Twinning in hydrothermally grown synthetic quartz as revealed by etch structures

Etch structures obtained by HF etching on habit and cleaved rhombohedral surfaces of synthetic quartz grown by hydrothermal crystallization technique, indicative of twinning in them are described, illustrated and discussed. The twin traces appear in the form of lines of dis-continuity in [1121] and [1211] directions. Etch pits within the parallelogram-shaped bound areas are oppositely oriented with respect to those on the rhombohedral surface of the main crystal. The form of twinning observed is found to be of parallel lattice type and the surface within and outside the bound areas are coplanar in most of the cases. The rhombohedral faces of the twinned crystals are found to be geometrically related to each other as if one part is derived from the other by a rotation of 180° about [1210] direction. Discontinuation in the crystal lattice along the twin trace is evidenced by obstructions in the normal development of an etch pit. Deep penetration of twin traces and parallelogram-shaped regions, enclosing etch pits of opposite orientation (twinned areas), well within the crystal structure is demonstrated by comparison of etch patterns on matched rhombohedral cleavages and the results on their successive etching. The type of twinning displayed by the crystals is discussed in the light of models suggested. Causes for the generation of twinning in synthetic quartz are explained to lie in the availability of twinned nuclei in the seed plates used for hydrothermal crystallization of quartz.     

Observation of relaxation modes in room temperature ferroelectric liquid crystal mixtures

The dielectric measurements in SmC* and SmA phases of a room temperature ferroelectric liquid crystal mixture FLC-6980 in the cells of different thickness in planer alignment have been carried out in the frequency range 100 Hz to 1 MHz. A relaxation mode (called NRM) whose dielectric increment is less than the Goldstone mode has been observed in the SmC* phase. This mode appears due to the surface effect. Goldstone mode and the soft mode was observable in the vicinity of SmC*-SmA transition temperature (T _C*A). The dielectric parameters of the Goldstone mode, new mode and the soft mode have been studied as a function of frequency and temperature. The calculated values for f_NRM, δε^NRM and distribution parameter α_NRM are found to be 325 kHz, 6 and 0.156 for 5μm thick planer cell at 37°C. It is seen that in the vicinity of theT _C*A, soft mode obeys the Curie-Weiss law given by mean field theory. The results have been compared with materials of large spontaneous polarization.     

Unitary bounds on elastic absorptive amplitudes involving total cross section,forward slope and curvature

We obtain rather tight unitarity upper and lower bounds on the absorptive part A(s, t) of elastic amplitudes with given total cross section, slope and curvature at t = 0 and compare them with experiment.     

The Jordan normal form of Osserman algebraic curvature tensors

Let V be a vector space of signature (p,q). We construct two families of algebraic curvature tensors which generate the space of algebraic curvature tensors on V. We use these families to show that there exist Jordan Osserman algebraic curvature tensors with arbitrary Jordan normal form.     

Fay's trisecant identity and conformal field theory

We study the correlation functions of a system of free chiral fermions on a compact Riemann surface using techniques of algebraic geometry. Fay's trisecant identity arises as a consequence of the proof of the uniqueness of correlation functions.     

Electron Microscopy of Rhamnolipid (Biosurfactant) Morphology: Effects of pH, Cadmium, and Octadecane

A rhamnolipid biosurfactant produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 9027 is reported to increase the aqueous dispersion and biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons and to complex heavy metals. These reports indicate the potential for application of rhamnolipids in remediation of contaminated sites. Effective use of rhamnolipids will require understanding of rhamnolipid morphology and the effects of pH and organic and inorganic contaminants on that morphology. We used cryo-transmission electron microscopy to investigate the morphology of vitrified, frozen hydrated suspensions of rhamnolipid over a pH range of 5.5 to 8.0, and to determine the effect of a model alkane, octadecane, and a model heavy metal, cadmium, on rhamnolipid morphology. Micrographs clearly showed that rhamnolipid morphology was a function of pH, changing from lamellar, to vesicular, to micellar as pH increased. The effect of cadmium and octadecane on rhamnolipid morphology was determined at pH 6.8 and 7.0, where maximum cadmium complexation and maximum octadecane dispersion occurs. Cadmium seemed to stabilize rhamnolipid vesicle structures as shown by an increase in vesicle number and a decrease in vesicle diameter. In contrast, octadecane favored the micellar structure as shown by the complete absence of vesicles.     

Structural,thermal, dielectric and optical behaviour investigations of water-free ZnO/lyotropic liquid crystal nanocolloids

ABSTRACT

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles of spherical symmetry (average size of ≈ 20 nm) have been synthesised via a non-aqueous lyotropic liquid crystalline (LLC) templating process. Lyotropic liquid crystalline nanocolloids are prepared via dispersing 0.05, 0.1 and 0.5 wt.% ZnO nanoparticles in non-aqueous lyotropic phase. No structural phase change has been seen with the doping of nanoparticles as stable lamellar phases are observed in all the cases. Stability of the lamellar structure and orientation of the ZnO nanoparticles in the liquid crystalline matrix may be attributed to the interfacial surface charge interactions. A significant increase and pronounced dispersion in dielectric permittivity of the ZnO/LLC nanocolloids could be the result of parallel coupling among guest/host, higher dipole- moment of the ZnO nanoparticles and Maxwell-Wagner polarisation. The variation of relaxation parameters has also been discussed and correlated with the dielectric and structural parameters. ZnO/lyotropic nanocolloids devices exhibit dc conductivity of the order of 10^?5S/m owing to the increase in the number of ions (of the order of 10¹⁹m^?3) in the doped systems. Nanocolloids exhibits, the refractive index of range 1.40 to 1.45 and the wide bandgap of the range 4.1–4.5 eV.     

On the role of hardy spaces in form factor bounds

Functions of the space H ^p (1p) of the unit disc and upper half-plane are characterized by their distributional boundary values and asymptotic behaviour.     

The <Emphasis Type="Italic">np</Emphasis> interaction effects on the double-beta decay nuclear matrix elements for medium-mass nuclei

The quality of Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov wave functions is tested by comparing the theoretically calculated results with the available experimental data for a number of spectroscopic properties like yrast spectra, reduced B(E2) transition probabilities, quadrupole moments, and g factors for the nuclei involved in 2νββ decay. It is observed that the np interactions vis-à-vis the deformations of the intrinsic ground states of medium-mass nuclei play a crucial role in the fine tuning of the nuclear matrix elementsM_2ν.