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Materials Science Group


Mandate

bullet The Materials Science Group (MSG) comprises of Defects and Damage Studies Division, Condensed Matter Physics Division, SQUID & Detector Technology Division and Surface & Surface Sensors Studies Division (SSSD).
bullet The mandate of MSG is focused on directed basic research and developments activities which encompasses the investigations of the evolution of ground state properties and phase transition of condensed matter systems under extreme conditions of pressures, temperatures and magnetic fields; studies of irradiated defects in nuclear structural materials, studies of thin films and nanostructures using a variety of techniques; development of thin film coatings for tribological applications, development of novel nanomaterials for advanced sensor applications; and Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID based Magneto-encephalogragy (MEG) applications.



Highlights

  • CMPD is dedicated to perform basic and applied research on the structural, lattice, electronic, magnetic and optical properties of hard and soft condensed matters under extreme conditions of temperature, pressure and magnetic fields

  • DDSD focuses on studies on defects, defect-impurity interactions in reactor structural materials, supplemented by computations.

  • SSSD focuses on studies of monolithic and multilayered thin films and nanostructures using a variety of techniques such as secondary ion mass spectrometry, nano-mechanical testing, Focused Ion Beam (FIB) based nano-structuring and nano-patterning, Scanning Probe Microscopy based characterization of various electrical and mechanical properties at nanoscale, nano-spectroscopy with tip enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) and Nanoscopy with near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) imaging at sub-diffraction limit using polarized light.

  • SDTD focuses mainly on using SQUID based systems for applications. The SQUID plays a vital role in specific applications due to its unique characteristics of extreme sensitivity (few femto Tesla) from near DC to several kHz.

Expertise

  • HPGe gamma detector servicing

  • Ion beam based characterization of defects using high resolution RBS, Channeling and ion beam induced luminescence studies developed in-house.

  • Indigenously developed Mao-Bell type Diamond Anvil Cell (DAC), capable of achieving P ~ 100 GPa

  • Development of multichannel MCG/MEG system for biomagnetic research




Achievements

Year Milestones
1974 Initiation of R&D programmes of Materials Science
1977 Materials Science Laboratory building established
1977 First actinide compound studies under high pressure
1977 150 kV accelerator commissioned
1983 Commissioning of an in-house developed 2 MV tandem Accelerator, various ion beam analytical studies using PIXE, RBS and NRA.
1984 Commissioning of Bridgeman Czochralski single crystal growth equipment
1985 Development of the high pressure-high temperature cell for materials synthesis and electrical resistivity measurements up to 10 GPa and 1300 K
1989 Installation of Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer for high resolution surface analysis
1993 Establishment of Particle Irradiation Facility (PIF): Facilities of PIF were opened to university students under UGC-DAE scheme
1995 First superconducting device fabrication Laboratory in India established; Josephson junctions & SQUID sensors fabricated
1995 Indigenously developed variable low energy positron beam setup (VLEPB)
1995 Development of Mao-Bell high pressure diamond anvil cell at MSL
1999 Indigenous development of TGA-EGA Facility
2000 0.7 MV Tandetron accelerator for Radiation damage in D9, D9I alloys and Ion beam synthesis of nanostructures
2004 Confocal laser scanning microscope facility to study soft condensed matter established.
2005 Pulsed Laser Beam and Magnetron Sputtering Deposition Facility of Multilayer film for tribological application
2005 Development of Laser Heated Diamond Anvil Cell facility for synthesis of novel materials.
2008 High performance computing facility -Work station- established in MSG for computational work
2009 Brillouin spectrometer installed to study acoustic phonons and elastic constants in ferroelectric materials and glasses
2010 Dynamic Exposure facility for gas sensing (EFGS)
2010 MCG system with 37 channels made operational. MEG system with 86 channels tested. Using this system, various research investigations have been carried out on both healthy volunteers and on patients with different cardiac dysfunctions from DAE hospital, Kalpakkam and JIPMER, Puducherry. These investigations are aimed towards highlighting the unique diagnostic information provided by MCG which is not readily observed in those of the conventional voltage based techniques like Electrocardiogram (ECG)
2010 Exposure Facility for Gas Sensing and detecting various toxic gases in ambient set-up. Hazardous gases from ppm level down to ppb level can be detected in-situ
2011 First ever Raman spectra of uranium metal recorded using a novel surface enhanced Raman spectroscopic technique
2013 Dual ion irradiation facility established. Studies carried out on the effect of helium on dpa ratios on void swelling in ODS alloys, evaluation of multi beam synergies on defect annealing in SiC carried out
2014 Facility of localized near-field studies using light-matter interaction (TERS and NSOM)
2014 Facility of Laser Beam Lithography for direct writing
2014 3-D Dynamic Light Scattering equipment commissioned to study soft condensed matter
2015 Clinical survey with MCG system
2016 Facility of High vacuum High temperature tribometer coupled with Raman spectrometer
2017 Vertical Graphene Nanosheets grown on Ni substrates were chemically etched and transferred onto polymer substrates to fabricate flexible supercapacitor device.
2018 First observation of Surface Plasmon Polariton Wave in InN nanostructure
2019 Development of SQUID based TDEM system for geophysical applications
2020 Novel microgel-hydrogel composite photonic crystals (CPC) were synthesized; they were used to monitor and extract uranyl ions in aqueous solutions
2021 Gamma radiation detector designed and built using single crystals of Cd0.9Zn0.1Te (CZT) grown in-house. With this sensor, the photo peaks of Ba-133 and Am-241 were successfully resolved.
2021 First report of Bi-layer Transition Metal Oxide of Van der Waal bonded V2O5.

Facilities

  • Technology developed for alumina ceramic coating adherent on copper metallic surfaces of a DC conduction pump capable of withstanding temperatures of ~700oC.

  • The DC pump is used in FBR failed fuel location module. Development of solid state semiconductor thermal neutron detector

  • State of art high-resolution RBS facility is developed at MSG which is coupled with Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) for addressing defects studies and advanced solid state physics problems

  • Ion-Beam Induced Luminescence and Optical Absorption Spectroscopy System is setup for the in-situ studies of irradiation and defects dynamics in oxides

  • Structural studies at extreme condition of Pressure and Temperature: In-situ High Pressure, High Temperature (HP-HT) XRD facility at BL-12, INDUS-2, RRCAT has been successfully set up, enabling probing of HP – HT structural phase diagram of oxides of Uranium and II-VI compounds, up to 25 GPa and 1000 deg C.?

  • Development and optimization of Holographic Optical tweezers (HOTs): Holographic Optical tweezers (HOTs) and algorithms were developed to modulate the phase of laser light to generate desired patterns of optical traps. Spatial light modulator (SLM) was optimized for global and spatially varying phase response. A technique for mapping the laser intensity across the SLM was developed enabling creation of aberration-free optical traps. This also allows realization of HOTs with any arbitrary laser beam profile compared to that of traditional Gaussian laser beams used for HOTs.

  • SQUID based TDEM system

  • Transient Eddy current NDE system