Determination of tectonic uplift rates of Qinling mountains in central China by fission tracks

Fission track dating of apatite from granites collected at six elevations at Taibai mountains, Qinling range, central China has been carried out. The ages of apatites range from 31.3 to 40.5 Ma in sequence consistent with elevations from 1320 to 3760 m above sea level. The age–elevation plot suggests the presence of a break in slope, which may represent the base of an exhumed palaeo partial annealing zone (PAZ). Further work on track length measurements is urged for confirmation of this preliminary inference.     

The effect of simultaneous temperature, pressure and stress on the experimental annealing of spontaneous fission tracks in apatite: a brief overview

Tracks made in minerals by the electronic stopping of uranium fission fragments provide a modern geological dating tool, and are believed also to yield specific information on the low-temperature thermal history of rocks. Experimental work showing that the damaged crystal lattice along a fission track recovers primarily as a function of temperature ignored the fact that the basic theory of atomic diffusion requires an exponential decrease in the intrinsic diffusion coefficient with increasing pressure. Here, fission track recovery was experimentally investigated in basic apatite under the simultaneous influences of temperature, pressure and stress. We show that track fading is a complex recovery mechanism responding to several environmental physical parameters simultaneously. In particular a strong decrease in the track recovery rate was observed as a function of increasing pressure. And a nearly temperature-independent recovery was observed in samples under stress.     

Calibrated U-TH glasses for neutron dosimetry and determination of uranium and thorium concentration by the fission track method

We have prepared a series of standard uranium glasses. A primary standard containing 41 ppm of added U had its concentration and isotope ratio verified by mass spectrometry and by fission track techniques. Secondary standards were compared to the primary standard using the fission track technique. These glasses are useful for measuring both Th and U in solids. The U concentration in an unknown is determined by comparing the fission track density induced by thermal neutron irradiation with the corresponding density in the standard. Th is measured by a cyclotron irradiation using the same U standards. The glasses are also useful for neutron dosimetry. Investigators may obtain small samples of most of these standards from R. H. Brill of the Corning Museum of Glass. Although most of the glasses were fabricated from depleted uranium, one standard containing natural uranium is available. A standard Th glass with concentration of 41 ppm was also made.     

利用252 Cf快裂变室测量BC501A液闪探测器的相对探测效率和响应函数

本文利用²⁵²Cf快裂变室和多参数数据采集系统,逐事例的同时记录了自发裂变中子和瞬发伽马的飞行时间(TOF),脉冲形状甄别(PSD)和反冲能量(RE,裂变中子是通过测量反冲质子;瞬发伽马是通过测量康普顿反冲电子)三维信息.详细介绍了通过离线数据分析完全扣除三维信息中的伽马事例贡献,以获得Φ50.8 mm×50.8 mm的BC501A液闪探测器的相对探测效率和响应函数的方法.在不通过探测器响应函数进行数据转换的条件下,利用中子的能量直接确定了中子的有效测量阈值.得到的中子 关键词： 252Cf快裂变室')" href="#">²⁵²Cf快裂变室 BC501A液闪探测器 相对探测效率 响应函数     

Correction of local B0 shifts in 3D EPSI of the human brain at 4 T

High-spatial-resolution acquisition (HR) was previously proposed for 3D echo-planar spectroscopic imaging (EPSI) in combination with a high-spatial-resolution water reference EPSI data set to minimize inhomogeneous spectral line broadening, allowing for local frequency shift (B(0) shift) correction in human brain metabolite maps at 1.5 T (Ebel A et al., Magn. Reson. Imaging 21:113-120, 2003). At a higher magnetic field strength, B(0), increased field inhomogeneities typically lead to increased line broadening. Additionally, increased susceptibility variations render shimming of the main magnetic field over the whole head more difficult. This study addressed the question whether local B(0)-shift correction still helps limit line broadening in whole-brain 3D EPSI at higher magnetic fields. The combination of HR and local B(0)-shift correction to limit line broadening was evaluated at 4 T. Similar to the results at 1.5 T, the approach provided a high yield of voxels with good spectral quality for 3D EPSI, resulting in improved brain coverage.     

