ALBERT

Notes: The phenomenon of aerodynamic enrichment of heavy molecules seeded in supersonic free jets has been known since 1955. But its systematic exploitation in the generation of intensely focused molecular beams has been prevented by the lack of a quantitative and realistic explanation of the observed facts. Here, the aerodynamic focusing of CBr4, W(CO)6, and C2Cl6 molecules seeded in jets of He or H2 is studied experimentally, and found to be most singular under conditions similar to those known to produce sharply focused beams of microscopic spheres suspended in air jets. The gas mixture expands through thin-plate orifice into a vacuum chamber, forming a supersonic free jet. The spacial distribution of the heavy molecules in the jet is measured at varying distances L to the nozzle by scanning a thermocouple probe across a jet diameter. The probe is sufficiently small to interfere negligibly with the flow. The increment DV in the thermocouple voltage resulting from seeding the heavy gas on a given flow of He or H2 is seen to be a sensitive indicator of the local concentration of seed molecules in the jet. The following behavior is observed in terms of the same Stokes number or inertia parameter S that governs the simpler and better understood phenomenon of aerosol focusing. Below S=0.4 for H2 and S=0.2 for He, heavy molecule and aerosol beam widths are practically identical, and the boundary of the jet of heavy molecules is rather sharp. At higher values of S, aerosol beams show further reductionsin cross section, down to less than 10% of a nozzle throat diameter dn. In contrast, the measured heavy species minimal beam widths or waists at a distance L∼dn from the throat are around 0.5dn and 0.35 dn for jets of He and H2, respectively. In units of dn, these widths are several times larger than expected from elementary considerations on the defocusing effects due to Brownian motion (of the order of the square root of the molecular mass ratio between light and heavy molecules). Nonetheless, the thin-plate orifice nozzle yields considerably more concentrated jets of heavy gases than previously seen, with far-field enrichment factors for the seed species close to 50 in thecase of H2 jets. This technique, thus, appears to provide a greatly improved source for intense molecular beams. Aerodynamically focused beams have a sharp distribution of kinetic energies, being ideally suited for cross beam and beam surface studies. But they are not quite so optimal for spectroscopic studies because they require moderate source Reynolds numbers (of order 100), at which the heavy gas undergoes very little translational, rotational, or vibrational cooling.

Notes: YBa2Cu3O7 cylinders with 10%–20% of Y2BaCuO5 and 1% CeO2 additions have been directionally solidified under a temperature gradient. It is shown that a steady growth regime of domains, typically 1 cm in diameter, is established after polynucleation at the bottom of the cylinders on the substrate interface. The length of the region where a steady growth proceeds is limited by the liquid loss, which induces an enrichment in unreacted Y2BaCuO5 in the upper part of the cylinder and a polycrystalline structure. The vertical and lateral magnetic levitation forces and flux trapping profiles have been measured and a direct correlation with the size and location of the domains has been found. © 1996 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: Approximate scaling laws for the charge and size of the drops ejected from the apex of Taylor cones run in the cone-jet mode (electrospray) are now available for highly conducting electrolytes (10−4 S/m〈K〈1 S/m) electrosprayed at atmospheric pressure. In order to confirm that such laws do also apply to Taylor cones in vacuo, the current versus liquid flow rate curves I(Q) characteristic of a given liquid are investigated both in vacuum and in atmospheric pressure air. Although the sprays of drops differ profoundly in both cases, the two corresponding I(Q) curves are nearly identical for relatively involatile liquids such as tributyl phosphate. A discussion on the possible relation between the behavior of Taylor cones of electrolytes of organic liquids and liquid metal ion sources (K∼106 S/m) is attempted, yielding insights on the role of space charge. However, the electrical conductivity variable which dominates the behavior of liquid cones of electrolytes appears to be irrelevant in liquid metals. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: In this paper we present calculations of levitation forces between a cylindrical permanent magnet and a cylindrical superconductor using a commercial finite element program. Force limits for zero field cooled and field cooled processes have been obtained using the Meissner effect and the perfect pinning hypothesis, respectively. Comparison of the experimentally determined forces with respect to these limits provides a simple estimation of the sample quality. The hysteretical behavior of the forces has been reproduced assuming a critical state model for the superconductor. Results are compared with experimental data. Excellent agreement has been found for forces measured after zero field cooled process thus allowing us to estimate the critical current of the samples. As a further exploitation of the software capabilities we have investigated the effects of the superconducting sample geometry and the effects of different strategies of flux conditioning to optimize the levitation forces. © 1997 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: Over the past decades, intravital microscopy (IVM), the imaging of cells in living organisms, has become a valuable tool for studying the molecular determinants of lymphocyte trafficking. Recent advances in microscopy now make it possible to image cell migration and cell-cell interactions in vivo deep within intact tissues. Here, we summarize the principal techniques that are currently used in IVM, discuss options and tools for fluorescence-based visualization of lymphocytes in microvessels and tissues, and describe IVM models used to explore lymphoid and non-lymphoid organs. The latter will be introduced according to the physiologic itinerary of developing and differentiating T and B lymphocytes as they traffic through the body, beginning with their development in bone marrow and thymus and continuing with their migration to secondary lymphoid organs and peripheral tissues.

Notes: In this letter we report on the growth of thick films of magnetoresistive La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 films using a spray printing technique. The as-prepared films display a room-temperature magnetoresistance of 0.0012%/Oe in the 1 kOe field region. We will show that this field sensitivity is high enough to fabricate devices which, operated under a bias magnetic field, can be used as a sensitive and low-cost magnetic sensors. © 1996 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: The Boltzmann equations for a binary mixture of gases are considered in the asymptotic limit when their molecular weight ratio and the light gas Knudsen number are small quantities. A first mass-ratio expansion reduces the cross-collision operator of the light gas Boltzmann equation to a Lorentz form, uncoupling its kinetic behavior from that of the heavy gas. The light gas distribution function is then determined to first order in the Knudsen number, independently of the degree of nonequilibrium characterizing the heavy gas, whose influence is felt only through its hydrodynamic quantities. All transport coefficients arising are determined variationally for arbitrary interaction potentials using Sonine polynomial expansions as trial functions. A remarkable feature of this analysis is that it yields binary transport information (i.e., diffusion and thermal diffusion coefficients) from considering only the Boltzmann equation for the light gas. A second mass expansion reduces the cross-collision operator of the heavy gas equation to a Fokker–Planck form. The corresponding coefficients involve integrals over the light gas distribution function determined previously and are evaluated explicitly in terms of the hydrodynamic quantities and transport coefficients of the light gas. The heavy gas distribution function can be determined by solving a Fokker–Planck equation at dilutions large enough to make heavy–heavy collisions negligible, or by a new Knudsen number expansion when the molar fraction of the heavy gas is of order 1. In this latter case, the heavy gas kinetic behavior is independent of the light gas, being characterized by the same transport coefficients of the pure heavy gas. The problem is then reduced to a set of two-fluid hydrodynamic equations.

Notes: The phenomenon of ion evaporation from charged liquid surfaces is at the basis of electrospray ionization, a source of a stunning variety of gas phase ions. It is studied here by producing a monodisperse cloud of charged droplets and measuring the charge q and diameter dr of the residue particles left after complete evaporation of the solvent. When the droplets contain small monovalent dissolved ions, the electric field E on the surface of their solid residues is found to be independent of dr. One can thus argue that the source of small ions in electrospray ionization is field-emission, and not other proposed mechanisms such as Dole's charged residue model. A consequence of the observed independence of E on dr is that the rate of ion ejection is simply related to the rate of solvent evaporation, estimated here as that for a clean surface of pure solvent.The reduction G(E) brought about by the electric field E in the activation energy for ion evaporation has thus been inferred as a function of the measured field E in the range 1.5〈E(V/nm)〈3.25. It agrees surprisingly well with the so-called Schottky hump from the image potential model (IPM), GIPM=(e3E/4πε0)1/2. This remarkably simple result is paradoxical in view of two major objections raised earlier against the use of the IPM for ion evaporation from liquids. However, the correct mechanism (first introduced by Iribarne and Thomson) leading to an attractive interaction between the liquid surface and the escaping ion is not the creation of an image charge, but the polarization of the dielectric liquid by the ion. In the limit of a large dielectric constant ε(very-much-greater-than)1, the image force and the polarization force coincide numerically, though the later sets in much faster and is apparently free from the paradox raised by Röllgen. Also, the dielectric nature of the liquid and its strong screening of the net charges near its surface resolves another paradox raised by Fenn regarding the discrete distribution of charges. This screening also introduces a correction in the model proposed by Iribarne and Thomson for G(E), making its predictions virtually indistinguishable from those of GIPM(E). In conclusion, small ions observed in electrospray ionization are produced by field-emission. Measured ionization rates are well represented by results from a "polarization potential model'' which appears to be physically sound. These predictions coincide with those from the IPM in the limit ε(very-much-greater-than)1, the only case studied so far. © 1995 American Institute of Physics.