Effect of absorbed pump power on the quality of output beam from monolithic microchip lasers

The dependence of the beam propagation factor (M ² parameter) with the absorbed pump power in the case of monolithic microchip laser under face-cooled configuration is extensively studied. Our investigations show that the M ₂ parameter is related to the absorbed pump power through two parameters (α and β) whose values depend on the laser material properties and laser configuration. We have shown that one parameter arises due to the oscillation of higher order modes in the microchip cavity and the other parameter accounts for the spherical aberration associated with the thermal lens induced by the pump beam. Such dependency of M ² parameter with the absorbed pump power is experimentally verified for a face-cooled monolithic microchip laser based on Nd³⁺ -doped GdVO₄ crystal and the values of α and β parameters were estimated from the experimentally measured data points.     

Modification of magnetic anisotropy in metallic glasses using high-energy ion beam irradiation

Heavy ion irradiation in the electronic stopping power region induces macroscopic dimensional change in metallic glasses and introduces magnetic anisotropy in some magnetic materials. The present work is on the irradiation study of ferromagnetic metallic glasses, where both dimensional change and modification of magnetic anisotropy are expected. Magnetic anisotropy was measured using Mössbauer spectroscopy of virgin and irradiated Fe₄₀Ni₄₀B₂₀ and Fe₄₀Ni₃₈Mo₄B₁₈ metallic glass ribbons. 90 MeV ¹²⁷I beam was used for the irradiations. Irradiation doses were 5×10¹³ and 7.5×10¹³ ions/cm². The relative intensity ratios D ₂₃ of the second and third lines of the Mössbauer spectra were measured to determine the magnetic anisotropy. The virgin samples of both the materials display in-plane magnetic anisotropy, i.e., the spins are oriented parallel to the ribbon plane. Irradiation is found to cause reduction in magnetic anisotropy. Near-complete randomization of magnetic moments is observed at high irradiation doses. Correlation is found between the residual stresses introduced by ion irradiation and the change in magnetic anisotropy.     

Supercritical fluid extraction combined with solid phase extraction as sample preparation technique for the analysis of β-blockers in serum and urine

A method is developed for the determination of β-blockers in serum and urine at levels of 0.5 μg/mL. The technique uses a combination of solid phase extraction (SPE) with in situ derivatization and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) with subsequent gas chromatography mass spectrometry. The optimization of the SFE step shows that a static extraction period can be eliminated. The method gives good linearity (r = 0.991–0.999) and repeatability in the concentration range of 0.5 to 5 μg/mL. Relative standard deviations for oxprenolol, propanolol and metoprolol were less than 5% in serum and 5–11% in urine. Received: 23 May 1997 / Revised: 28 July 1997 / Accepted: 5 August 1997     

Polymer melt flow measurements by laser doppler velocimetry

Laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) is a new tool for fluid dynamics studies. Using LDV the velocity vector field can be measured without disturbing the flow itself. However, in polymer melt fluid dynamics difficulties arise because of temperature problems, the relatively high pressure involved, and the often extremely slow flows. In this paper a LDV system is described which was set up especially for polymer melt flow investigations.     

Polarized basis sets of Slater-type orbitals: H to Ne atoms

We present three Slater-type atomic orbital (STO) valence basis (VB) sets for the first and second row atoms, referred to as the VB1, VB2, and VB3 bases. The smallest VB1 basis has the following structure: [3, 1] for the H and He atoms, [5, 1] for Li and Be, and [5, 3, 1] for the B to Ne series. For the VB2 and VB3 bases, both the number of shells and the number of functions per shell are successively increased by one with respect to VB1. With the exception of the H and Li atoms, the exponents for the VB1 bases were obtained by minimizing the sum of the Hartree-Fock (HF) and frozen-core singles and doubles configuration interaction (CISD FC) energies of the respective atoms in their ground state. For H and Li, we minimized the sum of the HF and CISD FC energies of the corresponding diatoms (i.e., of H(2) or Li(2)) plus the ground-state energy of the atom. In the case of the VB2 basis sets, the sum that was minimized also included the energies of the positive and negative ions, and for the VB3 bases, the energies of a few lowest lying excited states of the atom. To account for the core correlations, the VBx (x = 1, 2, and 3) basis sets for the Li to Ne series were enlarged by one function per shell. The exponents of these extended (core-valence, CV) basis sets, referred to, respectively, as the CVBx (x = 1, 2, and 3) bases, were optimized by relying on the same criteria as in the case of the VBx (x = 1, 2, and 3) bases, except that the full CISD rather than CISD FC energies were employed. We show that these polarized STO basis sets provide good HF and CI energies for the ground and excited states of the atoms considered, as well as for the corresponding ions.     