Pressure-induced change of the interlayer exchange interaction from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic in CS2CuF4 observed by neutron scattering experiments up to 2 GPa

Abstract

Neutron scattering experiments on the two-dimensional Heisenberg ferromagnets Cs₂ CuF₄ and K₂CuF₄ have been performed around 2 ～ 3 GPa over 1·4–15 K. At ambient pressure both the intralayer and the interlayer exchange interactions in these two compounds are ferromagnetic. At about 2 GPa, the interlayer exchange coupling in Cs₂ CuF₄ is found to change from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic, while the ferromagnetic intralayer exchange interaction is maintained. Contrary to Cs₂CuF₄, the ferromagnetism in K₂Cuf₄ is not destroyed by pressure up to 9 GPa, that was confirmed in the early study of the magnetic susceptibility measurements.     

Improvement in the corrosion resistance of Al18B4O33w/2024Al composite by laser surface treatment

Aluminum metal-matrix composites (MMCs) show great potential for aircraft industries. Nevertheless, the composites can be affected by different forms of corrosion such as pitting and galvanic corrosion. A pulsed YAG laser installation was used to produce surface treatment on Al₁₈B₄O₃₃w/2024Al composite. Results indicate that laser power has significant influences on both of the microstructure and the corrosion resistance. The difference in morphological transformations was observed on the surfaces of the laser-treated specimens. An increase in E_pit was obtained after laser treatment for the composite. The improvement was considered primarily due to the reduction both of reinforcement Al₁₈B₄O₃₃ whisker and intermetallics CuAl₂ on the surfaces of the laser-treated composites, which were found to be sites for pits nucleation. Moreover, the specimen with 700 W laser treatment exhibited a much greater resistance to corrosion than the other specimens with laser treatment. This was attributed to the formation of the homogeneous and defect free microstructure in the laser-modified layer.     

Effect of the parameters on diffraction efficiency after thermal fixing for reflection geometry hologram storage in LiNbO3:Fe

For reflection geometry hologram storage in LiNbO₃:Fe, we have shown that the diffraction efficiency increases with doping level and thickness of storage material monotonically. When the acute angle between reference and z-axis is large enough for getting a relative small Bragg angle that is needed for angle multiplexing, smaller angle does good to diffraction efficiency after thermal fixing. And for absorption coefficient, there is an appropriate value responding to optimal diffraction efficiency after thermal fixing and we develop a theoretical model that predicts achievable diffraction efficiency after thermal fixing as a function of crystal thickness, doping level, acute angle between reference and z-axis and absorption coefficient. We compare this model with experiment results and get a good agreement.     

Flip-back, an old trick to face highly contrasted relaxation times: application in the characterization of pharmaceutical mixtures by CPMAS NMR

The ¹³C–¹H CPMAS with flip-back pulse NMR experiment is revisited in view of applications to pharmaceutical mixtures. The analysis of the kinetics of relaxation and CP transfer with and without the flip-back pulse shows that a significant gain in ¹³C signal can be expected (thus in experimental time) from the flip-back pulse for protons with long T₁. The gain is of the order of T₁ of the protons expressed in seconds. The experiment is applied on samples with highly contrasted spin-lattice relaxation times T₁ for protons, situation encountered in pharmaceutical mixtures. The application of the flip-back increases significantly the relative signal intensity of the component with the longer T₁, making this component detectable even after using short recycle delays. Therefore, this CPMAS with flip-back experiment could be used routinely to get ¹³C CPMAS NMR spectra of mixtures in constant experimental time and signal-to-noise ratio without the need for optimization of the recycle delays, and for whatever may be the degree of crystallinity of the active principal ingredient (API) and/or excipients.     

