This study gives our calculations for the temperature-pressure and temperature-concentration phase diagrams using the mean field models applied to ammonium halides (NH4Cl, ND4Cl), ammonium sulfate ((NH4)2SO4/H2O), lithium potassium rubidium sulfate (LiK1-xRbxSO4), potassium pyrosulfate-potassium hydrogensulfate (K2S2O7-KHSO4), cholestanyl myristate-cholesteryl myristate (CnM-CrM), cholestanyl myristate-cholesteryl oleate (CnM-CO), benzene (C6H6) and ice. The phase line equations are derived from the free energies expanded in terms of the order parameters and they are fitted to the experimental data. Some thermodynamic quantities are calculated close to phase transitions in these crystalline systems. We also calculate the specific heat CV using the Raman frequency shifts for NH4Br on the basis of an Ising model close to the lambda-phase transition. A linear relationship is obtained between the specific heat CP and the frequency shifts (1/v)(dv/dT)P near the lambda-point in NH4Br.

We correlate in the first part of this study the specific heat and thermal expansivity to the temperature-and pressure-dependent frequency shifts, respectively, in ammonia solid I, solid II, hexagonal ice and ice close to their melting points. This is carried out for some fixed pressures for the two translational and one librational modes in ammonia solid I. By obtaining linear plots of specific heat and thermal expansivity against temperature-and pressure-dependent frequency shifts, the values of slope were deduced and compared with experimental values. The correlation between the thermal expansivity and frequency shifts was constructed in the ammonia solid II by calculating the Raman frequencies of the translational and the librational modes for some fixed pressures. Calculated values of slope were compared with experimental values. Temperature and pressure dependent frequency shifts of the translational modes in hexagonal and ice are correlated to the specific heat and the thermal expansivity, respectively. When the mode Gr&uuml / neisen parameter depends on temperature and pressure, correlations among the specific heat, thermal expansivity and, temperature-and pressure-dependent frequency shifts, respectively, are reexamined in hexagonal ice. When the mode Gr&uuml / neisen parameter depends on temperature, correlation between the specific heat and the frequency shifts is reexamined using translational modes in NH4Cl. In the second part of this study, we predict the damping constant for ammonium halides (NH4Cl and NH4Br) for zero pressure, and for the tricritical and second order phase transitions for a lattice mode of NH4Cl. Also, the observed Raman intensities of this mode are analyzed at those two pressures.

The simplest model for superconductor electrodynamics are the London equations, which treats the impact of electromagnetic fields on the current density as a localized phenomenon. However, the charge carriers of superconductivity are quantum mechanical objects, and their wavefunctions are delocalized within the superconductor, leading to non-local effects. The Pippard equation is the generalization of London electrodynamics which incorporates this intrinsic non-locality through the introduction of a new superconducting characteristic length, \xi_0, called the Pippard coherence length. When building nano-scale superconducting devices, the inclusion of the coherence length into electrodynamics calculations becomes paramount. In this thesis, we provide numerical calculations of various electrodynamic quantities of interest in the non-local regime, and discuss their implications for building superconducting devices. We place special emphasis on Superconducting QUantum Inteference Devices (SQUIDs), and their usage as flux quantum bits (qubits) in quantum computation. One of the main limitations of these flux qubits is the presence of intrinsic flux noise, which leads to decoherence of the qubits. Although the origin of this flux noise is not known, there is evidence that it is related to spin impurities within the superconducting material. We present calculations which show that the flux noise in the non-local regime is signi cantly different from the local case. We also demonstrate that non-local electrodynamics greatly affect the self-inductance of the qubit. / Graduate