A novel 4π Gd-loaded liquid scintillator detection system

With a Geant4 software package based on the Monte Carlo method, a multi-cell 4π detection system is designed, which consists of 40 Gadolinium-loaded liquid scintillation detectors. These detectors, associated with a fission chamber in its geometrical center, constitute a platform. This platform is mainly used for the measurement of a fissionable nucleus(n, 2n) reaction cross section. In order to properly determine the experimental set-up, we carry out a systematic numerical simulation using our model which is established by the Geant4 software package. This work provides rich and valuable reference data for experiments on the fissionable nucleus(n, 2n) cross section measurement in the future.     

Calculation of Response Function for Bonner Sphere Spectrometer Based on Geant4

In order to make further studies on fusion neutron diagnosis on HL-2A /HL-2M,we have developed and succeeded in the calculation of the Response Function for a Bonner sphere spectrometer,which consists of eight polyethylene spheres with ³He proportional counters inside.The response function of the Bonner spectrometer to neutrons is of fundamental importance for its neutron spectrum unfolding procedure and is directly related to the quality of the unfolded spectrum.In this paper,we calculated the response function to neutrons from 10-9 MeV to100 MeV by Geant4.In order to test the accuracy of the Geant4 simulation,we apply it to measure an ²⁴¹Am-Be neutron source,and the measured neutron counts of the spectrometer and simulated counts are found to be highly consistent,with a relative error up to 9.3%.This has proven the calculation of the neutron response of the Bonner sphere spectrometer by Geant4 to be quite accurate.     

Comparison of Geant4 Electromagnetic Physics Models Against the NIST Reference Data

The Geant4 Simulation Toolkit provides an ample set of physics models describing electromagnetic interactions of particles with matter. This paper presents the results of a series of comparisons for the evaluation of Geant4 electromagnetic processes with respect to United States National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) reference data. A statistical analysis was performed to estimate quantitatively the compatibility of Geant4 electromagnetic models with NIST data; the statistical analysis also highlighted the respective strengths of the different Geant4 models.     

A study of quasi-absolute method in photon activation analysis

Relative methods, which are performed with the assistance of reference materials, are widely used in photon activation analysis(PAA). On the contrary, absolute methods, which are conducted without any reference material, are rarely applied due to the difficulty in obtaining photon flux. To realize absolute measurement in PAA,we retrieve photon flux in the sample via Monte Carlo simulation and raise a novel procedure—quasi-absolute method. With simulated photon flux and cross section data from existing databases, it is possible to calculate the concentration of target elements in the sample straightforwardly. A controlled experiment indicates that results from the quasi-absolute method for certain elements are nearly comparable to relative methods in practice.This technique of absolute measurement has room for improvement in the future and can serve as a validation technique for experimental data on cross sections as well.     

A Study of Removing Chlorobenzene by the Synergistic Effect of Catalysts and Dielectric-Barrier Discharge Driven by Bipolar Pulse-Power

In this study, the improvement in the removal of chlorobenzene （C6H5Cl） in the air was investigated by combining dielectric barrier discharge （DBD） driven by bipolar pulse-power with catalysts. Molecular sieve 4A （MS-4A） and MnO2/γ-Al2O3 （MnO2/ALP） as two kinds of catalysts were tested at different positions in a DBD reactor. Catalysts were located either in the discharging area between two electrodes, or just behind the discharging area （in the afterglow area） closed to the outlet. The results indicated that DBD reactor with a bipolar pulse power-supply produced strong instant discharge and energetic particles, which can effectively activate catalysts of MS-4A and MnO2/ALP located in the afterglow area to achieve the synergistic effects on effective fission of chemical bonds of chlorobenzene. It was considered that the gas-chlorobenzene and the chlorobenzene adsorbed on the catalysts were decomposed simultaneously.     

Analysis of the Variability of the L-H Transition Power Threshold in a Helium-4 Discharge

In this paper, a mechanism about the variability of the L-H transition power thresh- old PL-H is proposed which is based on the ion orbit losses. Only in the edge where there are enough ion orbit losses and the negative radial electric field Er is high enough can the H-mode be triggered. The ion orbit losses are determined by the ion in the loss region under certain edge conditions. For different mass A and different charge Z, the critical loss energy E Z2/A in the loss region. In H and D charges, because the D＋ loss region is larger than H＋, it can be deduced that the PL-H of H is larger than that of D. In a 4He discharge, experiment finds there exist a considerable number of 4He1＋ in the plasma edge. The actual ion orbit losses are determined by the mixing ratio of a He1＋ and 4He2＋. The 4He1＋ loss region is larger than that of 4He2＋, and the loss region of D＋ interposes between 4He1＋ and 4He2＋. Different 4He1＋ content can cause the edge ion losses in a 4He discharge to be greater than, less than or equal to that in a D discharge. So a 4He discharge can exhibit multiple experimental phenomena in the PL-H.     

