CSIR - NPL OPEN DAY

CSIR-NPL (National Physical Laboratory) New Delhi had organized an event “NPL Open Day” on 30th September 2015. The National Physical Laboratory is the National Metrology Institute of India and a Premier Research Laboratory in the field of Physical Sciences. The National Physical Laboratory was conceptualized in 1943 by the Governing Body of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), with a view to pave way for using science and technology as a means for industrial growth and development, as well as to give fillip to the fledgling Indian industry. Dr Abhishek Swami, HOD, Ms. Priyanka Kaushal, Assistant Professor of Applied Sciences and Humanities Department along with 30 students from Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida attended the event.

The main objective of the event was to provide opportunity to students of various colleges to get knowledge of premier laboratory under Council of Scientific& Industrial Research (CSIR) involved in multidisciplinary R & D Programs of both basic and applied nature across scientific disciplines for economic, environmental and societal benefits for the people of India. The main aim of the NPL Laboratory is to strengthen and advance physics-based research and development for the overall development of science and technology in the country.

CSIR-National Physical Laboratory has very active research groups working in the areas of quantum phenomena based measurements, quantum physics, engineering materials, electronic materials, nano-science and nano-technology, materials characterization, radio and atmospheric sciences, global climate change and environmental sciences, energy harvesting technologies, spintronics, surface science, thin-film technology, plasmonics, graphene and carbon nanotube research, superconductivity and cryogenics, and instrumentation.

Dr. R.P Aloysius, NPL- Delhi started the session by discussing “Dilution Refrigerator” and how various parts of the cryostat cool down to cryogenic temperatures as 20 Millikelvin (0.02K) using a technique called “Helium 3-Helium 4 Dilution”, where there is no fundamental limiting low temperature of dilution refrigerator.

The next visit was in “Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) Lab”, where scientist explained the uses of MBE for a range of key materials systems which are of interest for both technological and fundamental application. MBE have emphasized growth and characterization of GaAs- Based structures and each material system in MBE have played a key role in development and application of devices. They demonstrated the versatility of the technique of MBE which can be utilized to prepare and explore a range of distinct and diverse materials.

The visit continue to “Ultrafast Transient Absorption Spectroscopy Lab”, where scientist gave basic description of the Ultrafast Transient Absorption technique, the laser and wave length conversion equipment, the transient absorption setup, and the collection of transient absorption data. He explained about applications of ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy on systems with increasing degree of complexity, from biomimetic light-harvesting systems to natural light-harvesting antennas.

The last visit was to “Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) lab”, in which scientist discussed about Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) which is self-limiting film growth method which is characterized by the alternate exposure of chemical species in layer-by-layer manner and told ALD consists of four steps which are as following:

1) Metal precursor exposure,

2) Evacuation or purging of the precursors and any byproducts from the chamber,

3) Exposure of the other reactant species (non-metal precursor), for example nitrogen containing reducing agents for nitrides or reducing agents for metals.

4) Evacuation or purging of the reactants and byproduct molecules from the chamber and its various applications.

In the end students were shown short film of 15 minutes on NPL (National Physical Laboratory) to establish an idea of organizing such event at NPL Laboratory to strengthen and advance physics-based research and development for the overall development of science and technology in the country.

The event was highly informative and interactive. It provided excellent learning opportunity to students and faculty members to get insight into NPL (National Physical Laboratory).