Fluorine incorporation in silica glass by the MCVD process: Study of fluorine incorporation zone,evaluation of optical properties and structure of the glass

A theoretical approach was made to find out a complete fluorine incorporation zone on a ternary diagram which serves as a useful graphical representation to select the flows of the supplied reagents for incorporation of the suitable amount of fluorine into cladding glass of optical fiber preform made by the MCVD process using CCl₂F₂ as a source of fluorine under oxygen abundance, oxygen deficiency and intermediate oxygen state conditions. The possible mechanism for incorporation of fluorine into cladding glass of optical fiber is also evaluated on the basis of the thermodynamical data. The fluorine incorporation mechanism in silica glass by the MCVD process is found to be dependent on the CCl₂F₂/SiCl₄ ratio in the input gas mixture. Fluorine doping is found to be effective for removing the strained Si–O–Si bonds, which govern the optical transparency in deep ultra-violet (DUV) and vacuum ultra-violet (VUV) regions. The maximum refractive index depression of ?0.5 × 10^?3 is obtained with incorporation of fluorine into silica cladding glass by the MCVD process using CCl₂F₂ as a dopant precursor with suitable flow of SiCl₄ vapor along with O₂ through backward deposition pass. The structure of fluorine doped silica glass preform samples containing 1.70–1.79 mol% fluorine incorporated by the MCVD process based on the analyses of ¹⁹F MAS spectra done by high-resolution ¹⁹F NMR spectroscopy reveal the presence of two distinct types of fluorine environments. The majority of the fluorine environments are formed in SiO_1.5F polyhedral and less abundant species is observed to be highly unusual, yielding a fivefold coordinated silicon of the type SiO₂F polyhedral which become increased with increasing the fluorine content.     

Intramolecular nucleophilic activation promoting efficient hydrolytic cleavage of DNA by (aqua)bis(dipyridoquinoxaline)copper(II) complex

The axial aqua bound copper(II) complex [Cu(dpq)2(H2O)](ClO4)2, having a planar NN-donor heterocyclic base dipyridoquinoxaline (dpq) as the DNA minor groove binder, shows efficient hydrolytic cleavage of supercoiled DNA in the dark and in the absence of any external reagents, as evidenced from T4 ligase experiments, with a rate of 5.58 +/- 0.4 h(-1) and a rate enhancement of 1.55 x 10(8).     

Kinetics of thermal dehydration of La(III) and Yb(III) complexes with ortho-vanillin oxime

The analysis of dehydration of the complexes, [La(C₈H₈NO₃)₃.2H₂O] and [Yb(C₈H₈NO₃)₃.3H₂O] for the evaluation of kinetic parameters (Z, E &S ^*) and mechanism of dehydration by non-isothermal methods are reported. The complexes decompose in three well defined steps involving random nucleation mechanism. First two steps involving the dehydration and the third step the loss of the ligand moiety. The intermediates formed during decomposition were found to be unstable for carrying out any significant studies.

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Zusammenfassung Zwecks Ermittlung der kinetischen Parameter (Z, E undS ^*) und des Mechanismus der Dehydratierung durch nichtisotherme Verfahren wird die Analyse der Dehydratierung der Komplexe [La(C₈H₈NO₃)₃·2H₂O] und [Yb(C₈H₈NO₃)₃·3H₂O] beschrieben. Die Komplexe zersetzen sich in drei gut definierten Schritten mit Random-Keimbildungsmechanismus. Die ersten zwei Schritte beinhalten die Dehydratierung, der dritte Schritt den Verlust der Liganden. Die wÄhrend der Zersetzung entstandenen Zwischenprodukte erwiesen sich für jegliche signifikante Untersuchung als zu unstabil.

     

Efficiency of the Incomplete Enumeration Algorithm for Monte-Carlo Simulation of Linear and Branched Polymers

We study the efficiency of the incomplete enumeration algorithm for linear and branched polymers. There is a qualitative difference in the efficiency in these two cases. The average time to generate an independent sample of configuration of polymer with n monomers varies as n ² for linear polymers for large n, but as exp(cn ^α) for branched (undirected and directed) polymers, where 0<α<1. On the binary tree, our numerical studies for n of order 10⁴ gives α = 0.333±0.005. We argue that α =1/3 exactly in this case. An erratum to this article can be found at .     

