Electron energy loss spectroscopy; history and related matters

This paper begins with some historical remarks regarding the author’s early interest in the use of electron energy loss spectroscopy to probe dynamical phenomena on crystal surfaces. We then discuss the physical nature of the interactions responsible for vibrational and spin waves losses, with attention to their role in related phenomena. PACS 61.14.-x; 68.35.Ja; 68.49.Jk; 68.49.Uv     

Einstein relation in chemically doped organic semiconductors

Based on the assumption of Gaussian energy distributions of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO), analytical expressions of generalized Einstein relation in chemically doped organic semiconductor are developed, by approximation of Coulomb traps with a rectangle potential well. Numerical calculations show that traditional Einstein relations do not hold for chemically doped organic semiconductors. Similar to physical doping, the dependence of diffusion coefficient to mobility D/μ ratio on the carrier concentration has a maximum. An essential difference between chemical doping and physical doping is that, the D/μ ratio in chemically doped organic semiconductors depends not only on carrier concentration and doping concentration, but also on the applied electric field. PACS 71.20.Rv; 72.90.+y; 73.50.-h     

Directed and elliptic flow in 197Au+197Au at intermediate energies

Directed and elliptic flow for the ¹⁹⁷Au+¹⁹⁷Au system at incident energies between 40 and 150 MeV per nucleon has been measured using the INDRA 4π multi-detector. For semi-central collisions, the excitation function of elliptic flow shows a transition from in-plane to out-of-plane emission at around 100 MeV per nucleon. The directed flow changes sign at a bombarding energy between 50 and 60 MeV per nucleon and remains negative at lower energies. Molecular dynamics calculations (CHIMERA) indicate sensitivity of the global squeeze-out transition on the σ _NN and demonstrate the importance of angular momentum conservation in transport codes at low energies.     

System dependence of the correlation function of IMFs in Ar + Sn at 35 MeV/u

The inclusive reduced velocity correlation functions of the intermediate mass fragments were measured in the reactions of ³⁶Ar + ^112,124Sn at 35 MeV/u. The anti-correlation is observed to be stronger in ³⁶Ar + ¹²⁴Sn system than that in ³⁶Ar + ¹¹²Sn. The difference of the correlation functions between the two reactions is mainly contributed by the particle pairs with high momenta. A three body Coulomb repulsive trajectory model is employed to calculate the emission time scale of the IMFs for the two systems. The time scale is 150 fm/c in ³⁶Ar + ¹¹²Sn and 120 fm/c in the ³⁶Ar + ¹²⁴Sn, respectively.     

Microwave synthesis of magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles used as a precursor of nanocomposites and ferrofluids

Methods to synthesize magnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles and to modify the surface of particles are presented in the present investigation. Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles were prepared by the co-precipitation of Fe³⁺ and Fe²⁺, NH₃·H₂O was used as the precipitating agent to adjust the pH value, and the aging of Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles was accelerated by microwave (MW) irradiation. The obtained Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The average size of Fe₃O₄ crystallites was found to be around 8–9 nm. Thereafter, the surface of Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles was modified by stearic acid. The resultant sample was characterized by FT-IR, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), XRD, lipophilic degree (LD) and sedimentation test. The FT-IR results indicated that a covalent bond was formed by chemical reaction between the hydroxyl groups on the surface of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles and carboxyl groups of stearic acid, which changed the polarity of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. The dispersion of Fe₃O₄ in organic solvent was greatly improved. Effects of reaction time, reaction temperature and concentration of stearic acid on particle surface modification were investigated. In addition, Fe₃O₄/polystyrene (PS) nanocomposite was synthesized by adding surface modified Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles into styrene monomer, followed by the radical polymerization. The obtained nanocomposite was tested by thermogravimetry (TG), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and XRD. Results revealed that the thermal stability of PS was not significantly changed after adding Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. The Fe₃O₄ magnetic fluid was characterized using UV–vis spectrophotometer, Gouy magnetic balance and laser particle-size analyzer. The testing results showed that the magnetic fluid had excellent stability, and had susceptibility of 4.46×10⁻⁸ and saturated magnetization of 6.56 emu/g. In addition, the mean size d (0.99) of magnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles in the fluid was 36.19 nm.     

Some results on quasipolyhedral convexity

The objective of this paper is to analyze under what well-known operations the class of quasipolyhedral convex functions, which can be regarded as an extension of that of polyhedral convex functions, is closed. The operations that will be considered are those that preserve polyhedral convexity, such that the image and the inverse image under linear transformations, right scalar multiplication (including the case where λ=0⁺) and pointwise addition.      

Preparation and electrical characterization of (PVC + KBrO3) polymer electrolytes for solid state battery applications

This paper presents results of studies on dc electrical conductivity and transference number measurements on potassium bromate (KBrO₃) complexed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) films prepared by solution cast technique. Temperature dependence of dc electrical conductivity and transference number data indicated the dominance of ion type charge transport in these specimens. The magnitude of conductivity increased with increase in concentration of the salt and temperature. Using this (PVC + KBrO₃) electrolyte, solid-state electrochemical cells were fabricated, and their discharge profiles were studied under a constant load of 100 kΩ. Several cell profiles such as open circuit voltage, short circuit current, power density, and energy density associated with these cells were evaluated and were reported. The features of complexation of the electrolytes were studied by X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Paper presented at the Third International Conference on Ionic Devices (ICID 2006), Chennai, Tamilnadu, India, Dec. 7–9, 2006     

Completeness and compactness for varieties over a local field

This paper shows that for a local field K, a subfield k ⊂ K and a variety X over k, X is complete if and only if for every finite field extension Kʹ | K, the set X(Kʹ) is compact in its strong topology. The author likes to thank Florian Pop, Jakob Stix, Stefan Wewers, Gunther Cornelissen and his own parents for their support. Received: 13 April 2006     

Area,coarea, and approximation in <Emphasis Type="Italic">W</Emphasis><Superscript>1,1</Superscript>

Let Ω⊂ℝ ⁿ be an arbitrary open set. We characterize the space W ^1,1 _loc(Ω) using variants of the classical area and coarea formulas. We use these characterizations to obtain a norm approximation and trace theorems for functions in the space W ^1,1(ℝ ⁿ ).