Effect of rare earth samarium addition on the kinetics of precipitation in Al-Cu-Mn casting alloy

The mechanical properties of Al-Cu-Mn casting alloy mainly depend on the morphology, distribution, size, and number ofθ′（Al2Cu） precipitates. In this study, we have analyzed the effect of rare earth samarium （Sm） addition on the kinetics of precipitation in the Al-Cu-Mn casting alloy by using differential scanning calorimetry （DSC） and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Thermal ef-fect peaks that are attributed to the formation and the dissolution of Guinier-Preston （GP） zone andθ′phase were identified from the DSC curves. The activation energy ofθ′formation was calculated by using both the Kissinger method and the analytical model, and the corre-sponding results were compared. Results suggest that the activation energy ofθ′formation in Al-Cu-Mn alloy is dramatically higher than that in Al-Cu-Mn-Sm alloy. Accordingly, it is concluded that the addition of rare earth Sm decreases the activation energy ofθ′formation and promotes the formation ofθ′precipitates.

Status of Applications of Rare Earth Metals to Precision Alloys

Rare earth resources in China are the most abundant, the production capability ranks second in the world. The first generation of rare earth-transition group permanent magnet alloy RECo5 developed in 1970's started using rare earths as substantial components. Because of the need of product diversity and to utilize rich resources of mixed rare earth metals, researchers are working on substitution of expensive elemental rare earth metals with cheaper cerium or mixed rare earths (rich in cerium, lanthanum or neodymium) to make lower cost permanent - magnet such as CeCo5. Ce[CoCuFe]5. etc.

Effects of La addition on the microstructure and tensile properties of Al-Si-Cu-Mg casting alloys

The effects of La addition on the microstructure and tensile properties of B-refmed and Sr-modified A1-1 1Si-1.5Cu-0.3Mg cast- ing alloys were investigated. With a trace addition of La （0.05wt%-0. lwt%）, the mutual poisoning effect between B and Sr can be neutral- ized by the formation of LaB6 rather than SrB6. By employing a La/B weight ratio of 2：1, uniform microstructures, which are characterized by well refined ct-A1 grains and adequately modified eutectic Si particles as well as the incorporation of precipitated strengthening intermetal- lics, are obtained and lead to appreciable tensile properties with an ultimate tensile strength of 270 MPa and elongation of 5.8%.

Influence of Nd and Y additions on the corrosion behaviour of extruded Mg-Zn-Zr alloys

To improve the corrosion resistance of wrought magnesium alloys through rare earth （RE） additions, the corrosion behaviour of Mg-5Zn-0.3Zr-xNd （x=0, 1, and 2; wt%） and Mg-5Zn-0.3Zr-2Nd-yY （y=0.5 and 1; wt%） alloys in a 5wt% NaCl solution was investigated using immersion test and electrochemical measurements. The results of immersion test show that Mg-5Zn-0.3Zr-2Nd alloy exhibits the best corrosion resistance among the tested alloys. Electrochemical measurements show that secondary phases in RE-containing Mg-5Zn-0.3Zr alloys behave as less noble cathodes in micro-galvanic corrosion and suppress the cathodic process. The additions of Nd and Y into Mg-5Zn-0.3Zr alloy also improve the compactness of the corrosion product film and are beneficial to the corrosion resistance.

Effects of Ho on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-Zn-Ho-Zr magnesium alloys

The microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-Zn-Ho-Zr alloys have been investigated in detail. The grain size of the as-cast Mg-Zn-Ho-Zr alloy was greatly decreased by the addition of Ho, and the grain growth during solution treatment was suppressed by Mg-Zn-Ho phases formed at grain boundaries. These thermally stable Mg-Zn-Ho phases could not completely dissolve into the matrix dur- ing solution treatment, and the strengthening effect of solution-plus-ageing treatment weakened. The addition of Ho can greatly enhance the high-temperature elongation of the Mg-Zn-Ho-Zr alloy, but the increase of high-temperature tensile strength was just a little.

Review on Enhancement of Nitridation of Si Powder

This paper reviewed the effect of powder characteristics and additives including metals,rare earth oxides,and ZrO2 on nitridation of Si powder.The decrease of particle size of Si powder increased nitridation.Most of metal additives inhibited nitridation,while some metal additives such as Fe,Cu,Cr,and Ca increased nitrida—tion.Otherwise,the addition of metals might lead to the degradation of physical and mechanical properties of Si3N4.All the rare earth oxides,especially CeO2 and Eu2O3,showed nitridation enhancing effect.In addition,ZrO2 with small particle size showed a stronger enhancing effect.

Effect of yttrium addition on flow behavior of Cu-Zr-Al bulk metallic glass in the supercooled liquid region

The high temperature deformation behaviors and thermal workability of Cu_（43）Zr_（48）Al_9 and（Cu_（43）Zr_（48）Al_9）_（98）Y_2 bulk metallic glasses in the supercooled liquid region were investigated by the uniaxial compression tests. The results showed that the high temperature deformation behaviors were highly sensitive to strain rate and temperature, and the flow stress decreased with the increase of temperature, as well as with the decrease of strain rate. Additionally, the（Cu_（43）Zr_（48）Al_9）_（98）Y_2 bulk metallic glass displayed smaller flow stress under the same condition. The flow behavior changed from Newtonian to non-Newtonian with increase of the strain rate, as well as the decrease of temperature, which could be explained by the transition state theory. We found that（Cu_（43）Zr_（48）Al_9）_（98）Y_2 bulk metallic glass had better flow behavior than the Cu_（43）Zr_（48）Al_9 bulk metallic glass in the supercooled liquid region. In addition, the processing maps of the two bulk metallic glasses were constructed considering the power dissipation efficiency. The optimum domain for thermal workability of the bulk metallic glass was located using the processing map, where the power dissipation efficiency was larger than 0.8. It was shown that the（Cu_（43）Zr_（48）Al_9）_（98）Y_2 bulk metallic glass, which had larger area of optimum domain, had excellent thermoplastic forming.

113-W in-phase mode output from two ytterbium-doped large-core double-cladding fiber lasers

Phase locking for two ytterbium-doped large-core fiber lasers has been demonstrated by using a selfimaging confocal resonator with a spatial filter. Steady high-contrast interference stripes are observed. The visibilities of coherent and incoherent stripes are 59% and 6%, respectively. The measured width of the central strip is in good agreement with the calculated result. For in-phase mode, the output power of the phase-locked fiber laser array is up to 113 W and corresponding slope efficiency is 38.5%.

High power pulse amplification of ytterbium-doped double-clad fiber amplifier

By solving a set of time-dependent equations, the characteristics of the ytterbium-doped double-clad fiber amplifier are presented. Besides the steady state in the fiber of the upper-state population, pump power and amplified spontaneous emission without the input signal, the dynamic characteristics of the high power Gaussian pulse amplification like the evolution of pulse waveform distortion, upper-state population distribution and stored energy and pulse energy of the amplifier under the forward and backward pump, are simulated. The relations between the output pulse energy of the amplifier and the different input pulse peak power or pump power are also discussed. The models and results can provide important guide for the design and optimization of the high power pulse amplification.

Lasing characteristics of strongly pumped Yb-doped photonic crystal fiber laser

A strongly pumped Yb-doped large-mode-area photonic crystal fiber （LMA-PCF） laser is analyzed. The lasing characteristics of an improved Fabry-Perot （F-P） cavity fiber laser using LMA-PCF are studied theoretically based on a rate equation model and the exact numerical solution of the rate equations is in excellent agreement with the experimental result.

Output characteristic of Yb^(3+)-doped fiber laser at different temperatures

The output characteristics of Yb^3＋-doped fiber laser at different temperatures are investigated. When temperature is increased from 13 to 95 ℃, the center wavelength of laser changes from 1084.9 to 1096.3 nm, the output laser power decreases from 0.95 to 0.58 W, and the slope efficiency drops from 30.7% to 25.5%.

Diode-pumped CW Tm:GdVO_4 laser at 1.9 μm

A high power cryogenic cooling Tin-doped （2%） GdVO4 laser double-end-pumped by fiber-coupled-diode： with the center wavelength of 804.5 nm at 21 ℃ is reported. The highest continuous-wave （CW） power of 2.35 W at 1903 nm is attained at pump power of 24 W. The slope efficiency is 12.5% and the tt, reshoht is 3.2 W. Single- and double-end-pumped types are investigated.

Stable single frequency Er-doped all-fiber ring laser with fiber Bragg grating Fabry-Perot filter

Using a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and a Fabry-Perot cavity composed of two fiber Bragg gratings (FBGFP) as its frequency-selective components, a type of single frequency all-fiber ring laser permits oscillation only on one longitudinal mode of the main cavity without modehopping while the cavity length can be up to tens of meters. The salient feature is due to the single narrowband resonance of the FBGFP filter. Such a fiber ring laser is achieved experimentally, and the laser mode is limited inside the single resonance of the FBGFP.

Effect of nanocrystals on up-conversion luminescence of Er^(3+),Yb^(3+) co-doped glass-ceramics

Different up-conversion luminescent spectra of Er^3＋ ions were observed in the oxyfluoride glass-ceramics. The ratio of two fluorides in the original compositions was modified in order to form different nanocrystals. The intensity of up-conversion luminescence increased sharply when the ratio of PbF2 and CdF2 was 40：10. The data of differential thermal analysis and X-ray diffraction were used to explain the optimization fluoride ratio. The intensity of up-conversion luminescence is not only decided by the crystallizability but also mainly related with the stoiehiometric proportion of fluoride nanocrystals in the glass-ceramics.

