Semiconductor and Optical Materials Commons^™

Structure, Morphology And Composition-Property Elucidation Of Ni–Mo And Ni−Mo−P Nanocrystals For Water Splitting Reactions And Group Iv Alloy And Silicate Nanocrystals For Visible To Near Ir Optoelectronics, Ebtesam Hassan Abuelenein Eladgham

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Structure, Morphology and Composition-Property Elucidation of Ni–Mo and Ni−Mo−P Nanocrystals for Water Splitting Reactions and Group IV Alloy and Silicate Nanocrystals for Visible to Near IR Optoelectronics

by

Ebtesam Hassan Abuelenein Eladgham

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Advisor: Indika U Arachchige

Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry

Nanomaterials have gained a great attention because of their unique physical properties with size intermediate between molecular materials and extended solids. They have a large surface to volume ratio and display size tunable physical properties that was not …

Synthesis Of Graphene Using Plasma Etching And Atmospheric Pressure Annealing: Process And Sensor Development, Andrew Robert Graves

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Having been theorized in 1947, it was not until 2004 that graphene was first isolated. In the years since its isolation, graphene has been the subject of intense, world-wide study due to its incredibly diverse array of useful properties. Even though many billions of dollars have been spent on its development, graphene has yet to break out of the laboratory and penetrate mainstream industrial applications markets. This is because graphene faces a ‘grand challenge.’ Simply put, there is currently no method of manufacturing high-quality graphene on the industrial scale. This grand challenge looms particularly large for electronic applications where the …

Studies Of Initial Growth Of Gan On Inn, Alaa Alnami

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

III-nitride materials have recently attracted much attention for applications in both the microelectronics and optoelectronics. For optoelectronic devices, III-nitride materials with tunable energy band gaps can be used as the active region of devices to enhance the absorption or emission. A such material is indium nitride (InN), which along with gallium nitride (GaN) and aluminum nitride (AlN) embody the very real promise of forming the basis of a broad spectrum, a high efficiency solar cell. One of the remaining complications in incorporating InN into a solar cell design is the effects of the high temperature growth of the GaN crystal …

Deep Donors And Acceptors In Β-Ga2O3 Crystals: Determination Of The Fe2+/3+ Level By A Noncontact Method, Christopher A. Lenyk, Timothy D. Gustafson, Larry E. Halliburton, Nancy C. Giles

Faculty Publications

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), infrared absorption, and thermoluminescence (TL) are used to determine the Fe^2+/3+ level in Fe-doped β-Ga₂O₃ crystals. With these noncontact spectroscopy methods, a value of 0.84 ± 0.05 eV below the conduction band is obtained for this level. Our results clearly establish that the E2 level observed in deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) experiments is due to the thermal release of electrons from Fe²⁺ ions. The crystals used in this investigation were grown by the Czochralski method and contained large concentrations of Fe acceptors and Ir donors, and trace amounts of Cr …

Progress In Solar Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production, Zhi Wu, Lan Sun, Chang-Jian Lin

Journal of Electrochemistry

With the rapid development of human society and dramatically consumption of traditional energy, energy shortage and environmental pollution have become an important factor restricting the sustainable development of human society. At present, the development of clean and environmentally friendly renewable energy system has drawn much attention and becomes an important priority stratagem in the world. In many green and sustainable new energy projects, semiconductor-based photocatalytic hydrogen production technology which utilizes the available clean and renewable solar energy to prepare clean hydrogen energy is excepted to solve the crisis of energy shortage and environmental pollution, has become one of the most …

Nonlinear Characterizing Of A New Titanium Nitride On Aluminum Oxide Metalens, Michael A. Cumming

Theses and Dissertations

A sample metalens generated from Titanium Nitride deposited onto Aluminum Oxide was designed to focus at 10 microns with a beam centered at 800nm, and when analyzed with high intensity illumination was found to have a focal length of 9.650 ±.003µm at an intensity of 16.93[MW/cm² ]. Analyzing this change by comparing it to a Fresnel Lens’ physics shows that for this lens, the effective nonlinear index of refraction is certainly greater than the nonlinear index of just Titanium Nitride itself, at −1.6239 × 10⁻¹⁵[m²/W] compared to the materials −1.3 × 10⁻¹⁵[m^{2 …}

