Experimental demonstration of an oscillator stabilized Josephson flux qubit

We experimentally demonstrate the use of a superconducting transmission line, shorted at both ends, to stabilize the operation of a tunable flux qubit. Using harmonic-oscillator stabilization and pulsed dc operation, we have observed Larmor oscillations with a single shot visibility of 90%. In another qubit, the visibility was 60% and there was no measurable visibility reduction after 35 ns.     

Liquid-phase force field and dipole moment derivatives with respect to internal coordinates of benzene

This paper presents an analysis of the infrared vibrational intensities found for C(6)H(6), C(6)D(6) and C(6)H(5)D in the liquid phase, motivated in part by the quite marked intensity differences between the fundamentals of C(6)H(6) and C(6)D(6) in the liquid, and between corresponding vibrations in the liquid and gas phases. The analysis is carried out under the harmonic approximation and results from a determination of the force field for liquid C(6)H(6), C(6)D(6) and C(6)H(5)D. The force constants for the liquid-phase are presented and compared to those in the literature for the gas-phase. Previously reported experimental intensities are used along with the eigenvectors of the force field analysis to determine the dipole moment derivatives with respect to symmetry and internal coordinates. The dipole moment derivatives with respect to internal coordinates obtained are partial differentialmicro/ partial differentials=0.38+/-0.02DebyeA(-1), partial differentialmicro/ partial differentialt=0.24+/-0.01, partial differentialmicro/ partial differentialbeta=0.26+/-0.01, and partial differentialmicro/ partial differentialgamma=0.64+/-0.03DebyeA(-1). There is very little difference between the dipole moment derivatives with respect to internal coordinates obtained from non-linear least squares fitting of the two D(6h) isotopomers and those obtained from non-linear least squares fitting of the three isotopomers. The results show that there is significant intensity sharing in the CH stretch region of C(6)H(5)D between the fundamental and combination bands.     

Optical constants, dielectric constants, molar absorption coefficients, molar polarizability, vibrational assignment and transition moments of liquid iodobenzene between 4000 and 400 cm(-1) at 25 degrees C

This paper reports the complex refractive index, molar absorption coefficient and imaginary molar polarizability spectra of liquid iodobenzene at 25 degrees C. The imaginary molar polarizability spectrum was fitted with 184 classical damped harmonic bands to determine the integrated intensity of the individual transitions. The standard deviation of the fitted spectrum from the experimental spectrum is 0.024 cm(3) mol(-1), and the R(2) value of the fit is 0.9968 indicating that the fitted spectrum is an accurate representation of the experimental spectrum. The dipole moment derivatives with respect to the normal coordinates and transition moments were determined for 26 of the 30 fundamentals. The total intensities of the in-plane and out-of-plane fundamentals were compared to benzene and other monosubstituted benzene derivatives using the F-sum rule. It was found that the total intensity of the out-of-plane fundamentals is essentially the same for the different compounds while the total intensities for the in-plane fundamentals varies according to the electronegativities of the substituents.     

Effects of acid and alkaline based surface preparations on spray deposited cerium based conversion coatings on Al 2024-T3

Cerium based conversion coatings were spray deposited on Al 2024-T3 and characterized to determine the effect of surface preparation on the deposition rate and surface morphology. It was found that activation of the panel using a 1-wt.% sulfuric acid solution increased the coating deposition rate compared to alkaline cleaning alone. Analysis of the surface morphology of the coatings showed that the coatings deposited on the acid treated panels exhibited fewer visible cracks compared to coatings on alkaline cleaned panels. Auger electron spectroscopy depth profiling showed that the acid activation decreased the thickness of the aluminum oxide layer and the concentration of magnesium on the surface of the panels compared to the alkaline treatment. Additionally, acid activation increased the copper concentration at the surface of the aluminum substrate. Based on the results, the acid based surface treatment appeared to expose copper rich intermetallics, thus increasing the number of cathodic sites on the surface, which led to an overall increase in the deposition rate.     

Infrared optical constants, dielectric constants, molar polarizabilities, transition moments, dipole moment derivatives and Raman spectrum of liquid cyclohexane

Previous studies have been done in this laboratory focusing on the optical properties of several liquid aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons in the infrared. The current study reports the infrared and absorption Raman spectra of liquid cyclohexane. Infrared spectra were recorded at 25 °C over a wavenumber range of 7400–490 cm⁻¹. Infrared measurements were taken using transmission cells with pathlengths ranging from 3 to 5000 μm. Raman spectra were recorded between 3700 and 100 cm⁻¹ at 25 °C using a 180° reflection geometry. Ab initio calculations of the vibrational wavenumbers at the B3LYP/6311G level of theory were performed and used to help assign the observed IR and Raman spectra. Extensive assignments of the fundamentals and binary combinations observed in the infrared imaginary molar polarizability spectrum are reported. The imaginary molar polarizability spectrum was curve fitted to separate the intensity from the various transitions and used to determine the transition moments and magnitudes of the derivatives of the dipole moment with respect to the normal coordinates for the fundamentals.     

