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Abstract Superparamagnetic N-doped graphene oxide (GO)- with ZnS nanowires was synthesized by a one-step hydrothermal method by doping dilute amounts of Ga, Cr, In, and Al ions for water treatment and biomedical applications. In these experiments, to enhance their properties, 2% of Ga3+, In3+, and or Al3+ were codoped along with 2% Cr ions in these ZnS nanowires. The nanocomposite with the composition, In0.02Cr0.02Zn0.96S, has better photocatalytic efficiency than other co-doped nanocomposites. The In (metalloids) and Cr (transition metal ion) are the best combinations to increase the magnetic properties which are beneficial for photocatalytic activity. Synthesized nanocomposite materials were characterized by several techniques such as X-ray diffraction, Field emission-scanning electron microscope (FESEM) with EDAX, vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), UV–Vis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and fluorescence spectroscopy. The correlation of intriguing magnetic properties with their photocatalytic properties is also discussed. XPS was employed for the detection of surface defects, phase transformation, and the nature of chemical components present in the nanocomposites. The Frankel and substitutional defects have a direct impact on photocatalytic activity that was determined from the fluorescence (FL) spectroscopy. FL and XPS reveal that the Cr and In codoped composite has a higher percentage of defects hence its photocatalytic efficiency reaches 94.21%.

Gamma irradiation at specific doses controls the material properties of thin films because of its high-ionization energy and high penetrating power. In the present work, the effects of gamma irradiation (γ-rays) on the structural, morphological, electrical, and optical properties of pulsed laser-deposited SnO2 thin films were examined. These films were exposed to γ-rays for doses of 0, 75, 100, 125, and 200 kGy. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that the films are polycrystalline with a crystallite size of 49.27 nm and it increases with the gamma doses. While the dislocation density and the microstrain decrease, the band gap reduces from 3.8 eV to 3.4 eV with the increase in doses. Raman spectra show the presence of defects caused by gamma irradiation and the photo luminance spectra demonstrate a decrease in the peak intensities for thin films. The blue emission at 437 nm, is associated with oxygen-related defects produced during the phase formation. The Hall measurements confirm that these films are of n-type semiconductors. The I–V characteristics show a rise in conductivity linearly up to 125 kGy and a reduction at 200 kGy due to oxygen vacancies created at the higher gamma doses. The electrical conductivity of all the films increases as a function of temperature, and gamma doses as evident from the rectification behavior. This study infers that gamma rays can modify the material properties hence these films are useful as an electrode for sensing and radiation detection.

Spray deposited Molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) thin film of thickness nearly 379 nm were irradiated with 200 MeV Ag15+ ion beam at different fluences (Ø) of 5 × 1011, 1 × 1012, 5 × 1012 and 1 × 1013 ions/cm2. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of the pristine film confirms orthorhombic structure and the crystallinity decreased after irradiation with the fluence of 5 × 1011 ions/cm2 due to irradiation induced defects and became amorphous at higher fluence. In pristine film, Raman modes at 665, 820, 996 cm−1 belong to Mo–O stretching, 286 cm−1 belong to Mo–O bending mode and those below 200 cm−1 are associated with lattice modes. Raman peak intensities decreased upon irradiation and vanished completely for the ion fluence of 5 × 1012 ions/cm2. The percentage of optical transmittance of pristine film was nearly 40%, while for irradiated films it decreased significantly. Red shift was observed for both the direct and indirect band gaps. The pristine film surface had densely packed rod like structures with relatively less porosity. Surface roughness decreased significantly after irradiation. The electrical transport properties were also studied for both the pristine and irradiated films by Hall effect. The results are discussed. Keywords: Ion beam technology, MoO3 thin films, Spray coatings, Optical materials and properties, Radiation damage

