Ultraviolet and visible upconversion luminescence of Tm(0.1)Yb(5):FOV oxyfluoride nanophase vitroceramics

The ultraviolet upconversion luminescence of Tm³⁺ ions sensitized by Yb³⁺ ions in oxyfluoride nanophase vitroceramics when excited by a 975 nm diode laser was studied. An ultraviolet upconversion luminescence line positioned at 363.6 nm was found. It was attributed to the fluorescence transition of ¹D₂→³H₆ of Tm³⁺ ion. Several visible upconversion luminescence lines at 450.7 nm, (477.0 nm, 462.5 nm), 648.5 nm, (680.5 nm, 699.5 nm) and (777.2 nm, 800.7 nm) were also found, which result respectively from the fluorescence transitions of ¹D₂→³F₄, ¹G₄→³H₆, ¹G₄→³F₄, ³F₃→³H₆ and ³H₄→³H₆ of Tm³⁺ ion. The careful measurement and analysis of the variation of upconversion luminescence intensity F as a function of the 975 nm pumping laser power P prove that the upconversion luminescence of ¹D₂ state is partly a five-photon upconversion luminescence, and the upconversion luminescence of ¹G₄ state and ³H₄ state are respectively the three-photon and two-photon upconversion luminescence. The theoretical analysis suggested that the upconversion mechanism of the 363.6 nm ¹D₂→³H₆ upconversion luminescence is partly the cross energy transfer of {³H₄(Tm³⁺), ³F₄(Tm³⁺), ¹G₄(Tm³⁺)→¹D₂(Tm³⁺)} and {¹G₄(Tm³⁺)→³F₄(Tm³⁺), ³H₄(Tm³⁺)→¹D₂(Tm³⁺)} between Tm³⁺ ions. In addition, the upconversion luminescence of ¹G₄ and ³H₄ state results respectively from the sequential energy transfer {²F_5/2(Yb³⁺)→²F_7/2(Yb³⁺), ³H₄(Tm³⁺)→¹G₄(Tm³⁺)} and {²F_5/2(Yb³⁺) →²F_7/2(Yb³⁺), ³F₄(Tm³⁺)→³F₂(Tm³⁺)} from Yb³⁺ ions to Tm³⁺ ions. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10674019)     

Structural and optical properties of ZnO film by plasma-assisted MOCVD

High quality ZnO film was deposited by plasma-assisted metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). We observed a dominant peak at 34.6° due to (0 0 2) ZnO, which indicated that the growth of ZnO film was strongly C-oriented. The full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the -rocking curve was 0.56° indicating relatively small mosaicity. Photoluminescence (PL) measurement was performed at both room temperature and low temperature. Ultraviolet (UV) emission at 3.30 eV was found with high intensity at room temperature while the deep level transition was weakly observed at 2.513 eV. The ratio of the intensity of UV emission to that of deep level emission was as high as 193, which implied high quality of ZnO film. From PL spectrum at 10 K, we observed A-exciton emission at 3.377 eV and D°X bound exciton transition at 3.370 eV. The donor–acceptor transition and LO phonon replicas were observed at 3.333 and 3.241 eV respectively. Raman scattering was performed in back scattering at room temperature. The E₂, A_1(LO) and A_1(TO) mode was seen at 437.6, 575.8 and 380 cm^–1 respectively. In comparison with Raman spectrum of ZnO powder, we found that ZnO film was nearly free of strain, which indicated high crystal quality.     

MiniMax: What has been learned thus far

Summary A small experiment, ?MiniMax?, has been set up in the C0 intersection region of the Fermilab Tevatron to seek evidence for disoriented chiral condensates and to study other forward physics phenomena. The experiment consists of a proportional wire chamber telescope accompanied by scintillation (trigger) counters, a lead converter, and followed by an electromagnetic calorimeter. The solid angle accepted is a cone centered at pseudorapidity (η) of 4.1 and of radius (in η-ϕ space) of about 0.6. Over 2.5 million events thus far have demonstrated the successful operation of the apparatus, however to date the analysis has not progressed sufficiently to permit any conclusions concerning disoriented chiral condensates. presented byL. W. Jones Paper presented at the Special Session on very high-energy cosmic-ray interactions (superfamilies) of the XXIV International Cosmic-Ray Conference, Rome, August 28–September 8, 1995.     

