Anti-ferromagnetic interlayer exchange coupling between iron layers in Fe/MgO superlatices have recently been of interest among researchers for its potential application in 3D memory storage in computers (hard drives) and in the research field of spintronics. Thinfilms and bi-layers between the 10-100 ångström range in thicknesses were analyzed for its resistive properties during different conditions. Both mono-layers and superlatices were experimented with.The resistivity of the films was measured with both the four-probe method and the Van der Pauw method. Because of mechanical limitations with respect to the direction of the external magnetic field, the Van der Pauw method had to be used for the superlattice measurements. The collected data from all the measurments of the superlattice suggest that the electric current is not only passing the capping layer of the lattice but did not however show any sign of resisitive properties changing with changing magnetic profile. The resistivity of thesuperlattice was similar to that of the resistivity calculated from data when the external magnetic field was off. The results from this study show for the first time that it is possible to measure the electronic transport within an Fe/MgO superlattice which provides a basis for futher investigations.

As the solar wind reaches Mercury it interacts with the planet’s magnetic field slowing down, forming a bow shock in front of the planet and diverting the flow around it. Along with the solar wind comes the interplanetary magnetic field, an extension of the sun’s magnetic field. The interaction between the bow shock and the interplanetary magnetic field impacts the behaviour of the plasma both up- and downstream of the bow shock. An important factor is the angle between the normal to the bow shock surface and the interplanetary magnetic field, θBN. The angle can be divided into two categories: quasi-parallel for when θBN < 45° and quasi-perpendicular for θBN > 45°. It is expected for a quasi-parallel configuration to have stronger fluctuations in both the solar wind upstream of the bow shock and in the magnetosheath downstream caused by reflected particles backstreaming into the solar wind. Quasi-perpendicular configurations are expected to have less fluctuations in both regions due to fewer solar wind particles being reflected back. In this thesis this connection is investigated at the bow shock at Mercury using magnetic field data from the MESSENGER mission. By looking at the data when the spacecraft travels through the thin bow shock the local θBN angle can be calculated. The fluctuation level is then calculated as the standard deviation of the magnetic field in a 30 second period upstream and downstream of the crossing. The results found are unexpected as the correlation between θBN and the fluctuation levels are weaker and more uniformly distributed than expected compared to similar studies conducted at Earth using the Cluster satellites. This is most likely due to the smaller spatial scale of the Hermean system: the structures perpendicular to the interplanetary magnetic field of upstream activity, such as SLAMS, cover a greater proportion of the bow shock than at Earth allowing them to extend over into neighbouring regions of different θBN values, giving a more uniform distribution of the fluctuation levels. / När solvinden når Merkurius växelverkar den med planetens magnetfält och solvinden saktas ned och avledes till att flöda kring planeten. Då solvinden decelereras formas en chock framför planeten, bogchocken. Tillsammans med solvinden kommer det interplanetära magnetfältet, som är en förlängning av solens magnetfält. Växelverkan mellan bogchocken och det interplanetära magnetfältet påverkar plasmat både upp- och nedströms från bogchocken. En viktigt faktor är vinkeln mellan normalen till bogchocken och det interplanetära magnetfältet, θBN . Bogchocken kan delas in i två kategorier: kvasi-parallell då θBN < 45° och kvasi-vinkelrät då θBN > 45°. Vid kvasi-parallella förhållanden förväntas starkare fluktuationer i magnetfältet både uppströms i solvinden och nedströms i magnetskiktet, orsakat av reflekterade partiklar som färdas in i den inkommande solvinden. Kvasi-vinkelräta förhållanden förväntas ha mindre fluktuationer då färre partiklar reflekteras. I den här uppsatsen undersöks kopplingen vid Merkurius bogchock med data från rymdsonden MESSENGER. Genom att använda data då rymdsonden färdas igenom den tunna bogchocken kan det lokala värdet på θBN uträknas. Fluktuationsnivåerna räknas ut som standardavvikelsen av magnetfältet under en 30 sekundersperiod uppströms och nedströms från korsningen. Resultaten är ej som förväntade då kopplingen mellan θBN och fluktuationsnivån är mycket svagare och jämnt fördelade än förväntat, baserat på resultat från jorden från Cluster-satelliterna. Den mest troliga förklaringen är att Merkurius och dess bogchock är mindre än jordens: de strukturerna som är vinkelräta till det interplanetära magnetfältet hos uppströmsfenomen, t.ex SLAMS, täcker då en större proportion av bogchocken än vid jorden vilket tillåter dem att sträcka sig in i närliggande regioner med annorlunda θBN värden, vilket ger en mer jämn utbredning av fluktuationsnivåerna.

