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A. Marcelli

Publications and source records attributed to A. Marcelli.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

POEMMA-Balloon with Radio: A multi-messenger, multi-detector balloon payload

A review of the current status of the field of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Ray (UHECR) including a summary of remaining open questions was presented in the white paper "Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays: at the Intersection of the Cosmic and Energy Frontiers" (Astropart. Phys. 147 (2023) 102794; arXiv:2205.05845). The authors concluded that two types of next-generation detectors are needed to answer these questions: high-accuracy instruments and detectors that maximize exposure at the highest energies. The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA), a proposed dual-satellite observatory, exemplifies the latter class and is designed to increase statistics of the highest-energy cosmic rays and to detect very-high-energy neutrinos following multi-messenger alerts. POEMMA-Balloon with Radio (PBR) implements a compact, balloon-borne version of the POEMMA concept, adapted for a Super-Pressure Balloon flight from Wanaka, New Zealand, with an expected campaign exceeding 20 days. PBR couples a wide field-of-view Schmidt telescope and a hybrid optical focal surface with a dedicated radio instrument to deliver simultaneous, complementary measurements of extensive air showers. The mission will validate the fluorescence detection strategy from space and raise technology readiness for a POEMMA-like space mission by observing UHECR-induced fluorescence light from suborbital altitudes, obtaining the first simultaneous optical Cherenkov and radio observations of high-altitude horizontal air showers above the cosmic-ray knee (E>3PeV), enabling energy-spectrum and composition studies at the PeV scale, and performing follow-ups of multi-messenger alerts to search for very-high-energy neutrinos via upward-going air showers. This paper summarizes the PBR payload and its expected performance.

astro-ph.IM↗
arXiv2023

Developments and results in the context of the JEM-EUSO program obtained with the ESAF Simulation and Analysis Framework

JEM--EUSO is an international program for the development of space-based Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray observatories. The program consists of a series of missions which are either under development or in the data analysis phase. All instruments are based on a wide-field-of-view telescope, which operates in the near-UV range, designed to detect the fluorescence light emitted by extensive air showers in the atmosphere. We describe the simulation software ESAFin the framework of the JEM--EUSO program and explain the physical assumptions used. We present here the implementation of the JEM--EUSO, POEMMA, K--EUSO, TUS, Mini--EUSO, EUSO--SPB1 and EUSO--TA configurations in ESAF. For the first time ESAF simulation outputs are compared with experimental data.

astro-ph.IM↗
arXiv2022

High Sensitivity real-time VOCs monitoring in air through FTIR Spectroscopy using a Multipass Gas Cell Setup

Human exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and their presence in indoor and working environments is recognized as a serious health risk, causing impairment of varying severity. Different detecting systems able to monitor VOCs are available in the market, however they have significant limitations for both sensitivity and chemical discrimination capability. During the last years we studied systematically the use of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) spectroscopy as an alternative, powerful tool for quantifying VOCs in air. We calibrated the method for a set of compounds (styrene, acetone, ethanol and isopropanol) by using both laboratory and portable infrared spectrometers. The aim was to develop a new, real time and highly sensitive sensor system for VOCs monitoring. In this paper, we improve the setup performance testing the feasibility of using a multipass cell with the aim of extending the sensitivity of this sensor system down to the part per milion (ppb) level. Considering that multipass cells are now available also for portable instruments, this study opens the road for the design of new high-resolution devices for environmental monitoring.

physics.chem-ph↗
arXiv2020

Potassium-Doped Para-Terphenyl: Structure, Electrical Transport Properties and Possible Signatures of a Superconducting Transition

Preliminary evidence for the occurrence of high-Tc superconductivity in alkali-doped organic materials, such as potassium-doped p-terphenyl (KPT), were recently obtained by magnetic susceptibility measurements and by the opening of a large superconducting gap as measured by ARPES and STM techniques. In this work, KPT samples have been synthesized by a chemical method and characterized by low-temperature Raman scattering and resistivity measurements. Here, we report the occurrence of a resistivity drop of more than 4 orders of magnitude at low temperatures in KPT samples in the form of compressed powder. This fact was interpreted as a possible sign of a broad superconducting transition taking place below 90 K in granular KPT. The granular nature of the KPT system appears to be also related to the 20 K broadening of the resistivity drop around the critical temperature.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2020

Graphene Aerogels for Ultrabroadband Thermoacoustics

Sound is usually generated in a medium by an electromechanical vibrating structure. The geometrical size and inertia of the structure set the frequency cutoff in the sound-transduction mechanism and, often, different vibrating structures are necessary to cover the whole range from infrasound to ultrasound. An alternative mechanism without any physical movement of the emitter is the thermoacoustic effect, where sound is produced by Joule heating in a conductive material. Here we show that a single thermoacoustic transducer based on a graphene aerogel can emit ultrabroadband sound from infrasound (1 Hz) to ultrasound (20 MHz), with no harmonic distortion. Since conventional acoustic transducers are frequency band limited due to their transduction mechanism, ultrabroadband graphene aerogels may offer a valid alternative to conventional hi-fi loudspeakers, and infrasound and ultrasound transducers.

