Preliminary studies of the Raman spectra of \hbox {Ag}_{2}\hbox {Te}\hbox { and }\hbox {Ag}_{5}\hbox {Te}_{3}

The theoretical calculations indicated that the monoclinic low-temperature phase of silver telluride $(\upbeta \hbox {-Ag}_{2}\hbox {Te})$ is a new binary topological insulator with highly anisotropic single Dirac cone surface. We obtained $\upbeta \hbox {-Ag}_{2}\hbox {Te}$ crystal ingots containing few grains by the Bridgman method. We also deposited thin films of tellurium, $\hbox {Ag}_{5}\hbox {Te}_{3}\hbox { and }(\hbox {Te+Ag}_{5}\hbox {Te}_{3})$ by thermal evaporation method. The Raman spectra of $\upbeta \hbox {-Ag}_{2}\hbox {Te}$ , tellurium and $\hbox {Ag}_{5}\hbox {Te}_{3}$ were measured at three excitation wave lengths: 633, 515 and 488 nm. The Raman active modes of $\upbeta \hbox {-Ag}_{2}\hbox {Te}$ , tellurium and $\hbox {Ag}_{5}\hbox {Te}_{3}$ are situated at frequencies below 300  $\hbox {cm}^{-1}$ while vibrations of other phases appear at higher frequencies.     

Theoretical study of collision and collision-free radiative lifetimes of {{\text{S}}_2}\left( {{{\text{B}}^3}\Sigma_{\text{u}}^{-} \left( {{\upsilon^{\prime}} = 0 - 9} \right)} \right)

We calculate multireference configuration-interaction wavefunctions and the potential-energy curves for the $ {B^3}\Sigma_u^{-} $ and $ {X^3}\Sigma_g^{-} $ states of the collision-free S₂ molecule and the T-shape collision complex S₂?CHe using cc-pVQZ basis sets. We obtain the transition dipole moments of the $ {{\text{S}}_2}\left( {{B^3}\Sigma_u^{-} \to {X^3}\Sigma_g^{-} } \right) $ and the Franck?CCondon factors between the vibrational levels of this two states. We evaluate the radiative lifetimes of $ {{\text{S}}_2}\left( {{B^3}\Sigma_u^{-} \left( {{\upsilon^{\prime}} = 0 - 9} \right)} \right) $ levels of the collision complex and the collision-free molecule and compare them with the experiments. The collision provides little change in the radiative lifetimes of $ {{\text{S}}_2}\left( {{B^3}\Sigma_u^{-} \left( {{\upsilon^{\prime}} = 0 - 9} \right)} \right) $ according to the previous calculations. We obtain excellent agreement between the theoretical results and the experiments. The data calculated are very useful in the study of the microwave-driven high-pressure sulfur lamp and an S₂ laser pumped by a transverse fast discharge.     

Fast proton conduction path in {\text{Ni}} - {\text{BaCe}}_{{0.8}} {\text{Y}}_{{0.2}} {\text{O}}_{{2.9 - \delta }} membrane

The effect of metal-to-oxide grain boundary layer in $ {\text{Ni}} - {\text{BaCe}}_{{0.8}} {\text{Y}}_{{0.2}} {\text{O}}_{{3 - \delta }} $ (BCY) cermet membrane on hydrogen permeation was studied by applying the different size of oxide grain on Ni-BCY membranes. Two types of cermet membranes having different grain size of oxide were prepared by using different starting particle size of oxide powder. The hydrogen flux of coarse-oxide-grain membrane showed higher flux than that of small-oxide-grain membrane. It was understood that the negative potential at metal-to-oxide grain boundary, reference to the bulk oxide ( $ \phi _{0} < \phi _{\infty } = 0 $ ), was developed, and the accumulation of the effectively positively charged protons may occur at the grain boundary layer (space charge layer), which may result in providing highly conductive proton path by shifting the charge neutrality condition from $ {\left[ {OH^{ \bullet }_{O} } \right]} = {\left[ {Y^{/}_{{Ce}} } \right]} $ to $ {\left[ {OH^{ \bullet }_{O} } \right]} = n $ .     

