The Effect of Atmospheric Ionization on Oxygen Diffusion in Polycrystalline Ferrites under e-Beam Irradiation

It is shown that activation of the process of oxygen diffusion in polycrystalline lithium-titanium ferrites heated by a beam of high-energy electrons in the range of temperatures 873–1173 K occurs due to two factors: gas medium ionization by an e-beam and acceleration of diffusion processes directly in the matrix in the irradiation field.     

Luminescence enhancement by hydrogenation of Si:Er,O

Erbium (Er)- and oxygen (O)-doped Cz–Si was additionally doped with hydrogen, using plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra show a large enhancement especially for samples treated with solid phase epitaxy before hydrogenation and annealing at 900°C later. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy measurements give evidence for an enhanced diffusion of O and Er at this temperature towards the surface. Etching shows that the PL does not stem from the heavily doped surface layer but from a deeper region with lower Er concentration. This conclusion is supported by the appearance of the so-called “cubic” centre with low solubility. Comparing the PL yield of the hydrogenated samples to that of samples with similar Er volume concentration but without hydrogenation still gives a large enhancement. We thus conclude that hydrogen can enhance the solubility of the cubic centre in Si:Er,O.     

Normal forms for nonlinear control systems with scalar output

We propose a normal form for nonlinear control systems with scalar output. We follow an approach proposed by Poincaré and adapted for control systems by Kang and Krener which consists of analyzing, step-by-step, the action of the change of coordinates on the system. To cite this article: I.A. Tall, M. Balde, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 341 (2005).     

The effect of Mn substitution on thermoelectric properties of Ca3MnxCo4−xO9 at low temperatures

The effects of partial substitution of Mn for Co on the thermoelectric properties of Ca₃Mn_xCo_4−xO₉ (x=0, 0.03, 0.9), prepared by sol-gel process, were investigated at the temperatures from 380 K down to 5 K. The results indicate that the substitution of Mn for Co results in increase in thermopower at temperatures >∼80 K, and substantial (23-31% at 300 K) decrease in lattice thermal conductivity in the whole temperature range investigated. The temperature behavior of ZT suggests that Ca₃Mn_xCo_4−xO₉ with light Mn substitution would be a promising candidate for high-temperature thermoelectric applications.     

Polynomial Approximation in the L p-Metric on Disjoint Segments

The Sobolev functional class on a finite disjoint union of segments is described in terms of the rate of polynomial approximation. Bibliography: 9 titles.     

A Genetic Algorithm for Solving a Capacitated p-Median Problem

Facility-location problems have several applications, such as telecommunications, industrial transportation and distribution. One of the most well-known facility-location problems is the p-median problem. This work addresses an application of the capacitated p-median problem to a real-world problem. We propose a genetic algorithm (GA) to solve the capacitated p-median problem. The proposed GA uses not only conventional genetic operators, but also a new heuristic “hypermutation” operator suggested in this work. The proposed GA is compared with a tabu search algorithm.     

Recyclization of 2,3-Disubstituted 5-Arylamino-2,5-dihydro-1,2,4-thiadiazoles and Related Salts into Benzothiazole Derivatives

Russian Journal of General Chemistry -     

Study of relaxor-like behaviour of laser ablated (Pb, La)Tio3 thin films

Lanthanum modified lead titanate (PLT) thin films are one of the potential candidates for the pyroelectric and memory applications due to their excellent dielectric, pyroelectric and ferroelectric properties. PLT thin films with 25 at.% of La were deposited on platinum coated Si substrates by the laser ablation technique. The phase transition studies were done in the temperature range of −40 to 150 °C as a function of frequency and ac field. A diffused phase transition with the shifting of the maximum dielectric permittivity (?_max) to higher temperatures with the increase of frequency and dielectric dispersion with frequency at the lower temperatures were observed. The variation of the temperature corresponding to maximum dielectric constant T_m, with frequency follows the Vogel-Fulcher relation, which is the characteristic of the relaxor-like behavior of the material. With the increase of ac drive, the T_max was shifted to lower value.     

Measurement of the dynamic elastic constants of short isotropic cylinders

A method based on a single test is proposed to characterize the elasticity of an isotropic homogeneous material in the shape of a cylinder of any slenderness (length-diameter) ratio. Firstly, the Rayleigh-Ritz method is used to determine the natural frequencies of the cylinders vibrating axisymmetrically. The study is focused on cylindrical samples with diameter and length of similar magnitude so that the shear modulus and the Poisson ratio can be calculated simultaneously. Subsequently, the theoretical results for cylinders of slenderness ratio between 0.1 and 3 are analyzed in order to obtain the data required to determine the elastic constants from one of the two lowest measured natural frequencies and their quotient. The analysis of the results demonstrates that any slenderness ratio is useful in the calculation of the elastic constants, although in some cases the third natural frequency should be used. Furthermore, the influence of the length-diameter quotient on the sensitivity of the method is analyzed by evaluating the systematic uncertainties for both dynamic elastic constants. Finally, the method is experimentally tested by characterizing two steel cylinders with slenderness ratios 0.1 and 1, respectively. The results demonstrate that uncertainties for both Poisson ratio and the shear modulus are smaller when the slenderness ratio is 1.