Study of the gas-phase parameters affecting the silicon-oxide film deposition induced by an ArF laser

A study of the gas-phase parameters involved in ArF laser induced chemical vapour deposition of silicon-oxide thin films is presented. A complete set of experiments has been performed showing the influence of the concentration of the precursor gases, N₂O and SiH₄, and their influence on total and partial pressures on film growth and properties. In this paper we demonstrate the ability of this LCVD method to deposit silicon oxide films of different compositions and densities by appropriate control of gas composition and total pressure. Moreover, a material specific calibration plot comprising data obtained using different preparation techniques is presented, allowing determination of the stoichiometry of SiO _x films by using FTIR spectroscopy independently of the deposition method. For the range of processing conditions examined, the experimental results suggest that chemical processes governing deposition take place mainly in the gas phase.     

Laser systems specialized for laser spectroscopy at storage rings

Laser spectroscopy at storage rings often suffers from a limited resolution due to Doppler-broadened resonances. Broadening is caused by the velocity spread of the ions stored in the beam. In the following, the present status of our work on laser systems specialized on the specific needs of laser spectroscopy at storage rings is reported. Two pulsed laser systems were developed. One is a dye laser whose spectral bandwidth can be switched by inserting different Littrow-prisms into the resonator. An increase in bandwidth up to a factor of 45 was achieved. This laser was used for fast qualitative scans and high resolution measurements. The other laser system is a Nd : YAG laser pumped optical parametric oscillator. It is a tunable laser system covering the spectral range from 410 to 4000 nm. Furthermore, a continuous wave laser with a frequency shifted feedback cavity is described. It shows broadband emission with an adjustable bandwidth of up to 4.5 GHz. This laser can be advantageous for laser cooling of ion beams. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Picosecond control of coherent magnetisation dynamics in permalloy thin films by picosecond magnetic field pulse shaping

We have measured the response of a 20×10 μm, 8 nm thin NiFe (80:20) permalloy film due to excitation by short in-plane magnetic field pulses. We will show that using a two-pulse-technique a complete control of the precessional motion of the magnetisation can be achieved on picosecond timescales. Furthermore, we will present numerical calculations which show that a complete suppression of magnetisation ringing after switching can only be realised by a cascade of short field pulses.     

Nonlinear-optical and micro-Raman diagnostics of thin films and nanostructures of ABO3 ferroelectrics

Ferroelectric composite two-dimensional ferroelectric/aluminum oxide nanostructures were studied. A porous aluminum oxide matrix was used as a template into which a ferroelectric precursor was introduced, followed by annealing. The prepared nanostructures were studied using optical second harmonic generation and micro-Raman scattering.     

Extraordinary optical transmission through metal-coated colloidal monolayers

Extraordinary optical transmission through metal-coated close-packed monolayers has been observed. The monolayers consist of silica (a-SiO₂) or polystyrene microspheres that form two-dimensional close-packed lattices by self-assembly. Metal layers of Ag, Au and Ni with different thicknesses (larger than the skin depth) were evaporated onto such lattices by means of standard techniques. The optical transmission spectra investigated between 300 and 2500 nm show pronounced peaks that scale with the diameter and the optical properties of the composite slabs. The enhanced transmission observed is most likely mediated via plasmons. PACS 78.66.-w; 81.16.Dn; 82.70.Dd     

Determination of platinum and biologically important trace elements in structure-activity relationship studies on platinum-containing anti-cancer drugs. Special procedures for removing32P as well as for the estimation of99 Mo and199Au

As part of an examination of the cytostatic effects of 1,2-diarylethylenediamine-platinum(II)-complexes the contents of platinum and biologically essential trace elements of tumour tissue and different organs were determined. The activation analysis procedure — separation of³²P, isolation of¹⁹⁹Au and⁹⁹Mo — is described. In the course of a pharmakokinetical experiment with tumourbearing rats (DMBA induced hormone-dependent tumours) the desired enrichment of the administered drug in the tumour tissue was found. Changes of the trace element level of tumour tissue were found for hormone-dependent MXT-mammary tumours on mice.     

Moderate Deviations for Longest Increasing Subsequences: The Lower Tail

We derive a moderate deviation principle for the lower tail probabilities of the length of a longest increasing subsequence in a random permutation. It refers to the regime between the lower tail large deviation regime and the central limit regime. The present article together with the upper tail moderate deviation principle in Ref. 12 yields a complete picture for the whole moderate deviation regime. Other than in Ref. 12, we can directly apply estimates by Baik, Deift, and Johansson, who obtained a (non-standard) Central Limit Theorem for the same quantity.     

The Matsumoto-Yor property and the structure of the Wishart distribution

This paper establishes a link between a generalized matrix Matsumoto-Yor (MY) property and the Wishart distribution. This link highlights certain conditional independence properties within blocks of the Wishart and leads to a new characterization of the Wishart distribution similar to the one recently obtained by Geiger and Heckerman but involving independences for only three pairs of block partitionings of the random matrix.In the process, we obtain two other main results. The first one is an extension of the MY independence property to random matrices of different dimensions. The second result is its converse. It extends previous characterizations of the matrix generalized inverse Gaussian and Wishart seen as a couple of distributions.We present two proofs for the generalized MY property. The first proof relies on a new version of Herz's identity for Bessel functions of matrix arguments. The second proof uses a representation of the MY property through the structure of the Wishart.