Kinetic Studies of Bulk Ge22Se78−xBix (x=0, 4 and 8) Semiconducting Glasses

Results of phase transformations, enthalpy released and specific heat of Ge₂₂Se_78–xBi_x(x=0, 4 and 8) chalcogenide glasses, using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), under non-isothermal condition have been reported and discussed. The glass transition temperature, T _g, is found to increase with an average coordination number and heating rates. Following Gibbs—Dimarzio equation, the calculated values of T _g (i.e. 462.7, 469.7 and 484.4 K) and the experimental values (i.e. 463.1, 467.3 and 484.5 K) increase with Bi concentration. Both values of T _g, at a heating rate of 5 K min^–1, are found to be in good agreement. The glass transition activation energy increases i.e. 102±2, 109±3 and 115±8 kJ mol^–1 with Bi concentration. The demand for thermal stability has been ensured through the temperature difference T _c–T _g and the enthalpy released during the crystallization process. Below T _g, specific heat has been observed to be temperature independent but highly compositional dependent. The growth kinetic has been investigated using the Kissinger, Ozawa, Matusita and modified JMA equations. Results indicate that the crystallization ability is enhanced, the activation energy of crystallization increases with increasing the Bi content and the crystal growth of these glasses occur in 3 dimensions.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

TLC Based Method for Standardization of Pongamia pinnata (Karanj) Using Karanjin as Marker

Pongamia pinnata Linn. (Papilionaceae) seeds have gained great commercial and industrial importance owing to their high oil content. Presently, there is no appropriate TLC based method available for standardization of P. pinnata. A simple, robust and reproducible TLC method for the determination of Karanjin is reported in the seeds of P. pinnata. The method involves separation of components by TLC on pre-coated silica gel G 60 F₂₅₄ plates developed on toluene: ethyl acetate (7:3 v/v) and detection at 260 nm in absorbance mode. The sensitivity of the method was found to be 100 ng. The linearity range was 50–300 ng. Four samples of P. pinnata from different geographical locations were tested for their karanjin content using the developed method. The proposed method was found to be robust, precise, and accurate, it therefore holds potential for detection, monitoring and quantification of karanjin in Pongamia pinnata.

     

String dynamics near a black hole

The dynamics of a string near a Kaluza-Klein black hole are studied. Solutions to the geodesic equations are obtained using the world sheet velocity of light as an expansion parameter. For a string falling into a magnetically charged black hole, it is shown that the compact dimension decreases with the world-sheet coordinate τ.     

Electric field gradient in nanostructured SnO2 studied by means of PAC spectroscopy using 111Cd or 181Ta as probe nuclei

Electric quadrupole interactions were studied in pure and Mn-doped powder samples and thin films of SnO₂ using perturbed γγ angular correlation spectroscopy (PAC). The powder samples were prepared by Sol gel method and the thin film were prepared on the Si (100) substrate by sputtering technique using Sn in the oxygen atmosphere. The samples were characterized by x-ray diffraction, energy dispersive spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The thickness of the film was 100 nm. The average particle size of the SnO₂ powder samples was determined to be smaller than 60 nm. The radioactive ¹¹¹In and ¹⁸¹Hf tracers were introduced in the powder samples during the sol gel chemical process. Radioactive ¹¹¹In was implanted on the SnO₂ thin films using the University of Bonn ion implanter (BONIS). PAC measurements were carried out in a four BaF₂ detector spectrometer in the temperature range of 77–973 K for samples annealed at different temperatures. The PAC results for both nuclear probes show the presence of two electric quadrupole interactions. The major fractions in both cases correspond to the substitutional sites in the rutile phase of SnO₂. The results are compared with previous PAC measurements.     

Implementation of anti-reflection coating to enhance light out-coupling in organic light-emitting devices

We report significant enhancement of light out-coupling in organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) by means of anti-reflection coating of magnesium fluoride (MgF₂) on the backside of glass substrate. OLEDs were fabricated by employing the green electrophosphorescent material fac tris-(2-phenylpyridine) iridium [Ir(ppy)₃] doped in 4,4′,8-N,N-8-dicarbazole-biphenyl (CBP) and 0.4 wt% tetrafluorotetracyano-quinodimethane (F4-TCNQ)-doped naphthylphenylbiphenyl diamine (α-NPD) as hole transport layer (HTL). Single-layer MgF₂ with the thickness of λ/4 was then vacuum deposited on the backside of glass substrate of OLED. About two-fold enhancement in luminance with anti-reflection coating of MgF₂ has been observed.     

Optimizing over the split closure

The polyhedron defined by all the split cuts obtainable directly (i.e. without iterated cut generation) from the LP-relaxation P of a mixed integer program (MIP) is termed the (elementary, or rank 1) split closure of P. This paper deals with the problem of optimizing over the elementary split closure. This is accomplished by repeatedly solving the following separation problem: given a fractional point, say x, find a rank-1 split cut violated by x or show that none exists. Following Caprara and Letchford [17], we formulate this separation problem as a nonlinear mixed integer program that can be treated as a parametric mixed integer linear program (PMILP) with a single parameter in the objective function and the right hand side. We develop an algorithmic framework to deal with the resulting PMILP by creating and maintaining a dynamically updated grid of parameter values, and use the corresponding mixed integer programs to generate rank 1 split cuts. Our approach was implemented in the COIN-OR framework using CPLEX 9.0 as a general purpose MIP solver. We report our computational results on well-known benchmark instances from MIPLIB 3.0 and several classes of structured integer and mixed integer problems. Our computational results show that rank-1 split cuts close more than 98% of the duality gap on 15 out of 41 mixed integer instances from MIPLIB 3.0. More than 75% of the duality gap can be closed on an additional 10 instances. The average gap closed over all 41 instances is 72.78%. In the pure integer case, rank-1 split cuts close more than 75% of the duality gap on 13 out of 24 instances from MIPLIB 3.0. On average, rank 1 split cuts close about 72% of the duality gap on these 24 instances. We also report results on several classes of structured problems: capacitated versions of warehouse location, single-source facility location, p-median, fixed charge network flow, multi-commodity network design with splittable and unsplittable flows, and lot sizing. The fraction of the integrality gap closed varies for these problem classes between 100 and 67%. We also gathered statistics on the average coefficient size (absolute value) of the disjunctions generated. They turn out to be surprisingly small. Research was supported by the National Science Foundation through grant #DMI-0352885 and by the Office of Naval Research through contract N00014-03-1-0133.     

The low frequency behaviour in high frequency capacitance–voltage characteristics due to contribution of band-to-band tunnelling and generation–recombination in Hg0.75Cd0.25Te MIS capacitors

Hg_1−xCd_xTe Metal–Insulator–Semiconductor (MIS) capacitors were studied both experimentally and theoretically to investigate the capacitance contributions due to band-to-band (btb) tunnelling and generation–recombination (gr) of carriers to inversion layer capacitance. A good fit to the data has been obtained by including the btb contributions rather than gr contributions.     

Constraints on dark matter annihilation from M87

As the largest mass concentrations in the local Universe, nearby clusters of galaxies and their central galaxies are prime targets in searching for indirect signatures of dark matter annihilation (DMA). We seek to constrain the dark matter annihilation emission component from multi-frequency observations of the central galaxy of the Virgo cluster. The annihilation emission component is modeled by the prompt and inverse-Compton gamma rays from the hadronization of annihilation products from generic weakly interacting dark matter particles. This component is fitted to the excess of the observed data above the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the jet in M87, described with a best-fit synchrotron-self-Compton (SSC) spectrum. While this result is not sufficiently significant to claim a detection, we emphasize that a dark matter “double hump signature” can be used to unambiguously discriminate the dark matter emission component from the variable jet-related emission of M87 in future, more extended observation campaigns.