Role of dopant concentration and surface coating on photophysical properties of CdS: Eu3+ nanocrystals

Here, we report the role of dopant concentration and surface coating of CdS: Eu3+ nanocrystals on the modification of crystal structure and their photoluminescence properties by steady-state and time resolved fluorescence studies. It is found that photoluminescence properties are sensitive to the crystal structure which is controlled by surface coating and dopant concentration. The emission intensity of the peak at 614 nm (5D0 --> 7F2) of the Eu3+-ions is found to be sensitive to the doping and surface coating of CdS nanocrystals. It is found that the average decay times tau are 248, 353 and 499 micros for 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 mol% Eu ions doped into CdS nanocrystals, respectively. From the decay time measurements, it is evident that the energy transfer occurs from CdS nanoparticles to Eu3+ ions and the calculated energy transfer efficiency from CdS nanoparticles to Eu3+ ions is 9.2 and 35% for Eu3+ ions coated and doped CdS nanoparticles, respectively. Our analysis suggests that site symmetry of ions plays a very important role in the modifications of radiative and nonradiative relaxation mechanisms.     

Role of oxygen impurity in growth and magnetic properties of Ni83Fe17 permalloy thin films

To study the influence of oxygen impurities in the sputtering atmosphere on microstructure, and the magnetic and magnetotransport properties, thin films of Ni₈₃Fe₁₇ were deposited under dc magnetron sputtering technique into which regulated oxygen gas was introduced. The partial pressure of oxygen was varied from 2×10⁻⁷ to 3×10⁻⁶ mbar. X-ray diffraction patterns indicate the reduction of grain growth with increasing the oxygen partial pressure. The grain microstructure and the composition were confirmed through high resolution transmission electron microscopy attached with Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM). Transition from canted to rectangular magnetic hysteresis loop was observed through magnetization measurements for samples prepared under higher oxygen partial pressure which implies the structural changes in the magnetic domain formation. These observations were further confirmed through the measurements of anisotropic magnetoresistance properties.     

Luminescence study of SHI irradiated nano semiconductor: Conducting polymer composite

Semiconductor nanoparticle and conducting polymer composite is an interesting class of materials for optoelectronic and photovoltaic device application. We have synthesized a composite of nanocrystalline PbS and conducting polymer MEH-PPV by chemical synthesis and studied the effect of swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation on the composite material. The irradiation of the composite materials in thin film form is carried out with 120 MeV Si⁺⁹ ion beam at fluences from 5×10¹⁰ to 10¹³ ions/cm². Fluence dependent optical and structural properties have been observed in optical absorption, PL and TEM studies. Reduction of nanoparticle size has been observed after irradiation.     

Measuring Lineup Difficulty By Matching Distance Metrics With Subject Choices in Crowd-Sourced Data

Graphics play a crucial role in statistical analysis and data mining. Being able to quantify structure in data that is visible in plots, and how people read the structure from plots is an ongoing challenge. The lineup protocol provides a formal framework for data plots, making inference possible. The data plot is treated like a test statistic, and lineup protocol acts like a comparison with the sampling distribution of the nulls. This article describes metrics for describing structure in data plots and evaluates them in relation to the choices that human readers made during several large Amazon Turk studies using lineups. The metrics that were more specific to the plot types tended to better match subject choices, than generic metrics. The process that we followed to evaluate metrics will be useful for general development of numerically measuring structure in plots, and also in future experiments on lineups for choosing blocks of pictures. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

Lag and anticipatory synchronization based parameter estimation scheme in modulated time-delayed systems

In this article, we have shown that using delay dynamical systems as base, one can use the modulation of the various parameters, to transmit multiple signals through a single chaotic time series. It is shown that under certain conditions the original signals and parameters of the driving signals can be recovered with the help of an adaptive demodulator. An important aspect of the present method is that the communication is possible between two time-delayed systems with parameter mismatch using lag and anticipatory synchronization. The whole idea is presented on the basis of Mackey–Glass system, with variable time delay.     

Analysis of RDX-TAGzT pseudo-propellant combustion with detailed chemical kinetics

A detailed model of steady-state combustion of a pseudo-propellant containing cyclotrimethylene trinitramine (RDX) and triaminoguanidinium azotetrazolate (TAGzT) is presented. The physicochemical processes occurring within the foam layer, comprised of a liquid and gas bubbles, and a gas-phase region above the burning surface are considered. The chemical kinetics is represented by a global thermal decomposition mechanism within the liquid by considering 18 species and eight chemical reactions. The reactions governing decomposition of TAGzT were deduced from separate confined rapid thermolysis experiments using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Within the gas bubbles and gas-phase region, a detailed chemical kinetics mechanism was used by considering up to 93 species and 504 reactions. The pseudo-propellant burn rate was found to be highly sensitive to the global decomposition reactions of TAGzT. The predicted results of burn rate agree well with experimental burn-rate data. The increase in burn rate by inclusion of TAGzT is due in part from exothermic decomposition of the azotetrazolate within the foam layer, and from fast gas-phase reactions between triaminoguanidine decomposition products, such as hydrazine, and oxidiser products from the nitramine decomposition.     

Stochastic mechano-chemical kinetics of molecular motors: A multidisciplinary enterprise from a physicist’s perspective

A molecular motor is made of either a single macromolecule or a macromolecular complex. Just like their macroscopic counterparts, molecular motors “transduce” input energy into mechanical work. All the nano-motors considered here operate under isothermal conditions far from equilibrium. Moreover, one of the possible mechanisms of energy transduction, called Brownian ratchet, does not even have any macroscopic counterpart. But, molecular motor is not synonymous with Brownian ratchet; a large number of molecular motors execute a noisy power stroke, rather than operating as Brownian ratchet. We review not only the structural design and stochastic kinetics of individual single motors, but also their coordination, cooperation and competition as well as the assembly of multi-module motors in various intracellular kinetic processes. Although all the motors considered here execute mechanical movements, efficiency and power output are not necessarily good measures of performance of some motors. Among the intracellular nano-motors, we consider the porters, sliders and rowers, pistons and hooks, exporters, importers, packers and movers as well as those that also synthesize, manipulate and degrade “macromolecules of life”. We review mostly the quantitative models for the kinetics of these motors. We also describe several of those motor-driven intracellular stochastic processes for which quantitative models are yet to be developed. In part I, we discuss mainly the methodology and the generic models of various important classes of molecular motors. In part II, we review many specific examples emphasizing the unity of the basic mechanisms as well as diversity of operations arising from the differences in their detailed structure and kinetics. Multi-disciplinary research is presented here from the perspective of physicists.     

Inertial spin Hall effect in non-commutative space

In the present Letter the study of inertial spin current (that appears in an accelerated frame of reference) is extended to Non-Commutative (NC) space. In the Hamiltonian framework, the Dirac Hamiltonian in an accelerating frame is computed in the low energy regime by exploiting the Foldy–Wouthuysen scheme. The NC θ-effect appears from the replacement of normal products and commutators by Moyal ?-products and ?-commutators. In particular, the commutator between the external magnetic vector potential and the potential induced by acceleration becomes non-trivial. Expressions for θ-corrected inertial spin current and conductivity are derived explicitly. We have provided yet another way of experimentally measuring θ. The θ bound is obtained from the out of plane spin polarization, which is experimentally observable.