Ab-initio study of AlN in zinc-blende and rock-salt phases

Group III-nitrides are of great interest in both fundamental sciences and technical application. Most of the common nitrides are well known as hard and wide band gap semiconductor materials. In general they have been studied in zinc-blende and wurtzite phases. In this paper, we focus our attention to structural, electronic, phase transition and elastic properties of aluminum nitride (AlN) in zinc-blende and rock-salt phases. A little work has been reported either theoretically or experimentally on elastic and electronic properties of AlN; especially in RS phase. All the calculations are performed using the full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave approach plus local orbitals within the framework of density functional theory as implemented in the Wien2k code. The generalized gradient approximation based on the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof is used for the exchange and correlation functional. We determine the full set of first order elastic constants, C₁₁, C₁₂ and C₄₄ at zero pressure to confirm the mechanical stability and hardness, which have not been established either experimentally or theoretically for RS phase. In the study obvious phase transition from ZB phase to RS phase due to pressure effect has been obtained at 12.75 GPa.     

Bounds on Lifting Continuous-State Markov Chains to Speed Up Mixing

It is often possible to speed up the mixing of a Markov chain \(\{ X_{t} \}_{t \in \mathbb {N}}\) on a state space \(\Omega \) by lifting, that is, running a more efficient Markov chain \(\{ \widehat{X}_{t} \}_{t \in \mathbb {N}}\) on a larger state space \(\hat{\Omega } \supset \Omega \) that projects to \(\{ X_{t} \}_{t \in \mathbb {N}}\) in a certain sense. Chen et al. (Proceedings of the 31st annual ACM symposium on theory of computing. ACM, 1999) prove that for Markov chains on finite state spaces, the mixing time of any lift of a Markov chain is at least the square root of the mixing time of the original chain, up to a factor that depends on the stationary measure of \(\{X_t\}_{t \in \mathbb {N}}\). Unfortunately, this extra factor makes the bound in Chen et al. (1999) very loose for Markov chains on large state spaces and useless for Markov chains on continuous state spaces. In this paper, we develop an extension of the evolving set method that allows us to refine this extra factor and find bounds for Markov chains on continuous state spaces that are analogous to the bounds in Chen et al. (1999). These bounds also allow us to improve on the bounds in Chen et al. (1999) for some chains on finite state spaces.     

Vanishing pseudo–Schur complements,reverse order laws,absorption laws and inheritance properties

The problem of vanishing of a (generalized) Schur complement of a block matrix (corresponding to the leading principal subblock) implying that the other (generalized) Schur complement (corresponding to the trailing principal subblock) is zero, is revisited. Absorption laws for two important classes of generalized inverses are considered next. Inheritance properties of the generalized Schur complements in relation to the absorption laws are derived. Inheritance by the generalized principal pivot transform is also studied.     

A Spectrophotometric Determination of Ascorbic Acid

A new, simple and sensitive method for the spectrophotometric indirect determination of ascorbic acid in fruits, beverages, and pharmaceuticals is described. In this method, the ascorbic acid reduces Cu²⁺ to Cu⁺ and reacts with 2,9‐dimethyl‐1,10‐phenanothroline (neucoproine) to form Cu (neucoproine)⁺ complex, and it was extracted with N‐phenylbenzimidoylthiourea (PBITU) in chloroform. The apparent value of molar absorptivity of the complex in terms of ascorbic acid is (3.52) × 10⁴ L mole^?1 cm^?1 at λ_max, 460. The detection limit of ascorbic acid is 40 μg L^?1 and the method obeys Beer's law over the concentration range of 0.1–4.0 μg mL^?1. The proposed method was successfully applied for the determination of ascorbic acid in various samples. The validity of the present method was checked by the flow injection analysis (FIA) method.     

