Biography:

Professor Sood is currently a Professor at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.He obtained his bachelor and Master degree in physics at Punjab University, Chandigarh, India in 1971 and 1972. He received his Ph.D. in physics at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India in 1982, then his postdoctoral studies at the Max Planck Institute fur FKF, Stuttgart, Germany, from 1983 to1985. He is currently the Chairman of Division of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore India. He was an Associate Professor at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore over the period from 1988 to 1994. He is an Honorary Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, India. He is a fellow of numerous academies such as Indian Academy of Sciences (FASc) (1991), Indian National Science Academy (FNA) (1996), Third World Academy of Sciences (FTWAS) (2002) and the National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc) (1995). He has received many awards such as Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize(1990), Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Award in Physics (2000), G.D.Birla Science Award (2000), FICCI(Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry)Award(2000),The Homi Jehangir Bhabha Medal of INSA (2002), Millennium Gold Medal of Indian Science Congress (2000), IISc Alumni Award for Excellence in Research for Science (2003), M.N. Saha Birth Centenary Award (Indian Science Congress) (2004), Sir C.V. Raman Award: Physical Sciences (Hari Om Ashram Trust/Univ.Grant Comm.) (2003) , Goyal Prize in Physics for the year 2003 and National Research Award in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology by Department of Science and Technology, India(2006). He is also the Executive Editor of Solid State Communications ,and was a member of the International Steering Committee of Raman Spectroscopy (1994-1999).

His research interests and experiences include Raman Spectroscopy of Condensed matter such asNanotubes, Superlattices, Correlated Oxides, and spin-frustrated systems; Soft Condensed Matter like colloids, surfactant systems and their flow behaviour ; computer simulations, and Density Functional Theory. Professor Sood holds three patents. He has 20 years experience in teaching graduate physics students. He has more than 200 publications in international journals. He has delivered many talks in many national and international events, and has taught several international tutorials.

Abstract:

1)Carbon Nanotubes: Flow Induced Voltage, Confined Water and Kohn Anomalies:

Motivated by our observations that flow of water on single walled nanotubes generates voltage, we seek answer to the question if water can enter the nanotubes of diameter about 1 nm. This is done by using nuclear magnetic resonance which shows that the water inside the nanotubes freezes at temperature below -500C. Most interestingly, we show that the mean square displacement of the water molecules varies as square root of time as expected theoretically in single file diffusion.

2) Tuning of Electronic Properties of Nanotubes and Graphene: Raman Studies:

I will discuss our recent experiments on the electronic transport in the carbon nanotubes in the field effect transistor geometry. In-situ Raman experiments as a function of gate voltage (to tune the Fermi level) have been carried out to study the tangential modes of the metallic nanotubes. A large increase in the Raman frequency and a substantial decrease in the line width of the modes as a function of Fermi level shift can be quantitatively explained in terms of modification of the Kohn anomalies and large electron-phonon coupling using density functional theory.