Growth Of Indium Nitride Quantum Dots By Molecular Beam Epitaxy, Steven P. Minor

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last decade, the evolution of the global consciousness in response to decreasing environmental conditions from global warming and pollution has led to an outcry for finding new alternative/clean methods for harvesting energy and determining ways to minimize energy consumption. III-nitride materials are of interest for optoelectronic and electronic device applications such as high efficiency solar cells, solid state lighting (LEDs), and blue laser (Blu-ray Technology) applications. The wide range of direct band gaps covered by its alloys (0.7eV-6.2eV) best illustrates the versatility of III-nitride materials. This wide range has enabled applications extending from the ultraviolet to the near …

Correlated Optical Imaging And Electrochemical Recording For Studying Single Nanoparticle Collisions, Lin-Lin Sun, Wei Wang, Hong-Yuan Chen

Journal of Electrochemistry

With the development of nano-fabrications in recent years, a novel strategy based on random collisions of single electroactive nanoparticles (NPs) onto an inert ultramicroelectrode (UME) has been emerged in the field of nanoelectrochemistry, and named as single nanoparticles collisions (SNCs). The technique uses a chronoamperometric method to detect transient current generated by random collisions of single NPs onto an UME. By analyzing the current signal, one could study the properties of single NPs. Although this technique can detect electrochemical or electrocatalytic currents of a single NP, the traditional SNCs technology lacks necessary spatial resolution to identify and characterize a specific …

Plasmonic Properties Of Nanoparticle And Two Dimensional Material Integrated Structure, Desalegn Tadesse Debu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recently, various groups have demonstrated nano-scale engineering of nanostructures for optical to infrared wavelength plasmonic applications. Most fabrication technique processes, especially those using noble metals, requires an adhesion layer. Previously proposed theoretical work to support experimental measurement often neglect the effect of the adhesion layers. The first finding of this work focuses on the impact of the adhesion layer on nanoparticle plasmonic properties. Gold nanodisks with a titanium adhesion layer are investigated by calculating the scattering, absorption, and extinction cross-section with numerical simulations using a finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. I demonstrate that a gold nanodisk with an adhesive …

Optical Enhancement In Periodic Plasmonic Gratings For Sers And Metal-Semiconductor-Metal Photodetectors (Msm-Pds) Applications, Ahmad Aziz Darweesh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is aimed to numerically study the effect of plasmonic grating electrodes on the efficiency of metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors (MSM PDs) and the sensitivity of Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS). This research can benefit many areas of nanoscience and optics, including plasmonic applications, such as, super lenses, nano-scale optical circuits, optical filters, surface plasmon enhanced photo-detectors solar cells, imaging sensors, charge-coupled devices (CCD), and optical-fiber communication systems. Several parameters, wire widths and thickness, gap space, taper angle, and the incident wavelength and angle, were investigated. The goal of this research is to utilize the plasmonic phenomenon by using plasmonic gratings …

Sensitive Photoelectrochemical Assay Of Nucleic Acids Based On Catalytic Hairpin Assembly And Ru(Nh3)63+, Ya-Min Fu, Xiao-Xia Yan, Xiao-Hua Zhang, Jin-Hua Chen

Journal of Electrochemistry

A simple “signal-on” photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensing platform for sensitive assay of nucleic acids was developed by coupling catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA) signal amplification strategy with Ru(NH₃)₆³⁺. Herein, cadmium sulfide (CdS) was deposited on the TiO₂/indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode by a method of successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR), serving as one kind of photoelectric material to broaden absorption range of TiO₂ and to improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency. Thereafter, the capture DNA (C-DNA) was immobilized on the CdS/TiO₂/ITO electrode. Simultaneously, Au-hairpin DNA probe 1 (Au-HP1) and hairpin DNA …

Coupling Of Light's Orbital Angular Momentum To A Quantum Dot Ensemble, Alaa A. Bahamran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We theoretically and experimentally investigate the transfer of orbital angular momentum from light to an ensemble of semiconductor-based nanostructures composed of lead sulfide quantum dots. Using an ensemble of quantum dots offers a higher cross-section and more absorption of twisted light fields compared to experimentally challenging single-nanostructure measurements. However, each quantum dot (except for on-center) sees a displaced light beam parallel to its own axis of symmetry. The transition matrix elements for the light-matter interaction are calculated by expressing the displaced light beam in terms of the appropriate light field centered on the nanoparticles. The resulting transition rate induced by …

Scanning Probe Microscopy Measurements On 2d Materials And Iridates, Armin Ansary

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

In the past two decades, there has been a quest to understand and utilize novel materials such as iridates and two-dimensional (2D) materials. These classes of materials show a lot of interesting properties both in theoretical predictions as well as experimental results. Physical properties of some of these materials have been investigated using scanning probe measurements, along with other techniques.

One-dimensional (1D) catalytic etching was investigated in few-layer hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) films. Etching of hBN was shown to share several similarities with that of graphitic films. As in graphitic films, etch tracks in hBN commenced at film edges and …

Transient Transmission Oscillations In Doped And Undoped Lithium Niobate Induced By Near-Infrared Femtosecond Pulses, Bryan J. Crossman, Gregory J. Taft

Physics Faculty Publications

Transient transmission oscillations in X-cut and Z-cut congruent, iron-doped, and magnesium-doped lithium niobate samples were measured using 50 fs, 800 nm, 0.5 nJ pulses from a self-mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser in an optical pump–probe system. Several Raman-active oscillation modes excited by these pulses were observed as changes in the transmitted probe intensity versus time delay between the pump and probe pulses. The samples were rotated to determine how the incident polarization of the pump pulses affects the mode excitations. The observed Raman-active oscillations correspond to previously reported symmetry modes measured with traditional, continuous-wave, Raman spectroscopy using the same scattering …

A Simple And Robust Approach To Reducing Contact Resistance In Organic Transistors, Zachary A. Lamport, Katrina J. Barth, Hyunsu Lee, Eliot Gann, Sebastian Engmann, Hu Chen, Martin Guthold, Iain Mcculloch, John E. Anthony, Lee J. Richter, Dean M. Delongchamp, Oana D. Jurchescu

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Efficient injection of charge carriers from the contacts into the semiconductor layer is crucial for achieving high-performance organic devices. The potential drop necessary to accomplish this process yields a resistance associated with the contacts, namely the contact resistance. A large contact resistance can limit the operation of devices and even lead to inaccuracies in the extraction of the device parameters. Here, we demonstrate a simple and efficient strategy for reducing the contact resistance in organic thin-film transistors by more than an order of magnitude by creating high work function domains at the surface of the injecting electrodes to promote channels …

Fabrication And Characterization Of Electrochemical Glucose Sensors, Mohammed Marie

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Electrochemical sensors based on the nanostructure of the semiconductor materials are of tremendous interest to be utilized for glucose monitoring. The sensors, based on the nanostructure of the semiconductor materials, are the third generations of the glucose sensors that are fast, sensitive, and cost-effect for glucose monitoring.

Glucose sensors based on pure zinc oxide nanorods (NRs) grown on different substrates, such ITO, FTO, and Si/SiO2/Au, were investigated in this research. Silicon nanowire (NW)- based glucose sensors were also studied. First, an enzyme-based glucose sensor was fabricated out of glass/ITO/ZnO NRs/BSA/GOx/nafion membrane. The sensor was tested amperometrically at different glucose concentrations. …

Creating A Computational Tool To Simulate Vibration Control For Piezoelectric Devices, Ahmet Ozkan Ozer, Emma J. Moore

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Piezoelectric materials have the unique ability to convert electrical energy to mechanical vibrations and vice versa. This project takes a stab to develop a reliable computational tool to simulate the vibration control of a novel “partial differential equation” model for a piezoelectric device, which is designed by integrating electric conducting piezoelectric layers constraining a viscoelastic layer to provide an active and lightweight intelligent structure. Controlling unwanted vibrations on piezoelectric devices (or harvesting energy from ambient vibrations) through piezoelectric layers has been the major focus in cutting-edge engineering applications such as ultrasonic welders and inchworms. The corresponding mathematical models for piezoelectric …

Thienoisatin Oligomers As N-Type Molecular Semiconductors, Natalie M. Kadlubowski, Xuyi Luo, Jianguo Mei

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Organic field effect transistors (OFETs) offer many advantages compared to traditional inorganic transistors, such as flexibility and solution processability. In this study we design and synthesize two thienoisatin-based organic semiconducting small molecules, then investigate their electronic properties in n-type OFETs. To introduce n-type charge transport, electron-withdrawing dicarbonitrile moieties were installed on thienoisoindigo and bis-thienoisatin molecules, which led to a quinoidal conjugation on thienoisoindigo, while maintaining an aromatic conjugation on the bis-thienoisatin. Following the syntheses, the molecules were characterized to determine highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) levels via cyclic voltammetry, as well as any potential …

