Nasser S. Alzayed

X-ray photoelectron spectrum, X-ray diffraction data, and electronic structure of chalcogenide quaternary sulfide Ag2In2GeS6: experiment and theory

We report measurements of the X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectrum on single crystals of Ag2In2GeS6. We also present first principles calculations of the band structure and density of states using the state-of-the-art full potential augmented plane wave method with different possible approximation for the exchange correlation potential. In this paper, we make a detailed comparison of the density of states deduced from the X-ray photoelectron spectra with our calculations. The theoretical results of the density of states are in reasonable agreement with the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (VB-XPS) measurements with respect to peak positions. The calculated density of states shows there is a strong hybridization between the states in the valence and conduction bands states. We have calculated the electron charge density distribution in the (100) and (110) planes. In the plane (100), there exists Ag, In, and S atoms, while the plane (110) Ag, S, and Ge atoms are present. The bonding properties are obtained from the charge density distributions. The calculation show that there is partial ionic and strong covalent bonding between Ag–S, In–S, and Ge–S atoms depending on Pauling electro-negativity difference of S (2.58), Ge (2.01), Ag (1.93), and In (31.78) atoms.

Enhanced magnetization of sol-gel synthesized Pb-doped strontium hexaferrites nanocrystallites at low temperature

Effect of Pb doping on the structural and low temperature magnetic properties of SrPbxFe12-xO19 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4), synthesized by sol-gel autocombustion technique, has been investigated. The powder samples were sintered at 800°C for 2 h in order to develop the stable hexagonal phase, characteristic of the SrFe12O19 structure. The consequences of Pb substitution (at iron sites) on various structural parameters like lattice constants, unit cell volume, crystallite size, and porosity have been discussed. Fourier transform infrared frequency bands were utilized to determine the formation of tetrahedral and octahedral clusters of M-type ferrites. Hexagonal texture of the grains, a characteristic of the hexagonal crystal structure of SrFe12O19, was refined by Pb substitution. The magnetic properties, determined using a vibrating sample magnetometer, revealed that saturation magnetization decreased, while coercivity was increased with the increase of Pb contents. However, the increased squareness ratio and hence the energy product motivate the utilization of these ferrite compositions where hard magnetic characteristics are required.The increased values of saturation magnetization were observed at reduced temperature of 200 K, attributable to the better spin alignments of individual magnetic moments at low temperature.

Microstructural and crystallographic imperfections of MgB2 superconducting wire and their correlation with the critical current density

A comprehensive study of the effects of structural imperfections in MgB2 superconducting wire has been conducted. As the sintering temperature becomes lower, the structural imperfections of the MgB2 material are increased, as reflected by detailed X-ray refinement and the normal state resistivity. The crystalline imperfections, caused by lattice disorder, directly affect the impurity scattering between the π and σ bands of MgB2, resulting in a larger upper critical field. In addition, low sintering temperature keeps the grain size small, which leads to a strong enhancement of pinning, and thereby, enhanced critical current density. Owing to both the impurity scattering and the grain boundary pinning, the critical current density, irreversibility field, and upper critical field are enhanced. Residual voids or porosities obviously remain in the MgB2, however, even at low sintering temperature, and thus block current transport paths.

OPTICALLY-OPERATED ELASTOOPTICAL EFFECTS IN POLYMER MATRICES WITH NANOCRYSTALLITES

We have found that the optical treatment by bicolor two laser beams at 1064 and 532 nm, at energy densities 80–120 mJ/cm2 originating from the same 10 ns Nd3+ garnett lasers causes the occurrence of the piezooptical effect in 50–80 nm γ-glicyne polymer nanocomposites at nanoparticle content about 6.5% in weighting unit. We propose to use this effect for optical triggers.

High temperature RF SQUID gradiometer applied to non-destructive testing

Abstract This paper reports the utilization of a high temperature superconducting (HTS) RF SQUID gradiometer in non-destructive testing (NDT). A two-hole HTS RF SQUID, capable of working in a noisy environment without any magnetic shielding, is employed as a gradiometer sensor without using flux transformer coils. This gradiometer, maintained at LN 2 temperature, is sensitive enough to detect small mock cracks in an aluminium alloy slab covered by another 25.4mm thick solid aluminium alloy slab. Such an NDT device should have a significant impact on metal fatigue detection technology and demonstrates an important practical usage of high temperature superconductors.

