YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7-{delta}} (YBCO) coated conductors are promising materials for large-scale superconductivity applications. One version of a YBCO coated conductor is based on ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) of magnesium oxide (MgO) onto polycrystalline metal substrates. SrTiO{sub 3} (STO) is often deposited by physical vapor deposition (PVD) methods as a buffer layer between the YBCO and IBAD MgO due to its chemical stability and lattice mismatch of only {approx}1.5% with YBCO. In this work, some aspects of the stability of STO with respect to copper (Cu) and chemical solution deposition of STO on IBAD MgO templates were examined. Solubility limits of Cu in STO were established by processing Cu-doped STO powders by conventional bulk preparation techniques. The maximum solubility of Cu in STO was {approx}1% as determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Rietveld refinements of x-ray diffraction (XRD) data. XRD analysis, performed in collaboration with NIST, on powder compositions on the STO/SrCuO{sub 2} tie line did not identify any ternary phases. SrCu{sub 0.10}Ti{sub 0.90}O{sub y} buffer layers were prepared by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and CSD on IBAD MgO flexible metallic textured tapes. TEM analysis of a {approx}100 nm thick SrCu{sub 0.10}Ti{sub 0.90}O{sub y} buffer layer deposited by …

Rapid developments in time-resolved optical spectroscopy have led to renewed interest in the nonequilibrium state of superconductors and other highly correlated electron materials. In these experiments, the nonequilibrium state is prepared by the absorption of short (less than 100 fs) laser pulses, typically in the near-infrared, that perturb the density and energy distribution of quasiparticles. The evolution of the nonequilibrium state is probed by time resolving the changes in the optical response functions of the medium that take place after photoexcitation. Ultimately, the goal of such experiments is to understand not only the nonequilibrium state, but to shed light on the still poorly understood equilibrium properties of these materials. We report nonequilibrium experiments that have revealed aspects of the cup rates that have been inaccessible by other techniques. Namely, the diffusion and recombination coefficients of quasiparticles have been measured in both YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 6.5} and Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}CaCu{sub 2}O{sub 8+x} using time-resolved optical spectroscopy. Dependence of these measurements on doping, temperature and laser intensity is also obtained. To study the recombination of quasiparticles, we measure the change in reflectivity {Delta}R which is directly proportional to the nonequilibrium quasiparticle density created by the laser. From the intensity dependence, we estimate …

The goal of this dissertation is twofold. The first part concerns the development of a numerical method for solving Maxwell's equations on unstructured hexahedral grids that employs both high order spatial and high order temporal discretizations. The second part involves the use of this method as a computational tool to perform high fidelity simulations of various electromagnetic devices such as optical transmission lines and photonic crystal structures to yield a level of accuracy that has previously been computationally cost prohibitive. This work is based on the initial research of Daniel White who developed a provably stable, charge and energy conserving method for solving Maxwell's equations in the time domain that is second order accurate in both space and time. The research presented here has involved the generalization of this procedure to higher order methods. High order methods are capable of yielding far more accurate numerical results for certain problems when compared to corresponding h-refined first order methods , and often times at a significant reduction in total computational cost. The first half of this dissertation presents the method as well as the necessary mathematics required for its derivation. The second half addresses the implementation of the method in a parallel …

Better devices are needed for the detection of aerosolized biological warfare agents. Advances in the ongoing development of one such device, the BioAerosol Mass Spectrometry (BAMS) system, are described here in detail. The system samples individual, micrometer-sized particles directly from the air and analyzes them in real-time without sample preparation or use of reagents. At the core of the BAMS system is a dual-polarity, single-particle mass spectrometer with a laser based desorption and ionization (DI) system. The mass spectra produced by early proof-of-concept instruments were highly variable and contained limited information to differentiate certain types of similar biological particles. The investigation of this variability and subsequent changes to the DI laser system are described. The modifications have reduced the observed variability and thereby increased the usable information content in the spectra. These improvements would have little value without software to analyze and identify the mass spectra. Important improvements have been made to the algorithms that initially processed and analyzed the data. Single particles can be identified with an impressive level of accuracy, but to obtain significant reductions in the overall false alarm rate of the BAMS instrument, alarm decisions must be made dynamically on the basis of multiple analyzed particles. …