The nature of the C-defects in nickel and their rôle in the interpretation of radiation damage in metals

In previous Perturbed-Angular-Correlation (PAC) studies of the - emission of ¹¹¹In probe nuclei in cold-worked or particle-irradiated nickel, it has been found that thermal annealing in the temperature regime of recovery stage III leads to the formation of so-called C-defects (Cubic defects). This is indicated by the occurrence of a new frequency of about 80 Mrad/s, in addition to the frequency (200 Mrad/s) that is due to ¹¹¹In on substitutional sites. Obviously, the C-defects are complexes consisting of ¹¹¹In and the intrinsic point-defect species that migrates freely in recovery stage III. Therefore, they have played an important rôle in the long-standing controversy on whether the recovery-stage-III defects are vacancies (one-interstitial model) or self-interstitials (two-interstitial model). The present paper reports on a novel experimental effort to reveal the nature of the C-defects by combining PAC studies on nickel samples differently pretreated in a systematic way, investigations of the Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) on In-doped nickel, and measurements of the decay rate of ¹¹¹In nuclei in the Electron-Capture-Induced Decay (ECID). On the basis of the results of these experiments it is concluded that the defects trapped by substitutional ¹¹¹In atoms (In_s) in recovery stage III are self-interstitials (I), as expected according to the two-interstitial model. Moreover, there is evidence that the C-defects are In interstitials on tetrahedral sites (In_i) that form exclusively in the vicinity of the specimen surface from In_s – I pairs via the reaction In_s+I In_i.     

Spectro-streak picosecond studies of intramolecular charge-transfer fluorescence

A spectro-streak photometer, an instrument for simultaneously measuring fluorescence intensity, time, and wavelength,I(t, ), with a single picosecond excitation pulse, has been constructed. Two typical and currently highly topical examples of mesurements are discussed. (1) the temporal development of the fluorescence form the intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT) state of the rigid aromatic compound 4,5-(1-methylindolino)3,4-naphthanthracene is studied in the protic solvent hexanol. (2) Propyl chain-linked pyrene/N,N-dimethylaniline is used as the model compound to study conformational changes associated with the transition from a contact ion pair to a sandwich exciplex.     

Photorefractive properties of ruthenium-doped potassium niobate

Photoconductivities and photovoltaic currents of ruthenium-doped KNbO₃ are orders of magnitude larger than that of undoped and ion-doped crystals. KNbO₃:Ru is very sensitive for holographic recording with red light and the photovoltaic current increases sublinearly with light intensity.     

Germination, growth rates, and electron microscope analysis of tomato seeds flown on the LDEF

The purpose of the experiment was to determine cosmic rays long-term effects on living tissue. A batch of tomato seeds were flown in orbit aboard the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) for almost 6 y. During this time, the seeds received an abundant exposure to cosmic radiation. Upon the return of the LDEF to Earth, the seeds were distributed throughout the United States and 30 foreign countries for analysis. Our university analysis included germination and growth rates as well as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray analysis of the control as well as space exposed tomato seeds.

In analyzing the seeds under the electron microscope, usual observations were performed on the nutritional and epidermis layer of the seed. These layers appeared to be more porous in the space exposed seeds than on Earth-based control seeds. This unusual characteristic may explain the increases in the space seeds growth pattern. (Several test results showed that the space-exposed seeds germinated sooner than Earth-based seeds. Also, the space-exposed seeds grew at a faster rate.) The porous nutritional region may allow the seeds to receive necessary nutrients and liquids more readily, thus enabling the plant to grow at a faster rate.

Roots, leaves and stems were cut into small sections and mounted. After sputter coating the specimens with argon/gold palladium plasma, they were viewed under the electron microscope. Many micrographs were taken. The X-ray analysis displayed possible identifications of calcium, potassium, chlorine, copper, aluminum, silicon, phosphate, carbon, and sometimes sulfur and iron. The highest concentrations were shown in potassium and calcium. As a result of the electron interaction and X-ray production within the open seeds, the traditional layers of the space-exposed seed gave peaks of Mg, P and S, while the Earth seed gave an iron peak, which was not detected in the space-exposed seed because of electron beam positioning difference. The space-exposed seed and the Earth-control seed specimens displayed high concentrations of copper.     

Analytical formulae for the optimization of the process of low-power phase modulation in a quadratic nonlinear medium

We show that using the approximation of fixed intensity analytical formulae, describing the process of induced phase modulation for the beams involved in second-order nonlinear optical processes can be derived. Expressions that allow the optimization of the phase shifts experienced by the fundamental and generated waves are presented for nonlinear quadratic processes, second-harmonic generation and sum-frequency mixing. In the case of seeding at the generated wavelength, the phase shift of the fundamental wave is due to two interactions: (i) a cubic one, based on coupled second-order processes (cascade cubic nonlinearity) and (ii) single quadratic interaction with participation of the seeding wave. By comparison with the exact numerical solution, we defined the input parameters of the beams for which this analytical approach is valid. It is shown that phase shifts exceeding /2 can be correctly predicted using the expressions obtained.     

Laser nitriding of iron: Influence of the laser parameters on the nitriding efficiency

Laser nitriding of Armco iron in nitrogen was studied for KrF-excimer-laser irradiation. The influence of the energy density and number of pulses on the nitrogen take-up and the nitride phases formed was investigated using Resonant Nuclear Reaction Analysis (RNRA) and Mössbauer spectroscopy. Besides the original a-iron, austenite-Fe(N), martensite-Fe(N),-Fe₂₊N, and-Fe₁₆N₂ were identified. The fraction of the e-phase was found to increase with the number of pulses and the energy density. A threshold energy density of 1.8(2) J/cm² for the laser nitriding process was found.     

The microlocal spectrum condition and Wick polynomials of free fields on curved spacetimes

Quantum fields propagating on a curved spacetime are investigated in terms of microlocal analysis. We discuss a condition on the wave front set for the correspondingn-point distributions, called microlocal spectrum condition (SC). On Minkowski space, this condition is satisfied as a consequence of the usual spectrum condition. Based on Radzikowski's determination of the wave front set of the two-point function of a free scalar field, satisfying the Hadamard condition in the Kay and Wald sense, we construct in the second part of this paper all Wick polynomials including the energy-momentum tensor for this field as operator valued distributions on the manifold and prove that they satisfy our microlocal spectrum condition.