Hydrogen trapped at intermetallic particles in aluminum alloy 6061-T6 exposed to high-pressure hydrogen gas and the reason for high resistance against hydrogen embrittlement

Hydrogen (¹H) trapped at intermetallic particles (IPs) in an aluminum alloy, 6061-T6, was visualized with secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) by precisely excluding the false signal which is caused by background hydrogen (H_BG). The interference of the H_BG was avoided by a unique continuous pre-sputtering (pre-digging) by a primary ion beam of SIMS into a sample in combination with silicon sputtering prior to the SIMS measurement of the sample and we succeeded in visualizing the exact signal of ¹H trapped by IPs at subsurface layer of the sample charged in high-pressure hydrogen gas. The thermal desorption analysis clarified that the desorption energy (E_d) of the IPs was 200 kJ/mol or higher, which was extremely higher than E_d for lattice interstice, dislocations, and vacancies. High density hydrogen was concentratedly trapped at IPs in the subsurface layer in contact with the hydrogen gas. This nature causes an extremely low effective hydrogen diffusivity of 6061-T6 of the order of 10^?14 m²/s even at 200 °C and may eventually give a high HE resistance to 6061-T6.     

Accurate determination of the Landau parameter F o a for3He

Results of measurements of the low temperature magnetic susceptibility of normal liquid³He have been performed as a function of pressure from which we have calculated the Fermi Liquid parameter F _o ^a .     

A High-Sensitivity Microwave-Single-Photon Detector with Rydberg Atoms at Low Temperature

A high-sensitivity microwave-single-photon detector was developed in Kyoto, in which microwave photons in a resonant cavity cooled at very low temperatures are absorbed by highly excited Rydberg atoms and the Rydberg atoms thereby promoted to a higher excited state are then selectively field-ionized and detected. This scheme allows us to count microwave photons one by one, thus provide a single-photon counting without the limit of standard quantum limit (SQL). The apparatus “CARRACK” for the single-photon detector was constructed based on this scheme, where the cavity was cooled down to 10 mK range to reduce the background of thermal blackbody photons from the cavity wall. The apparatus has served for years to search for dark matter axions in the 10 μeV (∼2.4 GHz) mass region. Thermal blackbody photons in a microwave resonant cavity at temperatures as low as 70 mK have been measured, the sensitivity being below the SQL limit. A number of improvements in the detection efficiency and sensitivity have been planned and will be reported. Applications of the detector to fundamental physics are also discussed shortly.      

焦炭过滤床在线分离电炉粉尘中氧化锌的研究

采用电炉粉尘与焦炭粉的混合试样,对利用焦炭过滤床在线回收电炉粉尘,在CO/CO2混合气体中氧化锌的还原分离工艺进行了模拟研究.热力学分析表明,在所设焦炭过滤床的温度及气氛条件下,固-固还原和气-固还原反应都可以发生,氧化锌的还原分离是可以实现的.实验结果表明,与单独被固体碳或CO还原时相比较,混合试样在固体碳和CO同时存在时的初期减重率变化最快,最终还原率最高.在粉尘颗粒表面,被还原的金属铁生成及聚积长大后,将对还原气体向颗粒内部进一步扩散起到阻碍作用,对颗粒内部残存的微量ZnO的还原产生不利影响.如何加快氧化锌的还原分离而抑制氧化铁的还原及聚集长大将成为提高氧化锌回收率的关键.     

Magnetic brightening of carbon nanotube photoluminescence through symmetry breaking

We report that symmetry breaking by a magnetic field can drastically increase the photoluminescence quantum yield of single-walled carbon nanotubes, by as much as a factor of 6, at low temperatures. To explain this we have developed a theoretical model based on field-dependent exciton band structure and the interplay of Coulomb interactions and the Aharonov-Bohm effect. This conclusively explains our data as the first experimental observation of dark excitons 5-10 meV below the bright excitons.     

Fermi surface topology of deuterium-doped vanadium: Compton scattering study

The deuteration-induced effect on the Fermi surface (FS) topology of V was investigated by the synchrotron-based Compton scattering technique with 115 keV X-rays. The three-dimensional occupation number density (OND) of α-VD_0.64 single crystal and V single crystal was reconstructed by the directional Compton profiles along 13-18 directions. The observed OND shows that the FS topology of α-VD_0.64.differs from that of V at Γ, N, and H points in the crystal momentum space, which are hole position for V. This indicates that electrons that originate from deuterium modify the upper part of the host metal d bands (3rd and 4th bands) at the Fermi level E_F, and forms the metal-hydrogen bonding states with the lower part of the host metal d band (1st band).     

Effect of thickness of Gd0.1Ce0.9O1.95 electrolyte films on electrical performance of anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells

In the present paper, we investigated the electrical performance of anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) composed of Gd_0.1Ce_0.9O_1.95 (GDC) electrolyte films of 1-75 μm in thickness prepared by simple and cost-effective methods (dry co-pressing process and spray dry co-pressing process), and discussed the effect of thickness of the GDC electrolyte films on the electrical performance of the anode-supported SOFCs. It was shown that reducing the thickness of the GDC electrolyte films could increase the maximum power densities of the anode-supported SOFCs. The increase of the maximum power densities was attributed to the decrease of the electrolyte resistance with reducing the electrolyte thickness. However, when the thickness of the GDC electrolyte films was less than a certain value (approximately 5 μm in this study), the maximum power densities decreased with the decrease in the thickness of the GDC electrolyte films. The calculated electron fluxes through the GDC electrolyte films increased obviously with reducing the thickness of the GDC electrolyte films, which was the reason why the maximum power densities decreased. Therefore, for anode-supported SOFCs based on electrolytes with mixed electronic-ionic conductivity, there was an optimum electrolyte thickness for obtaining higher electrical performance.     

Quantitative determination of 1,2-diacylglycerol in thoracic aorta of the rat using latroscan TLC/FID: Effect of norepinephrine

This study was undertaken to evaluate the use of the Iatroscan TLC/FID system for quantitating 1,2-diacylglycerol (DG) in the aorta. Cholesteryl acetate was chosen as an internal standard. In order to avoid interference of triglyceride and phospholipids with the separation of the internal standard and 1,2-DG, a stepwise elution of lipids from the silicic acid column was used. The development of Chromarods was done using two solvent systems and a three-step developing technique. Assay and recovery of both 1,2-DG and cholesterol (as compared to cholesteryl acetate) were sufficient to measure changes in the 1,2-DG content in blood vessels. After exposing the thoracic aorta to 10⁻⁵ M norepinephrine for 10 min, the 1,2-DG content increased nearly two-fold without significant change in cholesterol content.     

Spin dynamics and onset of Suhl instability in bcc solid3He in the nuclear-ordered U2D2 phase

Pulsed NMR experiments have been performed on U2D2 solid³He with a single domain in high fields where the Larmor frequency was much larger than the zero-field antiferromagnetic resonance frequency. The free induction signal decayed rapidly under certain conditions. The rapid decay is attributed to the onset of the instability of the uniform precession. We propose a model for the instability due to the self-induced emission from the upper-mode magnon to the lower-mode magnon which is similar to the Suhl instability in electronic ferromagnets. A large negative frequency shift was observed during the rapid decay, which is consistently explained by the model. Under stable conditions of the spin motion outside of the instability region, we observed the tipping-angle-dependent frequency shift and multiple spin echoes, both of which agree well with Namaizawa's theory.