Graphene has emerged as an appealing material for a variety of optoelectronic applications due to its unique electrical and optical characteristics. In this thesis, I will present recent advances in integrating graphene and graphene-boron nitride (BN) heterostructures with confined optical architectures, e.g. planar photonic crystal (PPC) nanocavities and silicon channel waveguides, to make this otherwise weakly absorbing material optically opaque. Based on these integrations, I will further demonstrate the resulting chip-integrated optoelectronic devices for optical interconnects. After transferring a layer of graphene onto PPC nanocavities, spectral selectivity at the resonance frequency and orders-of-magnitude enhancement of optical coupling with graphene have been observed in infrared spectrum. By applying electrostatic potential to graphene, electro-optic modulation of the cavity reflection is possible with contrast in excess of 10 dB. And furthermore, a novel and complex modulator device structure based on the cavity-coupled and BN-encapsulated dual-layer graphene capacitor is demonstrated to operate at a speed of 1.2 GHz. On the other hand, an enhanced broad-spectrum light-graphene interaction coupled with silicon channel waveguides is also demonstrated with ∼0.1 dB/μm transmission attenuation due to graphene absorption. A waveguide-integrated graphene photodetector is fabricated and shown 0.1 A/W photoresponsivity and 20 GHz operation speed. An improved version of a similar photodetector using graphene-BN heterostructure exhibits 0.36 A/W photoresponsivity and 42 GHz response speed. The integration of graphene and graphene-BN heterostructures with nanophotonic architectures promises a new generation of compact, energy-efficient, high-speed optoelectronic device concepts for on-chip optical communications that are not yet feasible or very difficult to realize using traditional bulk semiconductors.

MoS2, among many other transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), holds great promise for future applications in nano-electronics, opto-electronics and mechanical devices due to its ultra-thin nature, flexibility, sizable band-gap, and unique spin-valley coupled physics. However, there are two main challenges that hinder careful study of this material. Firstly, it is hard to achieve Ohmic contacts to mono-layer MoS2, particularly at low temperatures (T) and low carrier densities. Secondly, materials' low quality and impurities introduced during the fabrication significantly limit the electron mobility of mono- and few-layer MoS2 to be substantially below theoretically predicted limits, which has hampered efforts to observe its novel quantum transport behaviours. Traditional low work function metals doesn't necessary provide good electron injection to thin MoS2 due to metal oxidation, Fermi level pinning, etc. To address the first challenge, we tried multiple contact schemes and found that mono-layer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) and cobalt (Co) provide robust Ohmic contact. The mono-layer spacer serves two advantageous purposes: it strongly interacts with the transition metal, reducing its work function by over 1 eV; and breaks the metal-TMDCs interaction to eliminate the interfacial states that cause Fermi level pinning. We measure a flat-band Schottky barrier of 16 meV, which makes thin tunnel barriers upon doping the channels, and thus achieve low-T contact resistance of 3 kohm.um at a carrier density of 5.3x10^12/cm^2. Similar to graphene, eliminating all potential sources of disorder and scattering is the key to achieving high performance in MoS2 devices. We developed a van der Waals heterostructure device platform where MoS2 layers are fully encapsulated within h-BN and electrically contacted in a multi-terminal geometry using gate-tunable graphene electrodes. The h-BN-encapsulation provides excellent protection from environmental factors, resulting in highly stable device performance, even at elevated temperatures. Both optical and electrical characterization confirms our high quality devices, including an ultra-clean interface, a record-high Hall mobility reaching 34,000 cm^2/Vs, and first observation of Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations. The development of Ohmic contact and fabrication of high quality devices are critical to MoS2 application and studying its intrinsic properties. Therefore, the progress made in this work will facilitate efforts to study novel physical phenomena of MoS2 that were not accessible before.

Yuen Yung Hui. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Yuen Yung Hui.