Modeling Recombination In Solar Cells, Paul Chery

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

Solar cells are a competitive alternative to nonrenewable energy sources such as fossil fuels. However, the efficiency of these devices is limited by photogenerated carrier recombination. We use a finite difference numerical model to study recombination phenomena in the absorber layer of solar cells including alternate recombination models and the effects of spatial distribution of recombination centers. We compare the effect of using the constant lifetime approximation for recombination to the full Shockley-Read-Hall expression in Silicon solar cells and find that the constant lifetime approximation holds for high defect densities but not for high photon flux densities. Finally, we simulate …

Investigation Of The Effects Of Harmful Radiation On Type-Ii Strained Layer Superlattice Focal Plane Arrays Operated In The Long Wave Infrared, Patrick Fumo

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

In-situ exposure of InAs/InAsSb strained layer superlattice focal plane arrays to gamma-rays revealed the possibility of a detector capable of imaging through a total ionizing dose event. Two long wave infrared focal plane arrays were exposed to a Co⁶⁰ source at dose rates of 60 Rads/s and 70 Rads/s in incremental steps up to a total accumulated dose of 30 kRads. The first device showed no degradation in dark current density with accumulated dose while the second device tested showed a small increase up to 1 kRad and minimal increases with subsequent dose steps. The primary imaging defect in …

Ii-Vi Semiconductor Nanowire Array Sensors Based On Piezotronic, Piezo-Phototronic And Piezo-Photo-Magnetotronic Effects, Shuke Yan

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

With the rapid progress of nanotechnologies, there are two developing trends for the next generation of sensors: miniaturization and multi-functionality. Device miniaturization requires less power consumption, or even self-powered system. Multi-functional devices are usually based on multi-property coupling effects. Piezoelectric semiconductors have been considered to be potential candidates for self-powered/multi-functional devices due to their piezotronic coupling effect. In this dissertation, ZnO and CdSe nanowire arrays have been synthesized as the piezoelectric semiconductor materials to develop the following self-powered/multi-functional sensors: (1) self-powered gas sensors of ZnO/SnO₂, ZnO/In₂O₃, ZnO/WO₃ and CdSe nanowire arrays have been …

Thermoelectrics And Thermoelectric Devices, Benjamin T. Erck

Senior Theses

The field of thermoelectrics has many applications, and more are found in everyday systems. From its current studies, it is apparent that improving the figure of merit zT (which defines a good thermoelectric material) is important in the effectiveness of power generation. Another important part of thermoelectrics is the duality of these devices. They can both move heat and generate power, depending on their role in the system. In this thesis research, a process was made to test these thermoelectric relationships for a few Peltier devices in order to understand their efficiencies and what systems they can be applied to.

Near Bandgap Two-Photon Excited Luminescence Of Inas Quantum Dots, Xian Hu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) confine carriers in three dimensions, resulting in atomic-like energy levels as well as size-dependent electrical and optical properties. Self-assembled III-V QD is one of the most studied semiconductor QDs thanks to their well-established fabrication techniques and versatile optical properties. This dissertation presents the photoluminescence (PL) study of the InAs/GaAs QDs with both above bandgap continuous-wave excitation (one-photon excitation) and below-bandgap pulse excitation (two-photon excitation). Samples of ensemble QDs, single QD (SQD), and QDs in a micro-cavity, all grown by molecular beam epitaxy, are used in this study. Morphology of these samples was examined using atomic force …

From Flasks To Applications: Design And Optimization Of Giant Quantum Dots Using Traditional And Automated Synthetic Methods, Christina J. Hanson

Nanoscience and Microsystems ETDs

Semiconducting nanocrystals, also known as quantum dots (QDs), that emit light with near-unity quantum yield and are extremely photostable are attractive options as down-conversion and direct electricity-to-light materials for a variety of applications including solid-state lighting, display technologies, bio-imaging and optical tracking. Standard QDs with a core/thin shell structure display fluorescence intermittency (blinking) and photobleaching when exposed to prolonged room temperature excitation for single dot measurements, as well as significant reabsorption and energy transfer when densely packed into polymers or at high solution concentrations.

