Potential possibilities of a laser plasma as a negative-ion source

The potential possibilities of a plasma heated by laser radiation as a negative-ion source are analyzed theoretically. It is shown that the efficiency of negative-ion formation in a laser plasma in the heating phase reaches 10¹⁵−10¹⁶ ions/J when the parameters of the laser radiation are optimally adjusted. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 67, 117–120 (July 1997)     

Statistical theory of the diffusion of a passive tracer in a random velocity field

A passive tracer on the surface of an incompressible liquid behaves like a tracer in two-dimensional compressible flows, whose characteristic feature is the formation of cluster structures, i.e., compact regions of increased density surrounded by vast low-density regions. The cluster formation dynamics are studied, and statistical spatiotemporal characteristics of the density fields, which faithfully reflect the properties of the cluster structures, are calculated. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 111, 1297–1313 (April 1997)     

Formation of a chaotic layer of nonlinear resonance by a two-frequency perturbation

A new effect [V. V. Vecheslavov, Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 109, 2208 (1996) (JETP 82, 1190 (1996)]—the appearance of low-frequency secondary harmonics in the separatrix mapping of a system—is discussed in detail for the example of a pendulum with a two-frequency perturbation. It is shown that there exist regions of values of the perturbation parameters where these harmonics make the main contribution to the formation of the chaotic layer of the fundamental resonance. The results of analytical and numerical determinations of the amplitudes of the secondary harmonics are compared. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 63, No. 12, 989–994 (25 June 1996)     

Convective model of a microwave discharge in a gas at atmospheric pressure in the form of a spatially localized plasma

Experiments and a theoretical model consistent with them are presented which show that a stationary microwave discharge in a gas at atmospheric pressure under the action of free convection due to the action of the buoyant force on the heated air can be spatially localized, taking a spheroidal shape. Vortex motion inside the spheroid gives this localized plasma formation some of the properties of a material body which are manifested in a distinct material isolation from the surrounding space, in the formation of a narrow thermal boundary layer and flow separation, and in the formation of secondary vortices in the wake region. The characteristic radius of the stationary localized plasma is governed mainly by the wavelength of the microwave radiation a∼0.137λ. Energy balance is established to a significant degree by convective cooling of the microwave-heated structure. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 112, 877–893 (September 1997)     

Crystallization of a dusty plasma in the positive column of a glow discharge

The formation of macroscopic ordered structures in the standing striations of a stationary glow discharge in Ne is observed. A Coulomb quasicrystal is formed by spherical glass particles with diameters of 50–63 μm and charge Z _p~7·10⁵ e. The interparticle distance is approximately 300 μm. This corresponds to a nonideality parameter Γ~5·10⁴, which leads to crystallization in the Yukawa model. The factors leading to the formation of a quasicrystal in the striations are discussed. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 64, No. 2, 86–91 (25 July 1996)     

Dynamics of formation of ordered structures in a thermal plasma with macroparticles

The molecular dynamics method is used to model the formation of ordered structures of charged macroparticles in a thermal plasma at atmospheric pressure. The results of the numerical calculations are compared with the experimental data. It is shown that the ordered structure of macroparticles detected experimentally is far from steady state, since the existence time of the plasma in the experiment is less than the characteristic time of formation of the structure. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 115, 837–845 (March 1999)     

Amplification of spin oscillation noise by self-modulation in a traveling magnetostatic wave

A theoretical analysis is made of the formation and evolution of modulational instability of a traveling magnetostatic spin wave in a ferromagnetic film. Results of earlier experiments are analyzed and it is demonstrated that the experimental results can be explained using a model describing the evolution of the signal wave and initial noise allowing for their nonlinear interaction. The instability process is simulated numerically and the results are compared with calculations using a deterministic model. Mechanisms are discussed for the loss of spectral symmetry in the formation of modulation frequency satellites. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 114, 628–639 (August 1998)     

On the formation of dynamic structures in the form of rotating rings and vortices in a thin layer of a magnetodielectric colloid subjected to a constant electric field

Experimental data on the electrical and optical properties of a thin layer of a magnetodielectric colloid obtained by Kozhevnikov et al. (Tech. Phys. 51 (7), 946 (2006)), are analyzed. Using a three-layer hierarchical model, the possible structure and properties of near-electrode layers are determined, the formation mechanisms of dynamic structures are described, and the variation of the electrical properties of the magnetodielectric colloid layer with time and constant electric field strength are discussed.     

