High-resolution Fourier-transform study of the X2Π3/2 → X1Π1/2 fine structure transitions of PbH and PbD

Near-infrared emission spectra of the X₂²Π_3/2 → X₁²Π_1/2 fine structure transitions of PbH and PbD have been investigated by high-resolution Fourier-transform spectrometry. The fine structure splitting in the X²Π_r ground state of ²⁰⁸PbH was found to be 6924.4926(4) cm⁻¹. Accurate rotational constants for the v = 0 and 1 vibrational levels of the X²Π_r states of ²⁰⁸PbH, ²⁰⁷PbH, ²⁰⁸PbD and ²⁰⁷PbD and hyperfine structure constants for the X₁²Π_1/2 states of ²⁰⁷PbH (²⁰⁷PbD) have been derived.     

Nonlocal effects in the optical response of composite materials with metallic nanoparticles

A phenomenological model for the optical response of composite materials with metallic nanoparticles is presented. This model applies the conventional effective medium theories (EMT) but takes into account the spatial dispersion effects in the dielectric response of the metallic nanoparticles. This leads to an EMT that depends on the size of the particles. Numerical results from a model computation shows that this effect due to the nonlocal optical response of the nanoparticles can increase the resonant absorption frequency of the composite significantly for particles of very small sizes; and can lead to resonant absorption even in the Bruggeman symmetric EMT—a feature which is believed to be absent in the conventional treatment where local response for the metal particles has been assumed.     

Epitaxial strain and superconductivity in La2-xSrxCuO4 thin films

The report that T(c) was doubled in underdoped La2-xSrxCuO4 films under compressive epitaxial strain has stirred great interest. We show that such films are extremely sensitive to oxygen intake, even at very low temperature, with startling consequences including colossal lattice expansion and a crossover from semiconductor to metallic behavior. We can bring T(c) up to 40 K in La2CuO4 films on SrTiO3 substrates-without any Sr doping and under tensile strain. On LaSrAlO4 substrates, we reached T(c)=51.5 K, the highest so far in La2-xSrxCuO4.     

Coupled edge plasmon modes of metal/dielectric multi-wedges

We present a metallic/dielectric multi-wedge model to investigate the coupled edge plasmon modes （CEPMs）, where all wedges have a common edge and the wave propagates along the edge direction. A general theoretical method valid to many practical structures is presented. The analytical dispersion relations of CEPMs in these structures are obtained and the CEPM properties are discussed with numerical results and the dispersion relations. For all structures mentioned in this paper, we find that the structures containing an even number of metallic wedges have four CEPMs and those with an odd-number of metallic wedges have two CEPMs. Further, the periodic structures containing any odd number of periods and any even number of periods possess their common CEPMs, respectively.     

Single-pulse drilling study on Au,Al and Ti alloy by using a picosecond laser

Picosecond laser single pulse ablation of Au, Al and Ti alloy (Ti6Al4V) was experimentally investigated with a laser pulse width of 10 ps at a wavelength of 1064 nm for potential industrial micromachining applications. The diameters, depths and morphologies of the drilled craters were studied. Two novel phenomena were found: as hole diameters decreased with fluence, a change of slope of the trend line indicated a change in ablation mechanism for Al and Ti alloy, metallic materials with short electron-phonon coupling times (<10 ps), while Au showed no such transition: an isolated island structure was also observed on Au due to significant melt expulsion. A one-dimensional two-temperature model has been used to discriminate different ablation phenomena. It is shown that metallic materials with different electron–phonon coupling constant have different ablation characteristics in the ps regime. This study could be very helpful for metallic material micromachining with high repetition rate ps lasers pulses which indicates that high throughput may be achieved as well as good machining quality.     

