A fast method to measure the thickness of removed layer from etching of SSNTD based on EDXRF

Solid state nuclear track detectors are commonly used for measurements of concentrations of radon gas and/or radon progeny. All these measurements depend critically on the thickness of the removed layer during etching. However, the thickness of removed layer calculated using the etching period does not necessarily provide a sufficiently accurate measure of the thickness. For example, the bulk etch rate depends on the strength of stirring during etching for the LR 115 detector. We propose here to measure the thickness of the removed layer by using energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. In the present work, a reference silver nitrate pellet is placed beneath the LR 115 detector, and the fluorescence X-ray intensity for silver is then measured. We have found a linear relationship between the X-ray intensity and the thickness of the removed layer for LR 115 detector. This provides a fast method to measure the thickness of removed layer from etching of LR 115 detector. However, this method was found to be inapplicable for the CR-39 detector. Therefore, alternative methods have yet to be explored for the CR-39 detector.     

Contribution of “unusual” domain walls to the magnetoresistance of multilayer magnetic structures

The contribution to electrical resistance due to scattering of charge carriers by domain walls is analyzed. It is revealed that “unusual” domain walls are created by frustrations in ferromagnet-antiferromagnet multilayer magnetic structures. The thickness of an unusual domain wall is substantially less than that of a usual domain wall. It is shown that scattering of charge carriers by unusual domain walls can contribute significantly to the magnetoresistance of ferromagnet-antiferromagnet multilayer magnetic structures. An analysis of the contribution made by the Levy-Zhang mechanism to the magnetoresistance demonstrates that the initial estimate obtained for this contribution is considerably exaggerated.     

On removable even circuits in graphs

Let G be a connected graph with minimum degree at least 3. We prove that there exists an even circuit C in G such that G−E(C) is either connected or contains precisely two components one of which is isomorphic to a 1-bond. We further prove sufficient conditions for there to exist an even circuit C in a 2-connected simple graph G such that G−E(C) is 2-connected. As a consequence of this, we obtain sufficient conditions for there to exist an even circuit C in a 2-connected graph G for which G−E(C) is 2-connected.