Metal/ceramic interfaces can be found in many engineering applications including microelectronic packaging, multi-layered films, coatings, joints, and composite materials. In order to design reliable engineering systems that contain metal/ceramic interfaces, a comprehensive understanding of interfacial and near interfacial failure mechanisms is necessary.

The technological age has in large part been driven by the applications of semiconductors, and most notably by silicon. Our lives have been thoroughly changed by devices using the broad range of semiconductor technology developed over the past forty years. Much of the technological development has its foundation in research carried out on the different semiconductors whose properties can be exploited to make transistors, lasers, and many other devices. While the technological focus has largely been on silicon, many other semiconductor systems have applications in industry and offer formidable academic challenges. Diffusion studies belong to the most basic studies in semiconductors, important from both an application as well as research standpoint. Diffusion processes govern the junctions formed for device applications. As the device dimensions are decreased and the dopant concentrations increased, keeping pace with Moore's Law, a deeper understanding of diffusion is necessary to establish and maintain the sharp dopant profiles engineered for optimal device performance. From an academic viewpoint, diffusion in semiconductors allows for the study of point defects. Very few techniques exist which allow for the extraction of as much information of their properties. This study focuses on diffusion in the semiconductor gallium antimonide (GaSb). As will become …

An extensive experimental program to measure the spin structure of the nucleus is underway in Hall B at Jefferson Lab using a polarized electron beam incident on a polarized target. Spin degrees of freedom offer the possibility to test, in an independent way, existing models of resonance electro-production. The present analysis selects the Delta{sup +} (1232) in the exclusive channel {rvec p}({rvec e}, e'p)pi{sup 0} from data of the EG1 run period, taken in the Fall of 1998, to extract single and double asymmetries in a Q{sup 2} range from 0.5 to 1.5 GeV{sup 2}/c{sup 2}. Results of the asymmetries are presented as a function of momentum transfer Q{sup 2}. A comparison with the Effective Lagrangian Model by R. Davidson and N. Mukhopadhyay, the unitary isobar model MAID, and the dynamic model by Sato and Lee was performed. The data were found to be generally in good agreement with the models and a x{sup 2} comparison preferred the Sato-Lee model, which is tailored for the Delta (1232) photo- and electro-production. The present results are the first measurement of asymmetries for the exclusive reaction {rvec p}({rvec e}, e'p)pi{sup 0} and will provide new constraints for the models.

Short story written by a student in the UNT Honors College about a group of people observing a friend as he delves into films and the occult.