The preparation and properties of low molar mass liquid crystals possessing lateral alkyl chains

The first twelve members of three new mesogenic homologous series have been characterized, each of which are composed of molecules possessing lateral alkyl chains. The n-alkyl 2,5-bis-(4-n-hexyloxy-benzoyloxy)-benzoates are purely nematic whereas both nematic and smectic behaviour is observed for the 4-cyano-4'-biphenylyl 3'-n-alkyloxybenzoates and the 4-cyano-4'-biphenylyl 3',4'-n-alkyloxybenzoates. The transitional properties of these series are similar to those of the analogous conventional mesogens and hence, can be rationalized without making any special assumptions concerning the conformational distribution of the lateral alkyl chain.     

Thermal conductivity, dislocation density and GaN device design

The performance of high power transistor devices is intimately connected to the substrate thermal conductivity. In this study, the relationship between thermal conductivity and dislocation density is examined using the 3 omega technique and free standing HVPE GaN substrates. Dislocation density is measured using imaging cathodoluminescence. In a low dislocation density regime below 10⁵ cm⁻², the thermal conductivity appears to plateau out near 230 W/K m and can be altered by the presence of isotopic defects and point defects. For high dislocation densities the thermal conductivity is severely degraded due to phonon scattering from dislocations. These results are applied to the design of homoepitaxially and heteroepitaxially grown HEMT devices and the efficiency of heat extraction and the influence of lateral heat spreading on device performance are compared.     

Evaluating Zn2SiO4:Mn phosphor for use in medical imaging radiation detectors

2 SiO₄:Mn phosphor was evaluated for use in radiation detectors of medical imaging systems. Zn₂SiO₄:Mn was used in the form of laboratory-prepared fluorescent layers (screens) with coating weights from 18 to 150 mg/cm². The phosphor was excited to luminescence by low-energy X-raysusing X-raytube voltages ranging from 15 to 50 kVp. The number of emitted optical photons per incident X-rayquantum was thus determined for various X-rayenergies and phosphor coating weights. The optical emission spectrum was also measured and it was used to evaluate the spectral compatibility of Zn₂SiO₄:Mn with radiographic films, photocathodes and the Si photodiode. Finally, phosphor optical properties were estimated by fitting a theoretical model to experimental data. Results showed that Zn₂SiO₄:Mn is more efficient for low-energy X-rays. Its intrinsic conversion efficiency was found equal to 0.08, which is comparable to that of actually used phosphors. Zn₂SiO₄:Mn was also adequately compatible with orthochromatic films and the ES-20 photocathode, thus being appropriate for low-voltage radiography and fluoroscopy. Received: 31 July 1998/Accepted: 3 August 1998     

QCD corrections to the forward-backward asymmetries of c and b quarks at the Z pole

Measurements of the forward-backward production asymmetry of heavy quarks in Z decays provide a precise determination of . The asymmetries are sensitive to QCD effects, in particular hard gluon radiation. In this paper QCD corrections for and are discussed. The interplay between the experimental techniques used to measure the asymmetries and the QCD effects is investigated using simulated events. A procedure to estimate the correction needed for experimental measurements is proposed, and some specific examples are given. Received: 26 February 1998 / Published online: 2 June 1998     

Parity-locking effect in a strongly-correlated ring

Orbital magnetism in an integrable model of a multichannel ring with long-ranged electron-electron interactions is investigated. In a noninteracting multichannel system, the response to an external magnetic flux is the sum of many diamagnetic and paramagnetic contributions, but we find that for sufficiently strong correlations, the contributions of all channels add constructively, leading to a parity (diamagnetic or paramagnetic) which depends only on the total number of electrons. Numerical results confirm that this parity-locking effect is robust with respect to subband mixing due to disorder.     

2H NMR spectra of 2-(p-heptylbenzoyloxy)-5-(p-heptylbenzenazo)tropone. A new sigmatropic liquid crystal

Liquid crystals incorporating in their molecular framework a seven-membered ring are still relatively rare [1]. Recently the synthesis and thermal behaviour of a series of liquid crystal materials having a tropone moiety in their mesogenic core have been reported [2-4]. These mesogens, based on a 2-(acyloxy)tropone core structure, show intramolecular migration of the acyl substituents between the two oxygen atoms at C-1 and C-2, an effect already known for simple 2-(acyloxy)tropones in their isotropic solutions [5]. This migration involves a concerted [1, 9]-sigmatropic rearrangement [2]. This rearrangement could play a major role in determining the properties of the mesophases: it has been suggested in fact that, because of this rearrangement, the mesogenic molecules acquire a mean rod-like shape which can sustain the mesophase formation [2].     

Measurement of the spin and temperature dependence of ddµ molecule formation rate in solid and liquid deuterium

The ddµ molecule formation rate is experimentally measured for the two hyperfine states of the dµ-atom in the temperature range of 5–30 K. Results are consistent with a preliminary measurement by the TRIUMF group and contradict theoretical predictions. The work has been performed on the JINR phasotron (Dubna).     

Cylindrical spike model for the formation of diamondlike thin films by ion deposition

T /n_S of n_T rearrangements and n_S atoms in the spike volume as the crucial parameter characterizing the ability of a given ion–target combination to achieve complete rearrangement of the spike volume. n_T/n_S>1 is the optimum condition for diamondlike film growth. For aC films the ion energy dependence of n_T/n_S agrees well with the measured sp³ bond fraction. For Ar⁺-ion-assisted deposition of aC we find n_T/n_S>1 above 50 eV with no pronounced ion energy dependence. Furthermore, our model predicts optimum conditions for the formation of cubic boron nitride between 50 eV and 3 keV. Accepted: 14 October 1997     

Critical thickness and stress relaxation in YBaCuO (123) strained epitaxial layers and YBaCuO based strained superlattices

An energy model has been used to calculate the critical thickness h _c of YBaCuO thin films and YBaCuO based superlattices within an isotropic or anisotropic approximation. The critical thickness of single layers calculated from the anisotropic model (16 nm) is in good agreement with the previously published experimental values which are spread out from 4 to 20 nm. In the case of superlattices, relaxation appears to be governed by the critical thickness of the elementary sub-layers and is then better evaluated through the calculation performed for YBaCuO single layers. XRD measurements on YBa₂Cu₃O₇/PrBa₂Cu_3?xGa_xO₇ superlattices grown on {100{ SrTiO₃ have evidenced a tetragonal stress in the YBaCuO ab plane which remains expanded when the YBaCuO elementary layer thickness is lower than 4.8 nm (4 YBaCuO cells). However the critical temperature of the shortest period superlattices is only slightly affected by this expanded stress in contrast to the effect of an elastic stress externally applied along the ab plane of YBaCuO thin films.