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Full-Text Articles in Physics
Picosecond Yb-Doped Fiber Amplifier, Weibin Zhu
Picosecond Yb-Doped Fiber Amplifier, Weibin Zhu
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Due to its versatility, rare earth doped fiber amplifier (RDFA) has attracted a lot of researchers worldwide in recent years. Depends on different kinds of rare earth ion, RDFA can be categorized into neodymium doped fiber amplifier (NDFA), erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), thulium doped fiber amplifier (TDFA), and so forth. Among many kinds of RDFA, the ytterbium doped fiber amplifier (YDFA) has received even more interest, especially in high power application, mainly because of its broad gain bandwidth and high conversion efficiency which are due to its relatively simple electronic structure. The purpose of this research is to study …
Quantification Of Non-Stoichiometry And Impurities In Transparent Yag Ceramics By Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (Libs), Sudeep Pandey
Quantification Of Non-Stoichiometry And Impurities In Transparent Yag Ceramics By Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (Libs), Sudeep Pandey
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Transparent ceramics are an important class of optical materials with applications in street-lighting, high-strength windows, electro- and magneto-optical isolators, high-power laser gain media and nuclear radiation detectors. Compared to single-crystal growth, ceramic processing enables size scalability, near net-shape forming and prevents issues associated with dopant segregation and inhomogeneity, such as stress-induced birefringence and wavefront distortions. The fabrication of high optical grade ceramics by route of powder sintering, relies on a controlled set of techniques preventing the formation of scattering centers (pores and secondary phases) and harmful point defects (color centers, charge-carrier trapping sites). This thesis work investigates a novel approach …
Design And Verification Of A Multi-Terawatt Ti-Sapphire Femtosecond Laser System, Patrick Roumayah
Design And Verification Of A Multi-Terawatt Ti-Sapphire Femtosecond Laser System, Patrick Roumayah
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Ultrashort pulse lasers are well-established in the scientific community due to the wide range of applications facilitated by their extreme intensities and broad bandwidth capabilities. This thesis will primarily present the design for the Mobile Ultrafast High Energy Laser Facility (MU-HELF) for use in outdoor atmospheric propagation experiments under development at the Laser Plasma Laboratory at UCF. The system is a 100fs 500 mJ Ti-Sapphire Chirped-Pulse Amplification (CPA) laser, operating at 10 Hz. Some background on the generation of very high intensity optical pulses is also presented, alongside an overview of the physics of filamentation. As part of the design …
Charge And Spin Transport In Low-Dimensional Materials, Amin Ahmadi
Charge And Spin Transport In Low-Dimensional Materials, Amin Ahmadi
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
My research has been focused on two main areas. First, electronic transports in chiral carbon nanotubes in the presence of charged adatoms. To study such systems we employed recursive Greens function technique to evaluate the conductance using the Landauer formula. Comparing with the experimental data, we determined the effective amplitude and the range of scattering potentials. In addition, using a similar approach we explained qualitatively an unusual conductance feature in a metallic carbon nanotube. The second part of my study was concerned to the dynamical spin injection and spin currents in low-dimensional materials. We have developed an atomistic model to …
High Performance Liquid Crystals For Displays And Spatial Light Modulators, Fenglin Peng
High Performance Liquid Crystals For Displays And Spatial Light Modulators, Fenglin Peng
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Liquid crystals (LCs) are an amazing class of soft materials which have been widely used in the visible, infrared (IR), millimeter wave, and terahertz spectral regions. Both amplitude modulation (e.g. displays) and phase modulation (e.g. spatial light modulators (SLMs) for adaptive optics and adaptive lens) have been investigated extensively. Thin-film-transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCDs) have become ubiquitous in our daily lives. Its widespread applications span from TVs, monitors, tablets, smartphones, augmented reality, virtual reality, to vehicle displays. LCD shows advantages in 1) high resolution, 2) long lifetime, 3) vivid colors using quantum dots backlight, and 4) high dynamic contrast ratio …
Theoretical Study Of Negative Molecular Ions Relevant To The Interstellar And Laboratory Plasma, Marjan Khamesian
Theoretical Study Of Negative Molecular Ions Relevant To The Interstellar And Laboratory Plasma, Marjan Khamesian
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Recently, several negative molecular ions, CnN- (n = 1, 3, 5) and CnH- (n = 4, 6, 8), were observed in the interstellar medium (ISM). It was suggested that the anions are formed in the ISM by the process of radiative electron attachment (REA). A simple statistical model was developed in 1980's to estimate rate coefficients of the REA reactions. Some of the rate coefficients obtained in the model are consistent with the observations, the others are not. More importantly, some of the approximations employed in the model are not physically justified. The aim of this thesis is a development …
