Physics Commons^™

Synthesis And Characterization Of Copper Nanoparticles And Copper-Polymer Nanocomposites For Plasmonic Photovoltaic Applications, Sabastine Chukwuemeka Ezugwu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Deposition techniques for the fabrication of metal nanostructures influence their morphological properties, which in turn control their optical behavior. Here, copper nanoparticles (np-Cu’s) were grown using a deposition system that was specifically set up during this work, and is based on a radio frequency (RF) sputtering source that can operate at high temperature and under bias voltage. The effect of deposition conditions (RF power, chamber pressure and substrate bias voltage) on RF sputtered np-Cu’s using RF sputtering has been studied. The study included a comparison between the morphological and optical properties of as-grown np-Cu’s and thermally treated samples. The characterization …

Charge, Bonding, And Magneto-Elastic Coupling In Nanomaterials, Qi Sun

Doctoral Dissertations

Phonons are exquisitely sensitive to finite length scale effects in a wide variety of materials because they are intimately connected to charge, structure, and magnetism, and a quantitative analysis of their behavior can reveal microscopic aspects of chemical bonding and spin-phonon coupling. To investigate these effects, we measured infrared vibrational properties of bulk and nanoscale MoS₂ [molybdenum disulfide], MnO [manganese(II) oxide], and CoFe₂O₄ [cobalt iron oxide]. From an analysis of frequencies, oscillator strengths, and high-frequency dielectric constants, we extracted Born and local effective charges, and polarizability for MoS₂ and MnO. For MoS₂ nanoparticles, in …

Condensed Matter From Gauge/Gravity Duality, Jason Edward Therrien

Doctoral Dissertations

Currently strongly coupled systems present the greatest challenge to theoretical physics. For years conventional methods of approach have failed to describe these systems analytically. In recent years it has been shown that there is a duality between weakly coupled and strongly coupled systems, the Gauge Theory/Gravity Duality. In this dissertation I will discuss how the AdS/CFT is used to describe strongly coupled condensed matter systems as well as present the work done by the author and collaborators.

Growth And Characterization Of Hexagonal Lu-Fe-O Multiferroic Thin Films, Wenbin Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

In the quest for new types of information processing and storage, complex oxides stand out as one of the most promising material classes. The multiple functionalities of complex oxides naturally arise from the delicate energy balance between the various forms of order (structural, electronic, magnetic). In particular, multiferroic and magnetoelectric oxides which simultaneously exhibit more than one type of ferroic orders have many advantages over existing materials. Widespread practical applications will require a single-phase multiferroic material with a transition temperature that lies considerably above room temperature, large electric and magnetic polarizations, and strong coupling between ferroic orders.

Recently, multiferroic LuFe …

Structure And Dynamics Of High Temperature Superconductors, Jennifer Lynn Niedziela

Doctoral Dissertations

High temperature superconductivity in iron based compounds has presented a series of complex problems to condensed matter physics since being discovered in 2008. The stalwart basis of condensed matter physics is the “strength in numbers" aspect of crystalline periodicity. Perfect crystalline periodicity has made possible the reduction of the questions of structural and electronic properties to single dimensions, increasing the tractability of these problems. Nevertheless, modern complex materials stretch these assumptions to their limits, and it is at this point where our work starts. Using neutron and x-ray scattering, we have conducted a series of studies on the structural disorder …

Pulse Sharpening Effects Of Thin Film Ferroelectric Transmission Lines, Robert J. Sleezer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Advances in material science have resulted in the development of electrically nonlinear high dielectric thin film ferroelectrics, which have led to new opportunities for the creation of novel devices. This dissertation investigated one such device: a low voltage nonlinear transmission line (NLTL). A finite element simulation of ferroelectric transmission lines showed that NLTLs are capable of creating shockwaves. Additionally, if the losses are kept sufficiently low, it was shown that voltage gain should be possible. Furthermore, a method of accounting for material dispersion was developed. Results from simulations including material dispersion showed that temporal solitons might be possible from a …

The Behavior Of A Falling Particle In A Funnel, Tahani Hassn Aldahri

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Recent theoretical work has suggested that a frictional, inelastic, spherical particle falling under gravity through a symmetric funnel will display interesting behavior as a function of the angle of the funnel walls. We have studied this system experimentally, using high-speed video to record the particle trajectories. By analyzing the video images, we have analyzed the time the ball spends in the funnel and its energy loss as functions of the angle of the walls with respect to the horizontal. The coefficient of restitution was also varied by using different balls and funnel materials. We found some similarities and differences between …

Influence Of Quantum Dot Structure On The Optical Properties Of Group Iv Materials Fabricated By Ion Implantation, Eric G. Barbagiovanni

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In nanostructures (NSs), to acquire a fundamental understanding of the electronic states by studying the optical properties is inherently complicated. A widely used simplification to this problem comes about by developing a model for a small scale representation of types of NSs and applying it to a hierarchy of fabrication methods. However, this methodology fails to account for structural differences incurred by the fabrication method that lead to differences in the optical properties. Proper modelling is realized by first considering the proper range of experimental parameters individually as inputs to a theoretical model and applying the correct parameters to the …

Molecular Dynamics Studies Of Water Flow In Carbon Nanotubes, Alexander D. Marshall

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

We present classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations providing insight into the behaviour of water. We focus on confined water, the properties of which are often significantly different from the properties of bulk water.

First, we performed several simulations investigating the handling of long-range interactions in GROMACS [1], a MD simulation package. Selection of simulation protocols such as handling of long-range interactions is often overlooked, sometimes to the significant detriment of the final result [2, 3, 4]. Ensuring that the chosen simulation protocols are appropriate is a critical step in computer simulation.

Second, we performed MD simulations where water flowed between …

Ii-Vi Core-Shell Nanowires: Synthesis, Characterizations And Photovoltaic Applications, Kai Wang

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of semiconducting nanowires as the new building blocks for photovoltaic (PV) devices has drawn considerable attention because of the great potential of achieving high efficiency and low cost. In special, nanowires with a coaxial structure, namely, core-shell structures have demonstrated significant advantages over other device configurations in terms of radial charge collection and cost reduction. In this dissertation, several core-shell nanowire structures, including ZnO/ZnSe, ZnO/ZnS, and CdSe/ZnTe, have been synthesized and the photovoltaic devices processed from a ZnO/ZnS core-shell nanowire array and a single CdSe/ZnTe core-shell nanowire have been demonstrated.

By combining the chemical vapor deposition and pulsed …

High Frequency Study Of Magnetic Nanostructures, Abhishek Srivastava

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The work in this thesis is divided in three parts. In part one we developed electrodeposition method of Nickel Nanowire in commercial AAO template in constant current (Galvanostatic) mode, further we tried to estimate the growth rate from theory, from saturation magnetization and direct measurement from SEM image.

In part two we focused on using the Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) to measure the Ferromagnetic Resonance (FMR))of various magnetic Nanowire arrays. We employed different measurement geometries using microstripline and coplanar waveguide as microwave transmission lines.

In part three our aim was to study the magnetic properties of complex ferromagnetic system, especially …

Characterization Of Magnetic Nanostructured Materials By First Order Reversal Curve Method, Denny R. Lenormand

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Interactions and magnetization reversal of Ni nanowire arrays and synthetic anit-ferromagnetic coupled thin film trilayers have been investigated through first order reversal curve (FORC) method. By using a quantitative analysis of the local interaction field profile distributions obtained from FORC, it has proven to be a powerful characterization tool that can reveal subtle features of magnetic interactions.

Electronic Transport In Thermoelectric Bismuth Telluride, Westly Nolting

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

An experimental investigation of the electronic transport properties of bismuth telluride nanocomposite materials is presented. The primary transport measurements are electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient and Hall effect. An experimental apparatus for measuring Hall effect and electrical conductivity was designed, constructed and tested. Seebeck coefficient measurements were performed on a commercial instrument. The Hall effect and Seebeck coefficient measurements are two of the most important tools for characterizing thermoelectric materials and are widely used in the semiconductor industry for determining carrier types, carrier concentration and mobility. Further, these transport parameters are used to determine the thermal to electrical conversion efficiency of …

Magnetic Excitations In The Iron Based Superconductors, Leland Weldon Harriger

Doctoral Dissertations

Presented within are neutron scattering studies detailing the spin dynamics of BaNi$_{x}$Fe$_{2-x}$As$_{2}$ for x = 0 (parent), 0.04 (underdoped), and 0.1 (optimal) dopings, and FeSe$_{x}$Te$_{1-x}$ for x = 0 (parent), 0.3 (underdoped), and 0.4 (optimal) dopings. These recently discovered Fe-based superconducting compounds are strikingly similar, in many respects, to the cuprate class of unconventional superconductors and share qualitatively similar phase diagrams consisting of a long range ordered magnetic ground state in the parents which, upon doping, is supplanted in favor of superconductivity. The dopings discussed herein allow us to tune through the phase diagram, beginning with long range ordered parents …

Study Of Local Structure, Stress And Dynamics In Disordered Materials Using Ab-Initio And Molecular Dynamics Simulation, Madhusudan Ojha

