7th International School and Conference "Saint-Petersburg OPEN 2020" on Optoelectronics, Photonics, Engineering and Nanostructures was held on April 27 - 30, 2020. The Organizer of the conference is the Alferov Federal State Budgetary Institution of Higher Education and Science Saint Petersburg National Research Academic University of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Initially, the School and Conference was supposed to be held in full-time format at the Alferov Academic University (Saint-Petersburg, Russia), as it happened in the past. However, due to the restrictions imposed by the city authorities on holding mass events due to the threat of the spread of the COVID-19 infection, the conference committees decided to move the conference to the online format. The conference consisted of poster reports presented by the participants and online oral presentations by invited speakers. Posters and video reports of the participants were posted on the conference website. Invited speakers made their presentations online. During their speeches, participants could discuss and ask questions in the chat. The School and Conference included a series of invited talks given by leading professors with the aim to introduce young scientists with actual problems and major advances in physics and technology.

Proceedings of the SPIE PHOTONICS EUROPE Conference on Biophotonics in Point-of-Care, 6-10 April 2020, Online Only, France. Proc. SPIE volume 11361

The goal of this International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS) chapter is to survey, catalog, and assess the status of technologies in the areas of cryogenic electronics and quantum information processing. Application drivers are identified for sufficiently developed technologies and application needs are mapped as a function of time against projected capabilities to identify challenges requiring research and development effort. Cryogenic electronics (also referred to as low-temperature electronics or cold electronics) is defined by operation at cryogenic temperatures (below −150 °C or 123.15 K) and includes devices and circuits made from a variety of materials including insulators, conductors, semiconductors, superconductors, or topological materials. Existing and emerging applications are driving development of novel cryogenic electronic technologies. Information processing refers to the input, transmission, storage, manipulation or processing, and output of data. Information processing systems to accomplish a specific function, in general, require several different interactive layers of technology. A top-down list of these layers begins with the required application or system function, leading to system architecture, micro- or nano-architecture, circuits, devices, and materials. A fundamental unit of information (e.g., a bit) is represented by a computational state variable, for example, the position of a bead in the ancient abacus calculator or the voltage (or charge) state of a node capacitance in CMOS logic. A binary computational state variable serves as the foundation for von Neumann computational system architectures that dominated conventional computing. Quantum information processing is different in that it uses qubits, two-state quantum-mechanical systems that can be in coherent superpositions of both states at the same time, which can have computational advantages. Measurement of a qubit in a given basis causes it to collapse to one of the basis states. Technology categories covered in this report include: • Superconductor electronics (SCE) • Cryogenic semiconductor electronics (Cryo-Semi) • Quantum information processing (QIP)

Continuing miniaturization of electronic devices, together with the quickly growing number of nanotechnological applications, demands a profound understanding of the underlying physics. Most of the fundamental problems of modern condensed matter physics involve various aspects of quantum transport and fluctuation phenomena at the nanoscale. In nanostructures, electrons are usually confined to a limited volume and interact with each other and lattice ions, simultaneously suffering multiple scattering events on impurities, barriers, surface imperfections, and other defects. Electron interaction with other degrees of freedom generally yields two major consequences, quantum dissipation and quantum decoherence. In other words, electrons can lose their energy and ability for quantum interference even at very low temperatures. These two different, but related, processes are at the heart of all quantum phenomena discussed in this book.This book presents copious details to facilitate the understanding of the basic physics behind a result and the learning to technically reproduce the result without delving into extra literature. The book subtly balances the description of theoretical methods and techniques and the display of the rich landscape of the physical phenomena that can be accessed by these methods. It is useful for a broad readership ranging from master's and PhD students to postdocs and senior researchers.

The materials of The International Scientific – Practical Conference is presented below.

The Conference reflects the modern state of innovation in education, science, industry and social-economic sphere, from the standpoint of introducing new information technologies.

It is interesting for a wide range of researchers, teachers, graduate students and professionals in the field of innovation and information technologies.

Perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA) polymer membranes are widely used as ion-conducting electrolytes in energy-conversion devices. The development of novel hybrid materials containing inorganic dopants offers the route towards optimization of the performance of the PFSA membranes. In this work, the effect of ultrasonic (US) treatment of the PFSA solutions in the presence of SiO2 nanoparticles on the characteristics of the cast hybrid Nafion+SiO2 membranes was studied for the first time. Upon ultrasonication of polymer solutions, the length of macromolecules is reduced, and the number of sulfo groups decreases. When polymer solutions are ultrasonicated in the presence of SiO2, they experience additional crosslinking due to the interaction of SiO2 with sulfo groups of the PFSA polymer. As a result, up to 20% of -SO3H groups appears to be excluded from the ion-exchange process, and the temperature corresponding to destabilization of ionic clusters is reduced. When a hydrophilic dopant is incorporated within pores, the overall water uptake of the hybrid membranes increases, and their proton conductivity is improved. Maximum conductivity (78.6 mS/cm) at 40°С in the contact with water is observed for the Nafion+1 wt% SiO2 membrane cast from polymer solutions upon the ultrasonication for 10 min. The membranes preserve their high conductivity at low relative humidity (4.1 mS/cm at 30°С, 30% RH), and this value is 1.7 times higher than that of the pristine Nafion membrane. Hydrogen permeability of the hybrid Nafion+SiO2 membranes appears to be lower than that of the Nafion membranes by 15%. Hence, US-assisted dispersion of dopant nanoparticles in the PFSA solutions allows preparation of hybrid membranes with improved transport characteristics.

Photoinduced nonequilibrium processes in nanoscale materials play key roles in photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications. This review summarizes recent theoretical investigations of excited state dynamics in metal halide perovskites (MHPs), carried out using a state-of-the-art methodology combining nonadiabatic molecular dynamics with real-time time-dependent density functional theory. The simulations allow one to study evolution of charge carriers at the ab initio level and in the time-domain, in direct connection with time-resolved spectroscopy experiments. Eliminating the need for the common approximations, such as harmonic phonons, a choice of the reaction coordinate, weak electron–phonon coupling, a particular kinetic mechanism, and perturbative calculation of rate constants, we model full-dimensional quantum dynamics of electrons coupled to semiclassical vibrations. We study realistic aspects of material composition and structure and their influence on various nonequilibrium processes, including nonradiative trapping and relaxation of charge carriers, hot carrier cooling and luminescence, Auger-type charge–charge scattering, multiple excitons generation and recombination, charge and energy transfer between donor and acceptor materials, and charge recombination inside individual materials and across donor/acceptor interfaces. These phenomena are illustrated with representative materials and interfaces. Focus is placed on response to external perturbations, formation of point defects and their passivation, mixed stoichiometries, dopants, grain boundaries, and interfaces of MHPs with charge transport layers, and quantum confinement. In addition to bulk materials, perovskite quantum dots and 2D perovskites with different layer and spacer cation structures, edge passivation, and dielectric screening are discussed. The atomistic insights into excited state dynamics under realistic conditions provide the fundamental understanding needed for design of advanced solar energy and optoelectronic devices.

The process of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) matrix impregnation with mefenamic acid (MFA) in a supercritical carbon dioxide medium has been studied by the full atomistic classical molecular dynamics method. Simulations have been performed for two systems that differ in the polymer sample size (≈270 kDa and ≈1080 kDa) at 333 K and 40 MPa. The characteristics of the systems, such as the radius of gyration, end-to-end distance, mean squared displacement, radial distribution functions, average number of hydrogen bonds, and number of close contacts, have been analyzed and discussed. It has been found that by the end of the simulation (15 ns), the MFA loadings reach about 1.43 w/w % and 1.14 w/w % for the small and big PMMA samples, respectively. It was shown that the solute was distributed in the molecular form inside the polymer matrix. At the same time, when the CO2 molecules were removed from the systems and the simulation was performed in a canonical ensemble with the same cell length as in the previous isobaric-isothermal ensemble, the MFA molecules began to self-associate and get adsorbed on the polymer surface as hydrogen-bonded aggregates. In order to estimate the strength of the intermolecular interaction between the system components, ab initio calculations were performed. The calculated energies of the electron donor–acceptor (EDA) and hydrogen-bonded (HB) complexes can be arranged in the following order (in absolute value): ΔEEDA(PMMA-CO2)≈ΔEHB(MFA-CO2) < ΔEHB(PMMA-MFA) < ΔEHB(MFA-MFA).

