"There is plenty of room at the bottom." This bold and prophetic statement from Nobel laureate Richard Feynman back in 1950s at Cal Tech launched the Nano Age and predicted, quite accurately, the explosion in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Now this is a fast developing area in both science and technology. Many think this would bring the greatest technological revolution in the history of mankind. To understand electronic and optical properties of nanostructures, the following problems have been studied. In particular, intensity of mid-infrared light transmitted through a metallic diffraction grating has been theoretically studied. It has been shown that for s-polarized light the enhancement of the transmitted light is much stronger than for p-polarized light. By tuning the parameters of the diffraction grating enhancement can be increased by a few orders of magnitude. The spatial distribution of the transmitted light is highly nonuniform with very sharp peaks, which have the spatial widths about 10 nm. Furthermore, under the ultra fast response in nanostructures, the following two related goals have been proved: (a) the two-photon coherent control allows one to dynamically control electron emission from randomly rough surfaces, which is localized within a few nanometers. (b) the photoelectron emission from metal nanostructures in the strong-field (quasistationary) regime allows coherent control with extremely high contrast, suitable for nanoelectronics applications. To investigate the electron transport properties of two dimensional carbon called graphene, a localization of an electron in a graphene quantum dot with a sharp boundary has been considered. It has been found that if the parameters of the confinement potential satisfy a special condition then the electron can be strongly localized in such quantum dot. Also the energy spectra of an electron in a graphene quantum ring has been analyzed. Furthermore, it has been shown that in a double dot system some energy states becomes strongly localized with an infinite trapping time. Such states are achieved only at one value of the inter-dot separation. Also a periodic array of quantum dots in graphene have been considered. In this case the states with infinitely large trapping time are realized at all values of inter-dot separation smaller than some critical value.

Advanced alloys often present precipitated carbides and nitrides in their microstructure following exposure to elevated temperatures. These secondary phases are usually undesirable, because potentially deleterious for the corrosion and mechanical performances of the material. Carbides and nitrides are enriched in key alloying elements that are subtracted from their surrounding matrix areas, creating alloying element depleted zones, which might become initial sites for corrosion initiation. In this study, the influence of micro- and nano-sized precipitated carbides and nitrides on the corrosion initiation of biomedical CoCrMo alloys and duplex stainless steels has been investigated at microscopic scale, by using a combination of local probing techniques. The microstructures of the alloys were first characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and magnetic force microscopy (MFM). The Volta potential mapping of carbides and nitrides revealed their higher nobility compared to the matrix, and particularly compared to their surrounding areas, suggesting the occurrence of some alloying element depletion in the latter locations, which may lead to a higher susceptibility for corrosion initiation. In-situ electrochemical AFM studies performed at room temperature showed passive behavior for large potential ranges for both alloy families, despite the presence of the precipitated carbides or nitrides. At high anodic applied potential, at which transpassive dissolution occurs, preferential dissolution started from the areas adjacent to the precipitated carbides and nitrides, in accordance with the Volta potential results. Thus, the presence of carbides and nitrides doesn’t largely affect the corrosion resistance of the tested advanced alloys, which maintain passive behavior when exposed to highly concentrated chloride solutions at room temperature with no applied potential. The effect of nitrides on the corrosion initiation of duplex stainless steels was investigated also at temperatures above the critical pitting temperature (CPT). Depending on the type, distribution and size range of the precipitated nitrides different corrosion behaviors were observed. Intragranular (quenched-in) nano-sized nitrides (ca. 50-100 nm) finely dispersed in the ferrite grains have a minor influence on the corrosion resistance of the material at temperatures above the CPT, while larger intergranular (isothermal) nitrides (ca. 80-250 nm) precipitated along the phase boundaries cause a detrimental reduction of the corrosion resistance of the material, in particular of the austenite phase / <p>QC 20130927</p>