氢化物-原子荧光光谱法检测生活饮用水中的痕量铅

建立一种简便准确的氢化物-原子荧光光谱法检测生活饮用水中痕量铅的方法.在酸性介质中,以铁氰化钾为氧化剂,2%的盐酸为载流,样品中的铅与硼氢化钠(NaBH<,4>)或硼氢化钾(KBH<,4>)反应生成铅的挥发性氢化物(PbH<,4>),将氢化物导入原子化器中,检测其荧光强度.铅在0.00-30.0μg/L范围内,荧光强度...     

Evolution of morphologic properties on the preparation of Ir/Al2O3 catalysts with high metallic contents

Ir/Al₂O₃ catalysts with high metallic contents are applied on satellite thruster to decompose hydrazine. The present work has as principal aim the study of the morphologic evolution of Ir/Al₂O₃ catalysts with metallic contents from 12 to 30 wt.%. The catalysts were prepared through consecutive impregnations from the H₂IrCl₆ precursor, using three different types of aluminas. The specific surface area, volume and distribution of pore size, specific metallic area and metallic particles average diameter, as well as the mechanical resistance were determined. Results show that the Ir addition leads to a decrease of the specific surface area and the pores volumes, while increases the mechanical resistance. Values for average diameter of metallic particles are comprised between 1.4 and 2.4 nm when the metallic content increases from 12 to 30 wt.%. Catalysts containing 30 wt.% of Ir presents specific metallic areas around 30 m²/g, although pores volumes and distributions of pore size were considerably different for the three supports. Their metallic particles dispersion and size values are very close to those of a commercial catalyst Shell 405, even though the preparation methods were different. These results show that there is a strong interaction between the alumina and the iridium precursor.     

Ductile bulk metallic glass

We report on experimental evidence of pronounced global plasticity measured in monolithic Pt57.5Cu14.7Ni5.3P22.5 bulk metallic glass under both bending and unconfined compression loading conditions. A plastic strain of 20% is measured, never before seen in metallic glasses. Also, permanent deformation and a strain exceeding 3% before failure is observed during bending of 4 mm thick samples. To date, no monolithic metallic material has exhibited such a combination of high strength, extensive ductility, and high elastic limit. The large plasticity is reflected in a high Poisson ratio of 0.42, which causes the tip of a shear band to extend rather than initiate a crack. This results in the formation of multiple shear bands and is the origin of the observed large global ductility and very high fracture toughness, approximately 80 MPa m(-1/2).     

Colloids as model systems for metals and alloys: a case study of crystallization

Metallic systems are widely used as materials in daily human life. Their properties depend very much on the production route. In order to improve the production process and even develop novel materials a detailed knowledge of all physical processes involved in crystallization is mandatory. Atomic systems like metals are characterized by very high relaxation rates, which make direct investigations of crystallization very difficult and in some cases impossible. In contrast, phase transitions in colloidal systems are very sluggish and colloidal suspensions are optically transparent. Therefore, colloidal systems are often discussed as model systems for metals. In the present work, we study the crystallization process of charged colloidal systems from the very beginning. Charged colloids offer the advantage that the interaction potential can be systematically tuned by a variation of the particle number density and the salt concentration. We apply light scattering and ultra-small angle x-ray scattering to investigate the formation of short-range order in the liquid state even far from equilibrium, crystal nucleation and crystal growth. The results are compared with equivalent studies on metallic systems.     

Resistance,magnetoresistance, and thermopower of zinc nanowire composites

We report a very large enhancement of the thermopower of 4 nm diameter metallic Zn nanowires, with a temperature dependence that is consistent with that of their electrical resistivity and the Mott formula. The temperature dependence of the resistance, magnetoresistance, and thermopower of composites consisting of 15, 9, and 4 nm diameter Zn nanowires imbedded in porous host materials is reported. The 15 nm wires are metallic. The smaller wires show 1D weak localization, but the electrical resistivity mostly follows a T(-1/2) law, and the thermopower of the 4 nm wires saturates at -130 microV/K.     

