The spectroscopic analysis of the emission from the plasma produced by irradiating a highT_c superconducting GdBa₂Cu₃O₇ target with a high power Nd:YAG laser beam shows the existence of the bands from different oxides in addition to the lines from neutrals and ions of the constituent elements. The spectral emissions by oxide species in laser-induced plasma show considerable time delays as compared to those from neutral and ionic species. Recombination processes taking place during the cooling of the hot plasma, rather than the plasma expansion velocities, have been found to be responsible for the observed time delays in this case. The decays of emission intensities from various species are found to be non-exponential.

The elastic moduli (Y, η, σ andH) and some thermodynamical parameters, such as Debye temperatureθ_D, diffusion constantD_i and latent heat of melting ΔH_m, of ZnF₂-PbO-TeO₂ glasses doped with some rare earth (Pr³⁺, Nd³⁺, Eu³⁺ and Tb³⁺) ions are determined as functions of temperature using piezo electric composite oscillator technique. All the parameters are found to decrease with increase in the atomic number Z of the rare earth ions and with increase in the temperature of measurement. The results are explained on the basis of the density of localized bonding defect states within the band gap of the material.

Dielectric constantɛ, loss tanδ and a.c. conductivityσ of LiF-B₂O₃: Ln³⁺ (where Ln=Ce, Pr, Nd and Tb) glasses are studied as functions of frequency (in the range 10²–10⁶ Hz) and temperature (range 30–200°C). The dielectric breakdown strength of these glasses was also determined at room temperature in an air medium. The rate of increase ofɛ and tanδ with temperature decreases with decrease in the ionic radius of RE³⁺ ion whereas the dielectric breakdown strength, the activation energy for a.c. conduction in the high temperature region decreases with increase in the ionic radius of RE³⁺ ion. An attempt has been made to explain the a.c. conduction in these glasses on the basis of quantum mechanical tunnelling (QMT) model.

Effect of 250 MeV¹⁰⁷Ag ion irradiation induced columnar defects on the noise properties of the YBCO superconductor in the normal and superconducting state have been investigated. Magnitude of the spectral density of the noise is found to scale inversely with the frequency and exhibit a quadratic dependence on the bias current confirming that the noise arises due to the resistance fluctuations. The magnitude ofS_v has been found to decrease with decrease in temperature and shows a noise peak in the transition region. The noise performance of these materials in the vicinity of the superconducting transition as well as in the normal state is found to improve by an order of magnitude after irradiation with 250 MeV¹⁰⁷Ag ions. The decrease in the magnitude of 1/f noise peak is due the irradiation induced enhanced flux pinning of the material which suppresses the flux motion induced noise in the vicinity ofT_c.

Chitin is the most abundant natural amino polysaccharide and estimated to be produced annually almost as much as cellulose. It has become of great interest not only as an underutilized resource, but also as a new functional material of high potential in various fields and the recent progress in chitin chemistry is quite noteworthy. The purpose of this review is to take a closer look at fibres made of chitin and its derivatives. Based on the current research and existing products, some new and futuristic approaches, in the development of novel fibres and their applications have been thoroughly discussed.

Bismuth doped barium sulphide nanocrystallities were prepared and characterized by XRD. Thermoluminescence (TL) studies of these samples after exposure to gamma radiation were carried out. The TL glow curve of the phosphors have two peaks at 403 K and 658 K while in their bulk counterparts these peaks were reported at 486 K and 570 K (Rao 1986). We noted that TL intensity increases with gamma exposure time in the range 30 min – 41 h which may be explained on the basis of track interaction model (TIM) and a high surface to volume ratio for the nanostructures. The kinetic parameters at various heating rates namely activation energy (E), order of kinetics (b) and frequency factor (s) of BaS : Bi (0.4 mol%) sample was determined using Chen’s method. The deconvolution of curve was done using the GCD function suggested by Kitis. The effect of different heating rates and different amount of dose has also been discussed.

High-resolution X-ray diffraction technique, employing a three-crystal monochromator–collimator combination is used to study the irradiation induced defects in flux grown Sr-hexaferrite crystals irradiated with 50 MeV Li³⁺ ion beams at room temperature with a fluence value of 1 × 10¹⁴ ions/cm². The diffraction curves of the irradiated crystals suggest the possibility of creation of low angle grain boundaries and other point/clusters of defects causing amorphization in the irradiated crystals. The perfection of the irradiated and unirradiated (0001) cleaved surfaces of the crystals is studied using the bulk method of X-ray topography. The topographs supplement the findings suggestive of modifications in the crystalline quality of SrFe₁₂O₁₉ on irradiation with SHI of Li³⁺. Etching of the (0001) cleaved surfaces in H₃PO₄ at 120°C suggests that the dissolution characteristics of the surfaces get affected on irradiation with SHI of Li³⁺, besides supporting the findings of HRXRD and X-ray topography regarding modifications in the perfection of SrFe₁₂O₁₉ on irradiation.