High-pressure crystal structure of elastically isotropic CaTiO3 perovskite under hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic conditions

The structural evolution of orthorhombic CaTiO3 perovskite has been studied using high-pressure single-crystal x-ray diffraction under hydrostatic conditions up to 8.1 GPa and under a non-hydrostatic stress field formed in a diamond anvil cell (DAC) up to 4.7 GPa. Under hydrostatic conditions, the TiO6 octahedra become more tilted and distorted with increasing pressure, similar to other 2:4 perovskites. Under non-hydrostatic conditions, the experiments do not show any apparent difference in the internal structural variation from hydrostatic conditions and no additional tilts and distortions in the TiO6 octahedra are observed, even though the lattice itself becomes distorted due to the non-hydrostatic stress. The similarity between the hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic cases can be ascribed to the fact that CaTiO3 perovskite is nearly elastically isotropic and, as a consequence, its deviatoric unit-cell volume strain produced by the non-hydrostatic stress is very small; in other words, the additional octahedral tilts relevant to the extra unit-cell volume associated with the deviatoric unit-cell volume strain may be totally neglected. This study further addresses the role that three factors--the elastic properties, the crystal orientation and the pressure medium--have on the structural evolution of an orthorhombic perovskite loaded in a DAC under non-hydrostatic conditions. The influence of these factors can be clearly visualized by plotting the three-dimensional distribution of the deviatoric unit-cell volume strain in relation to the cylindrical axis of the DAC and indicates that, if the elasticity of a perovskite is nearly isotropic as it is for CaTiO3, the other two factors become relatively insignificant.     

Absolute frequency spectroscopy of CO2 lines at around 2.09 μm by combined use of an Er:fiber comb and a Ho:YLF amplifier

The low-frequency tail of an octave-spanning supercontinuum (SC) generated by an Er:fiber comb is enhanced by a multipass Ho:YLF amplifier and used in a sum-frequency-generation scheme to obtain absolute referencing of a single-mode Tm-Ho:YAG laser tunable around 2.09 μm. By tuning the comb repetition frequency, the probing laser is scanned across the absorption lines of a CO(2) gas sample and highly accurate absorption profiles are measured. This approach can be readily scaled to any wavelength above ~2 μm.     

Wavelet-based edge correlation incorporated iterative reconstruction for undersampled MRI

Undersampling k-space is an effective way to decrease acquisition time for MRI. However, aliasing artifacts introduced by undersampling may blur the edges of magnetic resonance images, which often contain important information for clinical diagnosis. Moreover, k-space data is often contaminated by the noise signals of unknown intensity. To better preserve the edge features while suppressing the aliasing artifacts and noises, we present a new wavelet-based algorithm for undersampled MRI reconstruction. The algorithm solves the image reconstruction as a standard optimization problem including a ?₂ data fidelity term and ?₁ sparsity regularization term. Rather than manually setting the regularization parameter for the ?₁ term, which is directly related to the threshold, an automatic estimated threshold adaptive to noise intensity is introduced in our proposed algorithm. In addition, a prior matrix based on edge correlation in wavelet domain is incorporated into the regularization term. Compared with nonlinear conjugate gradient descent algorithm, iterative shrinkage/thresholding algorithm, fast iterative soft-thresholding algorithm and the iterative thresholding algorithm using exponentially decreasing threshold, the proposed algorithm yields reconstructions with better edge recovery and noise suppression.     

Quantum electron self-interaction in a strong laser field

The quantum state of an electron in a strong laser field is altered if the interaction of the electron with its own electromagnetic field is taken into account. Starting from the Schwinger-Dirac equation, we determine the states of an electron in a plane-wave field with inclusion, at leading order, of its electromagnetic self-interaction. On the one hand, the electron states show a pure quantum contribution to the electron quasimomentum, conceptually different from the conventional classical one arising from the quiver motion of the electron. On the other hand, the electron self-interaction induces a distinct dynamics of the electron spin, whose effects are shown to be measurable in principle with available technology.     