Creation of High-Yield Polyhydroxyalkanoates Engineered Strains by Low Energy Ion Implantation

Polyhydroxyalkanoates （PHAs）, as a candidate for biodegradable plastic materials, can be synthesized by numerous microorganisms. However, as its production cost is high in comparison with those of chemically synthesized plastics, a lot of research has been focused on the efficient production of PHAs using different methods. In the present study, the mutation effects of PHAs production in strain pCB4 were investigated with implantation of low energy ions. It was found that under the implantation conditions of 7.8×10^14 N^＋/cm^2 at 10 keV, a high-yield PHAs strain with high genetic stability was generated from many mutants. After optimizing its fermentation conditions, the biomass, PHAs concentration and PHAs content of pCBH4 reached 2.26 g/L, 1.81 g/L, and 80.08% respectively, whereas its wild type controls were about 1.24 g/L, 0.61 g/L, and 49.20%. Moreover, the main constituent of PHAs was identified as poly-3-hydroxybutyrates （PHB） in the mutant stain and the yield of this compound was increased up to 41.33% in contrast to that of 27.78% in the wild type strain.     

Intermediate Gas Phase of CHa/[Si（CH3）2O]5 Plasma and Its Effect on Structure of SiCOH Film

This paper investigated the radical behaviour of the plasma of a mixture of methane （CH4） and decamethylcyclopentasiloxane （DMCPS） by optical emission spectroscopy. The plasma was generated by electron cyclotron resonance （ECR） discharge and was used for depositing porous SiCOH low dielectric-constant film. In the ECR discharge plasma, CH, H, H2, C2, Si, O and SiO radicals were obtained. The CH, H and C2 radicals were from the dissociation of CH4, while the SiO. Si and O radicals from the dissociation of the Si-O chain. CHx radicals absorbed in the film were thermally unstable and could be removed by annealing. The dissociation of the Si-O chain led to an increase in a ratio of the Si-Ocage to Si-Onetwork. The removed of CHx radicals and the increased Si-Ocage to Si-Onetwork ratio were beneficial for reducing the film density and dielectric constant.     

Nuclear symmetry energy from QCD sum rules

We calculated the nucleon self-energies in iso-spin asymmetric nuclear matter and obtained the nuclear symmetry energy by taking difference of these of neutron and proton. We find that the scalar （vector） self-energy part gives a negative （positive） contribution to the nuclear symmetry energy, consistent with the result from relativistic mean-field theories. Also, we found exact four-quark operator product expansion for nucleon sum rule. Among them, twist-4 matrix elements which can be extracted from deep inelastic scattering experiment constitute an essential part in the origin of the nuclear symmetry energy from QCD. Our result also extends early success of QCD sum rule in the symmetric nuclear matter to the asymmetric nuclear matter.     

大型工业电子束脱硫脱硝装置辐射等效剂量场模拟与系统参数优化

为优化大型工业电子束脱硫脱硝装置和配套大功率电子加速器工程参数,应用Geant4模拟分析了不同出射能量的单能电子束在烟气中的径迹和偏转后电子束在烟气中的等效剂量场。计算得到1.75 MeV电子束更符合1 000 MWe级火电机组烟气系统工程设计需要,计算结果将为工业化设计提供参考。     

Development of Data Acquisition Card Driver for ICRH System on EAST

Presented in this paper is the development of the driver for the data acquisition card with a peripheral component interconnection （PCI） local bus on the ion cyclotron range of frequency heating （1CRH） system. The driver is mainly aimed at the embedded VxWorks system （real-time operating system） which is widely used in various fields of real-time systems. An efficient way is employed to develop this driver, which will advance the real-time control of the ICRH system on the experimental advanced superconductor tokamak （EAST）. The driver is designed using the TORNADO integrated development environment （IDE）, and implemented in C plus language. The details include the hardware configuration, analogue/digital （A/D） and digital/analogue （D/A） conversion, input and output （I/O） operation of the driver to support over five cards. The data acquisition card can be manipulated in a low-level program and meet the requirements of A/D conversion and D/A outputs.     