Spin injection-driven switching in a magnetic junction

We investigate a perpendicular electric current passing through a “ferromagnetic nanojunction”, that is through some layered nanosized structure of spin-valve type, containing two ferromagnetic metallic layers. Spacer may be used between the metallic layers to prevent the rotation of the moving spin phases. Such an arrangement is typical for spin valves: one of the metallic layers has strongly pinned magnetic lattice and the other one has free magnetic lattice and free mobile spins. Further the conditions are derived to provide a very high nonequilibrium spin injection level. It appears that the so-called spin resistances of the constitutive layers should be in definite relations to each other. These relations lead to the situation where the spin injection becomes dominant and significantly suppresses the “ordinary” spin-transfer torque. As a result, the threshold current becomes lowered down to 2-3 and even more orders of magnitude.     

Observability of a projected new state of matter: a metallic superfluid

Dissipationless quantum states, such as superconductivity and superfluidity, have attracted interest for almost a century. A variety of systems exhibit these macroscopic quantum phenomena, ranging from superconducting electrons in metals to superfluid liquids, atomic vapors, and even large nuclei. It was recently suggested that liquid metallic hydrogen could form two new and unusual dissipationless quantum states, namely, the metallic superfluid and the superconducting superfluid. Liquid metallic hydrogen is projected to occur only at an extremely high pressure of about 400 GPa, with pressures on hydrogen of 320 GPa having already been reported. The issue to be addressed is whether this state could be experimentally observable in principle. We propose four experimental probes for detecting it.     

Silane decorated metallic nanorods for hydrophobic applications

A novel technique to modify a metallic surface for anti-icing applications is presented. An oblique angle deposition (OAD) technique has been used to fabricate metallic nanorods of Aluminum and Tungsten on a glass substrate. A conformal coating of a silane has been applied using a molecular vapor deposition technique. The resulting surface has shown a static contact angle of 134° with the water droplet. SEM, AFM and XPS have been used to study the surface modification. This is a highly promising approach for anti-icing applications due to its scalability at a very low cost.     

Optical transmission enhancement by a sub-wavelength film lens

A new sub-wavelength metallic film lens configuration is proposed, which is embedded in a thin ideal metal film, and its near field optical properties are investigated by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD)method. It is found that the optical transmission is greatly enhanced, and the spot size can be reduced by the sub-wavelength metallic film lens in comparison with the bare aperture. This kind of lens is expected to have practical applications in the very small aperture laser (VSAL), a promising nanosource for near-field optical storage and lithography.     

Weak localization, hole-hole interactions, and the "Metal"-insulator transition in two dimensions

A detailed investigation of the metallic behavior in high-quality GaAs-AlGaAs two-dimensional hole systems reveals the presence of quantum corrections to the resistivity at low temperatures. Despite the low density ( r(s)>10) and high quality of these systems, both weak localization (observed via negative magnetoresistance) and weak hole-hole interactions (giving a correction to the Hall constant) are present in the so-called metallic phase where the resistivity decreases with decreasing temperature. If these quantum corrections persist down to T = 0, the results suggest that even at high r(s) there is no metallic phase in two dimensions.     

Rare earth free exchange spring magnet FeCo/FePt(001): Giant magnetic anisotropy and energy product

Using the full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FLAPW) method, we have investigated the thickness dependent magnetic properties of rare earth free exchange spring magnet FeCo/FePt(001). The FeCo adlayer thickness is increased from one monolayer (ML) to four ML coverage. It is observed that the FeCo adlayers and Fe atoms in FePt substrate show almost half metallic behavior, while an ordinary metallic feature is found in Pt atoms. The average magnetization increases with FeCo thickness and the estimated maximum energy product reaches 66 MGOe in FeCo(4 ML)/FePt(001). A giant perpendicular magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA) energy of 18.20 meV/cell is found in pure FePt(001) and it becomes 17.35 meV/cell even in FeCo(4 ML)/FePt(001). In addition, we find very large coercivity field in FeCo/FePt(001) systems. For instance, the calculated maximum coercivity field in FeCo(4 ML)/FePt(001) is about 188 kOe. Both energy product and coercivity field calculations may imply that the FeCo/FePt can be utilized for potential rare earth free exchange spring magnet material.     

