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The behaviour of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in nanoscale geometries is studied using numerical methods supported by theory and experiment. First, we derive the behaviour of SPPs at graded metal-dielectric interfaces, including dispersion relations, field profiles, propagation velocities, losses, and cutoff wavelength. Numerical simulations show excellent agreement with analytic solutions. In the second part of the thesis we design hybrid vanadium dioxide-plasmonic based absorption switches. The switches are designed and optimized using optical, electrical and thermal simulations. 5 $\mu$m switch designs have extinction ratios exceeding 30 dB and require powers of 10 mW. A switch is fabricated based on the proposed design. A 7 $\mu$m experimental switch reaches 16.4 dB of extinction and requires 64 mW of power, making it one of the most efficient optical switches ever demonstrated in terms of extinction and power consumption. Numerical simulations predict experimental results with a high degree of accuracy.

The behaviour of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in nanoscale geometries is studied using numerical methods supported by theory and experiment. First, we derive the behaviour of SPPs at graded metal-dielectric interfaces, including dispersion relations, field profiles, propagation velocities, losses, and cutoff wavelength. Numerical simulations show excellent agreement with analytic solutions. In the second part of the thesis we design hybrid vanadium dioxide-plasmonic based absorption switches. The switches are designed and optimized using optical, electrical and thermal simulations. 5 $\mu$m switch designs have extinction ratios exceeding 30 dB and require powers of 10 mW. A switch is fabricated based on the proposed design. A 7 $\mu$m experimental switch reaches 16.4 dB of extinction and requires 64 mW of power, making it one of the most efficient optical switches ever demonstrated in terms of extinction and power consumption. Numerical simulations predict experimental results with a high degree of accuracy.

The development of nanoscale patterns has a vast variety of applications going from biology to solid state devices. In this research we present a new direct patterning technique in which laser photoreduction of silver from a liquid is controlled by a scanning atomic force microscope tip. While pursuing the formation of patterns using the plasmonic field enhancement of an electromagnetic wave incident on a metallic Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) tip, our group discovered that contrary to expectations, the tip suppresses, rather than enhances, deposition on the underlying substrate, and this suppression persists in the absence of the tip. Experiments presented here exclude three potential mechanisms: purely mechanical material removal, depletion of the silver precursor, and preferential photoreduction on existing deposits. An example of a nano-scaled pattern was generated to show the possibilities of this work. These results represent a first step toward direct, negative tone, tip-based patterning of functional materials.

As CMOS manufacturing technology approaches fundamental limits, researchers are looking for revolutionary technologies beyond the end of the CMOS roadmap. Recent progress on devices, nano-manufacturing, and assembling of nanoscale structures is driving researchers to explore possible new fabrics, circuits and architectures based on nanoscale devices. Several fabric architectures based on various nanoscale devices have been proposed for nanoscale computation. These show great advantages over conventional CMOS technology but focus on FPGA-style applications. There has been no work shown for nanoscale architectures tuned for a processor application. This dissertation proposes a novel nanowire-based 2-D fabric referred to as Nanoscale Application-Specific IC (NASIC). Compared with other nanoscale fabric architectures, NASIC designs can be optimized for higher density and performance in an application-specific way (similar to ASIC in this aspect) and used as a fabric for processors. We present the design of a wire-streaming processor (WISP-0), which exercises many NASIC circuit styles and optimizations. A major goal of NASIC, and for other nanoscale architectures, is to preserve the density advantage of underlying nanodevices. Topological, doping and interconnect constraints can severely impact the effective density that can be achieved at the system level. To handle these constraints, we propose a comprehensive set of optimizations at both circuit and logic levels. Evaluations show that with combined optimizations, WISP-0 is still 39X denser than the equivalent design in 18nm CMOS technology (expected in 2018 by ITRS). Another key challenge for nanoscale computing systems is dealing with the unreliable nanodevices. The defect rate of nanodevices is expected to be orders of magnitude higher than what we are accustomed to with conventional CMOS processing based on lithography. In this dissertation, we first investigate various sources of defects/faults in NASIC circuits and analyze their impacts. Then, a hierarchical, multi-layer solution is proposed to tolerate defects/faults. Simulation shows that the yield of WISP-0 is as high as 50% even if as many as 15% transistors are defective. Estimations of the speed, power consumption of NASIC designs are also presented.

