Steady-state Excitation Research Articles

Torsional vibration suppression of a gear-rotor system using an inerter magnet nonlinear energy sink

The novel inerter magnet nonlinear energy sink (IMNES) utilizes chiral compression-torsion coupling effects to achieve mass augmentation, effectively mitigating torsional vibrations in a gear-rotor system with gear meshing clearance. The positive stiffness generated by the piecewise linear beam combines with the negative stiffness produced by the permanent magnet pair, resulting in the establishment of the IMNES’s nonlinear stiffness. Subsequently, a dynamic model of the IMNES-gear-rotor system is developed. Optimal parameters for the IMNES are determined through analysis of vibrational response surfaces under both transient and steady-state conditions. The numerical calculation of torsional vibration in the IMNES-gear rotor system is conducted across various gear meshing clearances. The results demonstrate that across different gear mesh clearances, the IMNES effectively attenuates torsional vibrations in the gear-rotor system. Under transient excitation, implementation of the IMNES leads to an 87% reduction rate in displacement within the gear-rotor system. In terms of steady-state excitation, simulations show a significant enhancement with a 65% increase in vibration suppression percentage.

Dual Fluorescence and Phosphorescence Emissions from Dye-Modified (NCN)-Bismuth Pincer Thiolate Complexes.

We report the synthesis, characterization, and photophysical properties of four new dye-modified (NCN)Bi pincer complexes with two mercaptocoumarin or mercaptopyrene ligands. Their photophysical properties were probed by UV/vis spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) studies, and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations. Absorption spectra of the complexes are dominated by mixed pyrene or coumarin π → π*/n(pS) → pyrene or coumarin π* transitions. While unstable toward reductive elimination of the corresponding disulfide under irradiation at room temperature, the complexes provide stable emissions at 77 K. Under these conditions, coumarin complexes 2 and 4 exhibit exclusively green phosphorescence at 508 nm. In contrast, the emissive properties of pyrene complexes 1 and 3 depend on the excitation wavelength and on sample concentration. Irradiation into the lowest-energy absorption band exclusively triggers red phosphorescence from the pyrenyl residues at 640 nm. At concentrations c < 1 μM, excitation into higher excited electronic states results in blue pyrene fluorescence. With increasing c (1-100 μM), the emission profile changes to dual fluorescence and phosphorescence emission, with a steady increase of the phosphorescence intensity, until at c ≥ 1 mM only red phosphorescence ensues. Progressive red-shifts and broadening of steady-state excitation spectra with increasing sample concentration suggest the presence of static excimers, as we observe it for concentrated solutions of pyrene. Crystalline and powdered samples of 1 indeed show intermolecular association through π-stacking. TD-DFT calculations on model dimers and a tetramer of 1 support the idea of aggregation-induced intersystem crossing (AI-ISC) as the underlying reason for this behavior.

Pulsed-Mode Magnetic Field Measurements with a Single Stretched Wire System.

In synchrotrons, accurate knowledge of the magnetic field generated by bending dipole magnets is essential to ensure beam stability. Measurement campaigns are necessary to characterize the field. The choice of the measurement method for such campaigns is determined by the combination of magnet dimensions and operating conditions and typically require a trade-off between accuracy and versatility. The single stretched wire (SSW) is a well-known, polyvalent method to measure the integral field of magnets having a wide range of geometries. It, however, requires steady-state excitation. This work presents a novel implementation of this method called pulsed SSW, which allows the system to measure rapidly time-varying magnetic fields, as is often needed, to save power or gain beam time. We first introduce the measurement principle of the pulsed SSW, followed by a combined strategy to calculate the absolute magnetic field by incorporating the classic DC SSW method. Using a bending magnet from the Proton Synchrotron Booster located at the European Organization for Nuclear Research as a case study, we validate the pulsed SSW method and compare its dynamic measurement capabilities to a fixed induction coil, showing thereby how the coil calibration must be adjusted according to the field level. Finally, we assess the method's measurement accuracy using the standard SSW as a reference and present an analysis of the primary noise contributors.

Photoluminescence study of anatase TiO2 photocatalysts at the pico- and nanosecond timescales.

We studied the photoluminescence decay kinetics of three nanosized anatase TiO2 photocatalysts (particle diameter: 7, 25, or 200nm) at the pico- and nanosecond timescales for elucidating the origin of the luminescence. Luminescence spectra from these photocatalysts obtained under steady-state excitation conditions comprised green luminescence that decayed on the picosecond timescale and red luminescence that persisted at the nanosecond timescale. Among the photocatalysts with different sizes, there were marked differences in the rate of luminescence decay at the picosecond timescale (<600ps), although the spectral shapes were comparable. The similarity in the spectral shape indicated that self-trapped excitons (STEs) directly populated in the bulk of the particle by light excitation emit the luminescence in a picosecond timescale, and the difference in the rate of luminescence decay originated from the quenching at the particle surface. Furthermore, we theoretically considered excitation light intensity dependence on the quantum yield of the luminescence and found that the quenching reaction was not limited by the diffusion of the STEs but by the reaction at the particle surface. Both the spectral shape and time-evolution of the red luminescence from the deep trapped excitons in the nanosecond timescale varied among the photocatalysts, suggesting that the trap sites in different photocatalysts have different characteristics with respect to luminescence. Therefore, the relation between trap states and photocatalytic activity will be elucidated from the red luminescence study.

Upconversion luminescence through dynamically regulating the depletion of Ho3+: 5I6 level for speed sensing

In this work, a strategy for dynamically adjusting the upconversion luminescence (UCL) color of NaGdF4:Yb3+/Ho3+/Ce3+/Sc3+ is reported based on a phosphor wheel. It has been demonstrated that the rotation-dependent UCL mainly originated from the regulation of depletion mode for the Ho3+: 5I6 level. Due to the dominant linear decay, a high-pure red UCL is observed under the steady-state excitation. However, as the proportion of the steady-state excitation decreases, the green–red emission intensity ratio gradually increases, followed by the color conversion from red to green. An approximate physical model is proposed to understand the dependence of IG/IR on rotation speed. We not only report a UCL material that shows potential application in velocity sensing but also provide new insights into wheel-based dynamic UCL regulation.

Distributed active vibration control for helicopter based on diffusion collaboration

The active vibration control technology has been successfully applied to several helicopter types. However, with the increasing of control scale, traditional centralized control algorithms are experiencing significant increase of computational complexity and physical implementation challenging. To address this issue, a diffusion collaboration-based distributed Filtered-x Least Mean Square algorithm applied to active vibration control is proposed, drawing inspiration from the concept of data fusion in wireless sensor network. This algorithm distributes the computation load to each node, and constructs the active vibration control network topology of large-scale system by discarding the weak coupling secondary paths between nodes, achieving distributed active vibration control. In order to thoroughly validate the effectiveness and superiority of this algorithm, a helicopter fuselage model is designed as the research object. Firstly, the excellent vibration reduction performance of the proposed algorithm is confirmed through simulations. Subsequently, specialized node control units are developed, which utilize STM32 microcontroller as the processing unit. Further, a distributed control system is constructed based on multi-processor collaboration. Building on this foundation, a large-scale active vibration control experimental platform is established. Based on the platform, experiments are carried out, involving the 4-input 4-output system and the 8-input 8-output system. The experimental results demonstrate that under steady-state harmonic excitation, the proposed algorithm not only ensures control effectiveness but also reduces computational complexity by 50%, exhibiting faster convergence speed compared with traditional centralized algorithms. Under time-varying external excitation, the proposed algorithm demonstrates rapid tracking of vibration changes, with vibration amplitudes at all controlled points declining by over 94%, proving the strong robustness and adaptive capability of the algorithm.

Spectral analysis and kinetic modeling of radioluminescence in air and nitrogen.

In this article we present a quantitative analysis of the second positive system of molecular nitrogen and the first negative system of the molecular nitrogen cation excited in the presence of ionizing radiation. Optical emission spectra of atmospheric air and nitrogen surrounding 210Po sources were measured from 250 to 400 nm. Multi-Boltzmann and non-Boltzmann vibrational distribution spectral models were used to determine the vibrational temperature and vibrational distribution function of the emitting N2(C3Πu) and N2+(B2Σ+u) states. A zero-dimensional kinetic model, based on the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) and steady-state excitation and de-excitation of N2(X1Σ+g), N2+(B2Σ+u), N2+(X2Σ+g), N4+, O2+, and N2(C3Πu, v), was developed for the prediction of the relative spectral intensity of both the N2+(B2Σ+u → X2Σ+g) emission band and the vibrational bands of N2(C3Πu → B3Πg) for comparison with the experimental data.

Modeling of the hysteretic behavior of nonlinear particle damping by Fourier neural network with transfer learning

The particle damper (PD) filled with granular material exhibits hysteretic behavior under dynamic excitation, meaning that its response depends not only on the current excitation but also on its excitation history. The hysteresis loops of a PD vary with the excitation frequency due to its nonlinear nature. To model the particle damping hysteresis, this study proposes using neural networks (NN), which have a powerful ability to recognize such nonlinear relationships. However, NNs suffer from a long-standing issue called spectra bias, which means they tend to learn low-frequency components first and struggle to recognize high-frequency components. This is a problem for modeling PDs, which may involve high-frequency features in the target function. To address this issue, the recently developed theory of neural tangent kernel (NTK) revealed why NNs are perplexed by the spectra bias. Based on this theory, Fourier features embedding is proposed to expedite the learning of NNs on high-frequency features to extricate NNs from the shackle of spectra bias. After implementing the Fourier features embedding, an investigation on the use of transfer learning (TL), incorporated with the physics-informed neural network (PINN), is conducted to improve the proposed model’s performance. The concatenation of Fourier features embedding and TL formulates the proposed method, the Fourier features-embedded, transfer learning-incorporated physics-informed neural network (ff-TLPINN).The established surrogate model of the PD’s hysteretic response force under steady-state excitation covers a wide frequency range of 100–2000 Hz. The proposed model is validated using a dataset generated from the sweep-sinusoidal excitation and is shown to be more effective than a plain NN model. The study’s findings demonstrate the potential of using NNs to model the hysteresis of PDs and the effectiveness of using Fourier features embedding and TL to overcome the issue of spectra bias and improve the model’s performance. Overall, the proposed model provides a promising approach to accurately modeling the behavior of granular material-dilled PDs under dynamic excitation.

Time domain response analysis of multi-flow channel hydraulic mount

In order to analyze the effect of the combination of long and short inertia channels and orifice flow channels on the time domain response of hydraulic mounts. Firstly, six hydraulic mounts with different combinations of inertia channels and orifice flow channels are proposed. And then, the transfer functions of dynamic stiffness and upper chamber pressure for six structures of hydraulic mounts are derived using the lumped parameter method. Next, the time domain analytic formulas for the transfer force and upper chamber pressure for six structural hydraulic mounts under steady-state excitation and step excitation are obtained using the convolution method. Finally, the analytical formula is compared with the hydraulic mount’s model built by AMEsim; Meanwhile, the effects of inertia terms of inertia channels, damping, and damping of orifice flow channels on hydraulic mounts transfer forces are analyzed; Analyze the effect of transfer force variation and excitation amplitude on hydraulic mounts damping for different configurations of structures. Research shows that inertia channels and orifice flow channels directly affect the low-frequency dynamic characteristics of hydraulic mounts. At the same time, the effective damping height of the hydraulic mounts depends on the excitation amplitude.

Luminescence intensity-tunable X-ray scintillation based on zirconium-based metal-organic frameworks

