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Thin layers of lead nanoparticles have been produced by a modified pulsed laser ablation (PLA) process in which smaller nanoparticles were swept out of the ablation chamber by a stream of flowing Ar. Large (μm-sized) particles, which are usually deposited during the standard PLA process, were successfully eliminated from the deposit. The nanoparticles deposited on room temperature substrates were well distributed, and the most probable particle diameter was in the order of 30 nm. Since lead is highly reactive, the nanoparticles formed in Ar were quickly oxidized upon exposure to air. A small partial pressure of H2S gas was subsequently added to the effluent, downstream from the ablation chamber, and this resulted in the formation of nanoparticle deposits that were surprisingly oxidation resistant. The properties of the nanoparticle films (as determined by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and conductivity measurements) are ...

We have developed a prototype of a scalable high-resolution direction and energy sensitive gamma-ray detection system that operates in both coded aperture (CA) and Compton scatter (CS) modes to obtain optimal efficiency and angular resolution over a wide energy range. The design consists of an active coded aperture constructed from 52 individual CZT planar detectors each measuring 3×3×6 mm3 arranged in a MURA pattern on a 10×10 grid, with a monolithic 20×20×5 mm3 pixelated (8×8) CZT array serving as the focal plane. The combined mode is achieved by using the aperture plane array for both Compton scattering of high-energy photons and as a coded mask for low-energy radiation. The prototype instrument was built using two RENA-3 test systems, one each for the aperture and the focal plane, stacked on top of each other at a distance of 130 mm. The test systems were modified to coordinate (synchronize) readout and provide coincidence information of events within a user-adjustable 40-1,280 ns window. The measured angular resolution of the device is