Spectroscopic properties of neodymium doped high silica glass and aluminum codoping effects on the enhancement of fluorescence emission

Nd3+ -codoped and Al3+-Nd3+-codoped high silica glasses have been prepared by sintering nanoporous glasses impregnated with Nd3+ stop and Al3+ ions. The Judd-Ofelt intensity parameters Omega(2,4,6) of Nd3+-doped high silica glasses were obtained and used to analyze aluminum codoping effects. Fluorescence properties of Nd3+-doped high silica glasses strongly depend on the Al3+ concentration. While Nd3+ ion absorption and emission intensities of obviously increase when aluminum is added to Nd3+-doped high silica glasses, fluorescence lifetimes decrease and aluminum codoping has almost no influence on the radiative quantum efficiencies. This indicates that aluminum codoping is responsible for an anti-quenching effect through a local modification of rare-earth environments rather than through physical cluster dispersion.

Enhancement of 1.53 mu m photoluminescence from spin-coated Er-Si-O (Er2SiO5) crystalline films by nitrogen plasma treatment

Er-Si-O (Er2SiO5) crystalline films are fabricated by the spin-coating and subsequent annealing process. The fraction of erbium is estimated to be 21.5 at% based on Rutherford backscattering measurement. X-ray diffraction pattern indicates that the Er-Si-O films are similar to Er2SiO5 compound in the crystal structure. The fine structure of room-temperature photoluminescence of Er3+-related transitions suggests that Er has a local environment similar to the Er-O-6 octahedron. Our preliminary results show that the intensity of 1.53 mu m emission is enhanced by a factor of seven after nitrogen plasma treatment by NH3 gas with subsequent post-annealing. The full-width at half-maximum of 1.53 pm emission peak increases from 7.5 to 12.9 nm compared with that of the untreated one. Nitrogen plasma treatment is assumed to tailor Er3+ local environment, increasing the oscillator strength of transitions and thus the excitation/emission cross-section. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Enhancement on the hydrothermal stability of ZSM-5 zeolites by the cooperation effect of exchanged lanthanum and phosphoric species

It was explored by density functional calculations that exchanged La or P species exert great influence on the local Al sites as well as on the adjacent exchanged species. In partially exchanged La- or P/H-ZSM-5 zeolite, some of the Al sites will fall off from the zeolite framework even more easily than in H-form ZSM-5, consistent with our XRF experiments. However, when exchanged by both La and P species, Al at either of the two exchanged sites shows better stability compared to H-from. zeolite. La and P species will interact strongly with each other, as evidenced by the charge donation process and the shortening of P-O-1 bond length. It was just the cooperation of La and P species that enabled RSCC catalysts worked normally under severe conditions. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

NMR Spectra of polyimides: Interpretation and local chain motion study

Three kinds of high-performance polyimides 1 (poly(ketone-imide) PKI), 2 (poly(ether-imide) PEI) and 3 (poly(oxy-imide) POI) were studied using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The NMR spectra of the polyimides were assigned according to the comprehensive consideration of the substitution effect of different substituting groups, viz. distortionless enhancement by polarization transfer (DEPT), no nuclear Overhauser effect (NNE), analysis of relaxation time, and two-dimensional correlated spectroscopy (COSY) techniques. The structural units of these three polyimides were determined. Carbon-13 and proton relaxation times for PEI and PKI were interpreted in terms of segmental motion characterized by the sharp cutoff model of Jones and Stockmayer (JS model) and anisotropic group rotation such as phenyl group rotation and methyl group rotation. Correlation times for the main-chain motion are in the tens of picosecond range which indicates the high flexibility of polyimide chains. Correlation times for phenyl group and methyl group rotations are more than 1 order of magnitude lower and approximately 1 order of magnitude higher than that of the main chain, respectively.

ENHANCED AMPEROMETRIC DETECTOR FOR LOCAL-ANESTHETICS IN LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH METAL-OXIDE DISPERSED GLASSY-CARBON ELECTRODES

Chemically modified electrodes (CMEs) prepared by the dispersion of metal oxide particles on a glassy carbon (GC) substrate greatly enhance the voltammetric response and amperometric detection of local anesthetics following liquid chromatography (LC). The enhancement is more pronounced with the GC electrodes dispersed by the metal oxides of higher oxidation states (+3, +4) and for the species exhibiting relatively slow electrode kinetics under given conditions. With an applied potential of 1.2 V (vs. SCE), LC amperometric detection of the analytes at the alpha-alumina modified GC surface gives detection limits 2-5 times lower than those obtained at the bare electrode. The metal oxide-dispersed electrodes display significant improvement in sensitivity, and selectivity and indicate excellent preparation reproducibility and performance stability.

Responses of summertime extreme wave heights to local climate variations in the East China Sea

We detected the responses of summertime extreme wave heights (H-top10, average of the highest 10% of significant wave heights in June, July and August) to local climate variations in the East China Sea by applying an empirical orthogonal function analysis to Htop10 derived from the WAVEWATCH- III wave model driven by 6 hourly sea surface wind fields from ERA-40 reanalysis over the period 1958-2002. Decreases in H-top10 in the northern East China Sea ( Yellow Sea) correspond to attenuation of the East Asian Summer Monsoon, while increases in the south are primarily due to enhancement of tropical cyclone activities in the western North Pacific.

