Enhanced field emission from pulsed laser deposited nanocrystalline ZnO thin films on Re and W

Nanocrystalline ZnO thin films have been deposited on rhenium and tungsten pointed and flat substrates by pulsed laser deposition method. An emission current of 1 nA with an onset voltage of 120 V was observed repeatedly and maximum current density ∼1.3 A/cm² and 9.3 mA/cm² has been drawn from ZnO/Re and ZnO/W pointed emitters at an applied voltage of 12.8 and 14 kV, respectively. In case of planar emitters (ZnO deposited on flat substrates), the onset field required to draw 1 nA emission current is observed to be 0.87 and 1.2 V/μm for ZnO/Re and ZnO/W planar emitters, respectively. The Fowler–Nordheim plots of both the emitters show nonlinear behaviour, typical for a semiconducting field emitter. The field enhancement factor β is estimated to be ∼2.15×10⁵ cm⁻¹ and 2.16×10⁵ cm⁻¹ for pointed and 3.2×10⁴ and 1.74×10⁴ for planar ZnO/Re and ZnO/W emitters, respectively. The high value of β factor suggests that the emission is from the nanometric features of the emitter surface. The emission current–time plots exhibit good stability of emission current over a period of more than three hours. The post field emission surface morphology studies show no significant deterioration of the emitter surface indicating that the ZnO thin film has a very strong adherence to both the substrates and exhibits a remarkable structural stability against high-field-induced mechanical stresses and ion bombardment. The results reveal that PLD offers unprecedented advantages in fabricating the ZnO field emitters for practical applications in field-emission-based electron sources.     

Production of heavy neutron-rich nuclei “south" of lead

The production of heavy neutron-rich nuclei is investigated using cold-fragmentation reactions. More than 25 new heavy neutron-rich nuclei were produced in the fragmentation of ²⁰⁸Pb projectiles at 1 A GeV impinging a beryllium target. The precise measurement of their production cross sections enables to benchmark the predictive power of different model calculations and make reliable predictions of the production rates expected in future radioactive beam facilities.     

Magnetohydrodynamic properties of incompressible Meissner fluids

We consider a superconducting material that exists in the liquid state, more precisely, in which the Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect persists in the liquid state. First, we investigate how the shape of such a hypothetical Meissner liquid will adapt to accomodate for an applied external field. In particular, we analyse the case of a droplet of Meissner fluid, and compute the elongation of the droplet and its quadrupole frequency as a function of the applied field. Next, the influence of an applied field on the flow of the liquid is studied for the case of a surface wave. We derive the dispersion relation for surface waves on an incompressible Meissner fluid. We discuss some candidate realizations of the Meissner fluids and for the case of a superconducting colloid discuss which regime of wave lengths would be most affected by the Meissner effect.     

Equilibrium States of Random Economies with Locally Interacting Agents and Solutions to Stochastic Variational Inequalities in 〈L1,L∞〉

We study a stochastic model of an economy with locally interacting agents. The basis of the study is a deterministic model of dynamic economic equilibrium proposed by Polterovich. We generalize Polterovich's theory, in particular, in two respects. We introduce stochastics and consider a version of the model with local interactions between the agents. The structure of the interactions is described in terms of random fields on a directed graph. Equilibrium states of the system are solutions to certain variational inequalities in spaces of random vectors. By analyzing these inequalities, we establish an existence theorem for equilibrium, which generalizes and refines a number of previous results.     

Perturbations in the Spectra of the Rydberg Series of a Silver Atom

The main series of a silver atom with n = 5–70 are investigated. Perturbations of the np ² P _1/2,3/2 states with n = 10 and 17 caused by interaction with the selfionization 4d5s5p ⁴ P _1/2,3/2 states are detected. Energies of the selfionization states are determined.     

