On the role of confinement on solidification in pure materials and binary alloys

We use a phase-field model to study the effect of confinement on dendritic growth, in a pure material solidifying in an undercooled melt, and in the directional solidification of a dilute binary alloy. Specifically, we observe the effect of varying the vertical domain extent ($\delta$) on tip selection, by quantifying the dendrite tip velocity and curvature as a function of $\delta$, and other process parameters. As $\delta$ decreases, we find that the operating state of the dendrite tips becomes significantly affected by the presence of finite boundaries. For particular boundary conditions, we observe a switching of the growth state from 3-D to 2-D at very small $\delta$, in both the pure material and alloy. We demonstrate that results from the alloy model compare favorably with those from an experimental study investigating this effect.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 3 table

Influence of external flows on crystal growth: numerical investigation

We use a combined phase-field/lattice-Boltzmann scheme [D. Medvedev, K. Kassner, Phys. Rev. E {\bf 72}, 056703 (2005)] to simulate non-facetted crystal growth from an undercooled melt in external flows. Selected growth parameters are determined numerically. For growth patterns at moderate to high undercooling and relatively large anisotropy, the values of the tip radius and selection parameter plotted as a function of the Peclet number fall approximately on single curves. Hence, it may be argued that a parallel flow changes the selected tip radius and growth velocity solely by modifying (increasing) the Peclet number. This has interesting implications for the availability of current selection theories as predictors of growth characteristics under flow. At smaller anisotropy, a modification of the morphology diagram in the plane undercooling versus anisotropy is observed. The transition line from dendrites to doublons is shifted in favour of dendritic patterns, which become faster than doublons as the flow speed is increased, thus rendering the basin of attraction of dendritic structures larger. For small anisotropy and Prandtl number, we find oscillations of the tip velocity in the presence of flow. On increasing the fluid viscosity or decreasing the flow velocity, we observe a reduction in the amplitude of these oscillations.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for Physical Review E; size of some images had to be substantially reduced in comparison to original, resulting in low qualit

Position observations of NEAs at the RTT150

In 2004-2007, 560 observations of 17 Near-Earth Asteroids of 15-21 magnitudes were made at the Russian-Turkish telescope (RTT150). The reduction was made using reference stars from the UCAC2 and USNO-B1 catalogues. The comparison of the observed and calculated positions of the asteroids using the HORIZONS system gave standard errors of a single position in the range 0.05÷H 0.50″. Analysis of the (O - C) is given in this paper. © 2008 American Institute of Physics

Synthesis and characterization of Dy3Fe5O12 nanoparticles fabricated with the anion resin exchange precipitation method

Dysprosium-iron garnet (DyIG) nanoparticles were synthesized with the new modification of the anion resin exchange precipitation method. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy showed nanoparticles to be of the garnet structure with an excellent crystallinity. Magnetic properties were studied by using QUANTUM Design MPMS-XL system and the visible magnetic circular dichroism (MCD). Nanoparticles magnetic properties were close to those of bulk DyIG crystals. Dependence of the nanoparticles magnetization (M) on the external magnetic field (H) is described by a narrow hysteresis loop in relatively low fields and the strong linear M increase with the further H increase. The visible MCD of DyIG was studied in this work for the first time. The MCD spectra consisted of several peaks associated with electron transitions in iron and dysprosium ions located in different spectral intervals. Dependences of the MCD peak intensities on temperature and magnetic field were studied

Effects of processing parameters on the morphology, structure, and magnetic properties of Cu1−xFexCr2Se4 nanoparticles synthesized with chemical methods

Cu1−xFexCr2Se4 nanoparticles with x = 0, 0.2, and 0.4 were synthesized via thermal decomposition of metal nitrate or chloride salts and selenium powder using different precursor compositions and processing details. Single crystalline nano-belts or nano-rods coexist in the synthesized powder samples with hexagon-shaped plates in dependence on the precursor composition. The belts gathered into conglomerates forming “hierarchical” particles. Visible magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) of Cu1−xFexCr2Se4 nanoparticles embedded into a transparent matrix was investigated for the first time. The similarity of the MCD spectra of all samples showed the similarity of the nanoparticles electronic structure independent of their morphology. Basing on the MCD spectral maxima characteristics, electron transitions from the ground to the excited states were identified with the help of the conventional band theory and the multi-electron approach

Microstructure and magnetooptics of silicon oxide with implanted nickel nanoparticles

