Beta-exposure in a neutron activation laboratory

Summary In virtually all neutron activation analysis laboratories, researchers are given film badges known as thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLD's) that are monitored on a monthly basis. Sometimes additional pocket dosimeters are worn to get a daily reading of exposure, while in other instances ring badges are worn to assess beta doses. However, more than often little consideration is given to beta-exposure rates that arise from the plethora of radionuclides produced in the many types of samples irradiated. A common mistake is to assess gamma-exposures of activated samples that rely on the use of a beta-shield on the survey meter. Our experimental results have shown that there are many high energy beta-particles from neutron activated samples that can easily penetrate the beta-shield and thus give an underestimation of the total beta-exposure.     

Stability of steady nonisothermal flow in a vertical layer with permeable boundaries in the microconvection model

The problem of the stability of steady convective viscous incompressible fluid flow in a vertical layer with boundaries at different temperatures is considered in the presence of transverse blowing through the layer. The complete spectral problem is solved for a silicon melt. The neutral curve is constructed and the critical Grashof number is found. The numerical calculations show that the presence of transverse blowing significantly affects the flow stability. As compared with the Oberbeck-Boussinesq model, in the microconvection model the instability develops at lower wavenumbers.     

A Noninvasive, on Wafer Method to Determine the Intrinsic Stress of a Polymer Layer

The method described in this paper allows an investigator to determine the intrinsic stress of a polymer layer in a way that does not result in damage to devices or test structures. The method requires that a small area of the polymer be released from the substrate to form a diaphragm. The diaphragm is stimulated with acoustic white noise and the diaphragm movement is monitored with a laser vibrometer. The first few resonance frequencies of the diaphragm are obtained using a laser vibrometer and then those frequencies are used to calculate the membrane intrinsic bi-axial tension.     

Changes in the kurtosis parameter of super-Gaussian beams passing through a spherically aberrated lens

Based on the Collins formula and irradiance moments definition, the propagation of the kurtosis parameter of super-Gaussian beams through a spherically aberrated lens is studied. Detailed numerical results are given. It is shown that, as compared with aberration-free super-Gaussian beams, the profile of spherically aberrated super-Gaussian beams can be leptokurtic, mesokurtic or platykurtic, depending on the aberration and propagation distance. The results for the spherically aberrated Gaussian beams can be dealt with as a special case treated in this paper. Finally, the advantage of our method is pointed out.     

Generation of nonclassical states of a field with frequency-dependent squeezing

The generation of nonclassical states of light with specified frequency-dependent squeezing by way of introducing a correlation between the phase and amplitude of the input field is considered. Three schemes for measuring amplitude fluctuations of the input beam, based on a nondemolition measurement of the intensity in a nonlinear cubic crystal, the effect of light rectification in a quadratic optical crystal, and the use of a non-degenerate optical parametric oscillator, are proposed. The maximum possible value of noise suppression is estimated for each scheme. The prospects for practical realization of the proposed method for generation of frequency-dependent squeezed states are discussed.     

Modified Three-Dimensional Formulations of Bending Problems of Homogeneous Plates and Beams under Complex Fixing Conditions

Modified three-dimensional formulations of bending problems of homogeneous elastic plates and beams are considered. Modification of the known three-dimensional formulations reduces to using additional constraints imposed on displacement functions. An advantage of the formulations proposed is that complex fixing conditions of plates and beams can be taken into account.     

Ricci and Matter Collineations of Locally Rotationally Symmetric Space-Times

A new method is presented for the determination of Ricci Collineations (RC) and Matter Collineations (MC) of a given spacetime, in the cases where the Ricci tensor and the energy momentum tensor are non-degenerate and have a similar form with the metric. This method reduces the problem of finding the RCs and the MCs to that of determining the KVs whereas at the same time uses already known results on the motions of the metric. We employ this method to determine all hypersurface homogeneous locally rotationally symmetric spacetimes, which admit proper RCs and MCs. We also give the corresponding collineation vectors. These results conclude a long due open problem, which has been considered many times partially in the literature.     

Application of quasi-steady-state plasma streams for simulation of ITER transient heat loads

The paper presents experimental investigation of energy characteristics of the plasma streams generated with quasi—steady—state plasma accelerator QSPA Kh-50 and adjustment of plasma paramenters from the point of view its applicability for simulation of transient plasma heat loads expected for ITER disruptions and type I ELMs. Possibility of generation of high-power magnetized plasma streams with ion impact energy up to 0.6 keV, pulse length 0.25 ms and heat loads varied in wide range from 0.5 to 30 MJ/m² has been demonstrated and some features of plasma interaction with tungsten targets in dependence on plasma heat loads are discussed.     

Vacuum ultraviolet absorption in Xe+CF4 and Kr+CF4 mixtures

The absorption spectra of Xe + CF₄ and Kr + CF₄ mixtures in the vacuum ultraviolet region are presented. A considerable broadening of the short-wavelength wings of the atomic absorption lines is explained by a repulsive character of the Rg*-CF₄ interaction potential. This repulsive character is also considered to be the most probable reason for the anomalously small cross sections of the quenching of electronically excited atoms of rare gases by CF₄ molecules. The influence of CF₄ on the emission rate of the trapped resonance radiation of Xe from the cell is discussed.