Cluster size dependence of SiO2 thin film formation by O2 gas cluster ion beams

Cluster size effects of SiO₂ thin film formation with size-selected O₂ gas cluster ion beams (GCIBs) irradiation on Si surface were studied. The cluster size varied between 500 and 20,000 molecules/cluster. With acceleration voltage of 5 kV, the SiO₂ thickness was close to the native oxide thickness by irradiation of (O₂)_20,000 (0.25 eV/molecule), or (O₂)_10,000 (0.5 eV/molecule). However, it increased suddenly above 1 eV/molecule (5000 molecules/cluster), and increased monotonically up to 10 eV/molecule (500 molecules/cluster). The SiO₂ thickness with 1 and 10 eV/molecule O₂-GCIB were 2.1 and 5.0 nm, respectively. When the acceleration voltage was 30 kV, the SiO₂ thickness has a peak around 10 eV/molecule (3000 molecules/cluster), and it decreased gradually with increasing the energy/molecule. At high energy/molecule, physical sputtering effect became more dominant process than oxide formation. These results suggest that SiO₂ thin film formation can be controlled by energy per molecule.     

Effects of tilt of the visual stimuli on the perception of gravitational vertical under normal- and hyper-gravity conditions

It is important to understand the mechanism to integrate visual and other information for the perception of gravitational vertical under different conditions of gravity, although most of the experiments to investigate the topic reported so far has been carried out under normal-gravity (1 G) and under micro-gravity produced in short duration of parabolic flight. The purpose of this research is to investigate human perception of gravitational vertical under hyper-gravity (1.5G and 2G) to compare that under normal-gravity (1 G). We measured perceived gravitational vertical using a visual probe presented at the center while manipulating the orientation of visual stimuli (scenery picture) presented in the surround and the magnitude of gravitational acceleration. The environment of hyper-gravity was produced by centrifugal force of a rotating flight simulator. The results show that the accuracy of perceived gravitational vertical increased and the precision of it decreased under hyper-gravity condition relative to those under the normal-gravity condition when no visual stimulus was presented. However, the effect of the tilt of visual stimuli did not change under different gravity conditions.     

ASACUSA MUSASHI: New progress with intense ultra slow antiproton beam

Our group “ASACUSA MUSASHI” has established an efficient way for accumulating antiprotons and extracting them as intense ultra-slow mono-energetic beams at the CERN-AD facility. This novel beam opens new frontiers for investigating a variety of physics. For realizing H? spectroscopy and the test for charge-parity-time symmetry, we have also developed the cusp trap, a combination of an anti-Helmholz superconducting coil and a multi-ring electrode trap, for trapping both antiprotons and positrons and then synthesizing antihydrogens. Recently, the cusp trap was practically used to accumulate antiprotons. The last piece for synthesizing antihydrogens in the cusp trap is the positron accumulator. We have developed a compact system to effectively accumulate positrons based on N₂ gas-buffer scheme with a specially designed high precision cylindrical multi-ring electrode trap. The recent progress of the developing work is an important milestone for upcoming antihydrogen science of ASACUSA MUSASHI.     

Syntheses of model compounds related to an antigenic epitope in pectic polysaccharides from Bupleurum falcatum L. (II)

Stereocontrolled syntheses of model compounds related to a major antigenic epitope against antibupleurum 2IIc/PG-1-IgG from antiulcer pectic polysaccharide are described. A trisaccharide derivative (13) was prepared as a precursor and a novel and simple approach for the rational design of a glycocluster and glycodendrimer was developed, through the syntheses of the fluorescence-labeled glycocluster (2) and glycodendrimer (3).     

Improved sound absorption performance of three-dimensional MPP space sound absorbers by filling with porous materials

Because microperforated panels (MPPs), which can be made from various materials, provide wide-band sound absorption, they are recognized as one of the next-generation absorption materials. Although MPPs are typically placed in front of rigid walls, MPP space sound absorbers without a backing structure, including three-dimensional cylindrical MPP space absorbers (CMSAs) and rectangular MPP space absorbers (RMSAs), are proposed to extend their design flexibility and easy-to-use properties. On the other hand, improving the absorption performance by filling the back cavity of typical MPP absorbers with porous materials has been shown theoretically, and three-dimensional MPP space absorbers should display similar improvements. Herein the effects of porous materials inserted into the cavities of CMSAs and RMSAs are experimentally investigated and a numerical prediction method using the two-dimensional boundary element method is proposed. Consequently, CMSAs and RMSAs with improved absorption performances are illustrated based on the experimental results, and the applicability of the proposed prediction method as a design tool is confirmed by comparing the experimental and numerical results.     

