National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

In March 2007 the assembly of the Silicon Strip Tracker was completed at the Tracker Integration Facility at CERN. Nearly 15% of the detector was instrumented using cables, fiber optics, power supplies, and electronics intended for the operation at the LHC. A local chiller was used to circulate the coolant for low temperature operation. In order to understand the efficiency and alignment of the strip tracker modules, a cosmic ray trigger was implemented. From March through July 4.5 million triggers were recorded. This period, referred to as the Sector Test, provided practical experience with the operation of the Tracker, especially safety, data acquisition, power, and cooling systems. This paper describes the performance of the strip system during the Sector Test, which consisted of five distinct periods defined by the coolant temperature. Significant emphasis is placed on comparisons between the data and results from Monte Carlo studies.

In order to study the mechanism of the small n-value for Bi2212, E - J characteristics were measured carefully for various kinds of Bi2212 tapes and round wires in high magnetic fields. Some of wires were heat-treated in a magnetic field of 5 T. We found that the n-values of all the samples increase by the in-field heat-treatment at 5 T. In addition, we analyzed the E - J properties by the combination of the percolation model based on the local J(c) distribution and the two directional J(c) distribution model. The improvement of the n-value by the in-field heat treatment can be understood by the change of the aspect-ratio of the grains. Therefore, the aspect-ratio of the grains plays an important role in the current transport influencing not only J(c) but also n-value.

In order to determine the influence of the sintering temperature on the performances of the magnetostrictive materials based sensor for stress, three series of cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) samples were prepared by coprecipitation method. These samples were sintered at 1050 degrees C, 1100 degrees C, 1150 degrees C. The spinel structure and the presence of the residual phases were investigated by X-ray diffractometry, scanning electron microscopy and vibrating sample magnetometry. Magnetostrictive properties of the samples were measured by strain gauge technique, in a direction which is parallel to the direction of the applied field. This study was focused on the influence of sintering temperature on magnetic properties and on magnetostriction coefficients. The study reveals that the increase of the sintering temperature increased the magnetostriction coefficients but decreased the strain derivative. Cobalt ferrite obtained by this method can be good candidates for sensors.

We attempted to grow non-c axis heterostructures of substrate-IS type with S = BSCCO and I = (Sr, Ca)CuO(2). A careful selection of the films-substrate relationship is revealed as a key condition toward growth of layered heterostructures with different orientations. However this powerful principle, that is also a mandatory condition, is not sufficient in order to obtain high quality structures. The reasons are discussed looking for further solutions. Our comparative analysis is expanded to other heterostructures we reported in other works trying to reveal some of the more general problems of the non c-axis heterostructures growth.

We study theoretically the electronic transport in parallel few-level quantum dots in the presence of both intradot and interdot long-range Coulomb interaction. Each dot is connected to two leads and the steady-state currents are calculated within the Keldysh formalism using the random-phase approximation for the interacting Green functions. Due to the momentum transfer between the two systems it is possible to get a nonvanishing current through an unbiased Coulomb-blockaded dot, if the other dot is set in the nonlinear transport regime. The transitions between the levels of the passive dot reduce the drag current and lead to negative differential conductance. We also discuss the dependence on temperature and the role of the lead-dot coupling. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2009

Precipitated calcium carbonate as vaterite and small amounts of calcite, with submicron sizes was obtained by a two stages reaction, In the first stage, the limestone was transformed with carbon dioxide in calcium bicarbonate in the absence and the presence of an ultrasonic applied field (35kHz and 0.52 W/cm(2)). The ultrasonic intensity and specific power, the device immersion depth in column suspension and the cavitation was observed to accelerate the dissolving rate of calcium carbonate. In the second stage, the solution of calcium bicarbonate was aerated to obtain calcium carbonate. The experiment was conducted in the absence and the presence of an ultrasonic applied field. The precipitation rate and the calcium carbonate particles size distribution were found to be influenced by the ultrasonic field. The morphology of the crystals formed was unaffected by the ultrasonic field.

For power applications of superconducting films, the critical current density (J(c)) and the thickness of the film (d) should be as high as possible. Since J(c) decreases with both thickness and magnetic field, artificial pinning centers in addition to natural ones are required to keep J(c) high. The earliest cost-effective method used for introducing artificial pinning centers was the so-called substrate decoration, i.e., growing nanoscale islands (nano-dots) of certain materials on the substrate prior to the deposition of the superconducting thin film. Later on other two approaches proved to be successful: building up a layered distribution of a second phase using a multilayer deposition (quasi-superlattices) and distributing a secondary phase in the film from a compositionally changed target. Several materials have been used for the creation of artificial pinning centers. Here we report on the artificial pinning centers induced in YBCO thick films by substrate decoration and quasi-superlattice approaches using nano-dots of Ag, Au, Pd or non-superconducting YBCO. The cross-sectional AFM images show evidence of c-axis correlated columnar defects. These defects significantly contribute to the pinning of magnetic flux and increase critical current in the films.

Calcium phosphate compounds have been studied for biomedical applications due to chemical and structural similarity to the mineral phase of bone and tooth. The composition, physico-chemical properties, crystal size and morphology of synthetic apatite are extremely sensitive to preparative conditions and sometimes it resulted into non-stoichiometric calcium deficient hydroxyapatite (HAp) powders. The present paper refers to calcinations of hydroxyapatite ceramics at 600, 800 and 1000 degrees C. The effect of heat treatment was previously investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The ultrasonic characterisation of hydroxyapatite powders were performed using the ultrasonic air-coupling technique. Modulated ultrasonic signals of 450 kHz central frequency have been transmitted through the hydroxyapatite ceramics specimens. Correlation between signals allowed some conclusions concerning density, attenuation and preparation temperature influence on these specimens. These comparisons and correlation of methods, allow a better characterization of such important materials.

The laser pyrolysis became a useful tool, providing various ways, in production of nano materials. The iron Mossbauer spectroscopy is one very accurate method in evidencing the physical properties and related processes in the nano scale compounds. The effect of pressure, laser spot area and induced combustion, of gas mixture and laser power on the phase composition and inside particle distribution, grain size as well as the related phenomena were investigated by temperature dependent Mossbauer spectroscopy. A selection of most relevant properties is presented and discussed in details.

The structural peculiarities of titanium oxide films formed by pulsed laser deposition have been investigated. A pure titanium target was irradiated by a Nd:YAG laser (355 and 532 nm). The work studied the influence of the beam wavelength, and oxygen pressure (20, 40, 80, and 160 mTorr) upon the layer structure. The films deposited at room temperature were partly crystalline. The crystalline fraction was a mixture of titanium sub-oxides. The 532 nm wavelength seems to favour the oxidation of titanium leading to TiO(2) formation even at room temperature. After annealing, crystalline TiO(2-) anatase formed at both irradiation wavelengths, but only at low oxygen pressures (20 and 40 mTorr). The best crystallization occurs in the layers deposited at the lowest oxygen pressure (20 mTorr), at both laser beam wavelengths; most anatase formed in the sample obtained at 20 mTorr, 532 nm. At 20 mTorr the films were compact, for both wavelengths, but also tilted or randomly distributed columnar grains were observed at higher pressure. The films deposited with 355 nm, were thinner than those with 532 nm; at 355 nm the thickness decreased at higher pressure, while at 532 nm the dependence was opposite.