4-Phosphoryl Pyrazolones for Highly Selective Lithium Separation from Alkali Metal Ions

Effective receptors for the separation of Li⁺ from a mixture with other alkali metal ions under mild conditions remains an important challenge that could benefit from new approaches. In this study, it is demonstrated that the 4-phosphoryl pyrazolones, H L ²-H L ⁴, in the presence of the typical industrial organophosphorus co-ligands tributylphosphine oxide (TBPO), tributylphosphate (TBP) and trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO), are able to selectively recognise and extract lithium ions from aqueous solution. Structural investigations in solution as well as in the solid state reveal the existence of a series of multinuclear Li⁺ complexes that include dimers (TBPO, TBP) as well as rarely observed trimers (TOPO) and represent the first clear evidence for the synergistic role of the co-ligands in the extraction process. Our findings are supported by detailed NMR, MS and extraction studies. Liquid-liquid extraction in the presence of TOPO revealed an unprecedented high Li⁺ extraction efficiency (78 %) for H L ⁴ compared to the use of the industrially employed acylpyrazolone H L ¹ (15 %) and benzoyl-1,1,1-trifluoroacetone (52 %) extractants. In addition, a high selectivity for Li⁺ over Na⁺, K⁺ and Cs⁺ under mild conditions (pH ∼8.2) confirms that H L ²-H L ⁴ represent a new class of ligands that are very effective extractants for use in lithium separation.     

Observation of B-->eta'K* and evidence for B+-->eta'rho+

We present an observation of B-->eta'K*. The data sample corresponds to 232x10(6) BB[over ] pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B factory at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. We measure the branching fractions (in units of 10(-6)) B(B(0)-->eta'K*0)=3.8+/-1.1+/-0.5 and B(B+-->eta'K*+)=4.9(1.7)(+1.9)+/-0.8, where the first error is statistical and the second systematic. A simultaneous fit results in the observation of B-->eta'K* with B(B-->eta'K*)=4.1(-0.9)(+1.0)+/-0.5. We also search for B-->eta'rho and eta'f(0)(980)(f(0)-->pi+pi-) with results and 90% confidence level upper limits B(B+-->eta'rho+)=8.7(-2.8-1.3)(+3.1+2.3) (<14), B(B(0)-->eta'rho0)<3.7, and B(B(0)-->eta'f(0)(980)(f(0)-->pi+pi-))<1.5. Charge asymmetries in the channels with significant yields are consistent with zero.     

The analysis of factors limiting the maximum output power of broad-area laser diodes

The causes for the saturation of both the continuous-wave and the pulsed output power of broad-area laser diodes driven at very high currents are investigated experimentally and theoretically. The decrease of the gain due to self-heating under continuous-wave operation and spectral holeburning under pulsed operation as well as hetero-barrier carrier leakage and longitudinal spatial holeburning are the dominant mechanisms limiting the maximum achievable output power.     

Interaction-induced collapse of a section of the Fermi sea in the zigzag Hubbard ladder

Using the next-nearest-neighbor (zigzag) Hubbard chain as a one-dimensional model, we investigate the influence of interactions on the position of the Fermi wave vectors with the density-matrix renormalization-group technique. For suitable choices of the hopping parameters we observe that electron-electron correlations induce very different renormalizations for the two different Fermi wave vectors, which ultimately lead to a complete destruction of one section of the Fermi sea in a quantum critical point.     

Measurement of B0-B-0 flavor oscillations in hadronic B0 decays

Flavor oscillations of neutral B mesons have been studied in e+e- annihilation data collected with the BABAR detector at center-of-mass energies near the upsilon(4S) resonance. The data sample used for this purpose consists of events in which one B0 meson is reconstructed in a hadronic decay mode, while the flavor of the recoiling B0 is determined with a tagging algorithm that exploits the correlation between the flavor of the heavy quark and the charges of its decay products. From the time development of the observed mixed and unmixed final states, we determine the B0-B-0 oscillation frequency deltamd to be 0.516+/-0.016(stat)+/-0.010(syst) ps-1.     

Disorder induced quantum phase transition in random-exchange spin-1/2 chains

We investigate the effect of quenched bond disorder on the anisotropic antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 (XXZ) chain as a model for disorder-induced quantum phase transitions. We find nonuniversal behavior of the average correlation functions for weak disorder, followed by a quantum phase transition into a strongly disordered phase with only short-range xy correlations. We find no evidence for the universal strong-disorder fixed point predicted by the real-space renormalization group, suggesting a qualitatively different view of the relationship between quantum fluctuations and disorder.