Towards measuring the ground state hyperfine splitting of antihydrogen – a progress report

We report the successful commissioning and testing of a dedicated field-ioniser chamber for measuring principal quantum number distributions in antihydrogen as part of the ASACUSA hyperfine spectroscopy apparatus. The new chamber is combined with a beam normalisation detector that consists of plastic scintillators and a retractable passivated implanted planar silicon (PIPS) detector.     

Enhancement of saccharin removal from aqueous solution by activated carbon adsorption with ultrasonic treatment

This study investigates the use of ultrasonication as a pretreatment process and its effect on the adsorption characteristics of saccharin onto activated carbon (AC). Ultrasonic decomposition of saccharin was performed at a frequency of 500 kHz under argon and O2/N2 (20/80 vol%) atmospheres. Adsorption was carried out using a commercial activated carbon. The behavior of total organic carbon (TOC) during ultrasonication was investigated. Saccharin removal after 180 min of ultrasonication under Ar and O2/N2 atmospheres are 38% and 26%, respectively, while the amount of saccharin removed by activated carbon adsorption without US pretreatment is 40% after 16 h. After 16 h of AC adsorption with 180 min of ultrasonic pretreatment under Ar and O2/N2 atmospheres, both removal ratios increased to 75%. These results indicated that the pretreatment of sonication under O2/N2 leads to the increase in the amount of saccharin adsorbed on AC. On the other hand, the TOC removal by decomposition by ultrasound is not more than 5% in both Ar and O2/N2 atmospheres after 180 min ultrasonication. However, the TOC removal increased to 54% and 69% after 16 h of adsorption of saccharin pretreated by ultrasonication for 180 min under Ar and O2/N2 atmospheres, respectively. About 13% and 16% TOC removal in Ar and in O2/N2, respectively, were achieved due to adsorption of the by-products. It is considered that the improvement in TOC removal is also brought about by the formation of the by-products that were adsorbed onto AC.     

Low energy excitation and scaling in Bi(2)Sr(2)Ca(n-1)Cu(n)O(2n+4) (n=1-3): angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) has been performed on the single- to triple-layered Bi-family high-T (c) superconductors (Bi(2)Sr(2)Ca(n-1)Cu(n)O(2n+4), n=1-3). We found a sharp coherent peak as well as a pseudogap at the Fermi level in the triple-layered compound. Comparison among three compounds has revealed a universal rule that the characteristic energies of superconducting and pseudogap behaviors are scaled with the maximum T (c).     

Imaging ripples on phononic crystals reveals acoustic band structure and Bloch harmonics

Broadband surface phonon wave packets on a phononic crystal made up of a microstructured line pattern are tracked in two dimensions and in real time with an ultrafast optical technique. The eigenmode distribution and the 2D acoustic band structure are obtained from spatiotemporal Fourier transforms of the data up to 1 GHz. We find stop bands at the zone boundaries for both leaky-longitudinal and Rayleigh waves, and show how the structure of individual acoustic eigenmodes in k space depends on Bloch harmonics and on mode coupling.     

Interaction between adatom-induced localized states and a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas

Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we investigate changes in the band dispersion of a free-electron-like surface state of [FORMULA: SEE TEXT], induced by adsorption of submonolayer Au adatoms. At room temperature, where the adatoms are in a two-dimensional adatom-gas phase, electrons are transferred from the Au adatoms to the substrate, shifting the surface band downwards and causing it to deviate from a parabolic dispersion. At 135 K where the Au adatoms are frozen at specific sites of the substrate, the band splits into two. This band splitting can be explained in terms of hybridization between the unperturbed surface band and the localized virtual bound states induced by the Au adatoms.     

Alkali metal-induced Si(1 1 1) structure: The Na case

We report the first scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and core-level photoemission (CL-PES) studies of a structure induced by sub-monolayer Na deposition on the Si(1 1 1) surface. In the filled-state STM images, five bright protrusions in the unit cell are located on the Ag trimers of the structure. The Si 2p core-level photoemission decomposition shows that the surface-shifted component originated from the Si-trimer atoms in the surface splits into two for the structure, which are attributed to the Si-trimer atoms in the unit cell which are affected and unaffected by the Na adsorption. These results show strong similarities between the Na-induced superstructure and the noble metal-induced ones, indicating a common atomic structure and formation mechanism.     

Laser picosecond acoustics in a two-layer structure with oblique probe light incidence

A theory for the analysis of experiments involving laser picosecond acoustics with obliquely incident probe light in a two-layer structure is outlined. The reflectance and phase changes of the reflected light are calculated with a theory that takes into account the effects of multiple optical reflections. The sample consists of a single partially transparent layer on a substrate, both with arbitrary optical constants. We discuss the conditions in which one may discriminate between components of the optical modulation of a probe beam arising from the photoelastic effect and from the displacement of the sample interfaces induced by the acoustic strain.     

Multi-quasiparticle excitations in145Tb

High-spin states in¹⁴⁵Tb have been populated using the¹¹⁸Sn (³²S, 1p4n) reaction at beam energy of 165 MeV. The level scheme of¹⁴⁵Tb has been established up toEx≈7.4 MeV. The level scheme shows characteristics of a spherical or slightly oblate nucleus. Based on the systematic trends of the level structure in the neighboringN=80 isotones, the level structure in¹⁴⁵Tb below 2 MeV excitation is well eplained by coupling anh _11/2 valence proton to the even-even¹⁴⁴Gd core. Above 2 MeV excitation, most of the yrast levels are interpreted with multi-quasiparticle shell-model configurations.     

Investigation of step-edge Josephson device of YBa<Subscript>2</Subscript>Cu<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>7−<Emphasis Type="Italic">d</Emphasis></Subscript> formed on MgO by a pulsed laser deposition method

We fabricated step-edge Josephson junctions of YBa₂Cu₃O_7−d on MgO substrates by a pulsed laser deposition method for high frequency applications. On the basis of temperature dependence of critical current, noticeable deterioration has not been observed in a step-edge area. The dynamic resistance was between 2 and 3Ω under the superconducting critical temperature. A deviation from a resistively shunted junction model was observed, which implies the excess current not flowing through Josephson junctions.     

Combination of two fat saturation pulses improves detectability of glucose signals in carbon-13 MR spectroscopy

In order to improve the fat suppression performance of in vivo (13)C-MRS operating at 3.0 Tesla, a phantom model study was conducted using a combination of two fat suppression techniques; a set of pulses for frequency (chemical shift) selective suppression (CHESS), and spatial saturation (SAT). By optimizing the slab thickness for SAT and the irradiation bandwidth for CHESS, the signals of the -(13)CH(3) peak at 49 ppm and the -(13)CH(2)- peak at 26 ppm simulating fat components were suppressed to 5% and 19%, respectively. Combination of these two fat suppression pulses achieved a 53% increase of the height ratio of the glucose C1β peak compared with the sum of all other peaks, indicating better sensitivity for glucose signal detection. This method will be applicable for in vivo (13)C-MRS by additional adjustment with the in vivo relaxation times of the metabolites.