Density functional calculation of Compton profiles of metals using phase-space approach

Spherically averaged electron momentum densities (EMD) in Al, V and Cu metals have been calculated by using density functional theory in the phase-space approach. Compton profiles, J(q) and expectation values 〈pⁿ〉 have been computed. These theoretical results show satisfactory agreement with the experimental data for Al, V and Cu.     

Reaction cross section measurements of the neutron-rich isotopes8,9,11Li at 80 MeV/nucleon

Total interaction cross sections have been measured for⁸Li on C and Pb targets, for⁹Li on C, Al, Cu, Sn and Pb targets as well as for¹¹Li on C, Sn and Pb targets. For each beam, we also used a plastic scintillator as target. The measurements with the scintillator targets are used to extract reduced nuclear radii of the lithium isotopes. These radii are then used for the calculation of the nuclear part of the total cross section for the other targets. The total electromagnetic-dissociation (EMD) cross sections have been deduced and are compared to different models. A strong target-charge-dependent EMD cross section is measured for¹¹Li reaching 2.96 _–0.82 ^+0.84 b for the Pb target. In the⁹Li case, a large EMD cross section for high-Z targets has been observed which amounts to 0.75 ± 0.45 b for the Pb target. The EMD cross sections of both,⁹Li and¹¹Li, may be understood by the giantdipole-resonance model.This work forms part of the PhD Thesis of B. Blank     

Pulsed electron beam annealing and furnace annealing of Cu-implanted Al single crystals

A comparison has been performed of the effects of pulsed electron beam annealing (PEBA) and furnace annealing on the distribution and lattice site occupation of Cu implanted into Al single crystals. Both parameters have been determined by Rutherford backscattering and channeling measurements with 2 MeV He⁺ ions. With furnace annealing at 300°C the Cu diffusion into the bulk was determined by the release process from the implanted layer, while for PEBA a redistribution of the copper was observed for pulses with deposited energy densities above the threshold for melting. A supersaturated solid solution with 95% (2.1 at.%) of the impurity atoms on substitutional sites was formed by the electron beam treatment. After thermal annealing only little improvement of the lattice site occupation was observed with 66% of the impurities atoms on lattice sites, however with slight displacements from the perfect positions.     

A Rapid Method for the Determination of Trace Element Impurities in Silicons Oils by ICP-MS After Microwave-Assisted Digestion

Abstract

A microwave-assisted digestion procedure has been developed for the treatment of silicone oil samples. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine the concentration level of 40 trace element impurities, like Li, Na, Mg, Al, P, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, As, Se, Sr, Rb, Zr, Nb, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sn, Sb, Ba, La, Ce, Nd, Hf, W, Au, Pb, Hg, Th, Bi and U in these samples, having obtained average relative standard deviation values of 9.6%. The methodology developed has been tested by recovery studies on different natural samples spiked with known amounts of Mg, Cr, Mn, Fe, Zn and Pb at concentration levels of 10, 0.5, 5, 5, 10 and 1 μg g^?1 and recovery percentage values varies from 97 to 105 %.     

Elastic electron scattering from the magnetization distribution of 27Al

Cross sections have been measured for the scattering of electrons through 180° from Mg, Al and Si targets in the energy range 35 to 95 MeV. Scattering from the magnetization distribution of ²⁷Al is observed as the difference of the scattering from ²⁷Al and from the neighbouring doubly even nuclei Mg and Si. Corrections have been applied for differences in instrumental effects and in rms charge radii. Theoretical magnetic cross sections have been computed with a single-particle wave function and with a shell-model wave function involving configuration mixing. If the distorted-wave Born approximation is used, good agreement with experiment is obtained. In both cases the best fit to the data yields a value of the oscillator range parameter b = 1.71 ± 0.06 fm. Using the q-dependence of the single-particle model a value $\text{Ω = 18.7 ± 3.5 μ}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>N</mtext>}}\text{·}\text{fm}{}^2$ for the magnetic octupole moment of ²⁷Al is found. The present low-energy (E < 100 MeV) data are in good agreement with the results obtained from the scattering of high-energy (E = 500 MeV) electrons from ²⁷Al through “normal” angles.     

