Reciprocal Ontological Models Show Indeterminism Comparable to Quantum Theory

We show that within the class of ontological models due to Harrigan and Spekkens, those satisfying preparation-measurement reciprocity must allow indeterminism comparable to that in quantum theory. Our result implies that one can design quantum random number generator, for which it is impossible, even in principle, to construct a reciprocal deterministic model.     

The randomly fluctuating impurity strength initiated excitation in doped quantum dots

We investigate the excitation behavior of a repulsive impurity doped quantum dot under the influence of randomly fluctuating dopant potential. We have considered Gaussian impurity centers doped at different locations. The investigation reveals the interplay between dopant location and dopant’s spatial stretch in modulating the excitation pattern. Maximization in the excitation rate has been observed as a function of fluctuating dopant strength owing to the conflict between opposing influences that promote and hinder excitation.     

Effect of Ag nanoparticle addition and ultrasonic treatment on a stable TiO2 nanofluid

Nanoparticles, when homogeneously dispersed in a base fluid, e.g. water, ethylene glycol etc. are commonly known as nanofluids. Nanofluids have gained attention in the scientific community for their enhanced thermal properties. One of the major problems in using nanofluids as a heat transfer medium for commercial applications is that, in most of the closed circuit industrial cooling processes, the cooling fluid has to be replaced after several cycles of cooling operation because of an increased presence of contaminants. If nanofluids were used as a coolant, it would be very hard to separate the nanoparticles from the waste fluid. The present work is aimed at the separation and recycling of nanoparticles from fluid waste by means of quick settling of titanium dioxide nanoparticles using silver nanoparticles along with ultrasonic treatment. It is observed that with increasing silver concentration and time of ultrasonication, the stability of the dispersion decreases. There is a value for both the silver concentration and ultrasonication time above which the settling time decreases drastically.     

Vortex motion in high-Tc films and a micropattern-induced phase transition

A micropattern-induced transition in the mechanism of vortex motion and vortex mobility is observed in high-T_c thin films. The competition between the anomalous Hall effect and the guidance of vortices by rows of microholes (antidots) lead to a sudden change in the direction of vortex motion that is accompanied by a change in the critical current density and microwave losses. The latter effect demonstrates the difference in vortex mobility in different phases of vortex motion in between and within the rows of antidots.     

Proton induced modification in Poly(ethylene terephthalate)

A systematic investigation of 62 r MeV proton irradiated Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) has been carried out using Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy. The experiments revealed a restoration of the crystalline matrix and simultaneous decrease in thermal stability in the irradiated polymer as a function of dose, indicating that PET underwent both degradation and cross-linking by proton irradiation.     

Buckling-driven morphological transformation of droplets of a mixed colloidal suspension during evaporation-induced self-assembly by spray drying

Morphological transformation during evaporation-induced self-assembly of a mixed colloidal suspension in micrometric droplets has been investigated. It has been demonstrated that a buckling-driven shape transition of drying droplets of mixed colloidal suspension takes place during evaporation-induced self-assembly. Further, it is also shown that the distortion modulations get significantly amplified with enhancement in volume fraction of anisotropic soft colloidal component of the mixed colloids. It has been argued that the reduction in elastic modulus of formed shell, at the boundary of a drying droplet, and the anisotropic nature of one of the colloidal components facilitate the deformation process. Hierarchical structures of these assembled colloidal grains have been probed using electron microscopy and scattering techniques.     

Electronic structure and magnetism of disordered bcc Fe alloys

We study the electronic structure and magnetic properties of disordered bcc Co_xFe_1-x, Cr_xFe_1-x and Mn_xFe_1-x alloys in their ferromagnetic phases using the Augmented Space Recursion (ASR) technique coupled with the tight-binding linearized muffin tin orbital (TB-LMTO) method. We calculate the density of states and magnetic moment of these alloys to show the variation upon alloying Fe with the other neighbouring 3d transition metals using arguments based on charge transfer, exchange splitting and hybridization effects. Received 10 April 2001 and Received in final form 15 August 2001     

Growth and characterization of Cd1−xZnxTe thin films prepared from elemental multilayer deposition

Cd_1−xZn_xTe is a key material for fabrication of high-energy radiation detectors and optical devices. Conventionally it is fabricated using single crystal growth techniques. The method adopted here is the deposition of elemental multilayer followed by thermal annealing in vacuum. The multilayer structure was annealed at different temperatures using one to five repetitions of Cd-Zn-Te sequence. X-ray diffraction pattern for the multilayer with five repetitions revealed that annealing at 475 °C yielded single-phase material compared to other annealing conditions. EDX spectroscopy was carried out to study the corresponding compositions. Photoluminescence properties and change of resistance of the multilayer under illumination were also studied. The resistivity of the best sample was found to be a few hundreds of Ω cm.     

Room-temperature fluorescence of a charge-transfer complex of reserpine in aqueous and aqueous–ethanol media

The room-temperature fluorescence of a charge-transfer (CT) complex different from those of the component donor/acceptor in polar organic solvent is not very common. The phenomenon is even rarer in aqueous medium. The present work demonstrates that a CT complex formed between reserpine (Res) and 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone (DDQ) in aqueous and aqueous–ethanol media exhibits fluorescence at room temperature that is entirely different from those of the components, Res and DDQ. With decreasing polarity of the medium on the addition of ethanol, the fluorescence intensity and also the fluorimetrically determined formation constant of the complex increase, but the fluorescence emission wavelength does not change significantly. The quantum yield of fluorescence of the CT complex systematically decreases with increasing ethanol content of the medium. That the observed fluorescence is due to the CT complex is established by the constancy of the assumed proportionality constant (β) between the fluorescence intensity and the complex concentration measured using different equilibrium concentrations of the complex and also by demonstrating the mirror image relationship between its excitation and emission spectra in aqueous medium. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the room-temperature fluorescence of a CT complex in aqueous solution.