Self-sustained current oscillations in a Townsend discharge that is excited in a short plane discharge gap and is uniform along the electrode surface are investigated experimentally. A thin semiconductor plane serves as a discharge cathode, a ballast resistor, and an additional capacitor in the dc power supply circuit. The domain of existence and the frequency and waveform, of oscillations are determined over a wide pressure range.
The potential use of an EMG-20 mass-spectrometric gas analyzer for process control and safe operation and environmental monitoring in metallurgy (oxygen converter process) is considered. The EMG-20 parameters are adequate for rapid, automatic on-line analysis of metallurgical waste gases. A multichannel system of sampling. sample preparation, and transportation of sampled gases for analysis is proposed.
The need for portable and on site screening methods for viruses is evident in face of virus infections that can spread lastly in a heavily connected world. A robust and efficient method for detecting viruses is a novel technique called Plasmon Assisted Microscopy of Nanoobjects. It is based on the acquisition of images from a sensor surface exploiting the behavior of surface plasmons in the presence of nanoobjects. In this paper an efficient image analysis approach with respect to the requirements of the sensor is presented and an embedded image processing system for this purpose is introduced. The processing pipeline comprises three steps and starts with restorating the images by removing the background and filtering artifacts. The acquired image series is analyzed pixel by pixel in a second pipeline step in order to detect pixels containing nanoobjects. In a last step pixels are aggregated to nanoobject structures. The paper introduces in the context of this virus detection method a configurable embedded system that was used for rapid prototyping of the image analysis algorithms in a flexible way. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
The mechanisms of femtosecond laser-induced transient melting and atomic mixing in a target composed of a 30 nm Au film deposited on a bulk Cu substrate are investigated in a series of atomistic simulations. The relative strength and the electron temperature dependence of the electron-phonon coupling of the metals composing the layered target are identified as major factors affecting the initial energy redistribution and the location of the region(s) undergoing transient melting and resolidification. The higher strength of the electron-phonon coupling in Cu, as compared to Au, results in a preferential sub-surface heating and melting of the Cu substrate, while the overlaying Au film largely retains its original crystalline structure. The large difference in the atomic mobility in the transiently melted and crystalline regions of the target makes it possible to connect the final distributions of the components in the resolidified targets to the history of the laser-induced melting process, thus allowing for experimental verification of the computational predictions. (C) 2009 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.
Redistribution of deep selenium and sulfur impurities in silicon upon surface doping with phosphorus
(2009)
The study is concerned with the effect of short-term high-temperature heating on Si:Se and Si:S samples, whose surface layers are doped with phosphorus to high concentrations. It is found that the resistivity of the wafers substantially increases deep in the bulk within up to similar to 10 mu m. The experimental data suggest that this effect is due to enhanced diffusion of chalcogen in the presence of the phosphorus-doped surface region. The mechanism of the effect is the injection of nonequilibrium interstitial silicon atoms from the layer heavily doped with phosphorus to the bulk of the sample. This results in a shift of the equilibrium between the concentrations of substitutional and interstitial impurity atoms towards higher concentrations of interstitials and, as a consequence, towards the increase in the relative content of the fast-diffusing interstitial component of the impurity.
In this paper a novel concept of ablation cell for laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is presented. Suppression of the turbulence in the flush gas flow in the ablation region reduces the wash-out time of the ablation cell considerably. An ablation chamber which enables ICP-MS pulse duration down to several ten milliseconds has been designed. Dependence of the ICP-MS peak amplitude, width, and shape on the gas flow parameters is studied experimentally for aerosol ablated under laminar and turbulent conditions. Experiments demonstrate that the ICP-MS peak becomes sharper and the amplitude of the signal grows as the turbulence in the ablation cell is suppressed. Furthermore, the possibility of the LA-ICP-MS analysis with a sampling rate of more than 10 Hz has been demonstrated. Express in-depth profiling in the new ablation cell is demonstrated on examples of an Al -Zn multilayer structure and an industrial Mg -Zn coating.
A new simple design of a high-efficiency low-transport-time cell for laser ablation is presented. The main feature of the design is that the particles are transported by a laminar spiral gas flow into the outlet without any contact with the cell walls. The efficiency of the particle transport and the dependence of the ICP-MS peak shape on experimental conditions were measured. The peak duration on the 10% level was found to be as short as 30 ms and the transport efficiency reached 100% when analysing a standard brass sample. As an example of application to real samples with fine inhomogeneities, the profiles of C-13, Ca-44 and Pb-208 were measured by LA-ICP-MS across a tree core. As a result, the very quick particle transport time of the cell enabled the fine, seasonal variation in wood composition to be resolved.
The production of free-standing large aspect ratio metal nanofilms by femtosecond laser separation
(2009)
We demonstrate a new method for the production of free-standing metal films of thickness down to several tens of nanometres. Films of different metals as well as multilayer structures have been produced by means of femtosecond laser-induced separation of evaporated layers from a plane glass surface. This technology enables the production of large-area films with different properties for optical or nanotechnological applications. We study the properties of the film and demonstrate the possibility of high-pass filtering of electrons with an energy of several keV by means of the free-standing films. The physical mechanisms leading to the film separation under femtosecond laser radiation are discussed.
In this manuscript, a new approach in surface plasmon resonance microscopy is presented. The method provides optical real-time detection of single nanoparticles on surfaces. The potential of the method is demonstrated recording spherical dielectric particles as small as 40 nm in diameter and single HIV virus-like particles having diameters of similar to 100 nm both immobilized on functionalized surfaces. The surface plasmon resonance signal in the binding spots was found to be almost linearly proportional to the size of the particles and, therefore, surpasses the intensity of Mie scattering on spherical particle (dependence similar to r(-6)) by orders of magnitude for small objects. The physical reason leading to this strong effect is discussed.
Generation of microfluidic flow using an optically assembled and magnetically driven microrotor
(2014)