Effective concentration of electrons in metals upon measurements via positron annihilation spectroscopy

Calculations are performed together with the summarization of published data on the measurement of positron annihilation rates in a number of simple substances. The information potential of different methods underlying positron annihilation spectroscopy is analyzed as applied to the study of condensed matter. The features of the mechanism of positron annihilation in metals are discussed. The possibility of investigating the electronic and defect structures of metals and alloys using the method of the time distribution of annihilation photons is considered.     

Momentum distribution in benzene: A comparison of compton scattering and positron annihilation

Probabilities in momentum space for the benzene molecule are calculated for two cases: An ordinary benzene molecule, and benzene with a bound positron which is coalesced with one of the electrons. The former probability is related to the Compton scattering profile; the latter, to angular correlation measurements made in positron annihilation experiments. In this work we make two comparisons on the basis of quantum mechanical calculations; a) between Compton scattering and positron annihilation results, and b) among the several possible positron annihilation results associated with different symmetries for the positronic molecular orbital (PMO). The Compton scattering results are found to be similar to the positron annihilation results for the more symmetrical PMOs; and all these are quite different from the positron annihilation results for the less symmetrical PMOs. A suggestion for a crucial experiment is made.     

Role of Δ exchange for p annihilation into two-pion and three-pion channels

p annihilation into two pions and three pions is studied in a baryon exchange model. Annihilation diagrams involving nucleon as well as Δ-resonance exchanges are included consistently in the two- and three-pion channels. Effects from the initial-state interaction are fully taken into account. A comparison of the influence of the Δ exchange on the considered annihilation channels is made and reveals that its importance for three-pion annihilation is strongly reduced as compared to two-pion annihilation. It is found that annihilation into three uncorrelated pions can yield up to 10% of the total experimentally observed three-pion annihilation cross-section. Received: 16 January 2002 / Accepted: 20 February 2002     

Positron annihilation in molecules by capture into vibrational Feshbach resonances of infrared-active modes

Enhanced positron annihilation on polyatomic molecules is a long-standing and complex problem. We report the results of calculations of resonant positron annihilation on methyl halides. A free parameter of our theory is the positron binding energy. A comparison with energy-resolved annihilation rates measured for CH3F, CH3Cl, and CH3Br [L. D. Barnes, Phys. Rev. A 74, 012706 (2006)10.1103/PhysRevA.74.012706] shows good agreement and yields estimates of the binding energies.     

分子聚集体中激子-激子湮灭过程

分子的激发能量转移和电荷转移是提高光伏电池和发光二极管效率的关键问题,其中分子聚集体中的激子-激子湮灭过程是影响分子激发能量转移的重要方面,细致研究激子-激子湮灭的动力学过程并与相关的瞬间吸收谱信号对比对相关的理论和实验都有重要意义.本文在分子间弱耦合近似下,用经典的率方程,应用方酸分子的基本参数对激子-激子湮灭过程做了微观描述,通过改变相关参数,研究了外场激发强度、聚集体的偶极矩位形、分子内的衰变率等因素对激子-激子湮灭过程的影响,分析了激子在第一激发态和高阶激发态的驰豫时间、电荷转移相干时间、激子融合和湮灭时间之间的关系,得到的结论适用于高阶激发态能级能量约为第一激发态能级能量的2倍的分子组成的分子聚集体.研究发现,J型聚集体由于相干能量转移时间较短,比H型聚集体有更高的湮灭率.激发场强越强,激子-激子湮灭的效率越高.分子高阶激发态的衰变率是激子-激子湮灭过程的关键因素.     

Atomic processes in antiproton-matter interactions

Atomic processes dominate antiproton stopping in matter at nearly all energies of interest. They significantly influence or determine the antiproton annihilation rate at all energies around or below several MeV. This article discusses what is known about the atomic processes which, through their effect on stopping and annihilation, significantly influence the spatial distribution of antiproton annihilations in a material. For stopping above about 10 eV the processes are antiproton-electron collisions, effective at medium keV through high MeV energies, and elastic collisions with atoms and adiabatic ionization of atoms, effective from medium eV through low keV energies. For annihilation above about 10 eV it is the enhancement of the antiproton annihilation rate due to the antiproton-nucleus Coulomb attraction, effective around and below a few tens of MeV. At about 10 eV and below, the atomic rearrangement/annihilation process determines both the stopping and annihilation rates. Although a fair amount of theoretical and some experimental work relevant to these processes exist, there are a number of energy ranges and material types for which experimental data does not exist and for which the theoretical information is not as well grounded or as accurate as desired. Additional experimental and theoretical work is required for accurate prediction of antiproton stopping and annihilation for energies and materials relevant to antiproton experimentation and application.     