Influence of Tb doping on the luminescence characteristics of ZnO nanoparticles

Structural and optical properties of the Tb-doped ZnO nanoparticles with average diameter ≈4 nm have been systematically investigated. Our X-ray diffraction studies show a contraction of the ZnO lattice with the increase of the Tb mole-fraction x for x ≤ 0.02 and an expansion beyond x ≈ 0.02. The photoluminescence spectra are found to be comprised of a near band edge ultra violet luminescence (UVL) and a broad green luminescence (GL) band. Under the atmospheric condition, the intensity of the GL band is found to increase with the Tb mole-fraction over the entire doping range. On the other hand, under the vacuum condition, it has been observed that the GL intensity decreases with the increase of x up to x ≈ 0.02 but further increase of x leads to a gradual revival of the GL emission. Our study suggests that for x ≤ 0.02, GL results due to the physisorption of certain groups on the surface of the nanoparticles (GL-groups). It is also found that in this Tb mole-fraction regime, Tb incorporates mostly on the surface of the nanoparticles and affects the UVL to GL intensity ratio by influencing the attachment of the GL-groups. However, for x > 0.02, GL originates not only from the GL-groups but also from certain point defects, which are likely to be generated due to the incorporation of Tb in the core of the nanoparticles. A simple rate equation model is introduced to get a quantitative understanding about the variation of the density of the centers responsible for the GL emission as a function of x under the atmospheric and the vacuum conditions.     

Electron beam irradiation induced changes in the dielectric and electro-optical properties of a room temperature nematic display material 4-(trans-4′-n-hexylcyclohexyl) isothiocyanatobenzoate (6CHBT)

Dielectric and electro-optical studies of a pure and electron beam irradiated liquid crystalline compound 4-(trans-4′-n-hexylcyclohexyl) isothiocyanatobenzoate have been carried out. Dielectric anisotropy, relaxation frequency, activation energy and distribution parameter of an observed non-collective mode corresponding to the molecular rotation about the short axes have been determined as a function of temperature and irradiation dose whereas threshold and switching voltages, splay elastic constant are determined as a function of irradiation dose. The relaxation frequencies initially decrease up to an irradiation dose of 40 kGy but thereafter increase due to irradiation. The activation energies are increased up to irradiation dose of 40 kGy but around 60 kGy dose of irradiation, we found decrease in the activation energy. Electro-optical measurements show the lowering of the threshold voltage with sufficient improvement in the steepness of the transmission voltage curves due to irradiation. The observed changes in the dielectric and electro-optical properties are related with the cis–trans isomerization due to electron beam irradiation.     

Computation of triple differential cross-sections with the inclusion of exchange effects in atomic K-shell ionization by relativistic electrons for symmetric geometry

The triple differential cross-section for K-shell ionization of silver and copper atoms by relativistic electrons have been computed in the coplanar symmetric geometry with the inclusion of exchange effects following the multiple scattering theory of Das and Seal [1] multiplied by suitable spinors. Present computed results are marginally improved in some cases from the previous computed results [2]. Present results are compared with measured values [3] and with previous computation results [2]. Some other theoretical computational results are also presented here for comparison.      

Emergent cooperation amongst competing agents in minority games

We study a variation of the minority game. There are N agents. Each has to choose between one of two alternatives every day, and there is a reward to each member of the smaller group. The agents cannot communicate with each other, but try to guess the choice others will make, based only on the past history of the number of people choosing the two alternatives. We describe a simple probabilistic strategy using which the agents, acting independently, and trying to maximize their individual expected payoff, still achieve a very efficient overall utilization of resources, and the average deviation of the number of happy agents per day from the maximum possible can be made O(N^?), for any ?>0. We also show that a single agent does not expect to gain by not following the strategy.     

Quenched Averages for Self-Avoiding Walks and Polygons on Deterministic Fractals

We study rooted self avoiding polygons and self avoiding walks on deterministic fractal lattices of finite ramification index. Different sites on such lattices are not equivalent, and the number of rooted open walks W _n (S), and rooted self-avoiding polygons P _n (S) of n steps depend on the root S. We use exact recursion equations on the fractal to determine the generating functions for P _n (S), and W _n(S) for an arbitrary point S on the lattice. These are used to compute the averages ,, and over different positions of S. We find that the connectivity constant μ, and the radius of gyration exponent are the same for the annealed and quenched averages. However, , and , where the exponents and , take values different from the annealed case. These are expressed as the Lyapunov exponents of random product of finite-dimensional matrices. For the 3-simplex lattice, our numerical estimation gives and , to be compared with the known annealed values and .