The dichroism in amorphous As2Se3 induced by a polarized beam of near band-gap light (λ = 632.8 nm) was measured in films that ranged in thickness from 0.25 µm to 1.93 µm. Most noncrystalline materials are initially isotropic and homogeneous. When amorphous As2Se3 (a chalcogenide glass) absorbs an intense pump-beam of polarized light, the absorption coefficient for light polarized in the same direction as the pump-beam is less than for the perpendicular polarization, i.e. the sample becomes anisotropic (dichroic). The induced dichroism is reversible by rotating the polarization of the pump light by 90°. Induced dichroism is potentially useful in various photonic devices including optical switches, optical memory, and photowritable polarizers.<p>Several aspects of photoinduced anisotropy in a-As2Se3 have been analyzed:<p>(i) rate of photoinduced anisotropy buildup as a function of inducing beam intensity and sample thickness, <p>(ii) the kinetics of the photoinduced anisotropy buildup in terms of a stretched exponential curve, <p>(iii) the stretched exponent, β, as a function of inducing beam intensity and sample thickness, <p>(iv) reversibility of the photoinduced anisotropy, (v) saturation level of photoinduced anisotropy as a function of inducing beam intensity and sample thickness.<p>The anisotropy buildup kinetics has been found to follow a stretched exponential behavior and that there exists an inverse relationship between the pump intensity and the time constant, τ. The τ(I) vs intensity (I) relationship more closely follows a logistic dose response curve than a simple straight line or power law relationship. There exists a direct relationship between the time contact  and the sample thickness, where a longer anisotropy buildup time is required as the sample thickness increases. The stretched exponent, β, was found to be approximately 0.6 and has a slight dependence on the inducing light intensity. The correlation of the stretching exponent, β, to sample thickness, L, was found to have a weak inverse relationship, that is β tends to decrease as the sample thickness increases.<p>The findings in this work demonstrate that the anisotropy orientation could be changed indefinitely since it was found that even after 100 orientation changes the anisotropy saturation had no measurable fatiguing. The anisotropy saturation level was found to be independent of the inducing beam intensity and linearly proportional to the sample thickness.

Linear dichroism in Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy has been used to determine molecular orientation at surfaces and in microscopic domains. However, the molecular orientation of n-alkanes cannot be derived unambiguously from their NEXAFS spectra due to the inadequate understanding of the character of the relevant spectroscopic features in the NEXAFS spectra of n-alkanes (i.e. C 1s to sigma*C-H, C 1s to sigma*C-C transitions).<p>We have studied the linear dichroism in the NEXAFS spectra of n-alkane thin films by using angular dependent NEXAFS spectroscopy to explore the molecular orientation of hexacontane (HC, n-C60H122). The HC thin films were epitaxially grown onto the cleaved NaCl (001) surfaces by physical vapor deposition. NEXAFS spectra of the HC thin film were acquired at different angles using STXM microscopy. A detailed analysis of the angular dependence of the NEXAFS spectra of the HC thin film helps to understand the relationship between the linear dichroism and the molecular orientation in n-alkane molecules. This linear dichroism in the NEXAFS spectroscopy of n-alkanes is relevant for quantitative measurements of molecular orientation, such as for the microanalysis of crystalline organic materials. <p>The linear dichroism of the NEXAFS resonances for n-alkanes has also been studied by ab initio calculations. These calculations were carried out on an isolated n-alkane molecule and a cluster of n-alkane molecules. The calculations on an isolated n-alkane molecule are used to study the linear dichroism for the NEXAFS resonances above the C 1s IP. The cluster calculations account for matrix effects in the NEXAFS features of condensed n-alkanes. A comparison of calculations on an isolated molecule and on a cluster of molecules provides information on how the NEXAFS spectra change from gas phase to condensed phase and determines the linear dichroism of each NEXAFS feature below the C 1s IP.<p>In the process of preparing n-alkane thin films for the study of linear dichroism, the morphology and molecular orientation of n-alkane thin films with different chain length (n-C36H74 and n-C60H122) have also been investigated by the NEXAFS spectroscopy and microscopy. These thin films were epitaxially grown onto cleaved NaCl (001) surfaces by physical vapor deposition. The results revealed that the morphology and molecular orientation of n-alkane thin films depend on the chain length and deposition parameters, such as substrate temperature. These observations have been rationalized by the thermodynamics of nucleation and the kinetics of growth.

The dichroism in amorphous As2Se3 induced by a polarized beam of near band-gap light (λ = 632.8 nm) was measured in films that ranged in thickness from 0.25 µm to 1.93 µm. Most noncrystalline materials are initially isotropic and homogeneous. When amorphous As2Se3 (a chalcogenide glass) absorbs an intense pump-beam of polarized light, the absorption coefficient for light polarized in the same direction as the pump-beam is less than for the perpendicular polarization, i.e. the sample becomes anisotropic (dichroic). The induced dichroism is reversible by rotating the polarization of the pump light by 90°. Induced dichroism is potentially useful in various photonic devices including optical switches, optical memory, and photowritable polarizers.<p>Several aspects of photoinduced anisotropy in a-As2Se3 have been analyzed:<p>(i) rate of photoinduced anisotropy buildup as a function of inducing beam intensity and sample thickness, <p>(ii) the kinetics of the photoinduced anisotropy buildup in terms of a stretched exponential curve, <p>(iii) the stretched exponent, β, as a function of inducing beam intensity and sample thickness, <p>(iv) reversibility of the photoinduced anisotropy, (v) saturation level of photoinduced anisotropy as a function of inducing beam intensity and sample thickness.<p>The anisotropy buildup kinetics has been found to follow a stretched exponential behavior and that there exists an inverse relationship between the pump intensity and the time constant, τ. The τ(I) vs intensity (I) relationship more closely follows a logistic dose response curve than a simple straight line or power law relationship. There exists a direct relationship between the time contact  and the sample thickness, where a longer anisotropy buildup time is required as the sample thickness increases. The stretched exponent, β, was found to be approximately 0.6 and has a slight dependence on the inducing light intensity. The correlation of the stretching exponent, β, to sample thickness, L, was found to have a weak inverse relationship, that is β tends to decrease as the sample thickness increases.<p>The findings in this work demonstrate that the anisotropy orientation could be changed indefinitely since it was found that even after 100 orientation changes the anisotropy saturation had no measurable fatiguing. The anisotropy saturation level was found to be independent of the inducing beam intensity and linearly proportional to the sample thickness.

