This thesis details the development of a novel microwave breast imaging system based on a faceted metallic chamber using magnetic field data in an air background. The chamber is simulated showing benefits over a cylindrical chamber. The use of magnetic scattered-field data collected on the inner surface of the chamber is shown to provide better reconstruction results compared to electric field data for breast tissue phantoms. Shielded half-loop probes are selected for use in the new system and prototypes are constructed. These probes are sensitive to magnetic fields and reject electric fields. An experimental faceted chamber is also constructed and used with the probes to image simple homogeneous targets as well as a simple breast phantom. Several possible measurement techniques and calibration methods for the new system are analyzed. Tumour detection in the simple breast phantom in an air background is achieved, validating the performance of the novel system. / February 2017

<p>Organic semiconductors have been studied thoroughly and are well understood, though the effects in which oxygen and humidity have on them are less well known. In this thesis we immerse copper phthalocyanine thin films deposited at two different substrate temperatures and with two different thicknesses to an environment with oxygen pressures from 10 mbar to 210 mbar and water vapor pressures from 5 mbar to 13 mbar. The conductivity of our thin films at atmospheric oxygen and water pressure ranged from as high as 6:7 &times; 10^&minus;4 S/m and as low as 9:6 &times; 10^&minus;5 S/m, about 7 orders of magnitude less than silicon and germanium. At the smallest oxygen doping, the conductivity ranged from as high as 4:9 &times; 10^&minus;5 S/m to as low as 1:1 &times; 10^&minus;5 S/m. We can conclude that the small grain samples are more easily doped by oxygen, the small grain samples have a larger sensitivity gain than the large grain samples, and the intrinsic conductivity increases as both grain size decreases and as film thickness decreases. </p>

<p> This thesis introduces several novel antenna systems with extended performance capabilities achieved by either enabling multiple operation bands or by widening the bandwidth. Proposed theoretical concepts are successfully tested through simulations and experiments with excellent agreement are demonstrated. The designs developed in this thesis research are low-profile or flush mountable, enabling simple platform integration.</p><p> In the HF/VHF bands, the development of a novel low-profile multiband antenna for vehicular applications is presented. Specifically, an inverted-F antenna is used as a driven element, to operate at the lowest frequency of 27 MHz, whereas two parasitic elements are built as inverted-L monopoles to enable resonances at 49 and 53 MHz. To eliminate the need for an external matching network, an offset feeding technique is used. When the antenna is mounted on a vehicle and bent to follow its profile, a very low-profile is achieved (lambda/44) while good impedance and far-field performance are maintained across all three bands. The developed antenna system is not only electrically smallest among others found in the literature, but it is easily modified for other band selections and tuning of each band can be readily achieved.</p><p> Vehicular antennas are often used for high power applications, which may cause exposure of nearby individuals to possibly dangerous electromagnetic fields. To assess this hazard, the RF exposure of a vehicle's crew is discussed and an original and fast modeling approach for prediction thereof is demonstrated. The modeling approach is based on eigenmode analysis for acquiring a range of frequencies where the shielding effectiveness of a vehicle cabin is expected to be lower than average. This approach is typically much faster and requires less computational resources as compared to classical full-wave analyses. This analysis also shows that the position of an antenna system is critical and must be considered when high-power RF emissions are planned.</p><p> Following the same trend of antenna system size reduction with extension of capabilities in a congested spectral environment, the millimeter wave spectrum is explored next. Specifically, antenna systems for wideband amplitude only (AO) direction finding (DF) are thoroughly considered. Theory and design considerations are developed to fill gaps in open literature. Typical sources of errors are theoretically analyzed, and a discussion on limitations and advantages of different AO DF architectures is given.</p><p> Practical millimeter wave realizations of AO DF antenna front-ends in the K/Ka/Q bands (18-45 GHz) are developed using two different architectures: a passive phased-array and a squinted antenna system. For the former, a tightly coupled two-element tapered slot antenna (TSA) array with a stacked arrangement is developed. A novel enclosure of the array inside an absorbing cavity is proposed and improved system performance with flush mounted configuration is demonstrated. The squinted antenna system avoids the use of a beamformer, therefore reducing insertion loss and amplitude/phase imbalances to reduce DF errors. For design robustness, the same TSA element used in the phased-array configuration is used. A novel tapered cavity is also developed to stabilize H-plane radiation patterns and suppress sidelobes. It is seen that the squinted antenna AO DF front-end has better performance than the phased-array antenna system at the expense of larger size.</p>

