Persistent luminescence and synchrotron radiation study of the Ca2MgSi2O7:Eu2+,R3+ materials

The tetragonal ${\mathrm{Ca}}_2{\mathrm{MgSi}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$:${\mathrm{Eu}}^{2+},{\mathrm{R}}^{3+}$ persistent luminescence materials were prepared by a solid state reaction. The UV excited and persistent luminescence was observed in the green region centred at 535 nm. Both luminescence phenomena are due to the same ${\mathrm{Eu}}^{2+}$ ion occupying the single ${\mathrm{Ca}}^{2+}$ site in the host lattice. The ${\mathrm{R}}^{3+}$ codoping usually reduced the persistent luminescence of ${\mathrm{Ca}}_2{\mathrm{MgSi}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$:${\mathrm{Eu}}^{2+}$, which differs from the ${\mathrm{M}}_2{\mathrm{MgSi}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$:${\mathrm{Eu}}^{2+}$ $(\mathrm{M}=\mathrm{Sr},\mathrm{Ba})$ and ${\mathrm{MAl}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_4$:${\mathrm{Eu}}^{2+}$ $(\mathrm{M}=\mathrm{Ca},\mathrm{Sr})$ materials. Only the ${\mathrm{Tb}}^{3+}$ ion enhanced slightly the persistent luminescence. With the aid of synchrotron radiation, the band gap energy of ${\mathrm{Ca}}_2{\mathrm{MgSi}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$:${\mathrm{Eu}}^{2+}$ was found to be about 7 eV that is very similar to those of the ${\mathrm{M}}_2{\mathrm{MgSi}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$:${\mathrm{Eu}}^{2+}$ $(\mathrm{M}=\mathrm{Sr},\mathrm{Ba})$ materials. Thermoluminescence results suggested that the ${\mathrm{R}}^{3+}$ ions might act as electron traps, but only the TL peaks created by ${\mathrm{Tm}}^{3+}$ and ${\mathrm{Sm}}^{3+}$ can be found in the temperature range accessible. Lattice defects (e.g. oxygen vacancies) are also important, since the same main thermoluminescence peak was observed at about $100{}^{\circ }\mathrm{C}$ with and without ${\mathrm{R}}^{3+}$ codoping.     

Pressure dependence of negative thermal expansion in Zr2(WO4)(PO4)2

Negative thermal expansion materials can experience significant stresses when they are used in composites. Under ambient conditions Zr₂(WO₄)(PO₄)₂ displays anisotropic negative thermal expansion (NTE) (${\alpha }_v=?14.0\left(10\right)\times 10^{?6}{K}^{?1}$, ${\alpha }_a=?7.9\left(5\right)\times 10^{?6}{K}^{?1}$, ${\alpha }_b=2.5\left(5\right)\times 10^{?6}{K}^{?1}$, ${\alpha }_c=?8.7\left(2\right)\times 10^{?6}{K}^{?1}$ at 0 GPa). The effect of hydrostatic pressure on its thermal expansion characteristics was investigated by neutron diffraction between 300 and 60 K at pressures up to 0.3 GPa. No phase transitions were observed in the pressure and temperature range examined. The material was found to have a bulk modulus, B₀, of 61.3(8) GPa at ambient temperature, and unlike some other NTE materials, pressure had no detectable effect on thermal expansion (${\alpha }_v=?14.2\left(8\right)\times 10^{?6}{K}^{?1}$, ${\alpha }_a=?7.9\left(3\right)\times 10^{?6}{K}^{?1}$, ${\alpha }_b=2.9\left(5\right)\times 10^{?6}{K}^{?1}$, ${\alpha }_c=?9.2\left(2\right)\times 10^{?6}{K}^{?1}$ at 0.3 GPa).     