In this thesis, issues pertaining to the dynamics of nanoscale liquid systems, such as nanojets and nanobridges, in vacuum as well as in ambient gaseous conditions, are explored using both extensive molecular dynamics simulations and theoretical analyses. The simulation results serve as ``theoretical experimental data' (together with laboratory experiments when available) for the formulation, implementation, and testing of modified hydrodynamic formulations, including stochastic hydrodynamics. These investigations aim at extending hydrodynamic formulations to the nanoscale regime. In particular, the instability, and breakup of liquid nanobridges and nanojets are addressed in details. As an application of the microscopic hydrodynamics, a heated-nozzle technique to generate and control nanojets is proposed. Both simulations and microscopic hydrodynamic modeling reveal the formation of a ``virtual convergent nozzle', which consists of a narrowing convergent liquid core within a growing evaporative sheath, by the nanojet itself inside the real nozzle. The diameter of the resulting ejected nanojet is much smaller than the diameter of the nozzle. By adjusting the temperature distribution of the real nozzle, the size and shape of the virtual nozzle are changed, which in turn changes the diameter and the direction of the ejected nanojet.

Advances in microelectronics and nanotechnology have generated tremendous interest in the non-Fourier regimes of heat conduction, where the conventional theories based on local equilibrium no longer apply. The non-Fourier regimes include small length scales, where the medium can no longer be treated using bulk properties due to ballistic transport, and short time scales, on the order of the relaxation time of heat carriers, such as in short pulse laser heating. One of the objectives of this thesis is to clarify some misunderstandings in hyperbolic heat equation (HHE), commonly thought as a remedy of Fourier's law at small time scales. The HHE is analyzed from the stand point of statistical mechanics with an emphasis on the consequences of assumptions applied to the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) when deriving the HHE. In addition, some misperceptions of the HHE, caused by a few experiments and confusion with other physical phenomena, are clarified. It is concluded that HHE should not be interpreted as a more general equation governing heat transport because of several fundamental limitations. The other objective of this thesis is to introduce radiation entropy to the equation of phonon radiative transport (EPRT) for understanding the heat transfer mechanism on a fundamental level which can be applied to both diffusion and ballistic heat conduction in dielectric solids. The entropy generation due to phonon transport is examined along with the definition of a phonon brightness temperature, which is direction and frequency dependent. A better understanding of non-Fourier heat conduction will help researchers and engineers to choose appropriate theories or models in analyzing thermal transport in nanodevices.