Growth And Doping Of Mos2 Thin Films For Electronic And Optoelectronic Applications, Hussain Abouelkhair
Growth And Doping Of Mos2 Thin Films For Electronic And Optoelectronic Applications, Hussain Abouelkhair
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
MoS2 high absorption coefficient, high mobility, mechanical flexibility, and chemical inertness is very promising for many electronic and optoelectronic applications. The growth of high-quality MoS2 by a scalable and doping compatible method is still lacking. Therefore, the suitable dopants for MoS2 are not fully explored yet. This dissertation consists mainly of four main studies. The first study is on the growth of MoS2 thin films by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition. Scanning electron microscope images revealed the growth of microdomes of MoS2 on top of a smooth MoS2 film. These microdomes are very promising as a broadband omnidirectional light trap …
Atomic-Scale Simulation Of Physical And Chemical Processes During Space Weathering And Planet Formation, Abrar Quadery
Atomic-Scale Simulation Of Physical And Chemical Processes During Space Weathering And Planet Formation, Abrar Quadery
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
We investigate the mechanisms of space weathering and dust grain collisions, two topics of interests from planetary sciences, using atomic-scale simulations. Space weathering is the change in chemical and physical properties of minerals exposed to solar radiation and micrometeorite bombardment on surfaces of airless planetary bodies like the Moon and asteroids. An understanding of the connection between the surface evolution of the minerals and the underlying thermodynamic and kinetic factors is still missing. We address this issue and determine the time evolution of Frenkel defects in the silicate minerals olivine ((Mg,Fe)$_2$SiO$_4$) and orthopyroxene ((Mg,Fe)SiO$_3$) using molecular dynamics with a pair …
Solving Constraint Satisfaction Problems With Matrix Product States, Sabine Pelton
Solving Constraint Satisfaction Problems With Matrix Product States, Sabine Pelton
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In the past decade, Matrix Product State (MPS) algorithms have emerged as an efficient method of modeling some many-body quantum spin systems. Since spin system Hamiltonians can be considered constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs), it follows that MPS should provide a versatile framework for studying a variety of general CSPs. In this thesis, we apply MPS to two types of CSP. First, use MPS to simulate adiabatic quantum computation (AQC), where the target Hamiltonians are instances of a fully connected, random Ising spin glass. Results of the simulations help shed light on why AQC fails for some optimization problems. We then …
High Power Fiber Lasers And Fiber Devices, Zeinab Sanjabieznaveh
High Power Fiber Lasers And Fiber Devices, Zeinab Sanjabieznaveh
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Fiber lasers and fiber amplifiers have experienced considerable improvements in recent years and demonstrated remarkable power scalability. However, due to high optical intensity in the core, the performance of high power fiber lasers is limited by detrimental nonlinear processes, such as four-wave mixing, self-phase modulation, stimulated Brillouin scattering, and stimulated Raman scattering. To mitigate nonlinear effects, very large mode area (LMA) fibers, which exhibit a mode field diameter larger than 30 ?m have been developed. However, for larger core sizes the discrimination capabilities of conventional fiber designs decrease, consequently, LMA fibers are not strictly single mode which ultimately at high …
Thermal And Waveguide Optimization Of Broad Area Quantum Cascade Laser Performance, Matthew Suttinger
Thermal And Waveguide Optimization Of Broad Area Quantum Cascade Laser Performance, Matthew Suttinger
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Quantum Cascade Lasers are a novel source of coherent infrared light, unique in their tunability over the mid-infrared and terahertz range of frequencies. Advances in bandgap engineering and semiconductor processing techniques in recent years have led to the development of highly efficient quantum cascade lasers capable of room temperature operation. Recent work has demonstrated power scaling with broad area quantum cascade lasers by increasing active region width beyond the standard ~10 ?m. Taking into account thermal effects caused by driving a device with electrical power, an experimentally fitted model is developed to predict the optical power output in both pulsed …
Photothermal Lensing In Mid-Infrared Materials, Justin Cook
Photothermal Lensing In Mid-Infrared Materials, Justin Cook
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
A thorough understanding of laser-materials interactions is crucial when designing and building optical systems. An ideal test method would probe both the thermal and optical properties simultaneously for materials under large optical loads where detrimental thermal effects emerge. An interesting class of materials are those used for infrared wavelengths due to their wide spectral transmission windows and large optical nonlinearities. Since coherent sources spanning the mid-wave and long-wave infrared wavelength regions have only become widely available in the past decade, data regarding their thermal and optical responses is lacking in literature. Photothermal Lensing (PTL) technique is an attractive method for …