physics.app-ph↗
arXiv2020

Tunable electronic structure and stoichiometry dependent disorder in Nanostructured VO$_x$ films

We present and discuss an original method to synthesize disordered Nanostructured (NS) VO$_x$ films with controlled stoichiometry and tunable electronic structures. In these NS films, the original lattice symmetry of the bulk vanadium oxides is broken and atoms are arranged in a highly disordered structure . The stoichiometry-dependent disorder as a function of the oxygen concentration has been characterized by in-situ X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure (XANES) spectroscopy identifying the spectroscopic fingerprints. Results show structural rearrangements that deviate from the octahedral symmetry with different coexisting disordered phases. The modulation of the electronic structure of the NS films based on the resulted stoichiometry and the quantum confinement in the NS particles are also discussed. We demonstrate the possibility to modulate the electronic structure of VO$_x$ NS films accessing new disordered atomic configurations with a controlled stoichiometry that provides an extraordinary opportunity to match a wide number of technological applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2020

Strain induced orbital dynamics across the Metal Insulator transition in thin VO2/TiO2(001) films

VO2 is a strongly correlated material, which undergoes a reversible metal insulator transition (MIT) coupled to a structural phase transition upon heating (T= 67° C). Since its discovery the nature of the insulating state has long been debated and different solid-state mechanisms have been proposed to explain its nature: Mott-Hubbard correlation, Peierls distortion or a combination of both. Moreover, still now there is a lack of consensus on the interplay between the different degrees of freedom: charge, lattice, orbital and how they contribute to the MIT. In this manuscript we will investigate across the MIT the orbital evolution induced by a tensile strain applied to thin VO2 films. The strained films allowed to study the interplay between orbital and lattice degrees of freedom and to clarify MIT properties.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2019

Tunable vortex dynamics in proximity junction arrays: a possible accurate and sensitive 2D THz detector

An array of superconducting proximity islands has been shown to be highly tunable by electric and magnetic fields. Indeed, a small change in the electric and magnetic field can tune the system from a vortex Mott insulator to a vortex metal. This transition from localized to a non-localized state can occur as soon as the density of the superconducting vortices matches the density of the pinning sites in a non defective structure. The possibility of further modulation of non-localized superconducting states via enhancement of the superconducting order parameter or modulation of the Josephson plasma frequency is discussed. Based on the non-bolometric effects associated with the occurrence of non-equilibrium phenomena in this original superconducting networks we discuss also the possible applications of this array for a conceptually new type of radiation detector.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2018

EuPRAXIA@SPARC_LAB Design study towards a compact FEL facility at LNF

On the wake of the results obtained so far at the SPARC\_LAB test-facility at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (Italy), we are currently investigating the possibility to design and build a new multi-disciplinary user-facility, equipped with a soft X-ray Free Electron Laser (FEL) driven by a $\sim$1 GeV high brightness linac based on plasma accelerator modules. This design study is performed in synergy with the EuPRAXIA design study. In this paper we report about the recent progresses in the on going design study of the new facility.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2016

The flux dynamics behavior of the two competing high temperature superconducting phases in underdoped LaCuO4.06

In complex transition metal oxides (TMO) an arrested electronic phase separation (PS) appears by tuning the system near a Lifshitz transition in multiband Hubbard models. The PS in La2CuO4+y near insulator to metal transition (IMT) is made of short range Charge Density Wave (CDW) order inhomogeneity coexisting with quenched lattice disorder. While at high doping y=0.1 percolation gives a single superconducting phase, near the IMT at y=0.06 two coexisting superconducting phases appear: the first one with a critical temperature Tc1=16 K and the second one with Tc2=29K. It is known that the two superconducting phases are characterized by two different space geometry because of two different spatial distributions of both CDW order and dopants self-organization. Here we show that these two phases show different flux dynamic regimes using alternating current (AC) multi-harmonic susceptibility experiments. This is a unique technique capable to investigate multi-phase superconductors and characterize their transport properties in a percolative scenario. Results point out that the low critical temperature phase is well described by a bulk-like flux pinning with a 2D geometry while the phase with higher critical temperature shows a barrier pinning mechanism providing direct evidence of two different superconducting vortex dynamics in different complex geometrical spaces.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2014

Supercooling and freezing processes in nanoconfined water by time-resolved optical Kerr effect spectroscopy

