Melanin is a functional biopolymer most commonly associated with human skin pigmentation, where it serves as a radiation protection agent, shielding us from the harmful effects of UV radiation. However, melanin is also present in human ears, eyes, hair, and brains, serving a variety of functions. In fact, melanin...
Superconductivity is a fascinating manifestation of quantum mechanics on a macroscopic scale that has led to greater insights of the strongly correlated physics of a large number of interacting electrons ever since its discovery $\sim$ 100 years ago in elemental Hg. The unconventional superconductors that are based on uranium offer...
Exploratory phase stability analysis in Materials Science has two primary goals: (a) Characterizing the evolution of the materials single phase field in composition space to identify solubility and electronic dopability limits and (b) Accelerated prediction of new phases of technological importance. In this thesis we reorganize defect theory --- the...
The era of quantum information science (QIS) can usher revolutionary new capabilities ranging from quantum computation to quantum sensing. At the core of these technologies is the fundamental unit of QIS, the quantum bit or qubit. The power of qubits over their classical counterparts lies in their ability to be...
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements have been performed on the heavily Cu-doped ($x = 0.13$, 0.18, 0.24, 0.39, 0.48), and underdoped (x = 0.01 and 0.012) \NaFeCuAs~ single crystals, to reveal the nature of the magnetism, and to investigate how the electronic and magnetic properties of the system evolves with...
Two-step, solar thermochemical water splitting using nonstoichiometric oxides has emerged as an attractive approach for large-scale hydrogen production. Perovskite-structured oxides, with their wide tunability, offer the potential for high fuel productivity at moderate operating temperatures. Given the vast chemical space, the materials development effort is carried out here in combination...
Lasers and optical resonators have been widely utilized in precision metrological devices, such as gyroscopes, accelerometers, and gravitational wave detectors. To meet the requirements for a variety of applications, both of the slow light effect and the fast light effect have been applied to the lasers and optical resonators to...
Surface patterns that can reconfigure under external stimuli are important for tailoring diverse properties such as surface adhesion, optical transmittance, and wettability depending on the feature size and orientation. Wrinkling a stiff skin layer on a pre-strained elastomer substrate has emerged as a method to create responsive structures without using...
The mechanism underlying chronic pain and disability in those with chronic whiplash associated disorders (WAD) is poorly understood. Of the four million people who will seek medical care each year for neck injuries sustained during a motor vehicle collision (MVC), a quarter will develop chronic moderate to severe WAD. Disparate...
Transcription of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) is a hallmark of life, taking the information stored within genomic nucleic acids and converting it into a form that is useful for producing the proteins necessary for cellular and organismal function. In eukaryotes, transcription of DNA into messenger RNA (mRNA) requires the...