In the Kane silicon-based electron-mediated nuclear spin quantum computer architecture, phosphorus is doped at precise positions in a silicon lattice, and the P donor nuclear spins act as qubits. Logical operations on the nuclear spins are performed using externally applied magnetic and electric fields. There are two important interactions: the hyperfine and exchange interactions, crucial for logical qubit operations. Single qubit operations are performed by applying radio frequency magnetic fields resonant with targeted nuclear spin transition frequencies, tuned by the gate-controlled hyperfine interaction. Two qubit operations are mediated through the exchange interaction between adjacent donor electrons. It is important to examine how these two interactions vary as functions of experimental parameters. Here we provide such an investigation. First, we examine the effects of varying several experimental parameters: gate voltage, magnetic field strength, inter donor separation, donor depth below the silicon oxide interface and back gate depth, to explore how these variables affect the donor electron density. Second, we calculate the hyperfine interaction and the exchange coupling as a function of these parameters. These calculations were performed using various levels of effective mass theory. In the first part of this thesis we use a multi-valley effective mass approach where we incorporate the full Si crystal Bloch structure in calculating the donor electron energy in the bulk silicon. Including the detailed Bloch structure is very computationally intensive, thus when we considered the effect of the externally applied fields in the second and third part, we employ an approach where we focus on the smooth donor-modulated envelope function to determine the response of the donor electron to the applied electric and magnetic fields and qubit position in the lattice. The electric field potential was obtained using Technology Computer Aided Design software, and the interfaces were modelled as a barrier using a step function. One of the critical results of this theoretical study was finding that there exist two regimes for the behaviour of the donor electron in response to the applied gate voltage, dependent on donor distance from the gate. When the qubit is in close proximity to the gate the electron transfer to the gate is gradual. However if the qubit is located far enough from the gate, we found that the donor electron is ionised toward the gate for gate voltages above a certain threshold. Another significant development we have made is in our calculations of the exchange coupling between two adjacent donor electrons. We extended our original Heitler-London basis to describe the two-electron system, and adopted a molecular orbital method where we included a a basis of 78 singlet and 66 triplet two-electron states. In addition to calculating a more accurate exchange coupling, we also evaluated the energy spectrum of the two electron double donor system. We aim to provide relevant information for the experimental design of these devices and highlight the significance of environmental factors other than gate potential that affect the donor electron.

The tri-gate FET has been hailed as the biggest breakthrough in transistor technology in the last 20 years. The increase in device performance (faster switching, less delay, improved short channel effects, etc.) coupled with the reduction in device size, would allow for huge gains in the electronics industry. This thesis aims to not only investigate the validity of these claims, but also how random dopant fluctuation (RDF) affects the tri-gates performance and how to curb these issues. In order to achieve this, an atomistic 3-D device simulation program was utilized in order to capture the many quantum mechanical effects that devices of this size experience and compare the results against a similar planar device. We see the tri-gate FET does indeed perform extremely well compared to its planar counterpart, but both devices experience a great deal of fluctuations due to the random dopants in the device. In order to limit the RDF effects a variety of methods were implemented including increasing doping concentrations in the channel, source, and drain regions, varying the source/drain junction depths, and varying the source/drain contact workfunction. The results showed that increasing doping concentrations in order to reduce the amount of space the dopants had to diffuse did not reduce the randomness experienced by the devices, but rather the randomness increased. The dopant fluctuation was insensitive to the varying of the workfunction, but was found to decrease with an increase in junction depth in the source/drain regions. With randomness in the tri-gate reduced, the overall performance should increase when used in ICs, where consistency in device characteristics is essential.

Inorganic nanoscale clusters have garnered significant interest for many practical applications within the fields of materials chemistry, inorganic chemistry, geochemistry, and environmental chemistry. However, the fundamental inner workings of how these materials interact in the solid state and solution continues to be a very elusive problem for scientists. My dissertation focuses on taking non-traditional approaches and characterization techniques to further understand the dynamic interactions of some of the aforementioned clusters. Chapter I is a comprehensive survey and perspective on selected characterization techniques used to study Group 13 aqueous nanoscale clusters and other polyoxometalates in solution. Chapter II focuses on utilizing Raman spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and quantum mechanical computations to unambiguously identify Group 13 tridecameric species in the solid state and aqueous solution. Chapter III discusses the first instance of transmetalation of aqueous aluminum clusters via salt addition of In(NO3)3 in aqueous or methanol. Chapters IV and V explore the effects that aprotic and protic solvents can have on the solution speciation of the flat aluminum tridecamer. Chapter VI discusses the utility of using electrochemically synthesized gallium tridecamer and its functional use as a thin film semiconductor. Chapter VII describes a unique graduate level chemistry course designed to allow students to conduct and generate publication-worthy research within the timeframe of the course. Chapter VIII ventures out beyond the group 13 cluster and introduces techniques used to study the formation and stability of aqueous hafnium clusters. Chapter IX details the synthesis and characterization of rhombic structured copper clusters in the solid state. Finally, chapter X highlights my unfinished projects that can propel future research within the lab. This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished co-authored material.