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Full-Text Articles in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Photoelectric Characterization Of Bacteriorhodopsin Reconstituted In Lipid Bilayer Membrane, Joel Kamwa Dec 2014

Photoelectric Characterization Of Bacteriorhodopsin Reconstituted In Lipid Bilayer Membrane, Joel Kamwa

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this work was to conduct basic research in biologically inspired energy conversion solutions. A photosynthetic protein (Bacteriorhodopsin) was reconstituted in a bi-layer membrane. Then, when a laser beam was shined on the membrane, the photon energy was used by the protein to pump protons across the membrane. The translocation of protons across the membrane was measured as photocurrent. For this purpose, a system was built to characterize the lipid bilayer membranes and to measure the photocurrent. The lipid bilayer membrane was characterized by its capacitance and resistance. A picoampere photocurrent was observed when Bacteriorhodopsin protein was present …


Optical Spectroscopy And Langmuir Probe Diagnostics Of Microwave Plasma In Synthesis Of Graphene-Based Nanomaterials, Alfredo D. Tuesta Oct 2014

Optical Spectroscopy And Langmuir Probe Diagnostics Of Microwave Plasma In Synthesis Of Graphene-Based Nanomaterials, Alfredo D. Tuesta

Open Access Dissertations

Along with the revolutionary discovery and development of carbon nanostructures, such as carbon nanotubes and graphitic sheets, has arrived the potential for their application in the fields of medicine, bioscience and engineering due to their exceptional structural, thermal and electrical properties. As roll-to-roll plasma deposition systems begin to provide means for large scale production of these nanodevices, a detailed understanding of the environment responsible for their synthesis is imperative in order to more accurately design and control the growth of carbon nanodevices. To date, the understanding of the chemistry and kinetics that govern the synthesis of carbon nanodevices is only …


Nickel Aluminum Shape Memory Alloys Via Molecular Dynamics, Keith Ryan Morrison Jul 2014

Nickel Aluminum Shape Memory Alloys Via Molecular Dynamics, Keith Ryan Morrison

Open Access Theses

Shape memory materials are an important class of active materials with a wide range of applications in the aerospace, biomedical, and automobile industries. These materials exhibit the two unique properties of shape memory and superelasticity. Shape memory is the ability to recover its original shape by applying heat after undergoing large deformations. Superelasticity is the ability to undergo large, reversible deformations (up to 10%) that revert back when the load is removed. These special properties originate from a reversible, diffusionless solid-solid phase transformation that occurs between a high temperature austenite phase and a low temperature martensite phase. The development of …


Modeling The High-Speed Switching Of Far-Infrared Radiation By Photoionization In A Semiconductor, Thomas E. Wilson Feb 2014

Modeling The High-Speed Switching Of Far-Infrared Radiation By Photoionization In A Semiconductor, Thomas E. Wilson

Thomas E. Wilson

Data from an earlier study [T. Vogel et al., Appl. Opt. 31, 329 (1992)] on the subnanosecond switching of 119-μm radiation in high-resistivity silicon by pulsed UV laser radiation, is compared with a refined one-dimensional numerical multilayer model accounting for the generation, recombination, and diffusion of the free carriers on the resulting far-infrared optical properties of the silicon. The inclusion of recent measurements for carrier-density and temperature-dependent transport parameters leads to improved agreement between experiment and theory.


Superlattice Ultrasonic Generation, Thomas E. Wilson, M. Oehme, E. Kasper, H-J. L. Gossmann Feb 2014

Superlattice Ultrasonic Generation, Thomas E. Wilson, M. Oehme, E. Kasper, H-J. L. Gossmann

Thomas E. Wilson

We report the first experimental evidence for the resonant excitation of coherent high-frequency acoustic phonons in semiconducting doping superstructures by far-infrared laser radiation. After a grating-coupled delta-doped silicon doping superlattice is illuminated with ~1 kW/mm2 nanosecond-pulsed 246 GHz laser radiation, a delayed nanosecond pulse is detected by a superconducting bolometer at a time corresponding to the appropriate time-of-flight for ballistic longitudinal acoustic phonons across the (100) silicon substrate. The absorbed phonon power density in the microbolometer is observed to be ~10 μW/mm2, in agreement with theory. The phonon pulse duration also matches the laser pulse duration. The absence of any …


Progress On: “Coherent Terahertz Acoustic Phonon Scattering: Novel Diagnostic For Erosion In Plasma Thruster Discharge Chamber Walls", Thomas E. Wilson, Iain D. Boyd Feb 2014

Progress On: “Coherent Terahertz Acoustic Phonon Scattering: Novel Diagnostic For Erosion In Plasma Thruster Discharge Chamber Walls", Thomas E. Wilson, Iain D. Boyd

Thomas E. Wilson

The study is based on the success in obtaining the first experimental evidence for the direct excitation of coherent nanosecond-pulsed high-frequency acoustic phonons in semiconducting doping superstructures by electromagnetic fields of the same frequency. Acoustic phonons are detected by a superconducting bolometer, with nanosecond resolution, at the appropriate time-of-flight across a (100) silicon substrate for ballistic longitudinal phonons when a silicon delta-doped doping superlattice is illuminated with grating-coupled nanosecond-pulsed 246-GHz laser radiation with an approximate power density of 1 kW/mm2. The absorbed phonon power density in the bolometer detector is estimated to be 10 μW/mm2, in agreement with theory. The …


Fabrication Of Robust Superconducting Granular Aluminium/Palladium Bilayer Microbolometers With Sub-Nanosecond Response, Thomas E. Wilson Feb 2014

Fabrication Of Robust Superconducting Granular Aluminium/Palladium Bilayer Microbolometers With Sub-Nanosecond Response, Thomas E. Wilson

Thomas E. Wilson

We provide a convenient recipe for fabricating reliable superconducting microbolometers as acoustic phonon detectors with sub-nanosecond response, using imagereversal optical lithography and dc-magnetron sputtering, and our recipe requires no chemical or plasma etching. Our approach solves the traditional problem for granular aluminium bolometers of unreliable (i.e., non-Ohmic) electrical contacts by sequentially sputtering the granular aluminium film and then a palladium capping layer. We use dc calibration data, the method of Danilchenko et al. [1], and direct nanosecond-pulsed photoexcitation to obtain the microbolometer’s characteristic current, thermal conductance, characteristic relaxation time, and heat capacity. We also demonstrate the use of the deconvolution …