Synchrotron x-ray photoemission study of soft x-ray processed ultrathin glycine-water ice films

Ultrathin glycine-water ice films have been prepared in ultrahigh vacuum by condensation of H(2)O and glycine at 90 K on single crystalline alumina surfaces and processed by soft x-ray (610 eV) exposure for up to 60 min. The physicochemical changes in the films were monitored using synchrotron x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. Two films with different amounts of H(2)O have been considered in order to evaluate the influence of the water ice content on the radiation-induced effects. The analysis of C1s, N1s, and O1s spectral regions together with the changes in the valence band spectra indicates that amino acid degradation occurs fast mainly via decarboxylation and deamination of pristine molecules. Enrichment of the x-ray exposed surfaces with fragments with carbon atoms without strong electronegative substituents (C-C and C-H) is documented as well. In the thinner glycine-water ice film (six layers of glycine + six layers of water) the 3D ice suffers strongly from the x-rays and is largely removed from the sample. The rate of photodecomposition of glycine in this film is about 30% higher than for glycine in the thicker film (6 layers of glycine + 60 layers of water). The photoemission results suggest that the destruction of amino acid molecules is caused by the direct interaction with the radiation and that no chemical attack of glycine by the species released by water radiolysis is detected.     

Skyrmions in electron gas with nonlocal exchange in a strong magnetic field

The energy and action for skyrmions in two-dimensional electron gas with nonlocal exchange have been calculated. The energy of positively charged skyrmions is considerably lower than the energy of negatively charged skyrmions and does not contain an exchange contribution. The action has been calculated taking into account collective skyrmion null modes. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 115, 716–725 (February 1999)     

Über ein zahlentheoretisches Problem aus der Fourieranalysis

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Phase transitions in solids stimulated by simultaneous exposure to high pressure and relativistic heavy ions

In many solids, heavy ions of high kinetic energy (MeV-GeV) produce long cylindrical damage trails with diameters of order 10 nm. Up to now, no information was available how solids cope with the simultaneous exposure to these energetic projectiles and to high pressure. We report the first experiments where relativistic uranium and gold ions from the SIS heavy-ion synchrotron at GSI were injected through several mm of diamond into solid samples pressurized up to 14 GPa in a diamond anvil cell. In synthetic graphite and natural zircon, the combination of pressure and ion beams triggered drastic structural changes not caused by the applied pressure or the ions alone. The modifications comprise long-range amorphization of graphite rather than individual track formation, and in the case of zircon the decomposition into nanocrystals and nucleation of the high-pressure phase reidite.     

Speckle characteristics of a broad-area VCSEL in the incoherent emission regime

We present a technique to reduce the speckle contrast of a NIR broad-area VCSEL based on the spatially incoherent emission regime that can be obtained when using the proper driving conditions. We evaluate the efficiency of this technique to reduce the speckle contrast by comparing it with the speckle characteristics in multimode emission under cw operation. Depending on the illumination setup, the incoherent emission regime can lead to a strongly reduced speckle contrast down to 1.3%. This is in agreement with estimates of the expected speckle contrast reduction when three contrast reducing effects are taken into account. These low contrast values make the investigated sources attractive for several applications that suffer from speckle noise.