Specific features of photoisomerization of provitamin D 3 in a nematic liquid crystal

Photoisomerization of provitamin D ₃ (7-dehydrocholesterol) in a nematic liquid crystal (ZLI-1695, Merck) is investigated in detail by UV absorption spectroscopy. It is found that dissolution of chiral molecules of provitamin D ₃ induces the cholesteric phase in a nematic. The spectral kinetics of photoisomerization in this phase changes significantly from that in an ethanol solution. A sharp nonmonotonic dependence of the increase in accumulation of trans isomer tachysterol in a liquid crystal matrix with a decrease in the induced cholesteric pitch from 2200 to 25 μm is revealed.     

Metastable States in Antiprotonic Helium Atoms: An Island of Stability in a Sea of Continuum

 In this contribution we consider a phenomenon of metastable states in antiprotonic helium atoms, precise spectroscopy of these states and a present-day study of the electromagnetic properties of antiprotons. Received October 16, 2001; accepted for publication November 13, 2001     

Effect of hydrogen on the photoelectronic properties of GaAs/InGaAs quantum-well heterostructures with an island palladium layer on the surface

The effect of hydrogen on the photoluminescence and planar conductivity of GaAs/InGaAs quantum-well heterostructures with an island Pd layer at the anodically oxidized surface was studied. Unlike continuous deposited Pd layers, island layers do not cause the formation of defects in the GaAs surface region and yet the Pd layer maintains high catalytic activity with respect to hydrogen. It is found that the thermal treatment of such a structure in a hydrogen atmosphere causes atomic-hydrogen passivation of the defects in quantum wells. Studies of the characteristics of planar photoresistors with an island Pd layer acting as hydrogen sensors show that their hydrogen detectivity is approximately two orders of magnitude higher than that of diode structures with continuous Pd layers.     

Fundamental processes in long air gap discharges

The development of atmospheric lightning is initiated and sustained by the formation in virgin air of ‘streamer corona’ and ‘leader’ discharges, very similar to those observed in laboratory long sparks. Therefore, the experimental and theoretical investigations of these laboratory discharges have become of large interest to improve the physical knowledge of the lightning process and to develop self-consistent models that could be applied to new protection concepts.In the present paper the fundamental processes of the subsequent phases of long air gap discharges are analyzed, from the first corona inception and development to the leader channel formation and propagation. For all these processes simulations models are discussed that have been essentially derived and simplified by the authors, in order to develop sequential time-dependent simulation of the laboratory breakdown, with both positive and negative voltages. The possibility of extending these models to the case of natural lightning is discussed in the companion paper, presented in this same volume. To cite this article: I. Gallimberti et al., C. R. Physique 3 (2002) 1335–1359.     

Automatic error correction in inflected languages

Systems for automatic detection and correction of spelling errors in natural language texts are considered. The development of such systems for both English and Russian (and for inflected languages in general, including all Slavic languages) is discussed. An approach associated with morphological analysis of the wordforms in the given text is described. The topics considered in the paper include the main methods of automatic spelling correction, levels of automation of the spelling error correction process, the effect of the type of computer used, the use of spelling error correctors in a stand-alone mode and in combination with word-processing software, and the maintenance of auxiliary dictionaries.Translated from Itogi Nauki i Tekhniki, Seriya Teoriya Veroyatnostei, Matematicheskaya Statistika, Teoreticheskaya Kibernetika, Vol. 28, pp. 111–139, 1988.     

Electrooptical anharmonicity parameters of the strong hydrogen bond

Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 54, No. 4, pp. 581–587, April, 1991.     

A dynamical test of phase transition order: New things in old places or old wine in new bottles

We first discuss nonlinear aspects of phase transition theory applied to a particular liquid crystal phase transition. A simple derivation is given to show how two coupled Goldstone modes (one appearing as gauge fluctuations of the ordered phase) can force a phase transition, against all expectations, to take place discontinuously (theory of Halperin, Lubensky, and Ma)-but the discontinuity may be immeasurably small. Then, we describe a new dynamical test of phase transition order, developed by Cladiset al., that turns out to be more sensitive than x-ray diffraction and adiabatic calorimetry. Quantitative data found by this new method are in excellent agreement with the measurements of adiabatic calorimetry and x-ray diffraction as well as expectations implicit in the predictions of HLM.This is the text of an after-banquet talk given at the CNLS Workshop on the Dynamics of Concentrated Systems.     

Dynamics of the two-atom Jaynes-Cummings model with nondegenerate two-photon transitions

An exact solution is found for the collective model of two identical two-level atoms that resonantly interact with a two-mode quantum electromagnetic field in an ideal cavity via two-photon nondegenerate transitions. In the case under study, at the initial moment, both field modes are in the coherent state and atoms are in the excited state. The time dependences of the atomic probabilities, the mean number of photons in the modes, and the statistics and squeezing of the photon modes are studied based on the exact solution.     

Luminescence investigations of the GaP-based dilute nitride Ga(NAsP) material system

Multi-quantum well heterostructures (MQWHs) of the novel Ga(NAsP)/GaP material system have been grown, pseudomorphically strained to GaP-substrate. The crystalline perfection is verified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). For As-concentrations in excess of about 70%, a direct band structure and adequate luminescence efficiency for laser device application is observed. Temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) investigations show the influence of carrier localisation and non-radiative recombination processes typical for dilute nitride materials. With rising N content in the active material, the emission wavelength shifts towards longer wavelength, leading to Ga(NAs)/GaP MQW structures with photon energies below the indirect band gap of silicon (Si). At the same time the luminescence intensity drops due to an increase in non-radiative carrier traps and/or structural degradation.