Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
- Publication
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 28 of 28
Full-Text Articles in Physics
Room Temperature Operation Of Quantum Cascade Lasers Monolithically Integrated Onto A Lattice-Mismatched Substrate, Rowel Go
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs) are semiconductor devices that, currently, have been observed to emit radiation from ~ 2.6 μm to 250 μm (1 to 100 terahertz range of frequencies.) They have established themselves as the laser of choice for spectroscopic gas sensing in the mid-wavelength infrared (3-8 μm) and long-wavelength infrared (8-15 μm) region. In the 4-12 μm wavelength region, the highest performing QCL devices, in terms of wall-plug efficiency and continuous wave operation, are indium phosphide (InP) based. The ultimate goal is to incorporate this InP-based QCL technology to silicon (Si) substrate since most opto-electronics are Si-based. The main …
Numerical Solutions To Hall Magnetohydrodynamic Equations Near An X-Type Magnetic Neutral Line, Kyle Reger
Numerical Solutions To Hall Magnetohydrodynamic Equations Near An X-Type Magnetic Neutral Line, Kyle Reger
The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal
The Hall Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model is a new paradigm for describing fast magnetic reconnection processes in space and laboratory plasmas. Current sheets form and store enormous amounts of magnetic energy at X-type magnetic neutral points, which is released as magnetic storms when the sheets break up. The fast magnetic reconnection process impacts solar flares and Earth's geomagnetic sub-storms, which affect global weather. The fast magnetic reconnection process also influences fusion reactors, which may be used as a future energy source. Numerical analysis of approximate solutions to the Hall MHD equations at X-type magnetic neutral points offer these solutions further credence …
Impact Of Ionizing Radiation And Electron Injection On Carrier Transport Properties In Narrow And Wide Bandgap Semiconductors, Jonathan Lee
Impact Of Ionizing Radiation And Electron Injection On Carrier Transport Properties In Narrow And Wide Bandgap Semiconductors, Jonathan Lee
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This study investigated the minority carrier properties of wide and narrow bandgap semiconductors. Included specifically are wide bandgap materials GaN and β-Ga2O3, and narrow bandgap InAs/GaSb type-II strain-layer superlattice. The importance of minority carrier behavior in bipolar device performance is utmost because it is the limiting component in current conduction. The techniques used to determine minority carrier properties include electron beam induced current (EBIC) and cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopy. The CL spectroscopy is complemented with time-resolved CL (TRCL) for direct measurement of carrier radiative recombination lifetime. The minority carrier properties and effect of high energy radiation is explored. The GaN TRCL …
Mathematical Foundations Of Adaptive Quantum Processing, Daniel Bonior
Mathematical Foundations Of Adaptive Quantum Processing, Daniel Bonior
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Quantum information has the potential to revolutionize the way we store, process, transfer and acquire information [1,14,15,21,37]. In particular, quantum information offers exciting new approaches to secure communication, computation and sensing. However, in order to realize such technologies, we must first understand the effect that environmental noise has on a quantum system. This dissertation builds upon recent studies that have explored the underlying structure of quantum information and the effects of qubit channels in quantum communication protocols. This work is divided into five main chapters, with Chapter 1 being a brief introduction to quantum information. We then begin Chapter 2 …
Tuning Chemical And Optical Properties Of Nanomaterials: From Extended Surfaces To Finite Nanoclusters, Zahra Hooshmand Gharehbagh
Tuning Chemical And Optical Properties Of Nanomaterials: From Extended Surfaces To Finite Nanoclusters, Zahra Hooshmand Gharehbagh
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Modifying the electronic and optical properties of surfaces and nanostructures are in the forefront of surface science. This dissertation's focus is on this problem. The first part is on the adsorption of functionalized naphthalene molecules on Cu(111) surface. The results show that changing the functional group results in modification of charge redistribution at the interface of molecule and surface and the electronic structure of Cu changes. The second part discusses the new Moire structure of h-BN on Rh(111) induced by intrinsic carbon impurities of Rh single crystals. We found that these impurities intercalate between h-BN and Rh(111) with new local …
Development Of A Tabletop Coherent Soft X-Ray Source, Hanfu Kong
Development Of A Tabletop Coherent Soft X-Ray Source, Hanfu Kong
