Efficient loading of a Rb dark magneto-optical trap by controlling current through a getter source

We report a study on the loading of a Rb dark magneto-optical trap from a current-controlled getter source. The effect of changing the temperature and number density of the background atoms on the cold atomic population in the dark state has been investigated by passing current of different magnitudes through the getter source. We observe that the dark state collection rate of the cold atoms is maximized for an optimum value of the getter current used. In our experiments, cold atoms in the dark state have been collected with the maximum collection rate 3.6 × 10⁷ atoms/s and background atom collision rate γ = 1.9 ± 0.2 s⁻¹ for the getter current ∼4 A.     

Study of surface morphology of ferrofluid deposited etched ion tracks in dielectric layers

An AFM study is reported on swift heavy irradiated Si/SiO₂ substrates which have been etched by aqueous hydrofluoric acid solution leading to ion tracks in which ferrofluids have been deposited leading to tunable electronic materials with pores in oxide on silicon (TEMPOS) structure. Two ferrofluids with different carrier fluids (aqueous and non-aqueous) have been deposited in the tracks. Atomic force microscopy has been used to study the empty as well as filled tracks. Since the ferrofluids contain iron oxide particles, there is a possibility of agglomeration of these particles inside and outside the tracks. Surface area and pore volume of the tracks have been measured by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method. The track properties (empty and filled) as observed by AFM have been correlated with BET measurements.     

Theoretical analysis of static properties of mixed ionic crystal: NH<Subscript>4</Subscript>Cl<Subscript>1−<Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>Br<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>

In the present paper, we have investigated the static properties of the mixed ionic crystal NH₄Cl_1−x Br _x using three-body potential model (TBPM) by the application of Vegard’s law. The results for the mixed crystal counterparts are also in fair agreement with the pseudo-experimental data generated from the application of Vegard’s law. The results for the end point members (x = 0 and 1) are in good agreement with the experimental data. The results on compressibility, molecular force constant, infrared absorption frequencies and Debye temperature are presented probably for the first time for these mixed crystal counterparts.     

Chromene chromium carbene complexes in the syntheses of naphthopyran and naphthopyrandione units present in photochromic materials and biologically active natural products

The carbene complex 5-(2,2-dimethyl-2H-chromene)methoxylmethylene chromium pentacarbonyl will undergo a benzannulation reaction with phenylacetylene, 1-pentyne, 3-hexyne, and trimethylsilylacetylene to give 7-hydroxy-10-methoxy-3H-naphtho[2.1-b]pyrans as the primary product. These compounds are difficult to obtain pure due to their sensitivity to air. If the benzannulation reaction is performed in conjunction with protection of the phenol function at C-7, then good to excellent yields of 7-alkoxy-10-methoxy-3H-naphtho[2.1-b]pyrans are afforded. If the 7-hydroxy products are captured by triflic anhydride, then the resulting aryl triflate can be used to access 3H-naphtho[2.1-b]pyrans bearing C-7 carbon substituents. The 7-hydroxy products can be oxidized to 3H-naphtho[2,1-b]pyran-7,10-diones which are stable. The chromenyl carbene complex reacts with 1,6-bis(triisopropylsilyl)-1,3,5-hexatriyne to give a 2,3-dihydro-2,2-dimethylbenzo[de]chromene, a product type that has not been seen before in the reaction of Fischer carbene complexes with alkynes. A mechanism is proposed for this process that involves alpha,beta-hydride elimination from a chromacyclobutane intermediate. Chromenyl tungsten complexes react with alkynes to give products that result from cyclization without CO insertion.     

Quaternion Gravi-Electromagnetism

Defining the generalized charge, potential, current and generalized fields as complex quantities where real and imaginary parts represent gravitation and electromagnetism respectively, corresponding field equation, equation of motion and other quantum equations are derived in manifestly covariant manner. It has been shown that the field equations are invariant under Lorentz as well as duality transformations. It has been shown that the quaternionic formulation presented here remains invariant under quaternion transformations.     

