Photodetachment of a Negative Hydrogen Molecular Ion near an Interface

Photodetachment of a negative hydrogen molecular ion near an interface is studied by using the two-centre model and the closed orbit theory. The calculation results show that the photodetachment cross section is related to the distance between the two centres in the H₂^- and different molecular ion-interface distances. The comparison between the cross section of H₂^- near an interface with the section of Hˉ shows that at the equilibrium distance of two centres and at low photon energy, the photodetachment cross section of H₂^- is about twice the cross section of Hˉ, which shows that the interference of the two nuclei is very strong; when the distance between the two centres is large, the section of H₂^- is almost the same as the cross section of Hˉ near one interface, which indicates that the interference effect of the two centres anishes.     

Ripple formation in weakly turbulent flow

The formation of granular ripples under liquid shear flow in an annular channel is studied experimentally. The erodible granular bed is subject to weakly turbulent flows without a defined sharp boundary layer close to the granular bed. The flow field and the degree of turbulence is characterized quantitatively by using a particle image velocimeter and a laser-Doppler velocimeter, respectively. A new range of particle Reynolds numbers at the lower limit of the Shields diagram were explored. Quantitative measurements of the granular flow on the surface reveal that the threshold for particle motion coincides within the order of one percent with the threshold for ripple formation. In fully developed ripples it was found that on the leeward side of the ripples regions of low-velocity gradients exist where granular motion is scarce, indicating that the coupling between the ripples is mainly caused by the flow field of the liquid.     

Hot Oxygen Corona at Mars and Its Effect on Solar Wind Deceleration

Phobos 2 plasma measurements have revealed solar wind deceleration of about 100 km/s upstream of the Martian bow shock. It is suggested that the deceleration is due to the mass loading by the ions originating from the hot oxygen corona of Mars. In this study, we use a gas-dynamic model to estimate the solar wind deceleration caused by the mass loading effect and the result shows that the deceleration is only about 10-15 km/s when we invoke the well established hot oxygen corona density profiles.     

Nanocrystalline silicon thin-film transistors with 50-nm-thick deposited channel layer, 10 cm2V-1s-1 electron mobility and 108 on/off current ratio

Thin-film transistors were made using 50-nm-thick directly deposited nanocrystalline silicon channel layers. The transistors have a coplanar top gate structure. The nanocrystalline silicon was deposited from discharges in silane, hydrogen and silicon tetrafluoride. The transistors combine a high electron field effect mobility of ∼10 cm² V^-1s^-1 with a low ‘off’ current of ∼10^-14 A per μm of channel length and an ‘on’/‘off’ current ratio of ∼10⁸. This result shows that transistors made from directly deposited silicon can combine high mobility with low ‘off’ currents. Received: 28 May 2001 / Accepted: 30 May 2001 / Published online: 30 August 2001     

Pb(II)-ion-selective electrodes based on chalcogenide glasses

Novel chalcogenide glasses (ChG) from the GeSe₂-PbSe-PbTe system were investigated as membrane materials in ion-selective electrodes reversible to Pb(II)-ions. Pb(II)-ion-selective electrodes (Pb(II)-ISE) of ‘coated wire’ type were constructed, which consist of standard Ag/AgCl electrodes uniformly coated with a composite mixture of polymer filled with GeSe₂-PbSe-PbTe glassy powder. The basic analytical characteristics of Pb(II)-ISE, such as reproducibility, linear range (L), slope of the electrode function (S), limits of detection (LD), working pH-range and response time (τ₉₅), were studied with respect to the ChG composition. The cross-selectivity in the presence of some interfering ions, which commonly attendant Pb²⁺-ions in analytical media, was investigated. Potential-generating mechanism was suggested explaining sufficiently the observed dependencies.     

Abnormal frequency dispersion of the admittance associated with a chromium/plasma deposited a-SiNx:H/p-Si structure

Admittance (Y_m) versus applied gate bias (V_G) on MIS structure (Cr/a-SiNx:H/p-Si) was measured as a function of frequency (mHz-MHz)/temperature (77-400 K) as parameters to investigate minority carrier behavior. Strong frequency dispersion in measured capacitance at inverting gate bias (positive biases for p-type silicon substrate) and low frequency behavior in capacitance-voltage (C-V) curves under high measuring frequencies (above kHz) at 300-400 K temperature interval are reported. This phenomenon is interpreted via lateral hopping conductivity of self-inversion charges beyond the gate inside a-SiNx:H film near interface as generation mechanism of minorities with a lower activation energy (0.11 eV) rather than prevailing mechanisms of much higher activation energies (namely, generation-recombination and diffusion).     

The study of the reduced α-width and ANC of O states through its sequential breakup

In this work we theoretically study using continuum-discretized-coupled channel (CDCC) theory, the resonant breakup of ¹⁶O by comparison with a recent measurement. The ground state Asymptotic Normalization Coefficient (ANC) and the alpha spectroscopic factor of ¹⁶O are evaluated in this work. The peripheral aspect of resonance breakup through a ²⁺$2^{+}$ unbound state has been also studied.     

Energy fluctuations in vibrated and driven granular gases

We investigate the behavior of energy fluctuations in several models of granular gases maintained in a non-equilibrium steady state. In the case of a gas heated from a boundary, the inhomogeneities of the system play a predominant role. Interpreting the total kinetic energy as a sum of independent but not identically distributed random variables, it is possible to compute the probability density function (pdf) of the total energy. Neglecting correlations and using the analytical expression for the inhomogeneous temperature profile obtained from the granular hydrodynamic equations, we recover results that have previously been observed numerically and that had been attributed to the presence of correlations. In order to separate the effects of spatial inhomogeneities from those ascribable to velocity correlations, we have also considered two models of homogeneously thermostated gases: in this framework it is possible to reveal the presence of non-trivial effects due to velocity correlations between particles. Such correlations stem from the inelasticity of collisions. Moreover, the observation that the pdf of the total energy tends to a Gaussian in the large system limit suggests that they are also due to the finite size of the system.