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The goal of this thesis is to design a tabletop coherent soft X-ray source for attosecond high resolution imaging. We collect signals from gas cells with different length and lens with different focal length. A spectrometer with a grating and a CCD camera is applied to observe and measure the spectrum of the X-ray attosecond pulses. This thesis first introduces the theory background of ultrafast lasers, then mainly explains high harmonic generation, which is the key method for attosecond pulses generation, subsequently presents the experiment system and analyzes the results from the experiment, also compares different combinations of parameters of …
Terahertz Emission From The Intrinsic Josephson Junctions Of High-Symmetry Thermally-Managed Bi2sr2cacu2o8+D Annular Microstrip Antennas, Sheila Bonnough
Terahertz Emission From The Intrinsic Josephson Junctions Of High-Symmetry Thermally-Managed Bi2sr2cacu2o8+D Annular Microstrip Antennas, Sheila Bonnough
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The intrinsic Josephson junctions in the high transition temperature superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (BSCCO) have shown great potential for oscillators emitting in the terahertz frequency. The radiation frequency satisfies the conditions for both the ac Josephson effect and for a mesa cavity resonance mode. The observed angular dependence of the emissions from some mesa imply that the ac Josephson effect plays the primary role in a dual source radiation mechanism. But the integrated emission power had generally been significantly below the 1 mW level suitable for many applications. This output power can be enhanced by a suitable design of an array of …
Non-Hermitian Optics, Absar Ulhassan
Non-Hermitian Optics, Absar Ulhassan
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
From the viewpoint of quantum mechanics, a system must always be Hermitian since all its corresponding eigenvalues must be real. In contrast, the eigenvalues of open systems-unrestrained because of either decay or amplification-can be in general complex. Not so long ago, a certain class of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians was discovered that could have a completely real eigenvalue spectrum. This special class of Hamiltonians was found to respect the property of commutation with the parity-time (PT) operator. Translated into optics, this implies a balance between regions exhibiting gain and loss. Traditionally, loss has been perceived as a foe in optics and something …
Undergraduate Student Agreement With Reformed Introductory Physics Classes, Matthew Wilcox
Undergraduate Student Agreement With Reformed Introductory Physics Classes, Matthew Wilcox
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In this study, I investigate student "buy-in", defined as students' proper understanding of and agreement with the class format, for introductory studio physics classes that incorporate lectures, labs, and group problem-solving activities into one interactive environment. I also investigate the ways in which instructors try to gain student buy-in to their class. Research has shown that student resistance to reformed instruction is a barrier to an instructor's use of research-based instructional strategies that are common to the studio class. Expectancy value theory suggests that by gaining student buy-in to the reformed class format, student resistance will decrease thus allowing a …
Power Scaling Of High Power Solid State Lasers., Bumjin Oh
Power Scaling Of High Power Solid State Lasers., Bumjin Oh
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The solid-state laser is one of the most widely used lasers in scientific research and industrial applications. This thesis describes detailed investigations of two modern architectures of high power cw solid-state lasers, a 20 W diode-pumped Yb:YAG thin disc laser and 300 W diode-pumped Nd:YAG rod laser. With the thin disc laser architecture, the signal beam must fit to the pump area on the disc defined by the multi-pass diode pump configuration. The beam propagation, beam diameter, phase and thermal effects for various cavity configurations are investigated theoretically and experimentally. In addition, the internal loss, small signal gain, and thermal …
Dynamically Tunable Plasmonic Structural Color, Daniel Franklin
Dynamically Tunable Plasmonic Structural Color, Daniel Franklin
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Functional surfaces which can control light across the electromagnetic spectrum are highly desirable. With the aid of advanced modeling and fabrication techniques, researchers have demonstrated surfaces with near arbitrary tailoring of reflected/transmitted amplitude, phase and polarization - the applications for which are diverse as light itself. These systems often comprise of structured metals and dielectrics that, when combined, manifest resonances dependent on structural dimensions. This attribute provides a convenient and direct path to arbitrarily engineer the surface's optical characteristics across many electromagnetic regimes. But while many of these plasmonic systems struggle to compete with the efficiency of pre-existing technologies, the …
Fiber Optimization For Operation Beyond Transverse Mode Instability Limitations, Joshua Bradford
Fiber Optimization For Operation Beyond Transverse Mode Instability Limitations, Joshua Bradford
