Accelerator development in India is reviewed with special emphasis on indigenous effort. It started with the 4 MeV cyclotron at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, grew substantially with the installation of the Van de Graaff accelerators at Trombay and really came of age with the 224 cm Variable Energy Cyclotron at Calcutta, which resulted in considerable fall-out of technology. Simultaneously electron linac development has also taken place. Thus the stage is set for developing new types of accelerators such as the electron storage ring synchroton, and a proton/heavy ion synchrotron.

A new approach for lithium drifting in silicon is described where the silicon devices under drift are held at constant temperature and bias at normal air ambient, and the drift process is terminated at the end of an estimated time depending upon the thickness of wafers. A 4-channel lithium drifting unit with electronically controlled oven has been constructed for this purpose. Full details of the fabrication procedure are given. A sizable number of Si(Li) detectors have been fabricated using this approach. The quality of the detectors is tested with²⁴¹Am alphas and conversion electrons from²⁰⁹Bi and¹³⁷Cs sources. The detectors are regularly used for nuclear physics experiments at this Centre.

Excitation functions for the reaction¹⁸¹Ta (α,xn)^185−xRe,^107,109Ag (α, ypxn) and⁵⁹Co (α, ypxn) were obtained from measurements of residual activity of stacked foils from threshold to 60 MeV. The excitation functions for the production of¹⁸¹Re,¹⁸²Re,¹⁸³Re,¹⁸⁴Re,¹⁰⁵Ag,¹¹¹In,⁵⁴Mn,⁵⁶Co,⁵⁸Co, and⁶⁰Co, are being presented. The experimental data are compared with calculations considering equilibrium as well as pre-equilibrium reactions according to the hybrid model of Blann. High energy part of the excitation functions is dominated by the pre-equilibrium reaction mechanism. Calculations were done using a priori calculational method of Overlaid Alice Code of Blann. Most of the excitation functions in the energy range mentioned above could be very well fitted with the hybrid model calculation for exciton numbern=4 withn_p=2 andn_n=2. The overall agreement with theory is good. Certain discrepancies, however, indicate the necessity to revise the hybrid model with respect to emission of complex particles.

Trace elements in various materials using nuclear techniques are studied. Results obtained by using energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) and proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) are examined. The EDXRF method is used to quantitatively evaluate trace elements such as Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Br, Rb and Sr in tea leaves. Correlation of trace elements in tea leaves and in the corresponding soil is studied.