Etude de la restauration de l'aluminium irradié aux electrons (Etape III)

The nature of the electron bombarded aluminium electrical recovery process has been studied by combining quenches with irradiations. Measured Frenkel pair formation rates per incident electrons as well as annealing kinetics emphasize the role of impurity interstitial trapping.     

An original approach for Raman spectroscopy analysis of radioactive materials and its application to americium‐containing samples

An approach for Raman measurements of highly radioactive samples is presented here. The innovative part of this approach lies in the fact that no single part of the Raman equipment is in direct contact with the radioactive sample, as the sample is sealed in an alpha‐tight capsule. Raman analysis is effectively performed through the optical‐grade quartz window closing the capsule. This allows performing micro‐Raman measurements on radioactive samples with no limitations on the laser source wavelength, polarisation mode, spectrometer mode and microscope mode (provided the focal length of the microscope objective is greater than the thickness of the quartz window and with sub mg samples). Some example results are shown and discussed. In particular, some spectral features of americium‐containing oxide nuclear fuel specimens are presented. Raman spectra clearly reveal in these specimens the presence of abundant oxygen defects induced in the fcc fluorite lattice by trivalent americium. In order to complete the analysis the Raman spectrum of pure americium dioxide was also measured with a lower energy excitation source compared with previous research. The current results seem to be consistent with the possible occurrence of a photolysis process induced by the Raman laser, resulting in the formation of hyperstoichiometric americium sesquioxide Am₂O_{3 + z}. Such a photolytic process is deemed to be unavoidable when visible lasers are used as excitation sources for the Raman analysis of americium dioxide. © 2015 The Authors Journal of Raman Spectroscopy Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Electrical behaviour of laser-damaged silicon photodiodes

A measurement of the electrical parameters degradation of Si photodiodes irradiated by laser visible light has been performed. The laser is a Q-switched Nd:YAG, frequency doubled, operated in single pulse mode of 4 ns duration. The applied fluence levels range up to 90 J/cm². Two kinds of irradiation process were applied: either a part of the detector active area was irradiated in single pulse mode, or a scanning of the whole detector active area was performed with successive identical pulses. It has been shown that the fluence necessary to induce significant changes (local decrease of 35%) in responsivity is several times the surface melting threshold fluence (0.5 J/cm²). Conversely, the dark current is the most sensitive parameter, increasing by about four times for high irradiation. The in-depth dopant distribution is altered by high fluence irradiation in a way that cannot be explained by simple thermal modelling.     

Jack Polynomials in Superspace

This work initiates the study of orthogonal symmetric polynomials in superspace. Here we present two approaches leading to a family of orthogonal polynomials in superspace that generalize the Jack polynomials. The first approach relies on previous work by the authors in which eigenfunctions of the supersymmetric extension of the trigonometric Calogero-Moser-Sutherland Hamiltonian were constructed. Orthogonal eigenfunctions are now obtained by diagonalizing the first nontrivial element of a bosonic tower of commuting conserved charges not containing this Hamiltonian. Quite remarkably, the expansion coefficients of these orthogonal eigenfunctions in the supermonomial basis are stable with respect to the number of variables. The second and more direct approach amounts to symmetrize products of non-symmetric Jack polynomials with monomials in the fermionic variables. This time, the orthogonality is inherited from the orthogonality of the non-symmetric Jack polynomials, and the value of the norm is given explicitly.     

Confined dynamics, forms and transitions in colloidal systems: from clay to DNA

Colloidal suspensions are a classic example of confining systems developing large specific surfaces, presenting a rich variety of shapes and exhibiting complex organization on a length scale ranging from 1 nm to several micrometers. Two distinct confined dynamics are generally considered in such systems: (1) the embedded fluid dynamics entrapped in the pore network with two main contributions, surface interaction and long-range connectivity, and (2) the dynamics of the host matrix, associated with a time evolution of the interfacial geometry. This last contribution is particularly important during dynamic and structural transitions of colloidal suspensions such as jamming, glass transition, phase separations and flocculation. It is generally believed that the characteristic time scale needed to describe colloidal movement and interfacial geometrical reorganization is much slower than the dynamics of the embedded fluid (except in the trivial situation where the fluid molecule is irreversibly adsorbed to a colloidal surface). Thus, few connections are made between these two distinct dynamics. In this presentation, we show how the slow and confined water dynamics at proximity of a colloidal surface provides an original way to probe colloidal shape and colloidal orientation dynamics. Two topics are presented. First of all, water field-cycling NMR relaxometry is used to probe the glass transition and the strong rotational slowing down of a colloidal system made of plate-like particles, a synthetic clay (laponite). Second, we analyze the case of long colloidal thin rods (either mineral or biologic such as DNA cylinders) dispersed in very diluted suspensions. At large distance and/or long time, these particles appear as a portion of a line. We discuss how the embedded fluid dynamics can be sensitive to this morphological crossover and may provide information about the particle shape. Some comparisons with recent experiments are presented.     

The median procedure in cluster analysis and social choice theory

Classical approachs for fitting and aggregation problems, specially in cluster analysis, social choice theory and paired comparisons methods, consist in the minimization of a remoteness function between relational data and a relational model. The notion of median, with its algebraic, metric, geometrical and statistical aspects, allow a unified treatment of many of base problems. Properties of median procedures are organized according to four directions: stabilities and axiomatic characterizations; Arrow-like properties; combinatorial properties; effective computational possibilities. Finally, interesting mathematical problems, related to the notion of median are surveyed.     

High resolution electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) data from calcite biominerals in recent gastropod shells

Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) is a microscopy technique that reveals in situ crystallographic information. Currently, it is widely used for the characterization of geological materials and in studies of biomineralization. Here, we analyze high resolution EBSD data from biogenic calcite in two mollusk taxa, Concholepas and Haliotis, previously used in the understanding of complex biomineralization and paleoenvironmental studies. Results indicate that Concholepas has less ordered prisms than in Haliotis, and that in Concholepas the level of order is not homogenous in different areas of the shell. Overall, the usefulness of data integration obtained from diffraction intensity and crystallographic orientation maps, and corresponding pole figures, is discussed as well as its application to similar studies.     

Probing the fluctuation-dissipation theorem in a Perrin-like experiment

In this Letter, we present a new experimental approach to investigate the effective temperature concept as a generalization of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem (FDT) for nonequilibrium systems. Simultaneous measurements of diffusion coefficient and sedimentation velocity of heavy colloids, embedded in a Laponite clay suspension, are performed with a fluorescence-recovery-based setup. This nonperturbative dual measurement, performed at a single time in a single sample, allows for a direct application of the FDT to the tracer velocity observable. It thus provides a well-defined derivation of the effective temperature in this ageing colloidal gel. For a wide range of concentrations and ageing times, we report no violation of the FDT, with effective temperature agreeing with bath temperature. This result is consistent with recent theoretical predictions on the coupling between the velocity observable and nonequilibrium gels dynamics.     

Dirac particles in a gravitational field

The semiclassical approximation for the Hamiltonian of Dirac particles interacting with an arbitrary gravitational field is investigated. The time dependence of the metric leads to new contributions to the in-band energy operator in comparison to previous works in the static case. In particular we find a new coupling term between the linear momentum and the spin, as well as couplings that contribute to the breaking of the particle–antiparticle symmetry.