Engineering of defects in fast neutron irradiated synthetic diamonds

Chemical vapor deposited (CVD) diamonds have been irradiated with fast reactor neutrons at fluencies F = 1·1018 and 3 · 1018 cm-2 and then heated at temperatures up to 1600 °C. The processes of annealing in and annealing out of various complexes of intrinsic defects responsible for vibrational and electron-vibrational bands in the IR absorption spectra have been studied in detail. Some tens of local vibrational modes and zero-phonon lines with rather small width caused by numerous complexes of intrinsic defects were observed in the 400-11000 cm-1 range.

Coupled Substitutions in Natural MnO(OH) Polymorphs: Infrared Spectroscopic Investigation

Solid solutions involving natural Mn3+O(OH) polymorphs, groutite, manganite, and feitknechtite are characterized and discussed based on original and literature data on the chemical composition, powder and single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and middle-range IR absorption spectra of these minerals. It is shown that manganite forms two kinds of solid-solution series, in which intermediate members have the general formulae (i) (Mn4+, Mn3+)O(OH,O), with pyrolusite as the Mn4+O2 end-member, and (ii) (Mn3+, M2+)O(OH, H2O), where M = Mn or Zn. In Zn-substituted manganite from Kapova Cave, South Urals, Russia, the Zn2+:Mn3+ ratio reaches 1:1 (the substitution of Mn3+ with Zn2+ is accompanied by the coupled substitution of OH− with H2O). Groutite forms solid-solution series with ramsdellite Mn4+O2. In addition, the incorporation of OH− anions in the 1 × 2 tunnels of ramsdellite is possible. Feitknechtite is considered to be isostructural with (or structurally related to) the compounds (M2+, Mn3+)(OH, O)2 (M = Mn, Zn) with a pyrochroite-related layered structure.

Carotenoids Do Not Protect Bacteriochlorophylls in Isolated Light-Harvesting LH2 Complexes of Photosynthetic Bacteria from Destructive Interactions with Singlet Oxygen

The effect of singlet oxygen on light-harvesting (LH) complexes has been studied for a number of sulfur (S+) and nonsulfur (S−) photosynthetic bacteria. The visible/near-IR absorption spectra of the standard LH2 complexes (B800-850) of Allochromatium (Alc.) vinosum (S+), Rhodobacter (Rba.) sphaeroides (S−), Rhodoblastus (Rbl.) acidophilus (S−), and Rhodopseudomonas (Rps.) palustris (S−), two types LH2/LH3 (B800-850 and B800-830) of Thiorhodospira (T.) sibirica (S+), and an unusual LH2 complex (B800-827) of Marichromatium (Mch.) purpuratum (S+) or the LH1 complex from Rhodospirillum (Rsp.) rubrum (S−) were measured in aqueous buffer suspensions in the presence of singlet oxygen generated by the illumination of the dye Rose Bengal (RB). The content of carotenoids in the samples was determined using HPLC analysis. The LH2 complex of Alc. vinosum and T. sibirica with a reduced content of carotenoids was obtained from cells grown in the presence of diphenylamine (DPA), and LH complexes were obtained from the carotenoidless mutant of Rba. sphaeroides R26.1 and Rps. rubrum G9. We found that LH2 complexes containing a complete set of carotenoids were quite resistant to the destructive action of singlet oxygen in the case of Rba. sphaeroides and Mch. purpuratum. Complexes of other bacteria were much less stable, which can be judged by a strong irreversible decrease in the bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) absorption bands (at 850 or 830 nm, respectively) for sulfur bacteria and absorption bands (at 850 and 800 nm) for nonsulfur bacteria. Simultaneously, we observe the appearance of the oxidized product 3-acetyl-chlorophyll (AcChl) absorbing near 700 nm. Moreover, a decrease in the amount of carotenoids enhanced the spectral stability to the action of singlet oxygen of the LH2 and LH3 complexes from sulfur bacteria and kept it at the same level as in the control samples for carotenoidless mutants of nonsulfur bacteria. These results are discussed in terms of the current hypothesis on the protective functions of carotenoids in bacterial photosynthesis. We suggest that the ability of carotenoids to quench singlet oxygen (well-established in vitro) is not well realized in photosynthetic bacteria. We compared the oxidation of BChl850 in LH2 complexes of sulfur bacteria under the action of singlet oxygen (in the presence of 50 μM RB) or blue light absorbed by carotenoids. These processes are very similar: {[BChl + (RB or carotenoid) + light] + O2} → AcChl. We speculate that carotenoids are capable of generating singlet oxygen when illuminated. The mechanism of this process is not yet clear.

