Mass spectrometry of molecules and radicals in glow discharge plasma

The article represents a method and equipment developed for mass spectrometric analysis of plasma, that is, for measurement of concentration of atoms and molecules, and their fragments, including free radicals. A compact and inexpensive mass spectrometer is based on a quadrupole residual gas analyzer (RGA-200, Stanford Research Systems). The design of the two-section differential pumping chamber makes it possible to bring the mass-spectrometer analyzer to the entrance diaphragm to a distance of 40 mm in order to measure quick reacting and easily condensed particles. The equipment was used for analyzing the composition of spherical glow discharge plasma in methanol vapor and acetone-nitrogen mixture. A procedure for mass spectrum processing is proposed. Time-varying concentrations of all observed neutral particles are measured. Presently available data on sections of complete and dissociative ionization of molecules and their fragments, which are necessary for reconstructing concentrations of particles in plasma from measured mass spectra, are presented.     

Modification of the 3He phase diagram by anisotropic disorder

Motivated by the recent prediction that uniaxially compressed aerogel can stabilize the anisotropic A phase over the isotropic B phase, we measure the pressure dependent superfluid fraction of (3)He entrained in 10% axially compressed, 98% porous aerogel. We observe that a broad region of the temperature-pressure phase diagram is occupied by the metastable A phase. The reappearance of the A phase on warming from the B phase, before superfluidity is extinguished at T(c), is in contrast to its absence in uncompressed aerogel. The phase diagram is modified from that of pure (3)He, with the disappearance of the polycritical point (PCP) and the appearance of a region of A phase extending below the PCP of bulk (3)He, even in zero applied magnetic field. The expected alignment of the A phase texture by compression is not observed.     

Continuous-wave mid-infrared frequency conversion in silicon nanowaveguides

We report the first demonstration of cw wavelength conversion from the telecommunications band to the mid-IR (MIR) region via four-wave mixing in silicon nanowaveguides. We measure a parametric bandwidth of 748 nm by converting a 1636 nm signal to produce a 2384 nm idler and show continuously tunable wavelength conversion from 1792 to 2116 nm. This report indicates that the advantages of silicon photonics may be leveraged to create devices for a large range of MIR applications that require cw operation.     

Agitation-free multiphoton microscopy of oblique planes

The scanning two-photon fluorescence microscope produces optically sectioned images from the focal plane. It is sometimes desirable to acquire images from other planes of the specimen that are inclined with respect to the focal plane. In this Letter, we discuss the issues concerned with acquiring such images together with the effects of the inclination angle on image resolution and sectioning strength. To obtain images from oblique planes at high speed, a two-photon system was built wherein a novel optical system is used to provide aberration-free scanning.     

Precision mass measurements of neutron halo nuclei using the TITAN Penning trap

Precise atomic mass determinations play a key role in various fields of physics, including nuclear physics, testing of fundamental symmetries and constants and atomic physics. Recently, the TITAN Penning trap measured the masses of several neutron halos. These exotic systems have an extended, diluted, matter distribution that can be modelled by considering a nuclear core surrounded by a halo formed by one or more of loosely bound neutrons. Combined with laser spectroscopy measurements of isotopic shifts precise masses can be used to obtain reliable charge radii and two-neutron-seperation energies for these halo nuclei. It is shown that these results can be used as stringent tests of nuclear models and potentials providing an important metric for our understanding of the interactions in all nuclei.     

Measuring the effect of demagnetization in stacks of gadolinium plates using the magnetocaloric effect

The effect of demagnetization in a stack of gadolinium plates is determined experimentally by using spatially resolved measurements of the adiabatic temperature change due to the magnetocaloric effect. The number of plates in the stack, the spacing between them and the position of the plate on which the temperature is measured are varied. The orientation of the magnetic field is also varied. The measurements are compared to a magnetostatic model previously described. The results show that the magnetocaloric effect, due to the change in the internal field, is sensitive to the stack configuration and the orientation of the applied field. This may have significant implications for the construction of a magnetic cooling device.     

Deconvolution with simple extrapolation for improved cerebral blood flow measurement in dynamic susceptibility contrast magnetic resonance imaging during acute ischemic stroke

Magnetic resonance (MR) perfusion imaging is a clinical technique for measuring brain blood flow parameters during stroke and other ischemic events. Ischemia in brain tissue can be difficult to accurately measure or visualize when using MR-derived cerebral blood flow (CBF) maps. The deconvolution techniques used to estimate flow can introduce a mean transit time-dependent bias following application of noise stabilization techniques. The underestimation of the CBF values, greatest in normal tissues, causes a decrease in the image contrast observed in CBF maps between normally perfused and ischemic tissues; resulting in ischemic areas becoming less conspicuous. Through application of the proposed simple extrapolation technique, CBF biases are reduced when missing high-frequency signal components in the MR data removed during deconvolution noise stabilization are restored. The extrapolation approach was compared with other methods and showed a statistically significant increase in image contrast in CBF maps between normal and ischemic tissues for white matter (P<.05) and performed better than most other methods for gray matter. Receiver operator characteristic curve analysis demonstrated that extrapolated CBF maps better-detected penumbral regions. Extrapolated CBF maps provided more accurate CBF estimates in simulations, suggesting that the approach may provide a better prediction of outcome in the absence of treatment.     

The effects of a thin film dopant precursor on the structure and properties of femtosecond-laser irradiated silicon

Femtosecond (fs) laser irradiation of a silicon substrate coated with a thin film is a flexible approach to producing metastable alloys with unique properties, including near-unity sub-band gap absorptance extending into the infrared. However, dopant incorporation from a thin film during fs-laser irradiation is not well understood. We study the thin film femtosecond-laser doping process through optical and structural characterization of silicon fs-laser doped using a selenium thin film, and compare the resulting microstructure and dopant distribution to fs-laser doping with sulfur from a gaseous precursor. We show that a thin film dopant precursor significantly changes the laser-material interactions, modifying both the surface structuring and dopant incorporation processes and in turn affecting p–n diode behavior.     

Numerical ranges of weighted composition operators

The operator that takes the function f   to ψf°φ$\psi f°\phi$ is a weighted composition operator. We study numerical ranges of some classes of weighted composition operators on H²$H^2$, the Hardy–Hilbert space of the unit disc. We consider the case where φ is a rotation of the unit disc and identify a class of convexoid operators. In the case of isometric weighted composition operators we give a complete classification of their numerical ranges. We also consider the inclusion of zero in the interior of the numerical range.