The results of electrical resistance measurements under pressure on single crystals of WSe₂ are reported. Measurements up to 8.5 GPa are carried out using Bridgman anvil set up and beyond it using diamond anvil cell (DAC) up to a pressure of 27 GPa. There is no clear indication of any phase transition till the highest pressure is reached in these measurements.

In the present paper an attempt has been made to describe the chemical vapor transport (CVT) technique used for the growth of molybdenum disulphide (MoS₂) single crystals. Iodine (I₂) is used as transporting material for this purpose. The energy dispersive analysis by X-ray (EDAX) confirmed the stoichiometry of the as-grown crystals. The lattice parameters of these crystals were determined from the X-ray diffraction analysis. The grown crystals were examined under the optical zoom microscope for their surface microstructure study.

Recently proposed model potential which combines both linear and quadratic types of interactions is employed for the investigation of some properties like the total energy, equation of state and bulk modulus of AlP, AlAs and AlSb semiconductor compounds using higher-order perturbation theory. The model potential parameter is determined using zero pressure condition. The ratio of the covalent bonding termE_cov to the secondorder termE₂ is 6.77% to 11.85% which shows that contribution from higher order terms are important for zinc-blende-type crystals. The calculated numerical results of the total energy, energy band gap at Jones-zone face and bulk modulus of these compounds are in good agreement with the experimental data and found much better than other such theoretical findings. We have also studied pressure-volume relations of these compounds. The present study is carried out using six different screening functions along with latest screening function proposed by Sarkaret al. It is found from the present study that effect of exchange and correlation is clearly distinguishable.

The phonon dispersion curves of some liquid metals, viz. Na $(Z = 1)$, Mg $(Z = 2)$, Al $(Z = 3)$ and Pb $(Z = 4)$, have been computed using our model potential. The charged hard sphere (CHS) reference system is applied to describe the structural information. Our model potential along with CHS reference system is capable of explaining the phonon dispersion relation for monovalent, divalent, trivalent and tetravalent liquid metals.

Results of the studies of the properties like binding energy, the pair distribution function $g(r)$, the structure factor $S(q)$, specific heat at constant volume, velocity autocorrelation function (VACF), radial distribution function, self-diffusion coefficient and coordination number of alkaline-earth metals (Be, Mg, Ca, Sr and Ba) near melting point using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation technique using a pseudopotential proposed by us are presented in this article. Good agreement with the experiment is achieved for the binding energy, pair distribution function and structure factor, and these results compare favourably with the results obtained by other such calculations, showing the transferability of the pseudopotential used from solid to liquid environment in the case of alkaline-earth metals.