We demonstrate an innovative CIGS-based solar cells model with a graded doping concentration absorber profile, capable of achieving high efficiency values. In detail, we start with an in-depth discussion concerning the parametrical study of conventional CIGS solar cells structures. We have used the wxAMPS software in order to numerically simulate cell electrical behaviour. By means of simulations, we have studied the variation of relevant physical and chemical parameters—characteristic of such devices—with changing energy gap and doping density of the absorber layer. Our results show that, in uniform CIGS cell, the efficiency, the open circuit voltage, and short circuit current heavily depend on CIGS band gap. Our numerical analysis highlights that the band gap value of 1.40 eV is optimal, but both the presence of Molybdenum back contact and the high carrier recombination near the junction noticeably reduce the crucial electrical parameters. For the above-mentioned reasons, we have demonstrated that the efficiency obtained by conventional CIGS cells is lower if compared to the values reached by our proposed graded carrier concentration profile structures (up to 21%).

We report on signal-to-noise ratio measurements carried out in the continuous wave regime, at different bias voltages, frequencies, and temperatures, on a class of silicon photomultipliers fabricated in planar technology on silicon p-type substrate. Signal-to-noise ratio has been measured as the ratio of the photogenerated current, filtered and averaged by a lock-in amplifier, and the root mean square deviation of the same current. The measured noise takes into account the shot noise, resulting from the photocurrent and the dark current. We have also performed a comparison between our SiPMs and a photomultiplier tube in terms of signal-to-noise ratio, as a function of the temperature of the SiPM package and at different bias voltages. Our results show the outstanding performance of this class of SiPMs even without the need of any cooling system.

We report on backward second-harmonic-generation in bulk periodically poled congruent lithium niobate with a $3.2\mu \text{m}$ period. A tunable continuous-wave Ti:sapphire laser allowed us exciting two resonant quasi-phase-matching orders in the backward configuration. The resonances were also resolved by temperature tuning and interpolated with standard theory to extract relevant information on the sample.

Noise through its interaction with the nonlinearity of the living systems can give rise to counter-intuitive phenomena. In this paper we shortly review noise induced effects in different ecosystems, in which two populations compete for the same resources. We also present new results on spatial patterns of two populations, while modeling real distributions of anchovies and sardines. The transient dynamics of these ecosystems are analyzed through generalized Lotka-Volterra equations in the presence of multiplicative noise, which models the interaction between the species and the environment. We find noise induced phenomena such as quasi-deterministic oscillations, stochastic resonance, noise delayed extinction, and noise induced pattern formation. In addition, our theoretical results are validated with experimental findings. Specifically the results, obtained by a coupled map lattice model, well reproduce the spatial distributions of anchovies and sardines, observed in a marine ecosystem. Moreover, the experimental dynamical behavior of two competing bacterial populations in a meat product and the probability distribution at long times of one of them are well reproduced by a stochastic microbial predictive model.