Electrical transport, magnetic and thermal properties of icosahedral Al–Pd–Mn quasicrystals

We report measurements of electrical resistivity (ρ), Hall coefficient (R_H), magnetization (M) and specific heat (C_p(T)) of high-quality icosahedral Al_70.4Pd_20.8Mn_8.8 phases with different thermal treatment. An improvement in the quasi-crystallinity upon the annealing treatment caused a drastic increase in ρ up to 7000 μΩ cm accompanied by a very small electronic specific heat coefficient γ. The low temperature ρ(T) data has been analyzed in terms of weak localization and electron–electron interaction effects. The Hall resistivity (ρ_H) is found to be strongly temperature-dependent and varies linearly with the magnetization (M) for the same field and temperature. Magnetization measurement reveals that more conductive samples are more magnetic and vice versa. Magnetic susceptibility (χ) data of all the annealed samples agrees with the Curie–Weiss-like behavior implying the existence of localized moments. The negative Curie–Weiss temperature (θ) indicates strong antiferromagnetic coupling between individual Mn atoms. The magnetic Mn concentration is found to be small, ranging from 1.73×10^-4 for the less magnetic sample studied up to 3×10^-3 for the more magnetic one. The small electronic specific heat coefficient obtained for all the samples suggests a significant reduction in the electronic density of states (DOS) at the Fermi level (E_F) upon thermal annealing treatment.     

Preconcentration of rare earths in geological materials with ascorbic acid for their neutron activation analysis

The potential use of ascorbic acid as a complexing reagent in the separation and preconcentration of rare earth elements (REE) in geological materials in a suitable solid matrix has been demonstrated. Traces of REE from some USGS standard rock samples, viz., GSP-1, G-2, AGV-1 and PCC-1, have been separated after acid dissolution in two ways: (1) by ion exchange chromatography on Dowex 50×8 column and Na-ascorbate as eluent and (2) by direct complexation with ascorbic acid under specific experimental conditions. The separated REE were coprecipitated with the non isotopic diluent, calcium fluoride, before neutron activation analysis. Radiometric determinations showed that the overall recovery of REE in both cases was practically quantitative.     

Kinetics of the oxidation of sulphite by tetrachloroaurate(III)

Summary The reaction between sulphite and gold(III) in hydrochloric acid medium has been studied; an initial complex is formed prior to electron transfer. The reaction rate is inversely proportional to the hydrogen ion concentration and the reaction appears to proceed through the intermediate formation of a free radical which reacts with gold(III) to give the products. Evidence for the formation of dithionate together with sulphate is presented.     

A method of tunable high repetition-rate picosecond optical pulse generation using injection locking of laser diodes

A method of tunable, high repetition-rate optical pulse generation by using optical injection locking of semiconductor lasers has been described in this paper. This method utilizes the superposition of five coherent optical carriers obtained from the spectrum of optical phase modulation, which results in a sharp optical pulse. Theoretical calculations indicate that a pulse width of 1 ps and a repetition rate of 200 GHz can be achieved for a modulator drive frequency of 40 GHz. PACS 42.79.Sz; 42.79.Hp; 42.79.-e; 42.62.-b; 85.60.-q     

Mössbauer Studies on Nanocrystalline Diol Capped γ-Fe2O3

Nanocrystalline indium (nano-In) was prepared with different particle sizes by electrochemical deposition. The temperature dependence of the local electric field gradient (EFG) of nano-In was investigated in a temperature range of 20–300 K using the probe ¹¹¹In for perturbed γγ angular correlation (PAC) experiments. The temperature dependence of the EFG of nano-In can be described by a (1−BT ^3/2) dependence as in bulk-In. It is shown that the low temperature value of the EFG and the proportionality constant B vary systematically with particle size.