In the Artikutza area, near the contact with the southern Aya granite, skarns containing hedenbergite, grandite, epidote, quartz, calcite, actinolite, idocrase and magnetite occur and have been found to contain ilvaite layers. This is the second reported occurrence of ilvaite in Spain; spectral reflectances, colour values. Vickers hardness numbers and chemical composition are given. The monomineralic ilvaite lens intercalation developed by hydrothermal alteration of hedenbergite in a second stage of skarn formation.

We studied the behavior of porous carbon compressed by laser-generated shock waves. In particular, we developed a new design for targets, optimized for the investigation of carbon reflectivity at hundred-GPa pressures and eV/k temperatures. Specially designed “two-layer-two materials” targets, comprising porous carbon on transparent substrates, allowed the probing of carbon reflectivity and a quite accurate determination of the position in the P, T plane. This was achieved by the simultaneous measurement of shock breakout times, sample temperature (by optical pyrometry) and uid velocity. The experiments proved the new scheme is reliable and appropriate for reflectivity measurements of thermodynamical states lying out of the standard graphite or diamond hugoniot. An increase of reflectivity in carbon has been observed at 260 GPa and 14,000 K while no increase in reflectivity is found at 200 GPa and 20,000 K. We also discuss the role of numerical simulations in the optimization of target parameters and in clarifying shock dynamics.

We propose a nonscanning three-dimensional (3D) optical microscope based on reflectivity-height transformation in applications of biological and transparent plate measurements. The reflectivity of a prism can be transformed to the surface height of the specimen based on geometrical optics and the principle of internal reflection. Thus, the pattern of reflectivity is representative of the surface profile. Using charge-coupled device cameras to obtain the two-dimensional image patterns and combining with its reflectivity pattern, the 3D profile can be generated. The lateral resolution is determined by the diffraction limit, and the vertical resolution is better than several nanometers according to the incident angle and polarization used.

Mirror like Molybdenum thin films on SS substrate in vacuum (10−3 Pa) and in Helium environment has been achieved by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) Technique. The PLD thin films of Molybdenum have been characterized by using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) pattern, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX). The specular reflectivity was recorded with Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectrometer and UV-Visible spectrometer. The optical quality of the thin films was tested via interferometric technique. At the optimum deposition parameters, the crystal orientation was in Mo(110) phase. The FIR-UV-Visible reflectivity of the mirror was found to be closed to that of the polished bulk Molybdenum and Stainless Substrate (SS) substrate.

X-ray diffraction methods have been used successfully for the analysis of platinum silicide films of 100 Å or less in thickness. Conventional X-ray diffraction was utilized for phase identification, planar orientation, and crystalline size determination. Low-angle X-ray specular reflectivity analysis measured film thickness. As the nominal film thickness approached 100 Å, it was observed that the deposited platinum film thickness was larger than expected and longer anneal times would be required to ensure homogeneous platinum silicide phase composition.

Most operational hail detection algorithms for single-polarisation radars are based on the analysis of the vertical profiles of radar reflectivity. At KNMI (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute) and RMI (Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium) the probability of hail is derived from the height of the freezing level and the 45-dBZ radar echo top height (maximum height of the 45-dBZ echo). Echo tops are affected by errors in the measured reflectivity itself and by errors in the height assigned to these reflectivities. This study investigates the quality of radar echo top heights as a function of range and explores the implications for hail detection.

The method is based on the comparison between reflectivity measurements from two radars on the vertical cross-section extending between these radars. In a first step, sampling errors related to the radar Volume Coverage Patterns are analysed using idealised storm profiles. Subsequently, real reflectivity data for 25 thunderstorm episodes are compared. It is found that the quality of the maximum reflectivity measurements strongly deteriorates with range and that about half of this degradation can be attributed to overshooting effects. Height assignment differences between the two radars are limited to about 0.5 km. Errors on the reflectivity measurements strongly affect the frequency of 45-dBZ threshold exceedances. However, once the threshold is exceeded, errors in measuring the 45-dBZ echo top heights generally affect the derived probability of hail by less than 20%.

We have studied the dependence of the absorption edge and the refractive index of wurtzite AlxGa1−xN films on composition using transmission, ellipsometry and photothermal deflection spectroscopy. The Al molar fraction of the AlxGa1−xN films grown by plasma-induced molecular beam epitaxy was varied through the entire range of composition (0 ≤ x ≤ 1). We determined the absorption edges of AlxGa1−xN films and a bowing parameter of 1.3 ± 0.2 eV. The refractive index below the bandgap was deduced from the interference fringes, the dielectric function between 2.5 and 25 eV from ellipsometry measurements. The measured absorption coefficients and refractive indices were used to calculate the design and reflectivity of AlGaN-based Bragg reflectors working in the blue and near-ultraviolet spectral region.