Comparison of Blue and Infrared Light Transmission Through Dental Tissues and Restorative Materials.

OBJECTIVES: The depth of cure using blue-light photocuring units (BL) is limited by tooth structure and qualities of the restorative material through which the activating wavelength must pass. Recent developments incorporate an infrared (IR) activated upconversion (UC) fluorescence of a lining agent filled with nanocrystals of NaYF4 and doped with YB+3 and Tm+3 that emit both blue and violet light locally at the interface of the liner and restorative resin. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the BL and 975 nm infrared (IR) light power transmission through dental tissues and restorative materials. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Power transmissions of the IR laser (975 nm) and a monowave blue-only light-curing unit (Bluephase 16i) through dental tissues (enamel, dentin, and enamel/dentin junction, or DEJ), eight (8) various dental resin composites, and eight (8) dental ceramics, each at four thicknesses (1, 2, 3 and 4 mm) were evaluated (n=5) using a thermopile sensor (PM10, Coherent Inc) connected to a laser power meter (Fieldmate, Coherent Inc). Power transmission values of each light source and restorative material were subjected to analysis of variance and Tukey test at a pre-set alpha of 0.05. RESULTS: A linear correlation (r=0.9884) between the supplied current and emitted IR power of the laser diode was found, showing no statistical power reduction with increased distances (collimated beam). For tooth tissues, the highest power transmissions for both light sources were observed using 1.0 mm enamel while the lowest values were found for 2.0 mm dentin and an association of 2.0 mm DEJ and 1.0 mm dentin. The only group where IR demonstrated significantly higher transmission when compared to BL was 1.0 mm enamel. For all resin composites and dental ceramics, increased thickness resulted in a reduction of IR power transmission (except for EverX Posterior fiber-reinforced composite and e.max HT ceramic). IR resulted in higher transmission through all resin composites, except for Tetric EvoCeram White. The highest BL transmission was observed for SDR Flow, at all thicknesses. Higher IR/BL ratios were observed for EverX Posterior, Herculite Ultra, and Lava Ultimate, while the lowest ratio was observed for Tetric EvoCeram White. Reduced translucency shades within the same material resulted in lower power ratio values, especially for BL transmission. Higher IR/BL ratios were observed for e.Max LT, VitaVM7 Base Dentin, and e.max CAD HT, while the lowest values were found for VitaVM7 Enamel and Paradigm C. CONCLUSION: IR power transmission through enamel was higher when compared to blue light, while no difference was observed for dentin. The power transmission of IR was higher than BL for resin composites, except for a high value and low chroma shade. Fiber-reinforced resin composite demonstrated the highest IR/BL power transmission ratio. A greater IR/BL ratio was observed for lower translucency ceramics when compared to high translucency.

Crystalline electric field study in a putative topologically trivial rare-earth doped YPdBi compound.

Topological states of matter have attracted a lot of attention recently due to their intriguing physical properties and potential applications. In particular, the family of half-Heusler compounds [Formula: see text] (R = rare earth, M = Pt, Pd or Au, and T = Bi, Sb, Pb or Sn) has been predicted to display tunable topological properties via their cubic unit cell volume and/or the charges of the M and T atoms. In this work, we report electron spin resonance (ESR), along with complementary macroscopic experiments, in the putative topologically trivial rare-earth doped (Gd, Nd and Er) YPdBi. From magnetic susceptibility data analysis constrained by ESR results, we were able to extract the fourth (A 4) and sixth (A 6) order crystal field parameters (CFP) for YPdBi and compared them with those already reported to YPtBi, which is known as a topologically non-trivial compound. We observed that the sign of the CFP changes systematically from YPdBi to YPtBi, possibly due to the inversion of the valence and conduction bands at the Fermi level. The enhanced spin-orbit coupling in YPtBi, when compared to YPdBi, induces the band inversion that drives the system to a non-trivial topological state. This band inversion likely has an effect on the effective charges surrounding the magnetic dopants that are probed by the CFP.