Structural, morphological and optical properties of \hbox {In}_{2}\hbox {S}_{3} thin films obtained by SILAR method

$\hbox {In}_{2}\hbox {S}_{3}$ thin films have been elaborated onto glass substrate by SILAR method at room temperature using different immersion time in the solution of cation and anion and fixing the rinsing time. The film composition, morphology and structure were investigated using energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction techniques. Optical properties, such transmission and band gap have been also analyzed. The effects of annealing on the morphological structure thin films are also described. The x-rays diffraction spectra indicated that the formed compounds are $\upbeta $ - $\hbox {In}_{2}\hbox {S}_{3}$ polycrystalline thin films with $\hbox {In}_{6}\hbox {S}_{7 }$ as second phase in sample S1 and sample S2 and no another phase in sample 3. SEM revealed homogeneous and relatively uniform films and EDAX shows sample 3 with S/In=1.44. For sample 1 and sample 2, we noted an increase of band gap when rinsing time increases.     

Modeling of Spin Hamiltonian Parameters for Vanadyl-Doped {\bf\hbox{K}_2\hbox{SO}_4{-}\hbox{Na}_2\hbox{SO}_4{-}\hbox{ZnSO}_4} Glass

A full ligand-field energy matrix diagonalization treatment for 3d ¹ ions in tetragonal symmetry is developed on the basis of the two spin?Corbit coupling parameter model, and the contributions of the spin?Corbit coupling of the ligand ions to the optical and electron paramagnetic resonance spectra are included. Spin Hamiltonian parameters of the tetragonal ${\rm V}^{4+}$ center in $\hbox{K}_2\hbox{SO}_4 {-} \hbox{Na}_2\hbox{SO}_4{-}\hbox{ZnSO}_4$ glass are calculated from the complete energy matrix diagonalization and the perturbation theory methods. The results calculated by both methods are not only close to each other but also in good agreement with the experimental values. Furthermore, the compressed defect structure of the ${\rm (VO_6)^{8-}}$ cluster is discussed.     

Quasi solid state dye-sensitized solar cells based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) electrolytes containing \mathbf{I}^{\mathbf{-}}/\mathbf{I}_{\mathbf{3}}^{\mathbf{-}} redox couple

Quasi solid state dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been fabricated with electrolytes containing $\text{ I }^{-}/\text{ I }_{3}^{-}$ redox couple using 80 % hydrolyzed polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) doped with potassium iodide (KI) and a mixture of potassium iodide and tetrapropyl ammonium iodide ( $\text{ Pr }_{4}\text{ NI }$ ) salts. The quasi solid state gel polymer electrolytes were prepared using 1:1 ethylene carbonate (EC):propylene carbonate (PC) mixture. The solar cells have the structure of ITO/ $\text{ TiO }_{2}$ /N3-Dye/electrolyte/Pt/ITO. The conductivity of the electrolytes has been calculated from the bulk resistance value determined using the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The performance of the DSSCs has been studied by varying the concentration of the doping salts in the electrolyte and incident light intensity. The DSSC fabricated with the KI salt electrolyte containing 9.9 wt% PVA, 39.6 wt% EC, 39.6 wt% PC, 10.9 wt% KI $(+\text{ I }_{2})$ exhibited the best power conversion efficiency of 1.97 %. However, the DSSC with a double-salt electrolyte containing 9.9 wt% PVA: 39.6 wt% EC: 39.6 wt% PC: (6.5 wt% KI: 4.4 wt% $\text{ Pr }_{4}\text{ NI }$ ) ( $+\text{ I }_{2}$ ) exhibited a higher efficiency of 3.27% under $100 \text{ mW/cm }^{2}$ light intensity. The efficiency of this cell increased to 4.59 % under dimmer light of intensity of $54 \text{ mW/cm }^{2}$ .     

