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open access

Complex Numbers in Quantum Theory

Description: In 1927, Nobel prize winning physicist, E. Schrodinger, in correspondence with Ehrenfest, wrote the following about the new theory: “What is unpleasant here, and indeed directly to be objected to, is the use of complex numbers. Psi is surely fundamentally a real function.” This seemingly simple issue remains unexplained almost ninety years later. In this dissertation I elucidate the physical and theoretical origins of the complex requirement. I identify a freedom/constraint situation encoun… more
Date: August 2015
Creator: Maynard, Glenn
open access

A Precise Few-nucleon Size Difference by Isotope Shift Measurements of Helium

Description: We perform high precision measurements of an isotope shift between the two stable isotopes of helium. We use laser excitation of the 2^3 S_1-2^3 P_0 transition at 1083 nm in a metastable beam of 3He and 4He atoms. A newly developed tunable laser frequency selector along with our previous electro-optic frequency modulation technique provides extremely reliable, adaptable, and precise frequency and intensity control. The intensity control contributes negligibly to overall experimental uncertai… more
Date: August 2015
Creator: Hassan Rezaeian, Nima
open access

Synthesis and Characterization of Ion Beam Assisted Silver Nanosystems in Silicon Based Materials for Enhanced Photocurrent Collection Efficiency

Description: In recent years a great deal of interest has been focused on the synthesis of transitional metal (e.g. Ag, Cu, Fe, Au) nanosystems at the surface to sub-surface regions of Si and SiO2 matrices for fundamental understanding of their structures as well as for development of technological applications with enhanced electronic and optical properties. The applications of the metal nanoparticle or nanocluster (NC) systems range from plasmonics, photovoltaic devices, medical, and biosensors. In all o… more
Date: May 2015
Creator: Dhoubhadel, Mangal S.
open access

Analysis of Biological Materials Using a Nuclear Microprobe

Description: The use of nuclear microprobe techniques including: Particle induced x-ray emission (PIXE) and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) for elemental analysis and quantitative elemental imaging of biological samples is especially useful in biological and biomedical research because of its high sensitivity for physiologically important trace elements or toxic heavy metals. The nuclear microprobe of the Ion Beam Modification and Analysis Laboratory (IBMAL) has been used to study the enhanceme… more
Date: December 2014
Creator: Mulware, Stephen Juma
open access

Electrical Conduction Mechanisms in the Disordered Material System P-type Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon

Description: The electrical and optical properties of boron doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin films (a-Si) were investigated to determine the effect of boron and hydrogen incorporation on carrier transport. The a-Si thin films were grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) at various boron concentrations, hydrogen dilutions, and at differing growth temperatures. The temperature dependent conductivity generally follows the hopping conduction model. Above a critical temperature, the d… more
Date: December 2014
Creator: Shrestha, Kiran (Engineer)
open access

Interaction of Plasmons and Excitons for Low-Dimension Semiconductors

Description: The effects of surface plasmon for InGaN/GaN multi-quantum wells and ZnO nanoparticles optical linear and nonlinear emission efficiency had been experimentally studied. Due to the critical design for InGaN MQWs with inverted hexagonal pits based on GaN, both contribution of surface plasmon effect and image charge effect at resonant and off resonant frequencies were experimentally and theoretically investigated. With off- resonant condition, the InGaN MQWs emission significantly enhanced by meta… more
Date: December 2014
Creator: Lin, Jie (physicist)
open access

Sputtering of Bi and Preferential Sputtering of an Inhomogeneous Alloy

Description: Angular distributions and total yields of atoms sputtered from bismuth targets by normally incident 10 keV -50 keV Ne+ and Ar+ ions have been measured both experimentally and by computer simulation. Polycrystalline Bi targets were used for experimental measurements. The sputtered atoms were collected on high purity aluminum foils under ultra-high vacuum conditions, and were subsequently analyzed using Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy. The Monte-Carlo based SRIM code was employed to simula… more
Date: December 2014
Creator: Deoli, Naresh T.
open access

Studies of Charged Particle Dynamics for Antihydrogen Synthesis

Description: Synthesis and capture of antihydrogen in controlled laboratory conditions will enable precise studies of neutral antimatter. The work presented deals with some of the physics pertinent to manipulating charged antiparticles in order to create neutral antimatter, and may be applicable to other scenarios of plasma confinement and charged particle interaction. The topics covered include the electrostatic confinement of a reflecting ion beam and the transverse confinement of an ion beam in a purely … more
Date: December 2014
Creator: Correa, Jose Ricardo
open access

