Description: Solid lubricant coatings with controlled microstructures are good candidates in providing lubricity in moving mechanical assembly applications, such as orthopedics and bearing steels. Nanocrystalline ZnO coatings with a layered wurtzite crystal structure have the potential to function as a lubricious material by its defective structure which is controlled by sputter deposition. The interrelationships between sputtered ZnO, its nanocrystalline structure and its lubricity will be discussed in this thesis. The nanocrystalline ZnO coatings were deposited on silicon substrates and Ti alloys by RF magnetron sputtering with different substrate adhesion layers, direct current biases, and temperatures. X-ray diffraction identified that the ZnO (0002) preferred orientation was necessary to achieve low sliding friction and wear along with substrate biasing. In addition, other analyses such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) were utilized to study the solid lubrication mechanisms responsible for low friction and wear.

Description: Rare earth ion doped glasses find applications in optical and photonic devices such as optical windows, laser, and optical amplifiers, and as model systems for immobilization of nuclear waste. Macroscopic properties of these materials, such as luminescence efficiency and phase stability, depend strongly on the atomic structure of these glasses. In this thesis, I have studied the atomic level structure of rare earth doped silicate and aluminophosphate glasses by using molecular dynamics simulations. Extensive comparisons with experimental diffraction and NMR data were made to validate the structure models. Insights on the local environments of rare earth ions and their clustering behaviors and their dependence on glass compositions have been obtained. In this thesis, MD simulations have been used to investigate the structure of Eu2O3-doped silica and sodium silicate glasses to understand the glass composition effect on the rare earth ions local environment and their clustering behaviors in the glass matrix, for compositions with low rare earth oxide concentration (~1mol%). It was found that Eu–O distances and coordination numbers were different in silica (2.19-2.22 Å and 4.6-4.8) from those in sodium silicate (2.32 Å and 5.8). High tendencies of Eu clustering and short Eu-Eu distances in the range 3.40-3.90 Å were ...

Description: Low-dielectric (k) films are one of the performance drivers for continued scaling of integrated circuit devices. These films are needed in microelectronic device interconnects to lower power consumption and minimize cross talk between metal lines that "interconnect" transistors. Low-k materials currently in production for the 45 and 65 nm node are most often organosilicate glasses (OSG) with dielectric constants near 2.8 and nominal porosities of 8-10%. The next generation of low-k materials will require k values 2.6 and below for the 45 nm device generation and beyond. The continuous decrease in device dimensions in ultra large scale integrated (ULSI) circuits have brought about the replacement of the silicon dioxide interconnect dielectric (ILD), which has a dielectric constant (k) of approximately 4.1, with low dielectric constant materials. Lowering the dielectric constant reduces the propagation delays, RC constant (R = the resistance of the metal lines; C = the line capacitance), and metal cross-talk between wires. In order to reduce the RC constants, a number of low-k materials have been studied for use as intermetal dielectrics. The k values of these dielectric materials can be lowered by replacing oxide films with carbon-based polymer films, incorporating hydrocarbon functional groups into oxide films (SiOCH ...

Description: Commercial superalloys like Rene88DT are used in high temperature applications like turbine disk in aircraft jet engines due to their excellent high temperature properties, including strength, ductility, improved fracture toughness, fatigue resistance, enhanced creep and oxidation resistance. Typically this alloy's microstructure has L12-ordered precipitates dispersed in disordered face-centered cubic γ matrix. A typical industrially relevant heat-treatment often leads to the formation of multiple size ranges of γ¢ precipitates presumably arising from multiple nucleation bursts during the continuous cooling process. The morphology and distribution of these γ′ precipitates inside γ matrix influences the mechanical properties of these materials. Therefore, the study of thermodynamic and kinetic factors influencing the evolution of these precipitates and subsequent effects is both relevant for commercial applications as well as for a fundamental understanding of the underlying phase transformations. The present research is primarily focused on understanding the mechanism of formation of different generations of γ′ precipitates during continuous cooling by coupling scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy filtered TEM and atom probe tomography (APT). In addition, the phase transformations leading to nucleation of γ′ phase has been a topic of controversy for decades. The present work, for the first time, gives a novel insight into the mechanism ...

Description: In this thesis, I utilize first principles density functional theory (DFT) based calculations to investigate the structure and electronic properties including charge transfer behaviors and work function of two types of materials: pentacene based organic semiconductors and ZnO transparent conducting oxides, with an aim to search for high mobility n-type organic semiconductors and fine tuning work functions of ZnO through surface modifications. Based on DFT calculations of numerous structure combinations, I proposed a pentacene and perfluoro-pentacene alternating hybrid structures as a new type of n-type semiconductor. Based on the DFT calculations and Marcus charge transfer theory analysis, the new structure has high charge mobility and can be a promising new n-type organic semiconductor material. DFT calculations have been used to systematically investigate the effect of surface organic absorbate and surface defects on the work function of ZnO. It was found that increasing surface coverage of organic groups and decreasing surface defects lead to decrease of work functions, in excellent agreement with experimental results. First principles based calculations thus can greatly contribute to the investigating and designing of new electronic materials.