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Tensile tests were carried out for sputtered copper thin films. Thin films were fabricated by RF magnetron sputtering. The target power of the sputtering equipment was set from 10 to 150 W to control the grain size. The grain size increased with increasing target power. The effect of grain size on the deformation behavior under tensile loading was investigated by X-ray method. The changes in the internal stress and the full width at half maximum were measured under tensile loading. The 0.2% proof stress decreased with grain size. For the full width at half maximum, the value was almost constant in the elastic region. When the plastic deformation occurred, the value increased rapidly with applied strain. For the specimen with fine grains, the value returned to the initial value in spite of after large plastic deformation. After tensile loading, many intergranular cracks could be observed on the specimen surface.

Suborbital rockets that fly focal-plane cameras that need to be cooled to optimize their operation face a series of challenges around their operation. These include maintaining a high-quality vacuum and the cooling of the detectors in a controlled way. These challenges are further heightened by the requirement that no current flows through the payload systems while the rocket motors are being armed. This paper discusses the novel pumping and cooling system implemented for the 2022 launch of the Rockets for Extended-source X-ray Spectroscopy (tREXS), including the use of a magnetic umbilical to connect the vacuum foreline to the rocket skin.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” is a common question posed to children, and answers such as firefighter, policeman, athlete, doctor, or teacher are probably just as common. Some, like Oliver Sacks, recall an early fascination with metals, the periodic table, and chemical reactions that planted the seeds for the later pursuit of the natural sciences or medicine (neurology in his case). We are familiar with memories of chemists that include their first chemistry set, followed by complaints by parents over strange smells and close calls due to particularly exothermic reactions. For others, including myself, a future in research remained more obscure until a later period in adolescence or perhaps even the undergraduate years. Rather than seeking out a field, the field finds you. In actuality, teachers and mentors with expertise in and enthusiasm for a field exert a force that charts a path toward scientific research throughout life. Here, I stress the importance of terrific teachers and mentors from high school onwards to the undergraduate, Ph.D., and postdoc years for setting me on a track (and on occasion preventing me from derailing) to research in structural chemistry and molecular mechanism using crystallography as the main tool.

Spectral modeling of the intermediate polars (IPs) and its application are introduced. The thermal X-ray spectral model is constructed with integrating the single temperature plasma emission along the post-shock accretion column (PSAC). The physical quantities distributions in the PSAC are calculated with hydrodynamics. The latest thermal model includes various physical effects and especially takes into account the difference of the specific accretion rate and the dipolar geometry of the PSAC. The reflection, another main component in the IPs spectrum, is modeled with Monte-Carlo simulation. In the simulation, the PSAC irradiates a cool and spherical WD with the various spectra determined by its position calculated in the thermal spectral modeling. Coherent and incoherent scatterings, photoelectric absorption and K_α and K_β reemissions of Fe and Ni are assumed to occur at the WD surface. The constructed spectral model were applied to EX Hya and V1223 Sgr observed by Suzaku and their WD masses are estimated at ${0.65}_{-0.12}^{+0.11}$M_⊙ and ${0.91}_{-0.03}^{+0.08}$M_⊙, respectively.