Vortex fluctuations in underdoped Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8+delta) crystals

Vortex thermal fluctuations in heavily underdoped Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8+delta) (T(c)=69.4 K) are studied using Josephson plasma resonance. From the zero-field data, we obtain the c-axis penetration depth lambda(L,c)(0)=230+/-10 micrometer and the anisotropy ratio gamma(T). The low plasma frequency allows us to study phase correlations over the whole vortex solid state and to extract a wandering length r(w) of vortex pancakes. The temperature dependence of r(w) as well as its increase with dc magnetic field is explained by the renormalization of the vortex line tension by the fluctuations, suggesting that this softening is responsible for the dissociation of the vortices at the first order transition.     

Antioxidant Activities of Some New Chromonyl-2,4-Thiazolidinediones and Chromonyl-2,4-Imidazolidinediones Having Chromone Cores

The antioxidant properties of 11 new synthesized chromonyl-2,4-thiazolidinediones and chromonyl-2,4-imidazolidinediones (CBs) were investigated. The antioxidant activities and mechanisms of the CBs interaction with reactive oxygen species (ROS) were clarified using various in vitro antioxidant assay methods including superoxide anion radical ( $ \mathrm{O}\overline{{}_2^{\bullet }} $ ), hydroxyl radical (HO^?), 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl free radical (DPPH^?) scavenging activity and the iron (II)-ferrozine complex formation. The potassium superoxide/18-crown-6 ether dissolved in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) was applied as a source of superoxide anion radical. Hydroxyl radicals were produced in the Fenton-like reaction Fe(II)+H₂O₂. Chemiluminescence, spectrophotometry, and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy using 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-1-oxide (DMPO) as spin trap were applied as the measurement techniques. The CBs examined that exhibited good free radical scavenging activity also showed strong total antioxidant power capacity. Possible mechanisms of antioxidation are proposed to explain the differences in the experimental results between the chromone derivatives with imidazolidine-2,4-dione ring and those with thiazolidine-2,4-dione ring. In conclusion, some of the new CBs are promising to be applied as inhibitors of free radicals.     

Influence of sintering temperature and aging on properties of cermet Ni/8YSZ materials obtained by citric method

The anode supported cell for solid oxide fuel cell, as a modification of the traditional Ni-YSZ anode supported on electrolyte, is examined in this work. The materials obtained on the base of citric method are presented and investigated in this work. The materials consisted of 40 wt.% Ni/YSZ, 50 wt.% Ni/YSZ and 60 wt.% Ni/YSZ were obtained. The base Ni/YSZ materials are tested on the two ways: (a) aging tests and (b) sintering tests. All the materials after aging and sintering are tested by the impedance spectroscopy. The results of electrical conductivity for samples before and after aging show that only in the case of 40 wt.% Ni/YSZ, sample loses of metallic conductivity after 500 h of heating. The other samples reveal metallic conductivity even after long period of aging. The tests of sintering temperature show that this process does not affect significantly on electrical conductivity of the materials.     

Beam Combination using Stimulated Brillouin Scattering for the Ultimate High Power-Energy Laser System Operating at High Repetition Rate over 10 Hz for Laser Fusion Driver

After the laser was invented in 1960, a phase conjugation mirror has been respected to be the most fantastic one for the laser resonator composition because it can compensate any distortions of the laser beams occurred by the many inhomogenuities of the laser media and optical components. Among the many phase conjugation configurations, the stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugation mirror is the most simple one and many researchers have tried to utilize it to develop high power/energy laser systems. For realizing a high energy/power laser system the thermal problem is the most difficult to solve, and some researchers suggested a beam combination technique to reduce the thermal load of the big laser media to many small sized ones. To accomplish the beam combination using stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugation mirrors (SBS-PCMs), it is necessary to lock/control the phases of the SBS-PCMs. And some researchers have developed several ways for it, but they can lock the phases of a limited number of beams overlapped at the foci less than 5, or lock the phases by back-seeding technique but it loses the phase conjugation characteristics. For realization of the laser fusion driver, it is necessary to combine more than 10 or 100 beams. And the authors have developed recently a new phase controlling/locking technique which is isolated and independent totally from other beams and it can be applied to an unlimited number of beams in principle.     