Multi-stimuli programmable FRET based RGB absorbing antennae towards ratiometric temperature,pH and multiple metal ion sensing

A red-green-blue (RGB) multichromophoric antenna 1 consisting of energy donors naphthalimides and perylenediimides and a central aza-BODIPY energy acceptor along with two subchromophoric red-blue (RB 6) and green-blue (GB 12) antennae was designed that showed efficient cascade Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). RGB antenna 1 showed pronounced temperature-dependent emission behaviour where emission intensities in green and red channels could be tuned in opposite directions by temperature giving rise to unique ratiometric sensing with a temperature sensitivity of 0.4% °C. RGB antenna 1 showed reversible absorption modulation selectively in the blue region (RGB ↔ RG) upon acid/base addition giving rise to pH sensing behaviour. Furthermore, RGB antenna 1 was utilized to selectively sense metal ions such as Co²⁺ and Fe³⁺ through a FRET turn-off mechanism induced by a redox process at the aza-BODIPY site that resulted in the selective spectral modulation of the red band (i.e., RGB → GB). Model antenna RB 6 showed white light emission with chromaticity coordinates (0.32, 0.33) on acid addition. Antennae 1, 6 and 12 also exhibited solution state electrochromic switching characterized by distinct colour changes upon changing the potential. Finally, antennae 1, 6 and 12 served as reversible fluorescent inks in PMMA/antenna blends whereby the emission colours could be switched or tuned using different stimuli such as acid vapour, temperature and metal ions.

RGB antennae consisting of naphthalimides, perylenediimides and aza-BODIPY with efficient FRET show unique ratiometric temperature sensing, metal sensing (FRET-off) and pH sensing through various stimuli sensitive band tuning.     

Static fluid spheres admitting Karmarkar condition

We explore a new relativistic anisotropic solution of the Einstein field equations for compact stars based on embedding class one condition.For this purpose,we use the embedding class one methodology by employing the Karmarkar condition.Employing this methodology,we obtain a particular differential equation that connects both the gravitational potentials e^λ and e^ν.We solve this particular differential equation choosing a simple form of generalized gravitational potential grr to describe a complete structure of the space-time within the stellar configuration.After determining this space-time geometry for the stellar models,we discuss thermodynamical observables including radial and tangential pressures,matter density,red-shift,velocity of sound,etc.,in the stellar models.We also perform a complete graphical analysis,which shows that our models satisfy all the physical and mathematical requirements of ultra-high dense collapsed structures.Further,we discuss the moment of inertia and M-R curve for rotating and non-rotating stars.     

Diffraction-induced spectral anomalies for information encoding and information hiding - Possibilities and limitations

It has been shown both theoretically and experimentally that drastic spectral changes take place around phase singularity and the shift in the spectral lines gives rise to the phenomenon called spectral switching. The shift of spectral lines towards the blue end or towards the red end of the spectrum might perhaps be used in free space communication applications. In more recent investigations, the possibility of information encoding with spectral anomalies have been discussed for two different optical systems. In this paper, we present schemes of information encoding and information hiding in the Airy pattern formed by diffraction of spatially coherent light after passing through a circular aperture. We propose a communication system that might be used to realize a new communication technique.     

Volumetric method for the estimation of persulphate in aqueous solution

Summary A rapid volumetric method for the estimation of persulphate using the persulphate-thiosulphate reaction catalysed by cupric ions has been proposed. The method consists in adding a known excess of standardised sodium thiosulphate solution to the persulphate solution containing 5 ml of 0.01 M copper sulphate solution and after the completion of the reduction of persulphate, titrating the remaining sodium thiosulphate against a standard solution of iodine.

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Zusammenfassung Die durch Kupfer(II)-ionen katalysierte Reaktion zwischen Persulfat und Thiosulfat wird zur raschen, volumetrischen Persulfatbestimmung benutzt. Bei dem Verfahren gibt man zur Persulfatlösung, die 5 ml 0,01 m Kupfersulfatlösung enthält, einen Überschuß an Thiosulfatlösung und titriert nach Beendigung der Reaktion mit Jodlösung zurück.

     

Dynamics of a disordered, driven zero-range process in one dimension

We study a disordered, driven zero range process which models a closed system of attractive particles that hop with site-dependent rates and whose steady state shows a condensation transition with increasing density. We characterize the dynamical properties of the mass fluctuations in the steady state in one dimension both analytically and numerically and show that there is a dynamic phase transition in the density-disorder plane. We also determine the form of the scaling function which describes the growth of the condensate as a function of time, starting from a uniform density distribution.