High mobility W-doped In2O3 thin films: Effect of growth temperature and oxygen pressure on structural, electrical and optical properties

Highly conducting and transparent thin films of tungsten (W)-doped indium oxide were obtained using pulsed laser deposition to study the effect of growth temperature and oxygen pressure on structural, optical and electrical properties. The transparency of the films is seen to largely depend on the growth temperature. The electrical properties, however, are found to depend strongly on both the growth temperature and the oxygen pressure. High mobility (up to 358 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹), low resistivity (1.1 × 10⁻⁴ Ω cm), and relatively high transmittance (∼90%) tungsten-doped indium oxide films have been prepared at a growth temperature of 500 °C and an oxygen pressure of 1 × 10⁻⁶ bar.     

Gold,silver, and palladium nanoparticle/nano-agglomerate generation,collection, and characterization

Generation, collection, and characterization of gold, silver, and palladium nanoparticles and nano-agglomerates (collectively “nanoparticles”) have been explored. The nanoparticles were generated with a spark aerosol generator (Palas GFG-1000). They were collected using a deposition cell under diffusion and thermophoresis. The shapes and sizes of the deposited particles were measured using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM images showed that the particles were in the range of 8–100 nm in diameter, and their shapes varied from nearly spherical to highly non-spherical. Thermophoresis enhanced the deposition of nanoparticles (over the diffusive or the isothermal deposition) in all cases. Further, the size distributions of the nanoparticles generated in the gas phase (aerosol) were measured using a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS 3080, TSI) spectrometer. The SMPS results show that an increase in the spark frequency of the generator shifted the size distributions of the nanoparticles to larger diameters, and the total particle mass production rate increased linearly with increase in the spark frequency. The computational fluid dynamics code Fluent (Ansys) was used to model the flow in the deposition cell, and the computed results conform to the observations.     

Seasonal variation of daily total column ozone (TCO) and role of its depletion and formation rate on surface temperature over Dumdum at Kolkata, India

The purpose of the paper is to present the variation of total ozone concentration over Dumdum at Kolkata, India during different seasons. It is concluded that the trend of ozone concentration during different seasons are different. A critical analysis is done and following important results are obtained.

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies on core-shell structured nanocomposites

Core-shell nanostructures were grown in silica-based glasses. Copper-copper oxide and iron-iron oxide structures had diameters in the range 3-6 nm, with shell thicknesses ∼1-2 nm. Silver-lithium niobate core-shell nanostructures had diameters in the range 4.2-46 nm and thicknesses varying from 2.2 to 22 nm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies were carried out on all these specimens. The analyses of these results show the presence of Cu⁺/Cu²⁺, Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ and Nb⁴⁺/Nb⁵⁺ valence states in the above three systems. Electrical resistivity data were fitted satisfactorily to the small polaron hopping model in the case of copper and iron-containing specimens. The presence of ions in the lithium niobate shell provides direct evidence of the formation of localized states between which variable range hopping conduction can be effected.     

Electronic structure and optical properties of CuAlO2 under biaxial strain

An ab initio calculation has been carried out to investigate the biaxial strain ( - 10.71% < ε < 9.13%) effect on elastic, electronic and optical properties of CuAlO(2). All the elastic constants (c(11), c(12), c(13), c(33)) except c(44) decrease (increase) during tensile (compressive) strain. The band gap is found to decrease in the presence of tensile as well as compressive strain. The relative decrease of the band gap is asymmetric with respect to the sign of the strain. Significant differences between the parallel and perpendicular components of the dielectric constant and the optical properties have been observed due to anisotropic crystal structure. It is further noticed that these properties are easily tunable by strain. Importantly, the collective oscillation of the valence electrons has been identified for light polarized perpendicular to the c-axis. From calculations, it is clear that the tensile strain can enhance the hole mobility as well as the transparency of CuAlO(2).     

Polychromatic intensity point spread function of a birefringent lens

We study the intensity point spread function (IPSF) of a uniaxial birefringent lens sandwiched between two linear polarizers under broadband illumination having flat-top spectral profile. The optic axis of the birefringent crystal is perpendicular to the lens axis. For monochromatic input illumination, a low-power birefringent lens offers enhanced resolution under parallel-polarizers configuration and apodization under crossed-polarizers configuration with a single focus as well. At a relatively high value of birefringence parameter, the proposed system behaves as a double-focus lens. The present communication uses a novel technique to study the effect of polychromatic illumination on the imaging characteristics of birefringent lenses. The studies reveal that the imaging characteristics of the low-power birefrigent lens does not deteriorate considerably under polychromatic illumination. However, for a polychromatic beam with large bandwidth, the imaging behavior of the system having high birefringence parameter deviates appreciably from that under strictly monochromatic illumination. The said system even loses its inherent bi-focal nature due to depolarization of polarized polychromatic light upon passage through the birefringent crystal.     

Superb hydroxyl radical-mediated biocidal effect induced antibacterial activity of tuned ZnO/chitosan type II heterostructure under dark

Journal of Nanoparticle Research - With the widespread use of titanium dioxide (TiO2) human exposure is inevitable, but the exposure data on TiO2 are still limited. This study adopted off-line...     

A novel “magnetic” field and its dual non-commutative phase space

In this Letter we have studied a new form of non-commutative (NC) phase space with an operatorial form of noncommutativity. A point particle in this space feels the effect of an interaction with an “internal  ” magnetic field, that is singular at a specific position θ⁻¹${\theta }^{\mathrm{-1}}$. By “internal” we mean that the effective magnetic fields depends essentially on the particle properties and modifies the symplectic structure. Here θ is the NC parameter and induces the coupling between the particle and the “internal” magnetic field. The magnetic moment of the particle is computed. Interaction with an external physical magnetic field reveals interesting features induced by the inherent fuzziness of the NC phase space: introduction of non-trivial structures into the charge and mass of the particle and possibility of the particle dynamics collapsing to a Hall type of motion. The dynamics is studied both from Lagrangian and symplectic (Hamiltonian) points of view. The canonical (Darboux) variables are also identified. We briefly comment, that the model presented here, can play interesting role in the context of (recently observed) real space Berry curvature in material systems.     

An analytical study on absorptive lineshape of a driven N-type open four-level system: Quantum interference effects

An open four-level system of having two pairs of closely spaced levels (N-type configuration) is driven by a single electromagnetic field and tuned resonant with the average frequency of four dipole allowed transitions. Under the Doppler free condition and by using a semiclassical formulation of atom-field interaction for four dipole allowed transitions, we derive the optical Bloch equations for the said four-level system coupled to the driving field. In order to obtain the field induced polarization and hence the absorptive lineshapes, we use the usual perturbation method for getting the approximate analytical solution to the coupled optical Bloch equations for the density matrix elements. Through the off-diagonal complex density matrix elements, we introduce the field dependent phase angles arising out of the quantum interference between the levels participating in dipole allowed transitions. The difference between the field dependent and field independent phases are pointed out. In particular, we investigate the effects of Rabi frequencies and the field dependent phases on the absorptive lineshape. The analytical expressions for the effective linewidths, effective detunings and the induced polarization clearly indicate the role of quantum interference.