Investigation on non-optically bleachable components of ESR aluminium signal in quartz

Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) can be used as a method to estimate the age of sediment deposition using the paramagnetic centre related to aluminium impurities in quartz. This so-called Al-centre can be partially optically bleached and its signal intensity decreases in relation to time exposure to solar light, until it reaches a plateau value corresponding to a residual signal. This signal can be attributed to “Deep Aluminium Traps” (DAT) which cannot be reset by an exposure to sunlight. In this study, we have investigated the behaviour of the DAT signal in samples from different origins and ages. The intensity of the DAT signal has been isolated from the total aluminium signal by the exposure of different quartz samples to simulated solar light. We observed that the DAT intensities were sample dependant and therefore it should be determined for each sample. Moreover, DAT intensities of Pleistocene volcanic quartz increase with gamma laboratory irradiation, whereas DAT intensities of sedimentary quartz do not vary with added artificial doses. This suggests that DAT in quartz extracted from sediments must be inherited from the primary source of the quartz, and were saturated at the time of sedimentation. We thereby validate the ESR dating of quartz sediment protocol used so far.     

Simple and accurate scheme to compute electrostatic interaction: Zero-dipole summation technique for molecular system and application to bulk water

The zero-dipole summation method was extended to general molecular systems, and then applied to molecular dynamics simulations of an isotropic water system. In our previous paper [I. Fukuda, Y. Yonezawa, and H. Nakamura, J. Chem. Phys. 134, 164107 (2011)], for evaluating the electrostatic energy of a classical particle system, we proposed the zero-dipole summation method, which conceptually prevents the nonzero-charge and nonzero-dipole states artificially generated by a simple cutoff truncation. Here, we consider the application of this scheme to molecular systems, as well as some fundamental aspects of general cutoff truncation protocols. Introducing an idea to harmonize the bonding interactions and the electrostatic interactions in the scheme, we develop a specific algorithm. As in the previous study, the resulting energy formula is represented by a simple pairwise function sum, enabling facile applications to high-performance computation. The accuracy of the electrostatic energies calculated by the zero-dipole summation method with the atom-based cutoff was numerically investigated, by comparison with those generated by the Ewald method. We obtained an electrostatic energy error of less than 0.01% at a cutoff length longer than 13 A for a TIP3P isotropic water system, and the errors were quite small, as compared to those obtained by conventional truncation methods. The static property and the stability in an MD simulation were also satisfactory. In addition, the dielectric constants and the distance-dependent Kirkwood factors were measured, and their coincidences with those calculated by the particle mesh Ewald method were confirmed, although such coincidences are not easily attained by truncation methods. We found that the zero damping-factor gave the best results in a practical cutoff distance region. In fact, in contrast to the zero-charge scheme, the damping effect was insensitive in the zero-charge and zero-dipole scheme, in the molecular system we treated. We discussed the origin of this difference between the two schemes and the dependence of this fact on the physical system. The use of the zero damping-factor will enhance the efficiency of practical computations, since the complementary error function is not employed. In addition, utilizing the zero damping-factor provides freedom from the parameter choice, which is not trivial in the zero-charge scheme, and eliminates the error function term, which corresponds to the time-consuming Fourier part under the periodic boundary conditions.     

Heat and mass transfer characteristics of organic sorbent coated on heat transfer surface of a heat exchanger

This paper describes heat and mass transfer characteristics of organic sorbent coated on heat transfer surface of a fin-tube heat exchanger. The experiments in which the moist air was passed into the heat exchanger coated with sorption material were conducted under various conditions of air flow rate (0.5–1.0 m/s) and the temperature of brine (14–20°C) that was the heat transfer fluid to cool the air flow in the dehumidifying process. It is found that the sorption rate of vapor is affected by the air flow rate and the brine temperature. Meanwhile, the attempt of clarifying the sorption mechanism is also conducted. Finally the average mass transfer coefficient of the organic sorbent coated on heat transfer surface of a fin-tube heat exchanger is non-dimensionalzed as a function of Reynolds number and non-dimensional temperature, and it is found that the effect of non-dimensional temperature on them is larger than Reynolds number .     

Electronic structures in coupled two quantum dots by 3D-mesh Hartree-Fock-Kohn-Sham calculation

To study the electronic structures of quantum dots in the framework of self-interaction-free including three dimensional effects, we adopt the theory of nonlocal effective potential introduced by Kohn and Sham [#!ks65!#]. For utilizing the advantageous point of the real space (3D) mesh method to solve the original nonlinear and nonlocal Hartree-Fock-Kohn-Sham (HFKS)-equation, we introduce a linearization of the equation in the local form by introducing the local Coulomb potentials which depend on explicitly the two single particle states. In practice, for solving the local form HFKS-equation, we use the Car-Parrinello-like relaxation method and the Coulomb potentials are obtained by solving the Poisson equation under proper boundary conditions. Firstly the observed energy gap between triplet- and singlet-states of N = 4 in DBS [#!tarucha96!#] is discussed to reproduce the addition energies and chemical potentials depending the magnetic field. Next the coupling between two-quantum dots in TBS [#!aht97!#] is studied by adding the square barrier between two dots. The spin-degeneracy [#!aht97!#] measured in gate-voltage depending on magnetic field is well reproduced in the limit of small mismatch. Finally, the electronic states in the ring structure are calculated and discussed how the ring size and magnetic field affect to the structures. Received 30 November 2000