Nanocrystalline RE2O3:Tm3+ (RE: Gd3+, Y3+) Blue Phosphors Synthesized via the Combustion Method

This work reports on the preparation of a luminescent blue-emitting rare earth (RE) Tm-doped oxide phosphor. Nanocrystalline RE2O3:Tm3+ particles were prepared via the combustion method using citric acid, glycine, or urea as fuels. Samples were doped with different percentages of the activator Tm3+. The post-annealing treatment was performed in air for all the samples, at temperatures ranging from 800 to 1100 degrees C, for 4 h. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and scanning electron and transmission microscopies (SEM and TEM) in order to determine the best synthetic procedure. The post-annealed powders showed blue emission with maximum at 452 nm characteristics for Tm3+ transition 1D2 --> 3H4 (under UV excitation at 360 nm). Samples, presented a tri-dimensional porous structure (50-200 nm) formed of spheroid particles with a diameter between 20 and 60 nm. The best luminescent material was obtained when urea was used to prepare nanoparticles of Gd2O3 doped with 0.5% Tm3+, and 1100 degrees C was used as the post-annealing temperature.     

Structural and solvent effects on the C-S bond cleavage in aryl triphenylmethyl sulfide radical cations

Steady-state and laser flash photolysis (LFP) studies of a series of aryl triphenylmethyl sulfides [1, 3,4-(CH(3)O)(2)-C(6)H(3)SC(C(6)H(5))(3); 2, 4-CH(3)O-C(6)H(4)SC(C(6)H(5))(3); 3, 4-CH(3)-C(6)H(4)SC(C(6)H(5))(3); 4, C(6)H(5)SC(C(6)H(5))(3); and 5, 4-Br-C(6)H(4)SC(C(6)H(5))(3)] has been carried out in the presence of N-methoxyphenanthridinium hexafluorophosphate in CH(3)CN, CH(2)Cl(2), CH(2)Cl(2)/CH(3)CN, and CH(2)Cl(2)/CH(3)OH mixtures. Products deriving from the C-S bond cleavage in the radical cations 1(?+)-5(?+) have been observed in the steady-state photolysis experiments. Time-resolved LFP showed first-order decay of the radical cations accompanied by formation of the triphenylmethyl cation. A significant decrease of the C-S bond cleavage rate constants was observed by increasing the electron-donating power of the arylsulfenyl substituent, that is, by increasing the stability of the radical cations. DFT calculations showed that, in 2(?+) and 3(?+), charge and spin densities are mainly localized in the ArS group. In the TS of the C-S bond cleavage an increase of the positive charge in the trityl moiety and of the spin density on the ArS group is observed. The higher delocalization of the charge in the TS as compared to the initial state is probably at the origin of the observation that the C-S bond cleavage rates decrease by increasing the polarity of the solvent.     

Structure–semantics interplay in complex networks and its effects on the predictability of similarity in texts

The classification of texts has become a major endeavor with so much electronic material available, for it is an essential task in several applications, including search engines and information retrieval. There are different ways to define similarity for grouping similar texts into clusters, as the concept of similarity may depend on the purpose of the task. For instance, in topic extraction similar texts mean those within the same semantic field, whereas in author recognition stylistic features should be considered. In this study, we introduce ways to classify texts employing concepts of complex networks, which may be able to capture syntactic, semantic and even pragmatic features. The interplay between various metrics of the complex networks is analyzed with three applications, namely identification of machine translation (MT) systems, evaluation of quality of machine translated texts and authorship recognition. We shall show that topological features of the networks representing texts can enhance the ability to identify MT systems in particular cases. For evaluating the quality of MT texts, on the other hand, high correlation was obtained with methods capable of capturing the semantics. This was expected because the golden standards used are themselves based on word co-occurrence. Notwithstanding, the Katz similarity, which involves semantic and structure in the comparison of texts, achieved the highest correlation with the NIST measurement, indicating that in some cases the combination of both approaches can improve the ability to quantify quality in MT. In authorship recognition, again the topological features were relevant in some contexts, though for the books and authors analyzed good results were obtained with semantic features as well. Because hybrid approaches encompassing semantic and topological features have not been extensively used, we believe that the methodology proposed here may be useful to enhance text classification considerably, as it combines well-established strategies.     

Boundedness of fractional operators in weighted variable exponent spaces with non doubling measures

In the context of variable exponent Lebesgue spaces equipped with a lower Ahlfors measure we obtain weighted norm inequalities over bounded domains for the centered fractional maximal function and the fractional integral operator.     

Application of conformal mapping to the determination of magnetic moment distributions in typical antidot film nanostructures

There has been an increasing technological interest on magnetic thin films containing antidot arrays of hexagonal or square symmetry. Part of this interest is related to the possibility of domain formation and pinning at the antidots boundaries. In this paper, we develop an accurate method for the simulation of the magnetic moments distribution for such arrays. The method concentrates the calculations on the immediate vicinity of each antidot. For each antidot distribution (square or hexagonal) a suitable system of coordinates is defined to exploit the shape of the unit-cells of the overall nanostructure. The Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert-Brown equations that govern the distribution of moments are rewritten in terms of these coordinates. The moments orientation is calculated as a function of time until equilibrium is reached, in a Cartesian grid defined for these new coordinate systems. A conformal transformation is applied to insert the moment vectors into the actual unit-cell. The resulting vector maps display quite clearly regions of different moment orientation around the antidots, which can be associated with nanoscale domains. The results are similar to the ones obtained by other authors [C.C. Wang, A.O. Adeyeye, N. Singh, Nanotechnology 17, 1629 (2006); C.C. Wang, A.O. Adeyeye, N. Singh, Y.S. Huang, Y.H. Hu, Phys. Rev. B 72, 174426 (2005); C.T. Yu, H. Jiang, L. Shen, P. Flanders, G. Mankey, J. Appl. Phys. 87, 6322 (2000); E. Mengotti, L.J. Heyderman, F. Nolting, B.R. Craig, J.N. Chapman, L.L. Diaz, R.J. Matelon, U.G. Volkman, M. Klaui, U. Rudiger, C. Vaz, J. Bland, J. Appl. Phys. 103, 07D509 (2008)] using the NIST oommf method, but obtained in a much simpler and direct way.     

Langmuir probe in magnetized plasma: Study of the diffusion parameter

In low-temperature magnetized plasma, Langmuir probe measurements must be corrected because of the electron diffusion through the sheath, which is formed around the probe collector. The correction factor, which is called the electron diffusion or electron sink parameter, depends on many other parameters such as the probe geometry, the electron diffusion coefficient, the sheath thickness, or the potential profile through the sheath. Based on a previous work, we determine the values of this parameter under different experimental conditions and we study the effect of the electron energy, of the probe-biased voltage, and of the magnetic field intensity on this parameter. The results are compared with theoretical models published in the literature. An empirical equation is determined to fit the diffusion parameter value versus magnetic field intensity.