High-density ultracold neutron sources for the WWR-M and PIK reactors

It is proposed to equip the PIK and WWR-M research reactors at the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI) with high-density ultracold neutron (UCN) sources, where UCNs will be obtained based on the effect of their accumulation in superfluid helium (due to the specific features of this quantum fluid). The maximum UCN storage time in superfluid helium is obtained at temperatures on the order of 1 K. These sources are expected to yield UCN densities of 10³–10⁴ cm^–3, i.e., approximately three orders of magnitude higher than the density from existing UCN sources throughout the world. The development of highest intensity UCN sources will make PNPI an international center of fundamental UCN research.     

Coherent and incoherent reflection and transmission of light in anisotropic layer structures

Reflection and transmission of light in anisotropic planar structures consisting of layers coherently and incoherently interacting with light have been considered. The reflection and transmission matrices for mul-tilayered structures are obtained for the general case of an arbitrary incidence angle. The optical characteristics of the structure are studied as functions of its parameters for the particular case of a magneto-gyrotropic film on the substrate.     

Refinement of the atomic structure of CdTe single crystals

A comparative refinement of the anharmonic and disordered models of the atomic structure was performed based on precision X-ray diffraction data sets collected from a CdTe single crystal at 295, 376, 491, and 583 K. Although both models provide the asymmetric contributions of Cd and Te to the structure factors, the anharmonic model seems to be more advantageous.     

Edge-defined film-fed growth of Yb:YVO4 single crystal plates

The applicability of the edge-defined film-fed growth (EFG) technique for Yb_xY_(1−x)VO₄ (x=0.05, 0.1 and 1) was approved by successful growth of crystals up to 80 mm in length as the thin plates. Low-angle grain boundaries and the crystal coloration as main defects were found. Optimal seed orientation was suggested on the strength of vanadate crystal plate morphology. Optical properties, chemical composition and the crystalline quality were investigated.     

Metamorphic InAs(Sb)/InGaAs/InAlAs nanoheterostructures grown on GaAs for efficient mid-IR emitters

High-efficiency semiconductor lasers and light-emitting diodes operating in the 3–5?μm mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectral range are currently of great demand for a wide variety of applications, in particular, gas sensing, noninvasive medical tests, IR spectroscopy etc. III-V compounds with a lattice constant of about 6.1?Å are traditionally used for this spectral range. The attractive idea to fabricate such emitters on GaAs substrates by using In(Ga,Al)As compounds is restricted by either the minimum operating wavelength of ～8?μm in case of pseudomorphic AlGaAs-based quantum cascade lasers or requires utilization of thick metamorphic In_xAl_1-xAs buffer layers (MBLs) playing a key role in reducing the density of threading dislocations (TDs) in an active region, which otherwise result in a strong decay of the quantum efficiency of such mid-IR emitters. In this review we present the results of careful investigations of employing the convex-graded In_xAl_1-xAs MBLs for fabrication by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs (001) substrates of In(Ga,Al)As heterostructures with a combined type-II/type-I InSb/InAs/InGaAs quantum well (QW) for efficient mid-IR emitters (3–3.6?μm). The issues of strain relaxation, elastic stress balance, efficiency of radiative and non-radiative recombination at T?=?10–300?K are discussed in relation to molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth conditions and designs of the structures. A wide complex of techniques including in-situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction, atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning and transmission electron microscopies, X-ray diffractometry, reciprocal space mapping, selective area electron diffraction, as well as photoluminescence (PL) and Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy was used to study in detail structural and optical properties of the metamorphic QW structures. Optimization of the growth conditions (the substrate temperature, the As₄/III ratio) and elastic strain profiles governed by variation of an inverse step in the In content profile between the MBL and the InAlAs virtual substrate results in decrease in the TD density (down to 3?×?10⁷ cm^?2), increase of the thickness of the low-TD-density near-surface MBL region to 250–300?nm, the extremely low surface roughness with the RMS value of 1.6–2.4?nm, measured by AFM, as well as rather high 3.5?μm-PL intensity at temperatures up to 300?K in such structures. The obtained results indicate that the metamorphic InSb/In(Ga,Al)As QW heterostructures of proper design, grown under the optimum MBE conditions, are very promising for fabricating the efficient mid-IR emitters on a GaAs platform.     

Electron diffraction and quantum chemical study of the molecular structure of 4-methylbenzene sulfochloride

A combined electron diffraction and mass spectrometric study was carried out to investigate the molecular structure of 4-methylbenzene sulfochloride at 330(2) K. An analysis of the electron diffraction data was performed in terms of the r_α structure. Several models of geometrical structure having different orientations of the sulfochloride group relative to the plane of the benzene ring are treated. The following values of structural parameters were obtained: r_α(C-H)_meth= 1.104(41)Å, r_a(C-H)/_phen = 1.103(27)Å, r_a(C-C)_phen = 1.403(7) Å, r_a(C-C)_meth = 1.512(25) Å, r_a(C-S) =1.758(6) Å, r_a(S = O) = 1.419(3) Å,r _a(S-Cl) = 2.049(5) Å, ∠CCH_meth = 106.9(47)?, ∠CSO = 110.5(6)?, ∠CSCl = 101.3(6)°, ∠OSO = 120.5(9)°. The angle between the plane of the benzene ring and the plane of the S-Cl bond was found to be 83°. Ab initio and semiempirical quantum chemical calculations were accomplished to estimate the geometrical and energy parameters and compare them with electron diffraction data.     

Fast reactions of*CH2(CH3)NCHO radicals from the photolysis of Feaq3+ in the presence ofN,N-dimethylformamide

Carbon monoxide and H₂ were allowed to react to produce methanol over Pd catalyst, and the effect of the supports was investigated. Among the supports examined, oxides of lanthanide such as La₂O₃, Pr₆O₁₁, Sm₂O₃, Gd₂O₃, and Dy₂O₃ exhibited considerable performance for the synthesis of methanol at low temperatures (250–300°C). The behavior of CeO₂ was peculiar in activating Pd remarkably, while the selectivity to methanol was low and the main product was methane. In order to take advantage of the feature of CeO₂, Pd was loaded on basic supports (ZnO, MgO, and TiBaO₃) and a small amount of CeO₂ was added. These CeO₂-promoted Pd catalysts exhibited high performance to produce methanol at low temperatures.     

Methods and equipment of industrial activation analysis

Expanding application of activation analysis in industry resulted in exposure of features related to higher requirements to productivity, reliability, automation level, metrological support of analytical methods and equipment. Based on the application of neutron generators, radioisotope neutron sources, nuclear reactors, electron accelerators as activating radiation sources, high-productivity activation analytical systems used directly in analytical laboratories and plants were constructed. Level of development of the above works makes it possible to conclude that industrial activation analysis has formed as an independent trend of nuclear analytics and has considerable prospects.