This study reports on the physical and optical characterization of scandium oxide thin films. Thin films of scandium oxide, 20-40 nm thick, were deposited on silicon wafers, quartz slides, and silicon photodiodes by reactively sputtering scandium in an oxygen environment. These samples were characterized using ellipsometry, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy, and energy dispersive x-ray analysis. A 28.46 nm thick scandium oxide thin film was measured in the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) from 2.7 to 50 nm (459.3 to 24.8 eV) using synchrotron radiation at the Advanced Light Source Beamline 6.3.2 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In these measurements, a new method for data collection was used, in which the reflection and transmission data were collected simultaneously. Analysis of the EUV reflection and transmission data was performed using a front-side reflection, matrix-multiplication technique, which is novel among EUV analytical practice. During data analysis, a new weighting scheme was used, named "adaptive weighting". This analysis provides the first experimentally determined optical constants n and k for scandium oxide thin films from 4.5-30 nm. Also, the positions of the L2 and L3 electronic transitions of scandium oxide have been measured, at 3.069 and 3.101 nm (404.0 and 399.9 eV), respectively, while the measurements near the M transition suggest it to be at approximately 31.5 nm (39.4 eV). Comparing the electronic transition positions of scandium oxide to those of scandium show that the oxidation of scandium shifts the positions to lower energies. For L2 the shift is about 1.8 eV, for L3 the shift is about 1.4 eV, and for M the shift is about 1.9 eV. The binding energies of scandium oxide are greater than those of scandium, as is expected for an oxide compared to its parent metal. This trend in the shift of the transition positions is unexpected, and warrants further investigation.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:10:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JonasINO_DISSERT.pdf: 890224 bytes, checksum: a68b1b3f5f169bb87b98314d116a12b3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-02 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / In this dissertation, the theoretical principles governing the molecular modeling were applied for electronic characterization of oligopeptide α3 and its variants (5Q, 7Q)-α3, as well as in the quantum description of the interaction of the aminoglycoside hygromycin B and the 30S subunit of bacterial ribosome. In the first study, the linear and neutral dipeptides which make up the mentioned oligopeptides were modeled and then optimized for a structure of lower potential energy and appropriate dihedral angles. In this case, three subsequent geometric optimization processes, based on classical Newtonian theory, the semi-empirical and density functional theory (DFT), explore the energy landscape of each dipeptide during the search of ideal minimum energy structures. Finally, great conformers were described about its electrostatic potential, ionization energy (amino acids), and frontier molecular orbitals and hopping term. From the hopping terms described in this study, it was possible in subsequent studies to characterize the charge transport propertie of these peptides models. It envisioned a new biosensor technology capable of diagnosing amyloid diseases, related to an accumulation of misshapen proteins, based on the conductivity displayed by proteins of the patient. In a second step of this dissertation, a study carried out by quantum molecular modeling of the interaction energy of an antibiotic ribosomal aminoglicos?dico on your receiver. It is known that the hygromycin B (hygB) is an aminoglycoside antibiotic that affects ribosomal translocation by direct interaction with the small subunit of the bacterial ribosome (30S), specifically with nucleotides in helix 44 of the 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA). Due to strong electrostatic character of this connection, it was proposed an energetic investigation of the binding mechanism of this complex using different values of dielectric constants (ε = 0, 4, 10, 20 and 40), which have been widely used to study the electrostatic properties of biomolecules. For this, increasing radii centered on the hygB centroid were measured from the 30S-hygB crystal structure (1HNZ.pdb), and only the individual interaction energy of each enclosed nucleotide was determined for