Superconductivity and resistance behaviour of σ-phase alloys: Nb−Rh and Ta−Rh

Superconductivity, structure and electrical resistance behaviour of -phase alloys of Nb–Rh and Ta–Rh are investigated. The Ta–Rh alloys do not become superconducting above 1.2 K. The andH _c2 (0) values of a homogeneous alloy with the composition Nb_65.2Rh_34.8 are 2.95 K, 13.9 kG/K and 23 kG, respectively, whereas for an inhomogeneous alloy with the composition Nb_63.7Rh_36.3 these values are 4.24 K, 5.5 kG/K and 14 kG, respectively. Splat quenching results in a substantial increase in the andH _c2 (0) values of the Rh-rich sample. Annealing (900°C, 100 h) of the Rh-rich sample leads only to small changes in the superconducting properties but a small amount of Nb–Rh solid solution has been formed. The electrical resistance of Nb_65.2Rh_34.8 decreases with decreasing temperature and varies asT ^0.5 between 150 and 240 K and asT between 60 and 140 K. For Ta_70.0Rh_30.0 the temperature coefficient changes to negative values below 170K. values are calculated for Nb–Rh using McMillan's formula. An estimatedT _c value of Ta–Rh is 0.2 K. TheH _c2 (0) values of Nb–Rh are in good agreement with the theoreticalH _c ^2** (0) values.Dedicated to Prof. Dr. W. Buckel on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

Effect of layer sliding on the interfacial electronic properties of intercalated silicene/indium selenide van der Waals heterostructure

Methods capable of tuning the properties of van der Waals (vdW) layered materials in a controlled and reversible manner are highly desirable. Interfacial electronic properties of two-dimensional vdW heterostructure consisting of silicene and indium selenide (InSe) have been calculated using density functional theory-based computational code. Furthermore, in order to vary the aforementioned properties, silicene is slid over a InSe layer in the presence of Li intercalation. On intercalation of the heterostructure, the buckling parameter associated with the corrugation of silicene decreases from 0.44 Å to 0.36 Å, whereas the InSe structure remains unaffected. Potential energy scans reveal a significant increase in the sliding energy barrier for the case of intercalated heterostructure as compared with the unintercalated heterostructure. The sliding of the silicene encounters the maximum energy barrier of 0.14 eV. Anisotropic analysis shows the noteworthy differences between calculated in-plane and out-of-plane part of dielectric function. A variation of the planar average charge density difference, dipole charge transfer and dipole moment have been discussed to elucidate the usability spectrum of the heterostructure. The employed approach based on intercalation and layer sliding can be effectively utilized for obtaining next-generation multifunctional devices.     

Effect of quantization and positron concentration on shielding potentials in electron-positron-ion plasma

The kinetic theory of plasma has been employed to compute the test-charge potential distributions accounting for quantization effects in magnetized electron-positron-ion (EPI) plasmas. In this regard, the degenerate positrons and electrons are assumed to follow the Fermi-Dirac distribution, while inertial ions are modelled by Maxwellian velocity distribution. By solving the Fourier-transformed Vlasov–Poisson equations, a modified dielectric function and electrostatic potential is obtained. By imposing various constraints on the test-charge speed, the potential profile has been analysed in terms of Debye–Hückel (DH), far-field (FF), and wake-field (WF) potentials. It has been found that the amplitude of DH and FF potentials increases by the inclusion of quantization effects, and it becomes the opposite for the WF potential profile. Furthermore, the variation of positron concentration significantly affects the DH, FF, and WF potentials. The present findings are important to understand the shielding phenomenon in degenerate multi-species plasmas.     

Application of Euler Neural Networks with Soft Computing Paradigm to Solve Nonlinear Problems Arising in Heat Transfer

In this study, a novel application of neurocomputing technique is presented for solving nonlinear heat transfer and natural convection porous fin problems arising in almost all areas of engineering and technology, especially in mechanical engineering. The mathematical models of the problems are exploited by the intelligent strength of Euler polynomials based Euler neural networks (ENN’s), optimized with a generalized normal distribution optimization (GNDO) algorithm and Interior point algorithm (IPA). In this scheme, ENN’s based differential equation models are constructed in an unsupervised manner, in which the neurons are trained by GNDO as an effective global search technique and IPA, which enhances the local search convergence. Moreover, a temperature distribution of heat transfer and natural convection porous fin are investigated by using an ENN-GNDO-IPA algorithm under the influence of variations in specific heat, thermal conductivity, internal heat generation, and heat transfer rate, respectively. A large number of executions are performed on the proposed technique for different cases to determine the reliability and effectiveness through various performance indicators including Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), error in Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (ENSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and Thiel’s inequality coefficient (TIC). Extensive graphical and statistical analysis shows the dominance of the proposed algorithm with state-of-the-art algorithms and numerical solver RK-4.     

