The effect of olefinic terminal chains on the mesomorphic properties of 4,4'-disubstituted diphenyldiacetylenes

New diphenyldiacetylenes of the type with A, B = H and/or F; m = 0, 1; n = 1-4; and X = C n H 2n + 1 , F, CF 3 or CN were synthesized and their mesomorphic properties determined by hot stage polarizing microscopy and DSC. When m = 0, all of these compounds showed only a nematic phase except when X = CF 3 when both nematic and smectic A phases were seen. Both clearing and melting temperatures were higher than those reported for substitution with the corresponding alkyl chains but the much larger increase in clearing temperatures produced considerably wider nematic phases. Eutectic mixtures of a few of these olefins yielded nematic materials also having much wider temperature ranges and higher clearing temperatures than the eutectic mixtures of the alkyl compounds, while retaining their high birefringence and low viscosities. Such materials are of interest for beam-steering devices.

Four of the diacetylenes with m = 1 ( A, B = H) were also prepared ( X = C 6 H 13 , F, n = 2, 3). When X was C 6 H 13 ( n = 2), the nematic range was smaller in the 2- than in the 1-olefin but wider than in the alkyl series. When X = F, either no nematic phase or a monotropic one was observed, whereas the 1-olefins gave a much wider nematic phase. Both transition temperatures were lower than those for the corresponding 1-olefin and alkyl analogues. The compound with X = C 6 H 13 and n = 2 had a melting temperature below room temperature.     

Finite element computations of two-dimensional arterial flow in the presence of a transverse magnetic field

A finite element solution of the Navier-Stokes equations for steady flow under the magnetic effect through a double-branched two-dimensional section of a three-dimensional model of the canine aorta is discussed. The numerical scheme involves transforming the physical co-ordinates to a curvilinear boundary-fitted co-ordinate system. The shear stress at the wall is calculated for a Reynolds number of 1000 with the branch-to-main aortic flow rate ratio as a parameter. The results are compared with earlier works involving experimental data and found to be in reasonable qualitative agreement. The steady flow, shear stress and branch flow under the effect of a magnetic field have been discussed in detail.     

Microstructural assessment of InN-on-GaN films grown by plasma-assisted MBE

The structural properties of InN thin films, grown by rf plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on Ga-face GaN/Al₂O₃(0001) substrates, were investigated by means of conventional and high resolution electron microscopy. Our observations showed that a uniform InN film of total thickness up to 1 μm could be readily grown on GaN without any indication of columnar growth. A clear epitaxial orientation relationship of , was determined. The quality of the InN film was rather good, having threading dislocations as the dominant structural defect with a density in the range of 10⁹–10¹⁰ cm⁻². The crystal lattice parameters of wurtzite InN were estimated by electron diffraction analysis to be a=0.354 nm and c=0.569 nm, using Al₂O₃ as the reference crystal. Heteroepitaxial growth of InN on GaN was accomplished by the introduction of a network of three regularly spaced misfit dislocation arrays at the atomically flat interface plane. The experimentally measured distance of misfit dislocations was 2.72 nm. This is in good agreement with the theoretical value derived from the in-plane lattice mismatch of InN and GaN, which indicated that nearly full relaxation of the interfacial strain between the two crystal lattices was achieved.     

1/f Noise in dye-sensitized solar cells and NIR photon detectors

All electronic devices are plagued with 1/f noise originating from many causes. The most important factors contributing to 1/f noise in a semiconductor is believed to be recombination of carriers and their trapping at defects and impurity sites. Adsorption of moisture and electron acceptor molecules enhances the intensity of 1/f noise. Amazingly, some molecular species that strongly chelate to the semiconductor surface, suppress 1/f noise owing to passivation of the recombination sites. Thus in addition to sensitization, the dye adsorbed on the nanocrystallites plays a key role in mitigation of recombinations. For this reason dye-sensitized heterojunctions could also find application as low noise NIR photon detectors. Experiments conducted with oxide semiconductors (TiO₂, ZnO, SnO₂) indicate that the mode of binding of dyes at specific sites determines the extent to which the recombination and 1/f noise are suppressed. The transport of electrons in a nanocrystalline matrix is diffusive with a diffusion coefficient D depending on the trapping and detrapping processes. Thus passivation of trapping sites by the adsorbed dye is expected to increase the response time which can be expressed as τ  L²/D, where L = thickness of the nanocrystalline film. Measurement techniques and construction of a dye-sensitized NIR photon detector will be discussed.     

Prospects for triggering in experiment PAX at GSI

In experiment PAX, proposed for the new accelerator complex at GSI, investigations in the field of high-energy spin physics with the use of a polarized antiproton beam are planned. In this paper the possibilities for triggering are considered taking into account the PAX detector properties and a probable configuration of the trigger system is discussed for the first time. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Studies on Rare-Earth/Iron and Actinide/Iron Multilayers

Hyperfine Interactions - Multilayers of Ce/Fe and U/Fe were fabricated by sputtering and studied by X-ray diffraction and reflectivity, Mössbauer spectroscopy and polarised neutron...