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Transverse Mode Instabilities (TMIs) stand as a fundamental limitation to power and brightness scaling in laser systems based upon optical fiber technologies. This work comprises experimental and theoretical investigations into fiber laser design that should minimize the effects of Stimulated Thermal Rayleigh Scattering. Theoretical discussions and simulations focus on how fiber parameters affect transverse mode coupling. These include core geometry optimization, pump geometry optimization, in addition to the effects of HOM content and losses on the TMI threshold. Experimentally, a high-power laser facility is commissioned with beam quality diagnostics to quantify the thresholds of the onset of modal interferences and …
From Excited Charge Dynamics To Cluster Diffusion: Development And Application Of Techniques Beyond Dft And Kmc, Shree Ram Acharya
From Excited Charge Dynamics To Cluster Diffusion: Development And Application Of Techniques Beyond Dft And Kmc, Shree Ram Acharya
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation focuses on developing reliable and accurate computational techniques which enable the examination of static and dynamic properties of various activated phenomena using deterministic and stochastic approaches. To explore ultrafast electron dynamics in materials with strong electron-electron correlation, under the influence of a laser pulse, an ab initio electronic structure method based on time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) in combination with dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) is developed and applied to: 1) single-band Hubbard model; 2) multi-band metal Ni; and 3) multi-band insulator MnO. The ultrafast demagnetization in Ni reveal the importance of memory and correlation effects, leading to …
Investigating Compositional Variations Of S-Complex Near-Earth Asteroids: (1627) Ivar, Jenna Jones
Investigating Compositional Variations Of S-Complex Near-Earth Asteroids: (1627) Ivar, Jenna Jones
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
We seek to investigate the complexity and heterogeneity of the surfaces of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). In particular, we are studying the S-complex NEAs, which account for a large portion of the observed near-Earth objects. Here we present our results for (1627) Ivar, an Amor class NEA with taxonomic type Sqw. In 2013, Ivar's large size and close approach to Earth (minimum distance 0.32 AU) provided an opportunity to observe the asteroid over many different viewing angles for an extended period of time. We collected delay-Doppler radar images and Doppler spectra using the Arecibo Observatory's 2380 MHz radar, and, by incorporating …
Electronic, Optical, And Magnetic Properties Of Graphene And Single-Layer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides In The Presence Of Defects, Mahtab Khan
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Two-dimensional (2D) materials, such as graphene and single-layer (SL) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), have attracted a lot of attention due to their fascinating electronic and optical properties. Graphene was the first 2D material that has successfully been exfoliated from bulk graphite in 2004. In graphene, charge carriers interacting with the honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms of graphene to appear as massless Dirac fermions. Massless quasiparticles with linear dispersion are also observed in surface states of 3D topological insulators and quantum Hall edge states. My first project deals with the two-dimensional Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) type interference experiment for massless Dirac fermions in …
Generation And Characterization Of Isolated Attosecond Pulse In The Soft X-Ray Regime, Jie Li
Generation And Characterization Of Isolated Attosecond Pulse In The Soft X-Ray Regime, Jie Li
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The observation of any atomic and molecular dynamics requires a probe that has a timescale comparable to the dynamics itself. Ever since the invention of laser, the temporal duration of the laser pulse has been incrementally reduced from several nanoseconds to just attoseconds. Picosecond and femtosecond laser pulses have been widely used to study molecular rotation and vibration. In 2001, the first single isolated attosecond pulse (1 attosecond = 10^-18 seconds.) was demonstrated. Since this breakthrough, "attoscience" has become a hot topic in ultrafast physics. Attosecond pulses typically have span between EUV to X-ray photon energies and sub-femtosecond pulse duration. …
2 Micron Fiber Lasers: Power Scaling Concepts And Limitations, Alex Sincore
2 Micron Fiber Lasers: Power Scaling Concepts And Limitations, Alex Sincore
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Thulium- and holmium-doped fiber lasers (TDF and HDF) emitting at 2 micron offer unique benefits and applications compared to common ytterbium-doped 1 micron lasers. This dissertation details the concepts, limitations, design, and performance of four 2 micron fiber laser systems. While these lasers were developed for various end-uses, they also provide further insight into two major power scaling limitations. The first limitation is optical nonlinearities: specifically stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and modulation instability (MI). The second limitation is thermal failure due to inefficient pump conversion. First, a 21.5 W single-frequency, single-mode laser with adjustable output from continuous-wave to nanosecond pulses …
