BaWO₄ doped with ZnO (2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 wt%) nanostructured films are prepared on quartz substrates by pulsed laser ablation. The films are post annealed at 900°C. GIXRD analysis of the post-annealed films reveal the change of orientation of scheelite tetragonal crystal growth from 1 1 2 reflection plane to 0 0 4 planes when doping concentration is more than 3 wt%. The AFM images show that film with 7 wt% ZnO doping concentration has good ceramic pattern with surface features giving a minimum value of rms surface roughness suitable for optoelectronic device applications. The optical transmittance and band-gap energy of the films are found to decrease considerably on post-annealing which can be due to the increase in grain size of the crystallites on annealing. Thus doping with ZnO improves the surface features of the films and increases the optical band-gap energy.

The study on the optical characteristics of aerosol is carried out using the dual polarization lidar observations from the tropical inland station Gadanki (13.5°N, 79.2°E) for the period of observation during the year 2010. The summer and monsoon observation days show high scattering ratio at the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) and at the lower stratosphere region. The depolarization ratio is also high at this altitude due to the transport of particulates to the TTL layer by the active convection prevailing at the period. The study reveals more dependable values of scattering ratio that are seasonal and range-dependent.