Structural characterization of nanopatterned surfaces

In this work, chemically and topographically nanopatterned surfaces were produced by a top-down processing approach for biosensing devices. The nanopatterning was the result of the combination of plasma polymerisation (pp) of biofunctional materials and colloidal lithography techniques. The morphological and chemical properties induced by the plasma deposition-etching treatment were characterised by optical method combining ellipsometry and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy studies. This method supported by atomic force microscopy measurements, allowed the full optical characterization of each step of the top-down process. The optical characterization of the end-up nanopatterned samples demonstrated that the chosen process is able to produce well-defined nanostructured surfaces with controlled chemical and morphological properties.     

Fixed mesh approximation of ordinary differential equations with impulses

When trains of impulse controls are present on the right-hand side of a system of ordinary differential equations, the solution is no longer smooth and contains jumps which can accumulate at several points in the time interval. In technological and physical systems the sum of the absolute value of all the impulses is finite and hence the total variation of the solution is finite. So the solution at best belongs to the space BV of vector functions with bounded variation. Unless variable node methods are used, the loss of smoothness of the solution would a priori make higher-order methods over a fixed mesh inactractive. Indeed in general the order of -convergence is and the nodal rate is . However in the linear case -convergence rate remains but the nodal rate can go up to by using one-step or multistep scheme with a nodal rate up to when the solution belongs to . Proofs are given of error estimates and several numerical experiments confirm the optimality of the estimates. Received March 15, 1996 / Revised version received January 3, 1997     

Stereoselectivity in Reactions of Metal Complexes. Part XI. 2,6-Bis(pyrrolidin-2-yl)pyridine: Synthesis and resolution of the meso and the optically active isomers. Complex formation with copper(II) ion in aqueous solution

The new linear triamine 2,6-bis(pyrrolidin-2-yl)pyridine ( II ) has been synthesized, and the (R, S)-, (R, R)-, and (S, S)-isomers have been separated. Compared to other triamines showing a similar structure, these new ligands form very stable Cu²⁺ complexes. No significant difference is observed between the meso and the racemic forms for their binary or ternary mixed-ligand complexes with the amino acids alanine and proline.     

From gas dynamics to pressureless gas dynamics

This paper is devoted to the convergence of solutions of the compressible Euler equations towards solutions of the pressureless gas dynamics system, when the pressure tends to 0. The goal is to prove accurate uniform bounds for particular solutions of the Euler equations.

     

Infrared and Raman spectroscopic investigation of Eu3+-doped mono and Di-urethanesil hybrid siliceous materials

The general features of two series of sol-gel derived materials, designatedurethanesils (Ut), have been investigated by infrared and Raman spectroscopies with the goal of elucidating the chemical environment of the Eu³⁺ cations. The host frameworks of the two families of ormolytes studied have been represented by m-Ut(350) and d-Ut(300), where m stands for mono, d stands for di, 350 and 300 are the average molecular weights of the organic precursors (poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether, PEGME, and poly(ethylene glycol), PEG, respectively). The hybrid matrix of the mono-xerogels is composed by a siliceous backbone bonded by means of urethane linkages (-NHC (=O)O-) to pendant methyl end capped oligopolymer chains with approximately 7 oxyethylene units, whereas that of the di-xerogels is based on a siliceous network grafted through urethane groups to both ends of poly(oxyethylene) segments containing about 6 (OCH₂CH₂) repeat units. Both classes of materials have been doped with europium triflate (Eu(CF₃SO₃)₃). The doped samples have been identified by m-Ut(350)_nEu(CF₃SO₃)₃ and d-Ut(300)_nEu(CF₃SO₃), where n is the molar ratio of (OCH₂CH₂) repeat units per Eu³⁺ ion. Materials with n ranging from ∞ to 5 have been analyzed. The spectral data obtained provide evidence that the cations begin to coordinate to the ether oxygen atoms of the oligopolymer chains at n=40 in the mono-urethanesils and at n=10 in the di-urethanesils. In mono-urethanesils samples with n>40 and in di-urethanesils materials with n>10, the Eu³⁺ coordinate exclusively to the carbonyl oxygen atoms of the urethane linkages. Paper presented at the 8th EuroConference on Ionics, Carvoeiro, Algarve, Portugal, Sept. 16–22, 2001.     

First measurement of the ϱ spectral function in nuclear collisions

The NA60 experiment at the CERN SPS has studied low-mass muon pairs in 158 A GeV In–In collisions. A strong excess of pairs is observed above the yield expected from neutral meson decays. The unprecedented sample size close to 400000 events and the good mass resolution of about 2% made it possible to isolate the excess by subtraction of the decay sources. The shape of the resulting mass spectrum shows some non-trivial centrality dependence, but is largely consistent with a dominant contribution from π⁺π^-→ϱ→μ⁺μ^- annihilation. The associated ϱ spectral function exhibits considerable broadening, but essentially no shift in mass. The p_T-differential mass spectra show the excess to be much stronger at low p_T than at high p_T. The results are compared to theoretical model predictions; they tend to rule out models linking hadron masses directly to the chiral condensate. PACS 25.75.-q; 12.38.Mh; 13.85.Qk     

Laser heating and ablation at high repetition rate in thermal confinement regime

Laser heating and ablation of materials with low absorption and thermal conductivity (paint and cement) were under experimental and theoretical investigations. The experiments were made with a high repetition rate Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (10 kHz, 90 ns pulse duration and λ = 532 nm). High repetition rate laser heating resulted in pulse per pulse heat accumulation. A theoretical model of laser heating was developed and demonstrated a good agreement between the experimental temperatures measured with the infrared pyrometer and the calculated ones. With the fixed wavelength and laser pulse duration, the ablation threshold fluence of paint was found to depend on the repetition rate and the number of applied pulses. With a high repetition rate, the threshold fluence decreased significantly when the number of applied pulses was increasing. The experimentally obtained thresholds were well described by the developed theoretical model. Some specific features of paint heating and ablation with high repetition rate lasers are discussed.     

Polarized light and X-ray precession study of the ferroelastic domains of YBa2Cu3O7-δ

The ferroelastic domains of the orthorhombic phase of YBa₂Cu₃O_7- have been observed in polarized light on ceramics and single crystals. By combining polarized light microscopy with the X-ray precession technique, the correlation of the orientation of the orthorhombica- andb-axes with that of thea-b-plane bireflectance, reflection dichroism, transmission dichroism (at a thickness of about 1m), reflection tints generated with compensators and upon uncrossing of polars, as well as the orientation of etch pits has been realized on ferroelastic single domains, bi-domains and more complicated domain patterns. Four ferroelastic orthorhombic domain states have been identified, at variance with former group theoretical considerations, predicting only two states. Ensembles of lamellar domains beyond optical resolution generate strong bireflectance with principal axes rotated by 45° relative to the truea, b-directions.