APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090022-2
greatest concentration in nuclear and solid-state physics. Other areas receiving a modest amount of attention are plasma, atomic and molecular physics, fluid dynamics, and superconductivity.
Research in solid-state physics is of good quality and mainly of a highly theoretical nature primarily due to the competency of the physicists engaged in the research. The departments of physics of the universities and technical institutes are extremely active in studying the electrical, thermal, magnetic, ferromagnetic, crystal, optical, and semiconducting properties of solids. In essence, most of the solid-state research is devoted to the study of materials on a broad scale. The KTH, CTH, and Lund Institute of Technology has conducted many advanced materials studies that have gained considerable recognition in Western Europe. Some of the outstanding research being done at these institutes involves studies of properties associated with dilute magnetic alloys and clustered magnetic ions by examining the energy spectrum and spin dependence. Other research is being done with such dilute magnetic alloys as cuprous ferries and cobalts to determine their specific-heat values. Physicists at CTH are active in examining the optical properties of semiconductor materials. Photoemission studies are underway to examine the effects of structural disorders of silver-palladium alloys with regard to band structures of the pure compounds. At the Lund Institute of Technology, optical ionization cross sections of gallium phosphate crystals are being studied by using the charge storage and impurity photovoltaic effects measurements. A significant amount of research is being directed toward optical transmissions in cesium-coated copper. Although this work has been done only since 1970 in Western countries, the Swedish approach to using data from ultraviolet photoelectron energy spectra appears well advanced.
A significant portion of solid-state physics research is oriented toward advancing the country's semiconductor device capabilities. For example, mesa diodes are being studies to determine the mechanism that causes edge breakdown. Some of the results concern the contributing factors such as band bending or microplasma usually associated with point defects in semiconductor materials. Other indications of concentrated efforts in semiconductor device development are shown by research into such sandwiched structures as silicon and graphite and processes for thermal etching of the semiconductor surfaces. Swedish physicists show competency in third-order optical mixing, which they developed as a powerful diagnostic technique used in semiconductor physics at Umea University.
There is a general trend in the nuclear sciences toward concentrating efforts in low-energy nuclear physics and engineering at some sacrifice to the high-energy nuclear physics. The bulk of the low-energy nuclear research is being conducted in broad scope at the Swedish Nuclear Research Center at Studsvik at the FOA, and by the departments of CTH and the University of Uppsala. Much of the research has objectives aimed at determining the effects of prompt radiation exposures and at the study of nuclear decay schemes. This involves energy level studies of such radioactive isotopes as silver and cadmium which have importance because of their isomeric states. Transitions in decay are of interest for providing electron-gamma directional correlations. Of particular interest have been studies of nuclear particle detectors that are formed by ion implementation, which have been developed with fairly good resolutions. The Atomic Energy Company also concentrates its efforts in decay studies. At the University of Uppsala, a large amount of effort is being concentrated in the development of nuclear instrumentation. Although Swedish industry produces good nuclear detectors, it is continuing to develop some good-quality lithium drifted germanium detectors for studies related to absorption characteristics of materials subject to exposures at a broad spectrum of nuclear energies. The FOA is extremely active in nuclear research studies which appear to relate to defense against nuclear weapons and to radioactive characteristics of natural metal samples. The FOA has utilized germanium lithium detectors to conduct nuclear structure studies of inert gases via thermal neutron capture. It has done extensive research on neutral helium with regard to lifetime of the excited levels of the gas. This involves a study of radioactive transition from double excited levels in helium and iodine.
Swedish research in high-energy nuclear physics is concentrated at the Nordic Institute of Theoretical Atomic Physics (NORDITA) in Copenhagen and at the University of Stockholm's Institute of Physics. Research is primarily theoretical and covers subjects concerned with elementary particles and cosmic ray emanations. High-energy nuclear research also is being conducted at the Universities of Lund and Umea. At the University of Lund the research deals with photomeson effects in efforts to probe reactions connected with the light nuclei. Based on the studies of reactions leading to meson production, physicists
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090022-2
