Reorganization of small Co particles on Al2O3 surfaces monitored by ferromagnetic resonance

Changes of the magnetic properties of ferromagnetic Co particles deposited on the radical31 x radical31R +/- 9 degrees reconstructed alpha-Al2O3(0001) as well as on a thin alumina film grown on a NiAl(110) substrate were investigated as a function of thermal annealing. On the thin film changes of the magnetic response were found above 500 K which correlates with changes in the particle size distribution. Annealing to 870 K leads to a permeation of the metal though the oxide film which causes significant changes in the ferromagnetic resonance response. On the alpha-Al2O3 single crystal sintering of particles requires temperatures above 600 K being about 100 K higher as compared to the thin alumina film. For large clusters intraparticle redistribution takes place already below 600 K a phenomenon not observed for the small clusters. In addition, a significant dependence of the measured g values from the substrate as well as the thermal treatment is found which can be understood in terms of the structural properties of the systems.     

Behavioral measures and their correlation with IPM iteration counts on semi-definite programming problems

We study four measures of problem instance behavior that might account for the observed differences in interior-point method (IPM) iterations when these methods are used to solve semidefinite programming (SDP) problem instances: (i) an aggregate geometry measure related to the primal and dual feasible regions (aspect ratios) and norms of the optimal solutions, (ii) the (Renegar-) condition measure C(d) of the data instance, (iii) a measure of the near-absence of strict complementarity of the optimal solution, and (iv) the level of degeneracy of the optimal solution. We compute these measures for the SDPLIB suite problem instances and measure the sample correlation (CORR) between these measures and IPM iteration counts (solved using the software SDPT3) when these measures have finite values. Our conclusions are roughly as follows: the aggregate geometry measure is highly correlated with IPM iterations (CORR = 0.901), and provides a very good explanation of IPM iterations, particularly for problem instances with solutions of small norm and aspect ratio. The condition measure C(d) is also correlated with IPM iterations, but less so than the aggregate geometry measure (CORR = 0.630). The near-absence of strict complementarity is weakly correlated with IPM iterations (CORR = 0.423). The level of degeneracy of the optimal solution is essentially uncorrelated with IPM iterations. This research has been partially supported through the MIT-Singapore Alliance.     

On the use of two QMR algorithms for solving singular systems and applications in Markov chain modeling

Recently, Freund and Nachtigal proposed the quasi-minimal residual algorithm (QMR) for solving general nonsingular non-Hermitian linear systems. The method is based on the Lanczos process, and thus it involves matrix—vector products with both the coefficient matrix of the linear system and its transpose. Freund developed a variant of QMR, the transpose-free QMR algorithm (TFQMR), that only requires products with the coefficient matrix. In this paper, the use of QMR and TFQMR for solving singular systems is explored. First, a convergence result for the general class of Krylov-subspace methods applied to singular systems is presented. Then, it is shown that QMR and TFQMR both converge for consistent singular linear systems with coefficient matrices of index 1. Singular systems of this type arise in Markov chain modeling. For this particular application, numerical experiments are reported.     

Energy flux into the tip of an extending crack in an elastic solid

Summary An expression for the energy flux into the tip of an extending crack in terms of the dynamic elastic field of the crack is derived on the basis of an overall energy rate balance. It is shown that the energy flux depends only on the near-tip elastic field. The expression is compared to other expressions for this dependence which have been proposed by Atkinson and Eshelby, by Achenbach and by Erdogan. The energy flux is calculated in terms of the stress intensity factor for a particular plane strain problem and an antiplane strain problem.

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Résumé Sur la base d'un équilibre énergétique dynamique global, le flux d'énergie convergeant vers l'extrémité d'une tissure en propagation est exprimé en fonction du champ élastique dynamique de la fissure. II est démontré que ce flux d'énergie ne dépend que du champ élastique au voisinage immédiat de l'extremité de la fissure, L'expression obtenue est comparée aux expressions précédemment proposées par MM. Atkinson et Eshelby, Mr. Achenbach, et Mr. Erdogan. Le flux d'énergie est évalué en fonction du facteur d'intensité des contraintes dans les cas particuliers d'un problème de déformation plane et d'un problème dans lequel la direction du cisaillement est horizontale.

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Supported by the United States Atomic Energy Commission through Contract AT (11-1)-3084 with Brown University.     

Adsorption energetics of CO on supported Pd nanoparticles as a function of particle size by single crystal microcalorimetry

The heat of adsorption and sticking probability of CO on well-defined Pd nanoparticles were measured as a function of particle size using single crystal adsorption microcalorimetry. Pd particles of different average sizes ranging from 120 to 4900 atoms per particle (or from 1.8 to 8 nm) and Pd(111) were used that were supported on a model in situ grown Fe(3)O(4)/Pt(111) oxide film. To precisely quantify the adsorption energies, the reflectivities of the investigated model surfaces were measured as a function of the thickness of the Fe(3)O(4) oxide layer and the amount of deposited Pd. A substantial decrease of the binding energy of CO was found with decreasing particle size. Initial heat of adsorption obtained on the virtually adsorbate-free surface was observed to be reduced by about 20-40 kJ mol(-1) on the smallest 1.8 nm sized Pd particles as compared to the larger Pd clusters and the extended Pd(111) single crystal surface. This effect is discussed in terms of the size-dependent properties of the Pd nanoparticles. The CO adsorption kinetics indicates a strong enhancement of the adsorbate flux onto the metal particles due to a capture zone effect, which involves trapping of adsorbates on the support and diffusion to metal clusters. The CO adsorption rate was found to be enhanced by a factor of ～8 for the smallest 1.8 nm sized particles and by ～1.4 for the particles of 7-8 nm size.     

Pressure calibration in high pressure EXAFS experiments

Abstract

To avoid glitches due to Bragg reflection we use boron carbide anvils for our high pressure EXAFS experiments. Since boron carbide precludes the ruby fluorescence pressure calibration we use the EXAFS of selected materials to measure the reduction with pressure of the nearest neighbor distance and infer the pressure from an isothermal equation of state. The requirements for a good pressure calibrant and the difficulties in EXAFS data analysis are discussed. Cu, NaBr and RbCl have successfully been tested as pressure calibrants.     

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