Dew nucleation and growth

Dew is the condensation of water vapor into liquid droplets on a substrate. It is characterized by an initial heterogeneous nucleation on a substrate and a further growth of droplets. The presence of a substrate that geometrically constrains the growth is the origin of the peculiarities and richness of the phenomenon. A key point is the drop interaction through drop fusion or coalescence, which leads to scaling in the growth and gives universality to the process. As a matter of fact, growth dynamics are only dependent on substrate and drop dimensionality. Coalescence events lead to temporal and spatio-temporal fluctuations in the substrate coverage, drop configuration, etc., which give rise to a very peculiar dynamics. When the substrate is a liquid or a liquid crystal, the drop pattern can exhibit special spatial order, such as crystalline, hexatic phases and fractal contours. Condensation on a solid substrate near its melting point can make the drop jump.The applications of monitoring dew formation are manifold. Examples can be found in medicine (sterilization process), agriculture (green houses) and hydrology (production of drinkable water). To cite this article: D. Beysens, C. R. Physique 7 (2006).     

Effects of Nonlinear Time-Delay on a Stochastic Asymmetric System

We numerically investigate the effects of nonlinear time-delay on the stochastic system. With the delay time increasing, it is found that the peak of probability distribution in low steady states is decreased, and the peak of probability distribution in high steady states is increased. The mean of state variable, the normalized variance, and the normalized autocorrelation function which quantifies the concentrated degree are slowly varied for small delay time. However, the mean of state variable is rapidly increased, and the normalized variance and the normalized autocorrelation function is rapidly decreased for large delay time.     

Ultraweak emission imagery of mitosing soybeans

In the single-photon counting mode, we have obtained images of germinating soybeans and other plant tissues using only the ultraweak light emitted by the specimen. The emission described here is to be distinguished from bioluminescence and is not induced by previous exposure to light, chemical agents or other means, but is a naturally occurring emission associated with normal biochemical processes. The images of germinating soybeans show that emission is strongest in areas of active mitosis, demonstrating that the technique of singlephoton counting imaging can provide useful morphological information.     

氦原子(e,3-1e)反应中未探测电子屏蔽效应的理论研究

在DS3C模型的基础上,对氦原子(e,3-1e)反应的末态He+2场中未探测电子的屏蔽效应进行了研究.计算了(e,3-1e)过程中入射能为640 eV时,电子入射双电离He原子的四重微分截面(4DCS);讨论了非一级效应对截面结构的影响.所得结果与其他理论计算进行比较发现:文中结果与最新测量的实验数据较好地吻合.     

Raman study on the pressure-induced disordered state of polystyrene

The pressure-induced disordered state was first reported for iPS, the polymer showing thermal shrinkage. The low-frequency Raman study showed clearly that pressure introduces irregularity into the polymer backbone of iPS. It has also been revealed that there exist two types of vibrational modes, which show different sensitivities on the regularity of the main chain. These modes indicate two distinctive features of dispersion in the ordered form. In the disordered state, the dispersive modes smear out and the dispersionless one survives to be observed. We conclude that pressure causes the ordered-disordered conversion like thermal shrinkage. This conversion will be a common feature of the polymers showing thermal shrinkage and would be able to take place at relatively low pressure.     

The Index Set of Injectively Enumerable Classes of Recursively Enumerable Sets in ∑5-Complete

I introduce an effective enumeration of all effective enumerations of classes of r. e. sets and define with this the index set IE of injectively enumerable classes. It is easy to see that this set is ∑₅ in the Arithmetical Hierarchy and I describe a proof for the ∑₅-hardness of IE. Mathematics Subject Classification: 03D25, 03D45.     

Writing of two-dimensional crystal curved lines at the surface of Sm2O3-Bi2O3-B2O3 glass by samarium atom heat processing

Two-dimensional crystal curved lines consisting of the nonlinear optical Sm_<em>xem>Bi_1−<em>xem>BO₃ phase are fabricated at the surface of 8Sm₂O₃·37Bi₂O₃·55B₂O₃ glass by continuous wave Nd:YAG laser (wavelength: 1064 nm) irradiation (samarium atom heat processing) with a power of ∼0.9 W and a laser scanning speed of 5 μm/s. The curved lines with bending angles of 0-90&deg; or with sine-shapes are written by just changing the laser scanning direction. The polarized micro-Raman scattering spectra for the line after bending are the same as those for the line before bending, indicating that the crystal plane of Sm_<em>xem>Bi_1−<em>xem>BO₃ crystals to the crystal growth direction might be maintained even after the change in the laser scanning direction. It is found from laser scanning microscope observations that the crystal lines at the surface are swelled out smoothly, giving a height of about 10 μm.     

Structure due to indirect exciton in photocurrent spectrum of homoepitaxial diamond film

Photocurrent spectrum in homoepitaxal diamond film formed by chemical vapor deposition has been measured in the photon energy range 5-6 eV of the vicinity of the indirect band gap. It has been seen that the line shape of the spectrum in the photon energy range lower than 5.6 eV agrees with the fundamental absorption edge spectrum in natural diamond. Structures in the spectrum have been explained from the optical transition due to indirect excitons assisted by TO phonons and indirect band-to-band transition.     

Thermal transitions of polymers measured by atomic force microscopy

A new method has been developed to measure thermal transitions by atomic force microscopy in the non-contact mode, using it as a dynamic mechanical analyser on a local scale. In this method the cantilever is oscillating above the polymer surface and the resonance frequency is measured as a function of the temperature. Thermal transitions of a polymer are clearly visible as a change in the characteristic-frequency behaviour of the cantilever. This paper introduces a simple model to explain the response of the cantilever caused by the transitions in the polymer and the related form of the frequency/temperature curves. This new technique adds a new dimension to the standard thermal analysis techniques, with which the thermal transitions of different polymer phases can be resolved individually for polymer blends or copolymers, for example in structured multiphase polymers. Received: 1 November 2001 / Accepted: 7 November 2001 / Published online: 23 January 2002     

Confinement of columnar diblock copolymers: Simulations, theory and applications

The inherent nanoscale morphologies of self-organizing diblock copolymer melts are now being investigated for a variety of technological applications. To obtain global, well-oriented, regular patterns requires suitably confining and aligning the melt between two flat plates. Here we consider such confinement for an asymmetrical diblock melt, which forms columns of the minority phase in a matrix of the majority phase. We investigate this system with a combination of numerical simulations and strong segregation theory and make suggestions as to when perpendicular orientation should prevail over parallel orientation of the columns. Received 22 May 2001 and Received in final form 14 February 2002