Flower color chimera and abnormal leaf mutants induced by C-12(6+) heavy ions in Salvia splendens Ker-Gawl.

The effect of C-12(6+) heavy ions bombardment on mutagenesis in Salvia splendens Ker-Gawl. was studied. Dose-response studies indicated that there was a peak of malformation frequency of S. splendens at 200 Gy. Abnormal leaf mutants of the bileaf, trileaf and tetraleaf conglutination were selected. Meanwhile, a bicolor flower chimera with dark red and fresh red flower was isolated in M1 generation of S. splendens. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis demonstrated that DNA variations existed among the wild-type, fresh and dark red flower shoots of the chimera. The dark red flower shoots of the chimera were conserved and cultivated at a large-scale through micropropagation. MS supplemented with 2.0 mg/L BA and 0.3 mg/L NAA was the optimal medium in which the maximum proliferation ratio (5.2-fold) and rooting rate (88%) were achieved after 6 weeks. Our findings provide an important method to improve the ornamental quality of S. splendens.

Magnetic characterization of Co1-xNixFe2O4 (0 <= x <= 1) nanoparticles prepared by co-precipitation route

Magnetic nanoparticles of Ni-doped cobalt ferrite [Co1-xNixFe2O4(0 <= x <= 1)] synthesized by coprecipitation route have been studied as a function of doping concentration (x) and particle size. The size of the particles as determined by X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) analyses was found in the range 12-48 nm. The coercivity (H-C) and saturation magnetization (M-S) showed a decreasing behavior with increasing Ni concentration. M-S of all the samples annealed at 600 degrees C lies in the range 65.8-13.7 emu/gm. Field-cooled (FC) studies of the samples showed horizontal shift (exchange bias) and vertical shift in the magnetization loop. Strong decrease in exchange bias (H-b) and vertical shift (delta M) was found for low Ni concentrations while negligible decrease was found at higher concentrations. The presence of exchange bias in the low Ni-concentration region has been explained with reference to the interface spins interaction between a surface region (with structural and spin disorder) and a ferrimagnetic core region. M(T) graphs of the samples showed a decreasing trend of blocking temperature (T-b) with increasing Ni concentration. The decrease of T-b with increasing Ni concentration has been attributed to the lower anisotropy energy of Ni+2 ions as compared to Co+2 that increases the probability of the jump across the anisotropy barrier which in turn decreases the blocking temperature of the system.

Average property of fragmentation reaction and momentum dissipation induced by halo-nuclei in heavy ion collisions

We study systematically the average property of fragmentation reaction and momentum dissipation induced by halo-nuclei in intermediate energy heavy ion collisions for different colliding systems and different beam energies within the isospin dependent quantum molecular dynamics model (IQMD). This study is based on the extended halo-nucleus density distributions, which indicates the average property of loosely inner halo nucleus structure, because the interaction potential and in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross section in IQMD model depend on the density distribution. In order to study the average properties of fragmentation reaction and momentum dissipation induced by halo-nuclei we also compare the results for the halo-nuclear colliding systems with those for corresponding stable colliding systems with same mass under the same incident channel condition. We find that the effect of extended halo density distribution on the fragment multiplicity and nuclear stopping (momentum dissipation) are important for the different beam energies and different colliding systems. For example the extended halo density distributions increase the fragment multiplicity but decrease the nuclear stopping for all of incident channel conditions in this paper.

The electron emission yield induced by the interaction of highly charged argon ions with silicon surface

The electron emission yield of the interaction of highly charged argon ions with silicon surface is reported. The experiment was done at the Atomic Physics Research Platform on the Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) Ion Source of the National Laboratory HIRFL (Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou). In the experiment, the potential energy and kinetic energy was selected by varying the projectile charge states and extracting voltage, thus the contributions of the projectile potential energy deposition and electronic energy loss in the solid are extensively investigated. The results show that, the two main factors leading to surface electron emission, namely the potential energy deposition and the electronic energy loss, are both approximately proportional to the electron emission yield per ion.

Structural modification of C-doped SiO2 induced by swift heavy ion irradiations

Thermally grown amorphous SiO2 samples were implanted at room temperature (RT) with 120 keV C-ions to a dose ranging from 1.0 x 10(16) to 8.6 x 10(17)C ions/cm(2), then irradiated at RT with 950 MeV Pb, 345 or 1754 MeV Xe ions to a fluence in the region from 1.0 x 10(11) to 3.8 x 10(12) ions/cm(2), respectively. The irradiated samples were investigated using micro-FTIR and micro-Raman spectroscopes. It was found that new chemical bonds such as Si-C, C=C(O), C C and Si(C)-O-C bonds formed significantly in the C-doped SiO2 films after heavy ion irradiations. The evolution of Si-O-C bonds and possible mechanism of structural modification in C-doped SiO2 induced by swift heavy ion irradiations were discussed.

Color center formation in alpha-Al2O3 induced by high energy heavy ions

Single crystals of alpha-alumina were irradiated at room temperature with 1.157 (GeVFe)-Fe-56, 1.755 (GeVXe)-Xe-136 and 2.636 (GeVU)-U-238 ions to fluences range from 8.7 x 10(9) to 6 x 10(12) ions/cm(2). Virgin and irradiated samples were investigated by ultraviolet visible absorption measurements. The investigation reveals the presence of various color centers (F, F+, F-2(2+), F-2(+) and F-2 centers) appearing in the irradiated samples. It is found that the ratio of peak absorbance of F-2 to F centers increases with the increase of the atomic numbers of the incident ions from Fe, Xe to U ions, so do the absorbance ratio of F-2(2+) to F+ centers and of large defect cluster to F centers, indicating that larger defect clusters are preferred to be produced under heavier ion irradiation. Largest color center production cross-section was found for the U ion irradiation. The number density of single anion vacancy scales better with the energy deposition through processes of nuclear stopping, indicating that the nuclear energy loss processes determines the production of F-type defects in heavy ion irradiated alpha-alumina.

Radiobiological response of human hepatoma and normal liver cells exposed to carbon ions generated by Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou

Human hepatoma and normal liver cells were irradiated with C-12(6+), ion beams (LET= 96.05 keV/mu m) and gamma-rays at Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL). The chromatid breaks and break types were detected using the premature chromosome condensation technique. Our experimental results showed that chromatid breaks seem to have a good relation with C-12(6+) absorbed dose and C-12(6+) are more effective to induce chromatid breaks as compared to they-rays. For C-12(6+) ion irradiation the major break was isochromatid break, while chromatid breaks were dominant for gamma-ray irradiation. We also observed that the Relative Biology Effectiveness (RBE) of C-12(6+) ion is about 2.5 times higher than that of gamma-rays.