The time and energy signals, counter plateau, energy resolution and gas gains performances of a new kind of micro-pattern gaseous detector-Micromegas

In present paper, a new Micromegas detector is developed, and its time and energy signals are obtained in the figure form. The rising time of fast time signal is less than 2 ns due to the very fast collection of avalanche electrons, and the rising time of the energy pulse is about 100 ns, which is corresponding to the total collecting time of the electrons and ions in the avalanche process. The counter plateau, energy resolution and the gas gains of the detector have been compared with other groups' experimental results and the Garfield simulation result.

Simulation of micromegas detector by garfield program

In this paper, a batch file which describes the detailed structure and the corresponding physical process of Micro-Mesh Gaseous Structure (Micromegas) detector, the macro commands and the control structures based on the Garfield program has been developed. And using the Garfield program controlled by this batch file, the detector's gain and spatial resolution have been investigated under different conditions. These results obtained by the simulation program not only exhibit the influences of the mesh and drift voltage, the mixture gas proportion, the distance between the mesh cathode and the printed circuit board readout anode, and the Lines Per Inch of the mesh cathode on the gain and spatial resolution of the detector, but also are very important to optimize the design, shorten the experimental period, and save cost during the detector development. Additionally, they also indicate that the Garfield program is a powerful tool for the Micromegas detector design and optimization.

Production of EUV power with SECRAL

The high power EUV source is one of key issues in the development of EUV lithography which is considered to be the most promising technology among the next generation lithography. However neither DPP nor LPP seems to meet the requirements of the commercial high-volume product. Insufficiency of DPP and LPP motivate the investigation of other means to produce the EUV radiation required in lithography. ECR plasma seems to be one of the alternatives. In order to investigate the feasibility of ECR plasma as a EUV light source, the EUV power emitted by SECRAL was measured. A EUV power of 1.03W in 4 pi sr solid angle was obtained when 2000W 18GHz rf power was launched, and the corresponding CE was 0.5%. Considering that SECRAL is designed to produce very high charge state ions, this very preliminary result is inspiring. Room-temperature ECR plasma and Sn plasma are both in the planned schedule.

Study of multi-quasiparticle excited states in Ce-139

High-spin states in Ce-139 have been populated using the Te-130(C-12, 3n) reaction at beam energy of 50MeV. The level scheme of Ce-139 has been revised and extended greatly up to E=5765.0keV. The level structure of Ce-139 shows typical characteristics of spherical nucleus, and the high-spin states were formed by the excitations of valence nucleons. Energies of the yrast and near yrast high-spin states in Ce-139 have been calculated by the empirical shell model, and the multi-quasiparticle nature of high-spin excited states has been discussed.

An efficient in vitro method for mass propagation of Potentilla potaninii wolf

This study reports a method for high-frequency shoot organogenesis and plant establishment of Potentilla potaninii Wolf. Hypocotyl and cotyledon explants of P. potaninii were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with various concentrations of benzyladenine (BA) and alpha-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) to induce adventitious shoot formation for micropropagation. The highest frequency of adventitious shoot regeneration was achieved from hypocotyl and cotyledon explants grown on MS medium supplemented with 5.0 mg l(-1) BA and 1.0 mg l(-1) NAA. The regenerated shoots rooted most efficiently on half-strength MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mg l(-1) NAA and 0.5 mg l(-1) indole-3-acetic acid or indole-3-butyric acid. The acclimatized plants with normal morphology and growth characters flowered and set seeds in the following year.

Observation of a pi h(9/2) circle times nu i(13/2) oblate band in Tl-188

Excited states in Tl-188 have been studied experimentally using the Gd-157(Cl-35;4n) reaction at a beam energy of 170 MeV. A rotational band built on the pi h(9/2) x nu i(13/2) configuration with oblate deformation has been established for Tl-188. Based on the structure systematics of the oblate pi h(9/2) x nu i(13/2) bands in the heavier odd-odd Tl nuclei, we have tentatively proposed spin values for the new band in Tl-188. The pi h(9/2) x nu i(13/2) oblate band in Tl-188 shows low-spin signature inversion, and it can be interpreted qualitatively by the two-quasiparticle plus rotor model including a J-dependent p-n residual interaction.

Properties of the pi h(9/2)circle times nu i(13/2) oblate band in Tl-188

High spin states in Tl-188 have been investigated via the Gd-157(Cl-35,4n) reaction at beam energy of 170 MeV. A rotational band built on the pi h(9/2) circle times nu(13/2) configuration with oblate deformation has been established. Considering the similarity between the band structure observed in odd-odd Tl nuclei, spin values have been tentatively proposed for the new band in Tl-188. The pi h(9/2) circle times nu(13/2) oblate band in Tl-188 shows low-spin signature inversion, and it can be interpreted qualitatively by the two quasiparticle plus rotor model including a J-dependent p-n residual interaction.