Theoretical study of the electronic and magnetic properties of Co2Cr1−xVxAl

We have investigated the electronic and magnetic properties of the doped Heusler alloys Co₂Cr_1−xV_xAl(x=0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1) using first-principles density functional theory within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) scheme. The calculated results reveal that with increasing V content the lattice parameter slightly increases; both cohesive energy and bulk modulus increase with increasing x. The magnetic moment of the Co(Cr) sites increases with V doping; the total spin moment of these compounds linearly decreases. We also have performed the electronic structure calculations for Co₂Cr_1−xV_xAl with positional disorder of Co-Y(Cr,V)-type and Al-Y(Cr,V)-type. It is found that formation of Al-Y-type disorder in Co₂Cr_1−xV_xAl alloys is more favorable than that of Co-Y-type disorder. Furthermore, we found that Co₂Cr_1−xV_xAl of the L2₁-type structure have a half-metallic character. And the stability of L2₁ structure will enhance, however, the Curie temperature decreases as the V concentration increases. The disorder between Cr(V) and Al does not significantly reduce the spin polarization of the alloys Co₂Cr_1−xV_xAl.     

Statistical properties of excited nuclei in the mass range 47 ? A ? 59

Level densities and their energy dependences for nuclei in the mass range of 47 ?? A ?? 59 were determined from the results obtained by measuring neutron-evaporation spectra in respective (p, n) reactions. The spectra of neutrons originating from the (p, n) reactions on ⁴⁷Ti, ⁴⁸Ti, ⁴⁹Ti, ⁵³Cr, ⁵⁴Cr, ⁵⁷Fe, and ⁵⁹Co nuclei were measured in the proton-energy range of 7?C11 MeV. These measurements were performed with the aid of a fast-neutron spectrometer by the time-of-flight method over the base of the EGP-15 pulsed tandem accelerator installed at the Institute for Physics and Power Engineering (Obninsk, Russia). A high resolution of the spectrometer and its stability in the time of flight made it possible to identify reliably discrete low-lying levels along with the continuum part of neutron spectra. Our measured data were analyzed within the statistical equilibrium and preequilibrium models of nuclear reactions. The respective calculations were performed with the aid of the Hauser-Feshbach formalismof statistical theory supplemented with the generalized model of a superfluid nucleus, the back-shifted Fermi gas model, and the Gilbert-Cameron composite formula for nuclear level densities. Nuclear level densities for ⁴⁷V, ⁴⁸V, ⁴⁹V, ⁵³Mn, ⁵⁴Mn, ⁵⁷Co, and ⁵⁹Ni and their energy dependences were determined. The results are discussed and compared with available experimental data and with recommendations of model-based systematics.     

Auger and other characteristic energies in secondary electron spectra from Al surfaces

The energy spectra of secondary electrons back-scattered from clean, oxygen covered, and Cu covered Al surfaces have been determined. The data support the previous suggestion that Auger electrons can experience both characteristic energy loss and absorption phenomena. From the experimental results it was not possible to determine whether densities of states of electrons in the valence band affected the Al L_2,3 VV Auger spectrum. This portion of the spectrum was greatly changed by oxygen absorption on the Al surface, but little affected by less than a monolayer of Cu. Conversely, characteristic loss spectra were less sensitive to oxygen on the surface, but were highly sensitive to the presence of copper at even less than monolayer coverage. A correlation between characteristic loss and “true” secondary spectra from clean surfaces was established and possible reasons for the correlation are discussed.     

Internal photoemission and plasmon gain in solid and thin films of Al

Weak features in the electron spectrum of Al excited by bremsstrahlung radiation from a Cu anode have been studied using a recently developed multidetector. A feature at ～1410 eV which has been identified as the Al 2p internal photoelectron line was found to have an intensity 4.2 × 10^?3 times that of the Al KL_2,3L_2,3:¹D₂ Auger line, in agreement with a simple theoretical treatment. The identification of this feature is confirmed by the observation of an ～67% decrease in its intensity in spectra obtained from clean Al films in the thickness range 3.1–34.0 nm. The intensity of a plasmon gain peak at ～1404 eV is found to be independent of thickness for films of thickness greater than 7.5 nm.     

The width of the giant dipole resonance built on excited states of Cu compound nuclei

Continuumγ- ray spectra from the decay of⁵⁹Cu formed at an excitation energy of 100 MeV and angular momenta up to 43? by means of the reaction 190 MeV³²S +²⁷Al have been measured and analyzed. The parameters of the Giant Dipole Resonance (GDR) have been extracted using the statistical model. The derived GDR width confirms the sizeable broadening of this resonance in⁵⁹Cu already reported in our earlier investigation at 77 MeV excitation energy (J_crit=38?). Estimates of the GDR width have been performed in the adiabatic approximation. Predicted values account qualitatively for the experimental data of⁵⁹Cu as well as of the heavier isotope⁶³Cu, in which the broadening was not seen up to 77MeV excitation (J_crit=35?). The present analysis demonstrates the strong sensitivity of the GDR to spin effects in this mass region.     

