The first occurrence of mpororoite and anthoinite outside the African Continent has been found in an altered skarn from the Kara mine, Tasmania, forming a white powdery mixture of the two minerals pseudomorphing scheelite. The wet chemical analysis of the mixture shows WO3, Al2O3, and H2O to be the essential constituents, proving the non-essential nature of Fe2O3 in mpororoite; the original mpororoite contained high Fe2O3 substituting for Al2O3. The thermal treatment of the mixture at 100°C for 6 hours in air brings about the conversion of mpororoite into anthoinite, which re-hydrates into mpororoite, although the associated anthoinite does not. The source of Al is ascribed to the decomposition of aluminian andradite in the skarn.

Silicon-based films have gained much interest as protective coatings for transparent polymeric materials. In this study, SiOC(–H) thin films were deposited on polycarbonate (PC) or Si substrates from trimethylsilane (TrMS) gas diluted with He gas by atmospheric pressure plasma enhanced CVD (AP-PECVD) method with varying substrate temperature, and transparency and hardness of the films were investigated. The films exhibited a good optical transparency with an optical transmittance of about 90% irrespective of the substrate temperature, and the hardness increased from 0.6 to 1.3 GPa as the substrate temperature increased from 60 to 140°C. The results are discussed in terms of chemical structural changes in the films according to the substrate temperature.

High-energy protons are generated by focusing an ultrashort pulsed high intensity laser at the Advanced Photon Research Center, JAERI-Kansai onto thin (thickness <10 μm) Tantalum targets. The laser intensities are about 4 × 1018 W/cm2. The prepulse level of the laser pulse is measured with combination of a PIN photo diode and a cross correlator and is less than 10−6. A quarter-wave plate is installed into the laser beam line to create circularly polarized pulses. Collimated high energy protons are observed with CH coated Tantalum targets irradiated with the circularly polarized laser pulses. The beam divergence of the generated proton beam is measured with a CR-39 track detector and is about 6 mrad.