New Cyclodextrin-Based Ion-Selective Electrodes for Determining Activity Coefficients of Biologically Important Onium Ions

Ion-selective electrodes (ISEs), apart from fluoride, calcium, and a few others, have not often been used to obtain thermodynamic information on electrolytes. Here, novel cyclodextrin-based ISEs are used to determine activity coefficients of some onium chlorides in aqueous solution. Cyclodextrins, rendered lipophilic by alkylation, have been incorporated into polymeric membranes and used as ionophores in ISEs for sensing the substituted ammonium (onium) ions, choline, acetylcholine, and acetyl--methylcholine. Potentiometric measurements using these cyclodextrin-based ISEs allow the determination of ratios of activity coefficients in solutions. Choosing one solution as reference and using a theoretical model (e.g., Pitzer equations), it is possible to evaluate activity coefficients of individual solutions. Results for choline chloride compare well with limited data in the literature. This is the first time, that ISEs have been used to measure activity coefficients of biologically important ions.     

Influence of the Structure of an Inhomogeneously Broadened NMR Line on the Shape of the Free Precession Signal

We have obtained theoretically an expression for the nuclear free precession signal in an inhomogeneously broadened spin system with a complex structure of the NMR spectrum. It is shown that in this case in the nuclear precession signal there appear maxima the moments of whose formation depend on the detuning of the pulse carrier frequency from the central frequencies of the NMR lines, their widths, and the Rabi frequency. The theoretical results are in good agreement with the experimental data on the observation of proton free precession in toluene. We have constructed a physical model explaining the appearance of maxima in the free precession signal of the spin system.     

A non-conforming finite element method with anisotropic mesh grading for the Stokes problem in domains with edges

The solution of the Stokes problem in three-dimensional domainswith edges has anisotropic singular behaviour which is treatednumerically by using anisotropic finite element meshes. Thevelocity is approximated by Crouzeix–Raviart (nonconformingP₁ ) elements and the pressure by piecewise constants. Thismethod is stable for general meshes (without minimal or maximalangle condition). Denoting by N_e the number of elements in themesh, the interpolation and consistency errors are of the optimalorder h N_e^–1/3 which is proved for tensor product meshes.As a by-product, we analyse also nonconforming prismatic elementswith P₁ [oplus ] span {x₃²} as the local space for the velocitywhere x₃ is the direction of the edge.     

The streamline-diffusion method for nonconforming Qrot1 elements on rectangular tensor-product meshes

When the streamline–diffusion finite element method isapplied to convection–diffusion problems using nonconformingtrial spaces, it has previously been observed that stabilityand convergence problems may occur. It has consequently beenproposed that certain jump terms should be added to the bilinearform to obtain the same stability and convergence behaviouras in the conforming case. The analysis in this paper showsthat for the Q^rot₁ 1 element on rectangular shape-regular tensor-productmeshes, no jump terms are needed to stabilize the method. Inthis case moreover, for smooth solutions we derive in the streamline–diffusionnorm convergence of order h^3/2 (uniformly in the diffusion coefficientof the problem), where h is the mesh diameter. (This estimateis already known for the conforming case.) Our analysis alsoshows that similar stability and convergence results fail tohold true for analogous piecewise linear nonconforming elements.     

Stimulated Brillouin scattering in magnetized diffusive semiconductor plasmas

Using the hydrodynamical model and following the coupled mode approach, detailed analytical investigation of stimulated Brillouin scattering is performed in an electrostrictive semiconductor. The total induced current density including diffusion current density and the effective Brillouin susceptibility are obtained under off-resonant laser irradiation. The analysis deals with the qualitative behaviour of the Brillouin gain and transmitted intensity with respect to excess doping concentration and magnetic field. Efforts are directed towards optimizing the doping level and magnetic field to achieve maximum Brillouin gain at pump intensities far below the optical damage threshold level. It is found that by immersing a moderately doped semiconductor in a sufficiently strong magnetic field in transverse direction, one can achieve resonant enhancement of Brillouin gain provided the generated acoustic mode lies in the dispersionless regime.