Analysis of the \frac{1} {2}^ - and \frac{3} {2}^ - heavy and doubly heavy baryon states with QCD sum rules

In this article, we study the $\frac{1} {2}^ -$ and $\frac{3} {2}^ -$ heavy and doubly heavy baryon states $\Sigma _Q \left( {\frac{1} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Xi '_Q \left( {\frac{1} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Omega _Q \left( {\frac{1} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Xi _{QQ} \left( {\frac{1} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Omega _{QQ} \left( {\frac{1} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Sigma _Q^* \left( {\frac{3} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Xi _Q^* \left( {\frac{3} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Omega _Q^* \left( {\frac{3} {2}^ - } \right)$ , $\Xi _{QQ}^* \left( {\frac{3} {2}^ - } \right)$ and $\Omega _{QQ}^* \left( {\frac{3} {2}^ - } \right)$ by subtracting the contributions from the corresponding $\frac{1} {2}^ +$ and $\frac{3} {2}^ +$ heavy and doubly heavy baryon states with the QCD sum rules in a systematic way, and make reasonable predictions for their masses.     

\mathrm{CO}_{2}^{*} chemiluminescence study at low and elevated pressures

Chemiluminescence experiments have been performed to assess the state of current $\mathrm{CO}_{2}^{*}$ kinetics modeling. The difficulty with modeling $\mathrm{CO}_{2}^{*}$ lies in its broad emission spectrum, making it a challenge to isolate it from background emission of species such as CH^? and CH₂O^?. Experiments were performed in a mixture of 0.0005H₂+0.01N₂O+0.03CO+0.9595Ar in an attempt to isolate $\mathrm{CO}_{2}^{*}$ emission. Temperatures ranged from 1654 K to 2221 K at two average pressures, 1.4 and 10.4 atm. The unique time histories of the various chemiluminescence species in the unconventional mixture employed at these conditions allow for easy identification of the $\mathrm{CO}_{2}^{*}$ concentration. Two different wavelengths to capture $\mathrm{CO}_{2}^{*}$ were used; one optical filter was centered at 415 nm and the other at 458 nm. The use of these two different wavelengths was done to verify that broadband $\mathrm{CO}_{2}^{*}$ was in fact being captured, and not emission from other species such as CH^? and CH₂O^?. As a baseline for time history and peak magnitude comparison, OH^? emission was captured at 307 nm simultaneously with the two $\mathrm{CO}_{2}^{*}$ filters. The results from the two $\mathrm{CO}_{2}^{*}$ filters were consistent with each other, implying that indeed the same species (i.e., $\mathrm{CO}_{2}^{*}$ ) was being measured at both wavelengths. A first-generation kinetics model for $\mathrm{CO}_{2}^{*}$ and CH₂O^? was developed, since no comprehensively validated one exists to date. CH₂O^? and CH^? were ruled out as being present in the experiments at any measurable level, based on calculations and comparisons with the data. Agreement with the $\mathrm{CO}_{2}^{*}$ model was only fair, which necessitates future improvements for a better understanding of $\mathrm{CO}_{2}^{*}$ chemiluminescence as well as the kinetics of the ground state species.     

Stability of {\text{SrCe}}_{{0.9}} {\text{Eu}}_{{0.1}} {\text{O}}_{{3 - \delta }} and {\text{SrZr}}_{{0.2}} {\text{Ce}}_{{0.7}} {\text{Eu}}_{{0.1}} {\text{O}}_{{3 - \delta }} under H2 atmospheres

