Vol 59, No 6 (2016)

A cluster type NEVOD-EAS setup is being constructed by the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI on the basis of the Unique Scientific Facility “Experimental Complex NEVOD”. The NEVODEAS setup is intended for the detection of extensive air showers (EASs) with energies in the region of the knee in the energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays (10¹⁵–10¹⁷ eV). The key elements of the setup are 192 particle detectors for EAS electron–photon and muon components. These detectors are composed of NE102A organic scintillators and Philips XP3462 photomultiplier tubes enclosed in pyramidal steel cases. The techniques used to investigate the characteristics of scintillator plates, photomultiplier tubes, and NEVOD-EAS detectors, as well as the results of this investigation, are discussed. All measurements have been taken using special testing facilities and the precision URAGAN muon hodoscope, with which it is possible to comprehensively investigate the nonuniformity of light collection in the detector (the dependence of the detector response on the location of the passage of a charged particle through its operating volume).

The on-chamber electronic system of a muon tomograph is described. The system is composed of an MT-48 48-channel front-end module and an RMT-48 fan-out module for the multiplication of control signals. The data-acquisition structure for the Muon Tomograph device is presented.

Charging and control system of a high-energy capacitor bank storage is described. The capacitor bank is used to supply power to magnetic coils in experiments on magnetic controlled fusion and in similar applications. The capacitor bank is composed of ten sections of 100 IK-6-150 capacitors (6 kV, 150 μF) each, connected in parallel with a total stored energy of as high as 2.7 MJ. Charging occurs using inverters and stepup transformers developed by the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics. The general description and functional diagrams of the energy storage are presented and the control electronics of the inverters is described in detail. The general control system of the capacitor bank is based on a programmable controller that performs the basic charging algorithm, off-line control of the operating parameters, and handling of various extraordinary situations. The capacitor bank is used in experiments on microwave plasma heating and maintains the magnetic field stability of ~2% during the whole plasma discharge (5 ms) with a current amplitude of up to 32 kA in the coils.

A spectroscopic complex for measuring the parameters of plasma jets that are generated in a facility of the plasma-focus type and the parameters of a stationary gas in which these jets propagate is described. The complex consists of an STE-1 crossed-dispersion spectrograph and a K008 streak camera, which is placed together with a notebook computer and a no-break power unit inside a shielding box for protection against electromagnetic noise. The K008 camera is equipped with an additional image intensifier on the basis of an EP-10 image-converter tube. The spectrum image is recorded with a standard SU-05M video camera and processed with the Klen-5m dedicated program, which automatically corrects the distortion and scan nonuniformities and subtracts regular noise. The complex makes it possible to obtain the time dependences of the intensities and shapes of several spectral lines in a range of scans from a few nanoseconds to milliseconds and to promptly tune the system to the required spectral ranges. Within one discharge of the facility, a digital image of the time-integral spectrum is simultaneously recorded in the entire visible region.

An experimental plasmochemical apparatus is described to study physical and chemical processes in gas flows with a wide range of physical states and parameters; knowledge about this is necessary when developing promising vacuum technologies. The equipment allows investigation of supersonic improperlyexpanded jets, interaction of jets with barriers, kinetics of discharge-initiated plasmochemical reactions, an ionic or electron beam in condensing flows of gases and gas mixtures, relaxation, cluster formation and condensation processes, as well as modeling a nozzle flow in a wide range of gas-dynamics parameters. The apparatus is equipped with modern measuring instrumentation and a set of optical, electronic, ionic, chromatographic, and mass-spectrometric systems.

A scheme for conducting an experiment on the irradiation of a hemispherical detector of micrometeoroids and space-garbage particles is described. The results of experiments to study the durations of the leading edge and the signal pulse from the detector as a function of the laser-power density are presented.

Proposed a method of measurements for both electrical field enhancement and size of near-field localization area for plasmonic antenna-probe. The method is based on optical modification of photosensitive sample. Shown the results of the proposed method and subdiffraction resolution of test image is demonstrated.

A mobile measuring cell was proposed and created using a focused ion beam as a nanoknife for measuring the electrical characteristics of individual nanowires and nanotubes by the four-wire method. The cell consists of two elements: the basic one, on whose surface a nanoconductor is deposited, and the auxiliary element that provides the electrical connection of the primary element to the wires of the external measuring circuit. Micro- and nanoscale wires in both elements of the cell were formed from gold films deposited on a silicon oxide surface. This provides reliable contacts between a nanoobject and the wires. In this paper, the application of the proposed method was demonstrated using examples of a multiwalled carbon nanotube and a thin platinum nanowire. The electrical resistance of the nanotube was measured using the two-wire method, whereas the current–voltage characteristic for the platinum nanowire was measured via the fourwire method.

An experimental device has been developed for atmospheric laser deposition of nanostructures of noble metals (Ag, Au, Pt, and Pd) on the surfaces of functional materials. This device is composed of functional units with a simple engineering design. A number of experimental samples have been obtained on the device in different laser-deposition modes; these were investigated using the scanning electron microscopy and atomic-force microscopy methods.

A method for using metalized holes in thin sheet composite materials of printed circuit boards for measuring thermomechanical stresses in the transverse direction relative to the stiffening sides is described. It was found that each 1% hole metalization strain corresponds to a 2% resistance change in this metallization. The results of studies are presented as applied to the materials of the bases of printed circuit boards, which are widely used in electronics, in particular, in avionics.