Table-like magnetocaloric effect and enhanced refrigerant capacity in crystalline Gd55Co35Mn10 alloy melt spun ribbons

Gd₅₅Co₃₅Mn₁₀ ribbons were prepared by melt-spinning and subsequent crystallization treatment. Crystallization resulted in the precipitation of the Gd₃Co-type and Gd₁₂Co₇-type phases in the amorphous matrix. Under a magnetic field change of 0–5 T, a table-like magnetocaloric effect, with a maximum magnetic entropy change ${(?\mathrm{\Delta }{S}_{\mathrm{M}})}^{\max }$ of $5.46\text{J}{\text{kg}}^{?1}{\text{K}}^{?1}$ in the temperature range of 137–180 K and enhanced refrigerant capacity (RC) of $536.4\text{J}{\text{kg}}^{?1}$, was achieved in Gd₅₅Co₃₅Mn₁₀ ribbons crystallized at 600 K for 30 min. The table-like ${(?\mathrm{\Delta }{S}_{\mathrm{M}})}^{\max }$ feature and enhanced RC values make Gd₅₅Co₃₅Mn₁₀ crystallized ribbons promising for Ericsson-cycle magnetic refrigeration in the temperature range from 137 to 180 K.     

On the geometry of null hypersurfaces in Minkowski space

The present work is divided into three parts. First we study the null hypersurfaces of the Minkowski space ${\mathbb{R}}_1^{n+2}$, classifying all rotation null hypersurfaces in ${\mathbb{R}}_1^{n+2}$. In the second part we start our analysis of the submanifold geometry of the null hypersurfaces. In the particular case of the $(n+1)$-dimensional light cone, we characterize its totally umbilical spacelike hypersurfaces, show the existence of non-totally umbilical ones and give a uniqueness result for the minimal spacelike rotation surfaces in the $3$-dimensional light cone. In the third and final part we consider an isolated umbilical point on a spacelike surface immersed in the 3-dimensional light cone of ${\mathbb{R}}_1^4$ and obtain the differential equation of the principal configuration associated to this point, showing that every classical generic Darbouxian principal configuration appears in this context.     

p(x) and Tc(x) characteristics in the Y 1−b(Ca)bBa2Cu3O6+x cuprate family

A model has been proposed to calculate the $p\left(x\right)$ and $T_c\left(x\right)$ dependences in the Y _1?b(Ca)_bBa₂Cu₃O_6+x high-$T_c$ cuprate family and applied to $b=0$, $b=0.1$, and $b=0.2$ cases, for which experimental data exist in the literature. The results obtained imply that the Ca efficiency to provide holes is independent of the basal plane oxygen concentration, which is consistent with a view that electrons from CuO₂ layers would go primarily to Ca since it is twice closer than oxygen (in addition, the chain oxygen is screened by a layer made up of Ba and O(4) ions). It is shown that, in fully oxygenized compounds ($x=1$) the average efficiency, $\chi$, of a chain oxygen to attract an electron from the two nearby layers is reduced by the Ca insertion, though not because the charge transfer mechanism is in itself weakened by Ca, but because a part of electrons that are otherwise available in CuO${}_2$ layers has already been removed by the substitution of Y ³⁺ with Ca²⁺. It has been found that the $b$-dependence of the average oxygen doping efficiency can be fairly accurately described by the following relation: $\chi \left(b\right)=0.39\times (1?0.78b)$. The calculated $p\left(x\right)$ and $T_c\left(x\right)$ dependences are in very good agreement with the available experimental data.     

Chern–Simons formulation of three-dimensional gravity with torsion and nonmetricity

We consider various models of three-dimensional gravity with torsion or nonmetricity (metric affine gravity), and show that they can be written as Chern–Simons theories with suitable gauge groups. Using the groups $\mathrm{ISO}(2,1)$, $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{C})$ and $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})\times \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$, and the fact that they admit two independent coupling constants, we obtain the Mielke–Baekler model for zero, positive and negative effective cosmological constant respectively. Choosing $\mathrm{SO}(3,2)$ as the gauge group, one gets a generalization of conformal gravity that has zero torsion and only the trace part of the nonmetricity. This characterizes a Weyl structure. Finally, we present a new topological model of metric affine gravity in three dimensions arising from an $\mathrm{SL}(4,\mathbb{R})$ Chern–Simons theory.     

