Differential pulse polarography and voltammetry with an automated microprocessor-based polarograph and a static mercury drop electrode

Differential pulse polarography using an automated, microprocessor- based polarographic analyzer equipped with a static mercury drop electrode has been evaluated with respect to pulse amplitude, scan rate, drop time (t), and drop area. Variation of peak current, z"p' with drop area and t - Y2, with some pulse amplitudes agree reasonably well with theory. However, dependence of and E or i scan rate and on pulse amplitude at very large and very small amplitudes was found to devide fron i theory. Similar trends were also found for anodic stripping voltammetry when differential pulse stripping was used. The precision attainable by both techniques was good. Copper peaks demonstrated good precision only when copper was plated out individually during anodic stripping voltammetry

Nuclear isotope thermometry

We discuss different aspects which could influence temperatures deduced from experimental isotopic yields in the multifragmentation process. It is shown that fluctuations due to the finite size of the system and distortions due to the decay of hot primary fragments conspire to blur the temperature determination in multifragmentation reactions. These facts suggest that caloric curves obtained through isotope thermometers, which were taken as evidence for a first-order phase transition in nuclear matter, should be investigated very carefully.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Aharonov-Bohm oscillations of a tunable quantum ring

With an atomic force microscope a ring geometry with self-aligned in-plane gates was directly written into a GaAs/AlGaAs-heterostructure. Transport measurements in the open regime show only one transmitting mode and Aharonov-Bohm oscillations with more than 50% modulation are observed in the conductance. The tuning via in-plane gates allows to study the Aharonov-Bohm effect in the whole range from the open ring to the Coulomb-blockade regime.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure

Implementation of Design for Manufacture and Assembly principles in the construction project: A case study

Design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) has been increasingly advocated by the global construction industry since it provides methodological procedures for evaluating and improving design for both manufacture and assembly. Many studies have investigated the DfMA principles suitable for different types of construction projects and advocated a wide implementation of DfMA in construction. However, it would be difficult to persuade stakeholders to implement DfMA principles in their projects without a clear specification of implementation procedures. This study aims to offer an intelligible description and analysis of implementation procedures of DfMA in a real construction project. It does so by undertaking a case study on a prefabricated bamboo building, in which a DfMA-focused design was required by the client. The study reveals how the knowledge of designer, engineer, and contractor has been integrated to implement DfMA principles in the design of building components and sub-components. This study also identifies the best practice of ensuring engineering performance and meanwhile attaining aesthetics in the application of DfMA principles

Resonant Excitation of Graphene K-Phonon and Intra-Landau-Level Excitons in Magneto-Optical Spectroscopy

Precise infrared magnetotransmission experiments have been performed in magnetic fields up to 32 T on a series of multilayer epitaxial graphene samples. We observe changes in the spectral features and broadening of the main cyclotron transition when the incoming photon energy is in resonance with the lowest Landau level separation and the energy of a K point optical phonon. We have developed a theory that explains and quantitatively reproduces the frequency and magnetic field dependence of the phenomenon as the absorption of a photon together with the simultaneous creation of an intervalley, intra-Landau-level exciton, and a K phonon.Comment: Main manuscript (5 pages); Supplementary Material (18 pages

Maximum likelihood estimation of photon number distribution from homodyne statistics

We present a method for reconstructing the photon number distribution from the homodyne statistics based on maximization of the likelihood function derived from the exact statistical description of a homodyne experiment. This method incorporates in a natural way the physical constraints on the reconstructed quantities, and the compensation for the nonunit detection efficiency.Comment: 3 pages REVTeX. Final version, to appear in Phys. Rev. A as a Brief Repor

Modeling the impacts of biomass burning on air quality in and around Mexico City

The local and regional impacts of open fires and trash burning on ground-level ozone (O[subscript 3]) and fine carbonaceous aerosols in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) and surrounding region during two high fire periods in March 2006 have been evaluated using WRF-CHEM model. The model captured reasonably well the measurement-derived magnitude and temporal variation of the biomass burning organic aerosol (BBOA), and the simulated impacts of open fires on organic aerosol (OA) were consistent with many observation-based estimates. We did not detect significant effects of open fires and trash burning on surface O[subscript 3] concentrations in the MCMA and surrounding region. In contrast, they had important influences on OA and elemental carbon (EC), increasing primary OA (POA) by ~60%, secondary OA (SOA) by ~22%, total OA (TOA = POA + SOA) by ~33%, and EC by ~22%, on both the local (urban) and regional scales. Although the emissions of trash burning are substantially lower than those from open fires, trash burning made slightly smaller but comparable contributions to OA as open fires did, and exerted an even higher influence on EC. Of the ~22% enhancement in SOA concentrations (equivalent to a ~15% increase in TOA) simulated, about two third was attributed to the open fires and one-third to the trash burning. On the annual basis and taking the biofuel use emissions into consideration, we estimated that open fires, trash burning and biofuel use together contributed about 60% to the loading of POA, 30% to SOA, and 25% to EC in both the MCMA and its surrounding region, of which the open fires and trash burning contributed about 35% to POA, 18% to SOA, and 15% to EC. The estimates of biomass burning impacts in this study may contain considerable uncertainties due to the uncertainties in their emission estimates in magnitude, temporal and spatial distribution, extrapolations and the nature of spot comparison. More observation and modeling studies are needed to accurately assess the impacts of biomass burning on tropospheric chemistry, regional and global air quality, and climate change.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award 1135141

Light-Induced Currents at Domain Walls in Multiferroic BiFeO3.

Multiferroic BiFeO3 (BFO) films with spontaneously formed periodic stripe domains can generate above-gap open circuit voltages under visible light illumination; nevertheless the underlying mechanism behind this intriguing optoelectronic response has not been understood to date. Here, we make contact-free measurements of light-induced currents in epitaxial BFO films via detecting terahertz radiation emanated by these currents, enabling a direct probe of the intrinsic charge separation mechanisms along with quantitative measurements of the current amplitudes and their directions. In the periodic stripe samples, we find that the net photocurrent is dominated by the charge separation across the domain walls, whereas in the monodomain samples the photovoltaic response arises from a bulk shift current associated with the non-centrosymmetry of the crystal. The peak current amplitude driven by the charge separation at the domain walls is found to be 2 orders of magnitude higher than the bulk shift current response, indicating the prominent role of domain walls acting as nanoscale junctions to efficiently separate photogenerated charges in the stripe domain BFO films. These findings show that domain-wall-engineered BFO thin films offer exciting prospects for ferroelectric-based optoelectronics, as well as bias-free strong terahertz emitters