Doctoral Dissertations

Understanding the atomic structure and dynamics in structurally disordered systems has been a long-standing and most challenging problem in physics and material science. To begin with, it is difficult to describe disorder quantitatively and to differentiate the degree of disorder from one system to another. The majorities of experimental and theoretical approaches to the study of disordered systems are either transferred directly from the study of crystals or address the problem in the macroscopic scale where the atomic origin of behavior is obscured. First principle atomic level stresses and dynamic pair distribution functions described in this dissertation represent attempts to …

Iron Pnictides: Superconductivity In Multi-Orbital Systems, Andrew David Nicholson

Doctoral Dissertations

This work focuses on the development and implementation of microscopic models as well as their numerical and analytical study to elucidate the properties of the iron pnictides. There are many first principle and phenomenological studies of these materials, but there is a need for unbiased numerical calculations following an approach similar to the one used in the study of the Hubbard and t-J models for the cuprates.

First a two orbital model for the pnictides, focusing on two hybridized Fe-d orbitals (dxz and dyz) is formulated, including hoppings between nearest and next nearest neighbors as well as on site Coulomb …

Morphology-Properties Studies In Laser Synthesized Nanostructured Materials, Nozomi Shirato

Doctoral Dissertations

Synthesis of well-defined nanostructures by pulsed laser melting is an interesting subject from both a funda- mental and technological point of view. In this thesis, the synthesis and functional properties of potentially useful materials were studied, such as tin dioxide nanostructured arrays, which have potential applications in hydrogen gas sensing, and ferromagnetic Co nanowire and nanomagnets, which are fundamentally im- portant towards understanding magnetism in the nanoscale. First, the formation of 1D periodic tin dioxide nanoarrays was investigated with the goal of forming nanowires for hydrogen sensing. Experimental obser- vations combined with theoretical modeling successfully explained the mechanisms of structure …

Dynamical Properties Of Ferroelectric Perovskites (Ba,Sr)Tio3 And Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 Systems From First Principles, Jeevaka Weerasinghe

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A first-principles-based effective Hamiltonian scheme which incorporates coupling between ferroelectric (FE) and antiferrodistortive (AFD) motions is applied to Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ alloys. It validates the existence of two modes of E symmetry (rather than the single E(1TO) soft mode) in the 50-75 cm^-1 range for temperatures smaller than 200 K and for compositions falling within the Rhombohedral R3c phase. Coupling between long-range-ordered FE and AFD motions is shown to be the cause of the additional mode and more insight into its nature is provided. This scheme is further used to reveal a field-induced anticrossing involving FE and AFD degrees of …

Numerical Study Of The Transition Metal Oxides And The Transport Properties Of Iron Pnictides, Shuhua Liang

Doctoral Dissertations

Strongly correlated materials such as the manganites and iron pnictides are studied here with several computational techniques. Both types of materials contain transition metals. Thus, our computational models are based on the double exchange mechanism, the super exchange mechanism and the crystal field theory to describe the d electrons. In manganites, we focus on its multiferroic properties induced by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. In the BiFeO3 , we use classical Monte Carlo simulations to study the magnetic critical transition transition. In iron pnictides, we study the interplay between the Fermi surface orbital order and the ground state magnetic order.

Phase Field Crystal Approach To The Solidification Of Ferromagnetic Materials, Niloufar Faghihi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The dependence of the magnetic hardness on the microstructure of magnetic solids is investigated, using a field theoretical approach, called the Magnetic Phase Field Crystal model. We constructed the free energy by extending the Phase Field Crystal (PFC) formalism and including terms to incorporate the ferromagnetic phase transition and the anisotropic magneto-elastic effects, i.e., the magnetostriction effect. Using this model we performed both analytical calculations and numerical simulations to study the coupling between the magnetic and elastic properties in ferromagnetic solids. By analytically minimizing the free energy, we calculated the equilibrium phases of the system to be liquid, non-magnetic …

The Effect Of Polarization And Ingan Quantum Well Shape In Multiple Quantum Well Light Emitting Diode Heterostructures, Patrick M. Mcbride

Master's Theses

Previous research in InGaN/GaN light emitting diodes (LEDs) employing semi-classical drift-diffusion models has used reduced polarization constants without much physical explanantion. This paper investigates possible physical explanations for this effective polarization reduction in InGaN LEDs through the use of the simulation software SiLENSe. One major problem of current LED simulations is the assumption of perfectly discrete transitions between the quantum well (QW) and blocking layers when experiments have shown this to not be the case. The In concentration profile within InGaN multiple quantum well (MQW) devices shows much smoother and delayed transitions indicative of indium diffusion and drift during …

Electrohydrodynamic Enhancement Of Heat Transfer And Mass Transport In Gaseous Media, Bulk Dielectric Liquids And Dielectric Thin Liquid Films, Seyed Reza Mahmoudi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Controlling transport phenomena in liquid and gaseous media through electrostatic forces has brought new important scientific and industrial applications. Although numerous EHD applications have been explored and extensively studied so far, the fast-growing technologies, mainly in the semiconductor industry, introduce new challenges and demands. These challenges require enhancement of heat transfer and mass transport in small scales (sometimes in molecular scales) to remove highly concentrated heat fluxes from reduced size devices. Electric field induced flows, or electrohydrodynamics (EHD), have shown promise in both macro and micro-scale devices.

