Growth And Characterization Of Diammonium Hydrogen Citrate And Citric Acid Monohydrate Single Crystals

Over the past years there has been considerable interest in the growth of single crystals both from the point of view of basic research and technological application. With the revolutionary emergence of solid state electronics which is based on single crystal technolo8Ys basic and applied studies on crystal growth and characterization _have gained a-more significant role in material science. These studies are being carried out for single crystals not only of semiconductor and other electronic materials but also of metals and insulators. Many organic crystals belonging to the orthorhombic class exhibit ferroelectric, electrooptic, triboluminescent and piezoelectric properties. Diammonium Hydrogen Citrate (DAHC) crystals are reported to be piezoelectric and triboluminescent /1/. Koptsik et al. /2/ have reported the piezoelectric nature of Citric Acid Monohydrate (CA) crystals. And since not much work has been done on these crystals, it has been thought useful to grow and characterize these crystals. This thesis presents a study of the growth of these crystals from solution and their defect structures. The results of the microindentation and thermal analysis are presented. Dielectric, fractographic, infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) studies of DAHC crystals are also reported

Development of p-type transparent semiconducting oxides for thin film transistor applications

Semiconductor physics has developed significantly in the field of re- search and industry in the past few decades due to it’s numerous practical applications. One of the relevant fields of current interest in material science is the fundamental aspects and applications of semi- conducting transparent thin films. Transparent conductors show the properties of transparency and conductivity simultaneously. As far as the band structure is concerned, the combination of the these two properties in the same material is contradictory. Generally a trans- parent material is an insulator having completely filled valence and empty conduction bands. Metallic conductivity come out when the Fermi level lies within a band with a large density of states to provide high carrier concentration. Effective transparent conductors must nec- essarily represent a compromise between a better transmission within the visible spectral range and a controlled but useful electrical con- ductivity [1–6]. Generally oxides like In2O3, SnO2, ZnO, CdO etc, show such a combination. These materials without any doping are insulators with optical band gap of about 3 eV. To become a trans- parent conductor, these materials must be degenerately doped to lift the Fermi level up into the conduction band. Degenerate doping pro- vides high mobility of extra carriers and low optical absorption. The increase in conductivity involves an increase in either carrier concen- tration or mobility. Increase in carrier concentration will enhance the absorption in the visible region while increase in mobility has no re- verse effect on optical properties. Therefore the focus of research for new transparent conducting oxide (TCO) materials is on developing materials with higher carrier mobilities.

Thermo- Optic and Nonlinear-Optical studies on CdSe Quantum Dots for Photonic Applications

In general, linear- optic, thermo- optic and nonlinear- optical studies on CdSe QDs based nano uids and their special applications in solar cells and random lasers have been studied in this thesis. Photo acous- tic and thermal lens studies are the two characterization methods used for thermo- optic studies whereas Z- scan method is used for nonlinear- optical charecterization. In all these cases we have selected CdSe QDs based nano uid as potential photonic material and studied the e ect of metal NPs on its properties. Linear optical studies on these materials have been done using vari- ous characterization methods and photo induced studies is one of them. Thermal lens studies on these materials give information about heat transport properties of these materials and their suitability for applica- tions such as coolant and insulators. Photo acoustic studies shows the e ect of light on the absorption energy levels of the materials. We have also observed that these materials can be used as optical limiters in the eld of nonlinear optics. Special applications of these materials have been studied in the eld of solar cell such as QDSSCs, where CdSe QDs act as the sensitizing materials for light harvesting. Random lasers have many applications in the eld of laser technology, in which CdSe QDs act as scattering media for the gain.

Manifestation of Colossal Thermoelectric Power by Charge Ordered Small and Intermediate Bandwidth Manganites

Thermoelectric materials are revisited for various applications including power generation. The direct conversion of temperature differences into electric voltage and vice versa is known as thermoelectric effect. Possible applications of thermoelectric materials are in eco-friendly refrigeration, electric power generation from waste heat, infrared sensors, temperature controlled-seats and portable picnic coolers. Thermoelectric materials are also extensively researched upon as an alternative to compression based refrigeration. This utilizes the principle of Peltier cooling. The performance characteristic of a thermoelectric material, termed as figure of merit (ZT) is a function of several transport coefficients such as electrical conductivity (σ), thermal conductivity (κ) and Seebeck coefficient of the material (S). ZT is expressed asκσTZTS2=, where T is the temperature in degree absolute. A large value of Seebeck coefficient, high electrical conductivity and low thermal conductivity are necessary to realize a high performance thermoelectric material. The best known thermoelectric materials are phonon-glass electron – crystal (PGEC) system where the phonons are scattered within the unit cell by the rattling structure and electrons are scattered less as in crystals to obtain a high electrical conductivity. A survey of literature reveals that correlated semiconductors and Kondo insulators containing rare earth or transition metal ions are found to be potential thermoelectric materials. The structural magnetic and charge transport properties in manganese oxides having the general formula of RE1−xAExMnO3 (RE = rare earth, AE= Ca, Sr, Ba) are solely determined by the mixed valence (3+/4+) state of Mn ions. In strongly correlated electron systems, magnetism and charge transport properties are strongly correlated. Within the area of strongly correlated electron systems the study of manganese oxides, widely known as manganites exhibit unique magneto electric transport properties, is an active area of research.Strongly correlated systems like perovskite manganites, characterized by their narrow localized band and hoping conduction, were found to be good candidates for thermoelectric applications. Manganites represent a highly correlated electron system and exhibit a variety of phenomena such as charge, orbital and magnetic ordering, colossal magneto resistance and Jahn-Teller effect. The strong inter-dependence between the magnetic order parameters and the transport coefficients in manganites has generated much research interest in the thermoelectric properties of manganites. Here, large thermal motion or rattling of rare earth atoms with localized magnetic moments is believed to be responsible for low thermal conductivity of these compounds. The 4f levels in these compounds, lying near the Fermi energy, create large density of states at the Fermi level and hence they are likely to exhibit a fairly large value of Seebeck coefficient.