Tracking of flare-generated interplanetary shock waves, responsible for Forbush decreases, by observing type-II radio bursts

Summary New possibilities are pointed out of a more accurate identification of solar flares, responsible for Forbush decreases of galactic cosmic rays, caused by flare-generated interplanetary shock waves, based on tracking type-II radio bursts. Nine solar flares, observed between September 1978 and December 1979, generated shock waves which produced intensive type-II radio bursts observed in the hectometric and kilometric wave range by the ISEE-3 satellite. All the type-II shocks were responsible for Forbush decreases. Since the observation of type-II radio bursts enables us to follow the propagation of shock waves practically from the place where they are generated deep in the solar corona, through interplanetary space as far as the Earth, these observations provide the possibility of exact identification of Forbush decreases with the corresponding flares. These observations have also supplied a further dimension for analysing interplanetary disturbances and forecasting Forbush decreases.

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Riassunto Sono messe in evidenza nuove possibilità per una piú accurata identificazione dei brillamenti solari responsabili delle diminuzioni di Forbush, nell’intensità dei raggi cosmici galattici, dovute ad onde d’urto interplanetarie. Tali possibilità sono basate sull’osservazione dello sviluppo spazio-temporale delle sorgenti della radioemissione di tipo II. Durante il periodo settembre 1978-dicembre 1979, sono stati osservati nove brillamenti solari, che generavano onde d’urto producenti un’intensa radioemissione di tipo II osservata dal satellite ISEE-3 nell’intervallo di lunghezze d’onda ettometrico e chilometrico. Tutte queste onde d’urto erano responsabili delle diminuzioni di Forbush. Poiché l’osservazione della radioemissione di tipo II ci permette di seguire la propagazione delle onde d’urto praticamente dal posto dove loro sono generate, in profondità nella corona, fin nello spazio interplanetario verso la Terra, i risultati ottenuti forniscono la possibilità di una precisa identificazione della connessione tra le diminuzioni di Forbush ed i brillamenti corrispondenti. Queste osservazioni danno anche un ulteriore contributo all’analisi delle perturbazioni interplanetarie ed alla possibilità di previsione di diminuzioni di Forbush.

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Резюме Указываются новые возможности, связанные с прослеживанием радиовспышек типа II, для более точной идентификации солнечных вспышек, ответственных за убывание Форбуша, которые вызывают межпланетные ударные волны. Девять солнечных вспышек, наблюдавшися между сентябрем 1978 и декабрем 1979, образовали ударные волны, которые вызвали интенсивные радио-вспышки типа II, которые наблюдались спутником ISEE-3. Все эти ударные волны типа II ответственны за убывания Форбуша. Так как навпюдения радио-вспышек типа II позволяет нам проследить распространение ударных волн практически от места их образования глубоко в солнечной короне через межпланетное пространство до Земли, то такие наблюдения обеспечивают возможность точной идентификации убываний Форбуша в зависимости от соответствующих солнечных вспышек. Эти наблюдения также позволяют анализировать межпланетные возмущения и предсказывать убывания Форбуша.

     

Bounds on the neutrino mass from the dark matter in the universe

Summary The problem of the missing matter in the Universe is reviewed and discussed in terms of massive neutrinos. The primordial abundances of light elements produced during the big bang nucleosynthesis can be used to determine firm bounds on the number of neutrino flavours and on the ratio of baryon to photon densities in the Universe. These limits imply that nonbaryonic matter is the dominant constituent of large-scale cosmic structures, being massive neutrinos the best guess for such a matter. In order that the Universe be closed, a value of the neutrino rest mass is derived, which agrees with the bounds obtained from the dynamics of galaxies and clusters of galaxies. It is also shown that density perturbations can hardly grow in a nucleon-dominated Universe, and massive neutrinos may be the seed for nucleon condensations. All these astrophysical and cosmological considerations suggest a lower and an upper bound of the neutrino rest mass. Paper presented at the Congress ?Galactic and Extragalactic Dark Matter?, Roma, 28 to 30 June 1983.     