Sputtering-induced nanometre hole formation in Ni3Al under intense electron beam irradiation

The irradiation damage of polycrystalline Ni₃Al thin foils of stoichiometric composition by a stationary nanoscale 200?keV field emission gun (FEG) electron probe in a FEI Tecnai F20 (S)TEM has been investigated. At current densities greater than 10⁷?A/m², nanometre holes are produced quickly with both ?001? and ?110? incident electron beam directions. EDX spectra from the irradiated volume have been collected simultaneously during the hole forming process. From the EDX results, preferential surface sputtering of aluminium from Ni₃Al has been demonstrated. To understand the underlying physical process of sputtering, modelling based on a combination of molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulation has been performed. It appears to reproduce faithfully the overall film sputtering and hole formation processes, but is not capable of predicting the detailed geometry of the hole. It predicts that the sputtering cross-section of Al atoms is much higher than that of Ni atoms, resulting in a very small concentration of Al at the surface. This, together with the increase of surface area during hole formation, explains the preferential Al loss observed from the specimen. Calculated sputtering rates agree well with experiment, and are of the order of magnitude of 10^?8?atoms/electron.     

Recoil properties of spallation products from bombardment of Z = 13–29 targets with 150,300 and 600 MeV protons

A semi-empirical relation developed using the classical model of high-energy nuclear reactions has been applied to spallation data obtained from thick-target — thick-collector recoil experiments. The ²⁴Na, ⁴²K, ⁴³K, ^44mSc, ⁴⁶Sc, ⁴⁷Sc ranges produced in Al, Sc, Ti, V, Fe, Co, Cu targets by 150, 300 and 600 MeV protons were determined. The excitation energies of the residual nuclei, deduced from the ranges, have been compared with theoretical calculations. The analysis shows that if the mass difference of the target and product nucleus is ΔA ? 10 the cascade plays a privileged role. If ΔA>10 an averaging effect is observed. In this case the number of prompt nucleons is about one-third of the total number and the excitation energy per evaporated nucleon is about 11 MeV.     

Structural stability and electrical conductivity of amorphous Ge-metal alloy films

Stable homogeneous amorphous alloy¹ films of Ge with different concentrations of Al, Cu and Fe have been prepared by the simultaneous vapor deposition technique. Ge-Metal films are amorphous up to a concentration of ～ 40 at.% Al, ～ 20 at.% Cu and ～ 20 at.% Fe. The cyclic annealing and crystallization temperature of these films show that whereas Al increases the stability of the amorphous phase, the addition of Cu and Fe decreases it. The electrical resistivity decreases gradually with increasing Al content. In contrast, a rapid decrease in the electrical resistivity is observed for the Ge-Cu and Ge-Fe systems. The thermoelectric power (TEP) of Ge-Cu and Ge-Fe system assumes small values ～ few μV/deg for concentrations greater than few atomic percent. Ge-Al system exhibits large positive thermoelectric power at all compositions. The temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity of these alloy films show that the addition of Cu and Fe to Ge results in a drastic decrease in the activation energy of conduction whereas the addition of Al increases the activation energy. Ge-Al films exhibit intrinsic like conduction in the temperature range 100–300 K. The Ge-Cu and Ge-Fe films exhibit hopping conduction from 100–300 K and the related density of states is up to 100 times larger than in pure a-Ge films.     

Nuclear charge radii of Al and Si from elastic electron scattering between 25 and 60 MeV

Elastic electron scattering cross sections of²⁷Al and Si (natural isotopic mixture) have been measured relative to carbon. The rms charge radiiR _m , deduced with partial wave calculations, are (3.01±0.05) fm for²⁷Al and (3.06±0.05) fm for Si, in good agreement with results from muonic X-ray energies. The values given are those for a Fermi charge distribution with skin thickness 2.5 fm; harmonic oscillator shell model distributions yield radii smaller by 0.03 fm. The ratioR _m (²⁷Al)/R_m(Si) is 0.984±0.016.     

Direct observation of new proton rich nuclei in the region 23≦Z≦29 using A 55A.MeV58Ni beam

Using magnetic separation and identification through time of flight andΔExE measurements, the nuclei⁵⁶Cu,⁵²Co (T _z =?1);⁵⁵Cu,⁵¹Co,⁴⁷Mn,⁴³V(T _z =?3/2)⁵²Ni,⁵⁰Co,⁴⁸Fe,⁴⁶Mn,⁴⁴Cr (T _z =?2); and⁵¹Ni (T _z =?5/2) are observed for the first time from interactions of 55A.MeV⁵⁸Ni projectiles with a Ni target. The predicted proton drip-line has probably been reached for the odd elements.     

