Engineering of hydrophilic and plasmonic properties of Ag thin film by atom beam irradiation

Hydrophilic Ag nanostructures were synthesized by physical vapour deposition of 5 nm Ag thin films followed by irradiation with 1.5 keV Ar atoms. Optical absorbance measurements show a characteristic surface plasmon resonance absorption band in visible region. A blue-shift in absorbance from 532 to 450 nm is observed with increasing fluence from 1 × 10¹⁶ to 3 × 10¹⁶ atoms/cm². Atomic force microscopy was performed for the pristine and irradiated samples to study the surface morphology. The atom beam irradiation induced sputtering and surface diffusion lead to the formation of plasmonic surface. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy of the pristine and irradiated film indicates that metal content in the film decreases with ion fluence, which is attributed to the sputtering of Ag by Ar atoms. The contact angle measurement demonstrates the possibility of engineering the hydrophilicity by atom beam irradiation.     

A two-dimensional analytical model for channel potential and threshold voltage of short channel dual material gate lightly doped drain MOSFET

An analytical model for the channel potential and the threshold voltage of the short channel dual-material-gate lightly doped drain （DMG-LDD） metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor （MOSFET） is presented using the parabolic approximation method. The proposed model takes into account the effects of the LDD region length, the LDD region doping, the lengths of the gate materials and their respective work functions, along with all the major geometrical parameters of the MOSFET. The impact of the LDD region length, the LDD region doping, and the channel length on the channel potential is studied in detail. Furthermore, the threshold voltage of the device is calculated using the minimum middle channel potential, and the result obtained is compared with the DMG MOSFET threshold voltage to show the improvement in the threshold voltage roll-off. It is shown that the DMG-LDD MOSFET structure alleviates the problem of short channel effects （SCEs） and the drain induced barrier lowering （DIBL） more efficiently. The proposed model is verified by comparing the theoretical results with the simulated data obtained by using the commercially available ATLASTM 2D device simulator.     

Effect of size and charge on ordering of a highly charged concentrated macroions in suspension

An efficient fast Fourier transform method has been employed to determine correlation function [g(r*)] using the structure factor [S(Q*)] calculated with the rescaled mean spherical approximation (RMSA) and the DLVO potential. Based on this function a parametric (size and charge) study of the ordering in a highly charged and concentrated macroions (an ideal colloid) has been made. The strength of the correlation increases with the increase in the charge on macroions and it saturates after acertain value. Similarly, a critical diameter of the particle depending on the charge on it has been found at which normal feature of the ordering disappears.     

Bio-energetic impairment in human calf muscle in thyroid disorders: a P MRS study

Mitochondrial metabolism particularly oxidative phosphorylation is greatly influenced by thyroid hormones. Earlier studies have described neuromuscular symptoms as well as impaired muscle metabolism in hypothyroid and hyperthyroid patients. In this study, we intend to look in to the muscle bioenergetics including phosphocreatine recovery kinetics based oxidative metabolism in thyroid dysfunction using in vivo ³¹P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). ³¹P MRS was carried out at resting state on 32 hypothyroid, 10 hyperthyroid patients and 25 control subjects. Nine out of 32 hypothyroid patients and 17 out of 25 control subjects under went exercise protocol for oxidative metabolism study and performed plantar flexion exercise while lying supine in 1.5 T magnetic resonance scanner using custom built exercise device. MRS measurements of inorganic phosphate (Pi), phosphocreatine (PCr), phosphodiesters (PDE) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) of the calf muscle were acquired during rest, exercise and recovery phase. PCr recovery rate constant (k_PCr) and oxidative capacity were calculated by monoexponential fit of PCr versus time (t) at the beginning of recovery. During resting condition in hypothyroid patients, PCr/Pi ratio was reduced whereas PDE/ATP and Pi/ATP were increased. However, in case of hyperthyroidism, an increased PCr/Pi ratio and reduced PDE/ATP and Pi/ATP were observed. The results confirmed differential energy status of the muscle due to increased or decreased levels of thyroid hormone. Our results also demonstrate reduced oxidative metabolism in hypothyroid patients based on PCr recovery kinetics. PCr recovery kinetics study after exercise revealed decreased PCr recovery rate constant (k_PCr) in hypothyroid patients compared to controls that resulted in decrease in oxidative capacity of muscle by 50% in hypothyroids. These findings are consistent with a defect of high energy phosphate mitochondrial metabolism in thyroid dysfunction.     