Metallic nickel nanoparticles of various sizes are formed in a thin near-surface layer in an amorphous SiO 2 matrix during 40-keV Ni + ion implantation at a dose of (0.25-1.0) × 10 17 ions/cm 2. The microstructure of the irradiated layer and the crystal structure, morphology, and sizes of nickel particles formed at various irradiation doses are studied by transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction. The magnetooptical Faraday effect and the magnetic circular dichroism in an ensemble of nickel nanoparticles are studied in the optical range. The permittivity ε∧ tensor components are calculated for the implanted samples using an effective medium model with allowance for the results of magnetooptical measurements. The spectral dependences of the tensor ε∧ components are found to be strongly different from those of a continuous metallic nickel film. These differences are related to a disperse structure of the magnetic nickel phase and to a surface plasma resonance in the metal nanoparticles. © Pleiades Publishing, Inc., 2011

Study of morphology, magnetic properties, and visible magnetic circular dichroism of Ni nanoparticles synthesized in SiO2 by ion implantation

A systematic study of ensembles of nickel nanoparticles fabricated by Ni+-ion implantation at a dose of (0.5-1.0)×1017 ions/cm2 in a thin near-surface layer of an amorphous SiO2 matrix by means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dc magnetic measurements, and magneto-optical technique is presented. TEM characterization of Ni nanoparticles proves the formation of isolated spherical nickel nanoparticles with diameters from 2 to 16 nm. The crystal structure and lattice constant of the nanoparticles correspond to face-centered-cubic Ni. The larger size nanoparticles are shown to have core-shell structure, which is unusual for the implantation conditions used. The shell of these nanoparticles consists of Ni, while the core has supposedly the composition coinciding with the matrix, i.e., SiO2. The core-shell nanoparticles in the investigated sample coexist with ordinary pure Ni nanoparticles, which strongly affects the magnetic and especially magneto-optic properties of the samples. For all three doses, the nanoparticles are in the superparamagnetic state at room temperature passing to the "frozen" state at lower temperatures. However, only the sample implanted with the lowest dose demonstrates the classic superparamagnetic behavior according to the shape of the experimental magnetization temperature dependencies for the zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled regimes. This shape deviation from that characteristic of the pure superparamagnetic ensembles is ascribed mainly to the particle core-shell structure. The Ni nanoparticles' anisotropy constant estimated with the help of ZFC curves appears to exceed the bulk Ni anisotropy second constant approximately by two orders of magnitude. Magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) is characterized by spectral dependence modified strongly as compared to the MCD spectra of a continuous Ni film. In the spectral range 1.1-4.2 eV, the MCD spectrum consists of two broad maxima of opposite sign with the characteristics depending on the implantation dose and the measurement temperature. The MCD spectra analysis allows one to show that the higher-energy maximum (at 3.34-3.48 eV depending on the dose) is related to the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) excitation in pure Ni nanoparticles, while the lower-energy maximum (at 2.19-2.73 eV depending on the dose) should be associated with the SPR excitation in core-shell nanoparticles. © 2013 American Physical Society

The astrometric Gaia-FUN-SSO observation campaign of 99 942 Apophis

Astrometric observations performed by the Gaia Follow-Up Network for Solar System Objects (Gaia-FUN-SSO) play a key role in ensuring that moving objects first detected by ESA's Gaia mission remain recoverable after their discovery. An observation campaign on the potentially hazardous asteroid (99 942) Apophis was conducted during the asteroid's latest period of visibility, from 12/21/2012 to 5/2/2013, to test the coordination and evaluate the overall performance of the Gaia-FUN-SSO . The 2732 high quality astrometric observations acquired during the Gaia-FUN-SSO campaign were reduced with the Platform for Reduction of Astronomical Images Automatically (PRAIA), using the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalogue 4 (UCAC4) as a reference. The astrometric reduction process and the precision of the newly obtained measurements are discussed. We compare the residuals of astrometric observations that we obtained using this reduction process to data sets that were individually reduced by observers and accepted by the Minor Planet Center. We obtained 2103 previously unpublished astrometric positions and provide these to the scientific community. Using these data we show that our reduction of this astrometric campaign with a reliable stellar catalog substantially improves the quality of the astrometric results. We present evidence that the new data will help to reduce the orbit uncertainty of Apophis during its close approach in 2029. We show that uncertainties due to geolocations of observing stations, as well as rounding of astrometric data can introduce an unnecessary degradation in the quality of the resulting astrometric positions. Finally, we discuss the impact of our campaign reduction on the recovery process of newly discovered asteroids.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&