Sajan D. George

Thermal characterization of intrinsic and extrinsic InP using photoacoustic technique

An open photoacoustic cell operating in the low range of chopping frequency has been employed to evaluate the thermal diffusivity values of intrinsic InP and InP doped with S, Sn and Fe. The experimental set-up is calibrated by the evaluation of thermal diffusivity value of pure Si and GaAs. The present investigation shows that doped samples show a reduced value for thermal diffusivity compared to intrinsic sample. From the analysis of data it is also seen that nature of dopant clearly influences the thermal diffusivity value of semiconductors. The results are explained in terms of phonon assisted heat transfer mechanism in semiconductors.

Thermo-optic characterization of neodymium/nickel doped silica glasses prepared via sol-gel route.

Intrinsic as well as rare earth (Neodymium) doped silica glasses with various molar ratio of dopant and a metallic (Nickel) co-dopant is prepared via sol-gel route. The structural characterization of the sample is carried out using X-ray diffraction and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. The influence of dopant and doping concentration on the optical properties of silica matrix is investigated via UV-VIS absorption spectroscopy. Effect of dopant on thermal effusivity value of the host matrix is carried out by laser induced open cell photoacoustic technique. Analysis of the results showed that doping affect the thermal effusivity value and results are interpreted in terms of structural modification of the lattice and phonon assisted heat transport mechanism.

Photoacoustic studies on thermal parameters of liquid crystal mixtures

Complete thermal characterization of liquid crystal mixtures in the smectic phase consisting of various relative volume fractions of cholesterol and 1-hexadecanol have been carried out using the photoacoustic technique. Thermal diffusivity values of these liquid crystal mixtures are evaluated using the open cell photoacoustic technique whereas the thermal effusivity value is measured using the conventional photoacoustic technique. From the measured values of these transient thermophysical parameters, the thermal conductivity and heat capacity of the sample under investigation are calculated. Analyses of the results show that all the thermophysical parameters depend strongly on the volume fraction of the constituents. Results are interpreted in terms of enhanced hydrogen bonding and the consequent enhancement in cohesive thermal energy transport with increasing volume fraction of 1-hexadecanol.

A hybrid LIBS–Raman system combined with chemometrics: an efficient tool for plastic identification and sorting

AbstractClassification of plastics is of great importance in the recycling industry as the littering of plastic wastes increases day by day as a result of its extensive use. In this paper, we demonstrate the efficacy of a combined laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)–Raman system for the rapid identification and classification of post-consumer plastics. The atomic information and molecular information of polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene were studied using plasma emission spectra and scattered signal obtained in the LIBS and Raman technique, respectively. The collected spectral features of the samples were analyzed using statistical tools (principal component analysis, Mahalanobis distance) to categorize the plastics. The analyses of the data clearly show that elemental information and molecular information obtained from these techniques are efficient for classification of plastics. In addition, the molecular information collected via Raman spectroscopy exhibits clearly distinct features for the transparent plastics (100% discrimination), whereas the LIBS technique shows better spectral feature differences for the colored samples. The study shows that the information obtained from these complementary techniques allows the complete classification of the plastic samples, irrespective of the color or additives. This work further throws some light on the fact that the potential limitations of any of these techniques for sample identification can be overcome by the complementarity of these two techniques. Graphical Abstractᅟ

Photoacoustic study of the effect of doping concentration on the transport properties of GaAs epitaxial layers

We report a photoacoustic (PA) study of the thermal and transport properties of a GaAs epitaxial layer doped with Si at varying doping concentration, grown on GaAs substrate by molecular beam epitaxy. The data are analyzed on the basis of Rosencwaig and Gershos theory of the PA effect. The amplitude of the PA signal gives information about various heat generation mechanisms in semiconductors. The experimental data obtained from the measurement of the PA signal as a function of modulation frequency in a heat transmission configuration were fitted with the phase of PA signal obtained from the theoretical model evaluated by considering four parameters—viz., thermal diffusivity, diffusion coefficient, nonradiative recombination time, and surface recombination velocity—as adjustable parameters. It is seen from the analysis that the photoacoustic technique is sensitive to the changes in the surface states depend on the doping concentration. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of the photoacoustic technique as a noninvasive and nondestructive method to measure and evaluate the thermal and transport properties of epitaxial layers. the effectiveness of the photoacoustic technique as a noninvasive and nondestructive method to measure and evaluate the thermal and transport properties of epitaxial layers.

