A novel challenge of nondestructive analysis on OGATA Koan's sealed medicine by muonic X-ray analysis.

OGATA Koan (1810-63) was a physician and the director of Tekijuku, and he contributed to Western medicine in the late Edo period. Osaka University preserves two of his medicine chests. One of the chests, which was used in his last years (the second chest) contained 22 glass bottles and 6 wooden cylinders. These bottles and cylinders contained formulated medicines; however, about half cannot be opened because of the long-term storage. It is necessary to comprehend the physical property of both the containers and their contents for investigation of this adequate preservation method; however, destructive analysis is not allowed. To analyze the medicines sealed in the glass bottles, we focused on muonic X-ray analysis, which has high transmittance. First, we certified the analytical methods using a historical medicinal specimen preserved in Osaka University. Thereafter, we applied the method on the bottles stored in the second chest. X-ray fluorescence identified the glass of those bottles to be lead potash glass. Among these bottles, we chose the bottle with the label "," which contains white powdered medication, for muonic X-ray analysis. We identified the contents of the medication in the glass to be Hg2Cl2. Through this study, we first applied muonic X-ray analysis on the medical inheritances and succeeded to detect the elements contained both in the container and in the contents of the sealed bottle. This would be a new method for nondestructive analysis of such cultural properties.

Nondestructive High-Sensitivity Detections of Metallic Lithium Deposited on a Battery Anode Using Muonic X-rays.

Metallic Li deposited on the anode is known to induce short circuiting and degradation of the charge capacity of Li-ion batteries. However, no reliable technique is currently available to observe such Li metal without removing the case of the battery. An elemental analysis using muonic X-rays is proposed here because of its unique properties of nondestructive measurement, high sensitivity to light elements, and depth resolution. We demonstrated that this technique can be applied to detection of Li deposited on the surface of an anode containing Li ions, using a fully charged anode with Li deposited due to overcharge in an Al-laminated plastic pouch. The basis for the detection method is the difference in the atomic Coulomb capture ratio of the negative muons between the Li metal and ions. We have found, as a result, that the intensity of the muonic X-rays from metallic Li was approximately 50 times higher than that from Li ions. Consequently, the Li metal on the anode was clearly distinguishable from the intercalated Li ions in the anode. Furthermore, measurements of two overcharged anodes with 1.3 and 2.7 mg of metallic Li deposition, respectively, indicated that this technique is suitable for quantitative analysis. Distribution analysis is also possible, as shown by a preliminary observation on an overcharged anode from the back side. Therefore, this technique offers a new approach to the analysis of Li deposited on the anode of a Li-ion pouch battery.

Relativistic plasma shutter for ultraintense laser pulses.

A relativistic plasma shutter technique is proposed and tested to remove the sub-100 ps pedestal of a high-intensity laser pulse. The shutter is an ultrathin foil placed before the target of interest. As the leading edge of the laser ionizes the shutter material it will expand into a relativistically underdense plasma allowing for the peak pulse to propagate through while rejecting the low intensity pedestal. An increase in the laser temporal contrast is demonstrated by measuring characteristic signatures in the accelerated proton spectra and directionality from the interaction of 30 TW pulses with ultrathin foils along with supporting hydrodynamic and particle-in-cell simulations.

Use of imaging plates at near saturation for high energy density particles.

Since an imaging plate (IP) is sensitive to electron, ion, and x rays, it can be used as a detector for laser plasma experiment using ultraintense laser. Moreover, an IP has the advantageous features such as high sensitivity, wide dynamic range, and high spatial resolution. Even though IP itself has a considerable wide dynamic range up to 10(5), the IP data have appeared often saturated at an IP reading device. We propose a reading technique by inserting optical density filters so that an apparently saturated IP data can be saved.