A STUDY ABOUT CELL ACTIVITY ON ANODIZED Ti-6Al-4V BY MEANS OF PULSED CURRENT

Titanium and some of its alloys exhibit excellent anti-corrosive and biocompatibility properties due to rapid formation of a passive film on their surfaces when exposed to the atmosphere. However, such materials presentpoor osteoindutive properties. Surfaces modified via anodization are being proposed in this study to promote a chemical interaction between implants and bone cells. For this purpose, samples in Ti-6Al-4V alloy discs were anodized in a phosphoric acid solution using pulsed current for being applied in orthopaedic implants. The pulsed current is based on duty cycle (DC), which was supplied by a square wave pulse rectifier at 100 Hz and maximum tension of 30 V. A scanning electron microscope was used to obtain images of the anodized surfaces, thus revealing the presence of uniformly distributed pores over the entire surface, measuring approximately 2 m in diameter. Osteogenic cells grown on the surface of the control and anodized samples were assayed for cytotoxicity and mineralized matrix formation. The anodized surfaces presented a higher rate of viable cells after 10 days, as well as a higher amount of nodules (p = 0.05). In conclusion, these results suggest that the nanotopography promoted by anodization using pulsed current induces beneficial modulatory effects on osteoblastic cells

NEXT-100 Technical Design Report (TDR). Executive Summary

In this Technical Design Report (TDR) we describe the NEXT-100 detector that will search for neutrinoless double beta decay (bbonu) in Xe-136 at the Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc (LSC), in Spain. The document formalizes the design presented in our Conceptual Design Report (CDR): an electroluminescence time projection chamber, with separate readout planes for calorimetry and tracking, located, respectively, behind cathode and anode. The detector is designed to hold a maximum of about 150 kg of xenon at 15 bar, or 100 kg at 10 bar. This option builds in the capability to increase the total isotope mass by 50% while keeping the operating pressure at a manageable level. The readout plane performing the energy measurement is composed of Hamamatsu R11410-10 photomultipliers, specially designed for operation in low-background, xenon-based detectors. Each individual PMT will be isolated from the gas by an individual, pressure resistant enclosure and will be coupled to the sensitive volume through a sapphire window. The tracking plane consists in an array of Hamamatsu S10362-11-050P MPPCs used as tracking pixels. They will be arranged in square boards holding 64 sensors (8 times8) with a 1-cm pitch. The inner walls of the TPC, the sapphire windows and the boards holding the MPPCs will be coated with tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB), a wavelength shifter, to improve the light collection.Comment: 32 pages, 22 figures, 5 table

Present Status and Future Perspectives of the NEXT Experiment

NEXT is an experiment dedicated to neutrinoless double beta decay searches in xenon. The detector is a TPC, holding 100 kg of high-pressure xenon enriched in the 136Xe isotope. It is under construction in the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc in Spain, and it will begin operations in 2015. The NEXT detector concept provides an energy resolutionbetter than 1% FWHM and a topological signal that can be used to reduce the background. Furthermore, the NEXT technology can be extrapolated to a 1 ton-scale experiment

Radiopurity control in the NEXT-100 double beta decay experiment: procedures and initial measurements

We have investigated the possibility of calibrating the PMTs of scintillation detectors, using the primary scintillation produced by X-rays to induce single photoelectron response of the PMT. The high-energy tail of this response, can be approximated to an exponential function, under some conditions. In these cases, it is possible to determine the average gain for each PMT biasing voltage from the inverse of the exponent of the exponential fit to the tail, which can be done even if the background and/or noise cover-up most of the distribution. We have compared our results with those obtained by the commonly used single electron response (SER) method, which uses a LED to induce a single photoelectron response of the PMT and determines the peak position of such response, relative to the pedestal peak (the electronic noise peak, which corresponds to 0 photoelectrons). The results of the exponential fit method agree with those obtained by the SER method when the average number of photoelectrons reaching the first dynode per light/scintillation pulse is around 1.0. The SER method has higher precision, while the exponential fit method has the advantage of being useful in situations where the PMT is already in situ, being difficult or even impossible to apply the SER method, e.g. in sealed scintillator/PMT devices

Initial results of NEXT-DEMO, a large-scale prototype of the NEXT-100 experiment

NEXT-DEMO is a large scale prototype and demonstrator of the NEXT-100 High Pressure Xenon Gas TPC, which will search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of Xe-136 using 100-150 kg of enriched xenon gas. The apparatus was built to prove the expected performance of NEXT-100, namely, energy resolution better than 1% FWHM at 2.5 MeV and event topological reconstruction. In this paper we describe the operation and initial results of the detector. A resolution of 1.7% FWHM at 511 keV (0.77% FWHM at 2.5 MeV) is obtained in the full fiducial volume of the detector. A topological analysis shows that electrons are identified by the characteristic blob energy deposit associated to the Bragg peak in 98.5% of the cases, with a rate of misidentification (two blobs) of 0.14%

Description and commissioning of NEXT-MM prototype: first results from operation in a Xenon-Trimethylamine gas mixture

A technical description of NEXT-MM and its commissioning and first performance is reported. Having an active volume of similar to 35 cm drift x 28 cm diameter, it constitutes the largest Micromegas-read TPC operated in Xenon ever constructed, made by a sectorial arrangement of the 4 largest single wafers manufactured with the Microbulk technique to date. It is equipped with a suitably pixelized readout and with a sufficiently large sensitive volume (similar to 23 l) so as to contain long (similar to 20 cm) electron tracks. First results obtained at 1 bar for Xenon and Trymethylamine (Xe-(2%) TMA) mixture are presented. The TPC can accurately reconstruct extended background tracks. An encouraging full-width half-maximum of 11.6% was obtained for similar to 29 keV gammas without resorting to any data post-processing

Operation and first results of the NEXT-DEMO prototype using a silicon photomultiplier tracking array

NEXT-DEMO is a high-pressure xenon gas TPC which acts as a technological test-bed and demonstrator for the NEXT-100 neutrinoless double beta decay experiment. In its current configuration the apparatus fully implements the NEXT-100 design concept. This is an asymmetric TPC, with an energy plane made of photomultipliers and a tracking plane made of silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) coated with TPB. The detector in this new configuration has been used to reconstruct the characteristic signature of electrons in dense gas, demonstrating the ability to identify the MIP and ''blob'' regions. Moreover, the SiPM tracking plane allows for the definition of a large fiducial region in which an excellent energy resolution of 1.82% FWHM at 511 keV has been measured (a value which extrapolates to 0.83% at the xenon Qββ)