High energy radiation fluences in the ISS-USLab: Ion discrimination and particle abundances

The ALTEA (Anomalous Long Term Effects on Astronauts) detector was used to characterize the radiation environment inside the USLab of the International Space Station (ISS), where it measured the abundances of ions from Be to Fe. We compare the ALTEA results with Alteino results obtained in the PIRS module of the Russian segment of the ISS, and normalize to the high energy Si abundances given by Simpson. These are the first particle spectral measurements, which include ions up to Fe, performed in the USLab. The small differences observed between those made inside the USLab and the Simpson abundances can be attributed to the transport through the spacecraft hull. However, the low abundance of Fe cannot be attributed to only this process.     

Raster microdiffraction with synchrotron radiation of hydrated biopolymers with nanometre step-resolution: case study of starch granules

X-ray radiation damage propagation is explored for hydrated starch granules in order to reduce the step resolution in raster-microdiffraction experiments to the nanometre range. Radiation damage was induced by synchrotron radiation microbeams of 5, 1 and 0.3?μm size with ～0.1?nm wavelength in B-type potato, Canna edulis and Phajus grandifolius starch granules. A total loss of crystallinity of granules immersed in water was found at a dose of ～1.3?photons?nm(-3). The temperature dependence of radiation damage suggests that primary radiation damage prevails up to about 120?K while secondary radiation damage becomes effective at higher temperatures. Primary radiation damage remains confined to the beam track at 100?K. Propagation of radiation damage beyond the beam track at room temperature is assumed to be due to reactive species generated principally by water radiolysis induced by photoelectrons. By careful dose selection during data collection, raster scans with 500?nm step-resolution could be performed for granules immersed in water.     

Pre-relaxation Processes in a Radiating Relativistic Sphere

The influence of processes occurring before the system relaxes into diffusion, on the evolution of a radiating sphere, is exhibited in a specific example. The luminosity profiles, and consequently the general evolution of the object, are shown to be quite sensitive to the value of relaxation time.     

Visualized measurement of the acoustic levitation field based on digital holography with phase multiplication

By using digital holographic interferometory with phase multiplication, the visualized measurement of the acoustic levitation field (ALF) with single axis is carried out. The digital holograms of the ALF under different conditions are recorded by use of CCD. The corresponding digital holographic interferograms reflecting the sound pressure distribution and the interference phase distribution are obtained by numerical reconstruction and phase subtraction, which are consistent with the theoretical results. It indicates that the proposed digital holographic interferometory with phase multiplication can successfully double the fringe number of the interference phase patterns of the ALF and improve the measurement precision. Compared with the conventional optical holographic interferometory, digital holographic interferometory has the merits of quasi real-time, more exactitude and convenient operation, and it provides an effective way for studying the sound pressure distribution of the ALF.     

Coupling atomistic and finite element approaches for the simulation of optoelectronic devices

Multiscale methods coupling quantum mechanical/atomistic models such as envelope function and tight binding approaches with continuous media models e.g. for strain or electronic transport are very useful for an accurate simulation of modern and emerging electronic and optoelectronic devices based on nanostructured active regions. We present simulations using TiberCAD whose main focus is on providing an integrated multiscale/multiphysics simulation environment.     

铜基大块非晶合金添加微量元素对腐蚀行为的影响机理研究

通过分子动力学方法模拟了Cu-Al合金液相,然后模拟降温过程得到Cu-Al非晶合金.通过计算机编程建立了Cu-Al-M非晶基体、Cu-Al-M非晶表面及吸附O原子Cu-Al-M非晶表面原子结构模型.利用实空间连分数方法,研究了添加微量合金元素Zr,Nb,Ta,V,Y,Sc对Cu基大块非晶合金的腐蚀行为的影响机理.研究发现合金元素Zr,Nb,Ta,V,Sc不向清洁Cu基非晶表面偏聚,但除Y外向有氧吸附的表面偏聚,说明有氧吸附后Cu基非晶表面偏聚发生逆转.键级积分计算表明Zr,Nb,Ta,V,Y,Sc元素均增大与氧之间的结合力,易形成氧化膜,提高Cu基大块非晶的耐蚀性.稀土Y提高Cu基大块非晶的耐蚀性可能是由于它向合金与氧化膜界面偏聚并提高了合金与氧化膜的结合力.