Properties of steady-state in Er^(3+)-Yb^(3+)co-doped phosphate glass for optical waveguide laser

Transitions of laser diode （LD） pumped Er^3＋-yb^3＋ co-doped glass laser are rather complicated. Considering energy transfer between Er^3＋ and Yb^3＋ ions, cross-relaxation, upconversion luminescence, and other transition processes, rate equations of quasi-three energy-level-system of the Er^3＋-yb^3＋ co-doped laser are presented. The output characteristics are also calculated and analyzed in detail. The results show that Er^3＋-yb^3＋ co-doped phosphate waveguide lasers with high slope efficiency and low threshold can be achieved.

Optical spectra and local structure of Eu^(3+) ions doped in Nb_2O_5-La_2O_3-B_2O_3-BaO glasses

The xNb2O5-（15-x）La2O3-40B2O3-45BaO （x = 5, 7.5, 12.5 mol%） glasses doped with Eu^3＋ ions in 1 mol% are fabricated by the melting method. The Fourier transform infrared （FTIR） spectra, phonon sideband spectra, emission and excitation spectra of the glasses are measured. The crystal field parameter and coordination number of Eu^3＋ ions in the glasses are obtained according to the splitting of their ^5D0 - ^7F1 levels. The intensity parameters Ω2 and Ω4 of Eu^3＋ ions for optical transition are calculated from their emission spectra in terms of reduced matrix U^（t） （λ= 2, 4, 6） character for optical transitions. The results indicate that the intensity parameters Ω2 and Ω4 increase with the increase of Nb2O5 content, suggesting that the symmetry becomes lower, the band of Eu and O atoms becomes stronger and the covalence increases with the increase of Nb2O5 content.

Raman spectra of undoped and uranium doped CaF_2 single crystals

Raman scattering experiments for nominally pure and uranium doped CaF2 single crystals were presented. In all crystals, the Raman active T2g vibration mode of CaF2 was observed, whose frequency shift and full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) broadening correspond well with defects and impurities in CaF2 lattice. Additional Raman peaks develop in nominally pure CaF2 with high etch pits density and U6+:CaF2 crystals. Part of additional Raman peaks in the experimental results, which are assumed due to vibration modes from F- interstitials and vacancies, are in well agreement with the theoretical predications by employing the Green-function formulation.

Er^(3+)-doped phosphor-tellurite glass for broadband short-length Er^(3+)-doped fiber amplifier

Er^3＋-doped phosphor-tellurite glass for broadband short-length Er^3＋-doped fiber amplifier （EDFA） is fabricated and characterized. The differential value （AT） of onset crystalline temperature （Tx） and glass transition temperature （Tg） is 206 ℃. The stimulated emission cross section of Er^3＋ is calculated from absorption spectrum by McCumber theory and is 0.87 × 10 ^-20 cm^2 at 1532 nm. A broad 1.5-μm fluorescence spectrum with 54-nm full-width at half maximum （FWHM） is demonstrated. Especially, the maximum phonon energy of undoped phosphor-tellurite glass is 1100 cm^- 1, which restricts the upconversion luminescence. It is possible to pump efficiently at 980 nm. These results indicate Er^3＋-doped phosphor-tellurite glass is suitable for fabricating broadband short-length EDFA.

Acousto-optic Q-switched cladding-pumped ytterbium-doped fiber laser

A diode-pumped, acousto-optic Q-switched fiber laser is presented based on multimode ytterbium-doped fiber. The fiber with core diameter of 30 μm is used to increase the laser gain volume and the pulse energy efficiently. The average power in excess of 9 W is obtained at the repetition rate of 20 kHz with 66% slope efficiency. The pulse width is 198 ns with no evident amplified spontaneous emission between pulses, thus the pulse energy and peak power are 465 μJ and 2.36 kW, respectively.

Effect of charge compensation on emission spectrum of Ca_2SiO_4:Dy^(3+) phosphor

The Ca2SiO4：Dy^3＋ phosphor was synthesized by the high temperature solid-state reaction method in air. The emission spectrum of Ca2SiO4：Dy^3＋ phosphor shows several bands at 486, 575, and 665 nm under the 365-nm excitation. The effects of Li^＋, Na^＋, and K^＋ on the emission spectrum of Ca2SiO4：Dy^3＋ phosphor were studied. The results show that the emission spectrum intensity is greatly influenced by Li^＋, Na^＋, and K^＋. The charge compensation concentration corresponding to the maximum emission intensity is different with different charge compensations.