Study of the peak effect phenomenon in single crystals of 2H-NbSe2

The weakly pinned single crystals of the hexagonal 2H-NbSe₂ compound have emerged as prototypes for determining and characterizing the phase boundaries of the possible order-disorder transformations in the vortex matter. We present here a status report based on the ac and dc magnetization measurements of the peak effect phenomenon in three crystals of 2H-NbSe₂, in which the critical current densities vary over two orders of magnitude. We sketch the generic vortex phase diagram of a weakly pinned superconductor, which also utilizes theoretical proposals. We also establish the connection between the metastability effects and pinning.     

A physical interpretation of the discrete ambiguities in the optical potential for composite particles

It is shown that the appearance of discrete ambiguities in the optical potential of composite particles is caused by the existence of partly Pauli-forbidden states. The given interpretation is tested in the case ofα-⁵⁸Ni scattering atE _α=50.2 MeV where seven different optical potentials give satisfactory agreement with experiment.     

Deciding Frattini is NP-complete

We show that it is a NP-complete problem to decide whether a finite poset arises as the (Birkhoff) dual of the Frattini sublattice of some finite distributive lattice.This work was supported in part by Swiss NSF grant 20-32644.91.     

351 nm, 0.7 ns laser damage thresholds of monomeric liquid-crystalline systems

The 351 nm laser-damage thresholds (at 0.7 nm pulse length) of monomeric liquid crystals are reported and results from aromatic-core samples are compared with those from fully saturated systems. The role of π-electron conjugation is examined and identified as the key cause for laser damage. For UV laser compatibility of devices, the damage behaviour of an alignment-layer polymer (nylon 6/6) was also investigated.     

Numerical convergence study of the orthogonalized multi-channels approach to three-body Coulomb scattering below breakup threshold

The three-body Coulomb problem for nuclear clusters is solved numerically for a model below three-body breakup threshold. An orthogonalized multi-channels method is employed. The method allows to check for convergence by considering the norm square of the closed-channels part of the wave function. The numerical results show that convergence can well be achieved on present-day computers.     

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.