Rotation Sets of Billiards with One Obstacle

We investigate the rotation sets of billiards on the m-dimensional torus with one small convex obstacle and in the square with one small convex obstacle. In the first case the displacement function, whose averages we consider, measures the change of the position of a point in the universal covering of the torus (that is, in the Euclidean space), in the second case it measures the rotation around the obstacle. A substantial part of the rotation set has usual strong properties of rotation sets.The first author was partially supported by NSF grant DMS 0456748.The second author was partially supported by NSF grant DMS 0456526.The third author was partially supported by NSF grant DMS 0457168.     

Effect of Ga doping on magneto-transport properties in colossal magnetoresistive La0.7Ca0.3Mn1−xGaxO3 (0<x<0.1)

Samples of La_0.7Ca_0.3Mn_1−xGa_xO₃ with x=0, 0.025, 0.05 and 0.10 were prepared by standard solid-state reaction. They were first characterized chemically, including the microstructure. The magnetic properties and various transport properties, i.e. the electrical resistivity, magnetoresistivity (for a field below 8 T), thermoelectric power and thermal conductivity measured each time on the same sample, are reported. The markedly different behaviour of the x=0.1 sample from those with a smaller Ga content, is discussed. The dilution of the Mn³⁺/Mn⁴⁺ interactions with Ga doping considerably reduces the ferromagnetic double exchange interaction within the manganese lattice leading to a decrease of the Curie temperature. The polaron binding energy varies from 224 to 243 meV with increased Ga doping.     

Current and shot noise in two capacitively coupled single electron transistors with an atomic sized spacer

The currents and their fluctuations in two capacitively coupled single electron transistors are determined in the limit of sequential tunnelling. Our considerations are restricted to the case when the islands (dots) of the transistors are atomic-sized, which means each of them has only one single electronic level available for the tunnelling processes. The Coulomb interactions of accumulated charges on the both single electron transistors lead to the effect of the negative differential resistance. An enhancement of the current shot-noise was also found. Spectral decomposition analysis indicated the two main contributions to the shot-noise: low- and high-frequency fluctuations. It was found that the low frequency fluctuations (polarization noise) are responsible for a strong enhancement of the current noise. Received 9 October 2001 / Received in final form 8 March 2002 Published online 9 July 2002     

Phase behavior of four homologous compounds of 4-n-alkyl-4′-isothiocyanatobiphenyl (nBT) under pressure

The phase behavior of four homologous compounds of 4-n-nonyl-, 4-n-decyl-, 4-n-undecyl-, and 4-n-dodecyl-4′-isothiocyanatobiphenyl (9BT, 10BT, 11BT, and 12BT) was re-investigated to characterize their high-pressure mesophases under pressures up to 150 MPa using a polarizing optical microscope equipped with a high-pressure optical cell and a wide-angle X-ray diffractometer equipped with a high-pressure sample vessel. The pressure-induced mesophases of 9BT and 10BT appearing under pressures above about 60 and 100 MPa, respectively, were identified as nematic (N) and SmA phases, which indicate the reversible Cr–CrE–N–I and Cr–CrE–SmA–I phase transitions under elevated pressure. 11BT and 12BT exhibited the reversible transition of Cr–CrE–SmA–I in the low-pressure regions below about 5 and 23 MPa, respectively. Both the stable CrE phases changed into the monotropic (and metastable) one under higher pressures, in which the Cr–SmA–I and I–SmA–CrE–Cr phase transitions on heating and cooling processes, respectively, were recognized.     

Resolving the discrepancy of 135 MeV pd elastic scattering cross sections and relativistic effects

Three precise measurements for elastic pd scattering at 135 MeV/A have been performed with the three different experimental setups. The cross sections are described well by the theoretical predictions based on modern nucleon-nucleon forces combined with three-nucleon forces. Relativistic Faddeev calculations show that relativistic effects are restricted to backward angles. This result supports the two measurements recently reported by RIKEN and contradicts the KVI data.