Ion synthesis and laser annealing of Cu nanoparticles in Al2O3

Al₂O₃ samples with Cu nanoparticles, synthesised by ion implantation at 40 keV with a dose of 1×10¹⁷ ion/cm² and a current density from 2.5 to 12.5 μA/cm², were annealed using ten pulses from a KrF excimer laser with a single pulse fluence of 0.3 J/cm². The copper depth distribution, formation and modification of metal nanoparticles under the ion implantation and laser treatment were studied by Rutherford backscattering (RBS), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and optical spectroscopy. It was found that laser annealing leads to a reduction in the nanoparticle size without diffusion of metal atoms into the bulk. The change in particle size and the possibility for oxidation of the copper particles are examined in the framework of Mie theory. Calculations presented show that under excimer laser treatment, Cu nanoparticles are more likely to be reduced in size than to undergo oxidation. Received: 19 April 2001 / Accepted: 7 November 2001 / Published online: 23 January 2002     

Pomeron-Odderon interference effects in electroproduction of two pions

We study Pomeron-Odderon interference effects giving rise to charge and single-spin asymmetries in diffractive electroproduction of a pair. We calculate these asymmetries, originating from both longitudinal and transverse polarizations of the virtual photon, in the framework of QCD and in the Born approximation, in a kinematical domain accessible to HERA experiments. We predict a sizable charge asymmetry with a characteristic dependence on the invariant mass of the pair, which makes this observable very important for establishing the magnitude of the Odderon exchange in hard processes. The single-spin asymmetry turns out to be rather small. We briefly discuss future improvements of our calculations and their possible effects on the results. Received: 18 July 2002 / Published online: 25 October 2002     

Growth of masking as a measure of response growth in hearing-impaired listeners

Growth-of-masking functions were obtained from 19 normal and 5 hearing-impaired listeners using a simultaneous-masking paradigm. When masker and probe frequency are identical, the slope of masking approximates 1.0 for both normal-hearing and impaired listeners. For masker frequencies less than or greater than probe frequency, the slopes for impaired listeners are shallower than those of normals. These findings are consistent with previously reported physiological data (single-fiber rate versus level and AP masking functions) for animals with induced cochlear lesions. Results are discussed in terms of a potential masking technique to estimate the growth of response in normal and impaired ears.     

Enhancing molecular formation in a Rb-MOT

In this paper, we report observation of an enhancement of the ground state molecule Rb₂ formation in a Rb magneto-optical trap due to a photoassociation laser. Such an enhancement effect is due to flux enhancement of atomic pairs at short internuclear distances. Our experimental observations consist in the measurement of the molecular formation rate constant due to a probe laser as a function of the trap laser intensity. The results are compared with a simple semi-classical model, showing good agreement. We conclude that the production of cold Rb₂ may be enhanced using appropriate laser parameters; this may be useful for future experiments involving production and trapping of ultracold ground state molecules.     

Velocity Quantization Approach of the One-Dimensional Dissipative Harmonic Oscillator

Given a constant of motion for the one-dimensional harmonic oscillator with linear dissipation in the velocity, the problem to get the Hamiltonian for this system is pointed out, and the quantization up to second order in the perturbation approach is used to determine the modification on the eigenvalues when dissipation is taken into consideration. This quantization is realized using the constant of motion instead of the Hamiltonian. PACS: 03.20.+i, 03.30.+p, 03.65.−w,03.65.Ca     

The effect of microscopic features upon the transmissivity of enclosed laser ablated laminated metallised polymer films

A vacuum-deposited aluminium layer (20 nm) is sandwiched between two layers of laminated oriented polypropylene (OPP) film whose thickness varies from 20 to 40 μm. Selected areas of this sealed system were transparentised by the redistribution of the aluminium layer without breaking the seal or causing damage to the OPP film using a 75 W Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. The resultant transparentised films contain aluminium particles, distorted polymer areas and intact areas of the vacuum-coated aluminium layer. This paper investigates the effect of microscopic features upon the overall transmissivity of the laser-treated films and hence the quality of the transparentisation process.     

Polarization experiments with the SPIN setup at the ITEP synchrotron

New experimental data on the spin-rotation parameters A and R measured for elastic π ^± p scattering in the resonance region and on the asymmetry in pC scattering at primary momenta in the range 1.35–2.02 GeV/c, as well as in quasielastic proton scattering on nuclei in the same momentum range, are summarized. All these data were recently obtained by using the proton synchrotron installed at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP, Moscow). The spectrum and features of seven isospin-3/2 baryon resonances that form a peak in the total cross section at a c.m. energy of 1.9 GeV are analyzed on the basis of new data on the parameters A and R, and the results of this analysis are presented. The experiments surveyed in this article were performed by a collaboration of researchers from ITEP and the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI, Gatchina), the ITEP-PNPI collaboration.     

The role of the spontaneous electrooptical effect in the formation of electroholographic properties of strontium barium niobate crystals

The possibility of usage of the spontaneous electrooptical (EO) effect in strontium barium niobate (SBN) crystals for the creation of controlled electroholographic elements is studied. It is found that unipolar EO properties of these crystals with respect to switching their spontaneous polarization make it possible to devise field-controlled holographic elements with reversible energy-independent memory for spatial position of an optical beam.