Spontaneous formation of a system of highly ordered germanium nanoislands upon epitaxial deposition on profiled (111) silicon substrates under electromigration conditions

Atomic-force microscopy was used to study the surface topography of SiGe structures grown by epitaxial deposition of Ge on profiled Si(111) substrates under electromigration conditions. Systems of highly ordered germanium nanosized islands with dimensions of 10–20 nm and a density of 6×10¹⁰ cm^?2 were obtained. It is shown that the geometrical parameters of self-organizing nanoislands can be controlled by a proper choice of the growth and postgrowth annealing conditions for these structures.     

Structural phase transformations and physical properties of intercalation compounds in the Cr0.5Ti(Se1−x Tex)2 system

The atomic structure and magnetic and electric properties of the Cr_0.5TiSe₂-Cr_0.5TiTe₂ system of intercalated phases were studied in detail by gradually replacing selenium by tellurium. It was revealed that this replacement changes the crystalline structure from monoclinic in the initial compounds to hexagonal in the compounds containing various types of chalcogen atoms; this is accompanied by disordering of chromium atoms in the van der Waals gaps. The electrical resistance and magnetic characteristics vary nonmonotonically on replacement of selenium by tellurium, which is associated with a change in the degree of atomic disordering during the transition from Cr_0.5TiSe₂ to Cr_0.5TiTe₂.     

Kinetics of polarization reversal in irradiated thin PZT films

The effect of irradiation with electrons and neutrons and of exposure to synchrotron radiation on cyclic switching of polarization in thin films of lead zirconate titanate Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ (PZT) was studied. It is shown that variations in the shape of switching currents are due to the generation of a spatially nonuniform bound internal field with account for an increase in the rate of bulk screening caused by irradiation. A correlation between structural variations and the evolution of the switching current measured during and after irradiation is established.     

Optical properties of in situ doped and undoped titania nanocatalysts and doped titania sol-gel nanofilms

In this paper we present spectroscopic properties of doped and undoped titanium dioxide (TiO₂) as nanofilms prepared by the sol-gel process with rhodamine 6G doping and studied by photoacoustic absorption, excitation and emission spectroscopy. The absorption spectra of TiO₂ thin films doped with rhodamine 6G at very low concentration during their preparation show two absorption bands, one at 2.3 eV attributed to molecular dimmer formation, which is responsible for the fluorescence quenching of the sample and the other at 3.0 eV attributed to TiO₂ absorption, which subsequently yields a strong emission band at 600 nm. The electronic band structure and optical properties of the rutile phase of TiO₂ are calculated employing a fully relativistic, full-potential, linearized, augmented plane-wave (FPLAPW) method within the local density approximation (LDA). Comparison of this calculation with experimental data for TiO₂ films prepared for undoped sol-gels and by sputtering is performed.     

Influence of the counterion size on swelling and collapse of polyelectrolyte gel

A theory that predicts the effect of the counterion size on the swelling and collapse of a weakly charged polyelectrolyte gel was developed. In addition to excluded-volume interactions between monomer units of the gel, the theory involves the counterion-monomer unit and counterion-counterion interactions in terms of the virial approximation. The character of interactions between different units in the system varies from repulsion to attraction depending on the type of solvent, counterion, and dielectric permittivity of the solvent. For solvents with a low permittivity, the effect of condensation of counterions resulting in the formation of ion pairs is taken into account.     

Magnetic ordering of YBa2(Cu1−x Fe x )3O7

The Mössbauer spectra of YBa₂(Cu_1?x Fe _x )₃O₇ at room temperature show several doublets attributed to Fe in Cu(1) sites with different oxygen configurations. Here we present a systematic study performed at 4.2 K forx=0.005, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15. To obtain information about the magnetic ordered state two samples, withx=0.005 andx=0.15, have been studied at 4.2 K underB _ext=5 T. The Mössbauer spectra indicate that the iron moments are polarized forx=0.005, while in the ordered state (x=0.15) they have an antiferromagnetic or spin-glass-like arrangement with high anisotropy.     

The study of cluster phenomenon at accelerator energies

Correlation between the particles from the proton-nucleus interactions in emulsion at 70 GeV/c is presented through the study of the rapidity gap analysis and compared with the two-particle rapidity correlations. It is observed that the strength of correlation decreases as the size of cluster increases. Asymmetry between the forward and backward components were also studied.Authors are thankful to Prof. K. D. Tolstov, JINR, Dubna, USSR for sending the exposed emulsion plates. Thanks are also due to UGC for financial assistance. We sincerely acknowledge the encouragement from Prof. T. Roy.     

Bimodal fission in binary and ternary spontaneous fission of 252Cf

The hot bimodal fission of ²⁵²Cf is reexamined with new high-statistics data. We constructed a γ-γ-γ coincidence cube for binary fission and LCP-gated γ-γ matrix for ternary fission. By identifying the secondary fission fragments from their γ-ray transitions, we measured the yields for various fission splits. The normal neutron yield distribution is found to be Gaussian for Xe-Ru. However, the binary fission split of Ba-Mo is found to exhibit a bimodal neutron distribution with the “hot mode” corresponding to ≈3.1% of the total yield. In α ternary fission, the first measurements of yields for specific fission splits are presented. The Te-α-Ru and Xe-α-Mo neutron yields fit well with a single mode, but the Ba-α-Zr split shows evidence for an enhanced hot mode with an intensity of ≈13.8% of the normal mode. The text was submitted by the authors in English.