[en] Superconducting bolometers are known to have excellent energy resolution and are well suited as detectors for experiments such as neutrinoless double beta decay (NDBD) and dark matter (DM) searches. In India, the TIN.TIN group has initiated the development of cryogenic tin bolometers to study NDBD in ¹²⁴Sn. Tin-lead and tin-bismuth alloys have shown stability against tin pest and are presently being investigated as candidates for a cryogenic bolometer. Radiopurity measurements of tin-lead and tin-bismuth alloys (alloyed 9% by weight) were carried out using the TiLES set-up. No new gamma lines or enhancements were observed in the spectra of the tin-bismuth or tin-lead samples in comparison to the background or the tin sample, at the sensitivity level of TiLES

No abstract available

[en] Magnetic susceptibility measurements on eight samples of tin-rich and three samples of bismuth-rich Bi-Sn alloys were made from 85K to 300K by Faraday's method. The susceptibilities of the eight tin-rich samples are positive and greater than the susceptibility of pure tin. The values are approximately constant at low temperatures but decreasing a little bit with increasing temperature. This result is interpreted as due to the predominant contribution of the Pauli spin paramagnetic susceptibility. A small decrease in susceptibility with temperature is interpreted as due to the effect of the second order term in the expression for spin paramagnetic susceptibility. The fluctuation of the susceptibility for alloys of different composition is interpreted as due to the effect of the density of states at the Fermi levels. The three samples of bismuth-rich alloys show a transition to diamagnetic property, where the diamagnetism is increased with temperature. This result is predominant and due to the diamagnetic contribution from the ions. The increase in susceptibility with temperature is interpreted as due to an increase in the effective radii of the ions due to thermal expansion. (author)

[en] The binary lead/tin (Pb/Sn) alloy is widely used as an interconnect in microelectronics. The physical properties of this heterogeneous material critically depend on its complex bulk microstructure containing Pb-rich and Sn-rich phases, which can be both laminar and globular. In this paper, we devise a procedure to model and predict the microstructure evolution (i.e. coarsening) in a Pb–Sn alloy aged at elevated temperatures below its melting point using statistical morphological descriptors, i.e. the two-point correlation functions S₂ associated with the phases. We verify via phase-field simulations that the growing length scale characterizing microstructure coarsening can be well captured by the corresponding correlation functions, which enables us to predict the S₂ of intermediate microstructures given the initial and final microstructures. Stochastic material reconstruction techniques are employed to generate virtual three-dimensional microstructures that are consistent with the predicted correlation functions, which are quantitatively compared with the actual alloy microstructures when available

[en] Experimental study of creep in lead-tin solder (60/40) has been done using DC electrical potential method. A bimetal test specimen was used. It is found that the method can be employed to predict the failure by observing the electrical potential changes taking place across the test specimen during creep damage. The potential drop can also be used in creep analysis as a parameter instead of stain. Empirical relationship has been proposed to predict the life of lead tin solder. This method can be used for on-line damage monitoring. (author)

[en] The Al-stabilized Nb₃Sn strand has been successfully fabricated and J /SUB c/ value of 400 A/mm² at 12 T is obtained on condition that Nb₃Sn is reacted at 625⁰C for 200 hr. Overall residual resistivity of this strand is lowered to 77% of that of the Custabilized Nb₃Sn strand (TMC-I) /SUP 1.2/ at 12 T by Alstabilizer. The 12 T-10 kA cable-in-conduit conductor, fabricated by this strands, is charged up to 20 kA at 8.7 T without appearance of normal zone. From these experimental results, this conductor satisfies almost the specification of the present target conductor (TMC-II)³

No abstract available

[en] We report on experimental evidence of non-s-wave pairing in In and Sn nanoparticle assemblies. The superconducting transition temperature T_C of the In and Sn nanoparticles varies noticeably with the particle diameter. Surprisingly, T_C shifts to a noticeably higher temperature when magnetic Ni nanoparticles are introduced into the vicinity of the superconducting nanoparticles. The T_C increases further when the magnetic Ni nanoparticles are brought even closer to the superconducting nanoparticles. There is a critical Ni composition and a critical spatial separation between the magnetic and superconducting nanoparticles that must be reached before their magnetic proximity will suppress the superconductivity. A qualitative mechanism is proposed to understand the present observations.

[en] The Cs-Sn phase diagram was fully built using the differential thermal analysis method. When cesium interacts with tin four compounds are formed according to peritectic reaction: Cs₂Sn, CsSn, CsSn₂ and CsSn₄ at temperatures of 565, 630, 875 and 580 deg C, respectively. The Cs-Sn system has a compound of the composition Cs₂Sn₃ displaying congruent melting at 930 deg C. Alloy stratification appears to occur in the system at the monotectic temperature of 605 deg C and tin concentration from 7.5 to 39 at.%

No abstract available