Structural,optical and magnetic study of (1−x)ZnO–xMgO composites prepared through solid state reaction method

We report the study of structural, optical and magnetic properties of (1−x)ZnO–xMgO (x=0.35, 0.40, 0.45 and 0.50) composites prepared by solid state reaction method. X-ray diffraction pattern confirms the presence of both the phases associated with ZnO (hexagonal) and MgO (cubic), which is revealed through the existence of (1 1 1) and (2 0 0) peaks in addition to ZnO peaks. The lattice parameter c as calculated using X-ray analysis undergoes shrinkage with increasing content of MgO. Microstructural analysis suggests that there is no variation in spherical elongated shape of grains with increasing concentration of MgO, where the average grain size is found to be ∼600 nm. The band gap as calculated from optical absorption spectra obtained by diffuse reflectance method recorded at room temperature is tuned from 3.16 to 3.55 eV. Photoluminescence spectra consist of near band edge UV emission (389 nm) and defect level emission (503 nm). The increase of MgO concentration leads to blue shift of UV emission peaks. The magnetic measurements conducted using SQUID at 5 K temperature reveals ferromagnetism along with paramagnetic and superparamagnetic components. Saturation magnetisation (M_s) is observed to be enhanced with MgO doping.     

Best tree wavelet packet transform based copyright protection scheme for digital images

In this paper, a dual watermarking scheme based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT), wavelet packet transform (WPT) with best tree, and singular value decomposition (SVD) is proposed. In our algorithm, the cover image is sub-sampled into four sub-images and then two sub-images, having the highest sum of singular values are selected. Two different gray scale images are embedded in the selected sub-images. For embedding first watermark, one of the selected sub-image is decomposed via WPT. The entropy based algorithm is adopted to find the best tree of WPT. Watermark is embedded in all frequency sub-bands of the best tree. For embedding second watermark, l-level discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is performed on the second selected sub-image. The watermark is embedded by modifying the singular values of the transformed image. To enhance the security of the scheme, Zig-Zag scan in applied on the second watermark before embedding. The robustness of the proposed scheme is demonstrated through a series of attack simulations. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme has good perceptual invisibility and is also robust against various image processing operations, geometric attacks and JPEG Compression.     

Characterization of deep energy level defects in α-Al2O3:C using thermally assisted OSL

Commercially available α-Al₂O₃:C powder was studied for deep energy level defects by a newly suggested method using thermally assisted optically stimulated luminescence (TA-OSL) phenomenon. The method involves simultaneous application of continuous wave optically stimulated luminescence (CW-OSL) as well as thermal stimulation up to 400 °C, using a linear heating rate of 4 K/s. By using this method, two well-defined peaks at 121 °C and 232 °C were observed. These TA-OSL peaks have been correlated to two different types of deeper defects which can be bleached at 650 °C and 900 °C respectively on thermal treatment. These deeper defects, having larger thermal trap depth and relatively lower photoionization cross-section at room temperature for stimulation with blue LED (470 nm), are stable up to 500 °C, so they can store absorbed dose information even if the sample is inadvertently exposed to light or temperature. As only a fraction of signal is bleached during TA-OSL readout, multiple readouts could be performed on an exposed sample using this technique. The dose vs TA-OSL response from deep traps of α-Al₂O₃:C was found to be linear up to 10 kGy, thus extending its application for high dose dosimetry. The value of thermally assisted energy (E_A) associated with these traps in α-Al₂O₃:C has been determined to be 0.268 eV and 0.485 eV respectively and the corresponding values of photoionization cross-section at room temperature (25 °C), for optical stimulation with blue light (470 nm), are 5.82 × 10^?20 and 3.70 × 10^?22 cm², respectively. The process of thermally assisted OSL has been formulated analytically as well as theoretically for describing the temperature dependence of optical cross-section and evaluation of thermally assisted energy associated with deep traps.     

Adsorption of xenon on purified HiPco single walled carbon nanotubes

We have measured adsorption of xenon on purified HiPco single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) for coverages in the first layer. We compare the results on this substrate to those our group obtained in earlier measurements on lower purity arc-discharge produced nanotubes. To obtain an estimate for the binding energy of Xe, we measured five low-coverage isotherms for temperatures between 220 and 260 K. We determined a value of 256 meV for the binding energy; this value is 9% lower than the value we found for arc discharge nanotubes and is 1.59 times the value found for this quantity on planar graphite. We have measured five full monolayer isotherms between 150 and 175 K. We have used these data to obtain the coverage dependence of the isosteric heat. The experimental values obtained are compared with previously published computer simulation results for this quantity.