Characterisation of individual pixel efficiency in the PILATUS II sensor

Synchrotron applications such as protein crystallography and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) demand precise knowledge of detector pixel efficiency for data corrections. Current techniques used to determine detector efficiency are only applicable for the specific set-up for which the calibration is performed. Here the effect of comparator thresholding on pixel efficiency for PILATUS is presented for standard amplifier and shaper gain settings, allowing users to make necessary corrections to their intensity data for various threshold settings without requiring repeated empirical calibrations. A three-dimensional TCAD simulation of the sensor is also presented and is used to confirm the experimental result.     

CD40mAb adjuvant induces a rapid antibody response that may be beneficial in post-exposure prophylaxis

Active vaccination can be effective as a post-exposure prophylaxis, but the rapidity of the immune response induced, relative to the incubation time of the pathogen, is critical. We show here that CD40mAb conjugated to antigen induces a more rapid specific antibody response than currently used immunological adjuvants, alum and monophosphoryl lipid A™.     

Ear-canal acoustic admittance and reflectance measurements in human neonates. II. Predictions of middle-ear in dysfunction and sensorineural hearing loss

This report describes relationships between middle-ear measurements of acoustic admittance and energy reflectance (YR) and measurements of hearing status using visual reinforcement audiometry in a neonatal hearing-screening population. Analyses were performed on 2638 ears in which combined measurements were obtained [Norton et al., Ear Hear. 21, 348-356 (2000)]. The measurements included distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE), transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE), and auditory brainstem responses (ABR). Models to predict hearing status using DPOAEs, TEOAEs, or ABRs were each improved by the addition of the YR factors as interactions, in which factors were calculated using factor loadings from Keefe et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 113, 389-406 (2003)]. This result suggests that information on middle-ear status improves the ability to predict hearing status. The YR factors were used to construct a middle-ear dysfunction test on 1027 normal-hearing ears in which DPOAE and TEOAE responses were either both present or both absent, the latter condition being viewed as indicative of middle-ear dysfunction. The middle-ear dysfunction test classified these ears with a nonparametric area (A) under the relative operating characteristic curve of A = 0.86, and classified normal-hearing ears that failed two-stage hearing-screening tests with areas A = 0.84 for DPOAE/ABR, and A = 0.81 for TEOAE/ABR tests. The middle-ear dysfunction test adequately generalized to a new sample population (A = 0.82).     

Optical constants and integrated intensities of liquid hexafluorobenzene between 4000 and 250 cm at 25 °C

The optical constants (real and imaginary refractive indices) of hexafluorobenzene were determined at 25 °C via transmission measurements. Experimental absorbance spectra measured on a Nicolet Impact 410 FTIR were converted to imaginary refractive indices using methods described in the literature. The real refractive indices were obtained by Kramers–Kronig transformation of the imaginary refractive indices. From the complex refractive indices, the molar absorption coefficient (E_m) and complex molar polarizability spectra were calculated. The integrated intensities for the E_1u fundamentals were obtained from the areas under the bands in the spectrum. These integrated intensities are compared to those for benzene and benzene-d₆ in the literature.     

Ab initio study of the interaction of CHX3 (X = H, F, Cl, or Br) with benzene and hexafluorobenzene

In this paper, the results of a study of the interaction of methane, fluoroform, chloroform, and bromoform with benzene and hexafluorobenzene are presented. The benzene complexes were studied at the MP2/6-31G(d) and MP2/6-311++G(2d,p) levels, and the hexafluorobenzene complexes were only studied at the MP2/6-31G(d) level. The optimized geometries, stabilization energies, potential energy surfaces, harmonic frequencies, and vibrational intensities are reported. A net attraction is predicted for all four benzene complexes, whereas for the CHX3.C6F6 complexes, it was found that MP2/6-31G(d) predicts a net attraction for the CH4, CHCl3, and CHBr3 complexes and does not predict a stable complex for CHF3.C6F6. The three complexes with net attractions all have blue-shifts of the CHX3 CH stretching wavenumber and a slight contraction (0.001-0.003 A) of the CH bond in CHX3. The MP2/6-31G(d) level predicts that the intensity of the CHX3 CH stretch will vary widely. For CH4.C6H6 and CHF3.C6H6, it is predicted that the intensity will be smaller for the complexes than the free molecules, whereas for the other complexes, anywhere from a 30% increase to an increase of 87 times is predicted. The atoms in molecules analysis showed that only three of the eight criteria for normal hydrogen bonding are satisfied for all eight complexes studied. Criterion 3 (value of the Laplacian at the bond critical point) is not satisfied for any of the eight complexes.