Effect of Cr on the electronic structure of Co3Al intermetallic compound: A first-principles study

The effect of doping with Cr on the electronic structure and magnetism of Co₃Al has been studied by density functional calculations. It has been found that the Cr atom has a strong site preference for the B-site in Co₃Al. With the substitution of Cr for Co, the total densities of states (DOS) change obviously: A DOS peak appears at E_F in the majority spin states and an energy gap is opened in the minority spin states. The effect of Cr in Co₃Al is mainly to push the antibonding peak of the Co (A,C) atoms high on the energy scale and to form the energy gap around E_F, and also to contribute to the large DOS peak at E_F in the majority spin direction. The calculations indicate a ferromagnetic alignment between the Co and Cr spin moments. The calculated total magnetic moment decreases and becomes closer to the Slater–Pauling curve with increasing Cr content. This is mainly due to the decrease of the Co (A,C) spin moments. At the same time, the moments of Co (B) and Cr (B) only change slightly.     

Bias voltage effect on the structure and property of chromium copper-diamond-like carbon multilayer films fabricated by cathodic arc plasma

Chromium copper-diamond-like carbon (Cr:Cu)-DLC films were deposited onto silicon and by cathodic arc evaporation process using chromium (Cr) and copper (Cu) target arc sources to provide Cr and Cu in the Me-DLC. Acetylene reactive gases were the carbon source and activated at 180 °C at 13 mTorr, and a substrate bias voltage was varied from −50 V to −200 V to provide the (Cr:Cu)-DLC structure. The structure, interface, and chemical bonding state of the produced film were analyzed by transmission electron microscope (TEM), IR Fourier transform (FTIR) spectra, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results showed that the Cr-containing a-C:H/Cu coatings exhibited an amorphous layer of DLC:Cr layer and a crystalline layer of Cu multilayer structure. The profiles of sp³/sp² (XPS) ratios corresponded to the change of microhardness profile by varying the pressure of the negative DC bias voltage. These (Cr:Cu)-DLC coatings are promising materials for soft substrate protective coatings.     

Bounds on the coupling parameters in field theoretical models of nuclear physics

Neutrons of energies within a 50 eV interval at 1970 eV have been selected from reactor neutrons by means of resonance scattering on a target of⁶³Cu and subsequently by the 1970 eV resonance of a⁸⁰Se target. Insertion of stationary filters and the technique of difference measurements with a resonance filter resulted in a high selectivity, which allowed the determination of cross sections for quasi-monoenergetic neutrons for the elements: H, C, O, F, Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, Cl, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Ga, Pb and Bi. The precision cross sections of Pb and H contribute to investigations of fundamental neutron interactions. The measured σ(Pb)=11.198±0.003 b was recently used to deriveα _n=(0.8±1)10^?3 fm³ for the electric polarizability of the neutron. The neutron-proton cross sectionσ(¹ H)=20.13±0.03 b and data at 143 keV, 〈1.3〉 MeV, 〈2.1〉 MeV and from the literature provide a refined set of the scattering parameters for the shape-independent effective-range approximation of the neutron-proton interaction.     

Evaporation residue cross sections in complete fusion reactions between52Cr-56Fe,63Cu-Ni and63Cu-Ag

Evaporation residue cross sections have been measured by the technique of the telescopeΔE ·E counter at very small angles. The angular distribution has been followed down to 2°15′, and rather precise values were obtained for that fraction of the compound nucleus decay after complete fusion for the systems⁶³Cu+Ni,⁶³Cu+Ag and⁵²Cr+⁵⁶Fe at two bombarding energies. A comparison has been done with evaporation calculations using the code ALICE, and the rotating liquid drop concept. It is shown that a large discrepancy occurs at low energy for these heavy projectiles. The origin of this difference is discussed.     

Triton-emission cross sections with 30 MeV d(Be) break-up neutrons

Triton-emission cross sections were measured for Al, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Nb, Mo, Ag, Ta, Tl, Pb and Bi with a 30 MeV d(Be) break-up neutron spectrum characterized by a multiple-foil activation technique. The accumulated tritium was separated by vacuum extraction and measured by low-level gas-phase β^? counting. The systematic trend in the cross sections is somewhat similar to that in the 53 MeV d(Be) break-up neutron spectrum; apart from some initial decrease as a function of Z, the cross section is almost constant over the entire range of Z = 22 to 83. The magnitudes of the cross sections lie between those with 14 MeV neutrons and 53 MeV d(Be) break-up neutrons. Hauser-Feshbach calculations show that the statistical model describes the triton-emission cross sections for nuclei in the (2s, ld) shell within a factor of 2; for the heavier nuclei, however, the calculated cross sections are much smaller than the experimental values.