A compact autocorrelator for the wavelength range between 4 and 10 μm

A compact autocorrelator suitable for the measurement of the optical pulse length of the infrared free electron laser (IR-FEL) at the S-DALINAC is described. It allows to investigate the energy transfer process from the electrons into the laser light within the undulator of the FEL. The autocorrelator utilizes the second harmonic generation (SHG) and it provides the possibility of a background-free measurement at wavelengths between 4 and 10 μm. Simulations for three different crystals used for SHG show that the largest efficiency for SHG and the best temporal resolution is achieved with a ZnGeP₂ crystal at a length of 2 mm. A test experiment at the free electron laser for infrared experiments confirmed the expected high efficiency of about 7.5% of SHG for the ZnGeP₂ crystal as well as the easy handling and fast adjustment of the system.     

A Borsuk–Ulam Theorem for Maps from a Sphere to a Generalized Manifold

H. J. Munkholm obtained a generalization for topological manifolds of the famous Borsuk–Ulam type theorem proved by Conner and Floyd. The purpose of this paper is to prove a version of Conner and Floyd's theorem for generalized manifolds.     

The effect of simultaneous temperature, pressure and stress on the experimental annealing of spontaneous fission tracks in apatite: a brief overview

Tracks made in minerals by the electronic stopping of uranium fission fragments provide a modern geological dating tool, and are believed also to yield specific information on the low-temperature thermal history of rocks. Experimental work showing that the damaged crystal lattice along a fission track recovers primarily as a function of temperature ignored the fact that the basic theory of atomic diffusion requires an exponential decrease in the intrinsic diffusion coefficient with increasing pressure. Here, fission track recovery was experimentally investigated in basic apatite under the simultaneous influences of temperature, pressure and stress. We show that track fading is a complex recovery mechanism responding to several environmental physical parameters simultaneously. In particular a strong decrease in the track recovery rate was observed as a function of increasing pressure. And a nearly temperature-independent recovery was observed in samples under stress.     

First-principles calculations of the hyperfine fields on ligands in fluorides

In solid-state physics, a crystal lattice is frequently approximated by an array of interacting ions. In this case, the wave functions of individual ions are assumed to be a fairly good zeroth approximation in calculating the matrix elements of the interaction Hamiltonian of electrons and nuclei of the lattice from first principles. Use of the second-quantization method is proposed for such calculations in the basis of these functions. As an example, the electron transition amplitude from a ligand to the central ion is estimated. The results agree well with the experimental data.     

Regular Approximations of Singular Sturm-Liouville Problems with Limit-Circle Endpoints

For any self-adjoint realization S of a singular Sturm-Liouville equation on an interval (a,b) with limit-circle endpoints, we construct a family of self-adjoint realizations S _r ,r ∈ (0,∞), of this equation on subintervals (a _r ,b _r ) of (a,b) such that every eigenvalue of S is the limit of a continuous eigenvalue branch of this family. Of particular interest are the cases when at least one endpoint is oscillatory or the leading coefficient function changes sign. In these cases, we show that the index determining each continuous eigenvalue branch has an infinite number of jump discontinuities and give an explicit characterization of these discontinuities.     

Analysis of some combination-overtone infrared bands of SO3

Several new infrared absorption bands for ³²S¹⁶O₃ have been measured and analyzed. The principal bands observed were ν₁+ν₂ (at 1561 cm⁻¹), ν₁+ν₄ (at 1594 cm⁻¹), ν₃+ν₄ (at 1918 cm⁻¹), and 3ν₃ (at 4136 cm⁻¹). Except for 3ν₃, these bands are very complicated because of (a) the Coriolis coupling between ν₂ and ν₄, (b) the Fermi resonance between ν₁ and 2ν₄, (c) the Fermi resonance between ν₁ and 2ν₂, (d) ordinary l-type resonance that couples levels that differ by 2 in both the k and l quantum numbers, and (e) the vibrational l-type resonance between the A₁^′ and A₂^′ levels of ν₃+ν₄. The unraveling of the complex pattern of these bands was facilitated by a systematic approach to the understanding of the various interactions. Fortunately, previous work on the fundamentals permitted good estimates of many constants necessary to begin the assignments and the fit of the measurements. In addition, the use of hot band transitions accompanying the ν₃ band was an essential aid in fitting the ν₃+ν₄ transitions since these could be directly observed for only one of four interacting states. From the hot band analysis we find that the A₁^′ vibrational level is 3.50 cm⁻¹ above the A₂^′ level, i.e., r₃₄=1.75236(7) cm⁻¹. In the case of the 3ν₃ band, the spectral analysis is straightforward and a weak Δk=±2, Δl₃=±2 interaction between the l₃=1 and l₃=3 substates locates the latter A₁^′ and A₂^′ “ghost” states 22.55(4) cm⁻¹ higher than the infrared accessible l₃=1 E^′ state.     

Algorithms for Finite and Semi-Infinite Min–Max–Min Problems Using Adaptive Smoothing Techniques

We develop two implementable algorithms, the first for the solution of finite and the second for the solution of semi-infinite min-max-min problems. A smoothing technique (together with discretization for the semi-infinite case) is used to construct a sequence of approximating finite min-max problems, which are solved with increasing precision. The smoothing and discretization approximations are initially coarse, but are made progressively finer as the number of iterations is increased. This reduces the potential ill-conditioning due to high smoothing precision parameter values and computational cost due to high levels of discretization. The behavior of the algorithms is illustrated with three semi-infinite numerical examples.     

Aftereffect in microhardness testing of corundum

Cleavage near microhardness indentations on the surface of corundum is found to appear long (20–30 days) after unloading.