Detectors/Dosemeters of galactic and solar cosmic rays

Different passive multidetector stacks have been developed at the Italian National Agency for Environmental Protection (ANPA-stack), which makes it possible to measure directly ionising radiations, low-energy and high-energy neutrons, and high-energy charged (HZE) particles. The stack consists of several types of passive devices, namely recoil-track and fission-track detectors, bubble detectors, thermoluminescence dosemeters and an electronic personal dosemeter. Most of these detectors have been used on earth for the assessment of the occupational exposure, or in outer space for cosmic ray physics and/or for the assessment of the dose received by astronauts. A great deal of efforts and new developments have been required to make these detectors useful for in-flight measurements. As outcome of these extensive efforts, different new detectors have been developed, which exploit some of the most successful principles of radiation detection, such as the use of avalanche processes to facilitate the registration of nuclear tracks and the use of coincidence-counting to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. On the basis of these new detectors, different systems (generally referred to as ANPA-stack) have been obtained, which have been successfully applied for a variety of different measurements of cosmic ray radiation fields and doses.     

Implementation of Electrochemically Synthesized Silver Nanocrystallites for the Preferential SERS Enhancement of Defect Modes on Thermally Etched Graphite Surfaces

Highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surfaces, on which atomically well-defined roughness has been introduced via high-temperature gasification reactions, are investigated by noncontact mode atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) and Raman spectroscopy both before and after the electrochemical deposition of silver nanocrystallites on these surfaces. Exposure of freshly cleaved HOPG surfaces to an O(2)-rich ambient at 650 °C for a few minutes caused the formation of 1-monolayer-deep, circular etch pits on the HOPG basal plane surface. Silver nanocrystallites were electrochemically deposited onto these etched surfaces at two coverages: 0.5 mC cm(-)(2) (or 5 nmol of Ag(0) cm(-)(2)) and 2.4 mC cm(-)(2) (25 nmol of Ag(0) cm(-)(2)). At the lower coverage, NC-AFM images revealed that silver decorated only the circumference of the circular etch pits, forming a uniform annular ring with an apparent diameter of 200-250 ? and a height of ～15 ?. At the higher silver coverage, an increase in the height but not the diameter of this annulus was observed, and additional silver nanostructures [Formula: see text] having dimensions of 300-350 ? diameter and 15 ? height [Formula: see text] were observed on atomically smooth regions of the graphite basal plane. The Raman spectroscopy of these surfaces was investigated and compared with spectra for nanocrystallite-modified but unetched HOPG basal plane surfaces and thermally etched surfaces on which no silver was deposited. For for thermally etched HOPG surfaces at either silver coverage, SERS-augmented Raman spectra were obtained in which defect modes of the graphite surface [Formula: see text] derived from "finite" graphite domains at the surface [Formula: see text] were strongly and preferentially enhanced. In addition, an enhanced band near 2900 cm(-)(1) was assigned to ν(OH) from carboxylate moieties present at step edges based on the basis of the observed pH dependence of the enhancement.