Collisional line shifting and broadening in the fundamental P-branch of CO in Ar between 214 and 324 K

The collisional shifts and widths of several P-branch spectral lines in the fundamental band of CO-Ar have been measured at temperatures between 214 and 324 K and pressures between 0.025 and 1 atm. The widths have been determined using a line shape model based on the solution of the transport/relaxation equation for the appropriate off-diagonal element of the density matrix. The model uses a realistic molecular potential energy surface to calculate the speed dependence of the collisional broadening, and a rigid sphere potential to calculate the translational motion. It is found that both the shifting and broadening coefficients follow a power law dependence on the temperature. Additionally, it is demonstrated that studies have tended to overestimate the accuracy of collisional widths when the line shape model used to obtain the widths involves multiple fitted line shape parameters or fails to fit the measured spectra within the experimental noise.     

Line shape analysis of two-colour photoassociation spectra on the example of the Cs ground state

Two-photon photoassociation spectra in a Λ-type excitation scheme are analysed under the systematically varied experimental conditions of frequency detunings and laser intensities. Line shape fits are presented as well as the investigation of intensity and detuning dependent line shifts. From both we determine the attained spectroscopic precision, that is corrected for a systematic line shift due to the thermal distribution of atoms in the trap. An energy correction for this effect is given. Information about the feasibility of generating translationally cold molecules in a well defined rotational and vibrational level by the photoassociation process is derived from the analysis. Received 21 May 2002 Published online 15 October 2002 RID="a" ID="a"Current address e-mail: christian.lisdat@ptb.de RID="b" ID="b"e-mail: pierre.pillet@lac.u-psud.fr     

Intranuclear-Cascade model calculation of photofission probabilities for actinide nuclei

We have calculated the fission probabilities for ²³⁷Np, ^{233, 235, 238}U, ²³²Th, and ^natPb following the absorption of photons with energies from 68 MeV to 3.77 GeV using the RELDIS Monte Carlo code. This code implements the cascade-evaporation-fission model of intermediate-energy photonuclear reactions. It includes multiparticle production in photoreactions on intranuclear nucleons, pre-equilibrium emission, and the statistical decay of excited residual nuclei via competition of evaporation, fission, and multifragmentation processes. The calculations show that in the GeV energy region the fission process is not solely responsible for the entire total photoabsorption cross-section, even for the actinides. The fission probabilities are 80-95% for ²³³U, ²³⁵U, and ²³⁷Np, 70-80% for ²³⁸U, and only 55-70% for ²³²Th. This is because certain residual nuclei that are created by deep photospallation at GeV photon energies have relatively low fission probabilities. The results of those model calculations are in reasonable agreement (at the 10% level) with recent experimental data on relative photofission cross-sections for ²³⁷Np and ^{233, 235, 238}U (but not for ²³²Th or ^natPb) from the Saskatchewan and Jefferson Laboratories over a very wide range in photon energy. Using our calculated fission probabilities plus the total photoabsorption cross-sections per nucleon, estimated from previous cross-section data for nuclei from C to Pb, we can infer absolute photofission cross-sections for the actinide nuclei and compare them with the SAL and JLab results. The resulting discrepancies, however, clearly demonstrate the need for direct measurement of the total photoabsorption cross-sections for the heavy actinides.     

Electrical switching studies on As<Subscript>40</Subscript>Te<Subscript>60-x</Subscript>Se<Subscript>x</Subscript> and As<Subscript>35</Subscript>Te<Subscript>65-x</Subscript>Se<Subscript>x</Subscript> glasses

The I–V characteristics of bulk As₄₀Te_60-xSe_x and As₃₅Te_65-xSe_x glasses have been studied with a current sweep of 0–18 mA-0, over a wide range of compositions (4≤x≤22). All the glasses studied showed a threshold electrical switching behaviour. The number of switching cycles withstood by the samples has been found to depend on the ON-state current. It is seen that the switching voltages increase with increase in selenium content. Further, the switching voltages are found to be almost independent of the thickness of the sample (d), in the range 0.18–0.3 mm. Also, the switching voltages and the number of switching cycles withstood by the samples are found to decrease with temperature. Received: 6 November 2002 / Accepted: 8 November 2002 / Published online: 29 January 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +91-80/360-0135, E-mail: sasokan@isu.iisc.ernet.in     

