Material tensor parameters of LiNbO3 relevant for electro- and elasto-optics

The complete set of self-consistent parameters of nominally undoped LiNbO₃ crystals of congruent composition that describe the electro-optic, piezoelectric, elasto-optic, elastic, and dielectric response has been determined by numerically evaluating available measurements. The parameters were determined at room temperature and consist of the low-frequency clamped dielectric constants ε^S _ij, elastic stiffness constants at constant electric field C^E _ijkl, piezoelectric stress coefficients e_ijk, elasto-optic constants at constant electric field p^E _ijkl, and clamped electro-optic coefficients r^S _ijk. It is shown that the complete set is required for calculating the effective electro-optic coefficients and dielectric constants in photorefractive applications of LiNbO₃. Received: 4 January 2002 / Revised version: 1 February 2002 / Published online: 14 March 2002     

The treatment of nonhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions by thep-version of the finite element method

Summary The paper addresses the problem of the implementation of nonhomogeneous essential Dirichlet type boundary conditions in thep-version of the finite element method.Partially supported by the Office of Naval Research under Grant N-00014-85-K-0169Research partially supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Systems Command, USAF, under Grant Number AFOSR 85-0322     

Synthesis of lanthanum–strontium manganites by oxalate-precursor co-precipitation methods in solution and in reverse micellar microemulsion

Nanostructured lanthanum–strontium manganites were synthesized using two different co-precipitation approaches, one in bulk solution, and the other in reverse micelles of CTAB/1-hexanol/water microemulsion. In both cases, precursor cations were precipitated by using oxalic acid. The properties of the materials synthesized by using these two methods were compared in order to reveal potential advantages of the microemulsion-assisted approach. The influence of the annealing conditions on the properties of synthesized manganites was investigated by using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, differential thermal analysis, thermogravimetric analysis and magnetic measurements.     

The synthesis of iron–nickel alloy nanoparticles using a reverse micelle technique

Nanosized Fe_0.2Ni_0.8 particles were prepared by reducing their salts with sodium borohydride (NaBH₄) in cationic water-in-oil (w/o) microemulsions of water/cetyl-trimethyl-amonium bromide (CTAB) and n-butanol/isooctane at 25 °C. According to the TEM and X-ray diffraction analyses, the synthesized particles were around 4–12 nm in size. Due to their nanodimensions, the particles had a primitive cubic (pc) structure rather than the body-centered cubic (BCC) structure of the bulk material. An examination of the synthesis from the reverse micelle reveals that the morphology of the iron–nickel alloy nanoparticles depends mainly on the microemulsion's composition. The magnetization of the nanoparticles was much lower than that of the bulk material, reflecting the influence of the nanodimensions on the particles’ magnetizations.     

Hysteresis and Eddy-current Relaxation in SiFe Materials

The rate-dependent effects in metallic ferromagnetic materials with magnetization processes attributed to domain-walls motion were studied. The experimental method for eddy-current relaxation time determination was proposed. Some discrepancies between the data and theoretical predictions were observed and discussed. The origin of these discrepancies is accounted for by the decrease of viscous-type relaxation process as the rate of change of averaged magnetization is approaching zero.     

Effect of genesis on the properties and hydrogen reducibility of NiO-ZnO mixed oxides

The physico-chemical properties and reactivity tested by hydrogen reduction have been studied for two series of NiO-ZnO mixed oxides of various composition. The solid nickel oxide or zinc oxide in interaction with the solution of nitrate of the second component were used as the precursors in each series. The differences in some physico-chemical parameters of the samples in both series were correlated with their reduction behaviour, followed both in iso- and non-isothermal regime. Moreower, the influence of various factors modifying the reactivity of mixed oxides was also investigated and the results were compared with those obtained from earlier studied analogous systems of quite different origin.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

On the vector field problem for O(n)/O(1)xO(1)xO(n-2)

We prove new results about the vector field problem on the real flag manifolds O(n)/O(1) x O(1) x O(n - 2). For some infinite families of these manifolds, we completely solve the vector field problem.     

Division and <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-th root theorems for <Emphasis Type="Italic">Q</Emphasis>-manifolds

We prove that a locally compact ANR-space X is a Q-manifold if and only if it has the Disjoint Disk Property (DDP), all points of X are homological Z _∞-points and X has the countable-dimensional approximation property (cd-AP), which means that each map f: K → X of a compact polyhedron can be approximated by a map with the countable-dimensional image. As an application we prove that a space X with DDP and cd-AP is a Q-manifold if some finite power of X is a Q-manifold. If some finite power of a space X with cd-AP is a Q-manifold, then X ² and X × [0, 1] are Q-manifolds as well. We construct a countable family χ of spaces with DDP and cd-AP such that no space X ∈ χ is homeomorphic to the Hilbert cube Q whereas the product X × Y of any different spaces X, Y ∈ χ is homeomorphic to Q. We also show that no uncountable family χ with such properties exists. This work was supported by the Slovenian-Ukrainian (Grant No. SLO-UKR 04-06/07)