Electric-polarization and structure of molecular complexes of the metallic halides of group II of the periodic table

Dielectric measurements have been made on a number of molecular complexes of beryllium, zinc, cadmium and mercuric halides. The polarizations observed have been interpreted in terms of a tetrahedral configuration for the undissociated beryllium, zinc and cadmium halide complexes. In other cases the observed polarization has been shown to be due to the dissociation of the complex in solution.

Ultrasonic propagation through aqueous solutions of acetates

Using the pulse method in the range of 2 to 26Mc's the ultrasonic absorption, velocity and the adiabatic compressibility have been studied in eleven aqueous acetate solutions up to a concentration of 1 mole/litre. The substances studied are the acetates of lithium, sodium, potassium, ammonium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, barium, zinc, cadmium and lead. Absorption in mercuric acetate has been studied only at 2 and 6 Mc/s. Two regions of relaxation are noticed, one below 10 Mc/s and the other between 10 and 26 Mc/s. The first relaxation is ascribed to the dissociation reaction of the salt and the second one to the monomerdimer reaction of the acetic acid formed by the hydrolysis of the salt in water.

Cloning, expression, purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray crystallographic study of the putative SAICAR synthetase (PH0239) from Pyrococcus horikoshii OT3

The study of proteins involved in de novo biosynthesis of purine nucleotides is central in the development of antibiotics and anticancer drugs. In view of this, a protein from the hyperthermophile Pyrococcus horikoshii OT3 was isolated, purified and crystallized using the microbatch method. Its primary structure was found to be similar to that of SAICAR synthetase, which catalyses the seventh step of de novo purine biosynthesis. A diffraction-quality crystal was obtained using Hampton Research Crystal Screen II condition No. 34, consisting of 0.05 M cadmium sulfate hydrate, 0.1 M HEPES buffer pH 7.5 and 1.0 M sodium acetate trihydrate, with 40%(v/v) 1,4-butanediol as an additive. The crystal belonged to space group P3(1), with unit-cell parameters a = b = 95.62, c = 149.13 angstrom. Assuming the presence of a hexamer in the asymmetric unit resulted in a Matthews coefficient (V-M) of 2.3 angstrom(3) Da(-1), corresponding to a solvent content of about 46%. A detailed study of this protein will yield insights into structural stability at high temperatures and should be highly relevant to the development of antibiotics and anticancer drugs targeting the biosynthesis of purine nucleotides.

MMSE Receiver for Multiuser Interference Cancellation in Uplink OFDMA

In uplink orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, multiuser interference (MUI) occurs due to different carrier frequency offsets (CFO) of different users at the receiver. In this paper, we present a minimum mean square error (MMSE) based approach to MUI cancellation in uplink OFDMA. We derive a recursion to approach the MMSE solution. We present a structure-wise and performance-wise comparison of this recursive MMSE solution with a linear PIC receiver as well as other detectors recently proposed in the literature. We show that the proposed recursive MMSE solution encompasses several known detectors in the literature as special cases.

Document page layout analysis using Harris corner points

Extraction of text areas from the document images with complex content and layout is one of the challenging tasks. Few texture based techniques have already been proposed for extraction of such text blocks. Most of such techniques are greedy for computation time and hence are far from being realizable for real time implementation. In this work, we propose a modification to two of the existing texture based techniques to reduce the computation. This is accomplished with Harris corner detectors. The efficiency of these two textures based algorithms, one based on Gabor filters and other on log-polar wavelet signature, are compared. A combination of Gabor feature based texture classification performed on a smaller set of Harris corner detected points is observed to deliver the accuracy and efficiency.

Crystal structure of 2-thiophene-2-yl-3(thiophene-2-carboxylideneamino)-1,2-dihydroquinazolin-4(3H)-one and the synthesis, spectral and thermal studies of its transition metal(II) complexes

The synthesis of manganese(II), cobalt(II), nickel(II), copper(II), zinc(II) and cadmium(II) complexes of a new ligand 2-thiophene-2-yl-3(thiophene-2-carboxylidene-amino)-1,2-dihydroquinazolin-4(3H)-one (TTCADQ) is described. The ligand and metal complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, conductivity measurements, spectral (u.v.-vis., i.r., 1D n.m.r., 2D hetcor and e.p.r.) and thermal studies. The formation of 1,2-dihydroquinazolin-4(3H)-one rather than hydrazone, in the reaction of aromatic aldehyde and o-aminobenzoylhydrazide is proved by single crystal X-ray diffraction and 2D hetcor n.m.r. studies. On the basis of elemental analysis, u.v.-vis.spectroscopy and magnetic moment studies, six coordinate geometry for all the complexes was proposed. The i.r. spectral studies reveal the bidentate behaviour of the ligand.

Characterization of compact ICP ion source for focused ion beam applications

A compact, high brightness 13.56 MHz inductively coupled plasma ion source without any axial or radial multicusp magnetic fields is designed for the production of a focused ion beam. Argon ion current of density more than 30 mA/cm(2) at 4 kV potential is extracted from this ion source and is characterized by measuring the ion energy spread and brightness. Ion energy spread is measured by a variable-focusing retarding field energy analyzer that minimizes the errors due t divergence of ion beam inside the analyzer. Brightness of the ion beam is determined from the emittance measured by a fully automated and locally developed electrostatic sweep scanner. By optimizing various ion source parameters such as RF power, gas pressure and Faraday shield, ion beams with energy spread of less than 5 eV and brightness of 7100 Am(-2)sr(-1)eV(-1) have been produced. Here, we briefly report the details of the ion source, measurement and optimization of energy spread and brightness of the ion beam. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A computer study of the miscibility limits of Sb-Te-Bi

The quaternary system Sb1bTe1bBi1bSe with small amounts of suitable dopants is of interest for the manufacture of thermoelectric modules which exhibit the Peltier and Seebeck effects. This property could be useful in the production of energy from the thermoelectric effect. Other substances are bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) and Sb1bTe1bBi and compounds such as ZnIn2Se4. In the present paper the application of computer programs such as MIGAP of Kaufman is used to indicate the stability of the ternary limits of Sb1bTe1bBi within the temperature ranges of interest, namely 273 K to 300 K.

Parametrized tests of post-Newtonian theory using Advanced LIGO and Einstein Telescope

General relativity has very specific predictions for the gravitational waveforms from inspiralling compact binaries obtained using the post-Newtonian (PN) approximation. We investigate the extent to which the measurement of the PN coefficients, possible with the second generation gravitational-wave detectors such as the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the third generation gravitational-wave detectors such as the Einstein Telescope (ET), could be used to test post-Newtonian theory and to put bounds on a subclass of parametrized-post-Einstein theories which differ from general relativity in a parametrized sense. We demonstrate this possibility by employing the best inspiralling waveform model for nonspinning compact binaries which is 3.5PN accurate in phase and 3PN in amplitude. Within the class of theories considered, Advanced LIGO can test the theory at 1.5PN and thus the leading tail term. Future observations of stellar mass black hole binaries by ET can test the consistency between the various PN coefficients in the gravitational-wave phasing over the mass range of 11-44M(circle dot). The choice of the lower frequency cutoff is important for testing post-Newtonian theory using the ET. The bias in the test arising from the assumption of nonspinning binaries is indicated.

Controlled photoluminescence from self-assembled semiconductor-metal quantum dot hybrid array films

Thin films of hybrid arrays of cadmium selenide quantum dots and polymer grafted gold nanoparticles have been prepared using a BCP template. Controlling the dispersion and location of the respective nanoparticles allows us to tune the exciton-plasmon interaction in such hybrid arrays and hence control their optical properties. The observed photoluminescence of the hybrid array films is interpreted in terms of the dispersion and location of the gold nanoparticles and quantum dots in the block copolymer matrix.

Ionic conductivity and dielectric measurements in single crystal β---AgI

Ionic conductivity measurements have been made on pure, copper-doped and cadmium-doped single crystals. Dielectric measurements in the frequency range 30Hz–100Hz showed that there was no anomalously to be (0.64 ± 0.02) eV and migration energies for silver ion intersitials and vacancies in the c direction to be (0.41 ± 0.02) eV and (0.50 ± 0.02) eV respectively. ESR measurements have shown that copper exists as Cu+ in these crystals. Dielectric measurements in the frequency range (OHz–100KHz showed that there was no anomalously high value for ε as reported earlier.

