Radiation studies of items of cultural heritage

When we see a piece of art or an archaeological object for the first time, a painting, a jewel, a sculpture or merely a simple piece of pottery on display in a museum or in an exhibition, we might be fascinated by its beauty or by its simplicity. However, many questions often arise in connection with such items on display, about its origin, its context, its provenance, its authenticity. Finding complete answers is a fully interdisciplinary task between art, humanities and natural sciences. With respect to the contribution from natural science, it often needs the application of just the best methods and techniques out of a multitude of possible options. Starting from a simple visual inspection with or without a magnifying glass, the techniques reach up to highly sophisticated and advanced methods developed in atomic physics, nuclear physics and chemistry, such as available at large scale facilities, and even biophysics. In the following, a condensed review is presented on recent research on cultural heritage objects using various radiation technique

Virtual unfolding of folded papyri

One of the best sources of information about our cultural origin are written texts. Often, texts are hidden, sometimes erased, faded away, or written over, sometimes not easily accessible in rolled or folded documents. Due to recent improvements in sensitivity and resolution, spectacular disclosures of rolled hidden texts were possible by X-ray tomography, most of them made out of parchment. However, revealing text on folded manuscripts is even more challenging. Due to the fragile condition of fragments, manual unfolding is often too risky, as it can lead to the total loss of the document. X-ray tomography allows for virtual unfolding and enables non-destructive access to hidden texts. Here, the progress in virtual unfolding is reviewed, focusing on papyri from Elephantine Island near Aswan. The project is a part of the European Research Council’s starting grant ELEPHANTINE. Results on unfolding ancient papyrus packages from the papyrus collection of the Musée du Louvre and of the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Berlin are discussed

Site occupation preferences in multicomponent semiconductors the Cd1 xZnxTe case

Various models of site occupation preferences (SOPs) in multicomponent semiconducting compounds of zincblende structure type are discussed for the Cd1-xZnxTe case using our new experimental and calculated data. In order to resolve the microscopic mechanism of the phenomenon, appropriate two-body potentials and stability of all nearest neighbor (NN) tetrahedral configurations that can arise in the structure are computed using the ab-initio Linear Combination of Atomic Orbitals (LCAO) method. The obtained results are related to some known material properties and existing systematics.Progress in Advanced Materials and Processes, 5th Conference of the Yugoslav-Materials-Research-Society (Yu-MRS 2003), Sep 15-19, 2003, Herceg Novi, Yugoslavi

AN IN-BEAM TIME-GATED MÖSSBAUER EXPERIMENT

No abstract availabl

Survey of Electronic and Local Structural Properties of Cd1 xCoxSe1 yTe S y by XAFS

As an extension of our previous studies of multi component semiconductors doped with magnetic impurities, this paper gives a comprehensive insight into electronic and local structure of crystalline semiconductors Cd0.98Co0.02Se, Cd0.98Co0.02Se0.9S0.1, and Cd0.98Co0.02Se0.9Te0.1. Detailed characterization of Co and Se local environment and overall influence of Co and S Te co doping on the host crystal structure has been obtained by X ray absorption fine structure XAFS technique and electronic structure calculations. Important structural information on bond lengths and disorder parameters were extracted from the extended region of the absorption spectra, while the relationships between electronic and local structures were determined from the characteristic features appearing in the near edge spectral region. The influence of various structural defects on local electronic properties, charge transfer and atomic interactions has been studied by theoretical modeling of XAFS spectra and calculations of local density of electronic states. The obtained findings offer possible means for improvement and extension of the practical application of CdSe based materials by adjusting the details of their electronic structur

Introduction to PAC/PAD

Copy held by FIZ Karlsruhe; available from UB/TIB Hannover / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Lokale Struktur von leichten Elementen und Uebergangsmetallen als Stoerstellen in Verbindungshalbleitern Abschlussbericht

Available from TIB Hannover: DtF QN1(63,24) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEBundesministerium fuer Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman