Thesis (M.S. in chemistry)--Washington State University, December 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

The goal of this dissertation is to introduce my study on exotic materials in two dimensional world, not only to the well-trained researchers in this field but also to the beginners of condensed matter experiment. I hope this material to be a good guide for those of who paves the way of spintronics and valleytronics The first chapter will give you the introduction to two dimensional materials - Graphene and Monolayer Transition Metal DiChalcogenide (TMDC). The second chapter introduces some toolkits on optical techniques on condensed matter experiment, from very basics for everyone to the advanced for main projects of this work. They include Reflection Contrast, Raman Spectroscopy, Photoluminescence, and Pump Probe Spectroscopy. Chapter three will be review on several literature which are prerequisites for understanding and getting inspiration for this work. They are on the spin-valley indexes of carriers in TMDC, interlayer charge transfer in TMDC heterostructre, valley Hall effect, etc. Chapter four will focus on the first half of main project, “Charge and Spin-Valley Transfer in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Heterostructure”. Starting from the fabrication of heterostructure samples for our playground, we investigate the Interlayer Charge Transfer in our Heterostructure sample by ultrafast pump probe spectroscopy. We bring the polarization resolved version of the technique to study the Spin-Valley indexes conservation in the interlayer transferred charge, and analyze its physical meaning. We study which one is the dominantly preserved quantity among spin and valley by using the broadband pump probe spectroscopy which covers A and B excitonic energy in TMDC material. As all the measurement here are taken under room temperature condition, this work paves the way for possible real device application. Chapter five will cover the second half of main project, “Electrical control of spin and valley Hall effect in monolayer WSe2 transistors near room temperature”. Valley Hall effect device in praevious studies will be briefly revisited, and our new device is presented, using hole as carrier rather than electron for the robustness of valley index conservation, followed by optical experiment setting and results. Quantitative analyze on valley polarized carrier concentration and its depolarization time constant will follow. Chapter six will be a summary and direction to the future work.

This thesis explores the synthesis, properties, and potential applications of molecular clusters and the hierarchical solids that form when complementary clusters are combined. Chapter 1 introduces the diverse set of molecular clusters that I employ as nanoscale building blocks in the assembly of multifunctional materials. The core structure of the molecular clusters is closely related to the superconducting Chevrel phases. In discrete clusters, however, the core is passivated by organic ligands, which add stability and important functionalities. The molecular clusters have rich physical and chemical properties of their own, and I present some of the techniques used to investigate their intrinsic electronic properties. Finally, I review some of the modes by which the molecular clusters interact with another to assemble into hierarchical solids. The structural tunability and complexity embedded in the molecular clusters will enable the design of modular, well-defined, multifunctional materials with desirable electronic and magnetic properties. Chapter 2 details the synthesis and characterization of a family of manganese telluride molecular clusters. By varying the ligands that decorate the surface of the inorganic core, I show that the core structures can be tuned. The study of molecular clusters provides insight into how extended solids form. As such, I make structural comparisons of the clusters to known solid-state compounds. Being structurally varied and chemically flexible, the clusters reported in this chapter present an exciting new class of building blocks for the assembly of solid-state compounds. In Chapters 3-4, I present a nanoscale approach to investigate the electronic behaviors of individual molecular clusters. By using a scanning tunneling microscope-based break-junction technique and density-functional theory calculations, I study the effects of the junction environment and the redox properties of the molecular clusters on the conductance of single-cluster junction. Importantly, current blockade effect is observed at room temperature in the single-cluster junctions, allowing for the conductance to be turned on or off by varying the bias potential. Chapters 5-7 explore the synthesis and properties of the hierarchical solids comprised of molecular cluster building blocks. Chapter 5 unveils an approach to create a three-dimensional (3D) coordination network of molecular clusters by using a bifunctional cyanide ligand. The cyanide ligand is appended to the metal sites of the cluster through the carbon terminus, leaving the nitrogen end available for coordination by a divalent metal cation. Whereas the molecular cluster itself is paramagnetic across a temperature range of 3-300 K, the 3D coordination compound shows a ferromagnetic transition at ~25 K. In Chapter 6, I describe the importance of a molecular recognition feature on the molecular cluster that contributes to the assembly of a layered, van der Waals solid. The bulk material contains monolayers of fullerene and can be mechanically exfoliated to thinner layers, providing a key templated strategy to isolate free monolayers of fullerene. Lastly, Chapter 7 details layered, van der Waals solids of rhenium and molybdenum synthesized using traditional solid-state reactions. Because the neighboring cluster units are covalently bound together, the inter-cluster coupling is much stronger in the plane of these materials than that of the self-assembled solid described in Chapter 6. The strong two-dimensional (2D) character in these layered materials allows for the exfoliation of bulk crystals into robust, low-defect monolayers. The surfaces of these monolayers are covered with substitutionally labile ligands, which is an atypical yet valuable feature among 2D materials. I demonstrate that the electronic properties of the monolayers can be tuned by exchanging the surface ligands.

More that just magnificent views of atoms and molecules, Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, STM, images have the potential to answer some fundamental questions relating to surface molecular dynamics and bonding characteristics of localized species versus more common analytical tools that provide average of bulk sample information. A special feature of the STM is utilized in this study which is the ability to image organic monolayers at liquid-solid interface at ambient conditions. For STM analysis of organic fluids, the choice of a substrate is critical to the success of the images. The substrate must meet three criteria, the ability to sustain a tunneling current, retain an atomically flat surface over the area scanned, and immobilize a monolayer of the sample. The adsorption geometry created by the liquid crystalline materials analyzed in this study provided magnificent detailed features of the sample monolayer on a graphite substrate. These data provide information about the balance of intermolecular forces at the interface. It is illustrated that the quality or amount of information available from any fluid-solid interfacial image is dependent upon the existence of molecular symmetry within the monolayer of the substrate surface. / Graduation date: 1995

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Chemical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004. / Clifford L. Henderson, Committee Chair ; Peter Ludovice, Committee Member ; Laren Tolbert, Committee Member ; Dennis Hess, Committee Member ; W. Brent Carter, Committee Member. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-128).

No description available.

There is no abstract available for this thesis. / Department of Chemistry

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: molecular scale devices; self-assembled monolayers; multilayered films; non-covalent self-assembly. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 402-423).

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, November 2008. / Restricted until 24th November 2009, during which time access is available with the consent of the Head of School.