Doppler broadening of positron annihilation photons in metals

The Doppler broadening of positron annihilation photons was measured in 17 metals. A model which considers the positron lifetime spectra in metals to be composed of terms for annihilation with conduction and core electrons and surface centers of low electron momentum is used to correlate calculated core annihilation rates with the Doppler lineshape. Ta metal was doped with defects with high energy implantations of¹⁴N⁺⁴ ions at variable doses. Differences in the Doppler linewidths were ascribed as being principally a reflection of the probabilty of annihilation with core electrons relative to annihilation with conduction electrons.     

Oxidation and thermal reduction of the Cu(1 0 0) surface as studied using positron annihilation induced Auger electron spectroscopy (PAES)

Changes in the surface of an oxidized Cu(1 0 0) single crystal resulting from vacuum annealing have been investigated using positron annihilation induced Auger electron spectroscopy (PAES). PAES measurements show a large increase in the intensity of the annihilation induced Cu M_2,3VV Auger peak as the sample is subjected to a series of isochronal anneals in vacuum up to annealing temperature 300 °C. The intensity then decreases monotonically as the annealing temperature is increased to ∼600 °C. Experimental probabilities of annihilation of surface-trapped positrons with Cu 3p and O 1s core-level electrons are estimated from the measured intensities of the positron annihilation induced Cu M_2,3VV and O KLL Auger transitions. Experimental PAES results are analyzed by performing calculations of positron surface states and annihilation probabilities of surface-trapped positrons with relevant core electrons taking into account the charge redistribution at the surface, surface reconstructions, and electron-positron correlations effects. The effects of oxygen adsorption on localization of positron surface state wave function and annihilation characteristics are also analyzed. Possible explanation is proposed for the observed behavior of the intensity of positron annihilation induced Cu M_2,3VV and O KLL Auger peaks and probabilities of annihilation of surface-trapped positrons with Cu 3p and O 1s core-level electrons with changes of the annealing temperature.     

Single and multiple random walks on random lattices: Excitation trapping and annihilation simulations

Random walk simulations of exciton trapping and annihilation on binary and ternary lattices are presented. Single walker visitation efficiencies for ordered and random binary lattices are compared. Interacting multiple random walkers on binary and ternary random lattices are presented in terms of trapping and annihilation efficiencies that are related to experimental observables. A master equation approach, based on Monte Carlo cluster distributions, results in a nonclassical power relationship between the exciton annihilation rate and the exciton density.     

Evolution of pores in mesoporous silica films: Porogen loading effect

Mesoporous silica films were synthesized via a sol-gel process under an acidic condition. Various amounts of triblock copolymer F38 were loaded to precursor sols as the pore generator. The evolution of the pores generated by porogen decomposition was investigated as a function of F38 loading by positron annihilation gamma-ray energy spectroscopy and positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy based on slow positron beams. The threshold of pore percolation is found to be around 10 wt% of F38 loading by positron annihilation gamma-ray energy spectroscopy. Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy in the films show that the pore size increases from 1 nm to 3 nm with increasing F38 loading from 5 wt% to 30 wt%.     

Non-radiative annihilation of singlet excitons on triplet excitons in organic molecular crystals

The per sec propability is calculated of the non-radiative annihilation of singlet excitons on triplet excitons in organic molecular cyrstals. The influence of the non-radiative annihilation of singlet excitons on triplet excitons on the quenching of crystal fluorescence caused by the radiative annihilation of singlet excitons is studied theoretically on the basis of formulae derived.Na Slovance 2, Praha 8, Czechoslovakia.     

Low energy antiproton-proton annihilation and meson spectroscopy

Recent results in antiproton-proton annihilation at rest from the Crystal Barrel at CERN/LEAR are reviewed. Rates for annihilation at rest into various two-body channels have been measured. In spite of the complexity of the annihilation mechanism, simple tests based on the underlying quark constituents can be applied. The annihilation process is also useful to investigate the spectrum of light quark mesons and to search for exotic (non-q¯q) mesons. Three scalar states have been found in the 1500 MeV mass region. One of them is a good candidate for the ground state glueball.     

