Electron-ion Coulomb Bremsstrahlung in nonideal plasmas

The classical electron-ion Coulomb Bremsstrahlung process is investigated in nonideal plasmas. An effective pseudopotential model taking into account the plasma screening and collective effects is applied to describe the electron-ion interaction potential in a classical nonideal plasma. The classical straight-line trajectory method is applied to the motion of the projectile electron in order to visualize the variation of the differential Bremsstrahlung radiation cross-section (DBRCS) as a function of the scaled impact parameter, nonideal plasma parameter, projectile energy, photon energy, and Debye length. The results show that the DBRCS in ideal plasmas described by the Debye-Hückel potential is always greater than that in nonideal plasmas, i.e., the collective effects reduce the DBRCS for both the soft and hard photon cases. For large impact parameters, the DBRCS for the soft photon case is found to be always greater than that for the hard photon case. Received 1st December 1999     

Preisach modelling of nonlinear response in electrically biased lead zirconate titanate-based piezoceramics

The alteration of the high-field electrical permittivity (nonlinear response) of PZT-based ceramics when an electrical bias field is applied is reported in this work. Large differences are observed between soft and hard PZT behaviours. While in soft PZT a bias field does not modify the nonlinear behaviour, a notable dependence is verified in hard PZT. The Preisach model is satisfactorily used to describe experimental results. A distribution function containing the first terms of the Maclaurin development series of a function composed by two Gaussian-like functions of different amplitudes is proposed. The model gives a satisfactory explanation for the fact that the permittivity depends not only on the amplitude of the applied electric field, but also on the bias field, both for soft and hard ceramics and for poled or unpoled samples.     

Soft annealing: a new approach to difficult computational problems

I propose a new method to study computationally difficult problems. I consider a new system, larger than the one I want to simulate. The original system is recovered by imposing constraints on the large system. I simulate the large system with the hard constraints replaced by soft constraints. I illustrate the method in the case of a ferromagnetic Ising model and in the case of a three-dimensional spin-glass model. I show that in both models the phases of the soft problem have the same properties as the phases of the original model and that the softened model belongs to the same universality class as the original one. I show that correlation times are much shorter in the larger soft constrained system and that it is computationally advantageous to study it instead of the original system. This method is quite general and can be applied to many other systems.     

Adding constraints by in situ informations to optimal estimation retrievals of tropospheric water vapour profiles from microwave radiometry

The optimal estimation method is a widely used method to invert species profiles from spectra observed by a microwave radiometer. The classical retrieval is constrained by the a priori profile and the corresponding covariance matrix, which is a “soft” constraining of the retrieved profile to a certain range of values. However, in some cases a “hard” constraining of the profile to a fixed value known from other measurements would be desirable.This work presents an approach to introduce such “hard” retrieval constraints (fixed-points) into optimal estimation retrievals by adapting the a priori covariance matrix.Its application is tested on the example of the retrieval of tropospheric water vapour volume mixing ratio (vmr) profiles from spectra of the MIAWARA radiometer operated by the Institute of Applied Physics, University of Bern. Thereby the cloud base height is one candidate to deliver a fixed-point, as the corresponding vmr value can be determined by assuming a relative humidity of 100%.As a test, the approach is applied to spectra simulated from balloon soundings. The cloud base height is derived from these same balloon soundings. The results show a significant improvement of the retrieval performance for all cases with liquid clouds except for fog.Afterwards the approach is also applied to real MIAWARA data. Thereby the measurements of a ceilometer and an infrared sensor (both installed close to the instrument) are used to derive a fixed-point.In principle, the application on real data also works. However the retrieval performance is limited, because we are currently not able to determine the vmr value at fixed-point altitude with suitable precision. The cloud base temperature, needed for the calculation of the vmr value at fixed-point altitude, is determined indirectly from measurements of an infrared sensor attached to the instruments or by for example interpolating data from ECMWF-reanalysis. In both cases the precision is not very high, with there being a significant uncertainty in the resulting vmr-value at cloud base. However, our new radiometer TEMPERA has the capability to deliver more reliable estimates of the cloud base temperature in near future.     

