Surfactant coated microbubbles are widely used as contrast agents (UCA) in medical ultrasound imaging, due to their high echogenicity and non-linear response to acoustic excitation. Controlling the stability of microbubbles in vivo represents a considerable challenge. Understanding the characteristics of the bubble surface and how they change with production method, composition and environment is key to addressing this problem. The aim of this thesis is to investigate viscosity, bubble dissolution, and acoustic response as functions of their composition, manufacturing method and environment. Bubbles were made using combinations of phospholipid and an emulsifier in different molar ratios. Adding the emulsifier decreased both the size and the surface viscosity of the bubbles and caused changes in the scattered pressure amplitude of bubbles under ultrasound. To increase microbubble stability, solid inorganic nanoparticles were adsorbed on to the microbubble surface. These particles behaved as Pickering stabilisers, and deterred Ostwald ripening. The nanoparticles also enhanced the nonlinear behaviour of bubbles at low acoustic pressures. Three manufacturing methods (sonication, cross-flow and flow focusing) were investigated in order to verify stability differences. Sonication produced bubbles with surface viscosities hundreds of centipoise greater than those produced by microfluidics. Both pressure amplitude and harmonic content for sonicated bubbles were found to be much larger due to a higher liposomal adhesion rate at the surface. Solution temperature and bubble age were also investigated. When the solutions were heated above the phospholipid gelling temperature, microfluidic bubbles showed an increased surface viscosity, due to increased liposome adhesion caused by the increased temperature. Bubble composition, manufacturing method and environment were found to vary the surface characteristics of the microbubbles. Further investigations into the affects of the filling gas, in vitro studies, and low temperature TEM characterisation should be conducted to produce a microbubble with the full range of desired characteristics.

Os nitretos do grupo III (AlN, GaN, InN) sao semicondutores extremamente importantes na atualidade principalmente por suas aplicacoes em dispositivos emissores de luz de alta eficiência no visível e no ultravioleta. Neste trabalho foram estudados filmes finos de nitreto de gálio cubico (c-GaN, zincblende) crescidos sobre substratos de carbeto de silício cubico (3C-SiC) por epitaxia de feixe molecular assistida por plasma (PA-MBE). Inicialmente analisou-se o processo de implantação iônica através de técnicas de simulação computacional. Tendo em vista os resultados obtidos pelas simulações, as amostras foram submetidas a processo de implantação iônica com energia de feixe de 200 keV e diferentes íons implantados (Fe, Mn e Cu) nas doses de 1.2 e 2.4 × 1016 cm2. Com a implantação de íons magnéticos buscou-se a criação de um semicondutor com resposta ferromagnética acima da temperatura ambiente, enquanto que com a implantação do íons não magnéticos buscou-se, principalmente, um maior entendimento sobre a influencia de defeitos da rede cristalina sobre o magnetismo do material. Posteriormente as implantações e com o intuito de recuperar a rede cristalina das amostras danificada pelo processo, as amostras foram submetidas a tratamento térmico. Apos cada um destes processos as amostras foram caracterizadas estruturalmente, através de medidas de difração de raios x, espectroscopia de fotoluminescência e espectroscopia Raman e também magneticamente utilizando-se um SQUID. Conseguiu-se a caracterizacao quantitativa das transformações da rede cristalina pre e pós tratamento térmico com as diferentes técnicas. Foi observado comportamento ferromagnético a temperatura ambiente em amostras dopadas com os diversos íons e notou-se uma grande influencia da dose implantada, tanto nas propriedades estruturais quanto magnéticas das amostras. / Group-III nitrides (AlN, GaN, InN) are presently very important semiconductors mainly because of applications in high-efficiency, visible and ultraviolet, light-emitting devices. In this work, thin films of cubic gallium nitride (c-GaN, zincblende), grown over cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) by plasmaassisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE) were studied. Initially the process of ion implantation was investigated with the aid of computer simulation software. Following the simulations results, the samples were implanted with a 200 keV ion-beam of three different ions (Fe, Mn and Cu) with doses of 1.2 and 2.4 × 1016 cm2. With the implantation of magnetic ions the formation of a semiconductor with room-temperature ferromagnetic response was expected, whereas the implantation of non-magnetic ions (Cu) was performed seeking a better understanding on the influence of lattice defects on the subsequent magnetism. After the implantation the samples were annealed to recover some of the crystallinity lost due to the implantation process. After each process the samples were structurally characterized through x-ray diffraction, photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopies, and magnetically characterized through SQUID magnetometry. A quantitative measure of the transformations of the crystal lattices was obtained before and after annealing with the different techniques. Room-temperature ferromagnetic behavior was observed in the samples doped with different ions and a large influence of implanted dose was noted, in the structural properties and also in the magnetic properties.