Previous H₂ permeation tests showed a degradation of H₂ permeation flux with time. To understand the cause of degradation and develop a solution, the stability of $ {\text{SrCe}}_{{0.9}} {\text{Eu}}_{{0.1}} {\text{O}}_{{3 - \delta }} $ and $ {\text{SrZr}}_{{0.2}} {\text{Ce}}_{{0.7}} {\text{Eu}}_{{0.1}} {\text{O}}_{{3 - \delta }} $ samples were studied under dry and wet H₂ atmospheres. Total conductivity of $ {\text{SrCe}}_{{0.9}} {\text{Eu}}_{{0.1}} {\text{O}}_{{3 - \delta }} $ increased with time in dry H₂. The X-ray diffraction pattern of $ {\text{SrCe}}_{{0.9}} {\text{Eu}}_{{0.1}} {\text{O}}_{{3 - \delta }} $ after dry hydrogen atmosphere heat treatments show CeO₂ peaks indicating that $ {\text{SrCe}}_{{0.9}} {\text{Eu}}_{{0.1}} {\text{O}}_{{3 - \delta }} $ decomposes under dry H₂ atmospheres; scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analyses prove that decomposition proceeded along the grain boundaries. $ {\text{SrZr}}_{{0.2}} {\text{Ce}}_{{0.7}} {\text{Eu}}_{{0.1}} {\text{O}}_{{3 - \delta }} $ was investigated and demonstrated greater stability under dry hydrogen atmospheres. However, Zr substitution results in a tradeoff with electrical properties.     

Femtosecond relaxation kinetics of highly excited \mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{Na}}^{**} states in CaF2 at 3.2 eV and 4.7 eV

Femtosecond (fs) laser pulses at variable delay times allowed us to track the fast non-radiative transitions between the manifold of highly excited $\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{Na}}^{**}$ states to the lower lying fluorescent $\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{Na}}^{*}$ state in CaF₂. Two distinct $\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{Na}}^{**}$ states of the manifold at 3.16?eV ( $\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{Na}2}^{**}$ ) and 4.73?eV ( $\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{Na}3}^{**}$ ) were populated using the second (SH) and third harmonics (TH) of fs laser light at 785?nm. The population kinetics of the fluorescent $\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{Na}}^{*}$ state in the 2?eV excitation energy range was revealed by depleting its fluorescence centered at 740?nm using fundamental near infrared (NIR) fs laser pulses. The related time constants for $\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{Na}2,3}^{**}{\sim}{>} \mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{Na}}^{*}$ relaxation amounted to 1.0±0.14?ps and 3.0±0.3?ps upon SH and TH excitation, respectively.     

Proton-antiproton annihilation into a \Lambda_{c}^{+} \bar{{\Lambda}}_{c}^{-} pair

The process p $ \bar{{p}}$ $ \rightarrow$ $ \Lambda_{c}^{+}$ $ \bar{{\Lambda}}_{c}^{-}$ is investigated within the handbag approach. It is shown to lowest order of perturbative QCD that, under the assumption of restricted parton virtualities and transverse momenta, the dominant dynamical mechanism, characterized by the partonic subprocess u $ \bar{{u}}$ $ \rightarrow$ c $ \bar{{c}}$ , factorizes in the sense that only the subprocess contains highly virtual partons, namely a gluon, while the hadronic matrix elements embody only soft scales and can be parameterized in terms of helicity flip and non-flip generalized parton distributions. Modelling the latter functions by overlaps of light-cone wave functions for the involved baryons we are able to predict cross-sections and spin correlation parameters for the process of interest.     

A stable and easily sintering {\text{BaCe}}_{0.7} {\text{Sn}}_{0.1} {\text{Gd}}_{0.2} {\text{O}}_{3 - \delta } electrolyte for solid oxide fuel cells

