Irradiation-induced magnetism in carbon nanostructures

Nitrogen (15N) and carbon (12C) ion implantations with implant energy of 100 keV for different doses were performed on nanosized diamond (ND) particles. Magnetic measurements on the doped ND show ferromagnetic hysteresis behavior at room temperature. The saturation magnetization (M(s)) in the case of 15N implanted samples was found to be higher compared to the 12C implanted samples for dose sizes greater than 10(14) cm(-2). The role of structural modification or defects along with the carbon-nitrogen (C-N) bonding states for the observed enhanced ferromagnetic ordering in 15N doped samples is explained on the basis of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements.     

Moisture induced degradation of multilayer ceramic capacitors

When both precious metal electrode and base metal electrode (BME) capacitors were subjected to autoclave (121 °C/100% RH) testing for 500 h, it was found that the precious metal capacitors aged according to a well known aging mechanism (average capacitance degraded less than 3% from their starting values), but the BME capacitors degraded to below the −30% specification limit. One hypothesis for this new failure mechanism was that there could be oxidation or corrosion of the nickel plates. Another hypothesis was that the loss of capacitance was due to chemical changes in the barium titanate.This paper presents the evaluation of the two hypotheses and the physics of the degradation mechanism. It is concluded that there are chemical changes in the barium titanate resulting from the interaction of residual point defects from BME manufacturing and humidity in the field. The continuous reduction in capacitor size makes the newer base metal electrode capacitors more vulnerable to moisture degradation than the older generation precious metal capacitors. In addition, standard humidity life testing, such as JESD-22 THB and HAST, will likely not uncover this problem. Therefore, poor reliability due to degradation of base metal electrode multilayer ceramic capacitors may catch manufacturers and consumers by surprise.     

Vibrations of heated plates with two opposite edges simply supported

Vibration analysis of the family of rectangular plates with two opposite sides simply supported can be simplified by assuming mode shapes. In the present paper a vibration analysis of such plates which are heated so as to have a temperature varying in the direction parallel to these sides is presented. A steady state temperature which satisfies the Laplace equation is considered. Due to the assumption of mode shapes the governing plate differential equation, which in general is a function of the x and y co-ordinates, becomes a function of one co-ordinate. This equation is analyzed by a finite difference method and solved by a standard simultaneous iteration technique. The accuracy of the method is ascertained by comparing the results for some well known boundary conditions when there is no temperature effect with the standard solutions available in the literature. From the results an attempt has been made to correlate the natural frequency with the temperature. Plates of uniform thickness with different length to breadth ratios have been analyzed. The assumed linear temperature distribution satisfies the Laplace equation and the plate is free to expand in its plane at its edges so that no thermal stresses will be induced.     

Space-Time Diversity Using Orthogonal and Amicable Orthogonal Designs

In this paper we consider the utilization of multiple transmitterand receiver antennas for space-time diversity. The optimalSNR scheme, which also provides the best diversity, is outlined.This scheme however involves a reduction in the data rate. Coding schemes are then presentedwhich not only achieve the optimal SNR but also mitigate the reductionof data rate. The proposed schemes are based on the theory of Orthogonal Designsand Amicable Orthogonal Designs.     

Noncontinuum effects on the mobility of nanoparticles in unentangled polymer solutions

The results for the diffusivity of nanoparticles in unentangled semidilute polymer solutions obtained using coarse‐grained simulations are presented. The results indicate that for particle sizes smaller than the polymer radius of gyration, the nanoparticle diffusivities deviate from Stokes–Einstein predictions and depend explicitly on the polymer radius of gyration and the polymer solution correlation lengths. Scaling ideas proposed are invoked for rationalizing such noncontinuum effects and demonstrate that the simulation results could be collapsed onto a single universal function of the depletion thickness, the polymer radius of gyration, and the particle radius. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2016 , 54, 2145–2150.     

Controlling the solid-state luminescence of gold(I) N-heterocyclic carbene complexes through changes in the structure of molecular aggregates

Thermally stable, solid-state luminescent organic materials are highly desired for the development of practical applications.Herein we synthesized new gold(I) complexes with N-heterocyclic carbene ligands, which have the ability to form strong metalorganic bond. Consequently, their thermochemical stability is enhanced at temperatures around 300 °C. Precise design of the molecular structure of the ligands, with a focus on ensuring low steric hindrance around Au atoms in order to limit disturbances to Au/Au interactions, provided a complex with a densely packed crystal with a shorter intermolecular Au–Au distance(3.17 ?)than the typical distance. In the solid state, this complex exhibited strong aurophilic interactions, which generated intense phosphorescence even in air at room temperature(quantum yield=16%) in spite of absence of any phosphorescence in solution.This behavior is characteristic for solid-state luminescence referred to as aggregation-controlled emission. Furthermore, the gold(I) complex displays capacity for mechano-and vapo-chromism—that is, the ability to change color reversibly in response to the application of external stimuli. We believe that the proposed design framework, which involves controlling thermal stability and luminescence property separately, provides a new opportunity for the development of practical applications using solid-state luminescent organic molecules.     

Performance of sufficient conditions for distributed quality-of-service support in wireless networks

Given a wireless network where some pairs of communication links interfere with each other, we study sufficient conditions for determining whether a given set of minimum bandwidth quality-of-service requirements can be satisfied. We are especially interested in algorithms which have low communication overhead and low processing complexity. The interference in the network is modeled using a conflict graph whose vertices correspond to the communication links in the network. Two links are adjacent in this graph if and only if they interfere with each other due to being in the same vicinity and hence cannot be simultaneously active. The problem of scheduling the transmission of the various links is then essentially a fractional, weighted vertex coloring problem, for which upper bounds on the fractional chromatic number are sought using only localized information. We recall some distributed algorithms for this problem, and then assess their worst-case performance. Our results on this fundamental problem imply that for some well known classes of networks and interference models, the performance of these distributed algorithms is within a bounded factor away from that of an optimal, centralized algorithm. The performance bounds are simple expressions in terms of graph invariants. It is seen that the induced star number of a network plays an important role in the design and performance of such networks.