Bhas Bapat

Professor (Physics) and Dean (Academics)
E-mail: bhas.bapat@iiserpune.ac.in
Telephone: +91-20-2590-8239

Updated on Apr 2019

• Atomic Collisions, Molecular Fragmentation (Experiments)
• momentum spectroscopy of doubly charged molecular ions
  (formed by electron-impact )
• photoionisation and fragmentation of molecules
  (using the Indus-1 synchrotron )
• ion molecule collisions -- fragmentation dynamics of multiply charged molecular ions
  (using the Pelletron accelerator at IUAC )
• Towards state-selective molecular fragmentation: Combination of Auger Electron spectroscopy and ion momentum spectroscopy
• Instrumentation
  • We are building an ion spectrometer for the forthcoming ISRO solar mission (Aditya-L1)
  • We are building an ion beam facility for very high charge ions based on a magnetically confined electron beam ion source/trap and a DC accelerator. Design target is 30 keV/q.

• The ion spectrometer at L1 will obtain data on solar wind velocity distributions with separation of protons and alpha particles and is expected to provide inputs for solar wind propagation and evolution models.
• A new molecular collisions programme at IISER Pune (DST-SERB grant)
  • Study of shell-specific ionisation and subsequent fragmentation of small molecules under ion-impact (most previous studies are with photoionisation)
  • Non-perturbative regime (q/v >> 1) collisions expected to open up many interesting features such as alignment and orientation of the target, resonant capture of electrons from specific shells of the target molecule.
  • These aspects have not been studied together under a single perturbation, although they have been studied independent of each other, under differing perturbations – charged particles and photons

• A popular Lecture on the Physics behind Cell Phones
• Orientation Effects in Ion–Molecule Collisions
• Understanding Multiply Charged Molecular Ions through their Break-Up
• Aditya Solar wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX)
• An introductory talk on Ion-molecule Collisions
  

• Courses Taught at IISER Pune
• PHY102 Waves and Matter
  (with M S Santhanam, 2015; with Sunil Mukhi, 2016)
• PHY121 Introductory Laboratory-I
  (2014)
• PHY201 Electricity and Magnetism
  (with Seema Sharma, 2015)
• PHY410 Advanced Laboratory
  (2016)
• PHY420 Atomic and Molecular Physics
  (2017)
• PHY221 Introductory Laboratory-II
  (2017)
• Courses Taught Earlier
• A course on Experimental Techniques taught at PRL, Ahmedabad
• A Modern Physics course for architects: The Smart Ones behind Smart Phones taught at CEPT, Ahmedabad
• I taught for several years at the Advanced BSc programme run at the Community Science Centre Ahmedabad.
• Learning Physics through experimentation
• Rebuilding Classic Experiments for undergraduate students to learn from

• See a CV and List of Publications

• Eklavya, an organisation working in school science educational programmes, with whom I work. A book I wrote with them: Heat and Temperature
• How to give a talk? See this

• Dr Vandana Sharma (Assist. Prof. at Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad)
  PhD 2007
• Dr R K Kushwaha (Reader at Physical Research Laboratory Ahmedabad)
  PhD 2010
• Dr Arvind Saxena (PostDoc at Institute of Plasma Research Gandhinagar)
  PhD 2014
• Dr Koushik Saha (PostDoc at Weizmann Institute Israel)
  PhD 2014
• Dr Amrendra Pandey (PostDoc at Raman Research Institute Bangalore)
  PhD 2015
• Dr R K Singh (Reader at Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar)