Optical properties of erbium-doped porous silicon waveguides

Planar and buried channel porous silicon waveguides (WG) were prepared from p⁺-type silicon substrate by a two-step anodization process. Erbium ions were incorporated into pores of the porous silicon layers by an electrochemical method using ErCl₃-saturated solution. Erbium concentration of around 10²⁰ at/cm³ was determined by energy-dispersive X-ray analysis performed on SEM cross-section. The luminescence properties of erbium ions in the IR range were determined and a luminescence time decay of 420 μs was measured. Optical losses were studied on these WG. The increased losses after doping were discussed.     

The effect of oxidation on physical properties of porous silicon layers for optical applications

In order to understand the optical loss mechanisms in porous silicon based waveguides, structural and optical studies have been performed. Scanning and transmission electron microscopic observations of porous silicon layers are obtained before and after an oxidation process at high temperature in wet O₂. Pore size and shape of heavily p-type doped Si wafers are estimated and correlated to the optical properties of the material before and after oxidation. The refractive index was measured and compared to that determined by the Bruggeman model.     

Corrosion behavior of low energy,high temperature nitrogen ion-implanted AISI 304 stainless steel

This work presents the results of a low-energy nitrogen ion implantation of AISI 304 type stainless steel (SS) at a moderate temperature of about 500°C. The nitrogen ions are extracted from a Kauffman-type ion source at an energy of 30 keV, and ion current density of 100 μA cm⁻². Nitrogen ion concentration of 6 × 10¹⁷, 8 × 10¹⁷ and 10¹⁸ ions cm⁻², were selected for our study. The X-ray diffraction results show the formation of CrN polycrystalline phase after nitrogen bombardment and a change of crystallinity due to the change in nitrogen ion concentration. The secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) results show the formation of CrN phases too. Corrosion test has shown that corrosion resistance is enhanced by increasing nitrogen ion concentration.      

Measurement of B(0)(d)-B_(0)(d) mixing rate from the time evolution of dilepton events at the upsilon(4S)

We report a determination of the B(0)(d)-&B_(0)(d) mixing parameter Deltam(d) based on the time evolution of dilepton yields in Upsilon(4S) decays. The measurement is based on a 5.9 fb(-1) data sample collected by the Belle detector at KEKB. The proper-time difference distributions for same-sign and opposite-sign dilepton events are simultaneously fitted to an expression containing Deltam(d) as a free parameter. Using both muons and electrons, we obtain Deltam(d) = 0.463+/-0.008 (stat)+/-0.016 (syst) ps(-1). This is the first determination of Deltam(d) from time evolution measurements at the Upsilon(4S). We also place limits on possible CPT violations.     

Non-equilibrium effects in chaperone-assisted translocation of a stiff polymer

Chaperone-assisted biopolymer translocation is the main model proposed for translocation in vivo. A dynamical Monte Carlo method is used to simulate the translocation of a stiff homopolymer through a nanopore driven by chaperones. Chaperones are proteins that bind to the polymer near the wall and prevent its backsliding through Cis side. The important parameters include binding energy, size and the local concentration of the chaperones. The profile of these local concentrations, build up the chaperones distribution. Here we investigate the effects of binding energy, size and the exponential distribution of chaperones in their equilibration in each step of the polymer translocation needed for stable translocation time. The simulation results show that in case of chaperones with the size of a monomer ($\lambda =1$) and/or positive effective binding energy and/or uniform distribution, the chaperones binding equilibration rate/frequency is less than 5 times per monomer. However, in some special cases in the exponential distribution of chaperones with size $\lambda >1$ and negative effective binding energy the equilibration rate will diverge to more than 20 times per monomer. We show that this non-equilibrium effect results in supper diffusion, seen before. Moreover, we confirm the equilibration process theoretically.     

A Review on Effects of Lubricant Formulations on Tribological Performance and Boundary Lubrication Mechanisms of Non-Doped DLC/DLC Contacts

Tribological efficiency of industrial applications involving boundary lubrication regime can be improved to an appreciable extent by the deposition of hard coatings on interacting surfaces. Among such coatings, diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings are considered to be one of the most suitable ones for the said role. DLC coatings possess a unique combination of physical, chemical, and material properties due to which they can help in minimizing friction-induced energy and material losses even under starved lubrication conditions. Since commercial lubricants are optimized for steel surfaces, therefore, a lot of experimental investigations were carried out to analyze the tribological compatibility of these lubricants with various DLC coatings. However, there is still a lack of understanding about how DLC coatings interact with conventional lubricant additives. Some researchers reported tribologically beneficial interactions between DLC coatings and formulated lubricants while others observed no such behavior. To address these inconsistencies, there is a need to rearrange the published data in a more apprehensible and organized manner with a special emphasis on the mechanisms responsible for a particular tribological behavior. In this way, it can be determined whether synergistic or antagonistic correlation exists between a particular DLC-lubricant combination and research on DLC coatings can be continued in a logical way. In this article, most widely investigated non-doped DLC coatings (ta-C, a-C:H, a-C, and ta-C:H) are tribologically analyzed. Average values of friction and wear coefficients are calculated for various DLC-lubricant combinations using already published data and compared to quantify the effectiveness of a particular lubricant additive in enhancing tribological characteristics of symmetrical non-doped DLC contacts. Moreover, tribological performance parameters of non-doped DLC coatings are compared with those of doped-DLC coatings to understand differences in their tribological behavior in combination with additives.     

Decoupling and reduction in Chern–Simons modified gravity

We show that for four-dimensional spacetimes with a non-null hypersurface orthogonal Killing vector and for a Chern–Simons (CS) background (non-dynamical) scalar field, which is constant along the Killing vector, the source-free equations of CS modified gravity decouple into their Einstein and Cotton constituents. Thus, the model supports only general relativity solutions. We also show that, when the cosmological constant vanishes and the gradient of the CS scalar field is parallel to the non-null hypersurface orthogonal Killing vector of constant length, CS modified gravity reduces to topologically massive gravity in three dimensions. Meanwhile, with the cosmological constant such a reduction requires an appropriate source term for CS modified gravity.     

Physico-Chemical Properties of Magnetic Dicationic Ionic Liquids with Tetrahaloferrate Anions

A series of imidazolium-based symmetrical and asymmetrical dicationic ionic liquids (DcILs) with alkyl spacers of different length and with [FeCl₃Br]⁻ as counter ion have been synthesized. The synthesized DcILs are characterized by using FTIR and Raman spectroscopy as well as mass spectrometry, along with single-crystal XRD analysis. Physicochemical properties such as solubility, thermal stability and magnetic susceptibility are also measured. These compounds show low melting points, good solubility in water and organic solvents, thermal stability, and paramagnetism. The products of molar susceptibility and temperature (χ_mol⋅T) for the synthesized DcILs have been found between 4.05 to 4.79 emu mol⁻¹ K Oe⁻¹ and effective magnetic moment values have also been determined to be compared to that expected from the spin-only approximation.