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Orientational order parameter measurements of discotic liquid crystal
No full textOpen Access, Book chapter Proceedings of the 58th DAE Solid State Physics Symposium 2013. held at Thapar University, Patiala, Punjab, India, from 17–21 December 2013. Edited by Chitra Murli , D. Bhattacharyya and S. C. GadkariThe IR dichroism technique is a convenient method which can be used to measure the molecular order parameter corresponding to the IR bands exclusively present in the disc –like molecules in discotic liquid crystal (DLC). To measure orientational order parameter, homeotropic alignment of discotic liquid crystal was attained by slow cooling of sample from isotropic phase on untreated flat CaF2 substrate. The homeotropic alignment thus achieved was found to be thermodynamically stable in the discotic mesophase. IR spectra were recorded at different temperatures for the DLC. The order parameter was calculated by comparing the spectra of discotic phase with that of the isotropic phase. Order parameter has been presented as function of temperature for different significant IR bands present in the DLC
The large observatory for x-ray timing (loft)
No full textRestricted Access. An open-access version is available at arXiv.org (one of the alternative locations)The Large Observatory For x-ray Timing (LOFT) was studied within ESA M3 Cosmic Vision framework and participated in the final downselection for a launch slot in 2022-2024. Thanks to the unprecedented combination of effective area and spectral resolution of its main instrument, LOFT will study the behaviour of matter under extreme conditions, such as the strong gravitational field in the innermost regions of accretion flows close to black holes and neutron stars, and the supranuclear densities in the interior of neutron stars. The science payload is based on a Large Area Detector (LAD, 10 m2 effective area, 2-30 keV, 240 eV spectral resolution, 1° collimated field of view) and a Wide Field Monitor (WFM, 2-50 keV, 4 steradian field of view, 1 arcmin source location accuracy, 300 eV spectral resolution). The WFM is equipped with an on-board system for bright events (e.g. GRB) localization. The trigger time and position of these events are broadcast to the ground within 30 s from discovery. In this paper we present the status of the mission at the end of its Phase A stud
Bulk growth of ninhydrin single crystals by solvent evaporation method and its characterization for SHG and THG applications.
No full textRestricted Access.Ninhydrin is a well-known compound generally used in amino acid synthesis and also for detecting the latent fingerprints on porous surfaces. Single crystals can be grown by dissolving the compound in double distilled water at ambient temperature, and can be used as a potential material for second and third harmonic generation applications. The grown specimen was subjected to different characterization techniques in order to find out its suitability for device fabrication. Its lattice dimensions have been confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction and its crystalline quality has been assessed by high resolution X-ray diffraction and X-ray topography methods. The presence of functional groups was identified from HETCOR analysis and confirmed the absence of impurities during crystallization. Its optical properties have been examined by photoluminescence and birefringence analyses. Its thermal parameters such as thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity and specific capacity have been carried out by following photopyroelectric method. Third order nonlinear optical measurements have been carried out using Z-scan technique and its nonlinear optical absorption coefficient has been determined
H I absorption from the epoch of reionization and primordial magnetic fields
No full textRestricted Access. An open-access version is available at arXiv.org (one of the alternative locations)We study the impact of primordial magnetic fields on the H I absorption from the epoch of reionization. The presence of these fields results in two distinct effects: (1) the heating of the halos from the decay of the magnetic fields owing to ambipolar diffusion, and (2) an increase in the number of halos owing to additional matter fluctuations induced by magnetic fields. We analyze both of these effects and show that the latter is potentially observable because the number of halos along of line of sight can increase by many orders of magnitude. While this effect is not strongly dependent on the magnetic field strength in the range 0.3-0.6 nG, it is extremely sensitive to the magnetic field power spectral index for the near scale-free models. Therefore, the detection of such absorption features could be a sensitive probe of the primordial magnetic field and its power spectrum. We discuss the detectability of these features with the ongoing and future radio interferometers. In particular, we show that LOFAR might be able to detect these absorption features at z sime 10 in less than 10 hr of integration if the flux of the background source is 400 mJy
