Comparative Study of Nonproportionality and Electronic Band Structures Features in Scintillator Materials

The origin of nonproportionality in scintillator materials has been a long standing problem for more than four decades. In this manuscript, we show that, with the help of first principle modeling, the parameterization of the nonproportionality for several systems, with respect to their band structure curvature suggests a correlation between carrier effective mass and energy response. We attribute this correlation to the case where free electrons and holes are the major energy carriers. Excitonic scintillators do not show such a definitive trend. This model suggests a potential high-throughput approach for discovering novel proportional scintillators in the former class of materials.Comment: This article has been accepted for publication on IEEE Transaction on Nuclear Scienc

Influence of process parameters on the morphology of spray-dried BaCl2 powders

Spray‐drying is an effective method for producing powder aggregates with controlled size and morphology. Here, we report on a systematic study aimed at determining how spray‐drying parameters such as nozzle temperature, gas flow, salt concentration and solution feed rate, influence the characteristics of BaCl2 granules prepared from aqueous solutions. We correlate the granule characteristics to these conditions through the use of processing maps and modeling. It is found that well‐dispersed, high density and spherical aggregates, which are favorable for subsequent powder compaction and sintering, can be obtained within a limited range of processing conditions

«La relation de limitation et d’exception dans le français d’aujourd’hui : excepté, sauf et hormis comme pivots d’une relation algébrique »

L’analyse des emplois prépositionnels et des emplois conjonctifs d’ “excepté”, de “sauf” et d’ “hormis” permet d’envisager les trois prépositions/conjonctions comme le pivot d’un binôme, comme la plaque tournante d’une structure bipolaire. Placées au milieu du binôme, ces prépositions sont forcées par leur sémantisme originaire dûment métaphorisé de jouer le rôle de marqueurs d’inconséquence systématique entre l’élément se trouvant à leur gauche et celui qui se trouve à leur droite. L’opposition qui surgit entre les deux éléments n’est donc pas une incompatibilité naturelle, intrinsèque, mais extrinsèque, induite. Dans la plupart des cas (emplois limitatifs), cette opposition prend la forme d’un rapport entre une « classe » et le « membre (soustrait) de la classe », ou bien entre un « tout » et une « partie » ; dans d’autres (emplois exceptifs), cette opposition se manifeste au contraire comme une attaque de front portée par un « tout » à un autre « tout ». De plus, l’inconséquence induite mise en place par la préposition/conjonction paraît, en principe, tout à fait insurmontable. Dans l’assertion « les écureuils vivent partout, sauf en Australie » (que l’on peut expliciter par « Les écureuils vivent partout, sauf [qu’ils ne vivent pas] en Australie »), la préposition semble en effet capable d’impliquer le prédicat principal avec signe inverti, et de bâtir sur une telle implication une sorte de sous énoncé qui, à la rigueur, est totalement inconséquent avec celui qui le précède (si « les écureuils ne vivent pas en Australie », le fait qu’ils « vivent partout » est faux). Néanmoins, l’analyse montre qu’alors que certaines de ces oppositions peuvent enfin être dépassées, d’autres ne le peuvent pas. C’est, respectivement, le cas des relations limitatives et des relations exceptives. La relation limitative, impliquant le rapport « tout » - « partie », permet de résoudre le conflit dans les termes d’une somme algébrique entre deux sous énoncés pourvus de différent poids informatif et de signe contraire. Les valeurs numériques des termes de la somme étant déséquilibrées, le résultat est toujours autre que zéro. La relation exceptive, au contraire, qui n’implique pas le rapport « tout » - « partie », n’est pas capable de résoudre le conflit entre deux sous énoncés pourvus du même poids informatif et en même temps de signe contraire : les valeurs numériques des termes de la somme étant symétriques et égales, le résultat sera toujours équivalent à zéro

Airtight container for the transfer of atmosphere-sensitive materials into vacuum-operated characterization instruments