Study of n=2, Delta n=0 transition of Be-, B-, C-, N- and O-like sequence in the beam-foil spectrum of titanium

The foil-excited the spectrum of highly stripped titanium ions between 12-40 nm has been studied. Titanium ions of 80 and 120 MeV were provided by the HI-13 tandem accelerator at the China Institute of Atomic Energy. GIM-957 XUV-VUV monochromator was refocused to get highly-resolved spectra. Our experimental results and the published spectral data of laser-produced plasma show agreement in nearly all cases within +/- 0.03 nm. The spectra contained some weak or strong lines previously unclassified. These spectral lines mainly belong to 2s2p(2) for TiXVIII, 2p(3) for TiXVIII, 2s2p(3) for TiXVII, 2p(6)4p for Ti XII and 2p(6)3d for Ti XII transitions.

beta(+)/EC-decay study of Ir-176 neutron-deficient isotope

The beta(+)/EC decay of doubly odd Ir-176 has been investigated using Nd-146(Cl-35, 5n gamma)Ir-176 heavy ion fusion evaporation reaction at 210MeV bombarding energy. With the aid of a helium-jet recoil fast tape transport system, the reaction products were transported to a low-background location for measurements. Based on the data analysis, the previously published gamma rays in Ir-176 decay were proved, moreover, 3 new levels and 10 new gamma rays were assigned to Ir-176 decay. The new level scheme of Os-176 with low excitation energy has been established. The time spectra of typical gamma rays clearly indicate a long-lived low-spin isomer in Ir-176 nuclide.

Study on DNA Damage Induced by Neon Beam Irradiation in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae

Yeast strain Saccharornyces cerevisiae was irradiated with different doses of 85 MeV/u Ne-20(10+) to investigate DNA damage induced by heavy ion beam in eukaryotic microorganism. The survival rate, DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) and DNA polymorphic were tested after irradiation. The results showed that there were substantial differences in DNA between the control and irradiated samples. At the dose of 40 Cy, the yeast cell survival rate approached 50%, DNA double-strand breaks were barely detectable, and significant DNA polymorphism was observed. The alcohol dehydrogenase II gene was amplified and sequenced. It was observed that base changes in the mutant were mainly transversions of T-->G and T-->C. It can be concluded that heavy ion beam irradiation can lead to change in single gene and may be an effective way to induce mutation.

Development of multi-channel gated integrator and PXI-DAQ system for nuclear detector arrays

A multi-channel gated integrator and PXI based data acquisition system have been developed for nuclear detector arrays with hundreds of detector units. The multi-channel gated integrator can be controlled by a programmable Cl controller. The PXI-DAQ system consists of NI PXI-1033 chassis with several PXI-DAQ cards. The system software has a user-friendly GUI which is written in C language using LabWindows/CVI under Windows XP operating system. The performance of the PXI-DAQ system is very reliable and capable of handling event rate up to 40 kHz. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

High-spin states and collective band structures in the odd-odd Pm-140 nucleus

The high-spin states of Pm-140 have been investigated through the reaction Te-126(F-19, 5n) at a beam energy of 90 MeV. A previous level scheme based on the 8(-) isomer has been updated with spin up to 23 (h) over bar. A total of 22 new levels and 41 new transitions were identified. Six collective bands were observed. Five of them were expanded or re-constructed, and one of them was newly identified. The systematic signature splitting and inversion of the yrast pi h(11/2)circle times vh(11/2) band in Pr and Pm odd-odd isotopes has been discussed. Based on the systematic comparison, two Delta I = 2 bands were proposed as double-decoupled bands; other two bands with strong Delta I = 1 M1 transitions inside the bands were suggested as oblate bands with gamma similar to -60 degrees; another band with large signature splitting has been proposed with oblate-triaxial deformation with gamma similar to -90 degrees. The characteristics for these bands have been discussed.

MEASUREMENT OF TWO-PROTON CORRELATION FROM THE BREAK-UP OF Al-23

Experiments of Al-23 and Mg-22 radioactive beams bombarding a C-12 target at an energy of 60 similar to 70 A MeV have been performed at the projectile fragment separator beamline (RIPS) in the RIKEN Ring Cyclotron Facility to study the two-proton emission from Al-23 and Mg-22 excited states, respectively. The trajectorie of the decay products, namely Na-21 + p + p from Al-23 and Ne-20 + p + p from Mg-22, are clean identified. The relative momentum and opening angle between two protons in the rest frame of three body decay channels are obtained by relativistic-kinematics reconstruction. The results demonstrate that there are some di-proton emission components from He-2 cluster for the excited Al-23 and Mg-22.

Determination of urinary oxidative DNA damage marker 8-hydroxy-2 '-deoxyguanosine and the association with cigarette smoking

8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8OHdG) has been widely used as a biomarker of oxidative DNA damage in both animal models and human studies. To evaluate the effect of cigarette smoking on oxidative stress, we studied the levels of urinary 8OHdG from smokers and non-smokers and investigated the association with cigarette smoking. The urinary 8OHdG concentrations were determinated by capillary electrophoresis with end-column amprometric detection (CE-AD) after a single-step solid phase extraction (SPE), and then quantitatively expressed as a function of creatinine excretion. To increase the concentration sensitivity, a dynamic pH junction was used and the focusing effect was obvious when using 30 mM phosphate (pH 6.50) as sample matrix. The limit of detection is 4.3 nM (signal-to-noise ratio S/N = 3). The relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) was 1.1% for peak current, and 2.3% for migration time. Based on the selected CE-AD method, it was found that the mean value of urinary 8OHdG levels in the smokers significantly higher than that in non-smokers (31.4 +/- 18.9 nM versus 14.4 +/- 7.6 nM, P = 0.0004; 23.5 +/- 21.3 mug g(-1) creatinine versus 12.6 +/- 13.2 mug g(-1) creatinine, P = 0.028). (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.