The total ionizing dose (TID) and non ionizing energy loss (NIEL) effects of 100 MeV phosphorous (P7+) and 80 MeV nitrogen (N6+) ions on 200 GHz silicon-germanium heterojunction bipolar transistors (SiGe HBTs) were examined in the total dose range from 1 to 100 Mrad(Si). The in-situ I–V characteristics like Gummel characteristics, excess base current (ΔIB), net oxide trapped charge (NOX), current gain (hFE), avalanche multiplication (M − 1), neutral base recombination (NBR) and output characteristics (IC-VCE) were analysed before and after irradiation. The significant degradation in device parameters was observed after 100 MeV P7+ and 80 MeV N6+ ion irradiation. The 100 MeV P7+ ions create more damage in the SiGe HBT structure and in turn degrade the electrical characteristics of SiGe HBTs more when compared to 80 MeV N6+. The SiGe HBTs irradiated up to 100 Mrad of total dose were annealed from 50 °C to 400 °C in different steps for 30 min duration in order to study the recovery of electrical characteristics. The recovery factors (RFs) are employed to analyse the contribution of room temperature and isochronal annealing in total recovery. Keywords: SiGe HBT, Ion irradiation, Gamma irradiation, Current gain degradation, Isochronal annealing, Recovery factors

The effects of ion implantations through a mask on the structural and magnetic properties of Co80Pt20 films were investigated. The mask was patterned using the self-assembly of diblock copolymers. For implantation, high (40 keV for 14N+ and 100 keV for 40Ar+) and low (7.5 keV for 14N+ and 4.5 keV for 40Ar+) energy 14N+ and 40Ar+ ions were used to modify the structural and magnetic properties of these films. X-ray diffraction and TRIM simulations were performed for understanding the structural changes due to ion implantations. These results revealed the intermixing of Co atoms in lower layers and lattice expansion in Co80Pt20 magnetic and Ru layers. A lateral straggling of Co caused an increase in the exchange coupling in the masked region. Depletion of Co atoms in Co80Pt20 layer caused a decrease in the anisotropy constant, which were further confirmed by the alternating gradient force magnetometer and magnetic force microscopy results. The magnetic force microscopy images showed an increase in domain width and domain wall width confirming the above-mentioned effects.

In this paper, magnetic and magnetization dynamic properties of compositionally patterned Co46Fe40Ta9Zr5 thin films are investigated. A combination of self-assembly and ion-implantation was employed to locally alter the composition of Co46Fe40Ta9Zr5 thin film in a periodic manner. 20 keV O+ and 60 keV N+ ions were implanted at different doses in order to modify the magnetization dynamic properties of the samples in a controlled fashion. Magnetic hysteresis loop measurements revealed significant changes in the coercivity for higher influences of 5 × 1016 ions per cm2. In particular, N+ implantation was observed to induce two phase formation with high and low coercivities. Broadband strip-line ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy over wide range of frequency (8 – 20 GHz) was used to study the magnetization dynamics as a function of ion-beam dosage. With higher fluences, damping constant showed a continuous increase from 0.0103 to 0.0430. Such control of magnetic properties at nano-scale using this method is believed to be useful for spintronics and microwave device applications.

The Bi2Se3 and Mn doped Bi2Se3 (i.e. Bi1.5Mn0.5Se3, referred as BiMnSe) single crystals were grown using a melt growth method and characterized for their structural, electrical and magnetic properties. These crystals were found to be of single phase having rhombohedral structure with the space group (R3¯m). The magnetoresistance measurements have been carried out in the temperature range 5-50 K, under magnetic fields up to 8 T. The variation of resistivity with temperature shows the Metallic behavior in case of Bi2Se3, and up-turn at low temperatures in the BiMnSe. Metallic behavior was observed up to T > 40 K, whereas below 40K, Kondo effect has been observed. A saturating resistance upturn at low temperatures is observed in the BiMnSe, indicating the presence of Kondo effect due to the existence of localized impurity spins. While the Bi2Se3 is diamagnetic, the BiMnSe is in ferromagnetic state at 5 K. This study opens up a new direction to investigate the physics and device applications of magnetically tunable topological insulators.

