I am an experimental physicist working in the field of accelerator based atomic and molecular physics. Following is brief description of my research work at IIT Kanpur. Details of the experimental developments can be found under "Research".

Motivation

The description of the temporal and spatial evolution of systems of mutually interacting particles is one of the most fundamental unsolved problems of modern physics. The difficulty of this task lies in the fact that the Schrodinger equation is not analytically solvable for more than two particle systems even when the underlying forces are precisely known. The theoretical modelling becomes even more challenging when electron-electron correlation effects in many body systems are considered. These correlation effects play a major role in excitation and relaxation of atomic and molecular systems. Atomic and photonic collisions are particularly suitable to study such many body processes as the electromagnetic forces are relatively well understood and any discrepancy between experiment and theory can be directly related to the electron-electron correlation effects. Furthermore, presence of an active neighbor adds to the complexity of the system and opens up new channels of energy relaxation which are forbidden for isolated atomic and molecular systems.

Collision physics @ IITK

At IIT Kanpur, I have been involved in setting up the atomic and molecular collision experiments in the 1.7 MV tandetron accelerator laboratory . Toward our goal for studying collision induced atomic and molecular processes, we have developed a recoil ion momentum spectrometer (RIMS) setup complete with 2D position sensitive detectors and multi coincidence electronics. The setup has been augmented in the 20-degree beam line at 1.7 MV tandetron accelerator. With the successful implementation of the RIMS experiment, IITK is only the fourth institute in India (other three are, TIFR Mumbai, IUAC Delhi and IISER Pune), where such advanced experiments can be performed with ion beams.

We are also at an advanced stage of developing a cylindrical mirror analyzer-based electron spectrometer and a post collision charge state analyzer (for MeV ion beam). With these additions, we will be able to perform variety of experiments in the field of at-mol collisions focused on the investigation of the fundamental processes.

Apart from the development of At-Mol physics experiments, we have also operationalized 1) irradiation, 2) RBS, and 3) proton micro beam setups for external users. We have actively collaborated with a few groups from IITK and other institutes in India on these experiments.