Impact of silica environment on hyperfine interactions in 𝜖-Fe2O3 nanoparticles

Magnetic nanoparticles have found broad applications in medicine, especially for cell targeting and transport, and as contrast agents in MRI. Our samples of ??-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles were prepared by annealing in silica matrix, which was leached off and the bare particles were then coated with amorphous silica layers of various thicknesses. The distribution of particle sizes was determined from the TEM pictures giving the average size ～20 nm and the thickness of silica coating ～5; 8; 12; 19 nm. The particles were further characterized by the XRPD and DC magnetic measurements. The nanoparticles consisted mainly of ??-Fe₂O₃ with admixtures of ～1 % of the α phase and less than 1 % of the γ phase. The hysteresis loops displayed coercivities of ～2 T at room temperature. The parameters of hyperfine interactions were derived from transmission Mössbauer spectra. Observed differences of hyperfine fields for nanoparticles in the matrix and the bare ones are ascribed to strains produced during cooling of the composite. This interpretation is supported by slight changes of their lattice parameters and increase of the elementary cell volume deduced from XRD. The temperature dependence of the magnetization indicated a two-step magnetic transition of the ??-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles spread between ～85 K and ～150 K, which is slightly modified by remanent tensile stresses in the case of nanoparticles in the matrix. The subsequent coating of the bare particles by silica produced no further change in hyperfine parameters, which indicates that this procedure does not modify magnetic properties of nanoparticles.     

Structure of amyloid aggregates of lysozyme from small-angle X-ray scattering data

The structure of filament amyloid aggregates of hen egg white lysozyme in water has been investigated by the small-angle X-ray scattering method. The experimental data are described by different cylindrical models, among which the best agreement is reached with the long helix model. A comparison of the results with the small-angle neutron scattering data reveals the influence of the heavy component of the solvent (a H₂O/D₂O mixture) on the structure of the filaments.     

On the interaction of a beam of polar molecules with a static and a resonant RF field as a source of molecular interferences

A molecular beam interference model is presented based on a two-state interaction between a polar molecule and a resonant RF field as it occurs in the so-called C-field of a typical molecular beam electric resonant spectrometer. The treatment shows the onset of interferences in the beam transmission spectra as well as in its transverse profile. It is demonstrated how the molecular interferences are originated by the wavefunction phase shift introduced by the resonant RF field. Furthermore it is shown that for a given beam velocity and oscillating field frequency the fringes’ visibility depends on the strength of the RF field, i.e. the Rabi frequency, in the transmission spectra. Likewise the presence of a RF field gradient in the perpendicular beam direction gives rise to a peak structure in the transverse beam profile. The theoretical model was applied to simulate a variety of beam transmission spectra under resonant conditions as well as some experimental data already published by our group showing a satisfactory agreement between experimental and simulated data. Finally, the potentiality of this internal state molecular interferometer to carry out studies in matter-wave interferometry is remarked.     

AC susceptibility of thin Pb films in intermediate and mixed state

Thin films of type I superconductors of a thickness comparable or less than a flux penetration length behave like type II superconductors in a mixed state. With decreasing film thickness normal domains carrying a magnetic flux get smaller with smaller number of flux quanta per domain and finally transform into single quantum flux lines, i.e. quantum vortices similar to those found in type II superconductors. We give an evidence of this behavior from the measurements of the nonlinear response of a total magnetic moment to an applied AC magnetic field, directly from the temperature dependence of an AC susceptibility.     

Monte Carlo simulation of ion–material interactions in nuclear fusion devices

One of the key aspects regarding the technological development of nuclear fusion reactors is the understanding of the interaction between high-energy ions coming from the confined plasma and the materials that the plasma-facing components are made of. Among the multiple issues important to plasma–wall interactions in fusion devices, physical erosion and composition changes induced by energetic particle bombardment are considered critical due to possible material flaking, changes to surface roughness, impurity transport and the alteration of physicochemical properties of the near surface region due to phenomena such as redeposition or implantation. A Monte Carlo code named MATILDA (Modeling of Atomic Transport in Layered Dynamic Arrays) has been developed over the years to study phenomena related to ion beam bombardment such as erosion rate, composition changes, interphase mixing and material redeposition, which are relevant issues to plasma-aided manufacturing of microelectronics, components on object exposed to intense solar wind, fusion reactor technology and other important industrial fields. In the present work, the code is applied to study three cases of plasma material interactions relevant to fusion devices in order to highlight the code’s capabilities: (1) the Be redeposition process on the ITER divertor, (2) physical erosion enhancement in castellated surfaces and (3) damage to multilayer mirrors used on EUV diagnostics in fusion devices due to particle bombardment.     

Electronic structure of amorphous Nb1-x Si x films studied by X-ray emission and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

We present valence band spectra of the amorphous system Nb_1–x Si _x (0.2x0.8), of bcc-Nb and of a-Si obtained by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, Al K) and X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES, Si K-emission bands). The samples were prepared as thin films by sputtering. The origin of all prominent spectral features was identified and consistently correlated to Si 3s-, Si 3p-and Nb 4d-derived states. The Nb4d-Si3p coupling is stable in binding energy over a wide concentration range. There is strong experimental evidence that the short range order changes considerably within the concentration interval 0.4x0.7, whereas the partial density of states of the Si 3p-electrons is clearly altered in the small concentration range 0.50x0.57.     

Hypernuclear production with a strong spin-flip

A kinematically correct treatment of the full transition amplitude for many-body hypernuclear production is presented. By an example of (⁺, K⁺) reaction, effects of the spin-flip amplitude and its interference with the spin-non-flip amplitude are demonstrated and specified for ¹² C.Dedicated to Academician Václav Votruba on the occasion of his eightieth birthday.The discussions with many colleagues are appreciated, in particular those with R. Mach, L. Majling and T. Motoba were of much use.     

Theoretical vibrational terms and rotational constants for the 15N substituted isotopologues of N2O calculated using normal hyperspherical coordinates

Variational calculations of the vibrational terms G_v and rotational constants B_v of the ¹⁴N¹⁵N¹⁶O, ¹⁵N¹⁴N¹⁶O and ¹⁵N¹⁵N¹⁶O isotopologues of nitrous oxide are carried out using normal hyperspherical coordinates. The Morse-cosine potential energy surface for N₂O previously determined by the authors by fitting to a set of experimental vibrational frequencies is employed. The G_v and B_v spectroscopic constants calculated for the ¹⁵N substituted isotopologues show an satisfactory agreement with those experimentally observed for a large number of vibrational bands of these isotopologues recently measured. Predicted calculated values of these spectroscopic constants for unobserved vibrational bands of the ¹⁵N substituted isotopologues are given in order to be of help in the identification and characterization of such bands, as a complement to the use of global effective Hamiltonians.     

New collective modes of interaction nature in inhomogeneous Ising networks

We propose a vertex formulation of the Ising model with inhomogeneous external field on multiconnected networks possessing a superbond structure. The related technique based on gauge degrees of freedom enables us to recognize new collective modes of interaction nature, which provide an exact solution of the inverse profile problem and an explicit form of a local free-energy functional on an extended magnetization-mode space. Application is made to a square strip.