<p>Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) is second only to crystalline silicon in volume manufacturing of solar cells due to its attractive characteristics for solar panel manufacturing. These are lower manufacturing costs, and the fact that it can be deposited on any surface, and in any shape even on flexible substrates. The metal induced crystallization of hydrogenated amorphous silicon has been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent years. By combining the technology of hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin films with the superior characteristics of c-Si material, it is hoped that more efficient solar cells can be produced. In this thesis we report on the metal-mediated-thermally induced changes of the structural and optical properties of hydrogenated amorphous silicon deposited by hot-wire CVD, where aluminium and nickel were used to induce crystallization. The metal-coated amorphous silicon was subjected to a thermal annealing regime of between 150 and 520&deg / C. The structural measurements, obtained by Raman spectroscopy, show partial crystallization occurring at 350 &deg / C. At the higher annealing temperatures of 450&deg / C and 520&deg / C complete crystallization occurs. Reflection and transmission measurements in the UV-visible range were then used to extract the optical properties. By adopting the effective medium approximation a single optical model could be constructed that couldsuccessfully model material that was in different structural phases, irrespective of metal contamination. Changes in the absorption of the material in various stages of transition were confirmed with a directly measured absorption technique, and the modelled absorption closely followed the same trends This study forms part of the larger overall solar cell research project, of which the primary aim is to eventually develop a silicon solar panel that optimises the characteristics for best performance.</p>

<p>In this thesis we report on the metal-mediated-thermally induced changes of the structural and optical properties of hydrogenated amorphous silicon deposited by hot-wire CVD, where aluminium and nickel were used to induce crystallization. The metal-coated amorphous silicon was subjected to a thermal annealing regime of between 150 and 520&deg / C. The structural measurements, obtained by Raman spectroscopy, show partial crystallization occurring at 350 &deg / C. At the higher annealing temperatures of 450&deg / C and 520&deg / C complete crystallization occurs. Reflection and transmission measurements in the UV-visible range were then used to extract the optical properties. By adopting the effective medium approximation a single optical model could be constructed that could successfully model material that was in different structural phases, irrespective of metal contamination. Changes in the absorption of the material in various stages of transition were confirmed with a directly measured absorption technique, and the modelled absorption closely followed the same trends This study forms part of the larger overall solar cell research project, of which the primary aim is to eventually develop a silicon solar panel that optimises the characteristics for best performance.</p>

<p>In this thesis, regioregularpoly( 3-hexylthiophene) (rr-P3HT) polymer was used as a light absorption and electron donating material, while the C60 fullerene and its derivative [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) were used as electron acceptor materials. The effect of solvent to control the degree of mixing of the polymer and fullerene components, as well as the domain size and charge transport properties of the blends were investigated in detail using P3HT:C60 films. The photo-physical, structural and electrical transport properties of the polymer blends were carried out according to their ratios. A distinctive photoluminescence (PL) quenching effect was observed indicating a photo-induced electron transfer. In this thesis, the effect of solvents on the crystallization and interchain interaction of P3HT and C60 fullerene films were studied using XRD, UV-vis, PL, Raman and FTIR spectroscopy. The polymer blends formed with non-aromatic solvents exhibited an improved crystallinity and polymer morphology than that formed with aromatic solvents. An improved ordering was demonstrated in the polymer films spin coated from non-aromatic solvents. This indicates that the limited solubility of rr P3HT in a marginal solvent such as non-aromatic solvents can offer a strategy to obtain highly ordered crystal structures and lead directly to optimal morphologies on the films.</p>

<p>Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) play a key role in the innate immune response. They can be ubiquitously found in a wide range of eukaryotes including mammals, amphibians, insects, plants, and protozoa. In lower organisms, AMPs function merely as antibiotics by permeabilizing cell membranes and lysing invading microbes. Prediction of antimicrobial peptides is important because experimental methods used in characterizing AMPs are costly, time consuming and resource intensive and identification of AMPs in insects can serve as a template for the design of novel antibiotic. In order to fulfil this, firstly, data on antimicrobial peptides is extracted from UniProt, manually curated and stored into a centralized database called dragon antimicrobial peptide database (DAMPD). Secondly, based on the curated data, models to predict antimicrobial peptides are created using support vector machine with optimized hyperparameters. In particular, global optimization methods such as grid search, pattern search and derivative-free methods are utilised to optimize the SVM hyperparameters. These models are useful in characterizing unknown antimicrobial peptides. Finally, a webserver is created that will be used to predict antimicrobial peptides in haemotophagous insects such as Glossina morsitan and Anopheles gambiae.</p>