Os nitretos do grupo III (AlN, GaN, InN) sao semicondutores extremamente importantes na atualidade principalmente por suas aplicacoes em dispositivos emissores de luz de alta eficiência no visível e no ultravioleta. Neste trabalho foram estudados filmes finos de nitreto de gálio cubico (c-GaN, zincblende) crescidos sobre substratos de carbeto de silício cubico (3C-SiC) por epitaxia de feixe molecular assistida por plasma (PA-MBE). Inicialmente analisou-se o processo de implantação iônica através de técnicas de simulação computacional. Tendo em vista os resultados obtidos pelas simulações, as amostras foram submetidas a processo de implantação iônica com energia de feixe de 200 keV e diferentes íons implantados (Fe, Mn e Cu) nas doses de 1.2 e 2.4 × 1016 cm2. Com a implantação de íons magnéticos buscou-se a criação de um semicondutor com resposta ferromagnética acima da temperatura ambiente, enquanto que com a implantação do íons não magnéticos buscou-se, principalmente, um maior entendimento sobre a influencia de defeitos da rede cristalina sobre o magnetismo do material. Posteriormente as implantações e com o intuito de recuperar a rede cristalina das amostras danificada pelo processo, as amostras foram submetidas a tratamento térmico. Apos cada um destes processos as amostras foram caracterizadas estruturalmente, através de medidas de difração de raios x, espectroscopia de fotoluminescência e espectroscopia Raman e também magneticamente utilizando-se um SQUID. Conseguiu-se a caracterizacao quantitativa das transformações da rede cristalina pre e pós tratamento térmico com as diferentes técnicas. Foi observado comportamento ferromagnético a temperatura ambiente em amostras dopadas com os diversos íons e notou-se uma grande influencia da dose implantada, tanto nas propriedades estruturais quanto magnéticas das amostras. / Group-III nitrides (AlN, GaN, InN) are presently very important semiconductors mainly because of applications in high-efficiency, visible and ultraviolet, light-emitting devices. In this work, thin films of cubic gallium nitride (c-GaN, zincblende), grown over cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) by plasmaassisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE) were studied. Initially the process of ion implantation was investigated with the aid of computer simulation software. Following the simulations results, the samples were implanted with a 200 keV ion-beam of three different ions (Fe, Mn and Cu) with doses of 1.2 and 2.4 × 1016 cm2. With the implantation of magnetic ions the formation of a semiconductor with room-temperature ferromagnetic response was expected, whereas the implantation of non-magnetic ions (Cu) was performed seeking a better understanding on the influence of lattice defects on the subsequent magnetism. After the implantation the samples were annealed to recover some of the crystallinity lost due to the implantation process. After each process the samples were structurally characterized through x-ray diffraction, photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopies, and magnetically characterized through SQUID magnetometry. A quantitative measure of the transformations of the crystal lattices was obtained before and after annealing with the different techniques. Room-temperature ferromagnetic behavior was observed in the samples doped with different ions and a large influence of implanted dose was noted, in the structural properties and also in the magnetic properties.

Predictive models of structures containing frictional joints presently suffer from poor descriptions of interface behaviour at the joints. This thesis aims to address this shortfall by furthering the physical understanding of parameters affecting interface behaviour such as friction and contact stiffness. Aspects of friction and contact stiffness relevant to the characterisation of fretting joints are investigated by a combined modelling and experimental approach. Friction and wear behaviour in gross-slip fretting are investigated by in-line and rotational fretting tests. New 3D topography parameters are found to be useful in the analysis of surfaces during fretting. Wear-scar shape is found to be dependent on material. A phenomenon whereby friction increases during the gross-slip phase of individual cycles is found to be due to wear-scar interaction primarily through the interference of local features distributed over the contact area. These features are similar in size to the applied fretting stroke. A simple model to explain the behaviour is put forward which shows that wear-scar shape determines the form of the friction variation. A finite-element (FE) model of the interaction of an elastic-plastic asperity junction is used to predict sliding friction coefficients. The modelling differs from previous work by: permitting greater asperity overlaps, enforcing an interface shear strength, and allowing material failure. The results are also used to predict friction coefficients for a stochastic rough surface. The magnitudes of the predicted friction coefficients are generally representative of experimental measurements. Results suggest that friction arises from both plasticity and tangential interface adhesion. Contact stiffness is studied for both fretting and non-fretting. A technique to isolate the true interface stiffness from results derived from load-deflection data is developed by comparing experimental and FE results. In the fretting wear case, comparison of tangential contact stiffness results in the literature with FE results reveals an interface whose compliance dominates the response to the extent that stiffness is proportional to contact area. In fretting tests such as this, wear debris is thought to be a factor contributing to high interface compliance. Non-fretting experiments performed here show that, at higher pressures, interface domination is reduced as the contact approaches the smooth case. Experiments are performed where contact stiffness is measured simultaneously by both ultrasound and digital image correlation. The effect of normal and tangential loading upon the contact stiffness (normal and tangential) is investigated. Experimental evidence showing that ultrasound measures an ‘unloading’ stiffness while DIC measures a ‘loading’ stiffness is obtained for the case of tangential loading where the ‘DIC stiffness’ decreases with increasing tangential load whereas the ‘ultrasound stiffness’ remains approximately constant. On average, ultrasound gives magnitudes 3.5 and 2.5 times stiffer than the DIC results for the normal and tangential stiffness cases, respectively. The difference in magnitudes can largely be physically explained, and is relatively small considering the significant differences between the techniques. Therefore, both methods can claim to give valid measurements of contact stiffness – though each has its own limitations which are outlined herein.