Preface

It gives us immense pleasure to publish the proceedings of XI Biennial National Conference of Physics Academy of North East in the Journal Physics: Conference Series . The Physics Academy of North - East (PANE) was founded in 1998 to promote physics education, collaborative research and dissemination of scientific knowledge in India’s north-east region. The biennial conference of PANE, which is the Academy’s flag ship event, presents an opportunity for young researchers in physics of the region to disseminate their research findings through oral / poster presentations and interact with experts in their respective fields. It is also an occasion for researchers in physics of the region to meet, share new ideas and experiences and discuss problems in research among themselves. Besides the conferences, PANE organises workshops, lecture series at different institutions of the region and publishes newsletters as part of its activities. The XI edition of the biennial conference was organised by the Department of Physics, Assam University, Diphu Campus from 21 st to 23 rd November 2018 at Diphu and was sponsored by North Eastern Council (NEC), Government of India; Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). In this XI edition of the biennial conference eight technical sessions covering fields of High Energy Physics, Astrophysics &amp; Cosmology, Plasma, Optics &amp; Photonics, Condensed Matter Physics &amp; Material Science, Atmospheric &amp; Space Physics and Electronics were arranged, each of which had an invited talk followed by 3/4 oral presentations. Apart from the technical sessions there was also a poster session. A special attraction of the XI PANE conference was the Springer Author Workshop with Dr. Akash Chakraborty (Associate Editor, Applied Sciences &amp; Engineering, Springer - a part of Springer Nature) as the resource person. Springer also sponsored awards to the first two best oral and poster presentations. Gift coupons for procurement of Springer books and certificates were presented to the winners. Professor H Nand Kumar Sarma, former Vice Chancellor, Manipur University and Professor Anil Kumar Goswami, former Principal, Cotton College were felicitated for their contribution to the development of physics education and research in the region. The conference keynote address was delivered by Professor Bala Iyer from ICTS-TIFR, Bangalore, India. It was followed by two plenary talks by Professor A. Surjalal Sharma, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA and Professor Mandar M. Deshmukh, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India. BipinPal Memorial Oration, which has become an integral part of PANE conferences, was delivered by Professor Pijushpani Bhattacharjee, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, India. Title of these and the invited talks with short abstracts are appended here. The XI PANE proceedings contain 20 peer reviewed research papers selected from the manuscripts received for consideration for publication, all of which were presented in the conference. The editors take this opportunity to thank all authors of research articles; irrespective of their articles being published or not in the proceedings for their contribution and the reviewers who helped us by sparing their valuable time to review the manuscripts; without which publication of this proceedings could not have been accomplished. Subrata Hazarika Abhijeet Das Dulen Bora Department of Physics Assam University, Diphu Campus Diphu, Assam, India 20/08/2019 List of Appendix, Keynote Address, Bipinpal Das Memorial Oration, Plenary Talks, Invited Talks are available in the pdf.