Human thermal environments constitute complex combinations of various interacting thermal factors. The transient and non-uniform nature of those thermal factors further increases the complexity of the thermal comfort problem. The conventional approach to the thermal comfort problem has been simplifying the problem and providing steady thermal environments which would satisfy the majority of the people in a given space. However, several problems emerged with this approach. People became finely tuned to the narrow range of conditions and developed expectations for the same conditions which made them uncomfortable when there were slight deviations from those conditions. Also, the steady approach didn't solve the comfort problem because, in practice, people move between spaces, and thermal conditions such as metabolic rate, surface temperatures, airflow speed and direction vary in a typical day. A human subject test was designed to determine the transient relationship between the people and their environments. In the first part, thermal perceptions of people were taken during various metabolic rate conditions. In the second and the third parts, transient conditions of different thermal factors were created. Various combinations of airflow frequencies, airflow location around the body, metabolic rate, and room temperatures were tested for their individual and interaction effects of providing thermal comfort. The concept of Localized Dynamic Airflow was proposed in which room airflow was simply redirected to different parts of the body with a varying airflow speed. Results showed that males and females respond differently to the thermal conditions. The room temperatures they found neutral were significantly different. People‟s thermal comfort during transient metabolic conditions was similar to high metabolic conditions. This heightened response extended into the next ten minutes after the high metabolic conditions ended. Test results suggested that people tolerate higher temperatures during transient environmental conditions. The average response was for comfortable even during the high temperature (83°F) and high metabolic rate (4 met) conditions. Low energy use of the localized dynamic airflow and the increased room temperatures has significant potential for monetary savings.

Noble metal nanoparticles supporting localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) have been extensively investigated for label free detection of various biological and chemical interactions. When compared to other optical sensing techniques, LSPR sensors offer label-free detection of biomolecular interactions in localized sensing volume solutions. However, these sensors also suffer from a major disadvantage – LSPR sensors remain highly susceptible to interference because they respond to both solution refractive index change and non-specific binding as well as specific binding of the target analyte. These interactions can severely compromise the measurement of the target analyte in a complex unknown media and hence limit the applicability and impact of the sensor. In spite of the extensive amount of work done in this field, there has been a clear absence of efforts to make LSPR sensors immune to interfering effects. The work presented in this document investigates, both experimentally and numerically, dual- and tri-mode LSPR sensors that utilize the multiple surface plasmon modes of gold nanostructures to distinguish target analyte from interfering bulk and non-specific binding effects. Finally, a series of biosensing experiments are performed to examine various regeneration assays for LSPR sensors built on indium tin oxide coated glass substrate.

No description available.

Orientador: Alexys Bruno Alfonso / Banca: Ernesto Reyes Gómez / Banca: Fabio de Jesus Ribeiro / O programa de Pós graduação em Ciência e Tecnologia de Materiais, PosMat, tem carater institucional e integra as atividades de pesquisa em materiais de diversos campi da UNESP / Resumo: Os cristais fotônicos são novos materiais em que a permissividade dielétrica e a permeabilidade magnética apresentam a periodicidade de uma rede de Bravais. No caso dos sólidos cristalinos, é a energia potencial de cada elétron que apresenta esse tipo de periodicidade. Por conta das semelhanças que existem entre as equações que descrevem os sintomas eletrônicos e fotônicos, muitos dos conceitos e métodos da teoria de estados eletrônicos vêm sendo aplicados na investigação de cristais fotônicos. Dentre esses conceitos, as funções de Wannier apresentam vantagens para o tratamento de estados eletrônicos e modos fotônicos localizados. Este trabalho aborda o caso de cristais fotônicos unidimensionais com simetria de inversão. Primeiramente são calculados e analisadas funções de Wannier bem localizadas. Em seguida são investigados os modos