Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Physics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Physics

Pyseg: A Python Package For 2d Material Flake Localization, Segmentation, And Thickness Prediction, Diana B. Horangic Dec 2022

Pyseg: A Python Package For 2d Material Flake Localization, Segmentation, And Thickness Prediction, Diana B. Horangic

Student Research Projects

Thin materials are of interest for their extraordinary physical, mechanical, thermal, electrical, and optical properties. Monolayers and bilayers of 2D materials can be manufactured through a variety of exfoliation methods. To determine layer thickness, Raman spectroscopy or other methods like Rayleigh scattering are used. These methods are, however, slow, and they require equipment beyond an optical microscope. A Python package that automates flake identification processes was built, with access solely to RGB data from an optical microscope assumed. My package, pyseg, localizes flakes on a substrate and then makes a rough estimate of their thickness from first principles. It can …


Helium Nanodroplets As An Efficient Tool To Investigate Hydrogen Attachment To Alkali Cations, Siegfried Kollotzek, José Campos-Martínez, Massimiliano Bartolomei, Fernando Pirani, Lukas Tiefenthaler, Marta I. Hernández, Teresa Lázaro, Eva Zunzunegui-Bru, Tomás González-Lezana, José Bretón, Javier Hernández-Rojas, Olof E. Echt, Paul Scheier Nov 2022

Helium Nanodroplets As An Efficient Tool To Investigate Hydrogen Attachment To Alkali Cations, Siegfried Kollotzek, José Campos-Martínez, Massimiliano Bartolomei, Fernando Pirani, Lukas Tiefenthaler, Marta I. Hernández, Teresa Lázaro, Eva Zunzunegui-Bru, Tomás González-Lezana, José Bretón, Javier Hernández-Rojas, Olof E. Echt, Paul Scheier

Faculty Publications

We report a novel method to reversibly attach and detach hydrogen molecules to positively charged sodium clusters formed inside a helium nanodroplet host matrix. It is based on the controlled production of multiply charged helium droplets which, after picking up sodium atoms and exposure to H2 vapor, lead to the formation of Nam+(H2)n clusters, whose population was accurately measured using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The mass spectra reveal particularly favorable Na+(H2)n and Na2+(H2)n clusters for specific “magic” numbers of attached hydrogen molecules. …


Solvation Of Large Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons In Helium: Cationic And Anionic Hexabenzocoronene, Miriam Kappe, Florent Calvo, Johannes Schöntag, Holger F. Bettinger, Serge Krasnokutski, Martin Kuhn, Elisabeth Gruber, Fabio Zappa, Paul Scheier, Olof E. Echt Oct 2022

Solvation Of Large Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons In Helium: Cationic And Anionic Hexabenzocoronene, Miriam Kappe, Florent Calvo, Johannes Schöntag, Holger F. Bettinger, Serge Krasnokutski, Martin Kuhn, Elisabeth Gruber, Fabio Zappa, Paul Scheier, Olof E. Echt

Faculty Publications

The adsorption of helium on charged hexabenzocoronene (Hbc, C42H18), a planar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecule of D6h symmetry, is investigated by a combination of high-resolution mass spectrometry and classical and quantum computational methods. The ion abundance of HenHbc+ complexes versus size n features prominent local anomalies at n = 14, 38, 68, 82, and a weak one at 26, indicating that for these “magic” sizes the helium evaporation energies are relatively large. Surprisingly, mass spectra of anionic HenHbc complexes feature a different set of anomalies, namely at …


Adsorption Of Helium And Hydrogen On Triphenylene And 1,3,5-Triphenylbenzene, Bergmeister Bergmeister, Kollotzek Kollotzek, Florent Calvo, Elisabeth Gruber, Fabio Zappa, Paul Scheier, Olof E. Echt Aug 2022

Adsorption Of Helium And Hydrogen On Triphenylene And 1,3,5-Triphenylbenzene, Bergmeister Bergmeister, Kollotzek Kollotzek, Florent Calvo, Elisabeth Gruber, Fabio Zappa, Paul Scheier, Olof E. Echt

Faculty Publications

The adsorption of helium or hydrogen on cationic triphenylene (TPL, C18H12), a planar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecule, and of helium on cationic 1,3,5-triphenylbenzene (TPB, C24H18), a propeller-shaped PAH, is studied by a combination of high-resolution mass spectrometry and classical and quantum computational methods. Mass spectra indicate that HenTPL+ complexes are particularly stable if n = 2 or 6, in good agreement with the quantum calculations which show that for these sizes the helium atoms are strongly localized on either side of the central carbon ring for n = …


Stabilization Of Phenanthrene Anions In Helium Nanodroplets, Siegfried Kollotzek, Farhad Izadi, Miriam Meyer, Stefan Bergmeister, Fabio Zappa, Stephan Denifl, Olof E. Echt, Paul Scheier, Elisabeth Gruber May 2022

Stabilization Of Phenanthrene Anions In Helium Nanodroplets, Siegfried Kollotzek, Farhad Izadi, Miriam Meyer, Stefan Bergmeister, Fabio Zappa, Stephan Denifl, Olof E. Echt, Paul Scheier, Elisabeth Gruber

Faculty Publications

It has been debated for years if the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon phenanthrene exists in its anionic form, or, in other words, if its electron affinity (EA) is positive or negative. In this contribution we confirm that the bare phenanthrene anion Ph- created in a binary collision with an electron at room temperature has a lifetime shorter than microseconds. However, the embedding of neutral phenanthrene molecules in negatively charged helium nanodroplets enables the formation of phenanthrene anions by charge transfer processes and the stabilization of the latter in the ultracold environment. Gentle shrinking of the helium matrix of phenanthrene-doped HNDs …


Phenanthrene: Establishing Lower And Upper Bounds To The Binding Energy Of A Very Weakly Bound Anion, Elisabeth Gruber, Siegfried Kollotzek, Stefan Bergmeister, Fabio Zappa, Milan Ončák, Paul Scheier, Olof E. Echt Feb 2022

Phenanthrene: Establishing Lower And Upper Bounds To The Binding Energy Of A Very Weakly Bound Anion, Elisabeth Gruber, Siegfried Kollotzek, Stefan Bergmeister, Fabio Zappa, Milan Ončák, Paul Scheier, Olof E. Echt

Faculty Publications

Quite a few molecules do not form stable anions that survive the time needed for their detection; their electron affinities (EA) are either very small or negative. How does one measure the EA if the anion cannot be observed? Or, at least, can one establish lower and upper bounds to their EA? We propose two approaches that provide lower and upper bounds. We choose the phenanthrene (Ph) molecule whose EA is controversial. Through competition between helium evaporation and electron detachment in HenPh- clusters, formed in helium nanodroplets, we estimate the lower bound of the vertical detachment energy …