High resolution polarization spectroscopy and laser induced fluorescence of CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> around 2μm

High resolution Infrared Polarisation Spectroscopy (IRPS) and Infrared Laser Induced Fluorescence (IRLIF) techniques were used to probe CO₂/N₂ binary gas mixture at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature. The probed CO₂ molecules were prepared by laser excitation to an overtone and combination ro-vibrational state (12⁰1, J=15) of CO₂, centred at 4988.6612 cm^-1. IRPS and IRLIF line profiles were recorded for several CO₂/N₂ binary mixtures. The observed IRLIF line shapes have the expected Lorentzian form while the observed IRPS line shapes are narrower by a factor of two than those recorded with the IRLIF and appear to have a Lorentzian-cubed profile. The recorded line profiles provide measurements of the pressure-broadening coefficient directly at atmospheric pressure. The Full-Width-Half-Maxima (FWHM) pressure broadening coefficients are measured, based on IRLIF, to be 0.2174±0.0092 cm^-1atm^-1 and 0.1327 ±0.0077 cm^-1atm^-1 for self- and N₂ collision broadening, respectively. The broadening coefficients obtained based on IRPS were measured to be ~8% larger than those obtained with IRLIF.     

Strong enhancement of spontaneous emission in amorphous-silicon-nitride photonic crystal based coupled-microcavity structures

We investigated photoluminescence (PL) from one-dimensional photonic band gap structures. The photonic crystals, a Fabry–Perot (FP) resonator and a coupled-microcavity (CMC) structure, were fabricated by using alternating hydrogenated amorphous-silicon-nitride and hydrogenated amorphous-silicon-oxide layers. It was observed that these structures strongly modify the PL spectra from optically active amorphous-silicon-nitride thin films. Narrow-band and wide-band PL spectra were achieved in the FP microcavity and the CMC structure, respectively. The angle dependence of PL peak of the FP resonator was also investigated. We also observed that the spontaneous emission increased drastically at the coupled-cavity band edge of the CMC structure due to extremely low group velocity and long photon lifetime. The measurements agree well with the transfer-matrix method results and the prediction of the tight-binding approximation. Received: 8 March 2001 / Accepted: 17 March 2001 / Published online: 23 May 2001     

Pressure broadening and shift of transitions of the first overtone of HCl

High-resolution spectroscopic measurements were made using distributed feedback diode lasers. We measured line strength and pressure-induced broadening and shift for two lines, R(3) and P(4), of the first overtone (2?0) ro-vibrational band, for the two isotopomers H³⁵Cl and H³⁷Cl, according to their natural abundances; measurements were also made in the presence of foreign gases. Comparison was made with available data when possible. Received: 29 February 2000 / Published online: 8 November 2000     

Amorphous BeN as a new solid host for rare‐earth‐related luminescent materials

Beryllium‐nitride (BeN) thin films were prepared by sputtering a Be target in an atmosphere of pure nitrogen. The films were doped with samarium simply by placing a piece of Sm metal on the surface of the Be target. Under these deposition conditions the films present an amorphous structure and an optical bandgap of approx. 4 eV. They also exhibit visible light emission due to Sm³⁺ ions as a result of either photon or electron excitation. The present experimental results show that amorphous BeN films are suitable, and efficient, III‐nitride hosts for rare‐earth doping purposes. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Study on size-dependent optical property of 4,4′-dibromobiphenyl nanocrystals

4,4^′-dibromobiphenyl nanocrystals with different sizes in the range from 20 nm to 300 nm were prepared by the reprecipitation method. It was found that their absorption peaks experienced a red shift while the size of the nanocrystals increased. Through analyzing these spectra of the nanocrystals with different sizes, it is suggested that this size-dependent optical property is contributed by two factors, the size effect and the J-aggregate formation. Received: 28 August 2000 / Accepted: 2 March 2001 / Published online: 23 May 2001