Synthesis and thermal behaviour of salicylaldimine-based liquid crystalline symmetrical dimers

A series of symmetrical dimers consisting of salicylaldimine moieties connected by flexible alkylene central spacer via ether linkages has been synthesized. In order to validate the empirical rule suggested by Date et al. to account for the smectic behaviour of such dimers, the chain length of the terminal alkoxy chain has been kept constant (C₈) while the number of methylene units in the central spacer was varied from C₃ to C₁₁. Another aim of the present investigation was to understand structure-property relationship in these dimers in which the salicylaldimine mesogenic segment has been used for the first time in dimers. The mesomorphic behaviour of these dimers was evaluated using optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry and the structure of some of the mesophases has been further investigated with the help of X-ray diffraction. Our studies reveal that the dimers consisting of 3 to 8 methylene units in the flexible spacer show only smectic (smectic C and smectic A) phases. For the dimers containing 4, 6 and 8 methylene units in the central spacer, a unique filament growth pattern has been observed in the smectic A phase while cooling from the isotropic phase. The dimers containing of C₉ to C₁₁ methylene groups exhibit the nematic phase in addition to smectic modifications. This observation indicates that when the terminal chains are shorter than the spacer, the tendency to form smectic phases is not fully extinguished but is perhaps reduced.     

UV–visible emission in Tb–Yb codoped tellurite glass on 980-nm excitation

UV–visible upconversion emission from terbium in a Tb–Yb codoped tellurite glass has been observed on 980-nm excitation. The ultraviolet and violet upconversion emissions involve three photons and the blue, green, yellow, and red emissions arise due to two incident photons. The mechanism involved in these emissions is discussed. The effects of doping concentration and of the sample temperature on the upconversion emissions have also been studied. PACS 74.25.Gz; 42.70.Hj; 73.61.Jc; 76.30.Kg; 42.70.Ce     

Temperature sensors and optical sensors

The dependence of temperature on the fluorescence lifetime and fluorescence intensity ratio using Stark sublevels and thermally coupled (close lying) levels in triply ionized rare earth ions, doped into a variety of glasses and fibers, have been reviewed. Also, it is claimed that not only for the two closely lying levels of triply ionized rare earth ion of the same kind, but also for two different triply ionized rare earth ions, having their excited levels very close to each other, may be used to monitor the temperature. PACS 42.70.Ce     

Some hydrodynamic aspects of 3-phase inverse fluidized bed

Hydrodynamics of 3-phase inverse fluidized bed is studied experimentally using low density particles for different liquid and gas velocities. The hydrodynamic characteristics studied include pressure drop, minimum liquid and gas fluidization velocities and phase holdups. The minimum liquid fluidization velocity determined using the bed pressure gradient, decreases with increase in gas velocity. The axial profiles of phase holdups shows that the liquid holdup increases along the bed height, whereas the solid holdup decreases down the bed. However, the gas holdup is almost uniform in the bed.     

L-shell/subshell ionization of Au,Pb and Bi by low energy proton impact

Proton induced X-ray emission has been used to measureL-subshell and total ionization cross-sections of Au, Pb and Bi in the energy range of 200–350 keV. The ionization cross-sections have been extracted using the X-ray spectra and other quantities like fluorescence yields, transition probabilities, relative widths and Coster-Krönig fraction etc. involved in the process. The results have been compared with the cross-sections measured before and discussed in the light of known theories regarding the ion-atom collisions.     

A mathematical framework for algorithm-based fault-tolerant computing over a ring of integers

In this work, we establish a complete mathematical framework for algorithm-based fault-tolerant computing for data vectors defined over a ring of integers. The ring of integers consists of integers {0,1,…,M−1} and all the arithmetic operations are performed modulo the integerM, which is assumed to be composite. The importance of the work lies in the suitability of modulo arithmetic in certain computational environments. Lack of an underlying Galois field,GF(q), presents a unique challenge to this framework. We develop the theory and algorithms for single as well as multiple fault correction and detection. We also analyze the parallel and serial nature of the encoder and decoder configurations. Certain known but rather old results in the theory of numbers dealing with linear congruences and matrix algebra are also described and extended further using mathematical terminology that modern-day researchers are expected to be familiar with.     

Effect of distortion in electron impact excitation in Coulomb-projected Born approximation

We have calculated total and differential cross-sections for 1s →ns (n = 2, 3, 4) electron impact excitation of hydrogen and hydrogenic ions at various energies in Coulomb-projected Born approximation. Distortion due to static interactions, target polarization and exchange effects has been incorporated in the initial channel. The present calculations have been compared with other theoretical and experimental results.