Search Results
Photoluminescence at room temperature of liquid-phase crystallized silicon on glass
2016, Vetter, Michael, Schwuchow, Anka, Andrä, Gudrun
The room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectrum due band-to-band recombination in an only 8 μm thick liquid-phase crystallized silicon on glass solar cell absorber is measured over 3 orders of magnitude with a thin 400 μm thick optical fiber directly coupled to the spectrometer. High PL signal is achieved by the possibility to capture the PL spectrum very near to the silicon surface. The spectra measured within microcrystals of the absorber present the same features as spectra of crystalline silicon wafers without showing defect luminescence indicating the high electronic material quality of the liquid-phase multi-crystalline layer after hydrogen plasma treatment.
Excited-state relaxation of hydrated thymine and thymidine measured by liquid-jet photoelectron spectroscopy: experiment and simulation
2015, Buchner, Franziska, Nakayama, Akira, Yamazaki, Shohei, Ritze, Hans-Hermann, Lübcke, Andrea
Time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy is performed on thymine and thymidine in aqueous solution to study the excited-state relaxation dynamics of these molecules. We find two contributions with sub-ps lifetimes in line with recent excited-state QM/MM molecular dynamics simulations (J. Chem. Phys.2013, 139, 214304). The temporal evolution of ionization energies for the excited ππ* state along the QM/MM molecular dynamics trajectories were calculated and are compatible with experimental results, where the two contributions correspond to the relaxation paths in the ππ* state involving different conical intersections with the ground state. Theoretical calculations also show that ionization from the nπ* state is possible at the given photon energies, but we have not found any experimental indication for signal from the nπ* state. In contrast to currently accepted relaxation mechanisms, we suggest that the nπ* state is not involved in the relaxation process of thymine in aqueous solution.
Using the third state of matter: High harmonic generation from liquid targets
2014, Heissler, P., Lugovoy, E., Hörlein, R., Waldecker, L., Wenz, J., Heigoldt, M., Khrennikov, K., Karsch, S., Krausz, F., Abel, B., Tsakiris, G.D.
High harmonic generation on solid and gaseous targets has been proven to be a powerful platform for the generation of attosecond pulses. Here we demonstrate a novel technique for the XUV generation on a smooth liquid surface target in vacuum, which circumvents the problem of low repetition rate and limited shot numbers associated with solid targets, while it maintains some of its merits. We employed atomically smooth, continuous liquid jets of water, aqueous salt solutions and ethanol that allow uninterrupted high harmonic generation due to the coherent wake emission mechanism for over 8 h. It has been found that the mechanism of plasma generation is very similar to that for smooth solid target surfaces. The vapor pressure around the liquid target in our setup has been found to be very low such that the presence of the gas phase around the liquid jet could be neglected.
A liquid flatjet system for solution phase soft-x-ray spectroscopy
2015, Ekimova, Maria, Quevedo, Wilson, Faubel, Manfred, Wernet, Philippe, Nibbering, Erik T. J.
We present a liquid flatjet system for solution phase soft-x-ray spectroscopy. The flatjet set-up utilises the phenomenon of formation of stable liquid sheets upon collision of two identical laminar jets. Colliding the two single water jets, coming out of the nozzles with 50 μm orifices, under an impact angle of 48° leads to double sheet formation, of which the first sheet is 4.6 mm long and 1.0 mm wide. The liquid flatjet operates fully functional under vacuum conditions (<10(-3) mbar), allowing soft-x-ray spectroscopy of aqueous solutions in transmission mode. We analyse the liquid water flatjet thickness under atmospheric pressure using interferomeric or mid-infrared transmission measurements and under vacuum conditions by measuring the absorbance of the O K-edge of water in transmission, and comparing our results with previously published data obtained with standing cells with Si3N4 membrane windows. The thickness of the first liquid sheet is found to vary between 1.4-3 μm, depending on the transverse and longitudinal position in the liquid sheet. We observe that the derived thickness is of similar magnitude under 1 bar and under vacuum conditions. A catcher unit facilitates the recycling of the solutions, allowing measurements on small sample volumes (∼10 ml). We demonstrate the applicability of this approach by presenting measurements on the N K-edge of aqueous NH4 (+). Our results suggest the high potential of using liquid flatjets in steady-state and time-resolved studies in the soft-x-ray regime.
Highly efficient enantioselective liquid-liquid extraction of 1,2-amino-alcohols using SPINOL based phosphoric acid hosts
2017, Pinxterhuis, Erik B., Gualtierotti, Jean-Baptiste, Heeres, Hero J., de Vries, Johannes G., Feringa, Ben L.
Access to enantiopure compounds on large scale in an environmentally friendly and cost-efficient manner remains one of the greatest challenges in chemistry. Resolution of racemates using enantioselective liquid-liquid extraction has great potential to meet that challenge. However, a relatively feeble understanding of the chemical principles and physical properties behind this technique has hampered the development of hosts possessing sufficient resolving power for their application to large scale processes. Herein we present, employing the previously untested SPINOL based phosphoric acids host family, an in depths study of the parameters affecting the efficiency of the resolution of amino-alcohols in the optic of further understanding the core principles behind ELLE. We have systematically investigated the dependencies of the enantioselection by parameters such as the choice of solvent, the temperature, as well as the pH and bring to light many previously unsuspected and highly intriguing interactions. Furthermore, utilizing these new insights to our advantage, we developed novel, highly efficient, extraction and resolving protocols which provide remarkable levels of enantioselectivity. It was shown that the extraction is catalytic in host by demonstrating transport in a U-tube and finally it was demonstrated how the solvent dependency could be exploited in an unprecedented triphasic resolution system.
Chiral Spin Liquid Ground State in YBaCo3FeO7
2022, Schweika, W., Valldor, M., Reim, J.D., Rößler, U.K.
A chiral spin liquid state is discovered in the highly frustrated, noncentrosymmetric swedenborgite compound YBaCo3FeO7, a layered kagome system of hexagonal symmetry, by advanced polarized neutron scattering from a single domain crystalline sample. The observed diffuse magnetic neutron scattering has an antisymmetric property that relates to its specific chirality, which consists of three cycloidal waves perpendicular to the c axis, forming an entity of cylindrical symmetry. Chirality and symmetry agree with relevant antisymmetric exchanges arising from broken spatial parity. Applying a Fourier analysis to the chiral interference pattern, with distinction between kagome sites and the connecting trigonal interlayer sites of threefold symmetry, the chiral spin correlation function is determined. Characteristic chiral waves originate from the trigonal sites and extend over several periods in the kagome planes. The chiral spin liquid is remarkably stable at low temperatures despite strong antiferromagnetic spin exchange. The observation raises a challenge, since the commonly accepted ground states in condensed matter either have crystalline long-range order or form a quantum liquid. We show that, within the classical theory of magnetic order, a disordered ground state may arise from chirality. The present scenario, with antisymmetric exchange acting as a frustrating gauge background that stabilizes local spin lumps, is similar to the avoided phase transition in coupled gauge and matter fields for subnuclear particles.
Stability studies of ionic liquid [EMIm][NTf2] under short-term thermal exposure
2016, Neise, Christin, Rautenberg, Christine, Bentrup, Ursula, Beck, Martin, Ahrenberg, Mathias, Schick, Christoph, Keßler, Olaf, Kragl, Udo
Ionic liquids (ILs) as new media for synthesis and as functional fluids in technical applications are still of high interest. Cooling a steel component from an annealing temperature of nearly 850 °C down to room temperature in a liquid bath is a technically important process. The use of ionic liquids offers advantages avoiding film boiling of the quenching medium. However, such a high immersion temperature exceeds the thermal stability of the IL, for example such as [EMIm][NTf2]. To obtain information about formation of potential toxic decomposition products, potential fragments at varied states of decomposition of [EMIm][NTf2] were studied by various spectroscopic and gravimetric methods. For the first time it was possible to quantify fluorine-containing products via mass spectrometry coupled directly with thermogravimetric (TG) measurements. While chemical and spectroscopic analysis of thermally stressed ILs revealed no hints concerning changes of composition after quenching hot steel for several times, the mass-spectrometer (MS) coupled TG analysis gives information by comparing the decomposition behaviour of fresh and used ILs. A number of fragments were detected in low amounts confirming the proposed decomposition mechanism.
Dynamics of droplet formation at T-shaped nozzles with elastic feed lines
2010, Malsch, D., Gleichmann, N., Kielpinski, M., Mayer, G., Henkel, T., Mueller, D., Van Steijn, V., Kleijn, C.R., Kreutzer, M.T.
We describe the formation of water in oil droplets, which are commonly used in lab-on-a-chip systems for sample generation and dosing, at microfluidic T-shaped nozzles from elastic feed lines. A narrow nozzle forms a barrier for a liquid-liquid interface, such that pressure can build up behind the nozzle up to a critical pressure. Above this critical pressure, the liquid bursts into the main channel. Build-up of pressure is possible when the fluid before the nozzle is compressible or when the channel that leads to the nozzle is elastic. We explore the value of the critical pressure and the time required to achieve it. We describe the fluid flow of the sudden burst, globally in terms of flow rate into the channel and spatially resolved in terms of flow fields measured using micro-PIV. A total of three different stages-the lag phase, a spill out phase, and a linear growth phase-can be clearly discriminated during droplet formation. The lag time linearly scales with the curvature of the interface inside the nozzle and is inversly proportional to the flow rate of the dispersed phase. A complete overview of the evolution of the growth of droplets and the internal flow structure is provided in the digital supplement. © The Author(s) 2009.
Intercalant-mediated Kitaev exchange in Ag3LiIr2O6
2022, Yadav, Ravi, Reja, Sahinur, Ray, Rajyavardhan, van den Brink, Jeroen, Nishimoto, Satoshi, Yazyev, Oleg V.
The recently synthesized Ag3LiIr2O6 has been proposed as a Kitaev magnet in proximity to the quantum spin liquid phase. We explore its microscopic Hamiltonian and magnetic ground state using many-body quantum chemistry methods and exact diagonalization techniques. Our calculations establish a dominant bond dependent ferromagnetic Kitaev exchange between Ir sites and find that the inclusion of Ag 4d orbitals in the configuration interaction calculations strikingly enhances the Kitaev exchange. Furthermore, using exact diagonalization of the nearest-neighbor fully anisotropic J−K−Γ Hamiltonian, we obtain the magnetic phase diagram as a function of further neighbor couplings. We find that the antiferromagnetic off-diagonal coupling stabilizes long range order, but the structure factor calculations suggest that the material is very close to the quantum spin liquid phase and the ordered state can easily collapse into a liquid by small perturbations such as structural distortion or bond disorder.
Nanoscopic interactions of colloidal particles can suppress millimetre drop splashing
2021, Thoraval, Marie-Jean, Schubert, Jonas, Karpitschka, Stefan, Chanana, Munish, Boyer, François, Sandoval-Naval, Enrique, Dijksman, J. Frits, Snoeijer, Jacco H., Lohse, Detlef
The splashing of liquid drops onto a solid surface is important for a wide range of applications, including combustion and spray coating. As the drop hits the solid surface, the liquid is ejected into a thin horizontal sheet expanding radially over the substrate. Above a critical impact velocity, the liquid sheet is forced to separate from the solid surface by the ambient air, and breaks up into smaller droplets. Despite many applications involving complex fluids, their effects on splashing remain mostly unexplored. Here we show that the splashing of a nanoparticle dispersion can be suppressed at higher impact velocities by the interactions of the nanoparticles with the solid surface. Although the dispersion drop first shows the classical transition from deposition to splashing when increasing the impact velocity, no splashing is observed above a second higher critical impact velocity. This result goes against the commonly accepted understanding of splashing, that a higher impact velocity should lead to even more pronounced splashing. Our findings open new possibilities to deposit large amount of complex liquids at high speeds.