Studying the energy dependence of intrinsic conversion efficiency of single crystal scintillators under X-ray excitation

Single crystal scintilators are used in various radiation detectors applications. The efficiency of the crystal can be determined by the Detector Optical Gain (DOG) defined as the ratio of the emitted optical photon flux over the incident radiation photons flux. A parameter affecting DOG is the intrinsic conversion efficiency (n _C ) giving the percentage of the X-ray photon power converted to optical photon power. n _C is considered a constant value for X-ray energies in the order of keV although a non-proportional behavior has been reported. In this work an analytical model, has been utilized to single crystals scintillators GSO:Ce, LSO:Ce and LYSO:Ce to examine whether the intrinsic conversion efficiency shows non proportional behavior under X-ray excitation. DOG was theoretically calculated as a function of the incident X-ray spectrum, the X-ray absorption efficiency, the energy of the produced optical photons and the light transmission efficiency. The theoretical DOG values were compared with experimental data obtained by irradiating the crystals with X-rays at tube voltages from 50 to 140 kV and by measuring the light energy flux emitted from the irradiated screen. An initial value for n _C (calculated from literature data) was assumed for the X-ray tube voltage of 50 kV. For higher X-ray tube voltages the optical photon propagation phenomena was assumed constant and any deviations between experimental and theoretical data were associated with changes in the intrinsic conversion efficiency. The experimental errors were below 7% for each experimental setup. The behavior of n _C values for LSO:Ce and LYSO:Ce were found very similar, i.e., ranging with values from 0.089 at 50 kV to 0.015 at 140 kV, while for GSO:Ce, n _C demonstrated a peak at 80 kV.     

A planar chiral non-metallocenic analogue of the most popular N,N-dimethylbenzylaminate palladacycle

A racemic planar chiral tertiary amine pCp-CH₂NMe₂ (HL¹, pCp = [2.2]paracyclophane-4-yl) was prepared by aminomethylation of the bromide pCp-Br with Eschenmoser’s salt. Direct cyclopalladation of this new ligand with palladium(II) acetate results in the formation of the racemic CN-dimer rac-3 in a moderate yield of 64%. The enantiomerically pure dimer (S_pl, S_pl)-3 was obtained by the standard procedure of racemic palladacycle resolution using (S_C)-prolinate as a chiral derivatising agent. The ortho-palladated structure, absolute configuration of the chiral plane and stereochemical peculiarities of the new CN-palladacycle were established by means of NMR spectroscopy and an X-ray diffraction study of its (S_C)-prolinate derivative.     

Use of thermal imaging to characterize laser light reflection from thermoplastics as a function of thickness,laser incidence angle and surface roughness

Laser light reflection during the laser transmission welding (LTW) of thermoplastics has the potential to overheat and/or cause unintentional welding of adjacent features of the part being welded. For this reason, and in order to assess how much light is being absorbed by the transparent part (after measurement of the light transmitted through the transparent part), it is important to be able to quantify the magnitude and distribution of reflected light. The magnitude and distribution of the reflected light depends on the total laser input power as well as its distribution, the laser incidence angle (angle between the normal to the transparent part surface and the laser beam), the laser light polarization as well as the surface and optical properties of the transparent part. A novel technique based on thermal imaging of the reflected light was previously developed by the authors. It is used in this study to characterize the magnitude and distribution of reflected light from thermoplastics as a function of thickness (1–3.1 mm), laser incidence angle (20–40°) and surface roughness (0.04–1.04 μm). Results from reflection tests on nearly polished nylon 6 (surface roughness between 0.04 and 0.05 μm) have shown that, for the various thicknesses tested (1–3.1 mm), the total reflection was larger than the specular top surface reflection predicted via the Fresnel relation. From these observations, it is conjectured that, in addition to top surface reflection, the bulk and/or bottom surface also contribute to the total reflection. The results also showed that reflection decreased slightly with increasing thickness. As expected, for the p-polarized light used in this study, the reflection decreased with increasing angle of incidence for the range of angles studied. It was also found that when the surface roughness was close to zero and when it was close to the wavelength of the input laser beam (i.e. 940 nm), the reflectance values were close and reached a minimum between these two roughness values.     

High-Energy Proton-Beam-Induced Polymerization/Oxygenation of Hydroxynaphthalenes on Meteorites and Nitrogen Transfer from Urea: Modeling Insoluble Organic Matter?