Photoacoustic investigation of doped InP using open cell configuration

An open cell photoacoustic (PA) configuration has been employed to evaluate the thermal diffusivity of intrinsic InP as well as InP doped with tin and iron. Thermal diffusivity data have been evaluated from variation of phase of PA signal as a function of modulation frequency. In doped samples, we observe a reduced value for thermal diffusivity in comparison with intrinsic InP. We also observed that, while the phase of the PA signal varies linearly with the square root of chopping frequency for doped samples, the intrinsic material does not exhibit such behaviour in the experimental frequency range. These results have been interpreted in terms of the heat generation and phonon assisted heat diffusion mechanisms in semiconductors.

Shape dependent heat transport through green synthesized gold nanofluids

Nanofluids hold promise as a more efficient coolant for thermoelectric devices. Despite the capability of tailoring the thermo physical properties of nanofluids, by tuning the particle parameters such as shape, size and concentration, the toxicity of chemicals used for the preparation of nanoparticles is a serious concern. Green synthesis of nanoparticles is emerging as an alternative to the conventional chemical and physical methods for the preparation of nanoparticles. In this work, the results of the preparation of gold nanoparticles using plant extracts as reducing agents are presented. The green synthesis route employed for the present study provides particles of similar size, but the shape of the particles is found to vary depending upon the source of the natural reducing agents. The thermal diffusivity values of the gold nanofluid measured using laser based dual beam thermal lens technique elucidate the role of shape and concentration of the green synthesized nanoparticles on the effective thermal diffusivity values of the nanofluids.

Effect of Annealing Temperature on the Thermo‐Optic Properties of Holmium Doped Silica Glasses Prepared by Sol‐Gel Method

Silica based glasses activated by rare earth ions promises to be an efficient material for the photonics applications. Incorporation of holmium as a rare earth dopant finds wide applications in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum. In this work, we report the preparation and the thermo‐optic characterization of the holmium doped silica glasses. The samples are prepared via sol‐gel route. The structural characterization of the samples is carried out using the X‐ray diffraction technique whereas the constituents of the samples are identified using the Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy. The optical properties of the samples are measured using the UV‐VIS absorption spectroscopy. The thermal effusivity values of the samples are evaluated using an open cell photoacoustic technique. Influence of the annealing temperature on the thermal as well as the optical properties of the samples is investigated in detail. Analysis of the results shows that the doping and annealing process influenc...

Parameter optimization of a laser-induced fluorescence system for in vivo screening of oral cancer

Despite the advances in optical technologies for early detection of cancer, routine clinical applications are still not standardized. Among several optical methods, laser-induced fluorescence is a more matured and well understood technique. Still due care has to be taken about various factors to avoid erroneous results. The authors have carried out a systematic study on the effect of the various experimental parameters such as source stability, area of exposure, and angular/distance dependence of a fiber probe, which is used for the fluorescence measurements, from the specimen surface on the spectra. Investigations are carried out on both idealistic cases as well as on tissue surface. The details of the optimization of the parameters are presented and discussed in this paper.

Thermal characterization of nanocrystalline porous CePO4 ceramics

A laser-induced photoacoustic technique was employed to investigate thermal transport through nanocrystalline CePO4 samples prepared via the sol–gel route. Evaluation of thermal diffusivity was carried out using the one-dimensional model of Rosencwaig and Gersho for the reflection configuration of the photoacoustic method. Structural analyses of samples revealed that they are nanoporous in nature, possessing micron-sized grains. Analysis of results shows that thermal diffusivity value varies with sintering temperature. Results are explained in terms of the variation in porosity with sintering temperature and the effects of various scattering mechanisms on the propagation of phonons through the nanoporous ceramic matrix. Further analyses confirm that apart from porosity, grain boundary resistance and interface thermal resistance influence the effective value of thermal diffusivity of the samples under investigation.