VizualAge, a new computer software tool for analysing U‐Pb data obtained by laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry, was developed. It consists of a data reduction scheme (DRS) for Iolite (a general mass spectrometry data analysis tool) as well as visualisation routines. In addition to the U/Pb and Th/Pb ages calculated by Iolite’s U‐Pb geochronology DRS, VizualAge also calculates 207Pb/206Pb ages and common Pb corrections for each time‐slice of raw data. Importantly, VizualAge allows one to display a live concordia diagram for visualising data on such a diagram as an integration interval is being adjusted. This provides instantaneous feedback regarding discordance, uncertainty, error correlation and common Pb. Several zircon data sets were used to illustrate how the live concordia could be used as a powerful inspection tool, revealing a single analysis to consist of zones of concordance, metamict areas, as well as inherited cores or younger overgrowths. VizualAge also constructs histograms, conventional and Tera‐Wasserburg type concordia diagrams, as well as 3D U‐Th‐Pb and total U‐Pb concordia diagrams. The precision and accuracy of data reduced with VizualAge are demonstrated with examples of the Plešovice, Temora‐2 and Penglai zircon reference materials. Data for zircon from the Long Lake Batholith (Wyoming craton) were used to illustrate how VizualAge calculated common Pb corrections and helped to expose as yet unexplained difficulties with accurately determining 204Pb.

Precise and accurate U-Pb LA-ICPMS dating of many U-bearing accessory minerals (e.g. apatite, allanite, titanite and rutile) is often compromised by common Pb. LA-ICPMS dating of these U-bearing accessory phases typically requires a matrix-matched standard, and data reduction is often complicated by variable incorporation of common Pb not only into the unknowns but particularly into the reference material. We present here a general approach to common Pb correction in U-Pb LA-ICP-MS dating using a modified version of the VizualAge U-Pb data reduction package for Iolite (VizualAge_UcomPbine). The key feature of the method is that it can correct for variable amounts of common Pb in any U-Pb accessory mineral standard as long as the standard is concordant in the U/Pb (and Th/Pb) systems following common Pb correction. Common Pb correction of the age standard can be undertaken using either the 204 Pb, 207 Pb or 208 Pb (no Th) methods, and the approach can be applied to raw data files from all widely used modern multi-collector and single-collector ICPMS instruments. A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTVizualAge_UcomPbine first applies a common Pb correction to the user-selected age standard integrations and then fits session-wide "model" U-Pb fractionation curves to the time-resolved U-Pb standard data. This downhole fractionation model is applied to the unknowns and sample-standard bracketing (using a user-specified interpolation method) is intercept or isochron methods on co-genetic analyses) can be performed offline.The approach was tested on apatite and titanite age standards (for which there are independent constraints on the U-Pb crystallization age) using a Thermo Scientific iCAP-Qc Ma rutile which exhibits variable incorporation of common Pb. A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTA range of LA-ICPMS U-Pb dating applications are presented and include U-Pb dating of apatite from >3.8 Ga gneisses from Akilia, SW Greenland. These apatites host 13 C-depleted graphite inclusions that are interpreted as biogenic in origin and representing the oldest indications of life on Earth. The U-Pb age profiles on single apatite grains presented here are characteristic of Pb loss by volume diffusion with core-rim age differences of up to 300 Ma.These data explain the scatter and poor precision of earlier U-Pb apatite age determinations on Akilia apatite. Other LA-ICPMS dating applications include U-Pb apatite dating as a rapid method for determining the age of mafic intrusions, U-Pb titanite and apatite dating of ash fall tuffs, determining temperature-time histories using multiple U-Pb thermochronometers and improving concordance in LA-ICPMS primary zircon standard datasets by analysing young, common Pb-bearing primary zircon standards that have not accumulated significant radiation damage.

The ac Stark effect was used to induce resonant energy transfer between translationally cold 85Rb Rydberg atoms. When a 28.5 GHz dressing field was set at specific field strengths, the two-atom dipole-dipole process 43d5/2+43d5/2-->45p3/2+41f was dramatically enhanced, due to induced degeneracy of the initial and final states. This method for enhancing interactions is complementary to dc electric-field-induced resonant energy transfer, but has more flexibility due to the possibility of varying the applied frequency.

Dome-shaped gold nanoparticles (with an average diameter of 10.5 nm) are grown on H-terminated Si(100) substrates by simple techniques involving electro- and electroless deposition from a 0.05 mM AuCl3 and 0.1 M NaClO4 solution. XPS depth profiling data (involving Au 4f core-level and valence band spectra) reveal for the first time the formation of gold silicide at the interface between the Au nanoparticles and Si substrate. UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectra indicate that both samples have surface plasmon resonance maxima at 558 nm, characteristic of an uniform distribution of Au nanoscale particles of sufficiently small size. Glancing-incidence XRD patterns clearly show that the deposited Au nanoparticles belong to the fcc phase, with the relative intensity of the (220) plane for Au nanoparticles obtained by electroless deposition found to be notably larger than that by electrodeposition.

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