quantum calculations using molecular fractionation with conjugate caps (MFCC) strategy. It was noticed that the dielectric constants underestimated the energies of individual interactions, allowing the convergence state is achieved quickly. But only for ε = 40, the total binding energy of drug-receptor interaction is stabilized at r = 18A, which provided an appropriate binding pocket because it encompassed the main residues that interact more strongly with the hygB - C1403, C1404, G1405, A1493, G1494, U1495, U1498 and C1496. Thus, the dielectric constant ≈ 40 is ideal for the treatment of systems with many electrical charges. By comparing the individual binding energies of 16S rRNA nucleotides with the experimental tests that determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of hygB, it is believed that those residues with high binding values generated bacterial resistance to the drug when mutated. With the same reasoning, since those with low interaction energy do not influence effectively the affinity of the hygB in its binding site, there is no loss of effectiveness if they were replaced. / Nessa disserta??o, os princ?pios te?ricos que regem a Modelagem Molecular foram aplicados na caracteriza??o eletr?nica do oligopept?deo α3 e seus variantes (5Q,7Q)-α3, como tamb?m na descri??o qu?ntica da intera??o do aminoglicos?deo higromicina B e a subunidade 30S do ribossomo bacteriano. No primeiro estudo, os dipept?deos lineares e neutros constituintes das biomol?culas mencionados foram modelados e posteriormente otimizados at? uma estrutura de menor energia potencial e ?ngulos diedros adequados. No caso, tr?s processos de otimiza??o geom?trica, baseados subsequentemente na teoria cl?ssica newtoniana, na semi-emp?rica e na teoria do funcional da densidade (DFT), varreram a paisagem de energia de cada dipept?deos na busca de uma estrutura de energia m?nima ideal. Por fim, os conf?rmeros ?timos foram descritos quanto ao potencial eletrost?tico, energia de ioniza??o (amino?cidos), orbitais de fronteira HOMO/HOMO-1 e termo de hopping. A partir dos termos de hopping descritos nesse trabalho, foi poss?vel, em estudos subsequentes, caracterizar as propriedades de transporte de cargas destes modelos pept?dicos. Vislumbra-se uma nova tecnologia de biosensores capaz de diagnosticar doen?as amiloides, relacionadas ao ac?mulo de pept?deos disformes, a partir do perfil de condutividade el?trica apresentado pelas prote?nas do paciente. Em um segundo momento dessa disserta??o, realiza-se um estudo qu?ntico por modelagem molecular da energia de intera??o de um antibi?tico aminoglicos?dico em seu receptor riboss?mico. Sabe-se que a higromicina B (higB) ? um antibi?tico aminoglicos?deo que afeta a transloca??o ribossomal pela intera??o direta com a subunidade menor do ribossomo bacteriano (30S), especificamente com nucleot?deos da h?lice 44 do RNA riboss?mico 16S (rRNA 16S). Devido ao forte car?ter eletrost?tico desta conex?o, foi proposta a investiga??o energ?tica do mecanismo de liga??o da higB no 30S usando diferentes valores de constantes diel?tricas (ε=0, 4, 10, 20 e 40), as quais s?o amplamente utilizadas no estudo das propriedades eletrost?ticas de biomol?culas. Para isso, foram medidos raios crescentes centralizados no centr?ide da higB tendo por base a estrutura cristalina higB-30S (1HNZ.pdb), e apenas a energia de intera??o individual de cada nucleot?deo englobado foi calculada quanticamente utilizando a estrat?gia de fracionamento molecular com capuzes conjugados (MFCC). Percebeu-se que as constantes diel?tricas subestimam as energias de intera??o individuais, permitindo que o estado de converg?ncia energ?tica seja alcan?ado rapidamente. Por?m apenas para ε=40, a energia de intera??o total droga-receptor se estabilizou em r=18?, o que se constituiu como um adequado s?tio de liga??o, pois englobou os res?duos do 16S que interagem mais fortemente com a higB - C1403, C1404, G1405, A1493, G1494, U1495, C1496 e U1498. Assim, a constante diel?trica ≈40 ? ideal para o tratamento de sistemas com muitas cargas. Confrontando as energias de liga??o individuais dos nucleot?deos 16SrRNA com ensaios experimentais para determina??o da concentra??o inibit?ria m?nima (MIC) da higB, acredita-se que esses res?duos com elevados valores de intera??o gerariam resist?ncia bacteriana ? droga quando mutados. Com o mesmo racioc?nio, visto que aqueles com baixa energia n?o influenciariam de forma eficaz a afinidade da higB em seu s?tio de liga??o, n?o ocorreria perda de efic?cia caso fossem substitu?dos.