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The solar wind is a supersonic flow of protons and electrons emitted in all directions from the sun. As the supersonic solar wind encounters Earth’s magnetic field, it creates the Earth’s bow shock, which increases the kinetic entropy of electrons passing through it. In this study, the aim is to analyze shock crossings of Earth’s bow shock in order to draw conclusions of which shock parameters that are important forkinetic entropy generation. Due to knowledge gained from an earlier study by M. Lindberg et al. [1], the shock crossings of interest in this study are quasi-perpendicular shocks with a low electron plasma beta. The data used is measured with the NASA MMS spacecraft and accessed through IRF Uppsala. As a result,a database with 13 shock crossings was created and the entropy change was related to, among other parameters, temperature and density change, shock angle, Alfv´en Mach number, ion ram pressure and upstream magnetic field. We found that a highAlfv´en Mach number related nearly proportionally to a large change in electron entropy for low electron plasma beta quasiperpendicularcollisionless shock crossing. / Solvinden består av protoner och elektroner som emitteras ut från solen i alla riktningar med enorma hastigheter. När dessa partiklar, med en hastighet som överstiger signalhastigheten, träffar Jordens magnetfält uppstår Jordens bågchock. Bågchocken ökar den kinetiska entropin hos elektroner som färdas genom den. För den här studien är målet att analysera chockkorsningar vid Jordens bågchock för att kunna dra slutsatser om vilka chockparametrar som är viktiga för generering av kinetisk entropi. Till följd av en tidigare studie av M. Lindberg et al. [1] är det endast kvasi-vinkelräta chockkorsningar med ett lågt plasma beta som denna studie avser. Den uppmätta datan erhålls från NASAs MMS satelliter och kan nås genom IRF Uppsala. Resultatet blev en databas med 13 chocker där entropiförändringen plottades mot bl. a. temperaturoch densitetsändring, chockvinkel, Alfve´n Machtal, jontrycket och magnetfältet uppströms. Det upptäcktes då att ett högt Alfve´n Mach-tal indikerade på en stor entropiökning hos kollisionslösa, kvasi-vinkelräta chockkorsningar med låga elektronplasmabeta. / Kandidatexjobb i elektroteknik 2022, KTH, Stockholm

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Recently, based on the physics of viscosity, we developed a new technology, which utilizes electric or magnetic fields to change the rheology of complex fluids to reduce the viscosity, while keeping the temperature unchanged. The method is universal and applicable to all complex fluids with suspended particles of nano-meter, sub-micrometer, or micrometer size. Completely different from the traditional viscosity reduction method, raising the temperature, this technology is energy-efficient, as it only requires small amount of energy to aggregate the suspended particles. In this thesis, we will first discuss this new technology in detail, both in theory and practice. Then, we will report applications of our technology to energy science research. Presently, 80% of all energy sources are liquid fuels. The viscosity of liquid fuels plays an important role in energy production and energy conservation. With an electric field, we can reduce the viscosity of asphalt-based crude oil. This is important and useful for heavy crude oil and off-shore crude oil production and transportation. Especially, since there is no practical way to raise the temperature of crude oil inside the deepwater pipelines, our technology may play a key role in future off-shore crude oil production. Electrorehology can also be used to reduce the viscosity of refinery fuels, such as diesel fuel and gasoline. When we apply this technology to fuel injection, the fuel droplets in the fuel atomization become smaller, leading to faster combustion in the engine chambers. As the fuel efficiency of internal combustion engines depends on the combustion speed and timing, the fast combustion produces much higher fuel efficiency. Therefore, adding our technology on existing engines improves the engine efficiency significantly. A theoretical model for the engine combustion, which explains how fast combustion improves the engine efficiency, is also presented in the thesis. / Physics