High Dynamic Range Display Systems, Ruidong Zhu
High Dynamic Range Display Systems, Ruidong Zhu
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
High contrast ratio (CR) enables a display system to faithfully reproduce the real objects. However, achieving high contrast, especially high ambient contrast (ACR), is a challenging task. In this dissertation, two display systems with high CR are discussed: high ACR augmented reality (AR) display and high dynamic range (HDR) display. For an AR display, we improved its ACR by incorporating a tunable transmittance liquid crystal (LC) film. The film has high tunable transmittance range, fast response time, and is fail-safe. To reduce the weight and size of a display system, we proposed a functional reflective polarizer, which can also help …
Spin And Charge Transport In Graphene Based Devices, Marta Anguera Antonana
Spin And Charge Transport In Graphene Based Devices, Marta Anguera Antonana
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The present dissertation is comprehended in two main parts. The first part is focused on understanding the mechanisms behind spin current to charge current interconversion (i.e. the spin Hall angle), where the spin current is generated by means of spin pumping. The measurement of a positive spin Hall angle of magnitude 0.004 in Uranium is reported in Chapter 2. These results support the idea that the electronic configuration may be at least as important as the atomic number in governing spin Hall effects. In Chapter 3, the design of a spintronics device designed to interconvert charge and spin currents in …
Novel Photonic Resonance Arrangements Using Non-Hermitian Exceptional Points, Hossein Hodaei
Novel Photonic Resonance Arrangements Using Non-Hermitian Exceptional Points, Hossein Hodaei
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In recent years, non-Hermitian degeneracies also known as exceptional points (EPs) have emerged as a new paradigm for engineering the response of optical systems. EPs can appear in a wide class of open non-Hermitian configurations. Among different types of non-conservative photonic systems, parity-time (PT) symmetric arrangements are of particular interest since they provide an excellent platform to explore the physics of exceptional points. In this work, the intriguing properties of exceptional points are utilized to address two of the long standing challenges in the field of integrated photonics- enforcing single mode lasing in intrinsically multimode cavities and enhancing the sensitivity …
Predictive Modeling Of Functional Materials For Catalytic And Sensor Applications, Takat Rawal
Predictive Modeling Of Functional Materials For Catalytic And Sensor Applications, Takat Rawal
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The research conducted in my dissertation focuses on theoretical and computational studies of the electronic and geometrical structures, and the catalytic and optical properties of functional materials in the form of nano-structures, extended surfaces, two-dimensional systems and hybrid structures. The fundamental aspect of my research is to predict nanomaterial properties through ab-initio calculations using methods such as quantum mechanical density functional theory (DFT) and kinetic Monte Carlo simulation, which help rationalize experimental observations, and ultimately lead to the rational design of materials for the electronic and energy-related applications. Focusing on the popular single-layer MoS2, I first show how its hybrid …
Enhanced Ablation By Femtosecond And Nanoseond Pulses, Haley Kerrigan
Enhanced Ablation By Femtosecond And Nanoseond Pulses, Haley Kerrigan
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Laser ablation of GaAs by a combination of femtosecond and nanosecond pulses is investigated as a means of enhancing material removal by a femtosecond pulse in the filamentation intensity regime. We demonstrate for the first time increased ablation of GaAs by ultrafast laser pulse plasmas augmented by nanosecond pulse radiation from a secondary laser. Material removal during laser ablation is a complex process that occurs via multiple mechanisms over several timescales. Due to different pulse durations, ablation by femtosecond and nanosecond pulses are dominated by different mechanisms. Ablation can be enhanced by optimally combining a femtosecond and nanosecond pulse in …
Laser-Induced Crystallization Mechanisms In Chalcogenide Glass Materials For Advanced Optical Functionality, Laura Sisken
Laser-Induced Crystallization Mechanisms In Chalcogenide Glass Materials For Advanced Optical Functionality, Laura Sisken
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Glass-ceramics (GC) are promising candidates for gradient refractive index (GRIN) optics. These multi-phase, composite materials also exhibit improved physical properties as compared to the parent base glass resulting from the formation of a secondary crystalline phase(s). Nanocrystal phase formation in a multi-component chalcogenide glass (ChG), (GeSe2-3As2Se3)(1-x)-(PbSe)x glass where x = 0-40 has been investigated, and the role of the starting material morphology has been correlated to the resulting composite's optical properties including refractive index, transmission, dispersion, and thermo-optic coefficient. Optical property evolution was related to the type and amount of the crystal phases formed, since through control of the local …