${\text{BaCe}}_{0.7} {\text{Sn}}_{0.1} {\text{Gd}}_{0.2} {\text{O}}_{3 - \sigma } $ (BCSG) and ${\text{BaCe}}_{0.8} {\text{Gd}}_{0.2} {\text{O}}_{3 - \sigma } $ (BCG) powders were prepared by solid-state reaction method. After exposure in 5% CO₂?+?5% H₂O?+?90% N₂ at 500 °C for 5 h, the BCSG powders were hardly affected while the BCG powders decomposed into CeO₂ and BaCO₃ phases. Moreover, the relative density of BCSG reaches 97%, while the BCG just displays 91% after sintering at 1,400 °C. The BCSG displays a conductivity of 0.01 S/cm at 700 °C in humid hydrogen, which is quite close to 0.012 S/cm for BCG. A fuel cell with BCSG exhibits 1.02 V for open circuit voltage, 420 mW/cm² for peak performance and 0.23 Ω cm² for interfacial resistance at 700 °C, respectively.     

On q-Deformed {\mathfrak{gl}_{\ell+1}}-Whittaker Function II

A representation of a specialization of a q-deformed class one lattice ${\mathfrak{gl}_{\ell+1}}$ -Whittaker function in terms of cohomology groups of line bundles on the space ${\mathcal{QM}_d(\mathbb{P}^{\ell})}$ of quasi-maps ${\mathbb{P}^1 \to \mathbb{P}^{\ell}}$ of degree d is proposed. For ? = 1, this provides an interpretation of the non-specialized q-deformed ${\mathfrak{gl}_{2}}$ -Whittaker function in terms of ${\mathcal{QM}_d(\mathbb{P}^1)}$ . In particular the (q-version of the) Mellin-Barnes representation of the ${\mathfrak{gl}_2}$ -Whittaker function is realized as a semi-infinite period map. The explicit form of the period map manifests an important role of q-version of Γ-function as a topological genus in semi-infinite geometry. A relation with the Givental-Lee universal solution (J-function) of q-deformed ${\mathfrak{gl}_2}$ -Toda chain is also discussed.     

An interacting dark energy model in a non-flat universe

In this paper, an interacting dark energy model in a non-flat universe is studied, with taking interaction form $C=\alpha H\rho _{de}$ C = α H ρ d e . And in this study a property for the mysterious dark energy is aforehand assumed, i.e. its equation of state $w_{\Lambda }=-1$ w Λ = - 1 . After several derivations, a power-law form of dark energy density is obtained $\rho _{\Lambda } \propto a^{-\alpha }$ ρ Λ ∝ a - α , here $a$ a is the cosmic scale factor, $\alpha $ α is a constant parameter introducing to describe the interaction strength and the evolution of dark energy. By comparing with the current cosmic observations, the combined constraints on the parameter $\alpha $ α is investigated in a non-flat universe. For the used data they include: the Union2 data of type Ia supernova, the Hubble data at different redshifts including several new published datapoints, the baryon acoustic oscillation data, the cosmic microwave background data, and the observational data from cluster X-ray gas mass fraction. The constraint results on model parameters are $\Omega _{K}=0.0024\,(\pm 0.0053)^{+0.0052+0.0105}_{-0.0052-0.0103}, \alpha =-0.030\,(\pm 0.042)^{+0.041+0.079}_{-0.042-0.085}$ Ω K = 0.0024 ( ± 0.0053 ) - 0.0052 - 0.0103 + 0.0052 + 0.0105 , α = - 0.030 ( ± 0.042 ) - 0.042 - 0.085 + 0.041 + 0.079 and $\Omega _{0m}=0.282\,(\pm 0.011)^{+0.011+0.023}_{-0.011-0.022}$ Ω 0 m = 0.282 ( ± 0.011 ) - 0.011 - 0.022 + 0.011 + 0.023 . According to the constraint results, it is shown that small constraint values of $\alpha $ α indicate that the strength of interaction is weak, and at $1\sigma $ 1 σ confidence level the non-interacting cosmological constant model can not be excluded.     

