We present a combined theoretical and experimental study of

Nanostructured silicon has generated a lot of interest in the past decades as a key material for silicon-based photonics. The low absorption coefficient makes silicon nanocrystals attractive as an active medium in waveguide structures, and their third-order nonlinear optical properties are crucial for the development of next generation nonlinear photonic devices. Here we report the first observation of stimulated Raman scattering in silicon nanocrystals embedded in a silica matrix under non-resonant excitation at infrared wavelengths (~1.5 μm). Raman gain is directly measured as a function of the silicon content. A giant Raman gain from the silicon nanocrystals is obtained that is up to four orders of magnitude greater than in crystalline silicon. These results demonstrate the first Raman amplifier based on silicon nanocrystals in a silica matrix, thus opening new perspectives for the realization of more efficient Raman lasers with ultra-small sizes, which would increase the synergy between electronic and photonic devices.

Precision measurements of the quantum Hall resistance with alternating current (ac) in the kHz range were performed on epitaxial graphene in order to assess its suitability as a quantum standard of impedance. The quantum Hall plateaus measured with alternating current were found to be flat within one part in 10 7 . This is much better than for plain GaAs quantum Hall devices and shows that the magnetic-fluxdependent capacitive ac losses of the graphene device are less critical. The observed frequency dependence of about -8×10 -8 /kHz is comparable in absolute value to the positive frequency dependence of plain GaAs devices, but the negative sign is attributed to stray capacitances which we believe can be minimized by a careful design of the graphene device. Further improvements thus may lead to a simpler and more user-friendly quantum standard for both resistance and impedance.Graphene is probably the most fascinating electronic material discovered in the last decades [1][2][3]. Among its various unique properties, an anomalous 'half-integer' quantum Hall effect (QHE) is most interesting for metrology, where the fact that the Hall resistance is quantized and depends only on fundamental constants is utilized for the representation and maintenance of the resistance unit, the ohm. Typically, twodimensional electron systems (2DES) realized in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures [4] are used for this purpose. The required relative measurement uncertainty of better than 1 part in 10 8 is, however, only obtained at strong magnetic fields around 10 tesla and at temperatures of 1.4 kelvin and below. In contrast, in graphene the cyclotron energy splitting between the Landau levels (which is the main factor determining the robustness of the quantized Hall resistance (QHR)) is so large that fingerprints of the QHE are even observed at room temperature [5]. Thus, with graphene a highly precise QHR standard working at low magnetic fields and temperatures above 4 kelvin is conceivable, which would be an enormous advantage for practical metrology. In fact, when measuring with direct current (dc), it has been demonstrated already that the precision of the QHE in high quality graphene devices matches that of GaAs devices [6][7][8][9]. However, in the forthcoming fundamental constant-based redefinition of the Système International d'Unités (SI) [10], also the impedance units (capacitance and inductance) will be traced to fundamental constants [11]. The most direct way to represent the impedance units is to use a quantum Hall resistance measured with alternating current (ac QHR). This has two advantages. Firstly, deriving the resistance and impedance units from the same quantum effect improves the consistency of the SI. And secondly, using the same QHE device at dc and at ac in one and the same cryomagnetic system would constitute a practical and economical advantage. Therefore, the question naturally arises whether graphene can replace GaAs also in the realm of impedance units, leading to an at least equally precise, but more userfriendl...

Quantum Hall effect (QHE) devices based on epitaxial graphene films grown on SiC were fabricated and studied for development of the QHE resistance standard. The graphene-metal contacting area in the Hall devices has been improved and fabricated using a double metallization process. The tested devices had an initial carrier concentration of (0.6 -10)·10 11 cm -2 and showed half-integer quantum Hall effect at a relatively low (3 T) magnetic field. Application of the photochemical gating method and annealing of the sample provides a convenient way for tuning the carrier density to the optimum value. Precision measurements of the quantum Hall resistance (QHR) in graphene and GaAs devices at moderate magnetic field strengths (≤ 7 T) showed a relative agreement within 6 · 10 -9 .

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