High-order harmonic generation spectrum of an excited one-dimensional Coulomb atom in an intense laser field

Response of the wave packet of a one-dimensional Coulomb atom to an intense laser field is calculated using the symmetrized split operator fast Fourier method. The high-order harmonic generation (HHG) of the initial state separately being the ground and excited states is presented. When the hardness parameter \alpha in the soft Coulomb potential V(x)=-1/\sqrt{x^2+\alpha} is chosen to be small enough, the so-called hard Coulomb potential V(x)=-1/|x| can be obtained. It is well known that the hard one-dimensional Coulomb atom has an unstable ground state with an energy eigenvalue of $\sim0.5$ and it has no states corresponding to physical states in the true atoms, and has the first and second excited states being degenerate. The parity effects on the HHG can be seen from the first and second excited states of the hard one-dimensional Coulomb atom. The HHG spectra of the excited states from both the soft and hard Coulomb atom models are shown to have more complex structures and to be much stronger than the corresponding HHG spectrum of the ground state of the soft Coulomb model with $\alpha=2$ in the same laser field. Laser-induced non-resonant one-photon emission is also observed.     

Inventor of permanent-magnet undulators dies

Hard X-ray Scanning Microprobe Analysis in X-ray fluorescence (XRF) mode is a sensitive tool to simultaneously map the distribution and quantity of multiple elements in tissues. Elements not readily detected by histological techniques can be visualized, and the interrelationships of multiple elements can be studied. Obtaining optimal results often depends more on the way the samples are prepared than on beamline characteristics. Freeze-drying (lyophilizing) is a well-established technique for preparing biological tissues as applied to XRF analysis of hard tissues such as bone and plant tissue [1, 2], but it is not the technique of choice for frozen sections of soft tissue [3]. In this article, we describe a straightforward method to prepare freeze-dried sections and demonstrate the importance of freeze-drying to obtain optimum cellular detail in a highly organized soft tissue.     

Enhanced nucleation fields due to dipolar interactions in nanocomposite magnets

One approach to construct powerful permanent magnets while using less rare-earth elements is to combine a hard magnetic material having a high coercive field with a soft magnetic material having a high saturation magnetization at the nanometer scale and create so-called nanocomposite magnets. If both materials are strongly coupled, exchange forces will form a stable magnet. We use finite element micromagnetics simulations to investigate the changing hysteresis properties for varying arrays of soft magnetic spherical inclusions in a hard magnetic body. We show that the anisotropy arising from dipolar interactions between soft magnetic particles in a hard magnetic matrix can enhance the nucleation field by more than 10% and strongly depends on the arrangement of the inclusions.     

Analysis of the substrate effects of strain-hardening thin films on silicon under nanoindentation

Mechanical properties of thin films on substrates can be evaluated directly through nanoindentation. For a comprehensive study, thin films should be characterized via Young’s modulus, yield stress and strain-hardening exponent at constant temperature. In this paper, we evaluate these effects of thin films on silicon substrate through finite element analysis. Thin films, from soft to hard relative to the silicon substrate, are investigated in three categories: soft films on hard substrates, soft to hard films on no elastic mismatch substrates, and hard films on soft substrates. In addition to examining the load-displacement curve, the normalized hardness versus normalized indentation depth is checked as well to characterize its substrate effect. We found that the intrinsic film hardness can be acquired with indentation depths of less than 12% and 20% of their film thickness for soft films on hard substrates and for soft to hard films on no elastic mismatch substrates, respectively. Nevertheless, nanoindentation of hard films on soft substrates cannot determine the intrinsic film hardness due to the fact that a soft substrate cannot support a hard film. By examining the von Mises stresses, we discovered a significant bending phenomenon in the hard film on the soft substrate. PACS 61.43.Bn; 62.20.-x; 68.03.Hj; 68.05.Cf; 68.08.De     

