[en] The authors report on two observations made over the Caribbean during the summer of 1991 of barium ion cloud releases, ten hours after the clouds were released. One release was made in the morning twilight, and one in the evening twilight, and each was observed again in the following twilight period by a low light level TV imager and a TV spectrograph onboard a Russian research vessel. These observations were very surprising at the time, but the authors present arguments as to why in retrospect they may not be so unusual in practise. Such cloud releases may provide very sensitive tests of ionspheric convection models

[en] Ba_2.98-xSr_xEu_0.02MgSi₂O₈ (x ≤ 0.365) exhibited emission-color change when exposed to the light from a Xe arc-lamp. Blue emission observed from the above phosphors turned purple after the photostimulation because of 608-nm emission centers arising. The degree of the spectral change monotonically decreased with increasing Sr-replacement x, and became undetectable when x exceeded 0.490. This x value coincided with that dividing the structural symmetry between P $\overline{3}$ (Z = 3) and P$\overline{3}$m1 (Z = 1). This coincidence indicates that structural distortion caused by B-site Ba²⁺ ions contributes to the photostimulated emission-color change of the Eu²⁺-doped glaserite-type alkali-earth magnesium silicates.

[en] We have developed a vacuum chamber and control system for rapid testing of microfabricated surface ion traps. Our system is modular in design and is based on an in-vacuum printed circuit board with integrated filters. We have used this system to successfully trap and cool barium ions and have achieved ion ‘dark' lifetimes of 31.6 s ± 3.4 s with controlled shuttling of ions. We provide a detailed description of the ion trap system including the in-vacuum materials used, control electronics and neutral atom source. We discuss the challenges presented in achieving a system which can work reliably over two years of operations in which the trap under test was changed at least 10 times

[en] Heterogeneous exchange reaction of tri barium phosphate in barium chloride solution has been studied using ¹³³Ba as a tracer. The results show that the exchange fraction increases as barium chloride concentration increases for different mole ratio of the exchange ion on the solid surface and in the solution. The phenomenon was studied with respect to the previous treatment of the precipitate leading to different crystal sizes and the effect of reaction time. (author)

[en] Highlights: •Ba-substituted LaCoO₃ perovskites prepared by polymerized gel combustion method. •Φ affects the agglomeration grade, compacting, sintering behavior of the perovskites. •ZT-values reach maximum at 400–500 K temperature range. -- Abstract: Structural and thermoelectric transport properties of Ba²⁺ containing lanthanum cobaltate (La_1−xBa_xCoO₃; x = 0.01, 0.03, 0.05) prepared by soft chemistry method were investigated and discussed. The influence of the fuel-to-oxidizer ratio (Φ) of the redox mixture on the powder microstructure was studied. The agglomeration grade of the nanocrystalline perovskite phases can be influenced due to initial composition of the redox mixture. Since the different burning characteristic of the polymerized gels results in different xerogel structures, the as-calcined single phase perovskite samples show different compacting and sintering behavior. The thermoelectric transport properties were measured in the 300–1300 K temperature range. It was found that the electrical and thermal conductivity of the sintered pellets show strong dependence on microstructure. In addition increasing Ba²⁺ content in the samples results in lower thermal conductivity values (κ < 1.5 W/K m). The calculated dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) showed maximum value in the 400–500 K range

[en] Dielectronic recombination from a continuum of finite bandwidth has been examined down to very low electric fields, 60 mV/cm, with very high resolution. A tunable laser is used to excite atoms to the continuum of finite bandwidth, the broad Ba 6p_3/211d autoionizing state, which straddles the Ba⁺ 6p_1/2 limit. Atoms which make transitions into the high-lying Ba 6p_1/2nd states and radiatively decay to the bound 6snd states are detected by field ionization. The recombination, integrated over energy, has been measured for fields from 60 mV/cm to 28 V/cm, showing a peak at 0.5 V/cm, in agreement with expectation based on calculations done for other systems. The final-state distribution has been measured, showing that the outer electron remains a spectator in the radiative decay. At fields below 1.0 V/cm and binding energies less than 12 cm^-1 below the Ba⁺ 6p_1/2 limit we find a deviation of our experimental results from the isolated resonance approximation. copyright 1999 The American Physical Society

[en] An attempt is described to confine ions, created externally and accelerated to some energy, in an rf quadrupole trap. 4 keV Ba⁺ ions were stopped on a Ni foil, placed in an aperture of one trap electrode. The Ba then was evaporated from the heated foil and ionized by electron impact. At background pressure of about 10^-5 mbar of various light buffer gases (He, H₂, N₂), the trap was filled once with 10⁵ ions, at a minimum primary ion number of 10¹⁰. The storage time was 10 min. From the data obtained the possibility of spectroscopic experiments on rare isotopes, created with accelerators or nuclear reactors, is discussed. (orig.)

[en] The Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO) Collaboration is building a series of experiments to search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of ¹³⁶Xe. The first experiment, known as EXO-200, will utilize 200 kg of xenon enriched to 80% in the isotope of interest, making it the largest double beta decay experiment to date by one order of magnitude. This experiment is rapidly being constructed, and will begin data taking in 2007. The EXO collaboration is also developing a technique to identify on an event-by-event basis the daughter barium ion of the double beta decay. If successful, this method would eliminate all conventional radioactive backgrounds to the decay, resulting in an ideal experiment. We summarize here the current status of EXO-200 construction and the barium tag R and D program

[en] This thesis reports on the setup and application of an experimental apparatus for spectroscopic and quantum optical investigations of a single Barium ion in a Paul trap. The realization of the apparatus, which consists of the ion trap in ultra high vacuum, two laser systems, and a photon counting detection system, is described in detail, with particular consideration of the noise sources like stray light and laser frequency instabilities. The two lasers at 493 nm and 650 nm needed to continuously excite resonance fluorescence from the Barium ion have been realized using diode lasers only. The preparation of a single localized Barium ion is described, in particular its optical cooling with the laser light and the minimization of induced vibration in the trapping potential. The purely quantum mechanical property of antibunching is observed by measuring the intensity correlation function of resonance fluorescence from the trapped and cooled ion. Interference properties of the single ion resonance fluorescence are investigated with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. From the measured high-contrast interference signal it is proven that each individual fluorescence photon interferes with itself. The fluorescence excitation spectrum, on varying one laser frequency, is also measured and exhibits dark resonances. These measurements are compared to calculations based on optical Bloch equations for the 8 atomic levels involved. Future experiments, in particular the detection of reduced quantum fluctuations (squeezing) in one quadrature component of the resonance fluorescence, are discussed. (author)

[en] In the first part of the present work an analysis of filtergrams in the Ba II 4554 + 0.05 A arising in the temperature minimum region has been made, comparing the spatial spectrum of oscillations to theory. Using the same line, the second part studies the two-dimensional distribution of directions of horizontally running waves. (Auth.)