<p> We describe the implementation of optimal local radiation boundary condition sequences for second order finite difference approximations to Maxwell's equations and the scalar wave equation using the double absorbing boundary formulation. Numerical experiments are presented which demonstrate that the design accuracy of the boundary conditions is achieved and exceeds that of perfectly matched layers for comparable effort. </p><p> We also describe the application of CRBC type boundary conditions for elastic waves in (an)isotropic media. The results show that we can optimize the CRBC problems for a subset of elastic media. Additionally, we propose a generalized CRBC type boundary conditions that may be more applicable to elastic wave equations and present some preliminary results.</p>

<p> At present modulators in communications industry utilize non-linear materials like indium tin oxide (ITO) and DLD-164 as a dielectric, which makes the fabrication process cumbersome and expensive. This thesis discusses the possibility of using only gold and air as conductor and dielectric to characterize a signal modulating device. Both electro-absorption modulation (EAM) and phase change driven modulation is possible with the design. For the change in phase a length of 2.992 &micro;<i>m</i> for the modulating arm of a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) was achieved for operation at 525 <i>nm</i>. High absorptions of electromagnetic (EM) waves was seen at the 480 <i>nm</i> mark allowing a length of just 4.95 &micro;<i>m</i> for EAM. The results suggest that an all plasmonic noble metal modulator utilizing air as a dielectric is possible for operation in the visible 400 <i>nm</i> to 700 <i>nm</i> range. The concept is supported by proof-of-principle based simulations. </p><p> This thesis proposes a novel idea of an all plasmonic modulator driven by changes in free carrier concentration in gold and surface plasmon polariton (SPP) excitations under an applied potential. The prototype model is simulated using a commercial finite difference time domain solver. The simulation enviro<i> nm</i>ent allows Maxwell&rsquo;s equations to be solved in the time domain to investigate light propagation and absorption characteristics under an externally applied electric potential. The free carrier concentration dependent permittivity of gold is exploited to investigate possible applications in nano-photonics and optical communications.</p><p>

<p> Time-domain terahertz spectroscopy is now a well-established technique. Of the many methods available for a terahertz source for terahertz spectroscopy, the most widely used may be the GaAs-based photoconductive antenna, as it provides relatively high power at terahertz frequencies, commercially available up to 150 &micro;W, and a wide-bandwidth, approximately 70 GHz to 3.5 THz. One of the limitations for developing more accurate and sensitive terahertz interrogation techniques is the lack of higher power sources. Because of our research interests in terahertz spectroscopy, we investigated detailed design and fabrication parameters involved in the photoconductive antenna, which exploits the surface plasma oscillation to produce a wideband pulse. The investigation enabled us to develop a new photoconductive antenna that is capable of generating a high power terahertz beam, at least twenty times stronger than those currently available. Throughout this research, it was discovered that antenna electrodes with particular geometries could produce superradiance, also known as the Dicke effect. Chaotic electrodes with a predisposition to lead charge-carriers into chaotic trajectories, e.g. rippled geometry, were exploited to reduce undesirable heat effects by driving thermal-electrons away from the terahertz generation site, i.e. the location of the surface plasma, while concentrating the removed charge-carriers in separate locations slightly away from the surface plasma. Then, spontaneous emission of coherent terahertz radiation may occur when the terahertz pulse generated by the surface plasma stimulates the concentrated carriers. This spontaneous emission enhanced the total coherent terahertz beam strength, as it occurs almost simultaneously with the primary terahertz beam. In principle, the spontaneous emission power increases as N², with the number N of dipole moments resulted from the concentrated charge carriers. Hence, if the design parameters are optimized, it may be possible to increase the strength of coherent terahertz beam by more than one order of magnitude with a photoconductive antenna containing rippled electrodes. However, as the parameters are yet to be optimized, we have only demonstrated 10-20 % enhancement with our current photoconductive antennas. </p><p> Photoconductive antennas were fabricated via photolithography and characterized by time-domain terahertz spectroscopy and pyroelectric detection. In addition to chaotic electrodes, a variety of other parameters were characterized, including GaAs substrate thickness, GaAs crystal lattice orientation, trench depth for electrodes, metal-semiconductor contact, and bias voltage across electrodes. Nearly all parameters were found to play a crucial role influencing terahertz beam emission and carrier dynamics. By exploiting wave chaos and other antenna parameters, we developed a new photoconductive antenna capable of continuous operation with terahertz power twenty times larger than that of the conventional photoconductive antennas, improving from 150 &micro;W to 3 mW. With further optimizations of the parameters, we expect more dramatic improvement of the photoconductive antenna in the near future.</p>

This thesis presents an investigation of the damping of spin waves in ferromagnetic Au(3 nm)/Ni(10 nm)/MgO(001) thin films using the time-resolved Magneto-optical Kerr Effect (TR-MOKE) and ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) techniques. In the optical measurements, a 150 fs, 800 nm laser beam pulse is split into pump and probe components. The pump pulse, containing most of the beam energy, thermally excites coherent spin precession. The weaker probe pulse, time-delayed by a variable beam path, captures the magnetization dynamics via the polar MOKE effect, and oscillations are observed as a function of external field amplitude and direction. The extracted precession frequency is consistent in both the optical and resonance techniques; however, additional damping is observed in the TR-MOKE measurements that is strongly correlated to the orientation of the magnetization with respect to the magnetic anisotropy. The damping is identical in TR-MOKE and FMR only when the external field is applied near the easy axis of magnetization. The enhanced damping in TR-MOKE is shown to be a consequence of pump-induced inhomogeneous broadening in the presence of magnetic anisotropy, a result of differing temperature recovery profiles for the magnetization and magnetic anisotropy. Finally, a simple model is developed which explains the anisotropic damping: mode broadening occurs in regions where the magnetization changes rapidly with respect to changes in the external field, as determined by the curvature of the magnetic free energy. We thus introduce a novel damping effect in TR-MOKE: pump-induced anisotropic damping (PIAD).

No description available.

Antenna systems play a significant role in today’s electronic communications. They are essential for cell phones, satellites, radio, and radar among many other important applications. This paper describes the design, assembly, and operation of an antenna demonstration system designed to instill interest in the field of antenna design among high school and undergraduate college students. The system is portable, supplied solely by DC power supplies, easily reproducible, and includes rotational axes to illustrate antenna performance limitations and requirements. It provides a visual indication of wireless signal strength and demonstrates several antenna performance characteristics including polarization, gain and directivity, radiation patterns - nulls and maximums, and spreading loss. Several antenna types used in present-day applications (embedded and reflector antennas), in addition to structural barriers encountered in typical operating environments, are used to define wireless system performance. Students gain insight on radiating structure and orientation effects on antenna system characteristics and hopefully develop interest in future wireless studies.

The Edwards aquifer lies in the structurally complex Balcones fault zone and supplies water to the growing city of San Antonio. To ensure that future demands for water are met, the hydrological and geophysical properties of the aquifer must be well-understood. Fractures often occur in a power-law distribution. Fracture distribution plays an important role in determining electrical and hydraulic current flowpaths. The thesis research presents an evaluation of the controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) response for layered models with a fractured layer at depth described by the roughness parameter, BV, such that 0</=BV, associated with the power-law length-scale dependence of electrical conductivity. A value of BV=0 represents homogeneous, continuous media, while a value of 0<BV shows that roughness exists. 1-D synthetic modeling shows that the existence of a fractured layer at depth is apparent in the CSEM time-domain response for models representing aquifers. The research also provides an analysis of the Seco Creek frequency-domain helicopter electromagnetic survey data set by introducing the similarly defined roughness parameter BH to detect lateral roughness along survey lines. Fourier transforming the apparent resistivity as a function of position along flight line into wavenumber domain using a 256-point sliding window gives the power spectral density (PSD) plot for each line. The value of ?H is the slope of the least squares regression for the PSD in each 256-point window. Changes in BH with distance along the flight line are plotted. Large values of BH are found near well-known large fractures and maps of BH produced by interpolating values of BH along survey lines suggest unmapped structure at depth.