eletromagnéticos localizados produzidos por defeitos em cristais fotônicos, utilizando o método de matriz de transferência e o método da combinação linear das funções de Wannier. Finalmente, é feita a comparação dos resultados obtidos mediante esses métodos e são discutidas as vantagens do uso de funções de Wannier / Abstract: Photonic crystal are new materials where both the dielectric permittivity and the magnetic permeability present the periodicity of a Bravais lattice. In the case of electronic states, this property is shown by the mono-eletronic potential energy. Due to the similarities between the eletronic and photonic problems, many concepts and methods of theory of electronic states are being applied to investigate photonic crystals. Among such concepts, the Wannier functions are advantageous to deal with either localized photonic modes. This work addresses the case of one-dimensional photonic crystals with inversion symmetry. First, well-localized Wannier functions are calculated and analyzed. Then, the localized modes produced by defects in photonic crystals are investigated by using either transfer matrices or linear combination Wannier functions. Finally, the results obtained by the two methods are compared and the advantages of using Wannier functions are discussed / Mestre

Orientador: José Renato Zanini / Banca: Luis César Dias Drumond / Banca: Elias Nascentes Borges / Banca: Luiz Carlos Pavani / Banca: Leila Trevizan Braz / Resumo: A cultura da beterraba é bastante susceptível às deficiências hídricas, ocasionadas pela má distribuição das chuvas, visto que as hortaliças constituem um grupo de culturas que têm mais de 80% de água em sua composição. O experimento foi realizado na área do campo experimental do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciências e Tecnologia do Triângulo Mineiro - Câmpus Uberlândia (IFTM), situado a 18º45'53" Sul, 48º17'20" Oeste e altitude de 620 metros, com clima tipo Cwa (Köeppen). O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o desempenho quanto à produtividade e qualidade da beterraba cultivar Katrina', em função de quatro lâminas diárias de irrigação, e quatro doses de nitrogênio, aplicadas por fertirrigação, no município de Uberlândia, Minas Gerais. O delineamento experimental foi em blocos, com parcelas subdivididas, compostas por lâminas de irrigação, correspondentes a 50, 75, 100 e 125% da evapotranspiração da cultura com base no tanque classe A, e doses de adubo nitrogenado, correspondentes a 50, 75, 100 e 125% da dose recomendada pelo cálculo da adubação, com base nas recomendações para o uso de corretivos e fertilizantes do Estado de Minas Gerais. Na cultura da beterraba não ocorreu efeito significativo para as lâminas de irrigação e para as doses de adubação, evidenciando que é uma espécie rústica, podendo ser cultivada sem grandes investimentos. O consumo de água pelo manejo de irrigação apresentou-se altamente interessante pelo fato de que não houve acréscimo de produção com o aumento das lâminas de irrigação, possibilitando o cultivo com lâminas menores, do que a lâmina correspondente a 100% da evapotranspiração da cultura com base no tanque classe A, proporcionando economia de água e menor impacto ao meio ambiente / Abstract: The culture of the beet (Beta vulgaris L.) is highly susceptive to hydric deficiency, caused by the rains' bad distribution, once the vegetables group of cultures has more than 80% of water in its composition. The experiment was carried out at the experimental field area, Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciências e Tecnologia do Triângulo Mineiro, Câmpus Uberlândia (Federal Institute of Education, Sciences and Technology of the Triângulo Mineiro, Uberlândia Câmpus - IFTM, Brazil), latitude 18º45'53'' south, longitude 48º17'20'' west, altitude 620 meters, with a Cwa climate (Köeppen). This work aimed the 'Katrina' beet productivity and quality performance under four irrigation depths and four nitrogen levels applied by fertirrigation in Uberlândia city, Minas Gerais state. The experimental design was a split pot blocks, composed by 50, 75, 100, and 125% of the class-A tank beet evapotranspiration and 50, 75, 100, and 125% of the recommended nitrogen levels to beet, based on the Minas Gerais state recommendation. The beet culture did not present significant effect neither to the irrigation depths nor to the nitrogen levels, showing that it is a rustic specie and it can be cultivated with minimal investments. The water consumption by the management presented highly interesting because the increased water depth did not increased the production, generating cultivate beet in smaller water depths than the 100% class-A tank evapotranspiration depth, providing higher water economy as well smaller environmental impact / Doutor

