Morphological and electronic properties of the thin film phase of pentacene investigated by AFM and STM/STS

We investigated the morphological, structural and electronic properties of Pentacene thin films grown by vacuum thermal evaporation on different inert substrates at room temperature. The results of our AFM and STM analysis give an interplanar spacing of 1.54 nm corresponding to the (0 0 1) distance of the so-called “thin film phase”. The STS measurements show an HOMO-LUMO gap of 2.2 eV.     

Influence of barrier parameters on tunneling in ferromagnet-insulator-ferromagnet contacts

The contribution of electrons moving at large angles to the barrier junction plane to the tunnel current is calculated. This contribution turns out to be small only if the Fermi energy of the electrons equals several electron volts. Otherwise, specifically, when the Fermi energy is no higher than 1–2 eV, this contribution dominates in high and thin potential barriers. It is found that the tunnel magnetic resistance in ferromagnet-insulator-ferromagnet contacts correlates with this contribution. It is this correlation that is responsible for a decrease in this contribution as the potential barriers get lower and thicker.     

Study on the possibilities of controlling the laser output beam properties by an intracavity deformable mirror

The possibilities of controlling the laser beam properties by a deformable mirror introduced into the laser optical cavity were studied theoretically and experimentally. The experiments were performed under conditions of an industrial high power transverse flow cw CO₂ laser operating with a stable resonator of a folded configuration. A deformable bimorph mirror of a surface profile controlled by the voltage applied to the mirror electrodes is implemented to the laser system as a back cavity mirror or as a one of the inner folding mirrors. The near-and far-field characteristics of the laser beam versus the resonator configuration controlled by the changes of the focal length of the deformable mirror are discussed in the paper. The analysis reveals that the resonator with an inner deformable mirror is much more sensitive to the mirror curvature variations than the resonator in which the deformable mirror is used as a back cavity mirror. The presented results show that dynamic and controllable changes in the resonator properties result in the controlled modification and optimisation of the laser output power and spatial parameters of the laser radiation.     

Analytical investigation into the mechanism of dielectric losses due to interlayer polarization

The theory of dielectric space-charge polarization losses describes well both the model of an inhomogeneous dielectric [1] and the polarization resulting from mosaic blocks of alkali-halide crystals [2]. The Debye frequency dependences ε*(ω) and tan δ(ω) with non-Arrhenius relaxation time are calculated in the first approximation of perturbation theory [3, 4] with the use of a nonlinear system of the Fokker-Planck and Poisson equations for the interlayer polarization with allowance for tunnel transitions of relaxation oscillators. For the Maxwell mechanism of space-charge relaxation, tan δ(ω) also has the Debye form [5]. It should be noted that in studies cited above the electric field was considered uniform, and the nonlinearity of the initial system of equations was not investigated. This paper removes these restrictions and elaborates a theory of relaxation mechanism. __________ Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 11, pp. 28–34, November, 2006.     

Integration and propagation of a multi-criteria decision making model in constraint programming

In this paper we propose a general integration scheme for a Multi-Criteria Decision Making model of the Multi-Attribute Utility Theory in Constraint Programming. We introduce the Choquet integral as a general aggregation function for multi-criteria optimization problems and define the Choquet global constraint that propagates this function during the Branch-and-Bound search. Finally the benefits of the propagation of the Choquet constraint are evaluated on the examination timetabling problem.     

An improved approach for hydrogen analysis in metal samples using single laser-induced gas plasma and target plasma at helium atmospheric pressure

We report in this paper the results of an experimental study on hydrogen analysis of solid samples in high pressure helium ambient gas employing the basic scheme of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). It is shown that the metastable excited state of helium atom can be utilized to induce delayed excitation of the ablated hydrogen atoms, and thereby avoid the Stark broadening effect as well as overcoming the undesirable mismatch effect, which are responsible for inefficient excitation respectively. It is further demonstrated that for samples of high boiling-point materials such as zircaloy, successful hydrogen analysis can be achieved by a newly introduced double excitation technique employing single laser realized in a modified configuration of the conventional LIBS method. PACS 51-52     

A Verified Optimization Technique to Locate Chaotic Regions of Hénon Systems

We present a new verified optimization method to find regions for Hénon systems where the conditions of chaotic behaviour hold. The present paper provides a methodology to verify chaos for certain mappings and regions. We discuss first how to check the set theoretical conditions of a respective theorem in a reliable way by computer programs. Then we introduce optimization problems that provide a model to locate chaotic regions. We prove the correctness of the underlying checking algorithms and the optimization model. We have verified an earlier published chaotic region, and we also give new chaotic places located by the new technique.     

A Constraint Programming Approach to Extract the Maximum Number of Non-Overlapping Test Forms

This paper introduces a novel approach for extracting the maximum number of non-overlapping test forms from a large collection of overlapping test sections assembled from a given item bank. The approach involves solving maximum set packing problems (MSPs). A branch-and-bound MSP algorithm is developed along with techniques adapted from constraint programming to estimate lower and upper bounds on the optimal MSP solution. The algorithm is general and can be applied in other applications including combinatorial auctions. The results of computer simulations and experiments with an operational item bank are presented. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Butyltins in california river and lake marina waters

Butyltins were analyzed in waters from California river and lake marinas and were detected at the part per trillion (ppt) level in most locations. The tributyltin:dibutyltin (TBT/DBT) ratios in the fresh waters were similar to those in their saline counterparts indicating like rates of degradation in the two salinity regimes.