Remanence Characteristic of Nanostructure of Hard／Soft Magnetic Multilayered Systems

The relation between microscopic properties (e.e.,layer thickness,easy axis orientation) and the macroscopic magnetic properties such as remanent magnetization of the ferromagnetic multilayer system is investigated based on a simple micromagnet approach.We concentrate on a multilayer design with periodic boundary condition,where alternating soft/hard layers build a nanostructured multilayer.For any easy axis direction in the soft and hard layers a simple explicit expression of remanence of the system has been derived analytically.We find that the remanence clearly depends on the thickness of the soft magnetic layer and is nearly independent of the thickness of hard magnetic layer.On the other hand,the remanence increases upon reducing the angle enclosed by the saturation magnetization and the easy axis directions of soft magnetic layer.However,it is unsensitive to the easy axis direction of hard magnetic layer,but there exists a maximum remanence for a certain easy axis direction of hard magnetic layer.     

Hard–soft composite magnets

A thorough micromagnetic analysis of the exchange-spring problem is reported with special emphasis on multilayers constituted by hard–soft exchange-coupled phases. The developed one—dimensional micromagnetic model leads to a complete magnetic phase diagram in terms of layer thicknesses. Both perpendicular and parallel configurations are considered. The phase diagram provides information on the type of demagnetization processes and the critical fields at which nucleation and reversal take place, depending on the intrinsic properties of the chosen soft and hard materials. The model has been applied to a variety of hard magnetic phases (e.g., FePt, CoPt, SmCo and NdFeB), coupled to different soft materials (e.g., Fe, FeCo, FeRh or permalloy) both in the form of bilayers and multilayers. The most significant results will be highlighted.     

Dynamic plasma screening effects on low-energy bremsstrahlung emission in nonideal plasmas

The dynamic screening effects on the low-energy electron–ion bremsstrahlung process are investigated for both the soft and hard photon radiations in nonideal plasmas. The impact-parameter analysis is employed to obtain the bremsstrahlung radiation cross section as a function of the impact parameter, projectile energy, radiation photon energy, thermal energy, and Debye length. The results show that the dynamic screening effect on the bremsstrahlung radiation is found to be more significant for distant encounters. In addition, the dynamic screening effect is found to be more important for the soft photon radiation and decreases with increasing the radiation photon energy.     

正交各向异性双层交换弹簧薄膜的磁矩分布

本文以Pt_(84)Co_(16)/TbFeCo双层交换弹簧体系为研究对象,利用微磁学连续模型,研究了软/硬磁层易轴方向相互垂直的新型体系中磁矩的分布特征.研究结果表明,磁矩偏离薄膜法线方向的角度在软磁层中沿膜厚方向的变化速率比硬磁层中的快.通过调节软磁层参数来增加软/硬磁的各向异性常数比、交换能常数比、饱和磁化强度比或外磁场强度,都可有效改变磁矩偏角在软/硬磁层中的变化速率.特别是当软/硬磁各向异性常数比值和交换能常数比值同时增大时,可以使得磁矩在硬磁层中的变化速率快于软磁层中的.而饱和磁化强度比值对磁矩变化速率的影响源于饱和磁化强度的变化会相应地改变各向异性常数,进而改变磁矩在软/硬磁层中磁矩方向变化速率的比值.此体系的磁滞回线显示磁性参数的改变可以显著改变体系的剩磁及饱和磁场.软磁层中的退磁场能及体系的正交各向异性可导致负的成核场.     

Diffraction of plane waves by the interface between black and soft/hard semi-planes

A theory of scattering, based on the non-perturbation of the incident field, is developed for the black bodies. The method is applied to the diffraction problem of plane waves by an interface between the black and soft/hard half-planes. The solutions are obtained in terms of infinite series and then transformed into Fresnel integrals. The scattered fields are investigated numerically.     