Luminescent, optical and color properties of natural rose quartz

Rose quartz is an interesting mineral with numerous impurities that have been studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), cathodoluminescence (CL), ion beam luminescence (IBL), radioluminescence (RL), thermoluminescence (TL) and optical absorption (OA). After HF etching, rose quartz from Oliva de Plasencia (Caceres, Spain) shows under SEM the presence of other silicate phases such as dumortierite $[{\mathrm{Al}}_{6.5-7}({\mathrm{BO}}_3)({\mathrm{SiO}}_4{)}_3(\mathrm{O},\mathrm{OH}{)}_3]$. The OA spectrum of rose quartz suggests that these inclusions are the cause of coloration of rose quartz. The luminescence (CL, IBL, RL, TL) spectra behavior, at both room temperature and lower, confirms that the $\sim 340\mathrm{nm}$ emission could be associated with Si–O strain structures, including non-bridging oxygen or silicon vacancy–hole centers; the observed $\sim 400\mathrm{nm}$ emission could be associated with recombination of a hole trapped adjacent to a substitutional, charge-compensated aluminum alkali ion center; the $\sim 500\mathrm{nm}$ emission could be associated with substitutional ${\mathrm{Al}}^{3+}$ and the $\sim 700\mathrm{nm}$ peak could be associated with ${\mathrm{Fe}}^{3+}$ point defects in ${\mathrm{Si}}^{4+}$ sites. These results suggest that, while defect properties of rose quartz are not greatly dissimilar to those of purer forms of quartz and silica, further research seems necessary to determine criteria for the evolution of the newly-formed self-organized microstructures in the rose quartz lattice under irradiation.     

A new characterization of the Berger sphere in complex projective space

We give a complete classification of Lagrangian immersions of homogeneous 3-manifolds (the Berger spheres, the Heisenberg group ${\text{Nil}}_3$, the universal covering of the Lie group $\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb{R})$ and the Lie group ${\text{Sol}}_3$) in 3-dimensional complex space forms. As a corollary, we get a new characterization of the Berger sphere in complex projective space.     

Monopoles on the Bryant–Salamon G2-manifolds

$G_2$-monopoles are solutions to gauge theoretical equations on noncompact $7$-manifolds of $G_2$ holonomy. We shall study this equation on the $3$ Bryant–Salamon manifolds. We construct examples of $G_2$-monopoles on two of these manifolds, namely the total space of the bundle of anti-self-dual two forms over the ${\mathbb{S}}^4$ and ${\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}}^2$. These are the first nontrivial examples of $G_2$-monopoles.Associated with each monopole there is a parameter $m\in {\mathbb{R}}^{+}$, known as the mass of the monopole. We prove that under a symmetry assumption, for each given $m\in {\mathbb{R}}^{+}$ there is a unique monopole with mass $m$. We also find explicit irreducible $G_2$-instantons on ${\Lambda }_{-}^2\left({\mathbb{S}}^4\right)$ and on ${\Lambda }_{-}^2\left({\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}}^2\right)$.The third Bryant–Salamon $G_2$-metric lives on the spinor bundle over the $3$-sphere. In this case we produce a vanishing theorem for monopoles.     

Thermoelectric and topological properties of half-Heusler compounds ZrIrX(As,Sb, Bi)

The strain dependent electronic structures, thermoelectric and topological properties of the half-Heusler compounds ZrIrX(X=As, Sb, Bi) are investigated by the first-principle calculations. At the equilibrium lattice constants, all the three compounds are trivial insulators and good thermoelectric materials with the Seebeck coefficient S and the power factor over relaxation time $S^2\sigma /\tau$ as large as 1180 (μV/K) and 4.1 (${10}^{11}W{m}^{?1}{K}^{?2}{s}^{?1}$), respectively. The compressive strain enhances the band gap, while the tensile strain decreases the band gap. At some specific tensile strains, the compounds become Dirac-semimetals, with the s-type band ${\mathrm{\Gamma }}_6$ below p-type band ${\mathrm{\Gamma }}_8$, in the cubic phase. When we compress the a(b)-axis and elongate the c-axis of the compounds, they become the type-I Weyl semimetals. For ZrIrAs, the eight Weyl-Points (WPS) locate at (± K_x, 0, ± K_z), (0, ± K_y, ± K_z), ${\mathrm{K}}_x={\mathrm{K}}_y=0.008{\mathrm{\AA }}^{?1}$, ${\mathrm{K}}_z=0.043{\mathrm{\AA }}^{?1}$.