Advanced Liquid Crystal Displays With Supreme Image Qualities, Haiwei Chen
Advanced Liquid Crystal Displays With Supreme Image Qualities, Haiwei Chen
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Several metrics are commonly used to evaluate the performance of display devices. In this dissertation, we analyze three key parameters: fast response time, wide color gamut, and high contrast ratio, which affect the final perceived image quality. Firstly, we investigate how response time affects the motion blur, and then discover the 2-ms rule. With advanced low-viscosity materials, new operation modes, and backlight modulation technique, liquid crystal displays (LCDs) with an unnoticeable image blur can be realized. Its performance is comparable to an impulse-type display, like cathode ray tube (CRT). Next, we propose two novel backlight configurations to improve an LCD's …
Spherical Self-Assembly Of Rous Sarcoma Virus Ca, Probed By Ssnmr And The Structure Of Pap And Reflectin Protein, Xin Qiao
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In this dissertation, we investigate the morphology of three different protein assemblies, which are formed by prostate acidic phosphatase, residues 248-286 (PAP39), reflectin and rous sarcoma virus capsid (RSV CA). First of all, the main aim of this research is to study the structure of PAP39 which is derived from protease cleavage of Prostate Acidic Phosphatase. The PAP39 can form fibrils of different morphologies in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and NaBiCarb (25 mM sodium bicarbonate and 40 mM sodium phosphate, pH=8.83) buffer conditions, each exhibiting different potentials to enhance the infection of HIV in vitro due to different assemble pathways. In …
Generation Of High-Flux Attosecond Pulses And Towards Attosecond-Attosecond Pump-Probe Experiments, Yang Wang
Generation Of High-Flux Attosecond Pulses And Towards Attosecond-Attosecond Pump-Probe Experiments, Yang Wang
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
At present, the energy of a single isolated attosecond pulse is limited to nanojoule levels. As a result, an intense femtosecond pulse has always been used in combination with a weak attosecond pulse in time-resolved experiments. To reach the goal of conducting true attosecond pump-attosecond probe experiments, a high flux laser source has been developed that can potentially deliver microjoule level isolated attosecond pulses in the 50 eV range, and a unique experimental end station has been fabricated and implemented that can provide precision control of the attosecond-attosecond pump-probe pulses. In order to scale up the attosecond flux, a unique …
The Consequences Of A Reduced Superlattice Thickness On Quantum Cascade Laser Performance, Pedro Figueiredo
The Consequences Of A Reduced Superlattice Thickness On Quantum Cascade Laser Performance, Pedro Figueiredo
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Coherent infrared radiation sources are essential for the operability of a wide range of scientific, industrial, military and commercial systems. The importance of the mid-infrared spectral region cannot be understated. Numerous molecules have some vibrational band in this range, allowing for identification of species by means of absorption, emission or some other form of spectroscopy. As such, spectroscopy alone has numerous applications ranging from industrial process control to disease diagnosis utilizing breath analysis. However, despite the discovery of the LASER in the 60s, to this day the amount of coherent sources in this range is limited. It is for this …
Design Of A Hydrogen-Filled Hollow-Core Fiber Raman Laser, Yangyang Qin
Design Of A Hydrogen-Filled Hollow-Core Fiber Raman Laser, Yangyang Qin
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The purpose of this study is to investigate the design of a Raman fiber laser based on a molecule hydrogen-filled hollow-core fiber with non-touching single ring of capillaries structure. O-hydrogen vibrational frequency shift of 4155 cm-1 and rotational frequency shift of 587 cm-1 were employed to generate Raman scattering from a 1064nm pump source. A thorough exploration was made to show how all Raman fiber laser components made up: gas chamber, hollow-core fibers, windows. The whole process of chamber design, modification and fabrication were demonstrated. Besides, two kinds of anti-resonant hollow-core fibers were studied and tested. The transmission and loss …
Plasma Dynamics Of Laser Filaments, Danielle Reyes
Plasma Dynamics Of Laser Filaments, Danielle Reyes
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Laser filamentation is a complex phenomenon occurring for pulses with peak power above a critical value. A filament is a dynamic self-guided structure characterized by several unique qualities, which include a beam with a high-intensity core surrounded by an energy reservoir, a weakly ionized plasma channel, and supercontinuum generation. Several of the proposed applications for filamentation utilize the plasma channel, such as for assisted electric discharge and microwave guiding. However, filament properties are highly influenced by the physical conditions under which they are formed. A host of studies have been conducted to further characterize filaments, but much work still remains …
