Optical Characterization of Iridescent Wings of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Morpho</Emphasis> Butterflies using a High Accuracy Nonstandard Finite-Difference Time-Domain Algorithm

In certain species of moths and butterflies iridescent colors arise from subwavelength diffractive surface corrugation of the wing-scales. The optical properties of such structures depend strongly on wavelength, incidence angle, and state of polarization of illuminating radiation, and the viewing angle. In this paper, we study the reflection spectra of the wings of the Morpho didius butterfly by simulating a double-layered model of a transverse cross-section comprised of the ground scale and the cover scale. Each layer contains a certain quasi-periodic arrangement of tree-like subwavelength microstructures. The simulation is done using a high accuracy nonstandard finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method in two dimensions. We assume that the structure is made of a slightly lossy dielectric material. The wavelength dependence of the complex refractive index for the ground scale of Morpho didius is assumed to be similar to that of Morpho sulkowskyi. The complex refractive index in the latter case was obtained by comparing the computed reflection/transmission spectra with corresponding experimental measurements at normal incidence.     

High accuracy simulations of optical propagation in nanophotonic devices

We introduce a new high accuracy second-order finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithm based on non-standard finite differences, and use it to investigate light propagation in subwavelength structures such as photonic crystals.     

Search for the scalar top quark in pp collisions at square root[s] = 1.8 TeV

We have performed a search for scalar top quark (stop) pair production in the inclusive electron-muon-missing transverse energy final state, using a sample of pp events corresponding to 108.3 pb(-1) of data collected with the D0 detector at Fermilab. The search is done in the framework of the minimal supersymmetric standard model assuming that the sneutrino is the lightest supersymmetric particle. For the dominant decays of the lightest stop, t-->b chi+1 and t-->blnu, no evidence for signal is found. We derive cross-section limits as a function of stop ( t ), chargino ( chi+1), and sneutrino ( nu) masses.     

Post-accelerator LINAC design for the VECC RIB project

Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC) is presently developing an ISOL post-acclerator type of RIB facility. The scheme utilises the existing K=130 room temperature variable energy cyclotron machine as the primary accelerator for the production of RIBs and radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) and LINAC modules for the post-acceleration. The design aspects of these post-accelerator LINAC modules will be discussed in this paper.     

Peak effect at microwave frequencies in swift heavy ion irradiated YBa2Cu3O7-δ thin films

The vortex dynamics at microwave frequencies in YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ (YBCO) films have been studied. We observe a peak in the microwave (4.88 and 9.55 GHz) surface resistance in some films in magnetic fields up to 0.8 T. This is associated with the ‘peak-effect’ phenomenon and reflects the order-disorder transformation of the flux line lattice near the transition temperature. Introduction of artificial pinning centers like columnar defects created as a result of irradiation with 200 MeV Ag ion (at a fluence of 4×10¹⁰ ions/cm²) leads to the suppression of the peak in films previously exhibiting ‘peak effect’.     

Mass-transport models with multiple-chipping processes

We study mass-transport models with multiple-chipping processes. The rates of these processes are dependent on the chip size and mass of the fragmenting site. In this context, we consider k-chip moves (where k = 1, 2, 3, ...); and combinations of 1-chip, 2-chip and 3-chip moves. The corresponding mean-field (MF) equations are solved to obtain the steady-state probability distributions, P(m) vs. m. We also undertake Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of these models. The MC results are in excellent agreement with the corresponding MF results, demonstrating that MF theory is exact for these models.     

Study of surface-bulk mass transport and phase transformation in nano-TiO2 using hyperfine interaction technique

Phase transition from anatase to rutile for the 70 nm TiO₂ crystallite has been investigated by the time differential perturbed angular correlation (TDPAC) technique. The study involved the annealing of the TiO₂ nanocrystals, adsorbed with the nuclear probe (¹⁸¹Hf/¹⁸¹Ta) at trace level, at different temperatures for different durations. The TDPAC measurement was also supported by XRD measurement where the width of the peaks increases with the increase in annealing temperature indicating a crystal growth. The samples annealed up to 823 K for 4 h showed no phase transition, except for the growth of the crystallites. However, it showed phase transition at the same temperature (823 K), when annealed for longer duration, indicating the slower kinetics of the phase transition process. Further the sample, when annealed at 1123 K for 4 h, showed phase transition. It has also been observed that the ¹⁸¹Hf tracer, adsorbed on 70 nm anatase TiO₂, diffuses from surface to bulk during the phase transition process and the extent of diffusion in anatase differs from that in rutile phase. However, surface to bulk mass-transfer is found to play a significant role in the phase transition process.     

Tomograms for open quantum systems: In(finite) dimensional optical and spin systems

Tomograms are obtained as probability distributions and are used to reconstruct a quantum state from experimentally measured values. We study the evolution of tomograms for different quantum systems, both finite and infinite dimensional. In realistic experimental conditions, quantum states are exposed to the ambient environment and hence subject to effects like decoherence and dissipation, which are dealt with here, consistently, using the formalism of open quantum systems. This is extremely relevant from the perspective of experimental implementation and issues related to state reconstruction in quantum computation and communication. These considerations are also expected to affect the quasiprobability distribution obtained from experimentally generated tomograms and nonclassicality observed from them.     

Observation of ZZ production in p-p collisions at sqrt s=1.96 TeV

We present an observation for ZZ-->l+l-l'+l'- (l, l'=e or mu) production in p[over]p collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV. Using 1.7 fb(-1) of data collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, we observe three candidate events with an expected background of 0.14(+0.03)_(-0.02) events. The significance of this observation is 5.3 standard deviations. The combination of D0 results in this channel, as well as in ZZ-->l+l- nu[over]nu, yields a significance of 5.7 standard deviations and a combined cross section of sigma(ZZ)=1.60+/-0.63(stat)+0.16_-0.17(syst) pb.