The low-energy ultraviolet or visible photons can be produced by the interaction between the scintillator materials and ionizing radiation. For this reason, scintillator materials are widely used as radiation detectors, which are prevalently utilized in different applications such as nuclear medicine imaging, homeland security, high-energy physics, oil drilling explorations, etc. Herein, a high-atomic-number (Z) zirconium-based metal-organic framework nanoflower material CJLU-1 (Zr6(μ3-O)4(μ3-OH)4(OH)6(TCA)2(H2O)6) (H3TCA = tri-carboxylic acids 4,4′,4″-nitrilotribenzoic acid) was synthesized and can effectively convert X-ray into visible light. CJLU-1 is composed of secondary structural unit hexagonal Zr metal cluster and connected by TCA ligands. The photo luminescence spectra (PL) emission peak and excitation peak of CJLU-1 are at 470 nm and 395 nm respectively. CJLU-1 exhibited radioluminescence (RL) peak with a maximum at 480 nm under steady-state excitation with X-rays. Moreover, by accommodating different guest molecules such as xylene and RhB in the same MOF material, intensity-tunable X-ray scintillation can be facilely achieved, providing a new class of scintillating materials with luminescence intensity tunability. The high-Z hexagonal Zr clusters, which are arranged in an orderly fashion, absorb and interact with the ionizing radiation and sensitize the adjacent organic ligands TCA to produce efficient RL. This work contributes to the development of high-Z zirconium-based MOFs and RL intensity-tunable scintillation materials towards future practical nuclear sensing applications.

Improving near-infrared luminescence in Er3+ doped CsPbBr3 quantum dots glasses through a certain energy transfer process

Er3+ has received extensive attention due to its excellent optical properties, especially its emission at 1535 nm in atmospheric propagation window. Enhancement and regulation of 1535 nm emission of Er3+ is of great significance to optical communication. In this work, growing of CsPbBr3 QDs has been controlled through adjusting annealing time which would precisely regulate conduction band of CsPbBr3 QDs to match energy levels of Er3+ enabling energy transfer between Er3+ and CsPbBr3 QDs. By steady-state and transient PL emission and excitation spectroscopy, we reveal multiple energy transfer processes between Er3+ and CsPbBr3 QDs under different excitation wavelengths in Er3+ doped CsPbBr3 QDs glass: under higher energy excitation (∼378 nm), energy transfer from Er3+ to CsPbBr3 QDs and this extra energy within CsPbBr3 QDs decay via a non-radiative pathway; under lower energy excitation (∼524 nm), energy transfer from conduction band of CsPbBr3 QDs to 4S3/2 energy level of Er3+ which significantly enhances PL emission of Er3+ in near infrared region (∼1535 nm, 4I13/2 → 4I15/2). These results provide a facile approach to enhance and regulate PL emission of Er3+ in near infrared region.

Panchromatic Light-Capturing Bis-styryl BODIPY-Perylenediimide Donor-Acceptor Constructs: Occurrence of Sequential Energy Transfer Followed by Electron Transfer.

Two wide-band-capturing donor-acceptor conjugates featuring bis-styrylBODIPY and perylenediimide (PDI) have been newly synthesized, and the occurrence of ultrafast excitation transfer from the 1 PDI* to BODIPY, and a subsequent electron transfer from the 1 BODIPY* to PDI have been demonstrated. Optical absorption studies revealed panchromatic light capture but offered no evidence of ground-state interactions between the donor and acceptor entities. Steady-state fluorescence and excitation spectral recordings provided evidence of singlet-singlet energy transfer in these dyads, and quenched fluorescence of bis-styrylBODIPY emission in the dyads suggested additional photo-events. The facile oxidation of bis-styrylBODIPY and facile reduction of PDI, establishing their relative roles of electron donor and acceptor, were borne out by electrochemical studies. The electrostatic potential surfaces of the S1 and S2 states, derived from time-dependent DFT calculations, supported excited charge transfer in these dyads. Spectro-electrochemical studies on one-electron-oxidized and one-electron-reduced dyads and the monomeric precursor compounds were also performed in a thin-layer optical cell under corresponding applied potentials. From this study, both bis-styrylBODIPY⋅+ and PDI⋅- could be spectrally characterizes and were subsequently used in characterizing the electron-transfer products. Finally, pump-probe spectral studies were performed in dichlorobenzene under selective PDI and bis-styrylBODIPY excitation to secure energy and electron-transfer evidence. The measured rate constants for energy transfer, kENT , were in the range of 1011 s-1 , while the electron transfer rate constants, kET , were in the range of 1010 s-1 , thus highlighting their potential use in solar energy harvesting and optoelectronic applications.

Photophysics of 7-hydroxycoumarin 3-carboxylic acid in micelles

7-Hydroxy coumarin-3-carboxylic acid (7-HCCA) is a photoacid that exists in three distinct forms: neutral, anionic and di-anionic. It falls under the category of hydroxy aromatic and carboxy aromatic molecules. This molecule exhibits strong fluorescence and is commonly employed in the detection of hydroxyl radicals. In our study, we utilised absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy to investigate the photophysical behaviour of 7-HCCA in different micellar systems. Through our experiments, we observed that as we varied the pH within the ranges of 2–3, 4–6, 7–10, the three aforementioned forms of 7-HCCA are emerged. Specifically, in cationic surfactants, the dye displayed an equilibrium between two forms of the 7-HCCA in the ground state at any pH. Furthermore, our steady-state excitation studies also proved the presence of an equilibrium between two forms of the 7-HCCA in all cationic systems. By examining the steady-state emission spectra, we also observed the presence of two distinct species in the excited state. When cationic surfactants were introduced, we observed a decrease in the fluorescence intensity and quantum yield compared to that observed in the water medium. It was evident that the photophysical properties of 7-HCCA were modulated with variations of the chain length and head group of the surfactants. In summary, our investigation shed light on the photophysical characteristics of 7-HCCA in different micellar systems with varying the pH. By employing the absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, we successfully identified the coexistence of multiple forms of 7-HCCA and observed how the cationic surfactants influenced its fluorescence emission properties, ultimately contributing to a deeper understanding of its behaviour in these systems.

DeepKOA: a deep-learning model for predicting progression in knee osteoarthritis using multimodal magnetic resonance images from the osteoarthritis initiative.

No investigations have thoroughly explored the feasibility of combining magnetic resonance (MR) images and deep-learning methods for predicting the progression of knee osteoarthritis (KOA). We thus aimed to develop a potential deep-learning model for predicting OA progression based on MR images for the clinical setting. A longitudinal case-control study was performed using data from the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), composed of progressive cases [182 osteoarthritis (OA) knees with both radiographic and pain progression for 24-48 months] and matched controls (182 OA knees not meeting the case definition). DeepKOA was developed through 3-dimensional (3D) DenseNet169 to predict KOA progression over 24-48 months based on sagittal intermediate-weighted turbo-spin echo sequences with fat-suppression (SAG-IW-TSE-FS), sagittal 3D dual-echo steady-state water excitation (SAG-3D-DESS-WE) and its axial and coronal multiplanar reformation, and their combined MR images with patient-level labels at baseline, 12, and 24 months to eventually determine the probability of progression. The classification performance of the DeepKOA was evaluated using 5-fold cross-validation. An X-ray-based model and traditional models that used clinical variables via multilayer perceptron were built. Combined models were also constructed, which integrated clinical variables with DeepKOA. The area under the curve (AUC) was used as the evaluation metric. The performance of SAG-IW-TSE-FS in predicting OA progression was similar or higher to that of other single and combined sequences. The DeepKOA based on SAG-IW-TSE-FS achieved an AUC of 0.664 (95% CI: 0.585-0.743) at baseline, 0.739 (95% CI: 0.703-0.775) at 12 months, and 0.775 (95% CI: 0.686-0.865) at 24 months. The X-ray-based model achieved an AUC ranging from 0.573 to 0.613 at 3 time points. However, adding clinical variables to DeepKOA did not improve performance (P>0.05). Initial visualizations from gradient-weighted class activation mapping (Grad-CAM) indicated that the frequency with which the patellofemoral joint was highlighted increased as time progressed, which contrasted the trend observed in the tibiofemoral joint. The meniscus, the infrapatellar fat pad, and muscles posterior to the knee were highlighted to varying degrees. This study initially demonstrated the feasibility of DeepKOA in the prediction of KOA progression and identified the potential responsible structures which may enlighten the future development of more clinically practical methods.

