Development of new dyes for use in integrated optical sensors

New chromoionophores have been developed, focused on NIR applications so that optode membranes may be used in monolithically integrated optical sensors. The wavelength of maximum absorbance has been estimated for a new model compound by the Pariser-Parr-Pople (PPP) method. Several cyanine type dyes have been tested as membrane chromoionophores. Membrane composition has been altered to overcome solubility problems. In this way, simple pH-sensitive optode membranes have been produced.     

Synthesis,characterization and properties of methylaminocellulose

Homogeneously prepared tosylcelluloses (TC) with degrees of substitution (DS) of DS_Tos 0.1–1.8 were used as intermediates for the synthesis of methylaminocelluloses (MAC) by nucleophilic substitution with methylamine. TC with DS_Tos up to 1.1 were shown to be valuable intermediates for selective synthesis of MAC with DS_MA varying from 0.1 to approximately 1. No nucleophilic substitution was observed at higher DS_Tos. At the chosen reaction conditions (60 °C, 48 h) residual tosyl moieties remained unchanged and little hydrolysis took place. The samples obtained were characterized by means of elemental analysis, FTIR and ¹³C CP/MAS NMR spectroscopy. ¹³C CP/MAS NMR spectroscopy was found to be an efficient tool for quantification of DS_MA. Furthermore, the swelling behaviour in water was investigated and preliminary tests concerning the bilirubin adsorption capacity of MAC were carried out.     

Discovery of a new long-lived isomeric state in 125Ce

A new long-lived isomeric state in the near proton dripline nucleus ¹²⁵Ce has been identified with Schottky mass spectrometry at GSI. The excitation energy E ^* = 103(12)keV and the decay time of 193(1)s have been obtained from a single stored fully ionized ^125m Ce⁵⁸⁺ ion. The data implies an E3 transition and a 1/2⁺ assignment for the spin of the isomer.     

Isobar separation at FRS-ESR – a development towards pure isomeric stored beams

One important goal of the ILIMA project at FAIR is the study of masses and decay properties of relativistic isomeric beams stored and cooled in the planned storage-ring complex. A new scheme is described, where a storage-cooler ring is used for high-resolution mass separation. Experimental results on the separation of the isobaric pair ¹⁴⁰Pr-¹⁴⁰Ce are presented. P. Beller, deceased.     

Editorial

The principles of quantum-mechanical measurements are a key issue in the foundation of modern physics. A beautiful consequence of these is the concept of Quantum Nondemolition (QND) measurements. Such measurements permit, in principle, to measure particular observables of a quantum system with unlimited precision, leaving their temporal evolution undisturbed. The application of QND measurements may play an important role in future high-sensivity experiments.Experimental QND measurements require appropriate measurements schemes and apparats, whose development took place in the past few years, thanks to strong progress in ultra-low noise mechanical, electronic and optical detection techniques, coherent light sources, and nonlinear optical systems. At present, interest is focused on measurements of mechanical observables, such as displacement of macroscopic masses and of intensity or phases of electomagnetic field modes in the optical spectral range.This special issue contains original papers on theory and experiments of QND measurements. Recent experimental developments are presented, and proposals and analyses of novel QND schemes are made.The issue focuses on contributions presented at the Workshop on QND Measurements, held March 27–29, 1996, on the Island of Reichenau, Lake Constance (Germany). The workshop was made possible through a generous grant from the Directorats General XII for Sciences, Research and Development of the European Commission.We thank Dr. W. Petrich for his help in preparing this special issue.     

Level Density of the Hénon-Heiles System Above the Critical Barrier Energy

We discuss the coarse-grained level density of the Hénon-Heiles system above the barrier energy, where the system is nearly chaotic. We use periodic orbit theory to approximate its oscillating part semiclassically via Gutzwiller’s semiclassical trace formula (extended by uniform approximations for the contributions of bifurcating orbits). Including only a few stable and unstable orbits, we reproduce the quantum-mechanical density of states very accurately. We also present a perturbative calculation of the stabilities of two infinite series of orbits (R_n and L_m), emanating from the shortest librating straight-line orbit (A) in a bifurcation cascade just below the barrier, which at the barrier have two common asymptotic Lyapunov exponents χ_R and χ_L.     

Sphere orders

Ann-sphere order is a finite partially ordered set representable by containment ofn-spheres in Euclidean (n+1)-space. We present a sequence {P _i } of ordered sets such that eachP _i is ann-sphere order only forni; one consequence is that we are able to determine the dimension of a Euclidean space-time manifold from the finite suborders of its causality order.Research supported by ONR grant N00014 85-K-0769.