Effect of Cold Plasma Treatment on Seed Germination and Growth of Wheat简

This study investigated the effect of cold helium plasma treatment on seed germina- tion, growth and yield of wheat. The effects of different power of cold plasma on the germination of treated wheat seeds were studied. We found that the treatment of 80 W could significantly improve seed germination potential （6.0%） and germination rate （6.7%） compared to the control group. Field experiments were carried out for wheat seeds treated with 80 W cold plasma. Com- pared with the control, plant height （20.3%）, root length （9.0%） and fresh weight （21.8%） were improved significantly at seedling stage. At booting stage, plant height, root length, fresh weight, stem diameter, leaf area and leaf thickness of the treated plant were respectively increased by 21.8%, 11.0%, 7.0%, 9.0%, 13.0% and 25.5%. At the same time, the chlorophyll content （9.8%）, nitrogen （10.0%） and moisture content （10.0%） were higher than those of the control, indicating that cold plasma treatment could promote the growth of wheat. The yield of treated wheat was 7.55 t-ha-1, 5.89% more than that of the control. Therefore, our results show that cold plasma has important application prospects for increasing wheat yield.     

持续裂变链引发概率的直接模拟研究

讨论了判断持续裂变链引发的理论依据,利用基于Geant4toolkit开发的蒙特卡罗直接模拟程序,计算了一系列测试几何和超瞬发临界5c/的GodivaⅠ反应堆内持续裂变链的引发概率。结果表明,蒙特卡罗直接模拟计算的结果与Mercury程序及确定性理论结果均一致。     

Role of Ion Beam Irradiation and Annealing Effect on the Deposition of AlON Nanolayers by Using Plasma Focus Device

AlON nanolayers are synthesized on Al substrate by the irradiation of energetic nitrogen ions using plasma focusing. Samples are exposed to multiple （5, 10, 15, 20 and 25） focus shots. Ion energy and ion number density range from 80 keV to 1.4 MeV and 5.6×10^19 m^- 3 to 1.3×10^19 m ^-3, respectively. Moreover, the effect of continuous annealing （473 K and 523 K） on an AlN surface layer synthesized with 25 focus shots is also examined. The main features of the X-ray diffraction （XRD） patterns with increasing focus shots are： （i） variation in the crystallinity of AlN along （111）, （200） and （311） planes, （ii） increasing average crystallite size of AlN （111） plane, and （iii） stress relaxation observed in AlN （111） and （200） planes. The crystallinity of AlN surface layer is comparatively better at 473 K annealing temperature. A broadened diffraction peak related to an aluminium oxide phase showing weak crystallinity is observed for 15 focus shots while non-bounded oxides are present in all other deposited layers. Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy （FTIR） analysis confirm the presence of AlN and Al203 for the surface layer annealed at 473 K temperature. Raman analysis shows that the overlapping of AlN and Al2Oa results in the development of residual stresses. Scanning electron microscope （SEM） results demonstrate that the formation of rounded grains （range from 20 nm to 200 nm） and variations in their microstructures features depend on the increasing number of focus shots. Decomposition of larger clusters into smaller ones is observed.     

Simulation of Electron-Beam Generating Plasma at Atmospheric Pressure

As electron-beam generating plasma is widely applied, the software tool EGS4 （Electron-Gamma Shower） was used to simulate the transmission and energy deposition of electron-beam in air. The simulation results indicated that the range of the electron-beam was inversely proportional to the gas pressure in a wide range of gas pressure, and the electron-beam of 200 keV could generate a plasma with a density 10^11 cm^-3 in air of latm. In addition, the energy distribution of the beam-electron and plasma density profile produced by the beam were achieved.     

Density and temperature of fermions and bosons from quantum fluctuations

A novel method to determine the density and temperature of a system constituted by fermions and/or bosons is proposed based on quantum fluctuations. For fermions system, the results in the limit where the reached temperature T is small and where there is no constraint for the reached temperature T compared to the Fermi energy ~f at a given density p are given, respectively. Quadrupole and multiplicity fluctuation relations are derived in terms of T/6f. We compared the two set results in the limit when Tis much smaller compared to Fermi energy Cf and they are consistent, as expected. The classical limit is also obtained for high temperatures and low densities. For bosons system, quadrupole and multiplicity fluctuations using Landau＇s theory of fluctuations near the critical point for a Bose-Einstein condensate （BEC） at a given density p are derived. As an example, we apply our approach to heavy ion collisions using the Constrained Molecular Dynamics model （CoMD） which includes the fermionic statistics. The multiplicity fluctuation quenching for fermions is found in the model and confirmed by experimental data. To reproduce the available experimental data better, we propose a modification of the collision term in the approach to include the possibility of ct-a collisions. The relevant Bose-Einstein factor in the collision term is properly taken into account. This approach increases the yields of bosons relative to fermions closer to data. Boson fluctuations become larger than one as expected.     

