• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.563-569
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• 2014

Ruby is one of the most favor colored gem, for beautiful red tone, be high in scarcity value. However, rubies with high quality are produced in restricted regions, such as in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Tanzania etc., and they have been gradually exhausted by mining for a long period. Therefore, improving qualities of low level rubies with various treatments is arising an alternative way to obtain better rubies. Gemological and mineralogical properties of the natural ruby from Tanzanian were studied with heat treatments. Those characteristics were compared between only heat and adding flux materials under heating. Tanzanian raw rubies were applied a heat treatment ($1,600^{\circ}C$ for 6 hours). However, chromameter and UV-Vis analyses found that a simple heat treatment is inappropriated for the Tanzanian ruby. Although $Cr^{3+}$ containing for red color in the ruby increased with heat treatment, the ruby displays dark medium red because of Fe in the ruby as a form of $Fe_2O_3$. The low transparency after heat treatment is attributed to the recrystallization of $SiO_2$ which has a low melting point. Chromameter confirmed adding Pb-containing flux under heating greatly improves the clarity and color of Tanzanian rubies with micro-fractures and cavities on the surface. EMPA results show that Pb as an additive fills the cavities and cracks on raw Tanzanian rubies during the heat treatment. As a rewult of it, the quality of the Tanzanian ruby raw dramatically improved. These results indicate that the heat treatment with an additive (Pb in this study) is an effective way to obtain better quality of the Tanzanian ruby. Consequently, this study suggests a suitable method to improve the properties of the Tanzanina ruby. The result of this study would provide useful information to upgrade the qualities of similar gem stones such as corundum and sapphire.

• New Physics: Sae Mulli
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• v.68 no.12
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• pp.1281-1287
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• 2018

In this study, $Al_xGa_{1-x}N$ films were grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The crystallinity of the grown films was examined with X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. The surfaces and the chemical properties of the $Al_xGa_{1-x}N$ films were investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. The optical properties of the $Al_xGa_{1-x}N$ film were studied in a wide photon energy range between 2.0 ~ 8.7 eV by using spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) at room temperature. The data obtained by using SE were analyzed to find the critical points of the pseudodielectric function spectra, $<{\varepsilon}(E)>=<{\varepsilon}_1(E)>+i<{\varepsilon}_2(E)>$. In addition, the second derivative spectra, $d^2<{\varepsilon}(E)>/dE^2$, of the pseudodielectric function for the $Al_xGa_{1-x}N$ films were numerically calculated to determine the critical points (CPs), such as the $E_0$, $E_1$, and $E_2$ structure. For the four samples (x = 0.18, 0.21, 0.25, 0.29) between a composition of x = 0.18 and x = 0.29, changes in the critical points (blue-shifts) with increasing Al composition at 300 K for the $Al_xGa_{1-x}N$ film were observed via ellipsometric measurements for the first time.