Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has emerged as an important technique for depositing thin films in both scientific research and industrial applications. The goal of this work is to integrate functional materials using ALD including high-κ dielectric, LaAlO₃, ferroelectric BaTiO₃, photocatalytic CoO, and room temperature ferromagnetic thin films of Co metal for spin-transfer torque random-access memory applications. The work is also to demonstrate the formation of a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas (2-DEG) at the γ-Al₂O₃/SrTiO₃ heterointerface enabling a method for all-oxide device manufacturing using ALD. High permittivity oxide thin films are needed to replace SiO₂ in complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) transistors. The replacement of SiO₂ by hafnium oxide-based high-κ materials in CMOS devices in 2007 was a revolutionary development in semiconductor front end of line. The continued device feature shrinking requires higher-κ dielectrics, compared to HfO₂-based materials. Crystalline perovskite oxides, such as SrTiO₃, LaAlO₃, and BaTiO₃, etc. have from high to very high dielectric constant and being proposed to replace HfO₂-based materials in CMOS devices if the leakage problem is resolved. The work explores the monolithic integration of crystalline perovskite oxide films with Si(001) using combined molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and ALD techniques. Four unit cells of SrTiO₃ were grown directly on Si(001) by MBE and transferred in-situ into the ALD chamber for further depositions. The integration of oxide thin films on Si(001) using the MBE-ALD technique allows us to maintain clean oxide/Si(001) interfaces since low temperatures (180–250 °C) were maintained during the ALD deposition. The goal of my work is also to explore processes to enable area selective deposition of cobalt (II) oxide, CoO. The effectiveness of poly(trimethylsilylstyrene) in selectively inhibiting surface nucleation of CoO on SiO₂ and MgO substrates is demonstrated. Carbon-free cobalt thin films are formed by reducing CoO using Al and Sr metals to scavenge oxygen from CoO. The work explores the ability to control the structure and morphology of the resultant cobalt film by tuning the reduction conditions, allowing us to tune magnetic properties of the cobalt thin film. My work also focuses on the growth of γ-Al₂O₃ on the TiO₂-terminated SrTiO₃ substrate at temperatures higher than 300 °C. The formation of a quasi-2-DEG is found at the γ-Al₂O₃/TiO₂-terminated SrTiO₃ interface. In-situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals the presence of Ti³⁺ feature at the heterointerface. Conductivity at the interface was found to be proportional to the amount of Ti³⁺ species. Oxide quasi-2-DEG might provide opportunities for new generations of all-oxide electronic devices using ALD.

<p> Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) are a recent addition to the portfolio of quantum materials some of which have profound commercial and military applications e.g., superconductors, superfluids and light emitting diodes. BECs exist in the lowest motional modes of a trap and have the lowest temperatures achieved by mankind. With full control over the shape of the trap the experimentalist may explore an extremely diverse set of Hamiltonians which may be altered mid-experiment. These properties are particularly suited for realizing novel quantum systems.</p><p> This thesis explores interaction-driven domain formation and the subsequent domain coarsening for two immiscible BEC components. Because quantum coherences associated with interactions in BECs can be derived from low energy scattering theory we compare our experimental results to both a careful simulation (performed by Brandon Anderson) and an analytical prediction. This result very carefully explores the question of how a metastable system relaxes at the extreme limit of low temperature.</p><p> We also explore spin-orbit coupling (SOC) of a BEC which links the linear and discrete momentum transferable by two counterpropagating ''Raman'' lasers that resonantly couple the ground electronic states of our BECs. SOC is used similarly in condensed matter systems to describe coupling between charge carrier spin and crystal momentum and is a necessary component of the quantum spin Hall effect and topological insulators.</p><p> SOC links the linear and discrete momentum transferable by two counterpropagating ''Raman'' lasers and a subset of the ground electronic states of our BEC. The phases of an effective 2-spin component spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in a spin-1 BEC are described in Lin et al. (2011). We measure the phase transition between two phases of a spin-1 BEC with SOC which cannot be mimicked by a spin-1/2 system. The order parameter that describes transitions between these two phases is insensitive to magnetic field fluctuations.</p><p> I also describe a realistic implementation of Rashba SOC. This type of SOC is expected to exhibit novel many-body phases [Stanescu et al. 2008, Sedrakyan et al. 2012, Hu et al. 2011].</p>

Graphite filter atomizers (GFA) for electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) show substantial advantages over commonly employed electrothermal vaporizers and atomizers, tube and platform furnaces, for direct determination of high and medium volatility elements in matrices associated with strong spectral and chemical interferences. Two factors provide lower limits of detection and shorter determination cycles with the GFA: the vaporization area in the GFA is separated from the absorption volume by a porous graphite partition; the sample is distributed over a large surface of a collector in the vaporization area. These factors convert the GFA into an efficient chemical reactor. The research concerning the GFA concept, technique and analytical methodology, carried out mainly in the author's laboratory in Russia and South Africa, is reviewed. Examples of analytical applications of the GFA in AAS for analysis of organic liquids and slurries, bio-samples and food products are given. Future prospects for the GFA are discussed in connection with analyses by fast multi-element AAS.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Chemistry / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

No description available.

