Obituary Gilbert Grynberg (1948-2003)

We mourn the death of Professor Dr. Gilbert Grynberg, April 17, 1948 - January 27, 2003. We have lost an excellent and highly esteemed scientist, an outstanding character and a good friend. He has been a very active colleague in the merger of Zeitschrift für Physik and Journal de Physique in the early days. As one of the Co-Editors-in-Chief of The European Physical Journal D, from its start, he has formed the scienti.c standards of EPJ. Untiringly he has served our Journal with greatest dedication. We are grateful that he has been with us. The editorial board and o.ce of EPJ B Siegfried Grossmann, Denis Jérome, Antonio Paoletti     

Time-resolved electron transport studies on InGaAs/GaAs-QWIPs

Due to the short internal response time, quantum-well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) are interesting for high-speed applications such as heterodyne spectroscopy or laser pulse monitoring. We studied the photocurrent transients of InGaAs/GaAs-QWIPs after irradiation with infrared laser pulses of 250 fs duration. The excitation wavelength of about 9 μm matches the peak wavelength of the QWIP structure. The photocurrent transient consists of two different dynamical components, representing the fast photoionization in the quantum-wells and the slow injection current that compensates the remaining space charge. The investigations of the different components as a function of temperature and bias voltage were performed on a nanosecond time-scale. The experimental separation of the two photocurrent contributions allows us to determine the photoconductive gain. The Fourier transform of the photocurrent transient was compared with other experimental methods including heterodyne detection and microwave rectification. The quantitative agreement between these different measurement techniques is excellent.     

Martensite Transformation in Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials

Journal of Nanoparticle Research - It was shown that the thermoelastic martensite transformation B2 ? B19 inside nanoparticles surrounded by amorphous matrix in Ni–Ti–Cu alloys as...     

Volcanic monitoring for radon and chemical species in the soil and in spring water samples

Soil radon has been monitored at two fixed stations in the northern flank of Popocatepetl Volcano, a high risk volcano located 60 km SE from Mexico City. Water samples from three springs were also studied for radon as well as major and trace elements. Radon in the soil was recorded using track detectors. Radon in the water samples was evaluated using the liquid scintillation method and an Alphaguard. The major elements were determined through conventional chemical methods and trace elements using an ICP-MS equipment. Soil radon levels were low, indicating a moderate diffuse degassing through the flanks of the volcano. Groundwater radon had almost no relation with the eruptive stages. Water chemistry was stable in the reported time (2000–2002).     

Kinetics of oxygen exchange in strontium titanate

The kinetics of oxygen exchange are of primary importance for the application of titanates as fast resistive oxygen sensors. The sensor’s conductivity is correlated with the oxygen partial pressure pO₂ of the surrounding atmosphere: Due to oxygen surface transfer and subsequent diffusion of oxygen vacancies V _O ^·· , a pO₂ change gives rise to a conductivity change of the sample. While bulk diffusion usually occurs very fast, the surface transfer reaction becomes the rate determining step for thin samples and for low temperatures. We have shown that in the case of acceptor doped SrTiO₃ the kinetics of the surface transfer reaction can be strongly influenced through stoichiometric changes brought about by thin coatings of alkaline earth metal oxides (e.g. SrO). In contrast to the commonly used jump method (conductivity response to a sudden pO₂ change in the time domain), a model is presented which is based on the frequency-domain analysis of amplitude and phase shift of the response signal obtained from a pO₂ modulation in a fast kinetic measurement set-up. This method allows not only for measuring response times in the sub-millisecond range but also for distinguishing between behaviour either controlled by volume diffusion or by surface transfer reaction. Paper presented at the 9th EuroConference on Ionics, Ixia, Rhodes, Greece, Sept. 15 – 21, 2002.     

5-Spirocyclopropane Isoxazolidines as Versatile Intermediates in Organic Synthesis

The review outlines the various different azaheterocycles available from 5-spirocyclopropane isoxazolidines. These compounds can be regarded as versatile direct precursors of tetrahydro-, dihydropyridone and azetidinone derivatives. The current scope and limitations, and the selectivity aspects of the different processes are discussed therein.     

Kristallstruktur des Zinkamids Zn[N(SiMe3)2]2

Crystal Structure of the Zinc Amide Zn[N(SiMe₃)₂]₂ X‐ray quality crystals of Zn[N(SiMe₃)₂]₂ (monoclinic, P2₁/c) are obtained by sublimation of the zinc amide Zn[N(SiMe₃)₂]₂ at —30 °C in vacuo (300 torr). According to the result of the X‐ray structural analysis, Zn[N(SiMe₃)₂]₂ contains an almost linear N‐Zn‐N unit with two short N‐Zn bonds.     

Crystal Structure,Phase Transition and Ferroelastic Properties of [N(CH3)4]3[As2Cl9]

The crystal structure of [N(CH₃)₄]₃[As₂Cl₉] is determined at 293 K. It crystallizes in trigonal space group P31c: a = 9.2199(8), c = 21.065(3)Å, Z = 2, R₁ = 0.0505, wR₂ = 0.1283. The crystal is built of the discrete bioctahedral [As₂Cl₉]^3— anions and the deformed tetramethylammonium cations. A structural phase transition in [N(CH₃)₄]₃[As₂Cl₉] is detected by the DSC and dilatometric techniques at 146/151 K (on cooling/heating). Dielectric relaxation studies in the frequency range 75 kHz — 5 MHz indicate reorientations of the tetramethylammonium cations within the high temperature phase. Optical observations show the existence of the ferroelastic domain structure below 146 K. The possible mechanism of phase transition is discussed on the basis of the presented results.     

Uniform estimate of the constant in the strengthened CBS inequality for anisotropic non‐conforming FEM systems

Preconditioners based on various multilevel extensions of two‐level finite element methods (FEM) lead to iterative methods which have an optimal order computational complexity with respect to the size of the system. Such methods were first presented in Axelsson and Padiy (SIAM. J. Sci. Stat. Comp. 1990; 20 :1807) and Axelsson and Vassilevski (Numer. Math. 1989; 56 :157), and are based on (recursive) two‐level splittings of the finite element space. The key role in the derivation of optimal convergence rate estimates is played by the constant γ in the so‐called Cauchy–Bunyakowski–Schwarz (CBS) inequality, associated with the angle between the two subspaces of the splitting. It turns out that only existence of uniform estimates for this constant is not enough but accurate quantitative bounds for γ have to be found as well. More precisely, the value of the upper bound for γ∈(0,1) is part of the construction of various multilevel extensions of the related two‐level methods. In this paper, an algebraic two‐level preconditioning algorithm for second‐order elliptic boundary value problems is constructed, where the discretization is done using Crouzeix–Raviart non‐conforming linear finite elements on triangles. An important point to make is that in this case the finite element spaces corresponding to two successive levels of mesh refinements are not nested. To handle this, a proper two‐level basis is considered, which enables us to fit the general framework for the construction of two‐level preconditioners for conforming finite elements and to generalize the method to the multilevel case. The major contribution of this paper is the derived estimates of the related constant γ in the strengthened CBS inequality. These estimates are uniform with respect to both coefficient and mesh anisotropy. To our knowledge, the results presented in the paper are the first such estimates for non‐conforming FEM systems. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.