The subject of this paper is microlasers with the emission spectra determined by the whispering gallery modes. Owing to the total internal reflection of light on the sidewalls, a high Q-factor is achieved until the diameter is comparable to the wavelength. The light emission predominantly occurs in the plane of the structure, which facilitates the microlaser integration with other elements. We focus on microdisk lasers with various types of the In(Ga)As quantum dots (QDs). Deep localization of charge carriers in spatially separated regions suppresses the lateral diffusion and makes it possible to overcome the undesirable effect of non-radiative recombination in deep mesas. Thus, using conventional epitaxial structures and relatively simple post-growth processing methods, it is possible to realize small microlasers capable of operating without temperature stabilization at elevated temperatures. The low sensitivity of QDs to epitaxial and manufacturing defects allows fabricating microlasers using III–V heterostructures grown on silicon.

We study material gain of a novel type of quantum heterostructures of mixed (0D/2D) dimensionality referred to as quantum well-dots (QWDs). To evaluate the material gain in a broad range of injection currents (30–1200 A cm−2 per-layer) we studied edge-emitting lasers with various numbers of InGaAs/GaAs QWD layers in the active region and different waveguide designs. The dependence of the material gain on the current is well fitted by an empirical exponential equation similar to the one used for quantum dots (QDs) in the whole range of injection current densities. The estimated QWD transparency current-density-per-layer of 31 A cm−2 ranks between the values reported for quantum wells and QDs. The maximal QWD material gain as high as 1.1·104 cm−1 has been measured. The results obtained confirm specific gain properties of InGaAs QWDs making them promising active media for lasers, superluminescence diodes and optical amplifiers.

Electronic states in a novel type of quantum-size heterostructures referred to as InGaAs quantum welldots (QWDs) were experimentally studied using absorption in stripe waveguides of different lengths based on a single, double, five, and ten QWD layers. The value of the modal absorption was measured to be 70 cm−1 and 90 cm−1 for ground-state transition and high-energy one, respectively. The structure of electronic states in the QWDs is also analyzed by polarization-resolved waveguide absorption and the dependence of a polarization degree on the chip length is discussed. TM polarization of the heavyhole- based optical transition photoresponse observed in the long waveguides is attributed to the light depolarization due to the scattering on the QWD heterointerfaces.

Based on the quantum-mechanical theory of electron transfer (ET), the parameter was proposed to describe the electrochemical activity of doped graphenes. The parameter is calculated using the density of states (DOS), local density of state (LDOS) values, which are in turn obtained from the density functional theory (DFT) calculations and reorganization energies of redox system. DOS describes the contribution of the electronic structure of the electrode to the ET process, while the LDOS describes the electron density contribution of the atoms at some distance from the surface electrode. Reorganization energy corresponds to the restriction of solvation shell and bonds in redox system due to ET process. The overall contribution of these parameters enables a comprehensive assessment of the activity that is acceptable for semi-quantitative analysis. Calculations have shown that the proposed activity parameter correlates well with the calculated ET rate constants. Theoretical study of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on graphene doped with p-elements in the framework of quantum-mechanical theory showed that ET activity decreases in the series P-Gr > S-Gr > N-Gr > B-Gr > O-Gr > Gr. According to our estimates, the mixed or adiabatic regime of ET is probably observed on doped graphenes for all steps of ORR. Using N- and B-graphenes as an example and activity parameter, the influence of the applied potential and the atomic fraction of the doped element on the ET activity are studied.

The effect of small-amplitude periodic shear on annealing of a shear band in binary glasses is investigated using molecular dynamics simulations.  The shear band is first introduced in stable glasses via periodic shear at a strain amplitude slightly above the critical value, and then samples are subjected to repeated loading during thousands of cycles at smaller amplitudes.  It was found that with increasing strain amplitude, the glasses are relocated to deeper potential energy levels, while the energy change upon annealing is not affected by the glass initial stability.  The results of mechanical tests indicate that the shear modulus and yield stress both increase towards plateau levels during the first few hundred cycles, and their magnitudes are greater for samples loaded at larger strain amplitudes. The analysis of nonaffine displacements reveals that the shear band breaks up into isolated clusters that gradually decay over time, leading to nearly reversible deformation within the elastic range. These results might be useful for mechanical processing of metallic glasses and additive manufacturing.

A new method of surface plasmon waves excitation based on the photoluminescence of a nanostructured metal surface is proposed. The method was demonstrated using a plasmonic crystal formed by an array of nanoholes in 200 nm thick Ag film (supporting SPP resonances) covered by a 10 nm thin Au layer (for efficient excitation of photo-induced luminescence). It was shown that using this method it is possible: (i) to excite SPP waves in ultra-large spectral range, (ii) to measure plasmonic crystal optical properties, (iii) to measure optical characteristics of the SPP waves.