On the thermal behaviour of acetylphenyl-hydroxyaceticacid-4-nitrobenzyl esters

The 4-nitrobenzyl ester of acetylphenylhydroxyacetic acid differs in its melting behaviour from other nitrobenzyl esters of phenylhydroxyacetic or acetylphenylhydroxyacetic acids, the racemate having a higher melting point than the enantiomers. By means of thermal analysis, IR spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry the ester can be shown to occur in two crystalline modifications. In the process of solidification of the molten mass, at first a modification of higher energy is formed, obviously being caused by an excess of one enantiomer, which is then exothermally rearranged in the lattice of the racemate.     

Coloured ANOF layers on aluminium

By addition of metal salts to a basic electrolyte as colouring components coloured ANOF layers can be produced. The colour shades of such layers are dependent on concentration and deposition parameters. Two application examples of coloured ANOF layers are demonstrated.     

Surface roughness influence on the pull-in voltage of microswitches in presence of thermal and quantum vacuum fluctuations

In this work we investigate the influence of the combined effect from random self-affine roughness, finite conductivity, and finite temperature on the pull-in voltage in microswitches influenced by thermal and quantum vacuum fluctuations through the Casimir force and electrostatic forces. It is shown that for separations within the micron or sub-micron range the roughness influence plays a dominant role, while temperature starts to show its influence well above micron separations. Indeed, increasing the temperature leads to higher pull-in voltages since it leads to an increased Casimir force. The temperature influence is more significant for relatively large roughness exponent H ∼ 1, while its influence is significantly lower with increasing lateral roughness correlation length ξ or due to long wavelength surface smoothness.     

Ion-beam analysis of the structure and composition of nanocomposite nc-TiC/a-C:H coatings

The structure and composition of nanocomposite nc-TiC/a-C:H thin films prepared by closed-field unbalanced reactive magnetron sputtering in an argon-acetylene atmosphere have been investigated. The concentrations of carbon and heavier elements have been obtained by Rutherford backscattering and nuclear backscattering. The hydrogen concentration in the films has been determined by elastic recoil detection analysis. Based on the data obtained, a scheme has been proposed to evaluate the C:H matrix mass density and the sp ³ and sp ² fractions in the matrix.     

Controlling the coulomb explosion of silver clusters by femtosecond dual-pulse laser excitation

Silver clusters grown in helium nanodroplets are excited by intense femtosecond laser pulses resulting in the formation of a hot electron plasma far from equilibrium. The ultrafast dynamics is studied by applying optically delayed dual pulses, which allows us to pursue and control the coupling of the laser field to the clusters on a femtosecond time scale. A distinct influence of the optical delay on the ionization efficiency gives strong evidence that a significant contribution of collective dipolar electron motion is present, which is verified by corresponding Vlasov dynamics simulations on a model system. The microscopic approach demonstrates the outstanding role of giant resonances in clusters also in intense laser fields.     

Temperature dependence of the hyperfine field in amorphous Fe2O3

Mössbauer spectroscopy was used to follow the hyperfine field at ⁵⁷Fe nuclei in amorphous Fe₂O₃. The value of H_hf at T = 0, 470 kG, indicates $\text{J}\text{=}\text{5}\text{2}$ for the Fe ions, while the reduced hyperfine field versus reduced temperature closely follows a $\text{J}\text{=}\text{1}\text{2}$ Brillouin function. This result is at variance with theoretical predictions for a spin glass and is also different from amorphous metals with a high content of magnetic ions as reported in the literature. Paramagnetic Mössbauer spectra of amorphous mixed oxides of Fe₂O₃ with ZnO and CoO show that the ⁵⁷Fe nuclei in all amorphous ferric oxides studied so far are coordinated in a manner similar to the d site in β F₂O₃, and distinctly different from the coordination in their crystalline form.     

Laser-induced fluorescence of metastable xenon ions

Xenon ions in the metastable state 5d ⁴D_{$\text{7}\text{2}$} are excited by means of a tunable dye laser at 6051 Å. The excitation is monitored by non-resonant fluorescence at 5292 Å.     

Two-photon decay in strong central fields observed for the case of He-like gold

The photon energy differential shape of the second order matrix element for the two-photon (2E1) decay of the 1s2s¹S₀ level in He-like gold has been measured. The results are in agreement with a recent fully relativistic calculation. The corresponding 2E1 matrix element deviates from those in lighter He-like systems due to the strong central field in a heavy two-electron ion.