A study of the oxidation of europium(II) sulphide by europium-151 Mössbauer spectroscopy

The oxidation of solid europium(II) sulphide under mild conditions has been examined by¹⁵¹Eu Mössbauer spectroscopy. The results show that europium(II) sulphide is remarkably stable to oxidation at 25°C and is only partially converted to Eu³⁺ after exposure to air for four days. Treatment in air at a temperature of 250°C for six hours induces a similar degree of oxidation. The mechanism and kinetics of oxidation of curopium(II) sulphide under mild conditions in the solid state are therefore non-trivial matters.     

Industrial Applications of Mössbauer Spectroscopy

Hyperfine Interactions - The historical development of the use of Mössbauer spectroscopy in industrial applications is briefly outlined. The power of the technique for the study of...     

The Structural Characterization of Tin- and Titanium-Dopedα-Fe2O3Prepared by Hydrothermal Synthesis

The structural characteristics of tin- and titanium-dopedα-Fe₂O₃prepared by hydrothermal methods have been investigated by Rietveld structure refinement of the X-ray powder diffraction data. The analysis reveals that the dopant ions adopt two distinct sites: in addition to partially substituting at the octahedral Fe sites, they also occupy the interstitial octahedral sites which are vacant in theα-Fe₂O₃structure. The structural model deduced involves clusters of three substituted cations and is rational in that it represents microstructural regions of the rutile structure within a matrix ofα-Fe₂O₃.     

Characterisation of the reduction properties of La0.5Sr0.5Fe0.5Co0.5O3

We report here on the characterisation by temperature programmed reduction, ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy of the phases resulting from treatment of the perovskite-related material La_0.5Sr_0.5Fe_0.5Co_0.5O₃ in a flowing 90% hydrogen/10% nitrogen atmosphere. The results show that treatment of La_0.5Sr_0.5Fe_0.5Co_0.5O₃ (which contains approximately 50% Fe⁴⁺ and 50% Fe³⁺) in the flowing 90% hydrogen/10% nitrogen atmosphere at 600°C does not result in the reduction of any of the constituent elements of the material and that the perovskite structure is still retained. The Mössbauer spectrum recorded following heating in the gaseous reducing environment at 1,000°C shows the presence of metallic iron, an Fe³⁺-containing phase with parameters compatible with the presence of SrLaFeO₄ which has a K₂NiF₄-type structure, and a paramagnetic Fe³⁺ phase. The X-ray absorption spectroscopy results show the presence of metallic cobalt. The Mössbauer spectrum recorded following heating at 1,200°C continues to show the Fe³⁺-containing components plus a larger contribution from metallic iron. The X-ray absorption spectroscopy results show the presence of metallic cobalt, SrLaFeO₄, La₂O₃ and SrO.     

Phase transitions in simple clusters

Formation of the liquid state of clusters with pairwise interactions between atoms is examined within the framework of the void model, in which configurational excitation of atoms results from formation of voids. Void parameters are found from computer simulation by molecular dynamics methods for Lennard-Jones clusters. From that standpoint, phase transitions are analyzed in terms of two aggregate states. This information allows us to divide the entropy jump during a solid-liquid phase transition into two parts: one corresponds to configurational excitation at zero temperature and the other arises from thermal vibrations of atoms. The latter part contributes approximately 40% for Lennard-Jones clusters consisting of 13 and 55 atoms, increasing to 56% for bulk inert gases. These magnitudes explain the validity of melting criteria based on thermal motion of atoms, even though the distinctive mechanism of this phase transition results from configurational excitations. It is shown that the void concept allows analyzing various aspects of the liquid state of clusters including the existence of a limiting freezing temperature below which no metastable liquid state exists, as well as the existence and properties of glassy states that may exist below the freezing limit.     

Evidence for the exclusive decay B(c)+- --> J/psi pi+- and measurement of the mass of the B(c)+- meson

We report the first evidence for a fully reconstructed decay mode of the B(c)+- meson in the channel B(c)+- --> J/psi pi+-, with J/psi --> mu+ mu-. The analysis is based on an integrated luminosity of 360 pb(-1) in pp collisions at 1.96 TeV center of mass energy collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We observe 14.6 +/- 4.6 signal events with a background of 7.1 +/- 0.9 events, and a fit to the J/psi pi+-mass spectrum yields a B(c)+- mass of 6285.7 +/- 5.3(stat) +/- 1.2(syst) MeV/c2. The probability of a peak of this magnitude occurring by random fluctuation in the search region is estimated as 0.012%.     

Search for neutral Higgs bosons of the minimal supersymmetric standard model decaying to tau pairs in pp collisions at square root of s = 1.96 TeV

We present a search for neutral supersymmetric Higgs bosons decaying to tau pairs produced in pp collisions at square root of s = 1.96 TeV. The data, corresponding to 310 pb(-1) integrated luminosity, were collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab in run II of the Tevatron. No significant excess above the standard model backgrounds is observed. We set exclusion limits on the production cross section times branching fraction to tau pairs for Higgs boson masses in the range from 90 to 250 GeV/c2.     

Measurement of the Bs0-Bs0 oscillation frequency

We present the first precise measurement of the Bs0-Bs0 oscillation frequency Deltams. We use 1 fb-1 of data from pp collisions at sqrts=1.96 TeV collected with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. The sample contains signals of 3600 fully reconstructed hadronic Bs decays and 37,000 partially reconstructed semileptonic Bs decays. We measure the probability as a function of proper decay time that the Bs decays with the same, or opposite, flavor as the flavor at production, and we find a signal consistent with Bs0-Bs0 oscillations. The probability that random fluctuations could produce a comparable signal is 0.2%. Under the hypothesis that the signal is due to Bs0-Bs0 oscillations, we measure Deltams=17.31(-0.18)+0.33(stat)+/-0.07(syst) ps-1 and determine |Vtd/Vts|=0.208(-0.002)+0.001(expt)-0.006(+0.008)(theor).