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Highlights: [•] Effect of volume fractions on change in the size of embedded silver nanoparticles. [•] Surface plasmon resonance study to understand the dipolar interactions. [•] Study provides data for the development of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Organic nonlinear optical crystal l-asparaginium picrate was subjected to 100MeV Ag8+ ions and 100MeV Si8+ ions. The dielectric properties of the crystals were studied before and after irradiation from 100Hz to 5MHz at various temperatures (308K to 358K). A drastic increase in the dielectric constant is seen due to irradiation. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss increase with increasing irradiation fluence. The UV–vis spectra of the pristine and irradiated samples were recorded and quantified. There is a small shift in absorption edge towards lower wavelength for the irradiated crystals due to the decrease in bandgap of the material. The observed results are discussed in detail. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Our long term objective is to study the swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation effect on photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) with the aim to investigate the stability of DSSC component in space irradiations and possibility of improvement in efficiency of DSSC due to ion induced effects in oxide layer. The DSSC photoanode consists of three layers viz; transparent conducting oxide (TCO), porous oxide with wide band gap and monolayer of dye molecule on top of corning glass substrate respectively. In the present study, procured radio frequency (RF) sputtered indium tin oxide (ITO) film on corning glass substrate were irradiated by SHI using 110MeV Ni8+ ions at different fluences ranging from 3.0×1011 ion/cm2 to 1.0×1014 ion/cm2. After irradiation significant changes have been observed in the structural, optical and electrical properties using X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–Vis and Four Probe measurements, respectively. Overall there is 13% increase in optical transmittance which is favorable and moderate increase in sheet resistance from 8Ω/□ to 18Ω/□ which is still within acceptable limits for DSSC applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]