Fast and accurate diagnosis is always in demand by modern medical professionals and in the area of national defense. At present, limitations of testing speed, sample conditions, and levels of precision exist under current technologies, which are usually slow and involve testing the specimen under laboratory conditions. Typically, these methods also involve several biochemical processing steps and subsequent detection of low energy luminescence or electrical changes, all of which reduce the speed of the test as well as limit the precision. In order to solve these problems and improve the sensing performance, this project proposes an innovative CMOS magnetic biological sensor system for rapidly testing the presence of potential pathogens and bioterrorism agents (zoonotic microorganisms) both in specimens and especially in the environment. The sensor uses an electromagnetic detection mechanism to measure changes in the number of microorganisms--tagged by iron nanoparticles--that are placed on the surface of an integrated circuit (IC) chip. Measured magnetic effects are transformed into electronic signals that count the number and type of organisms present. This biosensor introduces a novel design of a conical-shaped inductor, which achieves ultra-accuracy of sensing biological pathogens. The whole system is integrated on a single chip based on the fabrication process of IBM 180 nm (CMOS_IBM_7RF), which makes the sensor small-sized, portable, high speed, and low cost. The results of designing, simulating, and fabricating the sensor are reported in this dissertation. / Ph. D.

The passive components such as inductors and capacitors are bulky parts on circuit boards. Researchers in academia, government, and industry have been searching for ways to improve the magnetic energy density and reduce the package size of magnetic parts. The "constant-flux" concept discussed herein is leveraged to achieve high magnetic-energy density by distributing the magnetic flux uniformly, leading to inductor geometries with a volume significantly lower than that of conventional products. A relatively constant flux distribution is advantageous not only from the density standpoint, but also from the thermal standpoint via the reduction of hot spots, and from the reliability standpoint via the suppression of flux crowding. For toroidal inductors, adding concentric toroidal cells of magnetic material and distributing the windings properly can successfully make the flux density distribution uniform and thus significantly improve the power density. Compared with a conventional toroidal inductor, the constant-flux inductor introduced herein has an enclosed-winding geometry. The winding layout inside the core is configured to distribute the magnetic flux relatively uniformly throughout the magnetic volume to obtain a higher energy density and smaller package volume than those of a conventional toroidal inductor. Techniques to shape the core and to distribute the winding turns to form a desirable field profile is described for one class of magnetic geometries with the winding enclosed by the core. For a given set of input parameters such as the inductor's footprint and thickness, permeability of the magnetic material, maximum permissible magnetic flux density for the allowed core loss, and current rating, the winding geometry can be designed and optimized to achieve the highest time constant, which is the inductance divided by resistance (L/Rdc). The design procedure is delineated for the constant-flux inductor design together with an example with three winding windows, an inductance of 1.6 µH, and a resistance of 7 mΩ. The constant-flux inductor designed has the same inductance, dc resistance, and footprint area as a commercial counterpart, but half the height. The uniformity factor α is defined to reflect the uniformity level inside the core volume. For each given magnetic material and given volume, an optimal uniformity factor exists, which has the highest time constant. The time constant varies with the footprint area, inductor thickness, relative permeability of the magnetic material, and uniformity factor. Therefore, the objective for the constant-flux inductor design is to seek the highest possible time constant, so that the constant-flux inductor gives a higher inductance or lower resistance than commercial products of the same volume. The calculated time-constant-density of the constant-flux inductor designed is 4008 s/m3, which is more than two times larger than the 1463 s/m3 of a commercial product. To validate the concept of constant-flux inductor, various ways of fabrication for the core and the winding were explored in the lab, including the routing process, lasing process on the core, etching technique on copper, and screen printing with silver paste. The most successful results were obtained from the routing process on both the core and the winding. The core from Micrometals has a relative permeability of around 22, and the winding is made of copper sheets 0.5 mm thick. The fabricated inductor prototype shows a significant improvement in energy density: at the same inductance and resistance, the volume of the constant-flux inductor is two times smaller than that of the commercial counterpart. The constant-flux inductor shows great improvement in energy density and the shrinking of the total size of the inductor below that of the commercial products. Reducing the volume of the magnetic component is beneficial to most power. The study of the constant-flux inductor is currently focused on the dc analysis, and the ac analysis is the next step in the research. / Master of Science