Tokamak fusion neutron spectrometer based on PXI bus

In order to realize on-line real-time measurement of dynamic and time-sharing neutron spectrum of HL-2A,a tokamak fusion neutron spectrometer based on PXI bus was developed.It consists of electronics system and eight thermal neutron detectors,namely SP9 3He proportional counter,embedded in eight polyethylene spheres in different diameters.Response function of the eight polyethylene spheres was the key to calculate the neutron spectrum accurately.In this paper,response function of the eight polyethylene spheres is simulated by adopting Geant4 code,and neutron counts from an 241Am-Be neutron source are measured by the eight detectors.The calculated spectrum of the Am-Be neutron is accurate in 0-2 MeV region,and is similar to the theoretical spectrum.The tokamak fusion neutron spectrometer was used in HL-2A device to monitor the dynamic neutron spectrum of HL-2A on-line and real-time.     

Simultaneous Oxidization of NOx and SO2 by a New Non-thermal Plasma Reactor Enhanced by Catalyst and Additive

The non-thermal plasma as one of the most promising technologies for removing NOx and SO2 has attrm~ted much attention. In this study, a new plasma reactor combined with catalyst and additive was developed to effectively oxidize and remove NOx and SO2 in the flue gas. The experimental results showed that TiO2 could improve the oxidation efficiency of SO2 in the case of applying plasma while having a negative effect on the oxidation process of NO and NOx. With the addition of NH3, the oxidation rates of NOx, NO and SO2 were slightly increased. However, the effect of adding NH3 on NOx oxidation was negative when the temperature was above 200℃.     

Mechanical Properties of Thermoplastic Polyurethanes Laminated Glass Treated by Acid Etching Combined with Cold Plasma

To overcome the problem of interlaminar delamination of thermoplastic polyurethane laminated glass, silicate glass was etched with hydrofluoric acid and thermoplastic polyurethane was then treated with cold plasma. Compared with the untreated samples, the interlaminar shear strength of acid etching samples, cold plasma-treated samples and acid etching combined with cold plasma-treated samples increased by 97%, 84% and 341%, respectively. Acid etching combined with cold plasma-treated samples exhibited a higher flexural strength and strain as compared with the untreated samples. The impact energy of acid etching samples, cold plasmatreated samples and acid etching combined with cold plasma-treated samples increased by 8.7%, 8.1% and 11.6%, respectively, in comparison with the untreated samples. FT-IR analysis showed that a large number of -C-O, CO N and CO O C groups appeared on the surface of cold plasma-treated thermoplastic polyurethane, which resulted in the formation of hydrogen bonds. SEM results showed that some pittings formed on the surface of the silicate glass treated by acid etching, which resulted in the formation of a three-dimensional interface structure between tile silicate glass and polyurethane. Hydrogen bonds combined with the three-dimensional interface between silicate glass and polyurethanes co-improved the mechanical properties of thermoplastic polyurethanes laminated glass.     

Effect of Radio-Frequency and Low-Frequency Bias Voltage on the Formation of Amorphous Carbon Films Deposited by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

The effect of radio-frequency （RF） or low-frequency （LF） bias voltage on the for- mation of amorphous hydrogenated carbon （a-C：H） films was studied on silicon substrates with a low methane （CH4） concentration （2-10 vol.%） in CH4＋Ar mixtures. The bias substrate was applied either by RF （13.56 MHz） or by LF （150 kHz） power supply. The highest hardness values （~18-22 GPa） with lower hydrogen content in the fihns （~20 at.%） deposited at 10 vol.% CH4, was achieved by using the RF bias, However, the films deposited using the LF bias, under similar RF plasma generation power and CH4 concentration （50 W and 10 vol.%, respectively）, displayed lower hardness （~6-12 GPa） with high hydrogen content （~40 at.%）. The structures analyzed by Fourier Transform Infrared （FTIR） and Raman scattering measurements provide an indication of trans-polyacetylene structure formation. However, its excessive formation in the films deposited by the LF bias method is consistent with its higher bonded hydrogen concentration and low level of hardness, as compared to the film prepared by the RF bias method. It was found that the effect of RF bias on the film structure and properties is stronger than the effect of the low-frequency （LF） bias under identical radio-frequency （RF） powered electrode and identical PECVD （plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition） system configuration.