L-shell/subshell ionization of Au,Pb and Bi by low energy proton impact

Proton induced X-ray emission has been used to measureL-subshell and total ionization cross-sections of Au, Pb and Bi in the energy range of 200–350 keV. The ionization cross-sections have been extracted using the X-ray spectra and other quantities like fluorescence yields, transition probabilities, relative widths and Coster-Krönig fraction etc. involved in the process. The results have been compared with the cross-sections measured before and discussed in the light of known theories regarding the ion-atom collisions.     

Consistency and variations in optical characteristics of four-layer polymeric waveguides

In the present work, four-layer polymeric waveguides have been fabricated and characterized by interchanging the film layer. Using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) polymer it has been shown that polymers do not loose their own property in multilayer structure and better efficiency can be achieved in the form of low propagation losses and mode filtration. Due to high contrast of PVA and SAN films, a broad spectrum of refractive index in four-layer structure has been achieved.     

p-sd Shell gap reduction in neutron-rich systems and cross-shell excitations in 20 O

Excited states in 20O were populated in the reaction 10Be(14C,alpha) at Florida State University (FSU). Charged particles were detected with a particle telescope consisting of 4 annularly segmented Si surface barrier detectors and gamma radiation was detected with the FSU gamma detector array. Five new states were observed below 6 MeV from the alpha-gamma and alpha-gamma-gamma coincidence data. Shell model calculations suggest that most of the newly observed states are core-excited 1p-1h excitations across the N=Z=8 shell gap. Comparisons between experimental data and calculations for the neutron-rich O and F isotopes imply a steady reduction of the p-sd shell gap as neutrons are added.     

A new expression for the Anderson-Grüneisen parameter δ for ionic crystals

The Anderson-Grüneisen parameter δ has been computed theoretically from a general expression developed by Sharma and Tripathi[6]. The δ-γ (Grüneisen parameter) curves have been plotted to find a relation for the best fitted yielding curves by the method of least squares. The relation developed can be put as δ = AγB and it can be inferred that chang's[3] relation is a particular case of this general equation.     

Self distortion of a Gaussian electromagnetic pulse in a plasma

On the basis of perturbation theory, the phenomenon of nonlinear self distortion of an electromagnetic pulse (Gaussian in time) in a collisional plasma has been studied. The nonlinearity appears through the modulation of electron collision frequency by the power absorption from the wave. At moderate energies of the pulse, considerable distortion in the amplitude envelope has been predicted.     

Self-focusing of electromagnetic waves in a magnetoplasma

The steady state self-focusing of a Gaussian electromagnetic beam in a magneto-plasma has been studied. On a short time scale, a non-linearity in the dielectric constant of a plasma appears due to the ponderomotive force. This force in the case of the extraordinary mode has opposite signs forω>ω _c andω<ω _c, whereω _c is the electron cyclotron frequency. The self-focusing due to this effect is predicted at frequencies except forω _c /2<ω<ω _c . The focusing of the ordinary mode is adversely affected by the magnetic field. On a larger time scale, the non-uniform heating of electrons by the beam and the resulting redistribution of the electron density is a source of non-linearity. This non-local non-linearity is several orders of magnitude higher than the ponderomotive non-linearity. We predict self-focusing of the extraordinary mode only above the gyroresonance (ω>ω _c ), while the ordinary mode can be focused at all frequencies.