Effect of pulsed excitation of a bounded medium on a plane electromagnetic wave

An analysis is made of the transformation of a plane monochromatic electromagnetic wave in response to a temporal change in the permittivity and conductivity of a semibounded medium. The change in the parameters of the medium takes the form of a rectangular pulse of arbitrary duration and amplitude. The detailed structure of the electric field and its evolutional redistribution are determined. The asymptotic formation of a backward wave is demonstrated, whose amplitude may exceed that of the primary wave for parameters typical of a semiconductor. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 69, 84–92 (August 1999)     

Selectivity in the aggregates of the chiral organolithium N-Boc-2-lithiopiperidine with a chiral ligand: a DFT study

In this paper the aggregates of the chiral organolithium N-Boc-2-lithiopiperidine [Boc=CO₂C(CH₃)₃], which play an important role in the formation of chiral 2-substituted piperidines found in many alkaloid structures and medicinal compounds, have been investigated within the framework of Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations. In the complex structures, the lithium atoms are tetra-coordinated, the diaminoalkoxide ligand is tridentate to one lithium atom and forms a chelate with the substrate which is stabilized by the solvent diethyl ether. The same type of bonding was observed for all the different ligand-bound structures; for ligands 6 and 7, which have bulky substituents, selectivity was in agreement with experiment. The results shed light on the microscopic structures of these species and suggest a potential ligand, 11, to yield high enantioselectivity.     

Fibril stability in solutions of twisted -sheet peptides: a new kind of micellization in chiral systems

The problem of fibril (fibre) formation in chiral systems is explored theoretically being supported by experiments on synthetic de novo 11-mer peptide forming self-assembled -sheet tapes. Experimental data unambiguously indicate that the tapes form fibrils of nearly monodisperse thickness ca . 8-10 nm. Fibril formation and stabilisation are attributed to inter-tape face-to-face attraction and their intrinsic twist, correspondingly. The proposed theory is capable of predicting the fibril aggregation number and its equilibrium twist in terms of molecular parameters of the primary tapes. The suggested novel mechanism of twist stabilisation of finite aggregates (fibrils) is different to the well-known stabilisation of micelles in amphiphilic systems, and it is likely to explain the formation and stability of fibrils in a wide variety of systems including proteinaceous amyloid fibres, sickle-cell hemoglobin fibres responsible for HbS anemia, corkscrew threads found in chromonics in the presence of chiral additives and native cellulose microfibrillar crystallites. The theory also makes it possible to extract the basic molecular parameters of primary tapes (inter-tape attraction energy, helical twist step, elastic moduli) from the experimental data. Received 7 May 1999 and Received in final form 15 February 2000     

Simulation of electromagnetic shower formation in a Germanium crystal

Abstract

When high-energy electrons penetrate crystalline matter, the successive processes of photon emission and pair production form an electromagnetic shower. If the incident electrons are directed along the crystal axis, the cross section for photon emission is drastically enhanced because electrons in ‘channeling’ states feel a strong electric field continuously. Experiments designed to detect this effect were performed at CERN. The results showed an anomalous peak in the energy loss spectrum of the emerging electrons. In this paper, we report results of a Monte-Carlo simulation of shower formation in a Germanium crystal. Our results agree with the experimental data more quantitatively than previous simulations. We simulated a shower formation by incident photons as well.     