Performance study of high operating temperature HgCdTe mid wave infrared detector through numerical modeling

The design of present generation uncooled Hg1-xCdxTe infrared photon detectors relies on complex heterostructures with a basic unit cell of type (n) under bar (+)/pi/(p) under bar (+). We present an analysis of double barrier (n) under bar (+)/pi/(p) under bar (+) mid wave infrared (x = 0.3) HgCdTe detector for near room temperature operation using numerical computations. The present work proposes an accurate and generalized methodology in terms of the device design, material properties, and operation temperature to study the effects of position dependence of carrier concentration, electrostatic potential, and generation-recombination (g-r) rates on detector performance. Position dependent profiles of electrostatic potential, carrier concentration, and g-r rates were simulated numerically. Performance of detector was studied as function of doping concentration of absorber and contact layers, width of both layers and minority carrier lifetime. Responsivity similar to 0.38 A W-1, noise current similar to 6 x 10(-14) A/Hz(1/2) and D* similar to 3.1 x 10(10)cm Hz(1/2) W-1 at 0.1 V reverse bias have been calculated using optimized values of doping concentration, absorber width and carrier lifetime. The suitability of the method has been illustrated by demonstrating the feasibility of achieving the optimum device performance by carefully selecting the device design and other parameters. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. doi:10.1063/1.3463379]

Photoconductivity in β-AgI

Excitation spectra and transient and steady-state photoconductivity have been studied in undoped and 0.8-mole% Cu-doped single-crystal β-AgI between 150 and 260°K. A single peak in the spectral response was found to occur in each case, at 2.88 eV for undoped and at 2.81 eV for copper-doped specimens at 260 K, the difference being due to a decrease in band gap. The anisotropy due to polarization of incident radiation parallel or perpendicular to the c direction, which is a measure of the energy difference between the Γ9 and Γ7 levels in the valence band, was found to be 0.010 eV. Transient-photoconductivity experiments showed that the hole lifetime was 6 μ sec at 300°K, an order of magnitude larger than the electron lifetime. The hole drift mobility was found to be 12±2 cm2/ V sec at 300°K and limited by traps at a depth of 0.51±0.01 eV with concentration (3-5)×109/cm3 and capture cross section 10-11 cm2. The study of photoconductivity decay versus temperature revealed the presence of shallow hole traps at 0.14±0.02 eV with concentration greater than 1016/cm3 and capture cross section 10-19 cm2. The steady-state photoconductivity was determined by the deep hole traps at 0.51 eV, and showed the presence of shallow electron traps at a depth of 0.28 eV. The trap distribution was found to be substantially the same in pure and copper-doped specimens, indicating the monovalent substitutional role of copper. The effects of iodine annealing, cadmium doping, and heating above the transition temperature were also studied. The possible nature of the traps is discussed.

Temperature-dependent chirped coherent phonon dynamics in Bi2Te3 using high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses

Degenerate pump-probe reflectivity experiments have been performed on a single crystal of bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) as a function of sample temperature (3 K to 296 K) and pump intensity using similar to 50 femtosecond laser pulses with central photon energy of 1.57 eV. The time-resolved reflectivity data show two coherently generated totally symmetric A(1g) modes at 1.85 THz and 3.6 THz at 296 K which blue-shift to 1.9 THz and 4.02 THz, respectively, at 3 K. At high photoexcited carrier density of similar to 1.7 x 10(21) cm(-3), the phonon mode at 4.02 THz is two orders of magnitude higher positively chirped (i.e the phonon time period decreases with increasing delay time between the pump and the probe pulses) than the lower-frequency mode at 1.9 THz. The chirp parameter, beta is shown to be inversely varying with temperature. The time evolution of these modes is studied using continuous-wavelet transform of the time-resolved reflectivity data. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2010

Casting and heat treatment variables of Al–7Si–Mg alloy

A review of the research work that has been carried out thus far relating the casting and heat treatment variables to the structure and mechanical properties of Al–7Si–Mg (wt-%) is presented here. Although specifications recommend a wide range of magnesium contents and a fairly high content of iron, a narrow range of magnesium contents, closer to either the upper or lower specified limits depending on the properties desired, and a low iron content will have to be maintained to obtain optimum and consistent mechanical properties. A few studies have revealed that the modification of eutectic silicon slightly increases ductility and fracture toughness and also that the effect of modification is predominant at low iron content. Generally, higher solidification rates give superior mechanical properties. Delayed aging (the time elapsed between quenching and artificial aging during precipitation hardening) severely affects the strength of the alloy. The mechanism of delayed aging can be explained on the basis of Pashley's kinetic model. It has been reported that certain trace additions (cadmium, indium, tin, etc.) neutralise the detrimental effect of delayed aging. In particular, it should be noted that delayed aging is not mentioned in any of the specifications. With reference to the mechanism by which trace additions neutralise the detrimental effect of delayed aging, various hypotheses have been postulated, of which impurity–vacancy interaction appears to be the most widely accepted.