Experimental and theoretical study of the electronic structure and optical spectral features of PbIn6Te10

We present measurements of the optical properties of crystalline PbIn6Te10. The samples are grown in the form of parallelepipeds of size ∼5 × 3 × 0.3 mm3. The absorption coefficient α(hν) shows an exponential behavior with energy in the energy range 0.82–0.99 eV followed by an abrupt increase in the absorption from 1.07–1.13 eV. According to the analysis of the data, the indirect gap is 0.88 eV while the direct gap is 1.05 eV. We have used our own measured X-ray diffraction data of the atomic positions in the unit cell as the input for the first principles calculations. Using the generalized gradient approximation (PBE − GGA) within the full potential linear augmented plane wave (FPLAPW + lo) method, the atomic positions are relaxed so as to minimize the forces acting on the atoms. We have used this relaxed geometry to calculate the electronic structure and related ground state properties using PBE − GGA and a recently modified Becke–Johnson potential (mBJ) and mBJ with spin–orbit coupling (mBJ + soc). The analysis of band energy dispersion shows that the valence band maximum (VBM) is located at Γ symmetry points, while the conduction band minimum (CBM) is situated at the M symmetry point of the first Brillouin zone, resulting in an indirect energy band gap of about 0.5 eV (PBE − GGA), 0.8 eV (mBJ) and 0.5 eV (mBJ + soc). It is clear that mBJ succeeds by a large amount in bringing the calculated energy gap in good agreement with the measured energy gap of 0.9 eV. However the inclusion of spin–orbit coupling modifies strongly the CBM and reduces the band by 0.3 eV. The anisotropy of space charge density distribution is analyzed with respect to the charge density distribution.

Band Structure Simulations of the Photoinduced Changes in the MgB2:Cr Films

An approach for description of the photoinduced nonlinear optical effects in the superconducting MgB2:Cr2O3 nanocrystalline film is proposed. It includes the molecular dynamics step-by-step optimization of the two separate crystalline phases. The principal role for the photoinduced nonlinear optical properties plays nanointerface between the two phases. The first modified layers possess a form of slightly modified perfect crystalline structure. The next layer is added to the perfect crystalline structure and the iteration procedure is repeated for the next layer. The total energy here is considered as a varied parameter. To avoid potential jumps on the borders we have carried out additional derivative procedure.

Photoinduced spectra for magneto electric (1 − x)BiFeO3−xCuFe2O4 nanocomposites

In this work, we demonstrate possibility to use spectra of the parametrically tuned laser beam for operation by magnetoelectric properties of the (1-x)BiFeO(3-)(x)CuFe(2)O(4) (BFCI). The role of the photoexcited wavelength is crucial due to photoexcited phonons. It may indicate on a spectral sensitivity of the studied nanocomposites. We have studied spectral dependences of magneto-electric constant versus the magnetic field frequency for different sizes of the nanoparticles with and without the nanosecond laser pulses illumination and we have shown an occurrence of principal spectral shifts in the corresponding magneto-electric maxima. Additionally we have explored relative changes of dielectric permittivity and coercivity versus different photoinducing wavelengths. The performed experiments unambiguously show that the external laser treatment will lead to substantial shift of corresponding dielectric and magnetic parameters in the studied nanocomposites. It is principally the finding of clear spectral dependences for the mentioned dielectric and magnetic parameters. One can see their sensitivity to the photoinduced wavelength which reflects the photoexcitations of different part of wavelengths. One can see the spectral shift up to 100 nm for the two principal spectral maxima with respect to the dielectric and magnetic changes which may indicate on the two principally different contributions to the effects observed.

The role of sintering conditions on the superconducting parameters of MgB2

In this paper, we report the performance of MgB2 superconductor prepared in a wide range of sintering temperatures. Pristine MgB2 superconductor was prepared under the same conditions in one batch. The sintering temperatures are optimized to get the best superconducting parameters enhancing, especially critical current density. It was found that a low sintering temperature enhanced critical current density at the high magnetic region. Approximately the opposite of this effect was found in case of high sintering temperature. Crystallites size was increased with increasing of sintering temperature. It was found that smaller the crystallite size, higher was the value of critical current density. In addition, a slight increase in transition temperature was also observed as the sintering temperature was increased. High upper critical field values obtained at low sintering temperature were attributed to the strong grain boundary defects.

Laser induced infrared spectral shift of the MgB2:Cr superconductor films

During illumination of the MgB2:Cr2O3 films it was established substantial spectral shift of the infrared spectra in the vicinity of 20-50cm(-1). The excitations were performed by nanosecond Er:glass laser operating at 1.54μm and by microsecond 10.6μm CO2 laser. The spectral shifts of the IR maxima were in opposite spectral directions for the two types of lasers. This one observed difference correlates well with spectral shift of their critical temperatures. The possible explanation is given by performance of DFT calculations of the charge density redistribution and the time kinetics of the photovoltaic response. To understand the kinetics of the photoinduced processes the time kinetics of photoresponse was done for the particular laser wavelengths.