Using heterodyne-detected optical Kerr effect (HD-OKE) measurements, we investigate the vibrational dynamics and the structural relaxation of water nanoconfined in Vycor porous silica samples (pore size $\simeq~4~nm$ ) at different levels of hydration and temperatures. At low level of hydration, corresponding to two complete superficial water layers, no freezing occurs and water remains mobile at all the investigated temperatures with dynamic features similar, but not equal, to the bulk water. The fully hydrated sample shows formation of ice at about 248 K, this process does not involve all the contained water; a part of it remains in a supercooled phase. The structural relaxation times measured from the decay of the time-dependent HD-OKE signal shows temperature dependence largely affected by the hydration level; the low frequency ($ν<500~cm^{-1}$) vibrational spectra, obtained by the Fourier transforms of HD-OKE signal, appears less affected by confinement.

cond-mat.soft↗
arXiv2014

X-ray absorption spectroscopy characterization of iron-oxide nanoparticles synthesized by high temperature plasma processing

Iron-oxide nanoparticles have been synthesized by high temperature arc plasma route with different plasma currents and characterized for their structure, morphology and local atomic order. Fe K-edge x-ray absorption spectra reveal distinct local structure of the samples grown with different plasma currents. We have shown that the local disorder is higher for the higher plasma current grown samples that also have a larger average particle-size. The results provide useful information to control structural and morphological properties of nanoparticles grown by high temperature plasma synthesis process.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2013

SR-FTiR microscopy and FTIR imaging in the earth sciences

During the last decades, several books have been devoted to the application of spectroscopic methods in mineralogy. Several short courses and meetings have addressed particular aspects of spectroscopy, such as the analysis of hydrous components in minerals and Earth materials. In these books, complete treatment of the infrared theory and practical aspects of instrumentation and methods, along with an exhaustive list of references, can be found. The present chapter is intended to cover those aspects of infrared spectroscopy that have been developed in the past decade and are not included in earlier reviews such as Volume 18 of Reviews in Mineralogy. These new topics involve primarily: (1) the use of synchrotron radiation (SR), which, although not a routine method, is now rather extensively applied in infrared studies, in particular those requiring ultimate spatial and time resolution and the analysis of extremely small samples (a few tens of micrometers); (2) the development of imaging techniques also for foreseen time resolved studies of geo-mineralogical processes and environmental studies.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2012

Molybdenum sputtering film characterization for high gradient accelerating structures

Technological advancements are strongly required to fulfill the demands of new accelerator devices with the highest accelerating gradients and operation reliability for the future colliders. To this purpose an extensive R&D regarding molybdenum coatings on copper is in progress. In this contribution we describe chemical composition, deposition quality and resistivity properties of different molybdenum coatings obtained via sputtering. The deposited films are thick metallic disorder layers with different resistivity values above and below the molibdenum dioxide reference value. Chemical and electrical properties of these sputtered coatings have been characterized by Rutherford backscattering, XANES and photoemission spectroscopy. We will also present a three cells standing wave section coated by a molybdenum layer $\sim$ 500 nm thick designed to improve the performance of X-Band accelerating systems.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2010

Fast IR Array Detector for Transverse Beam Diagnostics at DAΦNE

At the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) an infrared (IR) array detector with fast response time has been built and assembled in order to collect the IR image of e-/e+ sources of the DAΦNE collider. Such detector is made by 32 bilinear pixels with an individual size of 50x50 μm2 and a response time of ~1 ns. In the framework of an experiment funded by the INFN Vth Committee dedicated to beam diagnostics, the device with its electronic board has been tested and installed on the DAΦNE positron ring. A preliminary characterization of few pixels of the array and of the electronics has been carried out at the IR beamline SINBAD at DAΦNE. In particular the detection of the IR source of the e- beam has been observed using four pixels of the array acquiring signals simultaneously with a four channels scope at 1 GHz and at 10 Gsamples/s. The acquisition of four pixels allowed monitoring in real time differences in the bunch signals in the vertical direction. A preliminary analysis of data is presented and discussed. In particular we will outline the correlation between signals and displacements of the source occurring with bunch refilling during a complete shift of DAΦNE.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2009

RE L$_{3}$ X-ray absorption study of REO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$FeAs (RE=La, Pr, Nd, Sm) oxypnictides

Rare-earth L$_{3}$-edge X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy has been used to study REOFeAs (RE=La, Pr, Nd, Sm) oxypnictides. The Nd L$_{3}$ XANES due to 2p$_{3/2}\to5ε$d transition shows a substantial change in both white line (WL) spectral weight and the higher energy multiple scattering resonances with the partial substitution of O by F. A systematic change in the XANES features is seen due to varying lattice parameters with ionic radius of the rare earth. On the other hand, we hardly see any change across the structural phase transition. The results provide timely information on the local atomic correlations showing importance of local structural chemistry of the REO spacer layer and interlayer coupling in the competing superconductivity and itinerant striped magnetic phase of the oxypnictides.

cond-mat.supr-con↗