Accurate prediction of wind speed is an important aspect of various tasks related to wind energy management such as wind turbine predictive control and wind power scheduling. The most typical characteristic of wind speed data is its persistent temporal variations. Most of the techniques reported in the literature for prediction of wind speed and power are based on statistical methods or probabilistic distribution of wind speed data. In this paper we demonstrate that deterministic forecasting methods can make accurate short-term predictions of wind speed using past data, at locations where the wind dynamics exhibit chaotic behaviour. The predictions are remarkably accurate up to 1 h with a normalised RMSE (root mean square error) of less than 0.02 and reasonably accurate up to 3 h with an error of less than 0.06. Repeated application of these methods at 234 different geographical locations for predicting wind speeds at 30-day intervals for 3 years reveals that the accuracy of prediction is more or less the same across all locations and time periods. Comparison of the results with f-ARIMA model predictions shows that the deterministic models with suitable parameters are capable of returning improved prediction accuracy and capturing the dynamical variations of the actual time series more faithfully. These methods are simple and computationally efficient and require only records of past data for making short-term wind speed forecasts within practically tolerable margin of errors.

We report the superconducting state properties of YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) on introduction of BaZrO3 (BZO) as a secondary phase. YBCO+xBZO (x= 0, 2, 4, 6, and 10 wt%) composite samples were prepared by solid state reaction method and characterized for structural, morphological and superconducting properties. X-ray diffraction confirms the increased crystallinity and images of scanning electron microscopy measurement show an increase in both grain size and grain connectivity on addition of BZO in YBCO. These effects are well pronounced in an applied magnetic field. Critical current density, JC, as well as the pinning force peaks at 4% of BZO concentration showed significant difference. A three-fold enhancement in JC and a six-fold enhancement in pinning force were observed at this optimum BZO concentration. This has been attributed to the pinning of flux lines in YBCO due to introduction of BZO as a secondary phase. These results show that this composite has potential application in high current applications.

Modelling the fluctuations of the Earth's surface wind has a significant role in understanding the dynamics of atmosphere besides its impact on various fields ranging from agriculture to structural engineering. Most of the studies on the modelling and prediction of wind speed and power reported in the literature are based on statistical methods or the probabilistic distribution of the wind speed data. In this paper we investigate the suitability of a deterministic model to represent the wind speed fluctuations by employing tools of nonlinear dynamics. We have carried out a detailed nonlinear time series analysis of the daily mean wind speed data measured at Thiruvananthapuram (8.483° N,76.950° E) from 2000 to 2010. The results of the analysis strongly suggest that the underlying dynamics is deterministic, low-dimensional and chaotic suggesting the possibility of accurate short-term prediction. As most of the chaotic systems are confined to laboratories, this is another example of a naturally occurring time series showing chaotic behaviour.

Curie temperature of polycrystalline barium hexaferrite (BaFe12O19), prepared by conventional solid state technique, is anomalously and significantly enhanced (by nearly 15%) by energetic heavy ion irradiation (150 MeV, Ag12+) at ambient temperature due to dense electronic excitations Moderate fluence (1 × 1012 ions/cm2) induces structural defects giving rise to above enhancement. As established by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and Raman studies, higher fluence (1 × 1013 ions/cm2) has structurally transformed the sample to amorphous phase with marginal change in magnetization and Curie temperature.

Effect of semiconductor channel carrier concentration on the modifications in the electrical properties of Ag/BaTiO3/SrTiO3/ZnO Metal-Ferroelectric-Insulator-Semiconductor (MFIS) heterostructure has been investigated. Under 4 V applied voltage, low leakage current density ∼3.2 × 10−6 A/cm2, has been observed in ZnO based MFIS heterostructure, which becomes ∼5.0 × 10−6 A/cm2 for MFIS with Al:ZnO channel. Observation of counterclockwise butterfly shaped C-V behavior confirms that, hysteresis in C-V is due to spontaneous ferroelectric polarization and field effect. A device with ZnO semiconductor exhibit ∼2700% modulation which decreases to ∼800% for Al: ZnO channel with good retention behavior. Pulse induced write/erase repeatability of source/drain current confirms the usefulness of the presently studied devices for non-volatile switching memory application.