Propostas de construção de dispositivos que unem a eletrônica com a spintrônica utilizando compostos semicondutores magnéticos diluídos (DMS) tem se tornado cada mais frequentes junto à comunidade científica em geral. Em particular, por suas propriedades magnéticas e de transporte hoje conhecidas, camadas de GaAs/GaMnAs pertencem a um grupo de DMS com grandes possibilidades de utilização prática. Nesse sentido, entender suas propriedades de transporte é essencial para o desenvolvimento dessa nova área. Investigamos o transporte spin polarizado em nanocamadas de GaAs/GaMnAs que exibem uma fase ferromagnética abaixo de certa temperatura de transição de fase. Como procedimento de pesquisa, nosso cálculo da resistividade considerou a existência de uma banda de impureza que determina a natureza do estado no nível de Fermi e dos estados próximos a ele como estendidos (condução "metálica") ou localizados (condução por excitação térmica). A ordem magnética e a resistividade são interligados devido à influência da polarização de spin da banda de impurezas e um efeito tipo separação Zeeman sobre a mobility edge (1). Obtivemos para um dado intervalo de concentração de manganês e de portadores, um comportamento metálico em que o transporte por estados estendidos domina em baixas temperaturas e é dominado por um processo de excitação térmica dos estados localizados para temperaturas próximas e acima da temperatura de transição. O resultado dessa combinação de canais de condução foi o aparecimento de uma lombada na resistividade, a qual tem sido observada experimentalmente, e traz esclarecimentos sobre a relação entre as propriedades de transporte e magnéticas desse material. (1) Embora a expressão possa ter uma tradução, é comumente usada na área em inglês. / Construction proposals of the contrivances that put together electronic with spintronic using diluted magnetic semiconducting compounds (DMS) are more and more frequent to the scientific community in general. In particular, because of its magnetic and transporting rightnesses that has been known today, GaMnAs stratums belongs to a DMS group with great possibilities of the practical utilization. In this sense, to understand its transporting rightnesses is essential to the development in this new area. We investigate the polarized spin transport in GaMnAs nanolayers that display an ferromagnetic stage below of the specific phase transition temperature. As a procedure research, our resistivity estimate has consider the existence of an impurity band that determine the state nature in the Fermi level and the states near to it like extended (metallicconduction) or located (thermic excitation conduction). The magnetic order and resistivity are interconnected due to the influence of the spin polarization of the band of the impurities and another efect as a Zeeman separation over the moblility edge. We aquire, for a certain interval of bearings and manganese concentration, a metallic behavior in which the transport to the extended states rules in low temperatures and is ruled by an process of thermic excitation of the states located to near and over temperatures of the transition temperature. The result of this transport channels combination was the appearance of an acclivity in the resistivity that has been observed experimentally and brings elucidations about the relation between the magnetic and transporting rightnesses of this material.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:34:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-11-17Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:25:34Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 barcelos_jc_dr_jabo.pdf: 663348 bytes, checksum: aed1e0e6aee133afc0857b631a519d67 (MD5) / A cultura da beterraba é bastante susceptível às deficiências hídricas, ocasionadas pela má distribuição das chuvas, visto que as hortaliças constituem um grupo de culturas que têm mais de 80% de água em sua composição. O experimento foi realizado na área do campo experimental do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciências e Tecnologia do Triângulo Mineiro – Câmpus Uberlândia (IFTM), situado a 18º45’53” Sul, 48º17’20” Oeste e altitude de 620 metros, com clima tipo Cwa (Köeppen). O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o desempenho quanto à produtividade e qualidade da beterraba cultivar Katrina’, em função de quatro lâminas diárias de irrigação, e quatro doses de nitrogênio, aplicadas por fertirrigação, no município de Uberlândia, Minas Gerais. O delineamento experimental foi em blocos, com parcelas subdivididas, compostas por lâminas de irrigação, correspondentes a 50, 75, 100 e 125% da evapotranspiração da cultura com base no tanque classe A, e doses de adubo nitrogenado, correspondentes a 50, 75, 100 e 125% da dose recomendada pelo cálculo da adubação, com base nas recomendações para o uso de corretivos e fertilizantes do Estado de Minas Gerais. Na cultura da beterraba não ocorreu efeito significativo para as lâminas de irrigação