599 research outputs found
Utilising DualEELS to probe the nanoscale mechanisms of the corrosion of Zircaloy-4 in 350 °C pressurised water
Characterisation of materials utilised for fuel cladding in nuclear reactors prior to service is integral in order to understand corrosion mechanisms which would take place in reactor. Zircaloy-4 is one such material of choice for nuclear fuel containment in Pressurised Water Reactors (PWRs). In particular, the metal-oxide interface has been a predominant focus of previous research, however, due to the complex oxidation process of zirconium cladding, there is still no clear understanding of what is present at the interface. Using Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) and Dual Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (DualEELS), we have studied the corrosion of this material under conditions similar to those that could be encountered in service. It is shown that under all conditions, whether during faster oxidation in the early stages, slow growth just prior to the transition to a new growth regime, or in the faster growth that happens after this transition, the surface of the metal below the scale is loaded with oxygen up to around 33 at%. Approaching transition, in conditions of slow growth and slow oxygen supply, an additional metastable suboxide is apparent with a thickness of tens of nm. By studying changes in both chemical composition and dielectric function of the material at the oxide scale – metal interface with nanometre resolution, quantitative mapping could be achieved, clearly showing that this is a suboxide composition of ZrO and a Zr oxidation state close to +2
EELS at very high energy losses
Electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) has been investigated in the range from 2 to >10 keV using an optimized optical coupling of the microscope to the spectrometer to improve the high loss performance in EELS. It is found that excellent quality data can now be acquired up until about 5 keV, suitable for both energy loss near edge structure (ELNES) studies of oxidation and local chemistry, and potentially useful for extended energy loss fine structure (EXELFS) studies of local atomic ordering. Examples studied included oxidation in Zr, Mo and Sn, and the ELNES and EXELFS of the Ti-K edge. It is also shown that good quality electron energy-loss spectroscopy can even be performed for losses above 9.2 keV, the energy loss at which the collection angle becomes ‘infinite’, and this is demonstrated using the tungsten L3 edge at about 10.2 keV
Near-threshold measurement of the 4He(g,n) reaction
A near-threshold 4He(g,n) cross-section measurement has been performed at
MAX-lab. Tagged photons from 23 < Eg < 42 MeV were directed toward a liquid 4He
target, and neutrons were detected by time-of-flight in two liquid-scintillator
arrays. Seven-point angular distributions were measured for eight photon
energies. The results are compared to experimental data measured at comparable
energies and Recoil-Corrected Continuum Shell Model, Resonating Group Method,
and recent Hyperspherical-Harmonic Expansion calculations. The angle-integrated
cross-section data is peaked at a photon energy of about 28 MeV, in
disagreement with the value recommended by Calarco, Berman, and Donnelly in
1983.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, some revisions, submitted to Physics Letters
A First Comparison of the responses of a He4-based fast-neutron detector and a NE-213 liquid-scintillator reference detector
A first comparison has been made between the pulse-shape discrimination
characteristics of a novel He-based pressurized scintillation detector
and a NE-213 liquid-scintillator reference detector using an Am/Be mixed-field
neutron and gamma-ray source and a high-resolution scintillation-pulse
digitizer. In particular, the capabilities of the two fast neutron detectors to
discriminate between neutrons and gamma-rays were investigated. The NE-213
liquid-scintillator reference cell produced a wide range of scintillation-light
yields in response to the gamma-ray field of the source. In stark contrast, due
to the size and pressure of the He gas volume, the He-based
detector registered a maximum scintillation-light yield of 750~keV to
the same gamma-ray field. Pulse-shape discrimination for particles with
scintillation-light yields of more than 750~keV was excellent in the
case of the He-based detector. Above 750~keV its signal was
unambiguously neutron, enabling particle identification based entirely upon the
amount of scintillation light produced.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics
Research Section A review addresse
Exclusive measurement of coherent eta photoproduction from the deuteron
Coherent photoproduction of eta mesons from the deuteron has been measured
from threshold up to incident photon energies of 750 MeV using the photon
spectrometer TAPS at the tagged photon facility at the Mainz microtron MAMI.
