Spectroscopies and Electron Microscopies Unravel the Origin of the First Colour Photographs

The first colour photographs were created by a process introduced by Edmond Becquerel in 1848. The nature of these photochromatic images colours motivated a debate between scientists during the XIX^th century, which is still not settled. We present the results of chemical analysis (EDX, HAXPES and EXAFS) and morphology studies (SEM, STEM) aiming at explaining the optical properties of the photochromatic images (UV‐visible spectroscopy and low loss EELS). We rule out the two hypotheses (pigment and interferences) that have prevailed since 1848, respectively based on variations in the oxidation degree of the compound forming the sensitized layer and periodically spaced photolytic silver planes. A study of the silver nanoparticles dispersions contained in the coloured layers showed specific localizations and sizes distributions of the nanoparticles for each colour. These results allow us to formulate a plasmonic hypothesis on the origin of the photochromatic images colours.     

Double resonance with Landesman-Lazer conditions for planar systems of ordinary differential equations

We prove the existence of periodic solutions for first order planar systems at resonance. The nonlinearity is indeed allowed to interact with two positively homogeneous Hamiltonians, both at resonance, and some kind of Landesman-Lazer conditions are assumed at both sides. We are thus able to obtain, as particular cases, the existence results proposed in the pioneering papers by Lazer and Leach (1969) [27], and by Frederickson and Lazer (1969) [18]. Our theorem also applies in the case of asymptotically piecewise linear systems, and in particular generalizes Fabry's results in Fabry (1995) [10], for scalar equations with double resonance with respect to the Dancer-Fu?ik spectrum.     

Radially symmetric systems with a singularity and asymptotically linear growth

We prove the existence of infinitely many periodic solutions for radially symmetric systems with a singularity of repulsive type. The nonlinearity is assumed to have a linear growth at infinity, being controlled by two constants which have a precise interpretation in terms of the Dancer-Fu?ik spectrum. Our result generalizes an existence theorem by Del Pino et al. (1992) [4], obtained in the case of a scalar second order differential equation.     

Multiple periodic solutions of scalar second order differential equations

We prove multiplicity of periodic solutions for a scalar second order differential equation with an asymmetric nonlinearity, thus generalizing previous results by Lazer and McKenna (1987) [1] and Del Pino, Manasevich and Murua (1992) [2]. The main improvement lies in the fact that we do not require any differentiability condition on the nonlinearity. The proof is based on the use of the Poincaré-Birkhoff Fixed Point Theorem.     

Spectroscopies and Electron Microscopies Unravel the Origin of the First Colour Photographs

The first colour photographs were created by a process introduced by Edmond Becquerel in 1848. The nature of these photochromatic images colours motivated a debate between scientists during the XIX^th century, which is still not settled. We present the results of chemical analysis (EDX, HAXPES and EXAFS) and morphology studies (SEM, STEM) aiming at explaining the optical properties of the photochromatic images (UV-visible spectroscopy and low loss EELS). We rule out the two hypotheses (pigment and interferences) that have prevailed since 1848, respectively based on variations in the oxidation degree of the compound forming the sensitized layer and periodically spaced photolytic silver planes. A study of the silver nanoparticles dispersions contained in the coloured layers showed specific localizations and sizes distributions of the nanoparticles for each colour. These results allow us to formulate a plasmonic hypothesis on the origin of the photochromatic images colours.     

A multiplicity result for periodic solutions of second order differential equations with a singularity

By the use of the Poincaré–Birkhoff fixed point theorem, we prove a multiplicity result for periodic solutions of a second order differential equation, where the nonlinearity exhibits a singularity of repulsive type at the origin and has linear growth at infinity. Our main theorem is related to previous results by Rebelo (1996, 1997)  and  and Rebelo and Zanolin (1996)  and , in connection with a problem raised by del Pino et al. (1992) [1].     

Bifurcations from infinity in asymmetric nonlinear oscillators

We study the existence of large-amplitude periodic or almost periodic solutions of second order differential equations with asymmetric nonlinearities, when the system is close to "nonlinear resonance". Received September 1998