scholarly journals Radiochemical separation and purification of non-carrier-added silicon-32

2021 ◽  
Vol 109 (10) ◽  
pp. 735-741
Author(s):  
Mario Veicht ◽  
Ionut Mihalcea ◽  
Đorđe Cvjetinovic ◽  
Dorothea Schumann

Abstract 32Si (T 1/2 = 153(19) y) is an extremely rare, naturally-occurring isotope that has been considered as a geochronometer suitable for radiometric dating over the time span from 100 to 1000 years ago – a time span that has proved rather difficult to explore in this manner. Past attempts to determine the 32Si half-life have resulted in a wide range of values possessing significant uncertainties because only low-activity samples could be made available for such measurements. Utilizing the 590 MeV ring cyclotron at PSI, megabecquerel quantities of 32Si have been produced by exposing metallic vanadium discs to high-energy protons in order to induce spallation. A radiochemical separation procedure has been successfully developed and applied to the irradiated discs as part of the SINCHRON project, based on a combination of ion-exchange and extraction resins. The process was shown to be reliable and robust with a high chemical yield. Radiochemically pure 32Si solutions with activity concentrations of up to several kBq/g can be produced to perform individual measurements (AMS, ICP-MS, LSC) for various studies. Thus, a careful redetermination of the 32Si half-life has become feasible to begin the first steps toward the confident implementation of this radionuclide for geochronological purposes.

Author(s):  
E.D. Wolf

Most microelectronics devices and circuits operate faster, consume less power, execute more functions and cost less per circuit function when the feature-sizes internal to the devices and circuits are made smaller. This is part of the stimulus for the Very High-Speed Integrated Circuits (VHSIC) program. There is also a need for smaller, more sensitive sensors in a wide range of disciplines that includes electrochemistry, neurophysiology and ultra-high pressure solid state research. There is often fundamental new science (and sometimes new technology) to be revealed (and used) when a basic parameter such as size is extended to new dimensions, as is evident at the two extremes of smallness and largeness, high energy particle physics and cosmology, respectively. However, there is also a very important intermediate domain of size that spans from the diameter of a small cluster of atoms up to near one micrometer which may also have just as profound effects on society as “big” physics.


Author(s):  
S. Likharev ◽  
A. Kramarenko ◽  
V. Vybornov

At present time the interest is growing considerably for theoretical and experimental analysis of back-scattered electrons (BSE) energy spectra. It was discovered that a special angle and energy nitration of BSE flow could be used for increasing a spatial resolution of BSE mode, sample topography investigations and for layer-by layer visualizing of a depth structure. In the last case it was shown theoretically that in order to obtain suitable depth resolution it is necessary to select a part of BSE flow with the directions of velocities close to inverse to the primary beam and energies within a small window in the high-energy part of the whole spectrum.A wide range of such devices has been developed earlier, but all of them have considerable demerit: they can hardly be used with a standard SEM due to the necessity of sufficient SEM modifications like installation of large accessories in or out SEM chamber, mounting of specialized detector systems, input wires for high voltage supply, screening a primary beam from additional electromagnetic field, etc. In this report we present a new scheme of a compact BSE energy analyzer that is free of imperfections mentioned above.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (15) ◽  
pp. 7879
Author(s):  
Yingxia Gao ◽  
Yi Zheng ◽  
Léon Sanche

The complex physical and chemical reactions between the large number of low-energy (0–30 eV) electrons (LEEs) released by high energy radiation interacting with genetic material can lead to the formation of various DNA lesions such as crosslinks, single strand breaks, base modifications, and cleavage, as well as double strand breaks and other cluster damages. When crosslinks and cluster damages cannot be repaired by the cell, they can cause genetic loss of information, mutations, apoptosis, and promote genomic instability. Through the efforts of many research groups in the past two decades, the study of the interaction between LEEs and DNA under different experimental conditions has unveiled some of the main mechanisms responsible for these damages. In the present review, we focus on experimental investigations in the condensed phase that range from fundamental DNA constituents to oligonucleotides, synthetic duplex DNA, and bacterial (i.e., plasmid) DNA. These targets were irradiated either with LEEs from a monoenergetic-electron or photoelectron source, as sub-monolayer, monolayer, or multilayer films and within clusters or water solutions. Each type of experiment is briefly described, and the observed DNA damages are reported, along with the proposed mechanisms. Defining the role of LEEs within the sequence of events leading to radiobiological lesions contributes to our understanding of the action of radiation on living organisms, over a wide range of initial radiation energies. Applications of the interaction of LEEs with DNA to radiotherapy are briefly summarized.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Duy Tung Phan ◽  
Chang Won Jung

AbstractAn electromagnetic pulse (EMP) with high energy can damage electronic equipment instantly within a wide range of thousands of kilometers. Generally, a metal plate placed inside a thick concrete wall is used against an EMP, but it is not suitable for an EMP shielding window, which requires not only strong shielding effectiveness (SE) but also optical transparency (OT). In this paper, we propose a very thin and optically transparent structure with excellent SE for EMP shielding window application. The proposed structure consists of a saltwater layer held between two glass substrates and two metal mesh layers on the outside of the glass, with a total thickness of less than 1.5 cm. The SE and OT of the structure are above 80 dB and 45%, respectively, which not only meet the requirement of EMP shielding for military purposes but also retain the procedure of good observation. Moreover, the OT of the structure can be significantly improved using only one metal mesh film (MMF) layer, while the SE is still maintained high to satisfy the required SE for home applicants. With the major advantages of low cost, optical transparency, strong SE, and flexible performance, the proposed structure can be considered a good solution for transparent EMP shielding windows.


