Valence Instability of YbCu2_2Si2_2 through its quantum critical point

We report Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering measurements (RIXS) in YbCu$_2$Si$_2$ at the Yb L$_{3}$ edge under high pressure (up to 22 GPa) and at low temperatures (down to 7 K) with emphasis on the vicinity of the transition to a magnetic ordered state. We find a continuous valence change towards the trivalent state with increasing pressure but with a pronounced change of slope close to the critical pressure. Even at 22 GPa the Yb$^{+3}$ state is not fully achieved. The pressure where this feature is observed decreases as the temperature is reduced to 9 GPa at 7K, a value close to the critical pressure (\itshape{p\normalfont{$_c$}}\normalfont $\approx$ 7.5 GPa) where magnetic order occurs. The decrease in the valence with decreasing temperature previously reported at ambient pressure is confirmed and is found to be enhanced at higher pressures. We also compare the f electron occupancy between YbCu$_2$Si$_2$ and its Ce-counterpart, CeCu$_2$Si$_2$

Capsule-based ultrasound-mediated targeted gastrointestinal drug delivery

Diseases which are prevalent in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, such as Crohn's disease, are a topic of increasing concern because diagnosis and specific treatment are difficult and may be ineffective. New techniques are therefore sought after and this paper describes a proof-of-concept tethered capsule for targeted drug delivery (TDD) in the GI tract. The capsule consists of a camera, illumination, a drug delivery channel and an ultrasound (US) transducer. The transducer is described in detail, including a comparison of different piezoceramic materials that has been carried out. It was found that PZ54 (Ferroperm Piezoceramics, Kvistgaard, Denmark) was the most suitable material for our application. When driven at 4 Vpp, the outer diameter 5 mm PZ54 transducer operates at a frequency f = 4.05 MHz providing an acoustic pressure, Pac = 125 kPa, with a beam diameter, BD = 0.75 mm at the focus. Pressures in the range 50 - 300 kPa have been previously reported as suitable for sonoporation, a process vital in many TDD applications, so this is a promising result. Basic functional testing of the capsule was performed by supplying glass microbubbles (MBs) through the drug delivery channel into the US focus, monitored via the onboard camera. It was found that the acoustic radiation forces have a clear influence on the MBs, significantly changing their direction at the US focus. This suggests that drugs may be targeted to specific tissue in the GI tract by the new capsule. The results translate into a capsule configuration with the potential to be clinically and biologically useful

Acoustic Nature of the Boson Peak in Vitreous Silica

New temperature dependent inelastic x-ray (IXS) and Raman (RS) scattering data are compared to each other and with existing inelastic neutron scattering data in vitreous silica (v-SiO_2), in the 300 - 1775 K region. The IXS data show collective propagating excitations up to Q=3.5 nm^-1. The temperature behaviour of the excitations at Q=1.6 nm^-1 matches that of the boson peak found in INS and RS. This supports the acoustic origin of the excess of vibrational states giving rise to the boson peak in this glass.Comment: 10 pages and 4 figure

High frequency longitudinal and transverse dynamics in water

High-resolution, inelastic x-ray scattering measurements of the dynamic structure factor S(Q,\omega) of liquid water have been performed for wave vectors Q between 4 and 30 nm^-1 in distinctly different thermodynamic conditions (T= 263 - 420 K ; at, or close to, ambient pressure and at P = 2 kbar). In agreement with previous inelastic x-ray and neutron studies, the presence of two inelastic contributions (one dispersing with Q and the other almost non-dispersive) is confirmed. The study of their temperature- and Q-dependence provides strong support for a dynamics of liquid water controlled by the structural relaxation process. A viscoelastic analysis of the Q-dispersing mode, associated with the longitudinal dynamics, reveals that the sound velocity undergoes the complete transition from the adiabatic sound velocity (c_0) (viscous limit) to the infinite frequency sound velocity (c_\infinity) (elastic limit). On decreasing Q, as the transition regime is approached from the elastic side, we observe a decrease of the intensity of the second, weakly dispersing feature, which completely disappears when the viscous regime is reached. These findings unambiguously identify the second excitation to be a signature of the transverse dynamics with a longitudinal symmetry component, which becomes visible in the S(Q,\omega) as soon as the purely viscous regime is left.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figure

Phonon-like and single particle dynamics in liquid lithium

The dynamic structure factor, S(Q,E), of liquid lithium (T=475 K) has been determined by inelastic x-ray scattering (IXS) in the momentum transfer region (Q = 1.4-110 nm-1). These data allow to observe how, in a simple liquid, a phonon-like collective mode evolves towards the single particle dynamics. As a function of Q, one finds: i) at low Q's, a sound mode with a positive dispersion of the sound velocity, ii) at intermediate Q's, excitations whose energy oscillates similarly to phonons in the crystal Brillouin zones, and iii) at high Q's, the S(Q,E) approaches a Gaussian shape, indicating that the single particle dynamics has been reached.Comment: 3 pages and 5 figure

Deconvolving Instrumental and Intrinsic Broadening in Excited State X-ray Spectroscopies

Intrinsic and experimental mechanisms frequently lead to broadening of spectral features in excited-state spectroscopies. For example, intrinsic broadening occurs in x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements of heavy elements where the core-hole lifetime is very short. On the other hand, nonresonant x-ray Raman scattering (XRS) and other energy loss measurements are more limited by instrumental resolution. Here, we demonstrate that the Richardson-Lucy (RL) iterative algorithm provides a robust method for deconvolving instrumental and intrinsic resolutions from typical XAS and XRS data. For the K-edge XAS of Ag, we find nearly complete removal of ~9.3 eV FWHM broadening from the combined effects of the short core-hole lifetime and instrumental resolution. We are also able to remove nearly all instrumental broadening in an XRS measurement of diamond, with the resulting improved spectrum comparing favorably with prior soft x-ray XAS measurements. We present a practical methodology for implementing the RL algorithm to these problems, emphasizing the importance of testing for stability of the deconvolution process against noise amplification, perturbations in the initial spectra, and uncertainties in the core-hole lifetime.Comment: 35 pages, 13 figure

Aspects of Strangeness -1 Meson-Baryon Scattering

We consider meson-baryon interactions in S-wave with strangeness -1. This is a sector populated by plenty of resonances interacting in several two-body coupled channels. We consider a large set of experimental data, where the recent experiments are remarkably accurate. This requires a sound theoretical description to account for all the data and we employ Unitary Chiral Perturbation Theory up to and including O(p^2). The spectroscopy of our solutions is studied within this approach, discussing the rise from the pole content of two \Lambda(1405) resonances and of the \Lambda(1670), \Lambda(1800), \Sigma(1480), \Sigma(1620) and \Sigma(1750). We finally argue about our preferred fit.Comment: 6 figures, 3 figures, talk given in the IVth International Conference on Quarks and Nuclear Physics (QNP06), Madrid June 5th and 10th, 2006. One reference is update