e para as doses de adubação, evidenciando que é uma espécie rústica, podendo ser cultivada sem grandes investimentos. O consumo de água pelo manejo de irrigação apresentou-se altamente interessante pelo fato de que não houve acréscimo de produção com o aumento das lâminas de irrigação, possibilitando o cultivo com lâminas menores, do que a lâmina correspondente a 100% da evapotranspiração da cultura com base no tanque classe A, proporcionando economia de água e menor impacto ao meio ambiente / The culture of the beet (Beta vulgaris L.) is highly susceptive to hydric deficiency, caused by the rains’ bad distribution, once the vegetables group of cultures has more than 80% of water in its composition. The experiment was carried out at the experimental field area, Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciências e Tecnologia do Triângulo Mineiro, Câmpus Uberlândia (Federal Institute of Education, Sciences and Technology of the Triângulo Mineiro, Uberlândia Câmpus – IFTM, Brazil), latitude 18º45'53'' south, longitude 48º17'20'' west, altitude 620 meters, with a Cwa climate (Köeppen). This work aimed the ‘Katrina’ beet productivity and quality performance under four irrigation depths and four nitrogen levels applied by fertirrigation in Uberlândia city, Minas Gerais state. The experimental design was a split pot blocks, composed by 50, 75, 100, and 125% of the class-A tank beet evapotranspiration and 50, 75, 100, and 125% of the recommended nitrogen levels to beet, based on the Minas Gerais state recommendation. The beet culture did not present significant effect neither to the irrigation depths nor to the nitrogen levels, showing that it is a rustic specie and it can be cultivated with minimal investments. The water consumption by the management presented highly interesting because the increased water depth did not increased the production, generating cultivate beet in smaller water depths than the 100% class-A tank evapotranspiration depth, providing higher water economy as well smaller environmental impact

L'intérêt de la recherche fondamentale pour les morceaux nanométriques de métaux nobles est principalement dû à la résonance localisée des plasmons de surface (LSPR) dans l'absorption optique. Différents aspects, liés à la compréhension théorique de la LSPR dans le cas de clusters de métaux nobles de taille dite intermédiaire, sont étudiés dans ce manuscrit. Afin d'avoir une vision plus large nous utilisons deux approches : l'approche électromagnétique classique et le formalisme ab initio en temps réel de la théorie de la fonctionnelle de la densité dépendant du temps (RT-TDDFT). Une comparaison systématique et détaillée de ces deux approches souligne et quantifie les limitations de l'approche électromagnétique lorsqu'elle est appliquée à des systèmes de taille quantique. Les différences entre les excitations plasmoniques collectives et celles impliquant les électrons d, ainsi que leurs interactions, sont étudiées grâce au comportement spatial des densités correspondantes. Ces densités sont obtenues en appliquant une transformée de Fourier dans l'espace à la densité obtenue par les simulations DFT utilisant une perturbation delta-kick. Dans ce manuscrit, des clusters de métaux nobles nus et protégés par des ligands sont étudiés. En particulier, motivé par de récents travaux sur les phénomènes d'émergence de plasmon, l'étude par TD-DFT de nano-alliages Au-Cu de taille tout juste inférieure à 2nm à fourni de subtiles connaissances sur les effets d'alliages sur la réponse optique de tels systèmes. / The fundamental research interest in nanometric pieces of noble metals is mainly due to the localized surface-plasmon resonance (LSPR) in the optical absorption. Different aspects related to the theoretical understanding of LSPRs in `intermediate-size' noble-metal clusters are studied in this thesis. To gain a broader perspective both the real-time \ai formalism of \td density-functional theory (RT-TDDFT) and the classical electromagnetics approach are employed. A systematic and detailed comparison of these two approaches highlights and quantifies the limitations of the electromagnetics approach when applied to quantum-sized systems. The differences between collective plasmonic excitations and the excitations involving $d$-electrons, as well as the interplay between them are explored in the spatial behaviour of the corresponding induced densities by performing the spatially resolved Fourier transform of the time-dependent induced density obtained from a RT-TDDFT simulation using a $\delta$-kick perturbation. In this thesis, both bare and ligand-protected noble-metal clusters were studied. In particular, motivated by recent experiments on plasmon emergence phenomena, the TDDFT study of Au-Cu nanoalloys in the size range just below 2~nm produced subtle insights into the general effects of alloying on the optical response of these systems.