Working group report: Heavy-ion physics and quark-gluon plasma

This is the report of Heavy Ion Physics and Quark-Gluon Plasma at WHEPP-09 which was part of Working Group-4. Discussion and work on some aspects of quark-gluon plasma believed to have created in heavy-ion collisions and in early Universe are reported.     

Highly conducting and transparent Ti-doped CdO films by pulsed laser deposition

Titanium-doped cadmium oxide thin films were deposited on quartz substrate by pulsed laser deposition technique. The effect of substrate temperature on structural, optical and electrical properties was studied. The films grown at high temperature show (2 0 0) preferred orientation, while films grown at low temperature have both (1 1 1) and (2 0 0) orientation. These films are highly transparent (63-79%) in visible region, and transmittance of the films depends on growth temperature. The band gap of the films varies from 2.70 eV to 2.84 eV for various temperatures. It is observed that resistivity increases with growth temperature after attaining minimum at 150 °C, while carrier concentration continuously decreases with temperature. The low resistivity, high transmittance and wide band gap titanium-doped CdO films could be an excellent candidate for future optoelectronic and photovoltaic applications.     

Dynamical current correlations in simple liquids

Expressions for the longitudinal and transverse current correlation functions of simple liquids are obtained using Mori's formalism. These involve unknown damping functions. The use of damping functions for a free gas gives results which are in complete disagreement with experiments. The results obtained on the basis of a renormalized free particle memory function in which the collisional damping of collective excitations is incorporated show remarkable improvement over earlier results and are in reasonable agreement with the molecular dynamics data of Rahman. Therefore, the choice of the memory function is as important as the satisfaction of lower order moments.     

Opto-electrical properties of Ti-doped In2O3 thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition

By ablating titanium containing In₂O₃ target with a KrF excimer laser, highly conducting and transparent films on quartz were obtained to investigate the effects of growth temperature and oxygen pressure on the structural, optical and electrical properties of these films. We find that the transparency of the films depends more on the growth temperature and less on the oxygen pressure. Electrical properties, however, are found to be sensitive to both the growth temperature and oxygen pressure. We report in this paper that a growth temperature of 500 °C and an oxygen pressure of 7.5 × 10⁻⁷ bar lead to titanium-doped indium oxide films which have high mobility (up to 199 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹), low resistivity (9.8 × 10⁻⁵ Ω cm), and relatively high transmittance (∼88%).     

Observation of self-amplified spontaneous emission and exponential growth at 530 nm

Experimental evidence for self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) at 530 nm is reported. The measurements were made at the low-energy undulator test line facility at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory. The experimental setup and details of the experimental results are presented, as well as preliminary analysis. This experiment extends to shorter wavelengths the operational knowledge of a linac-based SASE free-electron laser and explicitly shows the predicted exponential growth in intensity of the optical pulse as a function of length along the undulator.     

The kinetic limitation of anti-stokes luminescence of Er3+ and Yb3+ doped infrared upconversion materials

Infrared-to-visible wave-length conversion in the Yb³⁺−Er³⁺ doped phosphors system has been described by a simple three level model based on two ions mechanism. The excitation in the range of 900–1000 nm of an IR-photon is first absorbed by Yb³⁺ ion as a sensitizer attributed to the resonant energy transition in Er³⁺ ion from ⁴ I _3/2 → ⁴ S _15/2 and ¹ F _9/2 → ⁴ I _15/2, respectively for green and red emission. The essential energy transfer processes in this system i.e. upconversion from ⁴ I _11/2 and ¹ I _13/2, cross-relaxation from ⁴ S _3/2 and ¹ F _9/2 are taken into account. The limitations of the rate-equation approach are examined with a focus on the underlying dynamics of this rare-earth system.     

