A comparative study of the density of defect states in bulk samples and thin films of glassy Se<Subscript>90</Subscript>Sb<Subscript>10</Subscript>

The present paper reports the comparative study of density of defect states (DOS) between bulk samples and thin films of glassy Se₉₀Sb₁₀. These glasses have been prepared by the quenching technique. Thin films of these glasses have been prepared by vacuum evaporation technique. Space-charge-limited conduction (SCLC) has been measured at different temperatures. The density of localized states near Fermi level is calculated by fitting the data to the theory of SCLC for the case of uniform distribution of localized states for bulk as well as for thin films. A comparison has been made between the density of states calculated in these two cases.     

Role of Ge incorporation in the physical and dielectric properties of Se<Subscript>75</Subscript>Te<Subscript>25</Subscript> and Se<Subscript>85</Subscript>Te<Subscript>15</Subscript> glassy alloys

The effect of Ge additive on the physical and dielectric properties of Se₇₅Te₂₅ and Se₈₅Te₁₅ glassy alloys has been investigated. It is inferred that on adding Ge, the physical properties i.e., average coordination number, average number of constraints and average heat of atomization increase but lone pair electrons, fraction of floppy modes, electronegativity, degree of crosslinking and deviation of stoichiometry (R) decrease. The effect of Ge doping on the dielectric properties of the bulk Se₇₅Te₂₅ and Se₈₅Te₁₅ glassy alloys has also been studied in the temperature range 300–350 K for different frequencies (1 kHz–5 MHz). It is found that, with doping, the dielectric constant ε^′ and dielectric loss ε^″ increase with increase in temperature and decrease with increase in frequency. The role of the third element Ge, as an impurity in the two pure binary Se₇₅Te₂₅ and Se₈₅Te₁₅ glassy alloys has been discussed in terms of the nature of covalent bonding and electronegativity difference between the elements used in making the aforesaid glassy systems.     

Certain variants of multipermutohedron ideals

Multipermutohedron ideals have rich combinatorial properties. An explicit combinatorial formula for the multigraded Betti numbers of a multipermutohedron ideal and their Alexander duals are known. Also, the dimension of the Artinian quotient of an Alexander dual of a multipermutohedron ideal is the number of generalized parking functions. In this paper, monomial ideals which are certain variants of multipermutohedron ideals are studied. Multigraded Betti numbers of these variant monomial ideals and their Alexander duals are obtained. Further, many interesting combinatorial properties of multipermutohedron ideals are extended to these variant monomial ideals.     

Linearly polarized intracavity passive Q-switched Yb-doped photonic crystal fibre laser

In this paper we report linearly polarized high average power passive Q-switched ytterbium-doped photonic crystal fibre laser with a Cr⁴⁺:YAG crystal as a saturable absorber. An average output power of 9.4 W with pulse duration of 64 ns and pulse repetition rate of 57.4 kHz with a slope efficiency of 52% was achieved. Measured polarization extinction ratio (PER) of the Q-switched laser output was 10.5 dB.     

Feedback-controlled electro-kinetic traps for single-molecule spectroscopy

A principal limitation of single-molecule spectroscopy in solution is the diffusion-limited residence time of a given molecule within the detection volume. A common solution to this problem is to immobilize molecules of interest on a passivated glass surface for extending the observation time to obtain reliable data statistics. However, surface tethering of molecules often introduces artifacts, particularly when studying the structural dynamics of biomolecules. To circumvent this limitation, we investigated alternative ways to extend single-molecule observation times in solution without surface immobilization. Among various possibilities, the so-called anti-Brownian electro-kinetic trap (or ABEL trap) seems best suited to achieve this goal. The essential part of that trap is a feedback-controlled electro-kinetic steering of a molecule’s position in reaction to its diffusive Brownian motion which is monitored by fluorescence, thus keeping the molecule within a sub-micron sized detection volume. Fluorescence trace recordings of over thousands of milliseconds duration on individual dye molecules within an ABEL trap have been reported. In this short review, we shall briefly discuss the principle and some results of ABEL trapping of individual molecules with possible extensions to future works.     

Femto-Second Transform Limited Pulse Generation with Higher Order Dispersion Effects for Dispersion-Shifted Optical Communication System

The paper deals with the influence of higher-order effects of dispersion on the femto-second transform limited pulse generation by compensating for linear chirp of self-phase modulation spectra in the dispersion-shifted fibers. It has been shown that the minimum propagation length with first-order dispersion term is 23 m, as reported earlier. If the higher-order dispersion effects are taken into consideration, this length is reduced to 11.5 m. With compensation of the first-order dispersion term, this length can be enhanced to 6.8161 × 10³ km. This length can further be improved to 6.0343 × 10⁹ km by compensation of first- and second-order dispersion terms together. The minimum pulse width and linewidth product without dispersion, with dispersion including higher-order dispersion effects, and with dispersion compensation, is found to be 0.44, 0.4418, and 0.4411, respectively.     

Optimization for sinusoidal profiles in surface relief gratings recorded on photoresist

The formations of sinusoidal surface relief structures recorded in positive photoresist (Allresist AR-P 3120) have been studied and optimized for different recording parameters of gratings with spatial frequency of ～1200 grooves/mm. A stable sinusoidal pattern generated using a two-beam laser interferometric technique was recorded in thin films of positive photoresist deposited on glass substrates. Several gratings were generated by varying the exposure time of interference pattern and time of chemical development of exposed media. Time duration of exposure for 90 s and chemical development for 15 s were observed to be optimum for the translation of the sinusoidal interference pattern into nearly-sinusoidal profiled grooves in the gratings for a developer AR-300-26 of dilution of 2:1 (developer:de-ionized water).