<p> A single electron in a quantum cyclotron provides the most precise measurement of the electron magnetic moment, given in units of the Bohr magneton by <i> g</i>/2 = 1.001 159 652 180 73 (28) [0.28 ppt]. The most precise determination of the fine structure constant comes from combining this measurement with Standard Model theory, yielding &alpha;^-1 = 137.035 999 173 (34) [0.25 ppb], limited by the experimental uncertainty of the electron <i> g</i>-value. The most stringent test of CPT symmetry in leptons comes from comparing the electron and positron magnetic moments, limited by the positron uncertainty at 4.2 ppt. A new high-stability apparatus has been built and commissioned for improved measurements of the electron and positron magnetic moments, a greatly improved test of lepton CPT symmetry, and an improved determination of the fine structure constant. These new measurements require robust positron loading from a retractable radioactive source that is small enough to avoid compromising the high-precision environment of our experiment. The design and implementation of such a scheme is a central focus of this work. Robust positron loading at a rate of 1-2 e⁺/min from a 6.5 &mu;Ci ²²Na source has been demonstrated.</p>

This work describes the evolution of an ultracold neutral plasma as it expands freely in vacuum. It presents a comprehensive study of the electron temperature evolution under different initial conditions. Ultracold neutral plasmas are created by photoionizing laser-cooled neutral atoms in ultrahigh vacuum. The ions are typically at a temperature of &sim; 1K while the electron temperature can be set from 1--1000 K. After photoionization, some of the highly energetic electrons escape from the cloud, leaving a net positive charge in the cloud. This creates a Coulomb well which traps the rest of the electrons, and a plasma is formed. Since the electrons have a lot of kinetic energy, they tend to leave the cloud, however, the Coulomb force from the ion pulls the electrons back into the cloud. This exerts a recoil force on the ions, and the whole plasma starts expanding radially outwards. Since the expansion is caused by the thermal pressure of the electrons, a study of the plasma expansion unravels the complicated electron temperature evolution, under different initial conditions. Many collisional processes become significant as a plasma expands. These physical processes tend to heat or cool the ions and electrons, leading to very different kinds of evolution depending on the initial conditions of the plasma. This work demonstrates three different regions of parameter space where the degree of significance of these physical processes is different during the ultracold neutral plasma evolution. The experimental results are verified by theoretical simulations, performed by Thomas Pohl, which untangle the complicated electron temperature evolution.

Mott polarimeters are used in many areas of physics to determine the spin polarization of electrons in studies of processes dependent on the electron's intrinsic spin angular momentum and associated spin magnetic moment. Mott polarimeters work by measuring the left-right asymmetry in the spatial distribution of electrons scattered from high-Z nuclei. The polarization of the incident electrons is related to the measured asymmetry via a parameter known as the effective asymmetry (Sherman) function, S$\sb{\rm eff}$, which must be determined through calibration. This work describes a novel technique for calibrating a Mott polarimeter that makes use of electrons of accurately known polarization obtained through Penning ionization reactions involving electron spin polarized He(2$\sp3$S) metastable atoms. This technique has been used to calibrate a compact retarding-potential Mott polarimeter, and the values of S$\sb{\rm eff}$ are presented for both gold and thorium target foils under a variety of operating conditions.

A formalism has been developed here in which the collisional ionization rate is determined directly, as a probability of transition due to changes in the plasma's local electric field. The calculations described here are performed within a model which treats hydrogenic ions only, but the generalization to more complex ions is straightforward. The initial state is a hydrogenic state with a reduced ionization potential, and the final state is that of a free particle. This model is effective in treating many scenerios that occur in laser fusion and sub-picosecond laser-matter experiments where high-density conditions exist. The results show that plasma screening of the interaction between target and free electrons serves to reduce the ionization rate while the drop in ionization potential serves to increase the ionization rate. The lowering of the continuum dominates in all calculations performed here and indicates that the enhancement in ionization rate can be as much as an order of magnitude in physically interesting regimes. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)