Plasmonic nanostructures can confine light at their surface in the form of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) or localized surface plasmons (LSPs) depending on their geometry. SPPs are excited on nano- and micropatterned surfaces, where the typical feature size is on the order of the wavelength of light. LSPs, on the...
Data mining for materials discovery is concerned with representing materials science problems into a statistical framework, and learning models that describe observations about the processing, structure, and property of materials. The type of materials includes metals, ceramics, glass, polymers, and composites which are mixtures of multiple types. Observations come from...
Amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (a-IGZO) and other amorphous oxide semiconductors are attracting increasing attention from the display industry for their high electron mobility, ease of large-area manufacture, and potential for future flexible electronics. However, such amorphous materials often show instability under gate voltage bias, temperature, and illumination stress, with extremely slow relaxation...
With the dual challenges of meeting global energy demand and mitigating anthropogenic climate change, significant effort is being applied to generating power from renewable sources. The dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) is a photovoltaic technology capable of generating electricity from sunlight, but suffers losses in efficiency due to deleterious electron transfer...
The optical and magneto-optical properties of the ferromagnetic semiconductors, InMnAs and its alloy InMnAsP were investigated to determine the band structure and nature of the ferromagnetism in these materials. Alloys were grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy. Infrared absorption of InMnAs was investigated to determine the presence and properties of...
Structural dynamics in three polymer blend systems, differing largely with respect to morphology, have been investigated. The first system, composed of two immiscible homopolymers, exhibits a microstructure of micron-sized droplets dispersed in a matrix phase. We have examined small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) as a new approach for conducting in situ...
This thesis examines the effects of micro-alloying additions to Al-Sc alloys on the microstructure, coarsening resistance and creep properties. The overarching goal of this research is to develop castable, creep-resistant aluminum alloys which can be used at temperatures in excess of 300?C. Successful high-temperature application of aluminum based alloys offers...
Dimensionally constrained material systems are at the forefront of current materials research because of their novel and often enhanced physical, chemical and biological properties. The dimensionality effects are pervasive through different classes of materials including ceramics, metals and polymers. Often times dimensionality effects are manifested as internal structure variations in...
This dissertation demonstrates how self-assembly can direct nanoscale ordering and optimize electronic properties of organic semiconductors, as well as organic-inorganic hybrids. In excitonic solar cells, controlling the ordering and interfaces between electron-transporting (n-type) and hole-transporting (p-type) domains is crucial. In addressing this challenge, hybrid nanostructures were designed by mineralization of...
In recent years, research has expanded the uses of triblock copolymer gels to a wide variety of applications including everything from ceramics processing to regenerative medicine and drug delivery. The research presented in this dissertation focuses on a physically crosslinked, block copolymers gel system in a selective solvent. This system...