Fluorine incorporation in silica glass by the MCVD process: Study of fluorine incorporation zone,evaluation of optical properties and structure of the glass

A theoretical approach was made to find out a complete fluorine incorporation zone on a ternary diagram which serves as a useful graphical representation to select the flows of the supplied reagents for incorporation of the suitable amount of fluorine into cladding glass of optical fiber preform made by the MCVD process using CCl₂F₂ as a source of fluorine under oxygen abundance, oxygen deficiency and intermediate oxygen state conditions. The possible mechanism for incorporation of fluorine into cladding glass of optical fiber is also evaluated on the basis of the thermodynamical data. The fluorine incorporation mechanism in silica glass by the MCVD process is found to be dependent on the CCl₂F₂/SiCl₄ ratio in the input gas mixture. Fluorine doping is found to be effective for removing the strained Si–O–Si bonds, which govern the optical transparency in deep ultra-violet (DUV) and vacuum ultra-violet (VUV) regions. The maximum refractive index depression of ?0.5 × 10^?3 is obtained with incorporation of fluorine into silica cladding glass by the MCVD process using CCl₂F₂ as a dopant precursor with suitable flow of SiCl₄ vapor along with O₂ through backward deposition pass. The structure of fluorine doped silica glass preform samples containing 1.70–1.79 mol% fluorine incorporated by the MCVD process based on the analyses of ¹⁹F MAS spectra done by high-resolution ¹⁹F NMR spectroscopy reveal the presence of two distinct types of fluorine environments. The majority of the fluorine environments are formed in SiO_1.5F polyhedral and less abundant species is observed to be highly unusual, yielding a fivefold coordinated silicon of the type SiO₂F polyhedral which become increased with increasing the fluorine content.     

Circular dichroism spectra of langasite family crystals in the range of electronic transitions of structure defects

The absorption and circular dichroism spectra of langasite family crystals are studied. Wide bands in the range of 285–500 nm that are related to the structure lattice defects are found. For all the crystals, these bands are in approximately the same spectral region, have identical structures, and can be attributed to one type of defects formed by cation vacancies and excess oxygen atoms in the optically active positions.     

Specific features of the formation of submicron inclusion in Ti:sapphire

Specific features of the formation of submicron (70–300 nm) inclusions in Ti:sapphire (Al₂O₃:Ti) grown in a carbon-containing medium have been investigated. These inclusions are caused by deviation from the melt stoichiometry and are formed during the melt-crystal phase transition. These defects are submicropores containing excess aluminum and its suboxides; they can be destroyed by thermal loading of a crystal.     

A semi-analytic meshfree method for Almansi–Michell problems of piezoelectric cylinders

Saint-Venant’s Problem, Almansi–Michell Problems, Meshfree Methods, Piezoelectricity. We present a semi-analytical method for analyzing prismatic nonhomogeneous piezoelectric cylinders with arbitrary cross-sectional geometry. The prescribed loads considered in this study include axial forces, torques, moments, and voltage resultants prescribed at the cylinder’s ends, as well as body forces, lateral surface shears, voltages, and pressures as long as they can be represented by a power series in the axial coordinate. This problem can be considered as an extension of Saint-Venant and Almansi–Michell problems for elastic bodies to piezoelectric bodies. In this computationally efficient method, the cross-sectional plane is discretized with a meshfree approach, and the solution is obtained analytically with respect to the axial coordinate. A number of examples are provided to demonstrate the veracity and utility of the proposed method.     

Identification of nonstationary axisymmetric load distributed along a cylindrical shell

The paper outlines a procedure to identify the space-and time-dependent external nonstationary load acting on a closed circular cylindrical shell of medium thickness. Time-dependent deflections at several points of the shell are used as input data to solve the inverse problem. Examples of numerical identification of various nonstationary loads, including moving ones are presented. The relationship between the external load and the stress-strain state of the shell is described by the Volterra equation of the first kind. The identification problem is solved using Tikhonov's regularization method and Apartsin's h-regularization method __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 44, No. 7, pp. 91–100, July 2008.     

Thermal degradation of composites of poly(methyl methacrylate) with alkoxysilane hydrolyzates

Organic-inorganic composites of poly(methyl methacrylate) with alkoxysilane hydrolyzates form transparent films. Their thermal and oxidative thermal degradation were studied by differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis.     

Transient free‐surface flow of a viscoelastic fluid in a narrow channel

The interplay between inertia and elasticity is examined for transient free‐surface flow inside a narrow channel. The lubrication theory is extended for the flow of viscoelastic fluids of the Oldroyd‐B type (consisting of a Newtonian solvent and a polymeric solute). While the general formulation accounts for non‐linearities stemming from inertia effects in the momentum conservation equation, and the upper‐convected terms in the constitutive equation, only the front movement contributes to non‐linear coupling for a flow inside a straight channel. In this case, it is possible to implement a spectral representation in the depthwise direction for the velocity and stress. The evolution of the flow field is obtained locally, but the front movement is captured only in the mean sense. The influence of inertia, elasticity and viscosity ratio is examined for pressure‐induced flow. The front appears to progress monotonically with time. However, the velocity and stress exhibit typically a strong overshoot upon inception, accompanied by a plug‐flow behaviour in the channel core. The flow intensity eventually diminishes with time, tending asymptotically to Poiseuille conditions. For highly elastic liquids the front movement becomes oscillatory, experiencing strong deceleration periodically. A multiple‐scale solution is obtained for fluids with no inertia and small elasticity. Comparison with the exact (numerical) solution indicates a wide range of validity for the analytical result. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interrelation between anharmonicity and lateral strain in quasi-isotropic polycrystalline solids

A new formula that relates the acoustic Grüneisen parameter to the Poisson ratio is suggested on the basis of the previously derived expression for this parameter.