Core-shell decay measurements

The lab is working with a high-school student this semester from the Vanderbilt School for Science and Math. We'll call him BB. This is a program that brings in advanced students in the Metro Nashville public school systems to receive college-level training in science and math.  As part of their instruction, they are paired with a research lab where they spend 4 hours per week conducting research along side graduate students.  Thanks go to Sadie for helping direct him in his research activities.

Today, BB took decay measurements of a core-shell nanoparticle we received from Yuanbing Mao at University of Texas, Pan American.  The core is LZO:Eu and the shell is YBO.  The spectral response is typical of europium, but the relative intensity of the peaks is different than that of our own bulk samples of LZO:Eu.  The decay data (BB's measurements) shown in the figure have strong multi-exponential components.

single: rms = 0.0654149
        I = 0.974968(0.297568) tau = 4.53009e-06(1.40148e-11)
double: rms = 0.0557005
        I = 0.0764344(0.0151942) tau = 0.000148201(9.63947e-08)
        I = 0.985433(0.394193) tau = 3.21211e-06(1.1205e-11)
triple: rms = 0.0553772
        I = 0.072394(0.101939) tau = 5.12744e-05(2.12708e-07)
        I = 0.0316655(0.0936514) tau = 0.000307173(5.42085e-06)
        I = 0.970849(0.451075) tau = 2.97923e-06(1.54917e-11)