Unusual diffusive effects on the ESR of Nd³âº ions in the tunable topologically nontrivial semimetal YBiPt.

Electron spin resonance (ESR) of diluted Nd(3+) ions in the topologically nontrivial semimetallic (TNSM) YBiPt compound is reported. The cubic YBiPt compound is a non-centrosymmetric half Heusler material which crystallizes in the F43m space group. The low temperature Nd(3+) ESR spectra showed a g-value of 2.66(4) corresponding to a Γ6 cubic crystal field Kramers' doublet ground state. Remarkably, the observed metallic and diffusive (Dysonian) Nd(3+) lineshape presented an unusual dependence with grain size, microwave power, Nd(3+) concentration and temperature. Moreover, the spin dynamic of the localized Nd(3+) ions in YBiPt was found to be characteristic of a phonon-bottleneck regime. It is claimed that, in this regime for YBiPt, phonons are responsible for mediating the diffusion of the microwave energy absorbed at resonance by the Nd(3+) ions to the thermal bath throughout the skin depth (δ ≃ µm). We argue that this is only possible because of the existence of highly mobile conduction electrons inside the skin depth of YBiPt that are strongly coupled to the phonons by spin-orbit coupling. Therefore, our unexpected ESR results point to a coexistence of metallic and insulating behaviors within the skin depth of YBiPt. This scenario is discussed in the light of the TNSM properties of this compound.

Conduction electron spin resonance in the α-Yb1-xFexAlB4 (0 ⩽ x ⩽ 0.50) and α-LuAlB4 compounds.

ß-YbAlB4 has become one of the most studied heavy fermion systems since its discovery due to its remarkable physical properties. This system is the first reported Yb-based heavy-fermion superconductor (HFS) for which the low-T superconducting state emerges from a non-fermi-liquid (NFL) normal state associated with quantum criticality Nakatsuji et al 2008 Nature 4 603. Additionally, it presents a striking and unprecedented electron spin resonance (ESR) signal which behaves as a conduction electron spin resonance (CESR) at high temperatures and acquires features of the Yb(3+) local moment ESR at low temperatures. The latter, also named Kondo quasiparticles spin resonance (KQSR), has been defined as a 4f-ce strongly coupled ESR mode that behaves as a local probe of the Kondo quasiparticles in a quantum critical regime, Holanda et al 2011 Phys. Rev. Lett. 107 026402. Interestingly, ß-YbAlB4 possesses a previously known structural variant, namely the α-YbAlB4, phase which is a paramagnetic Fermi liquid (FL) at low temperatures Macaluso et al 2007 Chem. Mater. 19 1918. However, it has been recently suggested that the α-YbAlB4 phase may be tuned to NFL behavior and/or magnetic ordering as the compound is doped with Fe. Here we report ESR studies on the α-Yb1-xFexAlB4 (0 â©½ x â©½ 0.50) series as well as on the reference compound α-LuAlB4. For all measured samples, the observed ESR signal behaves as a CESR in the entire temperature range (10 K â‰² T â‰² 300 K) in clear contrast with what has been observed for ß-YbAlB4. This striking result indicates that the proximity to a quantum critical point is crucial to the occurrence of a KQSR signal.

Magnetic field dependence of the magnetic susceptibility and the specific heat of the doped plasticized polyaniline (PANI-DB3EPSA)0.5.

Specific heat, magnetization and electron spin resonance (ESR) data obtained from a self-standing film of the doped plasticized polyaniline (PANI-DB3EPSA)(0.5) are shown. No long range magnetic order has been observed at zero magnetic field, above 2 K. For a magnetic field of 3.3 kOe applied perpendicular to the plane of the film, a clear signature of an induced ordered state can be seen in the specific heat data and ESR also reveals this antiferromagnetic order. An electronic contribution is detected from ESR, magnetization and specific heat; however, for T ≤ 5 K, the specific heat data show the existence of a gap. Magnetization data also show a low temperature dominant Curie behaviour which cannot be seen from ESR, probably due to a very large linewidth, suggesting short range correlations among spin 1/2 polarons.