Expansion of explosion products of silver azide

A new method for studying the kinetics of the expansion of explosion products based on measuring the time elapsed from explosion initiation to the short-circuiting of the discharge gap by the products was proposed. It was revealed that, at the initial stage of expansion of the silver azide explosion products, they move with uniform acceleration, a behavior suggestive that, during this period, the exothermic reaction 2N₃ → 3N₂ occurs.     

Ordering of structural vacancies in vanadium monoxide of substoichiometric composition

The order-disorder phase transition in vanadium monoxide of substoichiometric compositions VO_y has been studied for the first time in situ by the Faraday method with a pendulum magnetic balance of the Domenically type. A minimum is found on the temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility of vanadium monoxide of different compositions at a temperature of about 700 K. X-ray diffraction analysis performed before and after measuring the magnetic susceptibility confirmed the change in the structure of vanadium monoxide and the possibility of atom-vacancy processes upon cooling and heating of the samples.     

In‐situ synthesis of transparent and conductive carbon nanotube networks

A method for the production of transparent carbon nanotube networks (CNTNs) over transparent substrates was developed. In this method, CNTNs were grown directly in the target surface by applying the catalyst in specific zones of the substrate through lithographic techniques. The networks can be also transferred from the original substrate to other surfaces. The newly grown carbon nanotubes have a very high aspect ratio (>50000). Thus far, networks with an optical transmittance of 94% at 550 nm and a surface resistivity of 3.6 kΩ/sq have been produced. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Realisation and metrological characterisation of thickness standards below 100 nm

High-accuracy film thickness measurements in the range below 100 nm can be made by various complex methods like spectral ellipsometry (SE), scanning force microscopy (SFM), grazing incidence X-ray reflectometry (GIXR), or X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF). The measurement results achieved with these methods are based on different interactions between the film and the probe. A key question in nanotechnology is how to achieve consistent results on a level of uncertainty below one nanometre with different techniques.Two different types of thickness standards are realised. Metal film standards for X-ray techniques in the thickness range 10 to 50 nm are calibrated by GIXR with monochromatised synchrotron radiation of 8048 eV. The results obtained at four different facilities show excellent agreement. SiO₂ on Si standards for SE and SFM in the thickness range 6 to 1000 nm are calibrated by GIXR with monochromatised synchrotron radiation of 1841 eV and with a metrological SFM. Consistent results within the combined uncertainties are obtained with the two methods. Surfaces and interfaces of both types of standards are additionally investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). PACS 61.10.Kw; 68.55.Jk; 06.20.Fn; 06.60.Mr; 07.79.Lh     

Manufacturing cell formation using similarity coefficients and a parallel genetic TSP algorithm: Formulation and comparison

Many algorithms have been proposed to form manufacturing cells from component routings. However, many of these do not have the capability of solving large problems. We propose a procedure using similarity coefficients and a parallel genetic implementation of a TSP algorithm that is capable of solving large problems of up to 1000 parts and 1000 machines. In addition, we also compare our procedure with many existing procedures using nine well-known problems from the literature.

The results show that the proposed procedure compares well with the existing procedures and should be useful to practitioners and researchers.     

Trace norm estimates for products of integral operators and diffusion semigroups

We give trace norm estimates for products of integral operators and for diffusion semigroups. These are applied to differences of heat semigroups. A natural example of an integral operator with finite trace which is not trace class is given.