We have developed thick shell “giant” QDs (gQDs), ultra-stable photon sources both at the ensemble and …

Characterization Of Magnetic Thin Films Using The Magneto Optic Kerr Effect, Nicholas J. Savino

Student Scholar Showcase

Understanding magnetic properties of materials allows for advances in applications such as data storage. The Magneto-Optic Kerr Effect (MOKE) displays the reflective response a magnetic material has to a magnetic field. When polarized light reflects off of a magnetic material, the polarization orientation can change. The application of an external magnetic field can affect how much this polarization changes in a non-linear manner. Hysteresis loops are created when examining the relationship between intensity of the reflected light to the applied magnetic field provide information about magnetic properties of that material, such as the coercive field and field retention. Preliminary measurements …

Swelling As A Stabilizing Mechanism During Ion Bombardment Of Thin Films: An Analytical And Numerical Study, Jennifer M. Swenson

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

Irradiation of semiconductor surfaces often leads to the spontaneous formation of rippled structures at certain irradiation angles. However, at high enough energies, these structures are observed to vanish for all angles, despite the absence of any identified, universally-stabilizing physical mechanisms in operation. Here, we examine the effect on pattern formation of radiation-induced swelling, which has been excluded from prior treatments of stress in irradiated films. After developing a suitable continuum model, we perform a linear stability analysis to determine its effect on stability. Under appropriate simplifying assumptions, we find swelling indeed to be stabilizing at wavenumbers typical of experimental observations. …

Demonstration Of Versatile Whispering-Gallery Micro-Lasers For Remote Refractive Index Sensing, Lei Wan, Hengky Chandrahalim, Jian Zhou

Faculty Publications

We developed chip-scale remote refractive index sensors based on Rhodamine 6G (R6G)-doped polymer micro-ring lasers. The chemical, temperature, and mechanical sturdiness of the fused-silica host guaranteed a flexible deployment of dye-doped polymers for refractive index sensing. The introduction of the dye as gain medium demonstrated the feasibility of remote sensing based on the free-space optics measurement setup. Compared to the R6G-doped TZ-001, the lasing behavior of R6G-doped SU-8 polymer micro-ring laser under an aqueous environment had a narrower spectrum linewidth, producing the minimum detectable refractive index change of 4 x 10⁻⁴ RIU. The maximum bulk refractive index sensitivity (BRIS) …

Effect Of Molecular Side Groups And Local Nanoenvironment On Photodegradation And Its Reversibility, Nicole Quist, Mark Li, Ryan Tollefsen, Michael Haley, John Anthony, Oksana Ostroverkhova

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Degradation of organic semiconductors in the presence of oxygen is one of the bottlenecks preventing their wide-spread use in optoelectronic devices. The first step towards such degradation in functionalized pentacene (Pn) derivatives is formation of endoperoxide (EPO), which can either revert back to the parent molecule or proceed to molecule decomposition. We present the study of reversibility of EPO formation through probing the photophysical properties of functionalized fluorinated pentacene (Pn-R-F8) derivatives. Experiments are done in solutions and in films both at the single molecule level and in the bulk. In solutions, degradation of optical absorption and its partial recovery after …

Copper-Doped Lithium Triborate (Lib3o5) Crystals: A Photoluminescence, Thermoluminescence, And Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Study, Brant E. Kananen, John W. Mcclory, Nancy C. Giles, Larry E. Halliburton

Faculty Publications

When doped with copper ions, lithium borate materials are candidates for use in radiation dosimeters. Copper-doped lithium tetraborate (Li2B4O7) crystals have been widely studied, but little is known thus far about copper ions in lithium triborate (LiB3O5) crystals. In the present investigation, Cu+ ions (3d10) were diffused into an undoped LiB3O5 crystal at high temperature. These ions occupy both Li+ and interstitial positions in the crystal. A photoluminescence (PL) band peaking near 387 nm and a photoluminescence excitation (PLE) band peaking near 273 nm verify that a portion of these Cu+ ions are located at regular Li+ sites. After an …

Effects Of Edge Inclination Angles On Whispering-Gallery Modes In Printable Wedge Microdisk Lasers, Cong Chen, Lei Wan, Hengky Chandrahalim

Faculty Publications

The ink-jet technique was developed to print the wedge polymer microdisk lasers. The characterization of these lasers was implemented using a free-space optics measurement setup. It was found that disks of larger edge inclination angles have a larger free spectral range (FSR) and a lower resonance wavelength difference between the fundamental transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) whispering-gallery modes (WGMs). This behavior was also confirmed with simulations based on the modified Oxborrow’s model with perfectly matched layers (PMLs), which was adopted to accurately calculate the eigenfrequencies, electric field distributions, and quality parameters of modes in the axisymmetric microdisk resonators. …