Characteristic features of microcontact spectra of contacts between a metal and a quasi-1D conductor with a charge density wave

The current-voltage characteristics (IVCs) of Cu−K_0.3MoO₃ point contacts are investigated. The character of the nonlinearity and the observed asymmetric features of the IVCs indicate that a substantial shift of the chemical potential occurs near the boundary with the normal metal. Deformation of the charge density wave by an applied electric field leads to strong bending of the energy bands and to the formation of a potential well, whereupon the Fermi level falls within the region of allowed single-electron states. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 67, No. 2, 146–151 (25 January 1998)     

Possibility of the appearance of spin autowaves in a model of a ferromagnet with nonuniform dissipation

A model of a ferromagnet with nonuniform dissipation is introduced for the Landau-Lifshitz equations. It is shown that in this model a ferromagnet can be regarded as an oscillating active medium where the formation of autowave structures — spin autowaves, pacemakers, and spiral waves — is possible. Their wave characteristics, expressed in terms of the parameters of the medium, are found for a special case. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 513–515 (March 1997)     

Theory of heat and moisture transfer in a capillary-porous body

New differential equations describing the dynamics of the formation of temperature and moisture fields in capillary-porous media are derived on the basis of a complete analysis of the physical processes occurring in a capillary-porous body. The derivation of the equations is based on the well-known diffusion laws and functional relations between the temperature, moisture content, and vapor content, which are physical characteristics of the body. The equations obtained contain experimentally measurable physical quantities and dependences which characterize a specific capillary-porous body. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 68, 140–142 (February 1998)     

Two-parameter model of the metal-semiconductor transition in a quasi-one-dimensional system

A two-parameter, Peierls-type model of the metal-semiconductor phase transition is proposed. The order parameters, which represent the normalized amplitudes of static strain modes of the crystal, are coupled through the anharmonicity of interatomic interaction. The model is used as the basis of a theory accounting for the structural changes and formation of the band gap in the electron spectrum during phase transition in vanadium dioxide. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 925–928 (May 1997)     

Mechanisms for formation of a population inversion in the levels of metal atoms and ions in a plasma jet

The mechanisms for formation of population inversions in plasma jets of lithium, sodium, cadmium, and strontium vapor are studied. The primary contribution to forming a population inversion over the transitions of the alkali atoms is found to be three-body electron-ion recombination, and for transitions between the ion levels of strontium and cadmium, inelastic collisions with the buffer gas play an important role. Using helium instead of argon as a buffer leads to a substantial increase in the magnitude of the inversion. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 68, 134–135 (June 1998)     

Photoinduced superstructure in the low-temperature phase of a Peierls system

This paper is a theoretical study of the properties of the low-temperature phase of a Peierls system when nonequilibrium electron-hole pairs are excited in the phase. A microscopic theory is developed to show that at low temperatures a spatially nonuniform periodic structure with a modulated band gap forms in the thermodynamically nonequilibrium system considered. The critical temperature of formation of such a superstructure, the critical electron-hole pair concentration, the spatial period, and the percentage modulation are calculated. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 115, 1297–1314 (April 1999)     

Interaction of light with a dye-doped nematic liquid crystal

The interaction of linearly and circularly polarized beams with a nematic liquid crystal doped with light-absorbing dyes has been studied by light-diffraction and microprojection methods. It has been found that there is a threshold for the emergence of light-induced anisotropic structures, which, depending on the type of dye, can be axisymmetric or extended in a direction determined by the light field. Possible mechanisms leading to the formation of the anisotropic structures are discussed. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 111, 2059–2073 (June 1997)     

Mass spectrometric analysis of clusters formed in laser ablation of a sample

Experimental data are used as a basis for discussion of the principal methods of cluster formation in the laser ablation of targets: condensation during expansion of the cloud of evaporated material, clustering at the surface accompanying redeposition of material back on the target, and emission of entire nanoblocks from the target. Methods of distinguishing between these processes are discussed. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 69, 81–84 (September 1999)