Fiber Optic Excitation of Silicon Microspheres in Amorphous and Crystalline Fluids

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the optical resonance spectra of free-standing monolithic single crystal silicon microspheres immersed in various amorphous fluids, such as air, water, ethylene glycol, and 4-Cyano-4’-pentylbiphenyl nematic liquid crystal. For the various amorphous fluids, morphology-dependent resonances with quality factors on the order of 10⁵ are observed at 1428 nm. The mode spacing is always on the order of 0.23 nm. The immersion in various amorphous fluids affects the spectral response of the silicon microsphere and heralds this technique for use in novel optofluidics applications. Even though the nematic liquid crystal is a highly birefringent, scattering, and high-index optical medium, morphology-dependent resonances with quality factors on the order of 10⁵ are observed at 1300 nm in the elastic scattering spectra of the silicon microsphere, realizing a liquid-crystal-on-silicon geometry. The relative refractive index and the size parameter of the silicon microsphere are the parameters that affect the resonance structure. The more 4-Cyano-4’-pentylbiphenyl interacting with the silicon microsphere, the lower the quality factor of the resonances is. The more 4-Cyano-4’-pentylbiphenyl is interacting with the silicon microsphere, the lower the mode spacing Δλ of the resonances is. The silicon microspheres wetted with nematic liquid crystal can be used for optically addressed liquid-crystal-on-silicon displays, light valve applications, or reconfigurable optical networks.     

Cosmic acceleration and Brans-Dicke theory

We study the accelerated expansion of the universe by exploring the Brans-Dicke parameter in different eras. For this, we take the FRW universe model with a viscous fluid (without potential) and the Bianchi type-I universe model with a barotropic fluid (with and without a potential). We evaluate the deceleration parameter and the Brans-Dicke parameter to explore cosmic acceleration. It is concluded that accelerated expansion of the universe can also be achieved for higher values of the Brans-Dicke parameter in some cases.     

X-ray diffraction studies on crystallite size evolution of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles prepared using mechanical alloying and sintering

Nanosized cobalt ferrite spinel particles have been prepared by using mechanically alloyed nanoparticles. The effects of various preparation parameters on the crystallite size of cobalt ferrite which includes milling time; ball-to powder weight ratio (BPR) and sintering temperature, were studied using X-ray diffractometer (XRD). Scherrer's equation was used to study the crystallite size evolution of the as-prepared materials. The results of the as-milled sample revealed that both milling time and BPR plays a role in determining the crystallite size of the milled powder. However, where sintering is involved, the sintering temperature results in grain growth, and thus plays a dominant role in determining the final crystallite size of the samples sintered at higher temperature (above 900 °C). From the vibrating-sample magnetometer (VSM) measurement it was observed that the coercivity of the as-milled samples without sintering is almost negligible, which is a type characteristic of superparamagnetic material. However, for the sintered samples, the saturation increases while coercivity decreases with increases sintering temperature.     

Electrochemical impedance study of lithium-ion insertion into rice husk carbon

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was employed to study electrochemical behaviors during Li-ion insertion into rice husk carbon. The impedance spectra consist of two depressed semicircles in the high and middle range frequency and an incline line at low frequency. The impedance spectra, obtained in the potential range 2.0 to 0.005 V were analyzed with an equivalent circuit model. Kinetic parameters such as the charge-transfer resistance and surface film resistance were evaluated and discussed. Paper presented at the International Conference on Solid State Science and Technology 2006, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, September 4–6, 2006.     

Fermions tunneling from charged accelerating and rotating black holes with NUT parameter

We consider the production of the Standard Model Higgs boson through the gluon fusion mechanism in hadron collisions. We present the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD result of the hard-collinear coefficient function for the all-order resummation of logarithmically enhanced contributions at small transverse momentum. The coefficient function controls NNLO contributions in resummed calculations at full next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. The same coefficient function is used in applications of the subtraction method to perform fully exclusive perturbative calculations up to NNLO.     

Mass cultivation of various algal species and their evaluation as a potential candidate for lipid production

Microalgae have been proposed as a promising source for biodiesel production. Focusing on algal strains for biodiesel production, efforts should be made to search new strains. Experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of growth parameters (nutrients, pH, light, aeration and temperature) and the oil percentage of eight algal strains (Chlorella sp., Cladophora sp., Hydrodictylium sp., Oedogonium sp., Oscillatoria sp., Spirogyra sp., Stigeocolonium sp., Ulothrix sp.). Results show that 6.5–7.5 is the optimum pH for the growth of all algal species. Temperature showed a greater variation (25°40°C). Ulothrix sp. gave more biomass productivity and is the most suitable strain for biodiesel production due to higher oil percentage (62%). Least biomass production was observed for Stigeocolonium sp. and least oil content was obtained from Hydrodictylium sp. It was observed that among these eight algal strains for biodiesel production, Ulothrix and Chlorella are the most promising algae species.     

Effect of ZnO nanoparticles on kinetics of thermal degradation and final properties of ethylene–propylene–diene rubber systems

The morphology, thermal degradation behavior in addition to static and dynamic mechanical properties of various ethylene?Cpropylene?Cdiene (EPDM) rubber compounds containing nano-zinc oxide (NZnO) were investigated compared to those of EPDM with ordinary-sized ZnO (OSZnO). The field-emission scanning electron microscopy studies showed that unlike the conventional system, the formation of large size ZnO agglomerates was discouraged for NZnO filled systems. Thermogravimetric analysis (TG) revealed that the thermal degradation of EPDM system was delayed upon the inclusion of NZnO instead of OSZnO in the compound. The kinetic analysis of TG data based on Friedman and Kissinger methods showed that the nanocomposite samples exhibited higher activation energy (E _a ) and lower order of reaction (n) over the conventional system, suggesting the enhancement of thermal stability upon decreasing ZnO particle size. The results obtained from dynamic mechanical analysis and static mechanical characterizations in terms of hardness, resilience, and abrasion tests interestingly indicated that NZnO not merely could act as a thermal insulator, but also could perform as a nano-filler to improve the final performance of EPDM elastomers.