Study of the effect of annealing on defects in Fe-Mn-Si-Cr-Ni-C alloy by slow positron beam

FeMnSi shape memory alloys (SMAs) have received much attention as one-way SMAs due to their cost-effectiveness. Variable-energy (0-30 keV) positron beam studies have been carried out on a Fe-Mn-Si-Cr-Ni-C alloy with different degrees of deformation. Doppler broadening profiles of the positron annihilation as a function of incident positron energy were shown to be quite sensitive to defects introduced by deformation. The variation of the nature and the concentration of defects are studied as a function of isochronal annealing temperature. These results are correlated with the data measured with the positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS). The positron annihilation results are compared to XRD and optical microscopy (OM).     

Tunable monoenergy positron annihilation spectroscopy of polyethylene glycol thin films

Doppler broadening and coincidence Doppler broadening of annihilation radiation experiments have been performed in three kinds of polyethylene glycol(PEG) membrane formed with different average molecular weight using the tunable monoenergy slow positron probe as a function of implantion energy. The obtained positron annihilation parameters are interpreted from two aspects: surface effect and differences in micro-structure or chemical environment of positron annihilation. The experimental results show that the regulation of densification of PEG molecular packing and distribution uniformity from the near surface layer to the bulk region in the film forming process can be well realized by changing its molecular weight. Combining a variable monoenergetic slow positron beam and these two positron annihilation spectroscopy methods is a powerful tool to study positron annihilation characteristics and for polymeric thin-film fine structure analysis.     

Dark matter as a localized scalar in the extra dimension

We consider a standard model singlet which is accessible to a single extra dimension and its zero mode is localized with Gaussian profile around a point different from the origin. This zero-mode scalar is a possible candidate for the dark matter and its annihilation rate is sensitive to the compactification radius of the extra dimension, the localization width and the position. For the case of non-resonant annihilation, we estimated the dark matter scalar location around a point, at a distance ∼3× localization width from the origin, by using the annihilation rate which is based on the current relic density.     

Relativistic three-body recombination with the QED vacuum

Electron-positron pair annihilation into a single photon is studied when a second free electron is present. Focussing on the relativistic regime, we show that the photon emitted in the three-lepton interaction may exhibit distinct angular distributions and polarization properties. Moreover, the process can dominate over two-photon annihilation in relativistic electron-positron plasmas of few-MeV temperature. An analogy with three-body recombination of electrons with ions is drawn.     

Cosmic gamma-rays associated with annihilation of relativistic e+ −e− pairs

Results of electron-positron annihilation spectrum investigations are reported. The radiation spectra of an e⁺ ?e^? relativistic maxwellian plasma are presented. We consider the particular case of positron annihilation on electrons at rest. It is shown that for positrons with a suprathermal power law distribution the radiation due to annihilation exceeds bremsstrahlung up to at least ω ≈ 100 mc².     

Pseudo-potential caculations of positron annihilation rates in bubbles of helium contained in the metals Mg,Ag and Au

Abstract

A pseudo-potential technique has been applied to calculate the annihilation rates for positrons in bubbles of helium gas in gold and silver. The positron pseudo-wavefunction in each case was found to be in a surface state of the metal, the exact form of which displayed a slight dependance on the density of the helium gas. The annihilation rate of the positron was the sum of a nearly constant surface rate and a strongly density dependant annihilation rate with the helium electrons. There is a trend for annihilation with the helium to be greater in metals with low free electron densities, the helium in such metals resting closer to the metal surface thus increasing the overlap of the positron wavefunction with the helium.     

Investigations of neutron irradiated iron by positron annihilation and correlated internal friction measurements

Positron annihilation experiments have been performed on iron after low temperature neutron irradiation and during isochronal annealing. A good correlation exists between internal friction and positron annihilation data for iron with interstitial impurities, proving that these impurities react with vacancies during annealing (complex-formation).     

Phase transition in annihilation-limited processes

A system of particles is studied in which the stochastic processes are one-particle type-change (or one-particle diffusion) and multi-particle annihilation. It is shown that, if the annihilation rate tends to zero but the initial values of the average number of the particles tend to infinity, so that the annihilation rate times a certain power of the initial values of the average number of the particles remain constant (the double scaling) then if the initial state of the system is a multi-Poisson distribution, the system always remains in a state of multi-Poisson distribution, but with evolving parameters. The large time behavior of the system is also investigated. The system exhibits a dynamical phase transition. It is seen that for a k-particle annihilation, if k is larger than a critical value k_c, which is determined by the type-change rates, then annihilation does not enter the relaxation exponent of the system; while for k < k_c, it is the annihilation (in fact k itself) which determines the relaxation exponent.