N.M.R. solid echoes in systems of coupled pairs of spins-1/2

Proton solid echo transverse relaxation functions, mapped by measurement of the echo amplitude S _{y x} (t′ = τ) as a function of τ using a P _y (90°)-τ-P _x (90°)-t′ sequence, are reported for a variety of thermotropic mesogens and mesophases (see Table 1). The relationship of the shapes of this function to the structure and dynamics of the mesogen molecule and the mesophase structure is explored. A heuristic approach is adopted. The spin response for an alkyl chain moiety of a mesogen molecule in a uniaxial mesophase is considered to be the sum of the responses for an assembly of representative subsystems each of which consists of two equivalent pairs of spins-½. The response for the latter is calculated by introducing the effects of motional averaging into the expression obtained in Paper I and estimating an ordering matrix from deuterium quadrupole splittings measured on the corresponding deuteriated mesogen. This model, albeit physically unrealistic, qualitatively reproduces the salient features of the observed relaxation functions. The shape functions are found to be rather insensitive to the structure of the mesogen molecule and the type of mesophase involved, but distinguished by the morphological structure of the sample. In homogeneously aligned mesophases, the shape is mainly determined by the distribution in the intersegmental (CH₂) dipolar interactions, whilst in unaligned mesophases the shape is determined by the orientational distribution of the director. A value for M ₂ ^vv(inter-pair) can be obtained from the decay of the relaxation function of unaligned mesophases, but not for aligned ones. There is an exchange process which contributes to the damping of both the FID signal and solid echo relaxation function in unaligned smectic-A mesophases which is absent in the corresponding aligned mesophases. This process must be a consequence of the defect structure of the smectic-A phase and involve rapid diffusion of molecules between regions distinguished by different orientations of the mesophase director.     

Influence of oxygen growth pressure on laser ablated Cr-doped In2O3 thin films

We present a systematic investigation of the effects of oxygen growth pressure on the structural, optical, and electrical properties of In₂O₃:Cr thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction analysis showed increases in lattice constant from 10.103 Å to 10.337 Å, and in particle size from 13.9 nm to 35.5 nm as the oxygen growth pressure increased from 7.5 × 10⁻⁶ Torr to 7.5 × 10⁻³ Torr, respectively. The observed shift in the X-ray diffraction peaks to lower angles was assumed to be caused by the reduction in the lattice defect density, precisely oxygen vacancies. The optical transparency increased with partial oxygen pressure (P_O2), and an average transmittance of 85% was obtained at 7.5 × 10⁻³ Torr. The films are highly conducting with resistivity as low as 2 × 10⁻⁴ Ω cm and mobility as high as 133 cm/V s. Temperature dependent resistivity measurements in the 45 < T < 300 K temperature range reveal that films grown at 7.5×10⁻⁶≤P_O2≤7.5×10⁻⁴ Torr exhibit negative temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR) below approximately T = 60 K, T = 120 K, T = 160 K; then positive TCR in the temperature intervals 60 < T < 300 K, 120 < T < 300 K, and 160 < T < 300 K, respectively. This suggests that two disparate mechanisms govern electrical dc transport in the two temperature regions. Film grown at P_O2 of 7.5 × 10⁻³ Torr displayed typical semiconducting behavior with negative TCR in the whole temperature region.     

Wide band gap Cd0.83Mg0.15Al0.02O thin films by pulsed laser deposition

Magnesium and aluminum doped CdO thin films were deposited on quartz substrate using pulsed laser deposition technique. Magnesium is used to widen the band gap and aluminum is used to increase carrier concentration of CdO films. The effect of growth temperature on structural, optical, and electrical properties was studied. These films are crystalline in nature and their preferred orientation depends on growth temperature. These films are highly transparent (∼86%) in visible region. The band gap of the films varies from 3.1 eV to 3.4 eV. The electrical conductivity and carrier concentration were found to decrease with increase in growth temperature.     

Critical current measurement on Y-Ba-Cu-O

We report critical current measurements on sintered Y_0.35Ba_0.65CuO_y. The sample, in the perovskite phase, shows zero resistance at 87 K. The critical current transition is seen, in zero field and at 77 K, at a current densityJ _c of 50 A/cm².