Search results for "optical"
showing 10 items of 7671 documents
Filters for X-Ray Detectors on Space Missions
2022
Thin filters and gas-tight windows are used in space to protect sensitive X-ray detectors from out-of-band electromagnetic radiation, low-energy particles, and molecular contamination. Though very thin and made of light materials, filters are not fully transparent to X-rays. For this reason, they ultimately define the detector quantum efficiency at low energies. In this chapter, we initially provide a brief overview of filter materials and specific designs adopted on space experiments with main focus on detectors operating at the focal plane of grazing incidence X-ray telescopes. We then provide a series of inputs driving the design and development of filters for high-energy astrophysics sp…
Structure and composition of sputter-deposited nickel-tungsten oxide films
2011
Films of mixed nickel-tungsten oxide, denoted NixW1-x oxide, were prepared by reactive DC magnetron co-sputtering from metallic targets and were characterized by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry and Raman spectroscopy. A consistent picture of the structure and composition emerged, and at x<0.50 the films comprised a mixture of amorphous WO3 and nanosized NiWO4, at x = 0.50 the nanosized NiWO4 phase was dominating, and at x>0.50 the films contained nanosized NiO and NiWO4.
Local Structure of Supported Keggin and Wells-Dawson Heteropolyacids and Its Influence on the Catalytic Activity
2019
[EN] Keggin [PW12O40]3– and Wells–Dawson [P2W18O62]6– heteropolyanions are nanosized transition-metal-oxygen clusters belonging to the heteropolyacids (HPAs) family. They are widely used as catalysts due to their high Brønsted acidity, and their dispersion on solid supports favors the accessibility to their acid sites generally increasing the catalytic activity. A series of binary materials composed of Keggin or Wells–Dawson HPAs and SiO2, TiO2, and ZrO2 have been prepared by impregnation or solvothermal methods. Remarkable differences have been found in the catalytic activities among the unsupported and supported HPAs. These differences have been correlated in the past to the structural ch…
Large 256-Pixel X-ray Transition-Edge Sensor Arrays With Mo/TiW/Cu Trilayers
2015
We describe the fabrication and electrical characterization of 256-pixel X-ray transition-edge sensor (TES) arrays intended for materials analysis applications. The processing is done on 6-in wafers, providing capabilities on a commercial scale. TES films were novel proximity coupled Mo/TiW/Cu trilayers, where the thin TiW layer in between aims to improve the stability of the devices by preventing unwanted effects such as Mo/Cu interdiffusion. The absorber elements were electrodeposited gold of thickness 2 μm. The single-pixel design discussed here is the so-called Corbino geometry. Most design goals were successfully met, such as the critical temperature, thermal time constant, and transit…
Jahn-Teller distortion aroundFe4+inSr(FexTi1−x)O3−δfrom x-ray absorption spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, and vibrational spectroscopy
2007
$\mathrm{Sr}({\mathrm{Fe}}_{x}{\mathrm{Ti}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}){\mathrm{O}}_{3\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\delta}}$ perovskites (strontium titanate ferrite solid solution) with well-defined oxygen stoichiometry have been studied as a function of iron concentration by x-ray diffraction, Fe and Ti $K$-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), and vibrational (Raman and infrared) spectroscopy. In reduced $\mathrm{Sr}({\mathrm{Fe}}_{x}{\mathrm{Ti}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}){\mathrm{O}}_{3\ensuremath{-}x∕2}$ samples, the analysis of the Fe $K$-edge extended x-ray absorption fine structure indicates the expected presence of oxygen vacancies ${\mathrm{V}}_{\mathrm{O}}^{∙∙}$ in the first coordination shell…
The LOFT mission concept: a status update
2016
The Large Observatory For x-ray Timing (LOFT) is a mission concept which was proposed to ESA as M3 and M4 candidate in the framework of the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program. Thanks to the unprecedented combination of effective area and spectral resolution of its main instrument and the uniquely large field of view of its wide field monitor, LOFT will be able to study the behaviour of matter in extreme conditions such as the strong gravitational field in the innermost regions close to black holes and neutron stars and the supra-nuclear densities in the interiors of neutron stars. The science payload is based on a Large Area Detector (LAD, >8m2 effective area, 2-30 keV, 240 eV spectral resolut…
Study of optical absorbance and MR relaxation of Fricke xylenol orange gel dosimeters
2017
Abstract Studies on the optical absorbance spectra of Fricke xylenol orange gel dosimeters were performed, in the wavelength range from 300 nm to 800 nm, in order to highlight some particular characteristics that can affect the achievable precision. The spectra are different mainly due to the different types of xylenol orange that was used and to a lower extent due to the different gelling agents (agarose or gelatine). The characteristic of variation of absorbance spectra versus dose, however, are similar in the various cases and can explain some peculiarities, as apparent effects of dose threshold. Changes of spectral shapes appear over the time after irradiation. Magnetic resonance measur…
Yield behavior of magnetorheological suspensions
2003
The rheology of suspensions containing magnetic particles of micrometer size is strongly modified by the application of a magnetic field. We first describe a model experiment where the suspension is made of spheres of millimeter size and we show that the experimental dependence of the yield stress is well predicted by a non-affine model where the chains of particles break in the middle. Then we compare these predictions with some experimental results obtained on suspensions of carbonyl iron; it is shown that this model does not apply in this case. We propose a mechanism where after some friction on the walls the aggregates begin to rotate and break at a strain smaller than unity, due to the…
Electronic structure of indium selenide probed by magnetoabsorption spectroscopy under high pressure
2010
We report on an investigation of the peculiar electronic structure of the layered semiconductor InSe by magneto-optical experiments under high pressure up to 5 GPa. Magneto-absorption spectroscopy is performed under pulsed magnetic field up to 53 T using a specific setup. Excitonic magnetofingerprints and high-field oscillatory magnetoabsorption yield significant details on the band structure. In addition, the application of an external pressure unveils phenomena that confirm the specific $\mathbf{k}\ensuremath{\cdot}\mathbf{p}$ model proposed for this compound on the basis of earlier measurements.
Enhanced flexibility and electron-beam-controlled shape recovery in alumina-coated Au and Ag core–shell nanowires
2017
The proper choice of coating materials and methods in core–shell nanowire (NW) engineering is crucial to assuring improved characteristics or even new functionalities of the resulting composite structures. In this paper, we have reported electron-beam-induced reversible elastic-to-plastic transition in Ag/Al2O3 and Au/Al2O3 NWs prepared by the coating of Ag and Au NWs with Al2O3 by low-temperature atomic layer deposition. The observed phenomenon enabled freezing the bent core–shell NW at any arbitrary curvature below the yield strength of the materials and later restoring its initially straight profile by irradiating the NW with electrons. In addition, we demonstrated that the coating effic…