System For Metal Coated Fiber Fabrication, Da Zhang
System For Metal Coated Fiber Fabrication, Da Zhang
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
For many specific applications, such as sensors, aerospace, chemical industry, deep-well oil-field industry, metal-coated fiber shows strong abilities to satisfy people's requirement. With in-line coating technology, we are able to coat Aluminum on the fibers. Using electromagnetic induction, we can easily heat an electrically conducting thing such as a metal with the eddy current. This process is defined as Induction heating. And we will melt the Aluminum by this induction heating during drawing the fibers on the tower. Introduce the fiber tower system. The drawing process of in-line technology is formed of the following steps: Position, Melting, Forming into fibers, …
The Physical Properties And Composition Of Main-Belt Asteroids From Infrared Spectroscopy, Zoe Landsman
The Physical Properties And Composition Of Main-Belt Asteroids From Infrared Spectroscopy, Zoe Landsman
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Asteroids are the remnants of planet formation, and as such, they represent a record of the physical and chemical conditions in the early solar system and its evolution over the past 4.6 billion years. Asteroids are relatively accessible by spacecraft, and thus may be a source of the raw materials necessary for future human exploration and settlement of space. Those on Earth-crossing orbits pose impact hazards for which mitigation strategies must be developed. For these reasons, several missions to asteroids are in progress or planned with the support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and other national space …
Noise, Stability, And Linewidth Performance Of 10-Ghz Optical Frequency Combs Generated From The Nested Cavity Architecture, Kristina Bagnell
Noise, Stability, And Linewidth Performance Of 10-Ghz Optical Frequency Combs Generated From The Nested Cavity Architecture, Kristina Bagnell
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Optical frequency combs with wide mode spacing and low timing jitter are relied upon for both time domain and frequency domain applications. It has been previously demonstrated that surrounding a low-Q semiconductor laser chip with a long external fiber cavity and inserting a high finesse Fabry–Pérot etalon into this cavity can produce a mode-locked laser with the desired high repetition rate and narrow optical mode linewidths which are of benefit to applications like photonic analog-to-digital conversion and astronomical spectrograph calibration. With this nested cavity architecture, the quality factor of the resonator is effectively determined by the product of the individual …
Computational Approach To Electrocatalysis, Nagendra Dhakal
Computational Approach To Electrocatalysis, Nagendra Dhakal
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The main objective of this work is to understand the theoretical basis of the working principle of the Hydrogen fuel cell. We seek the physical basis of the Rational Design Technique, the smart way of preselecting materials from the material-pool, implemented in our study anticipating highly promising electrocatalysts for promoting the conversion of chemical energy stored in hydrogen molecules into the electrical energy. It needs the understanding of the relationship among the compositions of the materials under consideration, their electronic structure and catalytic activities. We performed the first principle DFT calculations to achieve the goal. Our work is focused first …
Enhancement Of Bandwidth And Laser Deflection Angle Of Acousto-Optic Deflectors By Dynamic Two-Dimensional Refractive Index Modulation, Tiansi Wang
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Acousto-Optic Deflectors (AODs) are inertialess optical solid state devices that have advantages over conventional mechanically controlled mirror-based deflectors in numerous scientific and industrial applications. These applications include fluorescence microscopy, sensing, variable-focus lens, photolithography and laser materials processing. AODs are currently operated with a single piezoelectric transducer that modulates the refractive index only in one direction. This operating principle limits the performance of AODs to a narrow acoustic bandwidth of the transducer and a small angle of laser deflection governed by the Bragg diffraction. To overcome these two limitations, the operation of AODs with phased array ultrasonic transducers is analyzed in …
Filament Wavefront Evolution, Daniel Thul
Filament Wavefront Evolution, Daniel Thul
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Filamentation is a complex process that gives rise to many nonlinear interactions. However, the fundamentals of filament formation and propagation can be explained in terms of two dominant mechanisms: Kerr self-focusing and plasma defocusing. The first to occur, self-focusing, is responsible for an increase in irradiance through beam collapse. This process requires sufficient initial peak power, on the order of gigawatts for near infrared beams in air. Plasma defocusing then arrests the collapse process once the irradiance reaches the ionization threshold of the medium. These two processes balance each other in an extended plasma channel known as a filament. A …