Jahn-Teller effect induced phase transitions in CsCuCl3

Occurence of the three Jahn-Teller effect induced phase transitions of CsCuCl3 at 423, 510 and 535 K has been established and the nature of the transitions examined by X-ray crystallography, far infrared spectroscopy and other techniques.

Infrared spectroscopic study of the phase transitions in CsNO3, RbNO3 and NH4NO3

Phase transitions of CsNO3 (II-I), RbNO3 (IV-III-II) and NH4NO3 (V-IV-III-II-I) have been studied by i.r. spectroscopy. The study has provided useful information on the changes in the dispositions of the ions during the phase transitions.

Infrared and Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance Studies of the Phase Transitions of Para-dichlorobenzene

The α→γ→α→β transitions of para-dichlorobenzene have been studied by employing infrared and n.q.r. spectroscopy as well as differential scanning calorimetry. The γ phase is associated with considerably higher values of some of the intramolecular vibration frequencies. The α→γ transition shows athermal nucleation behaviour as in martensitic transitions. Intermolecular vibration bands around 46 and 85 cm–1 present in γ and α phases disappear in the β phase. The α→β transition seems to be associated with some orientational disorder.

Heat conduction with a phase change in a cylindrical mould

Analytical short time solution of moving boundary in heat conduction in a cylindrical mould under prescribed flux boundary condition has been studied in this paper. Partial differential equations are converted to integro-differential equations. These integro-differential equations which are coupled have been solved analytically for short time by choosing suitable series expansions for the unknown quantitities.

Jahn-Teller effect induced phase transitions in CsCuCl3

Occurence of the three Jahn-Teller effect induced phase transitions of CsCuCl3 at 423, 510 and 535 K has been established and the nature of the transitions examined by X-ray crystallography, far infrared spectroscopy and other techniques.

Comparative study of different formulations and solution methods for two phase flow in saturated porous media

Six models (Simulators) are formulated and developed with all possible combinations of pressure and saturation of the phases as primary variables. A comparative study between six simulators with two numerical methods, conventional simultaneous and modified sequential methods are carried out. The results of the numerical models are compared with the laboratory experimental results to study the accuracy of the model especially in heterogeneous porous media. From the study it is observed that the simulator using pressure and saturation of the wetting fluid (PW, SW formulation) is the best among the models tested. Many simulators with nonwetting phase as one of the primary variables did not converge when used along with simultaneous method. Based on simulator 1 (PW, SW formulation), a comparison of different solution methods such as simultaneous method, modified sequential and adaptive solution modified sequential method are carried out on 4 test problems including heterogeneous and randomly heterogeneous problems. It is found that the modified sequential and adaptive solution modified sequential methods could save the memory by half and as also the CPU time required by these methods is very less when compared with that using simultaneous method. It is also found that the simulator with PNW and PW as the primary variable which had problem of convergence using the simultaneous method, converged using both the modified sequential method and also using adaptive solution modified sequential method. The present study indicates that pressure and saturation formulation along with adaptive solution modified sequential method is the best among the different simulators and methods tested.

Deformation and structural densification in Al2O3-Y2O3 glass

In this article, we examine the unusual plastic deformation under uniaxial compression of an Al2O3-15 mol % Y2O3 (A15Y) glass synthesized by a wet chemical route At a low temperature of 650-725 degrees C, plastic deformation of this glass is largely non-viscous through shear instabilities In contrast deformation near the crystallization temperature (850 degrees C) occurs homogeneously with work hardening and with a monotonic increase in the true density of the glass by 10-12% accompanied by an increase in hardness (H) and elastic modulus (E) of up to 100% We hypothesize a phenomenon of molecular densification of the amorphous structure through a hierarchy of multiple phases, analogous to density- or entropy-driven amorphous to-amorphous phase transitions (polyamorphism) These results suggest that the present method of preparation and the unusual behavior can trigger a search for many more systems that display such behavior (C) 2010 Acta Materialia Inc Published by Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved

A critical re-examination and a revised phase diagram of La1-xSrxCoO3

We report the results of a comprehensive study on dc magnetization, ac susceptibility, and the magnetotransport properties of the La1-xSrxCoO3(0 <= x <= 0.5) system. At higher Sr doping (x >= 0.18), the system exhibits Brillouin-like field cooled magnetization (M-FC). However, for x < 0.18, the system exhibits a kink in the M-FC, a peak at the intermediate field in the thermoremnant magnetization and a non-saturating tendency in the M-H plot that all point towards the characteristic of spin glass behavior. More interestingly, dc magnetization studies for x < 0.18 do not suggest the existence of ferromagnetic correlation that can give rise to an irreversible line in the spin glass regime. The ac susceptibility study for x > 0.2 exhibits apparently no frequency dependent peak shift around the ferromagnetic transition region. However, a feeble signature of glassiness is verified by studying the frequency dependent shoulder position in chi `' (T) and the memory effect below the Curie temperature. But, for x < 0.18, the ac susceptibility study exhibits a considerable frequency dependent peak shift, time dependent memory effect, and the characteristic spin relaxation time scale tau(0) similar to 10(-13) s. The reciprocal susceptibility versus temperature plot adheres to Curie-Weiss behavior and does not provide any signature of preformed ferromagnetic clusters well above the Curie temperature. The magnetotransport study reveals a cross over from metallic to semiconducting-like behavior for x <= 0.18. On the semiconducting side, the system exhibits a large value of magnetoresistance (upto 75%) towards low temperature and it is strongly connected to the spin dependent part of the random potential distribution in the spin glass phase. Based on the above observations, we have reconstructed a new magnetic phase diagram and characterized each phase with associated properties.

A Resonant Integrator Based PLL and AC Current Controller for Single Phase Grid Connected PWM-VSI

Grid connected PWM-VSIs are being increasingly used for applications such as Distributed Generation (DG), power quality, UPS etc. Appropriate control strategies for grid synchronisation and line current regulation are required to establish such a grid interconnection and power transfer. Control of three phase VSIs is widely reported in iterature. Conventionally, dq control in Synchronous Reference Frame(SRF) is employed for both PLL and line current control where PI-controllers are used to track the DC references. Single phase systems do not have defined direct (d) and quadrature (q) axis components that are required for SRF transformation. Thus, references are AC in nature and hence usage of PI controllers cannot yield zero steady state errors. Resonant controllers have the ability to track AC references accurately. In this work, a resonant controller based single phase PLL and current control technique are being employed for tracking grid frequency and the AC current reference respectively. A single phase full bridge converter is being operated as a STATCOM for performance evaluation of the control scheme.

Selective-Area Atomic Layer Deposition

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a method to deposit thin films from gaseous precursors to the substrate layer-by-layer so that the film thickness can be tailored with atomic layer accuracy. Film tailoring is even further emphasized with selective-area ALD which enables the film growth to be controlled also on the substrate surface. Selective-area ALD allows the decrease of a process steps in preparing thin film devices. This can be of a great technological importance when the ALD films become into wider use in different applications. Selective-area ALD can be achieved by passivation or activation of a surface. In this work ALD growth was prevented by octadecyltrimethoxysilane, octadecyltrichlorosilane and 1-dodecanethiol SAMs, and by PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) and PVP (poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) polymer films. SAMs were prepared from vapor phase and by microcontact printing, and polymer films were spin coated. Microcontact printing created patterned SAMs at once. The SAMs prepared from vapor phase and the polymer mask layers were patterned by UV lithography or lift-off process so that after preparation of a continuous mask layer selected areas of them were removed. On these areas the ALD film was deposited selectively. SAMs and polymer films prevented the growth in several ALD processes such as iridium, ruthenium, platinum, TiO2 and polyimide so that the ALD films did grow only on areas without SAM or polymer mask layer. PMMA and PVP films also protected the surface against Al2O3 and ZrO2 growth. Activation of the surface for ALD of ruthenium was achieved by preparing a RuOX layer by microcontact printing. At low temperatures the RuCp2-O2 process nucleated only on this oxidative activation layer but not on bare silicon.