Condensed Matter Physics Commons^™

Exploring The Electrical Properties Of Twisted Bilayer Graphene, William Shannon

Senior Theses

Two-dimensional materials exhibit properties unlike anything else seen in conventional substances. Electrons in these materials are confined to move only in the plane. In order to explore the effects of these materials, we have built apparatus and refined procedures with which to create two-dimensional structures. Two-dimensional devices have been made using exfoliated graphene and placed on gold contacts. Their topography has been observed using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) confirming samples with monolayer, bilayer, and twisted bilayer structure. Relative work functions of each have been measured using Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM) showing that twisted bilayer graphene has a surface potential …

Topological Insulating States In Photonics And Acoustics, Xiang Ni

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Recent surge of interest in topological insulators, insulating in their interior but conducting at the surfaces or interfaces of different domains, has led to the discovery of a variety of new topological states, and their topological invariants are characterized by numerous approaches in the category of topological band theory. The common features shared by topological insulators include, the topological phase transition occurs if the bulk bandgap is formed due to the symmetries reduction, the topological invariants exist characterizing the global properties of the material and inherently robust to disorder and continuous perturbations irrespective of the local details. Most importantly, these …

Lithium Molybdate-Sulfur Battery., Ruchira Ravinath Dharmasena

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rechargeable energy storage systems play a vital role in today’s automobile industry with the emergence of electric vehicles (EVs). In order to meet the targets set by the department of energy (DOE), there is an immediate need of new battery chemistries with higher energy density than the current Li- ion technology. Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries have attracted enormous attention in the energy-storage, due to their high specific energy density of 2600 Wh kg^-1 and operational voltage of 2.0 V. Despite the promising electrochemical characteristics, Li-S batteries suffer from serious technical challenges such as dissolution of polysulfides Li₂S_{x …}

2d Materials Based Heterostructures : A Lithography Free Method., Adel Alruqi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many properties of Two-dimensional (2D) materials are vastly different from those of their 3D counterparts. A large family of 2D materials ranging from gapless graphene to metallic NbSe2 (also superconducting), semiconducting MoS2, and insulating hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) possessing a broad range of exciting new properties have emerged in recent years. Moreover, 2D materials provide the perfect platform to create laterally and vertically stacked heterostructures with intriguing properties. The physics of 2D materials based heterostructures is extremely interesting and novel 2D-heterostructured devices including tunneling diodes, tunneling transistors, photovoltaic cells, and light-emitting diodes have started to emerge. In this work, we …

Super Rapid Crystal Growth And Quench Of Monoclinic Bi-Ii* During Dynamic Compression, Zachary Allen Fussell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

We show that monoclinic Bi-II* forms during a dynamic compression regime with crystal growth rates from melt of ≈ 70 m/s. This extreme quench rate implies crystallization by non-diffusive processes and indicates that the liquid had a high degree of pre-ordering. Using ambient condition single crystal structure analysis we show for the first time that the monoclinic distorted phase of Bi (Bi-II) exists at ambient pressure, albeit bound to formation under dynamic compression. We review the pressure, temperature, and time conditions for formation and growth of this structure.

Equation Of State Of H2o Ice Using Melt-Recrystallization, Zachary Michael Grande

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The recent surge in exoplanet discoveries due to advancements in astrophysical technology and analysis has brought the reliability of early equation of state measurements into question as they are the limiting factor when modeling composition of these planets. H2O content is among the most important for the search of habitable planets as well as in understanding planetary dynamics and atmosphere formation. Over the last three decades the equation of state of H2O has been investigated with various techniques but, has suffered from anisotropic strain and poor powder statistics resulting in a large discrepancy in equation of state fits. At pressures …

High-Pressure High-Temperature Exploration Of Phase Boundaries Using Raman Spectroscopy, Jasmine Kashmir Hinton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Metastability of states can provide interesting properties that may not be readily accessible in a material’s ground state. Many materials show high levels of polymorphism, indicating a rich energy landscape and a potential for metastable states. Melt crystallization techniques provide a potential route to these states. We use a resistively heated diamond anvil cell (DAC) with fine control of a system’s pressure and temperature to explore these systems. Raman spectroscopy is used to track subtle structural changes across phase boundaries. Organic systems, such as glycine and aspirin, were our initial interest due to their high polymorphism and reported low melting …

Specific Heat, Magnetic Susceptibility, And The Effect Of Pressure On Structural Properties And Valence Of Eumn2si2, Euco2si2, And Eu5in2sb6, Brian Edward Light

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Many intermetallic solids containing elements from the rare earth series show interesting and unusual behavior associated with 4f electrons. This behavior includes unusual magnetic order, strongly correlated electrons, intermediate valence, heavy fermions, the Kondo effect, superconductivity, and non-Fermi liquid (NFL) to name a few. When long range magnetic order is suppressed to T = 0 K by the application of an external tuning parameter such as pressure, magnetic field, or chemical doping, a quantum critical point (QCP) appears in which strong quantum fluctuations give rise to many of the mentioned unusual properties.