Enhancements of Mechanical, Thermal Stability, and Tribological Properties by Addition of Functionalized Reduced Graphene Oxide in Epoxy

Description: The effects of octadecylamine-functionalized reduced graphene oxide (FRGO) on the frictional and wear properties of diglycidylether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) epoxy are studied using a pin-on-disk tribometer. It was observed that the addition of FRGO significantly improves the tribological, mechanical, and thermal properties of epoxy matrix. Graphene oxide (GO) was functionalized with octadecylamine (ODA), and then reduction of oxygen-containing functional groups was carried out using hydrazine mon… more
Date: August 2014
Creator: Shah, Rakesh K.
open access

Highly Efficient Single Frequency Blue Laser Generation by Second Harmonic Generation of Infrared Lasers Using Quasi Phase Matching in Periodically Poled Ferroelectric Crystals

Description: Performance and reliability of solid state laser diodes in the IR region exceeds those in the visible and UV part of the light spectrum. Single frequency visible and UV laser diodes with higher than 500 mW power are not available commercially. However we successfully stabilized a multi-longitudinal mode IR laser to 860 mW single frequency. This means high efficiency harmonic generation using this laser can produce visible and UV laser light not available otherwise. In this study we examined… more
Date: August 2014
Creator: Khademian, Ali
open access

Temporal Complexity and Stochastic Central Limit Theorem

Description: Complex processes whose evolution in time rests on the occurrence of a large and random number of intermittent events are the systems under study. The mean time distance between two consecutive events is infinite, thereby violating the ergodic condition and activating at the same time a stochastic central limit theorem that explains why the Mittag-Leffler function is a universal property of nature. The time evolution of these complex systems is properly generated by means of fractional differen… more
Date: August 2014
Creator: Pramukkul, Pensri
open access

The Effects of Residual Gases on the Field Emission Properties of ZnO, GaN, ZnS Nanostructures, and the Effects of Light on the Resistivity of Graphene

Description: In this dissertation, I present that at a vacuum of 3×10-7 Torr, residual O2, CO2, H2 and Ar exposure do not significantly degrade the field emission (FE) properties of ZnO nanorods, but N2 exposure significantly does. I propose that this could be due to the dissociation of N2 into atomic nitrogen species and the reaction of such species with ZnO. I also present the effects of O2, CO2, H2O, N2, H2, and Ar residual gas exposure on the FE properties of GaN and ZnS nanostructure. A brief review of… more
Date: May 2014
Creator: Mo, Yudong
open access

An Electro- Magneto-static Field for Confinement of Charged Particle Beams and Plasmas

Description: A system is presented that is capable of confining an ion beam or plasma within a region that is essentially free of applied fields. An Artificially Structured Boundary (ASB) produces a spatially periodic set of magnetic field cusps that provides charged particle confinement. Electrostatic plugging of the magnetic field cusps enhances confinement. An ASB that has a small spatial period, compared to the dimensions of a confined plasma, generates electro- magneto-static fields with a short range.… more
Date: May 2014
Creator: Pacheco, Josè L.
open access

Electromagnetically Modulated Sonic Structures

Description: Phononic crystals are structures composed of periodically arranged scatterers in a background medium that affect the transmission of elastic waves. They have garnered much interest in recent years for their macro-scale properties that can be modulated by the micro-scale components. The elastic properties of the composite materials, the contrast in the elastic properties of the composite materials, and the material arrangement all directly affect how an elastic wave will behave as it propagates … more
Date: May 2014
Creator: Walker, Ezekiel Lee
open access

How Cooperative Systems Respond to External Forces

Description: Cooperative interactions permeate through nature, bringing about emergent behavior and complexity. Using a simple cooperative model, I illustrate the mean field dynamics that occur at the critical point of a second order phase transition in the framework of Langevin equations. Through this formalism I discuss the response, both linear and nonlinear, to external forces. Emphasis is placed on how information is transferred from one individual to another in order to facilitate the collective resp… more
Date: May 2014
Creator: Svenkeson, Adam
open access

Synthesis, Characterization, Structural, and Optical Properties of Zinc Oxide Nanostructures Embedded in Silicon Based Substrates

Description: Structural and optical properties of ZnO nanostructures synthesized by low energy ion implantation technique were examined. ZnO molecular ions were implanted into Si/SiO2 substrates at room temperature and then furnace annealed under different temperatures and environments. In all as-implanted samples only Zn nanostructures with varying diameters distributed into the Si/SiO2 matrices were observed. No trace of ZnO was found. The distributions of Zn nanostructures in Si/SiO2 closely matched resu… more
Date: May 2014
Creator: Pandey, Bimal
open access

