2FeCrO6 (BFCO) as the light absorber in FPVs has recently led to impressively high and record photocurrents [Nechache et al. Nature Photon. 2015, 9, 61], reviving the FPV field. However, our understanding of this remarkable phenomenon is far from satisfactory. Here, we use first-principles calculations to determine that such excellent performance mainly lies in the efficient separation of electron-hole (e-h) pairs. We show that photoexcited electrons and holes in BFCO are spatially separated on the Fe and Cr sites, respectively. This separation is much more pronounced in disordered BFCO phases, which show exceptional PV responses. We further set out to design a strategy for next-generation FPVs, not limited to BFCO, by exploring 44 additional Bi-based double-perovskite oxides. We suggest 9 novel active-layer materials that can offer strong e-h separations and a desired band gap energy for application in FPVs. Our work indicates that charge separation is the most important issue to be addressed for FPVs to compete with conventional devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Switchable Ferroelectric Photovoltaic Effects in Epitaxial Thin Films of h-RFeO3 having Narrow Optical Band Gaps

Ferroelectric photovoltaics (FPVs) have drawn much attention owing to their high stability, environmental safety, anomalously high photovoltages, coupled with reversibly switchable photovoltaic responses. However, FPVs suffer from extremely low photocurrents, which is primarily due to their wide band gaps. Here, we present a new class of FPVs by demonstrating switchable ferroelectric photovoltaic effects using hexagonal ferrite (h-RFeO3) thin films having narrow band gaps of ~1.2 eV, where R denotes rare-earth ions. FPVs with narrow band gaps suggests their potential applicability as photovoltaic and optoelectronic devices. The h-RFeO3 films further exhibit reasonably large ferroelectric polarizations, which possibly reduces a rapid recombination rate of the photo-generated electron-hole pairs. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of h-RFeO3 thin-film devices is sensitive on the magnitude of polarization. In the case of h-TmFeO3 (h-TFO) thin film, the measured PCE is twice as large as that of the BiFeO3 thin film, a prototypic FPV. We have further shown that the switchable photovoltaic effect dominates over the unswitchable internal field effect arising from the net built-in potential. This work thus demonstrates a new class of FPVs towards high-efficiency solar cell and optoelectronic applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Effects of spin-orbit interaction on magnetic and electronic structures in antiferromagnetic LaFeAsO

Magnetic and electronic structures in LaFeAsO in the single-stripe-type antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase are studied using first-principles density-functional calculations including the spin-orbit interaction. We show that the longitudinal ordering (LO) where Fe magnetic moments are parallel or anti-parallel with the in-plane AFM ordering vector is lower in energy than transverse orderings (TOs), in good agreement with neutron diffraction experiments. Calculated energy difference between LO and TOs is about 0.1 meV per Fe atom, indicating that LO will prevail at temperature below about 1 K. We also show that the spin-orbit interaction splits degenerate bands at some high-symmetry points in the Brillouin zone by about 60 meV, depending on spatial directions of the Fe magnetic moments.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Ferroelectric polarization switching with a remarkably high activation-energy in orthorhombic GaFeO3 thin films

Orthorhombic GaFeO3 (o-GFO) with the polar Pna21 space group is a prominent ferrite by virtue of its piezoelectricity and ferrimagnetism, coupled with magneto-electric effects. Herein, we unequivocally demonstrate a large ferroelectric remanent polarization in undoped o-GFO thin films by adopting either a hexagonal strontium titanate (STO) or a cubic yttrium-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) substrate. The polarization-electric-field hysteresis curves of the polar c-axis-grown o-GFO film on a SrTiO3/STO substrate show the net switching polarization of ~35 μC/cm2 with an unusually high coercive field of +-1400 kV/cm at room temperature. The PUND measurement also demonstrates the switching polarization of ~26 μC/cm2. The activation energy for the polarization switching, as obtained by density-functional theory calculations, is remarkably high, 1.05 eV per formula unit. This high value accounts for the observed stability of the polar Pna21 phase over a wide range of temperature up to 1368 K.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Anomalous domain periodicity observed in ferroelectric PbTiO3 nanodots with 180o stripe domains

PbTiO3-based nano-scale dots and tubes have received a great deal of attention owing to their potential applications to nonvolatile memories and multi-functional devices. As for the size effect of 180o stripe domains in ferroelectric thin films, there have been extensive reports on the thickness-dependent domain periodicity. All these studies have revealed that the domain periodicity of 180o stripe domains scales with the film thickness (d) according to the classical Landau-Lifshitz-Kittel (LLK) scaling law down to the thickness of ~2 nm. In the case of PbTiO3 nanodots, however, we obtained a quite striking correlation that for the thickness less than a certain critical value, dc (~35 nm), the domain width even increases with decreasing thickness of the nanodot, which surprisingly indicates a negative value in the LLK scaling-law exponent. On the basis of theoretical considerations of dc, we attribute this anomalous domain periodicity to the presence of a nonferroelectric surface layer, in addition to the finite lateral-size effect of a ferroelectric nanodot.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