Most of the past studies on unusual 4f …

Anomalous Hall Conductivity Of Noncollinear Magnetic Antiperovskites, Gautam Gurung, Ding-Fu Shao, Tula R. Paudel, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal

Evgeny Tsymbal Publications

The anomalous Hall effect (AHE) is a well-known fundamental property of ferromagnetic metals, commonly associated with the presence of a net magnetization. Recently, an AHE has been discovered in noncollinear antiferromagnetic (AFM) metals. Driven by nonvanishing Berry curvature of AFM materials with certain magnetic space-group symmetry, anomalous Hall conductivity (AHC) is very sensitive to the specific type of magnetic ordering. Here, we investigate the appearance of AHC in antiperovskite materials family ANMn₃ (A = Ga, Sn, Ni), where different types of noncollinear magnetic ordering can emerge. Using symmetry analyses and first-principles density-functional theory calculations, we show that with almost …

Origin Of Enhanced Anisotropy In Fept-C Granular Films Revealed By Xmcd, Robert Streubel, Alpha T. N'Diaye, Kumar Srinivasan, Antony Ajan, Peter Fischer

Robert Streubel Papers

We study the effect of carbon segregants on the spin and orbital moments of L10 FePt granular media using x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) spectroscopy and report an effective decoupling of the structural film properties from the magnetic parameters of the grains. The carbon concentration reduces the grain size from (200 ± 160) nm2 down to (50 ± 20) nm2 for 40 mol. %C and improves sphericity and the order of grains, while preserving the crystalline order, spin and orbital moments, and perpendicular magnetocrystalline anisotropy. We identify the primary cause of enhanced saturation and coercive fields as the reduced demagnetization …

Improving The Readout Of Semiconducting Qubits, Matthew Jon Curry

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

Semiconducting qubits are a promising platform for quantum computers. In particular, silicon spin qubits have made a number of advancements recently including long coherence times, high-fidelity single-qubit gates, two-qubit gates, and high-fidelity readout. However, all operations likely require improvement in fidelity and speed, if possible, to realize a quantum computer.

Readout fidelity and speed, in general, are limited by circuit challenges centered on extracting low signal from a device in a dilution refrigerator connected to room temperature amplifiers by long coaxial cables with relatively high capacitance. Readout fidelity specifically is limited by the time it takes to reliably distinguish qubit …

Phase Evolution And Dynamic Behavior In Materials With Noncollinear Spin Textures, Eleanor M. Clements

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Noncentrosymmetric magnetic materials have gained special attention due to their ability to stabilize topologically nontrivial magnetic states via the competition between symmetric exchange and the antisymmetric Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. The spin struc- tures in these materials have become a center of interest for spintronics applications due to their stable, particle-like properties, and high degree of tunability via control of external parameters, such as magnetic and/or electric field and temperature. Understanding how these robust magnetic structures stabilize, evolve, dynamically respond, and adhere to existing models, all in the presence of external stimuli, are topics of fundamental interest. In this dissertation, the …

3d Imaging Of A Binary Colloidal Fluid, Kate Livermore, Michael Korth

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2019

In order to understand the nature of colloidal fluids, we wanted to visualize a 3D representation of their thermodynamic distribution. Colloidal fluids are fluids that consist of two parts: colloidal particles and a dispensing medium. Some examples include toothpaste, mayonnaise, plaster, and muddy water. We could also think about colloidal fluids simply as a mixture of two or more parts. In this poster, we used the hard-sphere system to represent the structure of colloidal fluids in a 3D graph using Mathematica (MMA). In the hard-sphere system, we used two different sizes of impenetrable spheres that could not overlap to represent …

Magnetization Reversal And Local Switching Fields Of Ferromagnetic Co/Pd Microtubes With Radial Magnetization, Norbert Puwenberg, Christopher F. Reiche, Robert Streubel, Mishal Khan, Dipankar Mukherjee, Ivan V. Soldatov, Michael Melzer, Oliver G. Schmidt, Bernd Büchner, Thomas Mühl

Robert Streubel Papers

Three-dimensional nanomagnetism is a rapidly growing field of research covering both noncollinear spin textures and curved magnetic geometries including microtubular structures. We spatially resolve the field-induced magnetization reversal of free-standing ferromagnetic microtubes utilizing multifrequency magnetic force microscopy (MFM). The microtubes are composed of Co/Pd multilayer films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy that translates to an anisotropy with radial easy axis upon rolling-up. Simultaneously mapping the topography and the perpendicular magnetostatic force derivative, the relation between surface angle and local magnetization configuration is evaluated for a large number of locations with slopes exceeding 45 degrees. The angle-dependence of the switching field is …

Valley-Dependent Lorentz Force And Aharonov-Bohm Phase In Strained Graphene P-N Junction, Sanjay Prabhakar, Rabindra Nepal, Roderick Melnik, Alexey Kovalev