Composite Membranes with a Cellulose Acetate Working Layer on a Nylon Substrate

Membrane technologies are currently among the most demanded. This is evidenced by their variety and a wide range of membrane applications in the most topical areas of human life. This work proposes a simple and inexpensive method for producing composite membranes for ultrafiltration and nanofiltration with a surface layer of cellulose acetate for water purification and water treatment processes. A nylon microfiltration membrane was used as a membrane base. The surface layer was obtained by immersion in a solution of cellulose acetate in acetone. Composite membranes with different retention properties were obtained depending on the number of deposited layers. The resulting membranes were examined for total porosity, water absorption, cellulose acetate content, contact angle, and IR absorption spectra. The specific productivity of the obtained membranes with respect to distilled water was also established.

Identification of Pink-Coloured CVD Synthetic Diamonds from Huzhou Sino-C Semiconductor Co. in China

In recent years, increasing numbers of pink-coloured CVD synthetic diamonds have appeared on the market. One of the major sources is Huzhou SinoC Semiconductor Science and Technology Co., Ltd., Zhejiang province of China. In this article, seven pink-coloured CVD-grown diamonds produced in the last two years by Huzhou have been investigated and identified, including their gemological and spectroscopic characteristics. In DiamondView, they fluoresced orange–red, with an obscure striated growth structure, which is common for CVD synthetics. The mid-IR absorption spectra of these samples showed some single nitrogen and hydrogen-related features (1130, 1344, 3123, 3323 cm−1), which indicated that the diamonds were type Ib and were CVD-grown diamonds. The H1a defect annealed out at approximately 1400 °C, whereas the 3107 cm−1 defect was produced by annealing above 1700 or 1800 °C. This implied that the samples had undergone two separate heat treatments: first, a high-temperature anneal (possibly an HPHT treatment to reduce any brown colour), which would have produced the 3107 cm−1 defects and a small number of A centres, followed by irradiation, followed by annealing above 800 °C to make the vacancies mobile. The UV–Vis–NIR absorption spectra showed distinct NV-related features (575 and 637 nm), the main reason for the pink colour. Photoluminescence spectra obtained at liquid nitrogen temperature recorded radiation-related emissions (388.9, 503.5 nm), a strong N-V centre, H3 and H2 defects, and many unassigned emissions. These pink CVD products can be separated from natural and treated pink-coloured diamonds by a combination of optical spectroscopic properties, such as fluorescence colour, and absorption features in the infrared and UV–Vis regions.

1D and 2D polaritons in macroporous silicon structures with nano-coatings

In this paper, we used high-resolution IR absorption spectra to investigate 1D and 2D polaritons in periodical 2D macroporous silicon structures with nano-coatings of SiO2 and CdS, ZnO nanoparticles. The application of high-resolution IR absorption spectroscopy resulted in detection of dipole-active TO vibrations, photon splitting and giant two-polar absorption oscillations with amplitudes of ±107arb.un. As a result, the dispersion law in yz surfaces of macropores change to z direction along macropores. It means additional degree of freedom as vertically polarized light in z direction and horizontally polarized light in x direction resulted in beams splitting and two-photon interference - Hong-Ou-Mandel effect. In our case, 2D resonances of Wannier-Stark electro-optical effect in yz plane correspond to constructive interference of the two-photon states (bosonic behavior), and two-polar resonances in ±z direction are determined by destructive interference of the two-photon states (fermionic behavior). Two-polar oscillations of 1D -polaritons have the ultra-small half-width 0.4–0.6 сm–1 and minimal Rabi frequency of samples 1.0 сm–1 equaled to the resolution of spectral measurements. Furthermore, two-photon interference and 1D polaritons are perspective for high-coherent optical quantum computers on macroporous silicon with nano-coatings and, in addition, for lasers and new metamaterials.