New Insights on Modern Age Coins by Calibration-Free Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Method and Chemometric Approaches

Journal of Applied Spectroscopy - The elemental composition of one- and two-rupee coins issued in different years by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was investigated using laser-induced breakdown...     

Working group report: Collider Physics

This is summary of the activities of the working group on collider physics in the IXth Workshop on High Energy Physics Phenomenology (WHEPP-9) held at the Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, India in January 2006. Some of the work subsequently done on these problems by the subgroups formed during the workshop is included in this report.     

Properties of<Emphasis Type="Italic">B</Emphasis><Subscript>c</Subscript> meson

The mass spectrum ofcb meson is investigated with an effective quark-antiquark potential of the form -α_c/r +Ar ^νwith ν varying from 0.5 to 2.0. TheS andP-wave masses, pseudoscalar decay constant, weak decay partial widths in spectator model and the lifetime ofB _cmeson are computed. The properties calculated here are found to be in good agreement with other theoretical and experimental values at potential index,ν = 1     

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     

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.     

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.