Dragon grouper nervous necrosis virus (DGNNV), a betanodavirus, is the causative agent of viral nervous necrosis (VNN) in dragon grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus). In our study, capsid protein of DGNNV was expressed in Escherichia coli. We mutated arginines at N-termini capsid protein to investigate the role of arginines at 29-31th position. When capsid protein lost 25 amino acids at N-termini VLPs form, mutation in any two arginines at 29-31 position to alanine could the prohibit VLPs formation. Another extending three arginines at 23-25 position wouldn¡¦t increase the RNA encapsulation into VLPs. Furthermore, N-termini mutated VLPs were all RNase resistance like wt-VLPs, but the yield was distinctly less than wt-VLPs. In the single point alanine mutations, the VLPs yield of R29A was apparently higher than others (R30A and R31A). Using circular dichroism to observe the thermal denature process and thermal stability of DGNNV VLPs, we found the Tm about 60¢J of VLPs wouldn¡¦t alter even if arginines at 23-31 position were mutated. The findings suggested the VLPs of mutated arginines at 23-31 position wouldn¡¦t affect RNase resistance and thermal stability, but the yield were lower. Another, the arginines at the 30 and 31 position is more important than at 29 position for formation of VLPs.

The observation of ferromagnetism of (Ga,Mn)As by Ohno in 1998 has inspired great interest in diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS). DMS’s features combining ferromagnetism and semiconducting make them of great potential for conceptual spintronic devices, which is a promising field of research for the emerging electronics. The practical application of DMS requires a Curie temperature well above room temperature and an intrinsic ferromagnetism. There are several types of DMS materials. The typical ones are transition-metal (TM) doped GaAs, GaN and ZnO. The TM-doped ZnO has drawn particular attention due to the observation of room temperature ferromagnetism in this system including cobalt-doped ZnO.But the origin of ferromagnetic TM-doped ZnO is still unknown after a decade’s theoretical and experimental effort on this material. In this thesis, we do the magnetic circular dichroism(MCD) and Hall measurement of high quality Cobalt-doped ZnO thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Room temperature ferromagnetism is observed in these samples. Combining the data from MCD and Hall measurement, we attribute the room temperature ferromagnetism in this system to the impurity band of the doped Cobalt cations. / published_or_final_version / Physics / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

Mimicking the structure and even the function of an ??-peptide with artificial chainmolecules such as ??-peptides, ??-peptides and other unnatural oligomers has shown early success.The structural similarities between natural peptides and oligoureas lead to the belief that C2-symmetric oligoureas could be a good candidate for peptidomimicry. Molecular modelingindicates that both homochiral (all monomers have the same absolute configuration) andalternate chiral (absolute configuration of the residues alternate) C2-symmetric oligoureas canform helix- and sheet-like structures in solution conditionally.Several C2-symmetric 1,2-diamines were chosen as the building blocks for the synthesisof chiral oligoureas, and all diamines except for one were prepared in lab. Homochiral andheterochiral oligoureas based on the same diamine or mixed diamines were synthesized in thesolution phase, growing a chain by adding one unit at a time to one terminus or two units at atime to both termini with 4-nitrophenoxycarbonyl (PNP)- activated and t-butoxycarbonyl (Boc)- protected diamines as the intermediates. All the chiral oligoureas were purified by eitherrecrystallization and /or column chromatography and/ or HPLC and characterized by NMR andMALDI-MS. For some oligoureas, crystal structures were obtained. Fragment condensation wasattempted to improve the efficiency of the synthesis, but this approach led to cyclized oligoureasinstead of the desired concatenated residues.Conformational studies of chiral oligoureas were done in both the solid state and thesolution state. The crystal structures of some homochiral oligoureas and some alternate chiraloligoureas indicate that both helix-like structures and extended structures exist for these C2-symmetric oligoureas. NMR and Circular Dichroism (CD) were used to study the conformationof oligoureas in solution, but the conformational study by NMR was not conclusive. CD studyshowed that these oligoureas have multiple conformations in solution and that some of theconformations are sensitive to solvents and temperature. Also, short homochiral and alternatechiral oligoureas based on trans-1,2-diaminocyclohexane (DACH) exhibit signs of cooperativebehavior in solution as gauged by a series of experiments.

3 articles published by author included in back of book / 115 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Physical and Inorganic Chemistry, 1976

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / Title from file title page. Gabor Patonay, committee chair; Zhen Huang, Alfons Baumstark, committee members. Electronic text (236 p. : ill. (some col.)) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Jan. 28, 2008. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--Carleton University, 1992. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.