Search for Higgs Boson in UHE Cosmic Rays

Considering the SM Higgs boson mass in the range of (95–235) GeV, we present here a mechanism for indirect searches of this scalar in UHE cosmic rays interactions. The mechanism is the decay of Higgs bosons which are produced through bubble formation due to vacuum excitation in an UHE cosmic rays interactions with air nuclei. We develop a model of hadronic interaction based on algorithms of the GENCL code of the UA5 experiment of CERN and some physics of CORSIKA code (Karlsruhe report), incorporating a fraction of energy transfer to bubble formation through vacuum excitation and subsequent multiparticle production via conversion of Higgs boson to heavy fermion pairs. Such events are expected to have high multiplicity and excess muons. This mechanism has significant effect starting from E _P 10¹⁸eV. It is found that the average muon number decreases gradually upto 175 GeV Higgs boson mass and remain practically constant thereafter for all primary energies (E _P) above 10¹⁸ eV and for all fractions of energy transfer (f _e 0.01–0.5). The fluctuation of muon multiplicity decreases with E _P and increases very slowly with Higgs mass upto 175 GeV, remaining practically invariant thereafter.     

颜色失真二维彩色条形码的自适应阈值机读法

采用紫外辐照加速老化方法研究纸基彩色条形码的褪色规律。基于CIELAB模型分析紫外辐照累计时间与二维条形码色差的关系，对4色打印标签的检测结果表明：品红色褪变速率较大，青色、黄色和黑色的褪变速率逐次减小。基于RGB三基色直方图和概率统计原理，提出能有效校正颜色失真、正确机读二维条形码的“自适应阈值法”。实验表明：对于紫外25h加速老化后的褪色条形码，“自适应阈值法”的机读误码率≤0.05%。该研究结果为褪色彩色条形码标签进入实用阶段提供了实验依据。     

Optical extinction spectroscopy of single silver nanoparticles

The extinction spectrum of single silver nanoparticles with size ranging from 20 to 80 nm is investigated with the spatial modulation spectroscopy technique using either a tunable laser or a white lamp as the broadband source. Results are in good agreement with the prediction of the Mie theory, permitting to extract the nanoparticle size from the measured absolute value of the optical extinction cross-section. In contrast, the deduced refractive index of the nanoparticle environment and the reduction of the electron mean free path show a large dependence on the precise value of the bulk silver dielectric function.     

Laser-plasma interaction in the context of inertial fusion: experiments and modeling

Many nonlinear processes may affect the laser beam propagation and the laser energy deposition in the underdense plasma surrounding the pellet. These processes, associated with anomalous and nonlinear absorption mechanisms, are fundamental issues in the context of Inertial Confinement Fusion. The work presented in this article refers to laser-plasma interaction experiments which were conducted under well-controlled conditions, and to their theoretical and numerical modeling. Thanks to important diagnostics improvements, the plasma and laser parameters were sufficiently characterized in these experiments to make it possible to carry out numerical simulations modeling the laser plasma interaction in which the hydrodynamics conditions were very close to the experimental ones. Two sets of experiments were carried out with the LULI 2000 and the six beam LULI laser facilities. In the first series of experiments, the interaction between two single hot spots was studied as a function of their distance, intensity and light polarization. In the second series, the intensity distribution of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) inside the plasma was studied by means of a new temporally resolved imaging system. Two-dimensional (2D) simulations were carried out with our code Harmony2D in order to model these experiments. For both series of experiments, the numerical results show a very good agreement with the experimental ones for what concerns the main SBS features, namely the spatial and temporal behavior of the SBS-driven acoustic waves, as well as the average SBS reflectivities. Thus, these well diagnosed experiments, carried out with well defined conditions, make it possible to benchmark our theoretical and numerical modelings and, hence, to improve our predictive capabilities for future experiments.     

NorTRACK product tracking system—development and implementation

This paper presents the experience gained by developers and users with implementation and operation of NorTRACK^TM, a real-time computerized product tracking system. A Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) collects and transfers data in real time to NorTRACK’s Oracle^TM database on a Windows NT^TM server network. After extensive development and Beta testing at MDS Nordion’s Canadian Irradiation Centre in Montreal, Canada, NorTRACK was installed in January 1997 with a new irradiation facility in Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc.’s Albuquerque plant in the United States. NorTRACK communicates with the irradiator control and safety system, the plant's central manufacturing database, an innovative pallet staging and tote loading robot, and an automated dosimetry reading system. This integrated system allows the sterilization facility to monitor the irradiator operation and the flow of many products, through varied processing modes, continuously and reliably. As a result of operating with NorTRACK, both MDS Nordion’s CIC facility and the Endo-Surgery manufacturing site, are beginning to realize unique benefits in their respective operations. MDS Nordion is also initiating several future product enhancements and additional productivity modules. This paper describes the NorTRACK system, the various stages of the development project and Beta tests, and the experience of the users to date in their operations.