Some problems in understanding the electronic transport properties of carbon nanotube ropes

The resistance of single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCN) ropes or mats, and some individual tubes, typically shows a crossover from non-metallic to metallic temperature dependence as temperature increases. This systematic pattern is consistent with a series heterogeneous model involving metallic resistance and tunnelling through barriers such as defects and inter-rope contacts. The metallic resistivity term increases linearly with temperature for the ropes or mats, but faster for the individual nanotubes. In contrast to the almost vanishing thermoelectric power expected from electronic band structure calculations, the measured values for mats or films (including recent measurements in a vacuum) are even larger than for typical metals. The thermopower increases with temperature as for metals, but has a characteristic non-linear shape. This temperature dependence can be modelled, for example, with parallel conduction in metallic and semiconducting tubes, but the size of the metallic thermopower required is anomalously large.     

Prediction of new phases of nitrogen at high pressure from first-principles simulations

A rich variety of competing phases is predicted for nitrogen at accessible pressures, including a new metallic chainlike phase very close in energy to the previously predicted cubic gauche phase, and other phases at slightly higher energies, e.g., one with N2 and N6 units. Large energy barriers between structures can account for recent observations of metastability, and we identify a low barrier transition path from the known epsilon phase to the chainlike metallic phase. In analogy to MgB2, the metal is anisotropic with multiple Fermi surfaces formed from pi and sigma states.     

Many-body effect in the M45–N23N45–N45N45N45 coincidence spectroscopy spectra of metallic elements around Cd

The quasi-particle approximation for the 4p4d state of the metallic elements around Cd breaks down because of very rapid 4p4d–4d³ super Coster–Kroning (sCK) decay of the 4p hole in the presence of the spectator 4d hole. Here the underbar is a hole. As a result, the 4p4d multiplet coupling breaks down. We can examine the presence or absence of the 4p4d multiplet by Auger-electron sCK-electron coincidence spectroscopy measurement of the 3d–4p4d–4d³ Auger-preceded sCK transitions. We collect the sCK-electrons in coincidence with the Auger-electrons of a selected kinetic energy (KE) and vice versa. If the multiplet coupling breaks down and does not exist, the coincidence sCK-electron (or Auger-electron) lines shift as much as the Auger-electron (or sCK-electron) analyzer's selected KE is varied. We can determine not only the three 4d-hole sCK final-state energy but also the presence or absence of the 4p4d multiplet by Auger-electron sCK-electron coincidence spectroscopy. The unique capability of the coincidence measurement by which one can determine the correlation between an Auger-electron and a sCK electron generated, respectively, by creation and annihilation of the same Auger two-hole final state is very useful, even when the quasi-particle approximation of the two-hole state breaks down.     

Fabrication of a random convex-lens-shaped microstructure using a laser ablation

A convex-lens-shaped microstructure with a diameter of 50 μm on a metallic mold substrate was fabricated in this paper. A laser ablation process, in which the laser beam was focused and irradiated on the metallic mold substrate in order to remove a part of the substrate, was used for that. The convex-lens-shaped microstructure has not been reported in any studies of microstructure using the laser ablation process. It was proposed that the unbalanced ablation and re-adherence of the melted particles was the processing mechanism of the convex lens shape. The convex-lens-shaped microstructure fabricated in this study is smaller than the focused spot. It was expected that the same convex-lens-shaped microstructure can be fabricated even if the focused spot size is increased, so long as the fluence of the laser can be maintained. Therefore, the method proposed in this paper will improve the low processing speed, which has been the problem of a laser ablation process. The fabricated convex-lens-shaped microstructure on the metallic substrate can be used as the mold for the micro lens.