Formation energies and swelling of uranium dioxide by point defects

Hybrid density functional theory is used to study the stability and behavior of rare gases in uranium dioxide. Three insertion sites are considered: the octahedral interstitial position and the oxygen and uranium substitution sites. The optimized lattice constant, the volume variation induced by gaseous atom incorporation, and the defect formation energy are studied for each rare gas. Both lattice constants and formation energies increase with increase in radii of the rare gases. The octahedral interstitial position is the most favorable occupation site. The formation energy is found to be negative only for He at an interstitial site.     

On the scattering of torsional elastic waves from axisymmetric defects in coated pipes

Long range ultrasonic testing is now a well established method for examining in-service degradation in pipelines. In order to protect pipelines from the surrounding environment it is common for viscoelastic coatings to be applied to the outer surface. These coatings are, however, known to impact on the ability of long range ultrasonic techniques to locate degradation, or defects, within a coated pipe. The coating dissipates sound energy travelling along the pipe, attenuating both the incident and reflected signals making responses from defects difficult to detect. This article aims to investigate the influence of a viscoelastic coating on the ability of long range ultrasonic testing to detect a defect in an axisymmetric pipe. The article focuses on understanding the behaviour of the fundamental torsional mode and quantifying the effect of bitumen coatings on reflection coefficients generated by axisymmetric defects. Reflection coefficients are measured experimentally for coated and uncoated pipes and compared to theoretical predictions generated using numerical mode matching and a hybrid finite element technique. Good agreement between prediction and measurement is observed for uncoated pipes, and it is shown that the theoretical methods presented here are fast and efficient making them suitable for studying long pipe runs. However, when studying coated pipes agreement between theory and prediction is observed to be poor for predictions based on those bulk acoustic properties currently reported in the literature for bitumen. Good agreement is observed only after conducting a parametric study to identify more appropriate values for the bulk acoustic properties. Furthermore, the reflection coefficients obtained for the fundamental torsional mode in a coated pipe show that significant sound attenuation is present over relatively short lengths of coating, thus quantifying those problems commonly encountered with the use of long range ultrasonic testing on coated pipes in the field.     

ECR离子源引出束流周期性波动研究

Earlier we reported an ion current jump which was observed at a fixed negative biased disc potential in the 6.4GHz ECR ion source at VECC,Kolkata.In a recent experiment with neon ions,we measured the time spectra of the ion current and observed the presence of a burst frequency in the kilohertz range.This frequency shows a correlated jump with the ion current jump described above.Another interesting feature is that the observed burst frequency shows a good linear correlation with the extracted ion current.The higher the ion current,the higher is the burst frequency.This means that current per burst is a constant factor;when there are more number of bursts,the current also increases.     

Energy-loss near-edge fine structures of iron nanoparticles

Body centered cubic (bcc) Fe nanoparticles were fabricated by in situ decomposition of iron fluoride films in a transmission electron microscope. Electron energy-loss near edge structure (ELNES) was used to characterize this exposure process. In particular, the L(3)/L(2) white-line intensity ratio (WLR) was used to monitor the iron valence state during exposure, and as an indicator of other properties of the iron nanoparticles. Iron nanoparticles with sizes between 2 and 20nm exhibit a constant WLR, whose value is same as that for a continuous bcc iron film, suggesting little or no dependence of the local magnetic moment or structure on the particle size. A broad but prominent peak which occurs 40eV after the L(3)-ionization threshold in the iron fluoride, is absent for a metallic iron film but reappears when the iron is converted to an oxide. Long-range ferromagnetic coupling was observed in samples densely populated with iron nanoparticles. Because there is little interaction between particles and the supporting carbon substrate, these samples provide an ideal model system for studying the influence of particle size and interparticle distance on magnetic properties.     

On-chip methane sensing by near-IR absorption signatures in a photonic crystal slot waveguide

We demonstrate a 300?μm long silicon photonic crystal (PC) slot waveguide device for on-chip near-infrared absorption spectroscopy, based on the Beer-Lambert law for the detection of methane gas. The device combines slow light in a PC waveguide with high electric field intensity in a low-index 90?nm wide slot, which effectively increases the optical absorption path length. A methane concentration of 100?ppm (parts per million) in nitrogen was measured.     

Parallel receivers and sparse sampling in multidimensional NMR

The recent introduction of NMR spectrometers with multiple receivers permits spectra from several different nuclear species to be recorded in parallel, and several standard pulse sequences to be combined into a single entity. It is shown how these improvements in the flow and quality of spectral information can be significantly augmented by compressive sensing techniques--controlled aliasing, Hadamard spectroscopy, single-point evaluation of evolution space (SPEED), random sampling, projection-reconstruction, and hyperdimensional NMR. Future developments of these techniques are confidently expected to mitigate one of the most serious limitations in multidimensional NMR--the excessive duration of the measurements.     

Raman microscopy of haidingerite Ca(AsO3OH)·H2O and brassite Mg(AsO3OH)·4H2O

Raman spectroscopy has been used to study the arsenate minerals haidingerite Ca(AsO₃OH)·H₂O and brassite Mg(AsO₃OH)·4H₂O. Intense Raman bands in the haidingerite spectrum observed at 745 and 855 cm⁻¹ are assigned to the (AsO₃OH)²⁻ν₃ antisymmetric stretching and ν₁ symmetric stretching vibrational modes. For brassite, two similarly assigned intense bands are found at 809 and 862 cm⁻¹. The observation of multiple Raman bands in the (AsO₃OH)²⁻ stretching and bending regions suggests that the arsenate tetrahedrons in the crystal structures of both minerals studied are strongly distorted. Broad Raman bands observed at 2842 cm⁻¹ for haidingerite and 3035 cm⁻¹ for brassite indicate strong hydrogen bonding of water molecules in the structure of these minerals. OH···O hydrogen‐bond lengths were calculated from the Raman spectra based on empirical relations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.