CSIR - NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY

The 75th CSIR Foundation Day was celebrated at CSIR - National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi on 27th September 2016. Dr. Neeraj Bala and Mr. Dinesh Kumar, Assistant Professor, APS Department, along with 30 students of B.Tech 1st year from Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida attended the open day. The visit was organized as an opportunity to get knowledge of a premier laboratory under the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), involving in multidisciplinary R&D programmers of both basic and applied nature across scientific disciplines for economic, environmental and societal benefits for the people of India.

CSIR - NPL has an active research group working in various areas such as 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, spintronic, surface science, thin - film technology, plasmonics, graphene and carbon nanotube research, superconductivity and cryogenics, and instrumentation.

Ms. Sandhya (Research Scholar, NPL, New Delhi) was assigned as a guide for the to visit various research lab. First visit was in Micro Raman Lab where the scholar gave a brief review about the Raman Spectroscopy. She then demonstrated the Raman micro - spectroscopy is where a Raman micro - spectrometer is used in place of a standard Raman spectrometer. A Raman micro - spectrometer consists of a specially designed Raman spectrometer integrated with an optical microscope. Less samples are required and certain effects may also be enhanced over localized regions are the advantages of using Raman spectrometer.

The second visit was in “Low temperature cryostat lab” where the Scientist explained students about “Dilution Refrigerator” and how various parts of the cryostat cool down to cryogenic temperatures as 20 milli Kelvin (0.02 K) by using a technique called "3 Helium – 4 Helium Dilution." He said that there is no fundamental limit to low temperature of dilution refrigerator. The third visit was in “Ultrafast Transient Absorption Spectroscopy Lab”. In the lab the Scientist gave a basic description of the ultrafast transient absorption technique, the laser and wavelength - conversion equipment and the transient absorption setup. He discussed the applications of ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy on systems with increasing degree of complexity, from biomimetic light - harvesting systems to natural light - harvesting antennas.

The students were taken to the NPL Auditorium to show NPL short film of 30 minutes to establish an idea of organizing such visit at NPL Laboratory to strengthen and advance physics-based research and development for the overall development of science and technology in the country.

All the sessions were very informative and interactive. It was an excellent learning opportunity.

Some Glimpses: