A cluster expansion theory, in which the quantum hard sphere system is taken as a reference system and the attractive interactions as a perturbation, is applied to calculate the equilibrium properties of the square-well fluid in the semiclassical limit. The radial distribution function and direct correlation function are obtained using the exponential approximation. The isothermal compressibility is also evaluated.

The emission of light charged particles in the fission process is of interest as they are believed to emerge from the neck region of the deformed fissioning nucleus at a time close to the scission point and may thus prove a useful probe to investigate the last stages of fission close to the rupture point. Experimental results on light charged particle emission and the efforts made to obtain information about the scission point parameters therefrom are reviewed.

A layer of stratified combination composed of selected radiation shielding materials acquires better shielding property. Albedo is used in such measurements as an integral measure ofγ-ray scattering. The stratified slabs of alternating heterogeneous layers have been found to have a virtual homogeneous property with a definite effective atomic number. The angular distribution of back-scattered photons as well as the total number albedo values for iron, aluminium and concrete in stratified combination for 662 keV and 1250 keV photons are reported.

An on-line facility to measure coincidences between the recoil ions and the scattered projectiles (SCORPION) has been designed, fabricated and commissioned at Nuclear Science Centre (NSC), New Delhi. The facility consists of a four jaw slit assembly, a time of flight (TOF) spectrometer, a parallel plate electrostatic charge analyser and a one dimensional position sensitive parallel plate avalanche counter (PPAC). Details of the design and working principles of various components and the test results obtained for the Si^q+-Ar collision system are presented to highlight the performance of the system. A multiple loss of up to four electrons has been observed for 60 MeV Si⁴⁺ ions colliding with argon atoms in a single collision condition. Spectra of recoil ions detected in coincidence with a particular charge state of the scattered projectile show a bell shaped distribution as a function of the recoil charge state (r) for the electron loss events. However, the yield of recoil ions drops asr increases for the direct ionization channel. Also for electron loss, the peak of the recoil ion distribution is seen to shift to a higher recoil charge state as the number of lost electrons from the projectile increases.

Excitation functions for evaporation residues of the system ¹⁶O + ¹⁶⁵Ho have been measured up to 100 MeV. Recoil range distribution of long lived reaction products were measured at ¹⁶O beam energy of 100 MeV. Detailed Monte Carlo simulation of recoil range distributions of products were performed with the help of PACE2 code, in order to extract the contributions of incomplete fusion in the individual channels. The results clearly show the incomplete fusion contributions in the tantalum and thulium products. This is confirmed by the predictions of breakup fusion model of the incomplete fusion.

An indigenously designed and developed micro-Raman spectrograph, consisting of a diode-pumped solid-state green laser for the excitation of Raman scattering, a Raman imaging microscope, CCD as a detector and a notch filter, has been extensively studied to evaluate its performance. A dielectric edge filter (having 27 alternate layers of SiO₂ and TiO₂) and a holographic notch filter (Oriel make) have been used to block the Rayleigh scattered light from the sample to the entrance slit of the spectrograph. Holographic notch filter is found to be able to record the Raman shifts below 700 cm⁻¹ conveniently whereas dielectric edge filter (27 layers) has enabled the spectrograph to record the Raman spectra very efficiently after a wave-number shift of 700 cm⁻¹. It has also been observed that the instrument using the edge filter provides a peculiar spectrum consisting of three spectral lines having Raman shifts as 569, 1328 and 1393 cm⁻¹ in the Raman spectrum of a weakly scattering sample with large reflectivity. Similarly, a spectrum consisting of multiple lines has been observed when the instrument is being operated using a holographic notch filter. These spectral lines are not observed in the case of liquid samples such as benzene, carbon tetrachloride, ethanol, diethyl ether etc. The origin of these peculiar spectral lines has been briefly discussed in the paper. Additionally, a major motivation for this work is to utilize the results for the selection of an appropriate filter depending on the type of the sample, i.e. weakly scattered and highly reflecting sample or highly scattered and low reflecting sample.

A zero-cost multichannel analyser (MCA) system based on the digital signal (pulse) processing (DSP) convenient for $\gamma$ -ray spectroscopy with conventional detectors such as scintillators and high-purity germanium (HPGe) has been implemented. The in-built high-performance analog-to-digital converter (ADC) in the sound card, an integral component of the present day personal computers, was used to digitise the signals from the radiation detectors. These pulses were then shaped using the established digital signal processing recursive algorithms. The filtered data were then displayed as histograms which then could be subjected to the traditional analysis to obtain peak parameters and the associated quantities were deduced. The developed system combines the performance of the sound card hardware with the flexibility allowed by the DSP to achieve a versatile MCA.