Factors affecting the superconductivity in the process of depositing Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4-δ by the pulsed electron deposition technique

On SrTiO₃ single crystal substrate, by using the pulsed electron deposition technique, the high-quality electron doped Nd_1.85Ce_0.15CuO_4−δ superconducting film was successfully fabricated. After careful study on the R-T curves of the obtained samples deposited with different substrate temperatures, thicknesses, annealing methods and pulse frequencies, the effects of them on the superconductivity of the films were found, and the reasons were also analyzed. Additionally, by using the same model of the pulsed laser deposition technique, the relation between the target-to-substrate distance and the deposition pressure was drawn out as a quantitative one. Supported by the Key Project of Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. Z605131), the ‘100 Talents Project’ of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Creative Research Group of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 60321001) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 60571029)     

A DFT study on the formation of CH3O on Cu2O(1 1 1) surface by CH3OH decomposition in the absence or presence of oxygen

The formation mechanism of CH₃O by the adsorption and decomposition of CH₃OH on clean and oxygen-precovered Cu₂O(1 1 1) surface has been investigated with density functional theory method together with the periodic slab models. Two possible formation pathways of CH₃O by CH₃OH decomposition on oxygen-precovered (O_pre) Cu₂O(1 1 1) surface were proposed and discussed. One is the O-H bond-cleavage of CH₃OH with H migration to O_pre to form CH₃O; the other is the C-O bond-scission of CH₃OH with CH₃ migration to O_pre leading to CH₃O_pre. The calculated results show that the O-H bond-breaking path has the lowest activation barrier 26.8 kJ mol⁻¹, the presence of oxygen-precovered on Cu₂O(1 1 1) surface exhibits a high surface reactivity toward the formation of CH₃O by the O-H bond-cleavage of CH₃OH, and reduce the activation barrier of O-H bond-cleavage. The C-O bond-breaking path was inhibited by dynamics, suggesting that the O atom of CH₃O is not from the oxygen-precovered, but comes from the O of CH₃OH. Meanwhile, the calculated results give a clear illustration about the formation mechanism of CH₃O in the presence of oxygen and the role of oxygen at the microscopic level.     

Fast, easy ethanomethanolysis of Jatropha curcus oil for biodiesel production due to the better solubility of oil with ethanol in reaction mixture assisted by ultrasonication

Biodiesel was obtained by transesterification of Jatropha curcus oil with anhydrous methanol, ethanol, and various mixtures of methanol/ethanol system. The present research work ultrasonic assisted transesterification of J. curcus oil was carried out in the presence of various mixtures of methanol/ethanol system and potassium hydroxide (KOH) as a catalyst, keeping the molar ratio of oil to alcohol 1:6. The methodology allows for the reaction to be run under atmospheric conditions. The ethanomethanolysis and ultrasonic mixing promote the rate of transesterification reaction due to the better solubility of oil with ethanol in reaction mixture and obtained methyl esters as well as ethyl esters.     

Detection of functional states by the ‘LAMDA’ classification technique: application to a coagulation process in drinking water treatment

The present Note proposes a learning classification methodology to identify functional states on a coagulation process involved in drinking water treatment. In this work, we chose to carry out the supervised control of this process while using the LAMDA (Learning Algorithm for Multivariate Data Analysis) classification technique. The LAMDA classification technique proposes the interactive participation of the expert operator during the learning phase and in the optimisation of the classification. In this work, all information stemming from the environment process as well as expert knowledge has been aggregated and exploited. The application chosen for state identification is the Rocade drinking water treatment plant located at Marrakech, Morocco. To cite this article: B. Lamrini et al., C. R. Physique 6 (2005).     

Probing the anisotropy constants of SmCo5 and PrCo5 by Hall resistance measurements in pulsed high magnetic fields up to 47 T

In order to assess the anisotropy constants of highly anisotropic thin film samples with anisotropy fields well above 10 T, Hall resistance measurements were conducted in pulsed magnetic fields. These measurements also deliver the anomalous Hall data, which are proportional to the perpendicular magnetisation. This specific approach combines the high field values obtainable by pulsed fields with a measurement technique sensitive enough to be applied to thin film samples. Two epitaxial Rare Earth-Cobalt thin films with large in-plane uniaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy at room temperature were studied. The resulting anisotropy fields and constants are discussed with respect to measurements on single crystals and similar films investigated in quasi-static magnetic fields well below the anisotropy field. The present technique proved to be very valuable to highly anisotropic samples, as the approach to saturation is fully monitored and the data thus provides a more extended view on the hard axis magnetisation process.