Effect of cadmium selenide quantum dots on the dielectric and physical parameters of ferroelectric liquid crystal
No full textOpen Access.The effect of cadmium selenide quantum dots (CdSe QDs) on the dielectric relaxation and material constants of a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) has been investigated. Along with the characteristic Goldstone mode, a new relaxation mode has been induced in the FLC material due to the presence of CdSe QDs. This new relaxation mode is strongly dependent on the concentration of CdSe QDs but is found to be independent of the external bias voltage and temperature. The material constants have also been modified remarkably due to the presence of CdSe QDs. The appearance of this new relaxation phenomenon has been attributed to the concentration dependent interaction between CdSe QDs and FLC molecules
Pattern formation in Langmuir–Blodgett films of tricycloquinazoline based discotic liquid crystal molecules
No full textRestricted Access.The assembly of molecules on the surface has drawn considerable attention because of its potential to tailor the physicochemical, electronic, and magnetic properties of materials. The structure of aggregates of molecules can be influenced by the molecular interactions and the external parameters like temperature, pressure and ion contents. We have found a stable Langmuir monolayer of amphiphilic tricycloquinazoline based discotic liquid crystal (AmTCQ) molecules at air–water (A–W) interface. The monolayer exhibits gas phase, low density liquid phase and high density liquid phase. The structural evolution in Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) films of the AmTCQ molecules as a function of target surface pressure is studied using an atomic force microscope. We found aggregation of the discotic molecules leading to nucleation sites at a lower surface pressure. With the increasing surface pressure, each nucleation site grows to form a stable triangular structure. The shape and size of the triangular structure remain stable till the target surface pressure for LB films deposition exceeds the equilibrium surface pressure of the AmTCQ molecules. The number of triangles in the film increases with increasing target surface pressure of LB deposition. The target surface pressure of LB deposition acts as a controlling parameter for obtaining desired number of triangular domains in the film
Possible proton synchrotron origin of X-ray and gamma-ray emission in large-scale jet of 3C 273
No full textOpen AccessThe large-scale jet of quasar 3C 273 has been observed in radio to gamma-ray frequencies. Earlier the X-ray emission from knot A of this jet has been explained with inverse Compton scattering of the cosmic microwave background radiations by the shock accelerated relativistic electrons in the jet. More recently it has been shown that this mechanism overproduces the gamma-ray flux at GeV energy and violates the observational results from Fermi LAT. We have considered the synchrotron emission from a broken power-law spectrum of accelerated protons in the jet to explain the observed X-ray to gamma-ray flux from knot A. The two scenarios discussed in our work are (i) magnetic field is high, synchrotron energy loss time of the protons is shorter than their escape time from the knot region and the age of the jet and (ii) their escape time is shorter than their synchrotron energy loss time and the age of the jet. These scenarios can explain the observed photon spectrum well for moderate values of Doppler factor. The required jet luminosity is high ∼1046 erg s−1 in the first scenario and moderate ∼1045 erg s−1 in the second, which makes the second scenario more favourable
Discotic liquid crystal-nanoparticle hybrid systems
No full textOpen Access.Discotic liquid crystals (DLCs) are nanomaterials with sizes ranging from 2 to 6 nm, and they are emerging as one-dimensional organic semiconducting materials. Recently, hybridization of these materials with various metallic and semiconducting nanoparticles (NPs) to alter and improve their properties has been realized. This article provides an overview of the developments in the field of newly immersed discotic nanoscience, a sub-field of liquid crystal (LC) nanoscience. As this field is also of great interest to readers without an LCs background, a brief introduction of the LC field is given first, with special emphasis on DLCs. This is followed by various DLC-NP hybrid systems. Finally, an outlook into the future of this newly emerging, fascinating and exciting field of discotic nanoscience research is provided