A Hybrid Metaheuristic Based on Neurocomputing for Analysis of Unipolar Electrohydrodynamic Pump Flow

A unipolar electrohydrodynamic (UP-EHD) pump flow is studied with known electric potential at the emitter and zero electric potential at the collector. The model is designed for electric potential, charge density, and electric field. The dimensionless parameters, namely the electrical source number (Es), the electrical Reynolds number (ReE), and electrical slip number (Esl), are considered with wide ranges of variation to analyze the UP-EHD pump flow. To interpret the pump flow of the UP-EHD model, a hybrid metaheuristic solver is designed, consisting of the recently developed technique sine–cosine algorithm (SCA) and sequential quadratic programming (SQP) under the influence of an artificial neural network. The method is abbreviated as ANN-SCA-SQP. The superiority of the technique is shown by comparing the solution with reference solutions. For a large data set, the technique is executed for one hundred independent experiments. The performance is evaluated through performance operators and convergence plots.     

Study of Nonlinear Models of Oscillatory Systems by Applying an Intelligent Computational Technique

In this paper, we have analyzed the mathematical model of various nonlinear oscillators arising in different fields of engineering. Further, approximate solutions for different variations in oscillators are studied by using feedforward neural networks (NNs) based on the backpropagated Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm (BLMA). A data set for different problem scenarios for the supervised learning of BLMA has been generated by the Runge–Kutta method of order 4 (RK-4) with the “NDSolve” package in Mathematica. The worth of the approximate solution by NN-BLMA is attained by employing the processing of testing, training, and validation of the reference data set. For each model, convergence analysis, error histograms, regression analysis, and curve fitting are considered to study the robustness and accuracy of the design scheme.     

Strain modification of AlGaN layers using swift heavy ions

Epitaxial AlGaN/GaN layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on SiC substrates were irradiated with 150 MeV Ag ions at a fluence of 5×10¹² ions/cm². The samples used in this study are 50 nm Al_0.2Ga_0.8N/1 nm AlN/1 μ m GaN/0.1 μ m AlN grown on SI 4H-SiC. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry/channeling strain measurements were carried out on off-normal axis of irradiated and unirradiated samples. In an as-grown sample, AlGaN layer is partially relaxed with a small tensile strain. After irradiation, this strain increases by 0.22% in AlGaN layer. Incident ion energy dependence of dechanneling parameter shows E ^1/2 dependence, which corresponds to the dislocations. Defect densities were calculated from the E ^1/2 graph. As a result of irradiation, the defect density increased on both GaN and AlGaN layers. The effect of irradiation induced-damages are analyzed as a function of material properties. Observed results from different characterization techniques such as RBS/channeling, high-resolution XRD and AFM are compared and complemented with each other to deduce the information. Possible mechanisms responsible for the observations have been discussed in detail.     

Role of ion energy flux on the structural and morphological properties of silicon oxy-nitride composite films deposited by plasma focus device

ABSTRACT

Crystalline silicon oxy-nitride (SiON) composite films are deposited on Si substrate for multiple (5, 15, 25 and 50) focus shots (FS) by plasma focus device. The X-rays diffraction patterns reveal the development of various diffraction peaks related to Si, Si₃N₄, and SiO₂ phases which confirms the formation of SiON composite film. The intensity of Si₃N₄ (1 0 2) plane is linearly increased with the increase of FS. The Si₃N₄ (1 0 2) phase does not nucleate for 5 FS. Raman analysis confirms the formation of β–Si–N phase. Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis reveals that the strength of chemical bonds like Si–N, Si–O formed during the deposition process of SiON composite films is associated with the bonds intensity which in turn depends on the number of FS. The field emission scanning electron microscopic analysis reveals that the surface morphology like size, shape and distribution of micro/nano-dimensional particles, film compactness and the formation of micro-rods, micro-teethes and micro-tubes of SiON composite films is entirely associated with the rise in substrate surface transient temperature which in turn depends on the increasing number of FS. The EDX spectrum confirms the presence of Si (22.5?±?4.7 at. %), N (13.4?±?4.5 at. %) and O (54.7?±?11.3 at. %) in the SiON composite film. The thickness of SiON composite film deposited for 50 FS is found to ～15.47?µm.     

Track shapes,etching characteristics and track density distribution on different planes of apatite

Abstract

Studies concerning track shapes, etching characteristics and track density due to spontaneous fission of uranium along various crystallographic planes of apatite are represented. The studies were carried out on large complete crystals as well as on small grains of apatite belonging to various geological origins. Three track types (hexagonal, pyramidal and needle type) have been identified along various crystallographic planes.     

Activation energy in α-palladium hydrides

A tight-binding method is used to estimate the activation energy in α-palladium hydrides. We obtain an interstitial activation energy of 0.26 eV for the indirect migration through the tetrahedral position. This is in fair agreement with experimental results.