This paper describes the design and operation of a simple airtight container devised to facilitate the transfer of atmosphere-sensitive samples from a glovebox to the vacuum chamber of an analytical instrument such as a scanning electron microscope. The use of this device for characterizing the microstructure of highly hygroscopic strontium iodide ceramics by scanning electron microscopy is illustrated as an application example

Phase-Change Sintering Of Bacl2Transparent Ceramics

We report on the compaction of anhydrous BaCl2powders under severe plastic deformation and the conversion of their native orthorhombic cotunnite crystalline structure into a fine-grained cubic fluorite structure. This conversion, supported by x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy data, and which enables the production of highly dense ceramics of BaCl2, occurs 500 °C below the known phase transition temperature of 925 °C for this material at 1 atm. We discuss this phase change in the context of a stress-induced polymorphic transformation and its implication on the fabrication of transparent ceramics for scintillator applications

Elastic Airtight Container For The Compaction Of Air-Sensitive Materials

We report on the design and fabrication of a simple and versatile elastic canister for the compaction and hot-pressing of air-sensitive materials. This device consists of a heated double-ended floating die assembly, enclosed in a compressible stainless steel bellows that allows the action of an external hydraulic press in a uniaxial motion. The enclosure is fitted with vacuum, gas, and electrical feedthroughs to allow for atmosphere control, heating, and in situ process monitoring. The overall chamber is compact enough to be portable and transferrable into and out of a standard laboratory glovebox, thus eliminating the problem of exposing samples to ambient atmosphere during loading and unloading. Our design has been tested up to 600 °C and 7500 kg-force applied load, conditions within which transparent ceramics of anhydrous halides can be produced

Influence Of Process Parameters On The Morphology Of Spray-Dried Bacl2 Powders

Spray-drying is an effective method for producing powder aggregates with controlled size and morphology. Here, we report on a systematic study aimed at determining how spray-drying parameters such as nozzle temperature, gas flow, salt concentration and solution feed rate, influence the characteristics of BaCl2 granules prepared from aqueous solutions. We correlate the granule characteristics to these conditions through the use of processing maps and modeling. It is found that well-dispersed, high density and spherical aggregates, which are favorable for subsequent powder compaction and sintering, can be obtained within a limited range of processing conditions

Modeling The Thermoelectric Properties Of Ti5O9 Magnéli Phase Ceramics

Magnéli phase Ti5O9 ceramics with 200-nm grain-size were fabricated by hot-pressing nanopowders of titanium and anatase TiO2 at 1223 K. The thermoelectric properties of these ceramics were investigated from room temperature to 1076 K. We show that the experimental variation of the electrical conductivity with temperature follows a non-adiabatic small-polaron model with an activation energy of 64 meV. In this paper, we propose a modified Heikes-Chaikin-Beni model, based on a canonical ensemble of closely spaced titanium t2g levels, to account for the temperature dependency of the Seebeck coefficient. Modeling of the thermal conductivity data reveals that the phonon contribution remains constant throughout the investigated temperature range. The thermoelectric figure-of-merit ZT of this nanoceramic material reaches 0.3 K at 1076 K

Phosphor Ceramic Composite for Tunable Warm White Light

Composite phosphor ceramics for warm white LED lighting were fabricated with K2SiF6:Mn4+ (KSF) as both a narrowband red phosphor and a translucent matrix in which yellow-emitting Y3Al5O12:Ce3+ (YAG) particles were dispersed. The emission spectra of these composites under blue LED excitation were studied as a function of YAG loading and thickness. Warm white light with a color temperature of 2716 K, a high CRI of 92.6, and an R9 of 77.6 was achieved. A modest improvement in the thermal conductivity of the KSF ceramic of up to 9% was observed with the addition of YAG particles. In addition, a simple model was developed for predicting the emission spectra based on several parameters of the composite ceramics and validated with the experimental results. The emission spectrum can be tuned by varying the dopant concentrations, thickness, YAG loading, and YAG particle size. This work demonstrates the utility of KSF/YAG composite phosphor ceramics as a means of producing warm white light, which are potentially suitable for higher-drive applications due to their increased thermal conductivity and reduced droop compared with silicone-dispersed phosphor powders