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Veselago lens focusing in graphene p−n junction is promising for realizations of new generation electron optics devices. However, the effect of the strain-induced Aharonov-Bohm interference in a p−n junction has not been discussed before. We provide an experimentally feasible setup based on the Veselago lens in which the presence of strain can result in both the valley-dependent Lorentz force and Aharonov-Bohm interference. In particular, by employing the Green's function and tight-binding methods, we study the strain induced by dislocations and line defects in a p−n junction and show how the resulting Aharonov-Bohm phase and interference can be detected. Furthermore, for …

Ordered Growth Of Ferroelectric Diisopropylammonium-Bromide Microcrystals Through Slotted-Jar Growth And Lithographically Controlled Wetting, Andrew J. Fanning

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Organic molecular ferroelectrics show promise for industry applications because of their switchable high spontaneous polarization value, mechanical flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. Since these materials, namely diisopropylammonium bromide, exhibit ferroelectricity only in tandem with a high level of crystallinity, novel methods must be explored in order to ensure that high levels of crystallinity are achieved. This project seeked to perfect the methods of Slotted Jar Growth and Lithographically Controlled Wetting (LCW). Slotted Jar Growth uses temperature driven solution saturation to grow crystals on a desired substrate. LCW drives the growth of microscopic diisopropylammonium bromide crystals, in their ferroelectric phase, through the use …

X-Ray Ptychography On Low-Dimensional Hard-Condensed Matter Materials, Xiaowen Shi, Nicolas Burdet, Bo Chen, Gang Xiong, Robert Streubel, Ross Harder, Ian K. Robinson

Robert Streubel Papers

Tailoring structural, chemical, and electronic (dis-)order in heterogeneous media is one of the transformative opportunities to enable new functionalities and sciences in energy and quantum materials. This endeavor requires elemental, chemical, and magnetic sensitivities at the nano/atomic scale in two- and three-dimensional space. Soft X-ray radiation and hard X-ray radiation provided by synchrotron facilities have emerged as standard characterization probes owing to their inherent element-specificity and high intensity. One of the most promising methods in view of sensitivity and spatial resolution is coherent diffraction imaging, namely, X-ray ptychography, which is envisioned to take on the dominance of electron imaging techniques …

Dirac Nodal Line Metal For Topological Antiferromagnetic Spintronics, Ding-Fu Shao, Gautam Gurung, Shu-Hui Zhang, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal

Evgeny Tsymbal Publications

Topological antiferromagnetic (AFM) spintronics is an emerging field of research, which exploits the N´eel vector to control the topological electronic states and the associated spin-dependent transport properties. A recently discovered N´eel spin-orbit torque has been proposed to electrically manipulate Dirac band crossings in antiferromagnets; however, a reliable AFM material to realize these properties in practice is missing. In this Letter, we predict that room-temperature AFM metal MnPd₂ allows the electrical control of the Dirac nodal line by the N´eel spin-orbit torque. Based on first-principles density functional theory calculations, we show that reorientation of the N´eel vector leads to switching …

Electrically Reversible Magnetization At The Antiperovskite/Perovskite Interface, Ding-Fu Shao, Gautam Gurung, Tula R. Paudel, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal

Evgeny Tsymbal Publications

Using density-functional calculations, we predict the emergence of electrically reversible magnetization at the interface between antiferromagnetic noncollinear antiperovskite GaNMn3 and ferroelectric perovskite BaTiO3. We find that Mn magnetic moments are enhanced and reoriented at the GaNMn3/ATiO3 (001) (A = Sr and Ba) interface, resulting in a sizable net magnetization along the [110] direction. This magnetization is reversed with ferroelectric polarization of BaTiO3 through ∼20◦ rotation of the noncollinear magnetic moments. The effect is driven by ferroelectric modulation of the antiferromagnetic exchange coupling between the interfacial Mn atoms mediated by the Mn-3d orbital population. Our results open opportunities for controlling the …

Ferroelectric Polarization Control Of Magnetic Anisotropy In Pbzr0.2Ti0.8O3/La0.8Sr0.2Mno3 Heterostructures, Anil Rajapitamahuni, Lingling Tao, Y. Hao, Jingfeng Song, Xiaoshan Xu, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, Xia Hong

Evgeny Tsymbal Publications

The interfacial coupling between the switchable polarization and neighboring magnetic order makes ferroelectric/ferromagnetic composite structures a versatile platform to realize voltage control of magnetic anisotropy. We report the nonvolatile ferroelectric field effect modulation of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA) in epitaxial PbZr_0.2Ti_0.8O₃ (PZT)/La_0.8Sr_0.2MnO₃ (LSMO) heterostructures grown on (001) SrTiO₃ substrates. Planar Hall effect measurements show that the in-plane magnetic anisotropy energy in LSMO is enhanced by about 22% in the hole accumulation state compared to the depletion state, in quantitative agreement with our first-principles density functional theory calculations. Modeling the …