1,132 research outputs found
Improved modelling of liquid GeSe: the impact of the exchange-correlation functional
The structural properties of liquid GeSe are studied by using
first-principles molecular dynamics in conjuncton with the Becke, Lee, Yang and
Parr (BLYP) generalized gradient approximation for the exchange and correlation
energy. The results on partial pair correlation functions, coordination
numbers, bond angle distributions and partial structure factors are compared
with available experimental data and with previous first-principle molecular
dynamics results obtained within the Perdew and Wang (PW) generalized gradient
approximation for the exchange and correlation energy. We found that the BLYP
approach substantially improves upon the PW one in the case of the short-range
properties. In particular, the GeGe pair correlation function takes a more
structured profile that includes a marked first peak due to homopolar bonds, a
first maximum exhibiting a clear shoulder and a deep minimum, all these
features being absent in the previous PW results. Overall, the amount of
tetrahedral order is significantly increased, in spite of a larger number of
GeGe homopolar connections. Due to the smaller number of miscoordinations,
diffusion coefficients obtained by the present BLYP calculation are smaller by
at least one order of magnitude than in the PW case.Comment: 6 figure
The STARTWAVE atmospheric water database
International audienceThe STARTWAVE (STudies in Atmospheric Radiative Transfer and Water Vapour Effects) project aims to investigate the role which water vapour plays in the climate system, and in particular its interaction with radiation. Within this framework, an ongoing water vapour database project was set up which comprises integrated water vapour (IWV) measurements made over the last ten years by ground-based microwave radiometers, Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and sun photometers located throughout Switzerland at altitudes between 330 and 3584 m. At Bern (46.95° N, 7.44° E) tropospheric and stratospheric water vapour profiles are obtained on a regular basis and integrated liquid water, which is important for cloud characterisation, is also measured. Additional stratospheric water vapour profiles are obtained by an airborne microwave radiometer which observes large parts of the northern hemisphere during yearly flight campaigns. The database allows us to validate the various water vapour measurement techniques. Comparisons between IWV measured by the Payerne radiosonde with that measured at Bern by two microwave radiometers, GPS and sun photometer showed instrument biases within ±0.5 mm. The bias in GPS relative to sun photometer over the 2001 to 2004 period was ?0.8 mm at Payerne (46.81° N, 6.94° E, 490 m), which lies in the Swiss plains north of the Alps, and +0.6 mm at Davos (46.81° N, 9.84° E, 1598 m), which is located within the Alps in the eastern part of Switzerland. At Locarno (46.18° N, 8.78° E, 366 m), which is located on the south side of the Alps, the bias is +1.9 mm. The sun photometer at Locarno was found to have a bias of ?2.2 mm (13% of the mean annual IWV) relative to the data from the closest radiosonde station at Milano. This result led to a yearly rotation of the sun photometer instruments between low and high altitude stations to improve the calibrations. In order to demonstrate the capabilites of the database for studying water vapour variations, we investigated a front which crossed Switzerland between 18 November 2004 and 19 November 2004. During the frontal passage, the GPS and microwave radiometers at Bern and Payerne showed an increase in IWV of between 7 and 9 mm. The GPS IWV measurements were corrected to a standard height of 500 m, using an empirically derived exponential relationship between IWV and altitude. A qualitative comparison was made between plots of the IWV distribution measured by the GPS and the 6.2 µm water vapour channel on the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite. Both showed that the moist air moved in from a northerly direction, although the MSG showed an increase in water vapour several hours before increases in IWV were detected by GPS or microwave radiometer. This is probably due to the fact that the satellite instrument is sensitive to an atmospheric layer at around 320 hPa, which makes a contribution of one percent or less to the IWV
Observation of single collisionally cooled trapped ions in a buffer gas
Individual Ba ions are trapped in a gas-filled linear ion trap and observed
with a high signal-to-noise ratio by resonance fluorescence. Single-ion storage
times of ~5 min (~1 min) are achieved using He (Ar) as a buffer gas at
pressures in the range 8e-5 - 4e-3 torr. Trap dynamics in buffer gases are
experimentally studied in the simple case of single ions. In particular, the
cooling effects of light gases such as He and Ar and the destabilizing
properties of heavier gases such as Xe are studied. A simple model is offered
to explain the observed phenomenology.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A. Minor
text and figure change
Negative emotional stimuli reduce contextual cueing but not response times in inefficient search
In visual search, previous work has shown that negative stimuli narrow the focus of attention and speed reaction times (RTs). This paper investigates these two effects by first asking whether negative emotional stimuli narrow the focus of attention to reduce the learning of a display context in a contextual cueing task and, second, whether exposure to negative stimuli also reduces RTs in inefficient search tasks. In Experiment 1, participants viewed either negative or neutral images (faces or scenes) prior to a contextual cueing task. In a typical contextual cueing experiment, RTs are reduced if displays are repeated across the experiment compared with novel displays that are not repeated. The results showed that a smaller contextual cueing effect was obtained after participants viewed negative stimuli than when they viewed neutral stimuli. However, in contrast to previous work, overall search RTs were not faster after viewing negative stimuli (Experiments 2 to 4). The findings are discussed in terms of the impact of emotional content on visual processing and the ability to use scene context to help facilitate search
A magnetically-driven piston pump for ultra-clean applications
A magnetically driven piston pump for xenon gas recirculation is presented.
The pump is designed to satisfy extreme purity and containment requirements, as
is appropriate for the recirculation of isotopically enriched xenon through the
purification system and large liquid xenon TPC of EXO-200. The pump, using
sprung polymer gaskets, is capable of pumping more than 16 standard liters per
minute (SLPM) of xenon gas with 750 torr differential pressure.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
A simple radionuclide-driven single-ion source
We describe a source capable of producing single barium ions through nuclear
recoils in radioactive decay. The source is fabricated by electroplating 148Gd
onto a silicon {\alpha}-particle detector and vapor depositing a layer of BaF2
over it. 144Sm recoils from the alpha decay of 148Gd are used to dislodge Ba+
ions from the BaF2 layer and emit them in the surrounding environment. The
simultaneous detection of an {\alpha} particle in the substrate detector allows
for tagging of the nuclear decay and of the Ba+ emission. The source is simple,
durable, and can be manipulated and used in different environments. We discuss
the fabrication process, which can be easily adapted to emit most other
chemical species, and the performance of the source
A liquid xenon ionization chamber in an all-fluoropolymer vessel
A novel technique has been developed to build vessels for liquid xenon
ionization detectors entirely out of ultra-clean fluoropolymer. We describe the
advantages in terms of low radioactivity contamination, provide some details of
the construction techniques, and show the energy resolution achieved with a
prototype all-fluoropolymer ionization detector.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure
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