Author(s):  
Akila C. Thenuwara ◽  
Pralav P. Shetty ◽  
Neha Kondekar ◽  
Chuanlong Wang ◽  
Weiyang Li ◽  
...  

A new dual-salt liquid electrolyte is developed that enables the reversible operation of high-energy sodium-metal-based batteries over a wide range of temperatures down to −50 °C.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Costantini ◽  
Federico De Lillo ◽  
Fabio Maltoni ◽  
Luca Mantani ◽  
Olivier Mattelaer ◽  
...  

Abstract High-energy lepton colliders with a centre-of-mass energy in the multi-TeV range are currently considered among the most challenging and far-reaching future accelerator projects. Studies performed so far have mostly focused on the reach for new phenomena in lepton-antilepton annihilation channels. In this work we observe that starting from collider energies of a few TeV, electroweak (EW) vector boson fusion/scattering (VBF) at lepton colliders becomes the dominant production mode for all Standard Model processes relevant to studying the EW sector. In many cases we find that this also holds for new physics. We quantify the size and the growth of VBF cross sections with collider energy for a number of SM and new physics processes. By considering luminosity scenarios achievable at a muon collider, we conclude that such a machine would effectively be a “high-luminosity weak boson collider,” and subsequently offer a wide range of opportunities to precisely measure EW and Higgs couplings as well as discover new particles.


1990 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 583
Author(s):  
GL Price

Recent developments in the growth of semiconductor thin films are reviewed. The emphasis is on growth by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Results obtained by reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) are employed to describe the different kinds of growth processes and the types of materials which can be constructed. MBE is routinely capable of heterostructure growth to atomic precision with a wide range of materials including III-V, IV, II-VI semiconductors, metals, ceramics such as high Tc materials and organics. As the growth proceeds in ultra high vacuum, MBE can take advantage of surface science techniques such as Auger, RHEED and SIMS. RHEED is the essential in-situ probe since the final crystal quality is strongly dependent on the surface reconstruction during growth. RHEED can also be used to calibrate the growth rate, monitor growth kinetics, and distinguish between various growth modes. A major new area is lattice mismatched growth where attempts are being made to construct heterostructures between materials of different lattice constants such as GaAs on Si. Also described are the new techniques of migration enhanced epitaxy and tilted superlattice growth. Finally some comments are given On the means of preparing large area, thin samples for analysis by other techniques from MBE grown films using capping, etching and liftoff.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (2B) ◽  
pp. 731-742 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Lal ◽  
A J T Jull

Nuclear interactions of cosmic rays produce a number of stable and radioactive isotopes on the earth (Lai and Peters 1967). Two of these, 14C and 10Be, find applications as tracers in a wide variety of earth science problems by virtue of their special combination of attributes: 1) their source functions, 2) their half-lives, and 3) their chemical properties. The radioisotope, 14C (half-life = 5730 yr) produced in the earth's atmosphere was the first to be discovered (Anderson et al. 1947; Libby 1952). The next longer-lived isotope, also produced in the earth's atmosphere, 10Be (half-life = 1.5 myr) was discovered independently by two groups within a decade (Arnold 1956; Goel et al. 1957; Lal 1991a). Both the isotopes are produced efficiently in the earth's atmosphere, and also in solids on the earth's surface. Independently and jointly they serve as useful tracers for characterizing the evolutionary history of a wide range of materials and artifacts. Here, we specifically focus on the production of 14C in terrestrial solids, designated as in-situ-produced 14C (to differentiate it from atmospheric 14C, initially produced in the atmosphere). We also illustrate the application to several earth science problems. This is a relatively new area of investigations, using 14C as a tracer, which was made possible by the development of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The availability of the in-situ 14C variety has enormously enhanced the overall scope of 14C as a tracer (singly or together with in-situ-produced 10Be), which eminently qualifies it as a unique tracer for studying earth sciences.


2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (SRMS-7) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Pennicard ◽  
Heinz Graafsma ◽  
Michael Lohmann

The new synchrotron light source PETRA-III produced its first beam last year. The extremely high brilliance of PETRA-III and the large energy range of many of its beamlines make it useful for a wide range of experiments, particularly in materials science. The detectors at PETRA-III will need to meet several requirements, such as operation across a wide dynamic range, high-speed readout and good quantum efficiency even at high photon energies. PETRA-III beamlines with lower photon energies will typically be equipped with photon-counting silicon detectors for two-dimensional detection and silicon drift detectors for spectroscopy and higher-energy beamlines will use scintillators coupled to cameras or photomultiplier tubes. Longer-term developments include ‘high-Z’ semiconductors for detecting high-energy X-rays, photon-counting readout chips with smaller pixels and higher frame rates and pixellated avalanche photodiodes for time-resolved experiments.


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