Several existing problems in EHD heat transfer enhancements were investigated in this thesis. …

Theoretical Modeling Of The Formation And Functionality Of Low-Dimensional Materials, Hua Chen

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents a series of work under the topic of designing and modeling novel low-dimensional materials and structures with desired and coherent structural, electronic, and magnetic properties, using a variety of theoretical tools, including first-principles density functional theory (DFT) method, numerical Monte Carlo (MC) method, and analytical phenomenological approaches, etc. The contents are divided into three major topics:

(1) Magnetic properties of n-p codoped materials. The noncompensated n-p codoping method is proposed to increase the density of magnetic dopants in diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) while keeping the magnetic coupling strength, which may lead to a …

Theoretical Study On Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking In Strongly Correlated Electrons, Xiaotian Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

In the early days of condensed matter physics, the single electron approximation was considered to be a very good approach in order to explore the properties of many systems. However, as time goes on, a variety of new systems have been discovered and many of them, such as high temperature superconductors and manganites, show phenomenas that evidently can not be explained by single electron theories. Spontaneous symmetry breaking is a very important and famous concept in physics, from the Higgs mechanism in particle physics to the spin density wave in condensed matter physics. The present text describes the detailed studies …

Synthesis And High-Pressure Structural Studies Of Aux2 (X= Al, Ga, In) Compounds, Jason Lee Baker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Three intermetallic compounds, AuX₂ (X = Al, Ga, In), were synthesized by arc-melting proper stoichiometric ratios of high purity Au, Al, Ga, and In. They were found to be single-phase in the CaF₂ type Fm3m crystalline structure. Interest in these particular intermetallic materials is due to intriguing pressure-induced behavior such as electronic topological transitions (ETTs), and structural phase transitions as well as their use in a variety of practical applications such as a solar spectral absorber and in electronic circuitry. In this study, the high-pressure structure of these materials was studied using high resolution synchrotron x-ray diffraction (XRD) …

Mott Transition And Electronic Structure In Complex Oxide Heterostructures, Jian Liu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Strongly correlated electron systems, particularly transition metal oxides, have been a focus of condensed matter physics for more than two decades since the discovery of high-temperature superconducting cuprates. Diverse competing phases emerge, spanning from exotic magnetism to unconventional superconductivity, in proximity to the localized-itinerant transition of Mott insulators. While studies were concentrated on bulk crystals, the recent rapid advance in synthesis has enabled fabrication of high-quality oxide heterostructures, offering a new route to create novel artificial quantum materials.

This dissertation details the investigation on ultrathin films and heterostructures of 3d⁷(t_2g⁶e_g¹) systems with …

Soft X-Ray Spectroscopic Investigation Of Oxides For Renewable Energy Applications, Eric Westbrook Martin

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Use Of Ultra High Vacuum Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition For Graphene Fabrication, Shannen Adcock

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Graphene, what some are terming the "new silicon", has the possibility of revolutionizing technology through nanoscale design processes. Fabrication of graphene for device processing is limited largely by the temperatures used in conventional deposition. High temperatures are detrimental to device design where many different materials may be present. For this reason, graphene synthesis at low temperatures using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition is the subject of much research. In this thesis, a tool for ultra-high vacuum plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (UHV-PECVD) and accompanying subsystems, such as control systems and alarms, are designed and implemented to be used in future graphene growths. …

Superconducting Nafe1-Xcoxas: Crystal Growth, Resistivity, And Susceptibility Measurements, Tucker Netherton

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Highly Charged Ion Interactions With Ultrathin Dielectric Films, Russell Lake

All Dissertations

The excitations occurring at a solid surface due to slow highly charged ion (HCI) impacts are interesting from the perspective of fundamental processes in atomic collisions and materials science. This thesis focuses on two questions: 1) How much HCI potential energy deposition is required to form permanent surface modifications?, 2) How does the presence of a thin dielectric surface film change the classical over-the-barrier picture for neutralization above a clean metal?
I describe a measurement of craters in thin dielectric films formed by XeQ+ (26 ≤ Q ≤ 44) projectiles. Tunnel junction devices with ion-irradiated barriers were used to amplify …