Superfícies funcionais dependem do controle das características das superfícies de um material para obter-se um desempenho funcional desejado. Essas superfícies têm importância em diversas áreas na engenharia, como: eletrônica, ótica, energia e tribologia. No campo da tribologia, uma aplicação é em virabrequins. A funcionalização da superfície adiciona micro cavidades que diminuem o atrito e aumentam as forças de sustentação do virabrequim. Para isso, essas cavidades possuem uma geometria específica, uma microrampa. Devido a essa forma especial, a fabricação dessas microrampas é complexa, já tendo sido alcançada empregando a metodologia de texturização com rebolos padronizados. Essa metodologia consiste na inscrição de padrões geométricos no rebolo durante a dressagem, posteriormente transferidos para a peça. Como a indústria moderna utiliza rebolos de CBN de ligante vitrificado para a retificação de virabrequins, a metodologia de texturização supracitada deve ser aplicável a esse ferramental. Esse trabalho descreve o desenvolvimento de uma unidade de dressagem capaz de inscrever padrões geométricos em rebolos de CBN vitrificados, sendo seu projeto baseado em análise modal. O trabalho apresenta as restrições de projeto, conceitos de solução, simulações dinâmicas e modelagem do processo de texturização. Para maximizar a resposta dinâmica, a unidade foi projetada para operar próxima de sua frequência natural. A unidade projetada é capaz de inscrever padrões geométricos no rebolo utilizando um disco dressador rotativo, e as texturas das peças produzidas com esse rebolo padronizado apresentam boa precisão geométrica para a aplicação em virabrequins. / Engineered surfaces rely on the control of the surface characteristics of a material to achieve a desired functional performance. These functional surfaces are important in several areas of engineering, such as: electronics, optics, energy and tribology. On tribology field, an application is in crankshafts. The surface functionalization is achieved by adding micro-cavities that reduce friction and increase crankshaft lift forces. These cavities have a specific geometry, called microramp. Due to this special geometry, manufacturing microramps is a complex process, having been achieved using the methodology of texturizing via grinding. This methodology consists in the inscription of geometric patterns in the grinding wheel during the dressing operation, later transferred to the piece. As the modern industry uses vitrified CBN grinding wheels for crankshaft grinding, the texturing methodology should be applicable to this tool. This work describes the development of a dressing unit capable of inscribing geometric patterns in vitrified CBN grinding wheels, having its design based on modal analysis. The work presents the design constraints, solution concepts, dynamic simulations and modeling of the texturing process. To maximize dynamic response, the unit is designed to operate near its natural frequency. The designed unit can inscribe geometric patterns on the grinding wheel using a rotating dressing disc, and the textures of the parts produced have good geometric precision for crankshaft applications.

ii ABSTRACT Percolation phenomena involving the electrical conductivity, dielectric constant, Hall coefficient, magnetoconductivity, relative magnetoresistivity, 1/ f noise and thermoelectric power are investigated in graphite (G) and hexagonal boron-nitride (BN) powder mixtures. Two kinds of systems are used in the experiments: highly compressed discs and parallelepipeds, cut from these discs, as well as 50%G-50%BN and 55%G-45%BN powder mixtures undergoing compression. The measured DC conductivities follow the power-laws 0"( <p, 0) ex: (<p-<Pc)t (<p > <Pc) and O"(<p, 0) ex: (<Pc-<Pti (<p < <Pc), and the low frequency (lOOHz & 1000Hz) dielectric constant varies as c( <p, W ~ 0) ex: (<Pc - <P )-S( <P < <Pc), where <Pc is the percolation threshold, t and s are the conductivity exponents, and s is the dielectric exponent. Near the percolation threshold and at high frequencies, the AC conductivity varies with frequency as 0"( <p, w) ex: WX and the AC dielectric constant varies as c( <p, w) ex: w-Y, where the exponents x and y satisfy the scaling relation x + y = 1. The crossover frequency We scales with DC conductivity as Wc ex: O"q( <p, 0) (<p > <Pc), while on the insulating side, Wc ~ 1, resulting in q ~O for the three G-BN systems. The loss tangent tan t5( <p, w) (<p < <Pc) is found to have a global minimum, in contrary to the results of computer simulations. The Hall constant could not be measured using existing instrumentation. The measured magnetoconductivity and relative magnetoresistivity follow the power-laws - 6. 0" ex: (<p - <Pc)3.08 and 6.R/ R ex: (<p - <Pc)O.28 respectively. These two exponents, iii 3.08 and 0.28, are not in agreement with theory. The 1/ f noise was measured for the conducting discs and parallelepipeds. The normalized 1/ f noise power varies as Sv I V2 ex RW with the exponents w = 1.47 and 1.72 for the disc and parallelepiped samples respectively. Furthermore, the normalized noise power near the percolation threshold is, for the first time, observed to vary inversely with the square-root of sample volume. Based on the Milgrom-Shtrikman-Bergman-Levy (MSBL) formula, thermoelectric power of a binary composite is shown to be a linear function of the WiedemanFranz ratio. A scaling scheme for the Wiedeman-Franz ratio for percolation systems is proposed, which yields power-law behavior for the thermoelectric power. The proposed power-laws for the thermoelectric power can be written as (Sm - Md ex (<p - <Pc)h 1 for <P > <Pc and as (Sm - /~1d ex (<Pc - <p)-h2 for <p < <Pc, where Sm is the thermoelectric power for the composites, Afl is a constant for a given percolation system, and hI and h2 are the two critical exponents. The experimental thermoelectric power data for the G-BN conducting parallelepipeds was fitted to the above powerlaw for <p > <Pc. A least squares fit yielded the exponent hI = -1.13 and parameter MI =9.511l V I I< respectively.

Boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs), which are structurally similar to carbon nanotubes (CNTs), were synthesized in 1995 for the first time. They are made up by folding atom sheets which consist of boron and nitrogen atoms into cylindrical form. After their discovery, BNNTs have been attracting great attention due to their extraordinary mechanical, thermal, electrical, and optical properties. In this study, BNNTs were synthesized from the reaction of ammonia gas with the boron and iron powder mixture in a tubular reactor which was connected to a mass spectrometer for on-line chemical analysis of the reactor effluent stream. The synthesized materials were purified with acid treatment. Chemical analysis results showed that nitrogen and hydrogen gases were present in addition to ammonia gas. XRD results revealed that the solid phases in the synthesized material were hexagonal boron nitride, rhombohedral boron nitride, iron, and boron-iron compounds (FeB49 and Fe3B). Reactions taking place in BNNT synthesis were proposed as the decomposition of ammonia gas which was the only gas phase reaction, the formation of boron-iron compounds from the reaction of boron with iron, and boron nitride formation from the reaction of nitrogen with boron-iron compounds. Agglomerated, hollow, multi-walled nanotubes were synthesized with an outer diameter range of 10-550 nm. Both open and close-ended nanotubes were observed. The interlayer distance between BN sheets was measured about 0.33 nm and this distance indicated the d002 plane of hexagonal boron nitride. BNNTs exhibited Type II isotherms with a Type B hysteresis. A decrease in the surface area of the synthesized BNNTs was observed with an increase in temperature. The highest surface area was 147.6 m2/g. Average pore diameter of BNNTs synthesized at different temperatures was around 38 &Aring / . Deposition rate of boron nitride increased with an increase in temperature. After a certain temperature, deposition rate decreased with temperature due to the sintering effect. The highest deposition rate was observed when BNNTs were synthesized with the B/Fe weight ratio of 15/1 at 1300 &deg / C.

c-BN has been in focus for several years due to its interesting properties. The possibility for large area CVD is a requirement for the realization of these different properties in various applications. Unfortunately, there are at present severe problems in the CVD growth of c-BN. The purpose with this research project has been to theoretically investigate, using DFT calculations, the possibility for a layer-by-layer CVD growth of c-BN. It could be established that, PEALD, using a BF3-H2-NH3-F2 pulse cycle and a diamond substrate, is a promising method for deposition of c-BN films. The gaseous species will decompose in the plasma and form BFx, H, NHx, and F species (x = 0, 1, 2, 3). The H and F radicals will uphold the cubic structure by completely hydrogenate, or fluorinate, the growing surface. However, surface radical sites will appear during the growth process as a result of atomic H, or F, abstraction reactions. The addition of NHx growth species (x = 0, 1, 2) to B radical sites, and BFx growth species (x = 0, 1, 2) to N radical sites, will then result in a continuous growth of c-BN.

In this study, we used the Density functional theory (DFT) to obtain the relationship between mechanical property and electronic property of Boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) under the uni-axial strain. Moreover, we also investigated one CO molecule adsorbed on the BNNTs under the uni-axial strain. We also use the molecular dynamics to introduce the mechanical property and dynamic behavior of (8,8)BNNT under the uni-axial strain. There were three parts in this study: The first part: The effect of uni-axial strain on the electronic properties of (5,5) and (8,0)boron nitride nanotubes were obtained by DFT calculation. We used the HOMO-LUMO Gap¡Bbond angle¡Bbond length and radial buckling to analyze the electronic properties and mechanical properties. The stress-strain profiles indicated that different BNNTs types displayed very similar mechanical properties, but there were variations in HOMO-LUMO gaps at different strains, indicating that the electronic properties of BNNTs not only depend on uni-axial strain, but on BNNT type. In addition, the variations in nanotube geometries, partial density of states (PDOS) and charges of boron and nitride atoms were also discussed for (8,0) and (5,5) BNNTs at different strains. The second part: The DFT was used to investigate electronic properties of CO molecule adsorbed on BNNT under the uni-axial strain. The stress-strain profiles indicated that the CO molecule adsorption on BNNT leaded only to a local mechanical deformation. The strength of BNNT could not be affected when the CO molecule adsorbed on that. Moreover, we obtained that the charge of CO will slightly transfer to the adsorbed atom of BNNT when strain increased. Hence, the adsorption energy increased slightly under the uni-axial strain. The third part: The molecular dynamics simulations were performed to investigate deformation behaviors of (8,8)BN nanotubes under axial tensile strains at 300k. Variations with the tensile strain in the axial stress, bond lengths, bond angles, radial buckling, and slip vectors were all examined. The axial, radial, and tangential components of the slip vector were also employed to monitor, respectively, the local elongation, necking, and twisting deformation near the failure of the nanotube. The components of the slip vector grew rapidly and abruptly after the failure strain, especially for the axial component. This implies that the local elongation dominates the failure of the loaded BN nanotube and finally results in a chain-like tensile failure mode.

In this study, we used the Density functional theory (DFT) and Molecular dynamics (MD) to obtain the suitable hydrogen storage structure of Rh nanoclusters on the boron nitride sheet and Li atoms on the graphene. The reason of studying two type of nanoparticles is that there are two adsorption method in hydrogen storage, such as the adsorption of hydrogen molecules and hydrogen atoms. Using Rh nanoclusters on the boron nitride sheet to store hydrogen belong to the adsorption of hydrogen atoms. Using Li atoms on the graphene to store hydrogen belong to the adsorption of hydrogen molecules. We use these two models to simulate the hydrogen storage in this study. There were four parts in this study: The first part: The Density functional theory is utilized to obtain the configuration and corresponding energy of Rh nanoclusters, boron nitride sheet, Rh nanoclusters adsorbed on the boron nitride sheet, Li atoms adsorbed on the graphene, hydrogen adsorbed on the graphene and hydrogen adsorbed on the Li atoms. Then, we use the Force-matching method (FMM) to modify the parameters of potential function by the reference data which are obtained by Density functional theory. Finally, we use the modified parameters of potential function to perform Molecular dynamics in this study. The second part: In this part, the dynamical behavior of Rh nanoclusters with different sizes on the boron nitride sheet are investigated in temperature-rise period. The migration trajectory, square displacement and mean square displacement of the mass center of the Rh nanoclusters are used to analyze the dynamics behavior of Rh nanoclusters on the boron nitride sheet. The third part: In this part, the pristine graphene and graphen with Li atoms are investigated the efficiency of hydrogen storage at different temperature and pressure. In order to obtain the temperature (77K and 300K) and pressure effect of hydrogen storage, the densimetric distribution and gravimetric capacity (wt%) are analyzed. The fourth part: The Molecular dynamics is utilized to study the hydrogen storage and delivery when the distance between two graphene is different. Then, the temperature effect (77K and 300K) of hydrogen storage, the gravimetric capacity (wt%) are analyzed. In addition, the gravimetric capacity (wt%) of hydrogen delivery are also analyzed in the larger system space at 300K.

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) thin films are deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Effects of heat treatment and source gases on the structure and physical properties are investigated. Chemical bonding is analyzed in comparison with the better understood isoelectronic carbon compound, graphite. It seems that the basic difference between h-BN and graphite arises from the different electronegativities of boron and nitrogen atoms. Optical absorptions in UV-visible range for crystalline and amorphous structures are outlined. The expressions used for the evaluation of mechanical stress induced in thin films are derived. The deposited films are considered to be turbostratic as they do not exhibit the characteristic optical absorption spectra of a crystal. A new system, stylus profilometer, is implemented and installed for thin film thickness and mechanical stress measurements. Hydrogen atom density within the films, estimated from FTIR spectroscopy, is found to be a major factor affecting the order and mechanical stress of the films. Heat treatment of the films reduces the hydrogen content, does not affect the optical gap and slightly increases the Urbach energy probably due to an increased disorder. Increasing the nitrogen gas flow rate in the source gas results in more ordered films. The virtual crystal of these films is detected to be unique. Relative bond concentrations of the constituent elements indicate a ternary boron-oxygen-nitrogen structure. The physical properties of h-BN such as high resistivity and wide band gap seem suitable for optoelectronic applications such as gate dielectrics in thin film transistors and light emitting devices in the blue region.