Determination of anionic trace impurities in glycerol by capillary isotachophoresis with enlarged sample load

Glycerol of different quality classifications served as a model for a neutral excess component in the isotachophoretic determination of low-molecular-mass anionic trace impurities. Potential anionic contaminants such as nitrate, sulphate, chlorate, nitrite, oxalate, fluoride formate and phosphate were analysed up to an analyte-to-excess ratio of 1:4·10⁷, thus providing the possibility of checking the sample for the mentioned analytes in the order of 2.5·10⁻⁶–9.5·10⁻⁶%. Because we used a column-coupling isotachophoretic instrument the electrolyte system consisted of two different leading electrolytes, one for the pre-separation (10 mmol/l HCl, β-alanine, pH 3.2) in the first capillary and one for the final separation (5 mmol/l HCl, 1,3-bis[tris(hydroxymethyl)methylamino]propane, β-alanine, pH 3.6) in the second capillary. The terminating electrolyte was citric acid. Due to an increased injection volume of 300 μl, limits of detection (LODs) in the nanomolar range were realised by conductivity detection. The developed method allows simultaneous analysis without sample preparation and/or preconcentration within 25 min and is for that reason suitable for in-place process control.     

Isotachophoretic separation of alkylsulfonates and determination of methanesulfonic acid as main component and as trace component in pharmaceutical drug substances

Alkylsulfonates from methanesulfonic acid to decanesulfonic acid were separated by isotachophoresis with conductivity detection in a common electrolyte system at pH 4.8. The electrolyte system consisted of 10 mM HCl buffered with epsilon-aminocaproic acid (pH 4.8) and 0.1% methylhydroxyethylcellulose (MHEC) acting as the leading electrolyte. The terminating electrolyte was 20 mM caproic acid also containing 0.05% MHEC. Current settings of 250 microA for the first and 50 microA for the second capillary were applied. On one hand, the method was applied to the determination of the content of methanesulfonate as the salt forming agent (mesilate) in a recently registered drug substance. The results obtained by ITP were compared with an orthogonal titration method. On the other hand, due to the column-coupling configuration of the electrophoretic instrument, the method could be extended to the trace determination in the ppm range in order to monitor methanesulfonic acid as an impurity in a drug substance. The validation confirmed the linearity of the method between 1 and 10 mg/l, limits of detection and quantification below 1 mg/l, recovery rates from 92.4 to 95.4%, and repeatability with a R.S.D. of 3.8% (six runs with a 4 mg/l spiked sample). Finally, three batches of a newly produced drug substance could be checked for methanesulfonic acid giving results of below 0.0014% (concentration related to the drug substance).     

Revision of the decay data of166–170Re,including new isomers167m,169mRe

The neutron-deficient rhenium isotopes^166–170Re were investigated using reactions of³²S with monoisotopic¹⁴¹Pr targets. Gamma-rays following the-decays of^166–169Re were measured for the first time. Four new-rays with energies of 4.70,4.83, 4.87, and 5.02 MeV were detected in addition to the known 5.50, 5.26, and 5.06 MeV-rays. Alpha-decaying isomer pairs were discovered in¹⁶⁷Re and¹⁶⁹Re. The measured half-lives are 2.3(2)s for¹⁶⁶Re, 3.4(4)s and 6.2(5)s for¹⁶⁷Re, 4.4(1)s for¹⁶⁸Re, 8.1(5)s and 16.3(8)s for¹⁶⁹Re, and 9.2(2)s for¹⁷⁰Re. The nuclear structure is discussed in terms of single-particle states.This work has been funded by the German Federal Minister for Research and Technology (BMFT) under contract number 06GÖ105