Simulations of a Scintillator Compton Gamma Imager for Safety and Security

We are designing an all-scintillator Compton gamma imager for use in security investigations and remediation actions involving radioactive threat material. To satisfy requirements for a rugged and portable instrument, we have chosen solid scintillator for the active volumes of both the scatter and absorber detectors. Using the BEAMnrc/EGSnrc Monte Carlo simulation package, we have constructed models using four different materials for the scatter detector: LaBr_3, NaI, CaF_2 and PVT. We have compared the detector performances using angular resolution, efficiency, and image resolution. We find that while PVT provides worse performance than that of the detectors based entirely on inorganic scintillators, all of the materials investigated for the scatter detector have the potential to provide performance adequate for our purposes.Comment: Revised text and figures, Presented at SORMA West 2008, Published in IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Scienc

Spin Susceptibility and Gap Structure of the Fractional-Statistics Gas

This paper establishes and tests procedures which can determine the electron energy gap of the high-temperature superconductors using the $t\!-\!J$ model with spinon and holon quasiparticles obeying fractional statistics. A simpler problem with similar physics, the spin susceptibility spectrum of the spin 1/2 fractional-statistics gas, is studied. Interactions with the density oscillations of the system substantially decrease the spin gap to a value of $(0.2 \pm 0.2)$ $\hbar \omega_c$, much less than the mean-field value of $\hbar\omega_c$. The lower few Landau levels remain visible, though broadened and shifted, in the spin susceptibility. As a check of the methods, the single-particle Green's function of the non-interacting Bose gas viewed in the fermionic representation, as computed by the same approximation scheme, agrees well with the exact results. The same mechanism would reduce the gap of the $t\!-\!J$ model without eliminating it.Comment: 35 pages, written in REVTeX, 16 figures available upon request from [email protected]

Compositional nanodomain formation in hybrid formate perovskites

We report the synthesis and structural characterisation of three mixed-metal formate perovskite families [C(NH$_2$)$_3$]M$_{1-x}$Cu$_x$(HCOO)$_3$ (M = Mn, Zn, Mg). Using a combination of infrared spectroscopy, non-negative matrix factorization, and reverse Monte Carlo refinement, we show that the Mn- and Zn-containing compounds support compositional nanodomains resembling the polar nanoregions of conventional relaxor ferroelectrics. The M = Mg family exhibits a miscibility gap that we suggest reflects the limiting behaviour of nanodomain formation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Spin Transition in Strongly Correlated Bilayer Two Dimensional Electron Systems

Using a combination of heat pulse and nuclear magnetic resonance techniques we demonstrate that the phase boundary separating the interlayer phase coherent quantum Hall effect at $\nu_T = 1$ in bilayer electron gases from the weakly coupled compressible phase depends upon the spin polarization of the nuclei in the host semiconductor crystal. Our results strongly suggest that, contrary to the usual assumption, the transition is attended by a change in the electronic spin polarization.Comment: 4 pages, 3 postscript figur

Onset of Interlayer Phase Coherence in a Bilayer Two-Dimensional Electron System: Effect of Layer Density Imbalance

Tunneling and Coulomb drag are sensitive probes of spontaneous interlayer phase coherence in bilayer two-dimensional electron systems at total Landau level filling factor $\nu_T = 1$. We find that the phase boundary between the interlayer phase coherent state and the weakly-coupled compressible phase moves to larger layer separations as the electron density distribution in the bilayer is imbalanced. The critical layer separation increases quadratically with layer density difference.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure