Thermal melting and ablation of silicon by femtosecond laser radiation

The space-time dynamics of thermal melting, subsurface cavitation, spallative ablation, and fragmentation ablation of the silicon surface excited by single IR femtosecond laser pulses is studied by timeresolved optical reflection microscopy. This dynamics is revealed by monitoring picosecond and (sub)nanosecond oscillations of probe pulse reflection, which is modulated by picosecond acoustic reverberations in the dynamically growing surface melt subjected to ablation and having another acoustic impedance, and by optical interference between the probe pulse replicas reflected by the spalled layer surface and the layer retained on the target surface. The acoustic reverberation periods change during the growth and ablation of the surface melt film, which makes it possible to quantitatively estimate the contributions of these processes to the thermal dynamics of the material surface. The results on the thermal dynamics of laser excitation are supported by dynamic measurements of the ablation parameters using noncontact ultrasonic diagnostics, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and optical interference microscopy of the modified regions appearing on the silicon surface after ablation.     

Raman microspectroscopic mapping as a tool for detection of gunshot residue on adhesive tape

Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry - Our research group previously reported a novel method for the detection of gunshot residue (GSR) via tape lifting combined with Raman microspectroscopic...     

Neutral decays of the η-meson

The partial widths of η-meson decays η→2γ, η→3π⁰ and η→π⁰γγ have been measured in a high accuracy experiment made at the IHEP accelerator with the hodoscope electromagnetic spectrometer GAMS-2000. An upper limit has been determined for the 3γ channel. The Dalitz plot of the η decay into 3π⁰ shows that the matrix element does not depend on the pion energy.     

Small |t|π− p charge exchange scattering at 40 GeV/c

π^? p→π⁰ n differential cross-sections have been measured in the region of small 4-momentum transfer at 40 GeV/c incident momentum. The experiment performed at the IHEP 70 GeV accelerator makes use of a hodoscope γ-spectrometer. Thet- dependence of the cross-section points to a dominance of the spin-flip amplitude.     

Evolution of Laser Plume upon Graphite Ablation in Vacuum and Nitrogen

The propagation of carbon laser plasma during its expansion in vacuum and in a nitrogen atmosphere was studied with the use of an Nd : YAG laser (λ = 532 nm, τ = 15 ns). The presence of C₂, C₃, and CN molecules was detected in emission spectra, and the space and time characteristics of their propagation were determined. The vibrational temperatures of C₂ and CN molecules were calculated.     

2D correlation deep UV resonance raman spectroscopy of early events of lysozyme fibrillation: kinetic mechanism and potential interpretation pitfalls

The early stages of hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL) fibrillation were quantitatively characterized by two-dimensional correlation deep UV resonance Raman spectroscopy (2D-DUVRR) in terms of the sequential order of events and their characteristic times. The evolution of individual secondary structural elements was established through the correlation between Amide I, Amide III, and Calpha-H bending Raman bands. The temporal order of tertiary and individual secondary structural changes was probed through the cross-correlation of phenylalanine and Amide Raman bands. Both the sequential order and the characteristic times of tertiary and secondary structural changes allowed for reconstructing the molecular mechanism of lysozyme structural changes at the early stages of fibrillation. The 2D-DUVRR analysis of our data indicated that melting of the alpha-helix happened after the formation of the disordered structure, which was termed as apparent inverse order of secondary structural changes. We demonstrated that this apparent inverse order of events is typical for all chemical reactions involving the formation of intermediate(s), which may lead to the serious misinterpretation of 2D correlation results. We proposed a new simulation-aided approach for reconstructing and quantitatively characterizing the reaction mechanism of a (bio)chemical reaction that accounts for the apparent inverse order of events.     

Synthesis of carbon nitride films by double-pulse laser ablation

Carbon nitride films have been synthesized by double-pulse laser ablation of graphite in nitrogen plasma. The films produced in both single-and double-pulse experiments have been studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The degree of crystallinity and the content of sp ³-hybridized carbon atoms in the films obtained by double-pulse laser ablation turn out to be higher than in the films deposited by the conventional one-pulse method.     

Influence of the Density of Buffer Gas Atoms on the Shape of the HgXe(A30+) → HgXe(X10+) Excimer Band

Optics and Spectroscopy - The reasons for the discrepancies between the experimental data on the shape of long-wavelength continua near the 63P1 → 61S0 resonance line of a mercury atom in a...