Single Mode Wavelength-Tunable Thulium Fiber, Dong Jin Shin
Single Mode Wavelength-Tunable Thulium Fiber, Dong Jin Shin
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Thulium fiber lasers have the broadest emission wavelength bandwidth out of any rare-earth doped fiber lasers. The emission wavelength starts from 1.75μm and ends at around 2.15μm, covering a vast swath of the eye safe wavelength region and intersecting with a large portion of mid-infrared atmospheric transmission window. Also, thulium fiber lasers provide the highest average output power of any other rare-earth doped fiber lasers in these wavelength regimes, making them uniquely suited for applications such as remote sensing. At the moment, high power beam propagation of continuous wave laser through the atmosphere in the mid-infrared range is yet to …
Cavity-Coupled Plasmonic Systems For Enhanced Light-Matter Interactions, Abraham Vazquez-Guardado
Cavity-Coupled Plasmonic Systems For Enhanced Light-Matter Interactions, Abraham Vazquez-Guardado
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Light-matter interaction is a pivotal effect that involves the synergetic interplay of electromag- netic fields with fundamental particles. In this regard localized surface plasmons (LSP) arise from coherent interaction of the electromagnetic field with the collective oscillation of free electrons in confined sub-wavelength environments. Their most attractive properties are strong field en- hancements at the near field, highly inhomogeneous, peculiar temporal and spatial distributions and unique polarization properties. LSP systems also offer a unique playground for fundamental electromagnetic physics where micro-scale systemic properties can be studied in the macro-scale. These important properties and opportunities are brought up in this work …
Liquid Crystal Phase Modulation For Beam Steering And Near-Eye Displays, Yun-Han Lee
Liquid Crystal Phase Modulation For Beam Steering And Near-Eye Displays, Yun-Han Lee
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Liquid crystal spatial phase modulator plays an important role in laser beam steering, wave-front shaping and correction, optical communication, optical computation and holography. One fundamental limitation lays in the response time of liquid crystal reorientation. To achieve fast response time, polymer-network liquid crystals are therefore proposed. By incorporating polymer network in a liquid crystal host, the response time can be reduced by a factor of 100. However, the polymer network introduces hysteresis, light scattering, and high voltage. The motivation for a fast-response liquid crystal phase modulator will be discussed in the first chapter. In the second chapter, we introduce our …
Far-Infrared Bands In Plasmonic Metal-Insulator-Metal Absorbers Optimized For Long Wave Infrared, Rachel Evans
Far-Infrared Bands In Plasmonic Metal-Insulator-Metal Absorbers Optimized For Long Wave Infrared, Rachel Evans
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Metal–insulator–metal (MIM) resonant absorbers comprise a conducting ground plane, a thin dielectric, and thin separated metal top-surface structures. Long-wave infrared (LWIR) fundamental absorptions are experimentally shown to be optimized for a ratio of dielectric thickness to top-structure dimension t/l > 0.08. The fundamental resonance wavelength is predicted by different analytic standing-wave theories to be ~2nl, where n is the dielectric refractive index. Thus, for the dielectrics SiO2, AlN, and TiO2, l values of a few microns give fundamentals in the 8-12 micron LWIR wavelength region. Agreement of observed fundamental resonance wavelength with theory is better for t/l > ~0.2. Harmonics at shorter …
Nonlinear Dynamics In Multimode Optical Fibers, Mohammad Amin Eftekhar
Nonlinear Dynamics In Multimode Optical Fibers, Mohammad Amin Eftekhar
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Multimode optical fibers have recently reemerged as a viable platform for addressing a number of long-standing issues associated with information bandwidth requirements and power-handling capabilities. The complex nature of heavily multimoded systems can be effectively exploited to observe altogether novel physical effects arising from spatiotemporal and intermodal linear and nonlinear processes. Here, we have studied nonlinear dynamics in multimode optical fibers (MMFs) in both the normal and anomalous dispersion regimes. In the anomalous dispersion regime, the nonlinearity leads to a formation of spatiotemporal 3-D solitons. Unlike in single-mode fibers, these solitons are not unique and their properties can be modified …
Analysis And Design Of Non-Hermitian Optical Systems, Ali Kazemi Jahromi
Analysis And Design Of Non-Hermitian Optical Systems, Ali Kazemi Jahromi
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