Global warming and developments of alternative energy technologies have become important issues nowadays. Subsequently, the concept of energy harvesting is rising because of its ability of transferring waste energy into usable energy. Thermoelectric devices play a role in this field since there is tremendous waste heat existing in our lives, such as heat from engines, generators, stoves, computers, etc. Thermoelectric devices can extract the waste heat and turn them into electricity. Moreover, the reverse thermoelectric phenomenon has the function of cooling which can be applied to refrigerator or heat dissipation for electronic devices. However, the energy conversion efficiency is still low comparing to other energy technologies. The efficiency is judged by thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT), defined by Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity. In order to improve ZT, thin film materials are good candidates because of their structural effects on altering ZT.    Ca3Co4O9 thin films grown by reactive radio frequency magnetron sputtering followed by post-annealing process is studied in this thesis. Structural properties of the films with the evolution of elemental ratio (Ca/Co) of calcium and cobalt have been investigated. For the investigations, three samples having elemental ratio 0.82, 0.72, and 0.66 for sample CCO1, CCO2 and COO3, respectively, have been prepared. Structural properties of the films have been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) θ-2θ and pole figure analyses. Surface morphology of the films has been investigated by scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analyses. The highly oriented and phase pure epitaxial Ca3Co4O9 thin films were obtained in the end.   Mixing of ScN and CrN to obtain ScxCr1-xN solid solution thin films by DC magnetron sputtering is the other task in this thesis. Growth of ScN and CrN thin films were studied first in order to get the best mixed growth conditions. The phase shifts between ScN (111) and CrN (111) peaks were observed in mixed growth films by XRD θ-2θ measurements, indicating the formation of ScxCr1-xN. Surface morphology of the films were investigated by SEM. The (111)-oriented ScxCr1-xN thin films with decent surface smoothness grown by DC magnetron sputtering at 600 °C in pure nitrogen with bias were developed.

Doping allows us to modify semiconductor materials for desired properties such as conductivity, bandgap, and / or lattice parameter. A small portion replacement of the highly mismatched isoelectronic dopants with the host atoms of a semiconductor can result in drastic variation of its structural, optical, and / or electronic properties. Here, the term "mismatch" describes the properties of atom size, ionicity, and / or electronegativity. This thesis presents the fabrication of two kinds of highly mismatched semiconductor alloys, i.e., Ge(1-x)Sn(x) and GaAs(1-x)N(x). The structural and optical properties of the prepared Ge(1-x)Sn(x) and GaAs(1-x)N(x) have been investigated. The results suggest an efficient above-solubility doping induced by non-equilibrium methods of ion implantation and ultrashort annealing. Pulsed laser melting promotes the regrowth of monocrystalline Ge(1-x)Sn(x), whereas flash lamp annealing brings about the formation of high quality GaAs(1-x)N(x) with room temperature photoluminescence. The bandgap modification of Ge(1-x)Sn(x) and GaAs(1-x)N(x) has been verified by optical measurements of spectroscopic ellipsometry and photoluminescence, respectively. In addition, effective defect engineering in GaAs has been achieved by flash lamp annealing, by which a quasi-temperature-stable photoluminescence at 1.3 µm has been obtained. / Dotierung ermöglicht es, die Eigenschaften von Halbleitermaterialien, wie Leitfähigkeit, aber auch Bandabstand und / oder Gitterkonstanten gezielt zu verändern. Wenn ein Halbleiter mit einer kleinen Menge unterschiedliche Fremdatome dotiert wird, kann dies in einer drastischen Modifikation der strukturellen, optischen und / oder elektronischen Eigenschaften resultieren. Der Begriff "unterschiedlich" bedeutet hier die Eigenschaften von Atomgröße, Ioniztät und / oder Elektronegativität. Diese Doktorarbeit beschreibt die Herstellung von zwei Arten von stark fehlangepassten Halbleiterlegierungen: Ge(1-x)Sn(x) und GaAs(1-x)N(x). Die strukturellen und optischen Eigenschaften von Ge(1-x)Sn(x) und GaAs(1-x)N(x) wurden untersucht. Die Ergebnisse deuten auf eine effiziente Dotierung oberhalb der Löslichkeit, induziert durch die Nicht-Gleichgewichtsverfahren Ionenimplantation und Ultrakurzzeit-Ausheilung. Gepulstes Laserschmelzen ermöglicht das Nachwachsen von monokristallinem Ge(1-x)Sn(x), während die Blitzlampenausheilung in der Bildung von GaAs(1-x)N(x) hoher Qualität mit Photolumineszenz bei Raumtemperatur resultiert. Die Änderung der Bandlücke von Ge(1-x)Sn(x) und GaAs(1-x)N(x) wurde durch die optischen Methoden der spektroskopischen Ellipsometrie und Photolumineszenz verifiziert. Darüber hinaus konnte in ausgeheiltem GaAs eine quasi-temperaturstabile Photolumineszenz bei 1,3 µm beobachtet werden.