For the first time, differential coherent cross sections have been deduced from
the coincident detection of the eta meson and the recoil deuteron. A missing
energy analysis was used for the suppression of background events so that a
very clean identification of coherent eta-photoproduction was achieved. The
resulting cross sections agree with previous experimental results except for
angles around 90 deg in the photon-deuteron cm-system where they are smaller.
They are compared to various model calculations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Social presence in the 21st Century: an adjustment to the Community of Inquiry framework
The Community of Inquiry framework, originally proposed by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000) identifies teaching, social and cognitive presences as central to a successful online educational experience. This article presents the findings of a study conducted in Uruguay between 2007 and 2010. The research aimed to establish the role of cognitive, social and teaching presences in the professional development of 40 English language teachers on Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programmes delivered in blended learning settings. The findings suggest that teaching presence and cognitive presence have themselves 'become social'. The research points to social presence as a major lever for engagement, sense-making and peer support. Based on the patterns identified in the study, this article puts forward an adjustment to the Community of Inquiry framework, which shows social presence as more prominent within the teaching and cognitive constructs than the original version of the framework suggests
New Measurement of Compton Scattering from the Deuteron and an Improved Extraction of the Neutron Electromagnetic Polarizabilities
The electromagnetic polarizabilities of the nucleon are fundamental
properties that describe its response to external electric and magnetic fields.
They can be extracted from Compton-scattering data --- and have been, with good
accuracy, in the case of the proton. In contradistinction, information for the
neutron requires the use of Compton scattering from nuclear targets. Here we
report a new measurement of elastic photon scattering from deuterium using
quasimonoenergetic tagged photons at the MAX IV Laboratory in Lund, Sweden.
These first new data in more than a decade effectively double the world
dataset. Their energy range overlaps with previous experiments and extends it
by 20 MeV to higher energies. An analysis using Chiral Effective Field Theory
with dynamical \Delta(1232) degrees of freedom shows the data are consistent
with and within the world dataset. After demonstrating that the fit is
consistent with the Baldin sum rule, extracting values for the isoscalar
nucleon polarizabilities and combining them with a recent result for the
proton, we obtain the neutron polarizabilities as \alpha_n = [11.55 +/-
1.25(stat) +/- 0.2(BSR) +/- 0.8(th)] X 10^{-4} fm^3 and \beta_n = [3.65 -/+
1.25(stat) +/- 0.2(BSR) -/+ 0.8(th)] X 10^{-4} fm3, with \chi^2 = 45.2 for 44
degrees of freedom.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, comments from Physical Review Letters Referees
addresse
Quasi-free Compton Scattering and the Polarizabilities of the Neutron
Differential cross sections for quasi-free Compton scattering from the proton
and neutron bound in the deuteron have been measured using the Glasgow/Mainz
tagging spectrometer at the Mainz MAMI accelerator together with the Mainz 48
cm 64 cm NaI(Tl) photon detector and the G\"ottingen SENECA
recoil detector. The data cover photon energies ranging from 200 MeV to 400 MeV
at . Liquid deuterium and hydrogen targets
allowed direct comparison of free and quasi-free scattering from the proton.
The neutron detection efficiency of the SENECA detector was measured via the
reaction . The "free" proton Compton scattering cross
sections extracted from the bound proton data are in reasonable agreement with
those for the free proton which gives confidence in the method to extract the
differential cross section for free scattering from quasi-free data.
Differential cross sections on the free neutron have been extracted and the
difference of the electromagnetic polarizabilities of the neutron have been
obtained to be
in units . In combination with the polarizability sum deduced from photoabsorption data, the neutron electric and
magnetic polarizabilities, and
are obtained. The backward spin polarizability of the neutron was determined to
be
The reaction and the magnetic dipole moment of the resonance
The reaction has been measured with
the TAPS calorimeter at the Mainz Microtron accelerator facility MAMI for
energies between = 1221--1331 MeV. Cross sections differential in
angle and energy have been determined for all particles in the final state in
three bins of the excitation energy. This reaction channel provides access to
the magnetic dipole moment of the resonance and, for the
first time, a value of has been extracted
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