Fermi, Majorana and the Statistical Model of Atoms

We give an account of the appearance and first developments of the statistical model of atoms proposed by Thomas and Fermi, focusing on the main results achieved by Fermi and his group in Rome. Particular attention is addressed to the unknown contribution to this subject by Majorana, anticipating some important results reached later by leading physicists.     

Electrical properties and memory effect in the field effect transistor based on organic ferroelectric insulator and pentacene

We have fabricated a field effect transistor (FET) based on an organic ferroelectric insulator and molecular conductor, and investigated the electrical properties and memory effects on the PEN-FET. We have observed a drastic change in the drain current at around the coercive electric fieldE _c of the organic ferroelectric insulator in not only a FET (PEN-FET) based on a pentacene (PEN) film but also a FET (IPEN-FET) based on an iodine doped PEN film. The magnitude of the change of the drain current for the IPEN-FET is 200 times larger than that for the PEN-FET. It is expected from these results that the PEN-FET (especially the IPEN-FET) is an improvement in such devices, since it operates at a low gate electric field accompanied by the appearance of the spontaneous polarization in the organic ferroelectric insulator. In addition, we have found that the drain current for the PEN-FET does not return to the initial drain current ofE _G =0 V/cm for more than one week, even if the gate electric field is changed to 0 V/cm from 500 V/cm(>E _c ). From these results, it is suggested that the PEN-FET becomes a memory device.     

Violin frequency response - bridge mobility and bridge feet distance

Good violins have a broad hill in the 2-3 kHz range of their frequency response. This hill has previously been attributed to the first in-plane resonance of the violin bridge. Experiments prove, however, that the hill is the result of two forces acting in opposite directions at the bridge feet. The experiments reported here show that the hill can be “tuned” by altering the distance between the bridge feet. It can be tuned both in terms of frequency and level but the properties of the violin cannot be neglected.     

Relaxation-Induced Suppression of Vortex Disturbances in a Molecular Gas

The influence of thermal excitation on a finite-amplitude vortex disturbance in a shear flow of a molecular gas is studied in a model problem. The evolution of such vortex structures is typical of both the nonlinear stage of the laminar–turbulent transition and for developed turbulence. Since the excitation level was assumed to be comparatively low, full Navier–Stokes equations for a compressible heat-conducting gas were used in calculations; nonequilibrium was taken into account by the coefficient of bulk viscosity. As the bulk viscosity increases in the range of realistic values, the disturbance-energy damping rate in a weakly compressible flow increases approximately by 10%. The increase in the Mach number enhances the effect of disturbance suppression.     

A new fluorescent chemosensor for transition metal cations and on/off molecular switch controlled by pH

A new fluorescent chemosensor with imidazole as ionophore was synthesized by the selective derivation of calixarene, which can effectively recognize Cu²⁺ and Zn²⁺ leading to different fluoroscopic behaviors in CH₃OH-H₂O. This system could be considered as a molecular switch. By modulating the pH of the solution, on-off-on fluorescent switching is carried out upon combinatory addition of acid, base and Cu²⁺.     

Silane photoabsorption spectra mear the Si 2p thresholds：the geometry of Si 2p excited SiH4

Based on the multiple-scattering self-consistent-field method, we have studied the photoabsorption spectra near the Si 2p thresholds of silane. According to our calculations, the clear assignments of the inner-shell photoabsorption spectra are provided. In comparison with the high-resolution experimental spectra, the geometric structure of the Si 2p-excited SiH_{4}^{**} is recommended to be of a C_{2v} symmetry. More specifically, the Si 2p-excited SiH_{4}^{**} have two bond lengths of 2.50 a.u. and another two bond lengths of 2.77 a.u., and the corresponding two bond angles are 104.0° and 112.5° respectively.     

Molecular flow and wall collision age distributions

The use of storage cells has become a standard technique for internal gas targets in conjunction with high energy storage rings. In case of spin-polarized hydrogen and deuterium gas targets the interaction of the injected atoms with the walls of the storage cell can lead to depolarization and recombination. Thus the number of wall collisions of the atoms in the target gas is important for modeling the processes of spin relaxation and recombination. It is shown in this article that the diffusion process of rarefied gases in long tubes or storage cells can be described with the help of the one-dimensional diffusion equation. Mathematical methods are presented that allow one to calculate collision age distributions (CAD) and their moments analytically. These methods provide a better understanding of the different aspects of diffusion than Monte Carlo calculations. Additionally it is shown that measurements of the atomic density or polarization of a gas sample taken from the center of the tube allow one to determine the possible range of the corresponding density weighted average values along the tube. The calculations are applied to the storage cell geometry of the HERMES internal polarized hydrogen and deuterium gas target. Received 9 July 2001 and Received in final form 18 September 2001     

深紫外无机非线性光学晶体硼铍酸锶及其分子工程学探索方法

阐述了紫外无机非线性光学晶体分子工程学探索方法的基本特点，具体分析深紫外无机非线性光学晶体硼铍酸锶（ＳＢＢＯ）以氟硼铍酸钾（ＫＢＢＦ）为主要参考晶体的分子设计方法，随后根据晶体结构研究、单晶培养、和非线性光学性能测定等实验结果讨论ＳＢＢＯ作为新型深紫外无机晶体的主要优点，即它既具有更短的紫外吸收边（接近１５５ｎｍ）和较大的非线性光学系数（ｄ２２（ＳＢＢＯ）＝０６×ｄ２２（ＢＢＯ）＝１３８ｐｍ／Ｖ），同时晶体无明显层状习性，并肯有良好的化学稳定性和机械性能     

Formation of lead pyrophosphate glass and the role of anion disproportionation

Thermal, spectroscopic and electrical properties of lead pyrophosphate glass prepared by melt quenching have been examined. A model based on the structural disproportionation of the P₂O ₇ ⁴⁻ ions has been proposed and is shown to consistently explain all the observations. The equilibrium of various anionic species has been discussed on the basis of their electronegativities which are in turn related to their basicities. Communication No. 129 from the Materials Research Centre