Influence of Local Magnetic Fields on P-Doped Si Floating Zone Melting Crystal Growth in Microgravity

A two-dimensional axisymmetric numerical model is presented to study the influence of local magnetic fields on P-doped Si floating zone melting crystal growth in microgravity. The model is developed based on the finite difference method in a boundary-fitted curvilinear coordinate system. Extensive numerical simulations are carried out, and parameters studied include the curved growth interface shape and the magnetic field configurations. Computed results show that the local magnetic field is more effective in reducing the impurity concentration nonuniformity at the growth interface in comparison with the longitudinal magnetic field. Moreover, the curved growth interface causes more serious impurity concentration nonuniformity at the growth interface than the case with a planar growth interface.

Energy Dissipation In Fracture Of Bulk Metallic Glasses Via Inherent Competition Between Local Softening And Quasi-Cleavage

Compression, tension and high-velocity plate impact experiments were performed on a typical tough Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu10Ni12.5Be22.5 (Vit 1) bulk metallic glass (BMG) over a wide range of strain rates from similar to 10(-4) to 10(6) s(-1). Surprisingly, fine dimples and periodic corrugations on a nanoscale were also observed on dynamic mode I fracture surfaces of this tough Vit 1. Taking a broad overview of the fracture patterning of specimens, we proposed a criterion to assess whether the fracture of BMGs is essentially brittle or plastic. If the curvature radius of the crack tip is greater than the critical wavelength of meniscus instability [F. Spaepen, Acta Metall. 23 615 (1975); A.S. Argon and M. Salama, Mater. Sci. Eng. 23 219 (1976)], microscale vein patterns and nanoscale dimples appear on crack surfaces. However, in the opposite case, the local quasi-cleavage/separation through local atomic clusters with local softening in the background ahead of the crack tip dominates, producing nanoscale periodic corrugations. At the atomic cluster level, energy dissipation in fracture of BMGs is, therefore, determined by two competing elementary processes, viz. conventional shear transformation zones (STZs) and envisioned tension transformation zones (TTZs) ahead of the crack tip. Finally, the mechanism for the formation of nanoscale periodic corrugation is quantitatively discussed by applying the present energy dissipation mechanism.

Using wavelet transform to study the Lipschitz local singular exponent in wall turbulence

In this paper, wavelet,transform is introduced to study the Lipschitz local singular exponent for characterising the local singularity behavior of fluctuating velocity in wall turbulence. I, is found that the local singular exponent is negative when the ejections and sweeps of coherent structures occur in a turbulent boundary layer.

Molecular dynamics studies on the local disordering of σ3 and σ11 grain boundaries in aluminium bicrystal

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using Morse interaction potential are performed in studies of [110] symmetrical tilt grain boundary (GB) structures with mis-orientation angles 50.5 degrees(Sigma 11), 129.5 degrees(Sigma 11), 70.5 degrees(Sigma 3) and 109.5 degrees(Sigma 3) at various tempratures. The GB structures are found to start local disordering at about 0.5T(m)(T-m is the melting point of aluminium) for 50.5 degrees(Sigma 11), 0.32T(m) for 129.5 degrees(Sigma 11) and 0.38T(m) for 70.5 degrees(Sigma 3), respectively. These results agree with conclusions deduced from the anelastic measurements. But, for twin-boundary structure 109.5 degrees(Sigma 3), this disordering has not been found even when temperature increases up to 0.9T(m).

Local exponential divergence plot and optimal embedding of a chaotic time-series

we propose here a local exponential divergence plot which is capable of providing a new means of characterizing chaotic time series. The suggested plot defines a time dependent exponent LAMBDA and a ''plus'' exponent LAMBDA+ which serves as a criterion for estimating simultaneously the minimal acceptable embedding dimension, the proper delay time and the largest Lyapunov exponent.

Inhomogeneous behavior of antiplane shear crack in softening material with local unloading

Examined in this work is the anti-plane stress and strain near a crack in a material that softens beyond the elastic peak and unloads on a linear path through the initial state. The discontinuity in the constitutive relation is carried into the analysis such that one portion of the local solution is elliptic in character and the other hyperbolic. Material elements in one region may cross over to another as the loading is increased. Local unloading can thus prevail. Presented are the inhomogeneous character of the asymptotic stress and strain in the elliptic and hyperbolic region, in addition to the region in which the material elements had experienced unloading. No one single stress or strain coefficient would be adequate for describing crack instability.

Local stresses and strains in axially cracked cylindrical shells

A perturbation solution is obtained for the local stress-strain fields in an axially cracked cylindrical shell. The tenth-order differential equations are used that take into account the transverse shear deformation. The perturbation of a curvature parameter, λ, is employed, where . The stress intensity factors for finite size cylindrical shells subjected to bending and internal pressure are evaluated. Sufficient accuracy can be obtained without using fine mesh sizes in regions near the crack tip. Also analyzed are the influence of cylinder diameter and shearing stiffness on bulging.

Theory of local mode excitation in polyatomics by frequency-modulated lasers

that the Stokes-interaction relation is reasonable qualitatively but not correct

Magnetostatic relations including fluctuation fields - the local expansion

Using the approach of local expansion, we analyze the magnetostatic relations in the case of conventional turbulence. The turbulent relations are obtained consisten tly for themomentum equation and induction equation of both the average and fluctuation relations.In comparison with the magnetostatic relations as discussed usually, turbulent fluctuationfields produce forces, one of which 1/(4π)(α1×B0)×B0 may have parallel and perpendicular components in the direction of magnetic field, the other of which 1/(4π)K×B0 is introduced by the boundary value of turbulence and is perpendicular to the magnetic field. In the case of 2-dimensional configuration of magnetic field, the basic equation will be reduced into a second-order elliptic equation, which includes some linear and nonlinear terms introduced by turbulent fluctuation fields. Turbulent fields may change the configuration of magnetic field and even shear it non-uniformly. The study on the influence of turbulent fields is significant since they are observed in many astrophysical environments.