Formation and structural modification of oxygenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (oxyPAHs) by UV irradiation on minerals have recently been proposed as a possible channel of PAH transformation in astrochemical and prebiotic scenarios of possible relevance for the origin of life. Herein, it is demonstrated that high-energy proton-beam irradiation in the presence of various meteorites, including stony iron, achondrite, and chondrite types, promotes the conversion of two representative oxyPAH compounds, 1-naphthol and 1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene, to complex mixtures of oxygenated and oligomeric derivatives. The main identified products include polyhydroxy derivatives, isomeric dimers encompassing benzofuran and benzopyran scaffolds, and, notably, a range of quinones and perylene derivatives. Addition of urea, a prebiotically relevant chemical precursor, expanded the range of identified species to include, among others, quinone diimines. Proton-beam irradiation of oxyPAH modulated by nitrogen-containing compounds such as urea is proposed as a possible contributory mechanism for the formation and processing of insoluble organic matter in meteorites and in prebiotic processes.     

Dynamical systems on quantum tori Lie algebras

We use quantum tori Lie algebras (QTLA), which are a one-parameter family of sub-algebras ofgl , to describe local and non-local versions of the Toda systems. It turns out that the central charge of QTLA is responsible for the non-locality. There are two regimes in the local systems-conformal for irrational values of the parameter and non-conformal and integrable for its rational values. We also consider infinite-dimensional analogs of rigid tops. Some of these systems give rise to quantized (magneto-)hydrodynamic equations of an ideal fluid on a torus. We also consider infinite dimensional versions of the integrable Euler and Clebsch cases.     

Spectroelectrochemical responsiveness of a freestanding, boron-doped diamond, optically transparent electrode toward ferrocene

The spectroelectrochemical responsiveness of an optically transparent diamond electrode (OTE) toward ferrocene was investigated. A freestanding, mechanically polished, boron-doped diamond disk (0.38 mm thick and 8 mm in diameter) served as the OTE for UV-Vis transmission spectroelectrochemical measurements. A specially designed, thin-layer spectroelectrochemical cell was constructed for the measurements in which ferrocene was electrooxidized to ferricinium ion via a one-electron redox reaction. The oxidation reaction product was spectroscopically monitored in the ultraviolet (λ=252, 285 nm) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Well-defined and highly stable spectroelectrochemical responses were observed for this type of diamond OTE. The results indicate that diamond is a useful OTE material for spectroelectrochemically studying nonaqueous redox reactions.     

Total parenteral nutrition turbidity and clearing of serum for assay purposes

Parenteral nutrition such as Liposyn III when introduced into patients causes their serum to become milky thereby creating potentially aberrant analyses when such a medium is subjected to spectrophotometric investigation during the time period prior to the metabolic removal of the intravenously injected triglycerides. However, it is possible to alter chemical reagents by the introduction of enzymatic clearing materials, which rapidly through hydrolytic action by lipases convert the offending triglycerides to glycerol and non-esterified fatty acids. The latter as potential soap formers with calcium and magnesium can be sequentially and quickly incorporated into transparent guest-host complexes with alpha cyclodextrin serving as the host, thus removing them as possible secondary sources of turbidity. Representative procedures incorporating the lipase-alpha cyclodextrin constituents into their reagents thus allow rapid clearing of the medium followed by spectrophotometric measurement during the clarified window of reaction without any change in the modified procedure. Additionally and importantly there is no interference from the addition of the clarifying ingredients added to the reagents. Commonly needed high volume tests such as hemoglobin, glucose, calcium, bilirubin, cholesterol and triglycerides are described as examples in which the clarifying processes are included in this novel analytical technology. No changes in the original methodologies are involved and no preliminary treatments are necessary for these important tests in which the interfering light-scattering properties of a sample are eliminated when optical measurement takes place even during the peak levels of parenteral nutrition necessarily introduced into any patient either adult or neonatal. These procedures involving enzymatic degradation of the triglycerides causing the primary turbidity sequenced to guest-host complexation of liberated fatty acids, the potential secondary turbidity, are effective for clarification of serum samples during measurement. This technology holds whether the source of the hypertriglyceridemia is parenteral nutrition or the pathological presence of excessive triglycerides as in diabetes.