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The ATLAS Inner Detector is a composite tracking system consisting of silicon pixels, silicon strips and straw tubes in a 2 T magnetic field. Its installation was completed in August 2008 and the detector took part in data- taking with single LHC beams and cosmic rays. The initial detector operation, hardware commissioning and in-situ calibrations are described. Tracking performance has been measured with 7.6 million cosmic-ray events, collected using a tracking trigger and reconstructed with modular pattern-recognition and fitting software. The intrinsic hit efficiency and tracking trigger efficiencies are close to 100%. Lorentz angle measurements for both electrons and holes, specific energy-loss calibration and transition radiation turn-on measurements have been performed. Different alignment techniques have been used to reconstruct the detector geometry. After the initial alignment, a transverse impact parameter resolution of 22.1+/-0.9 ��m and a relative momentum resolution ��p/p = (4.83+/-0.16) \times 10-4 GeV-1 \times pT have been measured for high momentum tracks. 34 pages, 25 figures

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are energy conversion devices that produce electricity from a supply of fuel, such as hydrogen. One of the major challenges in achieving efficient energy conversion is the development of cost-effective materials that can act as electrocatalysts for PEMFCs. In this letter, we demonstrate that, instead of conventional noble metals, such as platinum, chromium nitride nanocrystals of fcc structure exhibit attractive catalytic activity for PEMFCs. Device testing indicates good stability of nitride nanocrystals in low temperature fuel cell operational environment.

Lower-cost alternatives to platinum electrocatalysts are being explored for the sustainable production of hydrogen, but often trial-and-error approaches are used for their development. Now, principles are elucidated that suggest pathways to rationally design efficient metal-free electrocatalysts based on doped graphene.

We characterized samples cut from different locations in as-grown CdZnTe (CZT) ingots, using Automated Infrared (IR) Transmission Microscopy and White Beam X-ray Diffraction Topography (WBXDT), to locate and identify the extended defects in them. Our goal was to define the distribution of these defects throughout the entire ingot and their effects on detectors' performance as revealed by the pulse-height spectrum. We found the highest- and the lowest- concentration of Te inclusions, respectively, in the head and middle part of the ingot, which could serve as guidance in selecting samples. Crystals with high concentration of Te inclusions showed high leakage current and poor performance, because the accumulated charge loss around trapping centers associated with Te inclusions distorts the internal electric field, affects the carrier transport properties inside the crystal, and finally degrades the detector's performance. In addition, other extended defects revealed by the WBXDT measurements severely reduced the detector's performance, since they trap large numbers of electrons, leading to a low signal for the pulse-height spectrum, or none whatsoever. Finally, we fully correlated the detector's performance with our information on the extended defects gained from both the IR- and the WBXDT-measurements.