Electrical and structural properties of Bismuth thin films were studied simultaneously. Electrical properties of the Bismuth thin films have been characterized by measuring temperature dependent conductivity and Hall effect. Structural analysis were carried out by X-ray diffraction technique and using a room temperature Atomic Force Microscope (RT-AFM).

Multiple Cooling Multi Objective Simulated Annealing algorithm has been combined with a conceptual design code written by the author to carry out a multi objective design optimization of an Agricultural Aerial Robot. Both the single and the multi objective optimization problems are solved. The performance figures of merits for different aircraft configurations are compared. In this thesis the potential of optimization as a powerful design tool to the aerospace problems is demonstrated.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2008. / Description based on contents viewed May 30, 2008; title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references (p. 50-51).

Higher conversion efficiencies while reducing costs at the same time is the ultimate goal driving the development of solar cells. Multi-crystalline silicon has attracted considerable attention because of its high stability against light soaking. In case of solar grade multi-crystalline silicon the rigorous control of metal impurities is desirable for solar cell fabrication. It is the aim of this thesis to develop a new manufacturing process optimized for solar-grade multi-crystalline silicon solar cells. In this work the goal is to form solar cell emitters in silicon substrates by plasma immersion ion implantation of phosphine and posterior millisecond-range flash lamp annealing. These techniques were chosen as a new approach in order to decrease the production cost by reducing the amount of energy needed during fabrication. Therefore, this approach is called “Low Thermal Budget” process. After ion implantation the silicon surface is strongly disordered or amorphous up to the depth of the projected ion range. Therefore, subsequent annealing is required to remove the implantation damage and activate the doping element. Flash lamp annealing in the millisecond-range is demonstrated here as a very promising technique for the emitter formation at an overall low thermal budget. During flash lamp annealing, only the wafer surface is heated homogeneously to high temperatures at a time scales of ms. Thereby, implantation damages are annealed and phosphorous is electrically activated. The variation of pulse time allows to modify the degree of annealing of the bulk region to some extent as well. This can have an influence on the gettering behavior of metallic impurities. Ion implantation doping got in distinct consideration for doping of single-crystalline solar cells very recently. The efficient doping of multi-crystalline silicon remains the main challenge to reduce costs. The influence of different annealing techniques on the optical and electrical properties of multi-crystalline silicon solar cells was investigated. The Raman spectroscopy showed that the silicon surface is amorphous after ion implantation. It could be demonstrated that flash lamp annealing at 1000 °C for 3 ms even without preheating is sufficient to recrystallize implanted silicon. The sheet resistance of flash lamp annealed samples is in the range of about 60 Ω/□. Without surface passivation the minority carrier diffusion length in the flash lamp annealed samples is in the range of 85 µm. This is up to one order of magnitude higher than that observed for rapid thermal or furnace annealed samples. The highest carrier concentration and efficiency as well as the lowest resistivity were obtained after annealing at 1200 °C for 20 ms for both, single- and multi-crystalline silicon wafers. Photoluminescence results point towards phosphorous cluster formation at high annealing temperatures which affects metal impurity gettering within the emitter. Additionally, in silicon based solar cells, hydrogen plays a fundamental role due to its excellent passivation properties. The optical and electrical properties of the fabricated emitters were studied with particular interest in their dependence on the hydrogen content present in the samples. The influence of different flash lamp annealing parameters and a comparison with traditional thermal treatments such as rapid thermal and furnace annealing are presented. The samples treated by flash lamp annealing at 1200 °C for 20 ms in forming gas show sheet resistance values in the order of 60 Ω/□, and minority carrier diffusion lengths in the range of ~200 µm without the use of a capping layer for surface passivation. These results are significantly better than those obtained from rapid thermal or furnace annealed samples. The simultaneous implantation of hydrogen during the doping process, combined with optimal flash lamp annealing parameters, gave promising results for the application of this technology in replacing the conventional phosphoroxychlorid deposition and diffusion.