Microstructure and properties of Nb/Ta multilayer films irradiated by a high current pulse electron beam

Nb/Ta multilayer films deposited on Ti6Al4V substrate with Nb and Ta monolayer thicknesses of 30 nm, 120 nm, and 240 nm were irradiated by a high current pulse electron beam (HCPEB) to prepare Nb-Ta alloyed layers. The microstructure and the composition of the outmost surface of melted alloyed layers were investigated using a transmission electron microscope (TEM) equipped with an X-ray energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) attachment. The Ta content of the alloyed surface layer prepared from the monolayer of thickness 30 nm, 120 nm, and 240 nm was ～ 27.7 at.%, 6.37 at.%, and 0 at.%, respectively. It was found that the Ta content in the alloyed layer plays a dominant role in the microstructure of the films. The hardness and the wear rate of the alloyed layers decrease with the increasing content of Ta in the surface layer.     

Kinetic parameters,collision rates,energy exchanges and transport coefficients of non-thermal electrons in premixed flames at sub-breakdown electric field strengths

The effects of an electric field on the collision rates, energy exchanges and transport properties of electrons in premixed flames are investigated via solutions to the Boltzmann kinetic equation. The case of high electric field strength, which results in high-energy, non-thermal electrons, is analysed in detail at sub-breakdown conditions. The rates of inelastic collisions and the energy exchange between electrons and neutrals in the reaction zone of the flame are characterised quantitatively. The analysis includes attachment, ionisation, impact dissociation, and vibrational and electronic excitation processes. Our results suggest that Townsend breakdown occurs for E/N = 140 Td. Vibrational excitation is the dominant process up to breakdown, despite important rates of electronic excitation of CO, CO₂ and N₂ as well as impact dissociation of O₂ being apparent from 50 Td onwards. Ohmic heating in the reaction zone is found to be negligible (less than 2% of peak heat release rate) up to breakdown field strengths for realistic electron densities equal to 10¹⁰ cm^?3. The observed trends are largely independent of equivalence ratio. In the non-thermal regime, electron transport coefficients are insensitive to mixture composition and approximately constant across the flame, but are highly dependent on the electric field strength. In the thermal limit, kinetic parameters and transport coefficients vary substantially across the flame due to the spatially inhomogeneous concentration of water vapour. A practical approach for identifying the plasma regime (thermal versus non-thermal) in studies of electric field effects on flames is proposed.     

Measurement of currents and floating potential in multilayer sensor due to oil-flow electrification

This paper presents floating potential and current measurements due to oil-flow electrification inside a multilayer sensor incorporated in a closed loop filled with fresh transformer oil. All leakage currents at the sensor inlet and outlet, the capacitive current and the streaming current are measured. The waveforms of these currents, floating potential as well as the oil temperature at the sensor inlet are simultaneously recorded for laminar flow and at controlled operating conditions. The measured floating potentials are compared with the calculated ones under different oil-flow velocities and good agreement has been found.     

Study of the critical current density and the thermodynamic critical field in deuterated κ-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu[N(CN)2]Br organic superconductor

ABSTRACT

We have studied the reversible and irreversible part of the hysteresis loops as a function of slow cooling rate through the order–disorder transformation near 80?K for the deuterated (κ-D₈-Br) κ-(BEDT-TTF)₂Cu[N(CN)₂]Br organic superconductor. We estimated the critical current density J_C and the thermodynamic critical field H_C from the magnetic hysteresis loops. Temperature dependence of the critical current density derived from the irreversible part using Bean’s model. The thermodynamic critical field H_C has been obtained from the reversible part of the hysteresis loops.     

Josephson current through a T-shaped double quantum dots: π-junction transition and interdot antiferromagnetic correlations

By means of the exact diagonalization approach, the Josephson current in a T-shaped double quantum dot structure is theoretically investigated. The ground state is obtained within zero bandwidth approximation in which the superconductors are replaced by effective local pairing potentials. It is found that Josephson current can flow through this structure in the presence of various electron correlations. Furthermore, in the half-filled case, a novel 0–π$0\text{–}\pi$ transition behavior is observed, which arises from the interplay of interdot antiferromagnetic coupling and electron correlations.     

Leakage currents in ferroelectric thin films

The main mechanisms of leakage currents in thin lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ferroelectric films prepared by the sol–gel method are discussed. Four specific regions are determined in I–V dependencies. At very weak fields (10–20 kV/cm), the current falls with the voltage increase as a result of depolarization. In the low fields region (about 70–100 kV/cm), the leakage current decreases with the decrease of voltage ramp speed and its components are the ohmic and displacement currents. In the high fields region (≥130 kV/cm), the leakage current increases with the decrease of step voltage ramp in contrast to the previous case. Possible conductivity mechanisms are the Poole– Frenkel emission and hopping conduction. In the transition region between above-mentioned ones (from 80–90 to ～130 kV/cm), an abrupt unstable increase of current is observed caused by breakdown of reverse bias Schottky barrier. Depolarization currents are studied for sol–gel PZT films prepared at different preparation conditions.     

Electric field effects in freely suspended liquid crystalline (FSLC) films of 5CB

Electric field effects on FSLC films of p-pentyl cyano biphenyl (5CB) have been optically studied. Due to the initial alignment of the molecules, initially formed transition layers grow with increasing field and merge to form a linear wall at the middle of the sample. This linear wall splits into two disclinations at relatively high fields. But a sudden application of relatively high electric field results in the formation of closed metastable walls. The wall orientation shows interesting behaviour with the field frequency. At high field, the closed walls undergo distortion and division into two or more parts.     

On the vanishing of subspaces of alternating bilinear forms

Given a field F and integer n≥3, we introduce an invariant s_n (F) which is defined by examining the vanishing of subspaces of alternating bilinear forms on 2-dimensional subspaces of vector spaces. This invariant arises when we calculate the largest dimension of a subspace of n?×?n skew-symmetric matrices over F which contains no elements of rank 2. We show how to calculate s_n (F) for various families of field F, including finite fields. We also prove the existence of large subgroups of the commutator subgroup of certain p-groups of class 2 which contain no non-identity commutators.