A track nonlinear energy sink with restricted motion for rotor systems

Aiming at the problem of vibration suppression performance of the traditional track nonlinear energy sink (TNES) is hindered by the energy threshold limitation, a track nonlinear energy sink with restricted motion (RM-TNES), which strategically staggers the dead-zone by incorporating permanent magnets, is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the structure and principles of the RM-TNES are introduced, and the effects of parameters are analyzed. Subsequently, the dynamic model for the rotor-RM-TNES system is developed, and the parameters of the RM-TNES are optimized using a genetic algorithm (GA). Furthermore, the vibration suppression effects of the RM-TNES and traditional TNES are compared and analyzed under steady-state and transient excitation. Finally, experimental studies are carried out on the coupled system. The results indicate that the vibration suppression performance of the traditional TNES is significantly limited at the dead-zone, yielding a vibration suppression rate of only 27.27% for the steady-state response. In contrast, the RM-TNES successfully suppresses vibrations, achieving vibration suppression rates of 77.08% in simulations and 64.04% in experiments under steady-state excitation.

Analytical Solution of Horizontal Dynamic Response of a Floating Pile Embedded in an Elastic–Poroelasitc-Layered Soil

The horizontal dynamic interaction problems of a floating pile with soil have received little attention from scholars in recent years. This paper first proposed an analytical solution for the dynamic characteristics of the floating pile subjected to horizontal steady-state excitation embedded in soil containing the groundwater table level. Based on Biot’s elastodynamic theory, the governing equations of the soil around the pile are obtained. By virtue of the Hankel transform technique and variable separation method, the shaft reactions and base resistances transferred from the soil are calculated and substituted into the dynamic equation of the floating pile derived by the Euler beam model. The dynamic impedance coefficient of the pile head in the frequency domain is obtained by using the transfer matrix method. Comparisons with the previous studies are performed to validate the accuracy of the presented approach. The effects of the thickness of the pile end soil, the slenderness ratio of the pile, the groundwater table level and the relative modulus of pile material on the pile dynamic response are investigated through several numerical analyses. The results show that there is an “active soil thickness” for the horizontal dynamic forced floating piles due to the reflection and refraction of the stand waves. Meanwhile, the effect of the groundwater table level should not be neglected to ensure the safety of pile foundation under service life.

Modeling and efficiency maximization of magnetostrictive energy harvester under free vibration

Vibration energy harvesting is becoming increasingly attractive in line with the development of wireless sensor technologies. Magnetostrictive materials inherently exhibit high mechanical strength and are thus suitable for various applications and mass manufacturing of energy harvesting devices. Many studies have been conducted to increase the output power of harvesters, and some utilized analytical methods. However, the optimization methods often take into account only the resonant frequency of the system under forced vibration. These models can produce correct predictions only when steady-state harmonic excitation inputs are considered.In this study, we propose the modeling and optimization method for a cantilever-type magnetostrictive harvester under free vibration. The cantilever has a double-beam structure composed of two parallel Fe-Ga beams with pickup coils. In the modeling, the shape function of the cantilever-type magnetostrictive energy harvester was derived based on the continuity of the internal force and magnetic flux. Hamilton’s principle for an electromagnetic-mechanically coupled system was derived from the virtual work principle. The equation of motion, magnetic circuit equation, and electric circuit equation of the system were respectively derived from the corresponding Euler–Lagrange equations. The harvestable energy of the magnetostrictive energy harvester was calculated by using the symmetric property of eigenvalues. In the efficiency maximization of the harvestable energy, we found that the optimal solution differs depending on the type of given energy. The optimal parameters to maximize the energy efficiency to potential energy and kinetic energy are respectively derived in the form of algebraic solutions. Experimental validation was conducted by measuring the energy harvesting efficiency at different loads.

Modified luminescent properties from green afterglow to efficient orange emission in zirconium-based organometallic chloride scintillator by Sb3+ doping

Zero-dimension (0D) metal halides based on metals with the 5s2 lone pair have attracted great attentions due to their strong triplet broadband emission. However, the conversion from weak afterglow to efficient and fast photoluminescence by regulating the composition of 0D metal halides is still a tough challenge. Herein, Sb3+ ions-doped 0D (Ph4P)2ZrCl6·4CH3CN metal halides were synthesized by a simple solution crystallization method. Compared with the weak triplet green 560 nm afterglow from the organic Ph4P+ components, the emission of the Sb3+-doped material exhibits a strong orange photoluminescence at 660 nm with a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 72% by a host to dopant energy transfer process. In addition, a flexible large-sized X-ray scintillator screen with an area of 16 cm2 was prepared using polydimethylsiloxane as the host matrix, which exhibits excellent scintillation properties with light yields of 8,290 photons/MeV, low detectable limits of 0.986 μGy/s, and a near-infrared broadband emission from 600 nm to 850 nm under steady-state X-ray excitation, which is highly compatible with the response range of the long-wave sensitive silicon-based photodetectors. Therefore, this work not only provides a deep insight into the energy transfer process in the 0D metal halide materials but also opens an alternative approach to realize flexible large-size near-infrared X-ray imaging based on the 0D metal halide scintillator.

Temperature-Dependent and Time-Resolved Luminescence Characterization of γ-Ga2O3 Nanoparticles.

The temperature-dependent luminescence properties of γ-Ga2O3 nanoparticles prepared by a precipitation method are investigated under steady-state and pulsed-light excitation. The main photoluminescence (PL) emission at room temperature consists of a single blue band centered around 2.76 eV, which hardly undergoes a blueshift of 0.03 eV when temperature goes down to 4 K. The emission behaves with a positive thermal quenching following an Arrhenius-type curve. The data fitting yields two non-radiative levels affecting the emission band with activation energies of 7 meV and 40 meV. On the other hand, time-resolved PL measurements have also been taken and studied as a function of the temperature. The data analysis has resulted in two lifetimes: one of 3.4 ns and the other of 32 ns at room temperature, which undergo an increase up to 4.5 ns and 65 ns at T = 4 K, respectively. Based on both stationary and dynamic PL results, a model of radiative and non-radiative levels associated with the main emission bands of γ-Ga2O3 is suggested. Finally, by using PL excitation measurements, an estimation of the bandgap and its variation with temperature between 4 K and room temperature were obtained and assessed against O'Donnell-Chen's law. With this variation it has been possible to calculate the average of the phonon energy, resulting in ⟨ħω⟩ = 10 ± 1 meV.

Nature of Linear Spectral Properties and Fast Relaxations in the Excited States and Two-Photon Absorption Efficiency of 3-Thiazolyl and 3-Phenyltiazolyl Coumarin Derivatives.

Coumarin-based fluorescent agents play an important role in the manifold fundamental scientific and technological areas and need to be carefully studied. In this research, linear photophysics, photochemistry, fast vibronic relaxations, and two-photon absorption (2PA) of the coumarin derivatives, methyl 4-[2-(7-methoxy-2-oxo-chromen-3-yl)thiazol-4-yl]butanoate (1) and methyl 4-[4-[2-(7-methoxy-2-oxo-chromen-3-yl)thiazol-4-yl]phenoxy]butanoate (2), were comprehensively analyzed using stationary and time-resolved spectroscopic techniques, along with quantum-chemical calculations. The steady-state one-photon absorption, fluorescence emission, and excitation anisotropy spectra, as well as 3D fluorescence maps of 3-hetarylcoumarins 1 and 2 were obtained at room temperature in solvents of different polarities. The nature of relatively large Stokes shifts (∼4000-6000 cm-1), specific solvatochromic behavior, weak electronic π → π* transitions, and adherence to Kasha's rule were revealed. The photochemical stability of 1 and 2 was explored quantitatively, and values of photodecomposition quantum yields, on the order of ∼10-4, were determined. A femtosecond transient absorption pump-probe technique was used for the investigation of fast vibronic relaxation and excited-state absorption processes in 1 and 2, while the possibility of efficient optical gain was shown for 1 in acetonitrile. The degenerate 2PA spectra of 1 and 2 were measured by an open aperture z-scan method, and the maximum 2PA cross-sections of ∼300 GM were obtained. The electronic nature of the hetaryl coumarins was analyzed by quantum-chemical calculations using DFT/TD-DFT level of theory and was found to be in good agreement with experimental data.