Onset of crater formation during short pulse laser ablation

We report morphologic changes of metallic surfaces at the onset of ablation, starting from gentle ablation to the emergence of ablation craters. The evolution of both observed melting zones and of ablation craters therein are investigated in dependence of the ablation laser fluence for nanosecond ultraviolet laser pulses. Further, consequences of crater formation for cluster synthesis within the released atomic vapor are pointed out. PACS 52.38.Mf; 79.20.Ds; 65.40.De     

Electrochemical Recovery of Silver from Lead Alloys in Chloride Melts

Electrochemical separation of lead-silver alloys into the constituents by thin-layer electrolysis in molten electrolytes, with bismuth as metal separator, is studied. It is proposed to determine the extent of component recovery by potentiometry.     

Mass Power Spectrum in a Universe Dominated by the Chaplygin Gas

The mass power spectrum for a Universe dominated by the Chaplygin gas is evaluated numerically from scales of the order of the Hubble horizon to 100 Mpc. The results are compared with a pure baryonic Universe and a cosmological constant model. In all three cases, the spectrum increases with k, the wavenumber of the perturbations. The slope of the spectrum is higher for the baryonic model and smaller for the cosmological constant model, the Chaplygin gas interpolating these two models. The results are analyzed in terms of the sound velocity of the Chaplygin gas and the moment the Universe begins to accelerate.     

On the problem of calculating the optical film parameters from the measured transmission spectra

The procedure for calculating the dispersion of the refractive and absorption indices and thickness of an optical film, based on measurements of spectral dependence of the transmittance, is described. The film parameters are calculated using a solution of the approximation problem. The effect of the film model on the calculated values of the refractive and absorption indices is analyzed.     

Inverse Process with Independent Positive Increments: Finite-Dimensional Distributions

An inverse process with independent positive increments is considered. For such a process, the first hitting time τ_x of level x as a function of x ≥ 0 is a proper process with independent positive increments. In terms of first hitting times and their Levy measures, multidemensional distribution densities and Laplace transformations are derived. Stationary distributions of increments of the process are investigated. Bibliography: 8 titles. __________ Translated from Zapiski Nauchnykh Seminarov POMI, Vol. 311, 2004, pp. 286–297.     

Effective field and the Bloch-Siegert shift at bichromatic excitation of multiphoton EPR

The dynamics of multiphoton transitions in a two-level spin system excited by transverse microwave and longitudinal RF fields with the frequencies ω_mw and ω_rf, respectively, is analyzed. The effective time-independent Hamiltonian describing the “dressed” spin states of the “spin + bichromatic field” system is obtained by using the Krylov-Bogoliubov-Mitropolsky averaging method. The direct detection of the time behavior of the spin system by the method of nonstationary nutations makes it possible to identify the multiphoton transitions for resonances ω₀ = ω_mw + rω_rf (ω₀ is the central frequency of the EPR line, r = 1, 2), to measure the amplitudes of the effective fields of these transitions, and to determine the features generated by the inhomogeneous broadening of the EPR line. It is shown that the Bloch-Siegert shifts for multiphoton resonances at the inhomogeneous broadening of spectral lines reduce only the nutation amplitude but do not change their frequencies.     

Teachers' beliefs on teacher training contents and related characteristics of implementation—the example of introducing the topic study method in mathematics classrooms

So-called “bottom-up” strategies for implementation based on mathematics teachers' own developmental activities are considered to be a powerful approach when encouraging teachers to introduce alternative instructional practices. For evaluational research of in-service teacher training programs using “bottom-up” implementation strategies, the way how teachers implement contents of the teacher training is at the centre of interest. As the teachers' active role in the implementation process is necessary, their individual beliefs on the contents of the teacher training and their expectancies might influence the teachers' implementational activities. These beliefs can be considered as components of professional knowledge and pedagogical contents knowledge (Shulman, 1986) in particular. For this reason, the study focuses on the development of beliefs on contents of a teacher training program throughout the training on the one hand and relationships with characteristics of implementation on the other hand. We consider the example of introducing a student-centred learning environment, the so-called topic study method, in the teachers' classrooms. The results indicate that there are interdependencies between beliefs on the teacher training contents and characteristics of implementation.     

Influence of Azimuthal Structure of Surface Waves on Efficiency of their Excitation by Tubular Electron Beams

The excitation of eigen surface waves by tubular electron beams in cylindrical discharge devices is studied. The influence of the wave‐field azimuthal structure on the excitation efficiency and nonlinear stage of the plasmabeam instability is investigated both numerically and analytically. Analytical expressions for the saturation amplitude and excitation efficiency of the wave under study are derived. They are found to agree well with results obtained by numerical modelling of the plasma‐beam interaction presented in this paper. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Method of lines with boundary elements for 1‐D transient diffusion‐reaction problems

Time‐dependent differential equations can be solved using the concept of method of lines (MOL) together with the boundary element (BE) representation for the spatial linear part of the equation. The BE method alleviates the need for spatial discretization and casts the problem in an integral format. Hence errors associated with the numerical approximation of the spatial derivatives are totally eliminated. An element level local cubic approximation is used for the variable at each time step to facilitate the time marching and the nonlinear terms are represented in a semi‐implicit manner by a local linearization at each time step. The accuracy of the method has been illustrated on a number of test problems of engineering significance. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2006     

Inclusion of carbon nanotubes in a TiO2 sol-gel matrix

We report here the successful inclusion of carbon nanotubes (CNs) into a TiO₂ matrix prepared by a sol-gel method. The presence of CNs in the sol-gel matrix and the structure of the film were analyzed principally by transmission electron microscopy. Complementary information about the behavior of embedded carbon nanotubes versus heat treatment and ion irradiation were obtained by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The elaboration of an inorganic matrix containing embedded carbon nanotubes leads to a new nanocomposite. The possible applications of this nanocomposite are discussed.