Synthesis Strategies and a Study of Properties of Narrow and Wide Band Gap Nanowires

Description: Various techniques to synthesize nanowires and nanotubes as a function of growth temperature and time were investigated. These include growth of nanowires by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system using vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth mechanism and electro-chemical synthesis of nanowires and nanotubes. Narrow band gap InSb Eg = 0.17 eV at room temp) nanowires were successively synthesized. Using a phase diagram, the transition of the nanowire from metallic- semiconducting- semi-metallic phase… more
Date: May 2014
Creator: Sapkota, Gopal
open access

Novel Semi-Conductor Material Systems: Molecular Beam Epitaxial Growth and Characterization

Description: Semi-conductor industry relies heavily on silicon (Si). However, Si is not a direct-band gap semi-conductor. Consequently, Si does not possess great versatility for multi-functional applications in comparison with the direct band-gap III-V semi-conductors such as GaAs. To bridge this gap, what is ideally required is a semi-conductor material system that is based on silicon, but has significantly greater versatility. While sparsely studied, the semi-conducting silicides material systems offer gr… more
Date: December 2013
Creator: Elmarhoumi, Nader M.
open access

Cooperation-induced Criticality in Neural Networks

Description: The human brain is considered to be the most complex and powerful information-processing device in the known universe. The fundamental concepts behind the physics of complex systems motivate scientists to investigate the human brain as a collective property emerging from the interaction of thousand agents. In this dissertation, I investigate the emergence of cooperation-induced properties in a system of interacting units. I demonstrate that the neural network of my research generates a series o… more
Date: August 2013
Creator: Zare, Marzieh
open access

Effects of Quantum Coherence and Interference

Description: Quantum coherence and interference (QCI) is a phenomenon that takes place in all multi-level atomic systems interacting with multiple lasers. In this work QCI is used to create several interesting effects like lasing without inversion (LWI), controlling group velocity of light to extreme values, controlling the direction of propagation through non-linear phase matching condition and for controlling the correlations in field fluctuations. Controlling group velocity of light is very interesting b… more
Date: August 2013
Creator: Davuluri, Subrahmanya Bhima Sankar
open access

A New Approach for Transition Metal Free Magnetic Sic: Defect Induced Magnetism After Self-ion Implantation

Description: SiC has become an attractive wide bandgap semiconductor due to its unique physical and electronic properties and is widely used in high temperature, high frequency, high power and radiation resistant applications. SiC has been used as an alternative to Si in harsh environments such as in the oil industry, nuclear power systems, aeronautical, and space applications. SiC is also known for its polytypism and among them 3C-SiC, 4H-SiC and 6H-SiC are the most common polytypes used for research purpo… more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Kummari, Venkata Chandra Sekhar
open access

Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles for Nonlinear Bioimaging, Cell Detection and Selective Cell Destruction

Description: Light matter interactions have led to a great part of our current understanding of the universe. When light interacts with matter it affects the properties of both the light and the matter. Visible light, being in the region that the human eye can "see," was one of the first natural phenomenon we used to learn about our universe. The application of fundamental physics research has spilled over into other fields that were traditionally separated from physics, being considered two different scien… more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Urban, Ben E.
open access

Broad-band Light Emission From Ion Implanted Silicon Nanocrystals Via Plasmonic and Non-plasmonic Effects for Optoelectronics

Description: Broad band light emission ranging from the ultraviolet (UV) to the near infrared (NIR) has been observed from silicon nanoparticles fabricated using low energy (30-45 keV) metal and non-metal ion implantation with a fluence of 5*1015 ions/cm2 in crystalline Si(100). It is found from a systematic study of the annealing carried out at certain temperatures that the spectral characteristics remains unchanged except for the enhancement of light emission intensity due to annealing. The annealing resu… more
Date: December 2012
Creator: Singh, Akhilesh K.
open access

Theoretical and Experimental Investigations of Peg Based Thermo Sensitive Hydro Microgel

Description: Poly ethylene glycol (PEG) based microgels were synthesized and investigated. The PEG microgel has the same phase transition as the traditional poly N-isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAM). As a good substitute of PNIPAM, PEG microgel exhibits many advantages: it is easier to control the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the microgel by changing the component of copolymers; it has a more solid spherical core-shell structure to have a double thermo sensitivity; it is straightforward to add ot… more
Date: December 2012
Creator: Chi, Chenglin
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