From a very general perspective, optical devices can be viewed as constructions based on the spatial engineering of the optical index of refraction. Sculpting the real part of the refractive index produces the wide variety of known passive optical devices, such as waveguides, resonators, gratings, among a plethora of other possibilities for managing the transport of light. Less attention has been directed to engineering the imaginary part of the refractive index – that is responsible for optical gain and absorption – in conjunction with the real part of the refractive index. Optical gain is the building block of amplifiers and …
Climate Modeling, Outgoing Longwave Radiation, And Tropical Cyclone Forecasting, Thomas Rechtman
Climate Modeling, Outgoing Longwave Radiation, And Tropical Cyclone Forecasting, Thomas Rechtman
Honors Undergraduate Theses
Climate modeling and tropical cyclone forecasting are two significant is- sues that are continuously being improved upon for more accurate weather forecasting and preparedness. In this thesis, we have studied three climate models and formulated a new model with a view to determine the outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) budget at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) as ob- served by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) satellite based Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). In 2006, Karnauskas proposed the African meridional OLR as an Atlantic hur- ricane predictor, the relation was further proven in 2016 by Karnauskas and Li …
Resonant Anisotropic Emission In Rabbitt Spectroscopy, Bejan M. Ghomashi
Resonant Anisotropic Emission In Rabbitt Spectroscopy, Bejan M. Ghomashi
Honors Undergraduate Theses
A variant of RABBITT pump-probe spectroscopy in which the attosecond pulse train comprises both even and odd harmonics of the fundamental IR probe frequency is explored to measure time-resolved photoelectron emission in systems that exhibit autoionizing states. It is shown that the group delay of both one-photon and two-photon resonant transitions is directly encoded in the energy-resolved photoelectron anisotropy as a function of the pump-probe time-delay. This principle is illustrated for a 1D model with symmetric zero-range potentials that supports both bound states and shape-resonances. The model is studied using both perturbation theory and solving the time-dependent Schodinger equation on …
Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Photonics For Electro-Optics, Nonlinear Optics, And Quantum Optics On Silicon, Ashutosh Rao
Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Photonics For Electro-Optics, Nonlinear Optics, And Quantum Optics On Silicon, Ashutosh Rao
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Ion-sliced thin-film lithium niobate (LN) compact waveguide technology has facilitated the resurgence of integrated photonics based on lithium niobate. These thin-film LN waveguides offer over an order of magnitude improvement in optical confinement, and about two orders of magnitude reduction in waveguide bending radius, compared to conventional LN waveguides. Harnessing the improved confinement, a variety of miniaturized and efficient photonic devices are demonstrated in this work. First, two types of compact electrooptic modulators are presented – microring modulators, and Mach-Zehnder modulators. Next, two distinct approaches to nonlinear optical frequency converters are implemented – periodically poled lithium niobate, and mode shape …
Mode-Locked Laser Based On Large Core Yb3+-Doped Fiber, Fei Jia
Mode-Locked Laser Based On Large Core Yb3+-Doped Fiber, Fei Jia
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The thesis reviews principle of laser cavity and gives a general introduction to modelocked laser (MLL). By using Yb3+-doped fiber as gain medium, passive MLL cavity is developed in experiment, aiming to obtain femtosecond pulses with high pump power from 25W to 35W. The gain medium fiber with 65µm core diameter is cleaved with one flat end and another angled. Pump laser with 976nm wavelength is coupled into Yb3+ -doped fiber to excite signal from 1020nm to 1040nm in the core. 9W is threshold for laser setup. After locking all modes, picosecond pulses are output from laser cavity and coupled …
Experimental Confirmation Of Ballistic Nanofriction And Quasiparticle Interference In Dirac Materials., Michael Lodge
Experimental Confirmation Of Ballistic Nanofriction And Quasiparticle Interference In Dirac Materials., Michael Lodge
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation is broadly divided into two parts. The first part details the development and usage of an experimental apparatus to measure the dry nanofriction for a well-defined interface at high sliding speeds. I leverage the sensitivity of a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) to determine the drag coefficient of an ensemble of gold nanocrystals sliding on graphene at speeds up to 11 cm/s. I discuss the theories of velocity-dependent friction, especially at high sliding speeds, and QCM modeling. I also discuss our synthesis protocols for graphene and molybdenum disulfide, as well as our protocol for fabricating a clean, graphene-laminated QCM …