SARS-CoV-2 entry factors are highly expressed in nasal epithelial cells together with innate immune genes

We investigated SARS-CoV-2 potential tropism by surveying expression of viral entry-associated genes in single-cell RNA-sequencing data from multiple tissues from healthy human donors. We co-detected these transcripts in specific respiratory, corneal and intestinal epithelial cells, potentially explaining the high efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. These genes are co-expressed in nasal epithelial cells with genes involved in innate immunity, highlighting the cells’ potential role in initial viral infection, spread and clearance. The study offers a useful resource for further lines of inquiry with valuable clinical samples from COVID-19 patients and we provide our data in a comprehensive, open and user-friendly fashion at www.covid19cellatlas.org

4H-silicon carbide-dielectric interface recombination analysis using free carrier absorption

In this paper, an alternative method to characterize the interface between 4H polytype of Silicon Carbide (4H-SiC) and passivating dielectric layers is established. The studies are made on dielectric-semiconductor test structures using Al2O3 as dielectric on 4H-SiC n-type epitaxial layers. Samples with different pre-and post-dielectric deposition preparations have been fabricated on epilayers of varying thicknesses. Effective lifetimes (tau(eff)) of all the samples were measured by an optical pump-probe method utilizing free carrier absorption (FCA) to analyse the influence of the 4H-SiC/dielectric interface on charge carrier recombination. The relative contribution to tau(eff) from the surfaces increases with decreasing epilayer thickness, and by analysing the data in combination with numerical modelling, it is possible to extract values of the surface recombination velocities (SRVs) for interfaces prepared in different ways. For instance, it is found that SRV for a standard cleaning procedure is 2 x 10(6) cm/s compared to a more elaborate RCA process, yielding a more than 50 times lower value of 3.5 x 10(4) cm/s. Furthermore, the density of interface traps (D-it) is extracted from capacitance-voltage (CV) measurements using the Terman method and a comparison is made between the SRV extracted from FCA measurements and D(it)s extracted from CV measurements on the same structures fabricated with metal contacts. It is observed that the SRV increase scales linearly with the increase in Dit. The strong qualitative correlation between FCA and CV data shows that FCA is a useful characterization technique, which can also yield more quantitative information about the charge carrier dynamics at the interface.</p