Soft Singularity and the Fundamental Length

It is shown that some regular solutions in 5D Kaluza-Klein gravity may have interesting properties if one from the parameters is in the Planck region. In this case the Kretschman metric invariant runs up to a maximal reachable value in nature, i.e. practically the metric becomes singular. This observation allows us to suppose that in this situation the problems with such soft singularity will be much easier resolved in the future quantum gravity then by the situation with the ordinary hard singularity (Reissner-Nordström singularity, for example). It is supposed that the analogous consideration can be applied for the avoiding the hard singularities connected with the gauge charges.     

基于改进小波阈值的量子点荧光光谱降噪研究

使用光谱仪采集到的信号难免受到不同噪声源的影响。为了提高光谱信号解析的精准度,通过分析小波应用于信号降噪的原理以及经典的软、硬阈值降噪法存在的缺陷,提出了一种改进的阈值降噪法。该方法既克服了硬阈值法产生间断点,软阈值法产生恒定偏差的缺陷,又尽量地保留了有用信号。实验选用的小波基函数为SymletsA,分解层数为4,结合Birge Massart策略模型确定的分层阈值对硒化镉量子点荧光光谱信号进行降噪处理。结果表明,与经典的软、硬阈值降噪法相比,通过改进阈值降噪法得到重构信号的信噪比（SNR=47.550 2）、能量占比（PER=0.973 3）和均方误差（MSE=149.421 3）均有提高和改善。     

Structure and Shape Memory Properties of Polyurethane Copolymers Having Urethane Chains as Soft Segments

Shape memory polyurethanes are usually fabricated with low-molecular weight polyols through a two-step copolymerization, which often results in difficulty attaining both desired shape memory switch temperature and optimal thermomechanical properties. Here we present a series of shape memory polyurethane copolymers having urethane chains as soft segments. The structure and shape memory properties of copolymers were investigated with differential scanning calorimetry, dynamic mechanical analysis, small angle x-ray scattering, and thermomechanical tests. Increasing the length of the urethane soft segments enhanced phase separation, while it brought little change to the glass transition temperature (T _g). Based on the urethane soft segments, some rigid chain extenders could be readily introduced into the backbone of copolymers, resulting in better phase separation. All polyurethane copolymers exhibited more than 90% of shape recovery. The shape recovery of the materials was proved to be inversely proportional to the fraction of hard phase and directly proportional to the stability of hard domains. The copolymers containing longer soft and hard segments and rigid chain extenders exhibited higher deformation stress and thus larger recovery stress. The copolymerization employing urethane chains as soft segments can greatly expand flexibility for molecular design and favor the optimization of shape memory properties.     

Micromagnetic simulation with three models of FeCo/L10 FePt exchange-coupled particles for bit-patterned media

Compositing soft and hard materials is a promising method to decrease the coercivity of L10 FePt, which is considered to be a suitable material for bit-patterned media. This paper reports the simulation of three models of FeCo/L10 FePt exchange-coupled composite particles for bit patterned media by the OOMMF micromagnetic simulation software： the enclosed model, the side-enclosed model, and the top-covered model. All of them have the same volumes of the soft and hard parts but different shapes. Simulation results show that the switching fields for the three models can be reduced to about 10 kOe （1 Oe = 79.5775 A/m） and the factor gain can be improved to 1.4 when the interface exchange coefficient has a proper value. Compared to the other models, the enclosed model has a wider range of interface exchange coefficient values, in which a low switching field and high gain can be obtained. The dependence of the switching fields on the angle of the applied field shows that none of the three models are easily affected by the stray field of a magnetic head.     

X-ray in-line phase tomography of multimaterial objects

We present a method for phase retrieval from x-ray Fresnel diffraction patterns for multimaterial objects. Previously, homogeneous object assumptions have been used and have been introduced in the Radon domain. Here, we apply prior knowledge in the object domain, which permits the introduction of multiple materials. This is achieved first by a tomographic reconstruction of an attenuation scan and then introduction of the prior followed by a forward projection step to yield the a priori phase maps. The method is applied to the reconstruction of an object of known composition consisting of both soft and hard materials and is shown to perform better than previously proposed algorithms.