Analysis and design of an electro-optic 2\times 2 switch using Ti: \hbox {KNbO}_3 as a waveguide based on MZI at 1.3\,\upmu \hbox {m}

This work describes an approach to design a $2\times 2$ optoelectronic switch based on the Mach–Zehnder interferometer with a channel profile of Titanium (Ti) diffused in Potassium niobate ( $\hbox {KNbO}_{3}$ ) at a wavelength of $1.3\,\upmu \hbox {m}$ . The evaluation parameters used are the insertion loss and the extinction ratio. The originality of this work is introducing the $\hbox {KNbO}_{3 }$ crystal as a host while optimizing the Ti strip thickness to provide a remarkable switching performance. Optimization leads to a lower switching voltage of 4 V, an insertion loss of 0.0261 dB and extinction ratio of 29.4 dB. The designed switch has a high switching capability and degree of reliability.     

Photodissociation of trapped \mathrm{H}_{2}^{+} ions for REMPD spectroscopy

We study the photodissociation of trapped $\mathrm{H}_{2}^{+}$ ions by 248?nm light from an excimer laser. Our results are in good agreement with calculated populations and photodissociation cross sections of the involved vibrational levels and yield a determination of the ion cloud radius. These data are used to obtain a reliable estimate of the efficiency of the resonance-enhanced multiphoton dissociation (REMPD) scheme in our $\mathrm{H}_{2}^{+}$ vibrational spectroscopy experiment. We go on to estimate the expected signal-to-noise ratio and discuss future improvements of the experimental setup.     

Low-threshold, high SMSR tunable external cavity quantum cascade laser around 4.7\,\upmu \hbox {m}

Room-temperature pulsed and continuous-wave (cw) operation of a tunable external cavity (EC) quantum cascade laser (QCL) at an emitting wavelength of $4.7\,\upmu \hbox {m}$ 4.7 μ m was presented. The effect of different external cavity lengths and grating angles of the EC–QCL system were analyzed numerically. A wide tuning range greater than $131\,\hbox {cm}^{-1}$ 131 cm - 1 was obtained in pulsed mode at room temperature. Without the anti-reflection coating procedure, single-mode cw operation with a side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) above 20 dB and a wide tuning range greater than $116\, \hbox {cm}^{-1}$ 116 cm - 1 were achieved. Near the center region, SMSR about 30 dB was also realized through designing the external cavity length. Strain-compensation combined with two-phonon resonance in an active region design and the high-reflection coating promised low threshold current density. A record low threshold current density of $0.901\,\hbox {kA/cm}^{2}$ 0.901 kA/cm 2 for an EC–QCL operated in cw mode was realized.     

Quantum Sphere {\mathbb{S}^4} as a Non-Levi Conjugacy Class

We construct a ${U_\hbar(\mathfrak{sp}(4))}$ -equivariant quantization of the four-dimensional complex sphere ${\mathbb{S}^4}$ regarded as a conjugacy class, Sp(4)/Sp(2) ×?Sp(2), of a simple complex group with non-Levi isotropy subgroup, through an operator realization of the quantum polynomial algebra ${\mathbb{C}_\hbar[\mathbb{S}^4]}$ on a highest weight module of ${U_\hbar(\mathfrak{sp}(4))}$ .     

Near-infrared downconversion through energy transfer from \mathrm{VO}_{4}^{3-} group to Yb3+ in Yb3+ doped YP0.9V0.1O4

Through the study of photoluminescence spectra, fluorescence decay curves, concentration-dependent luminescence and low temperature luminescence, the energy transfer from isolated $\mathrm{VO}_{4}^{3-}$ group to Yb³⁺ is investigated in Yb³⁺ doped YP_0.9V_0.1O₄. The experimental results show that the energy transfer from $\mathrm{VO}_{4}^{3-}$ group to Yb³⁺ is very efficient. Cooperative energy transfer, through which one high-energy photon absorbed by $\mathrm{VO}_{4}^{3-}$ group is converted to two near-infrared photons emitted by Yb³⁺ ions, is proposed to be the energy transfer process. This efficient ultra-violet to near-infrared downconversion could have potential application in improving the efficiency of silicon-based solar cell.