This study establishes a set of magnetics-based tools that have been integrated with microfluidic systems. The overall impact of the work begins to enable the rapid and efficient manipulation and detection of magnetic entities such as particles, picoliter-sized droplets, or bacterial cells. Details of design, fabrication, and theoretical and experimental assessments are presented. The manipulation strategy has been demonstrated in the format of a particle diverter, whereby micron-sized particles are actively directed into desired flow channels at a split-flow junction by means of integrated microelectromagnets. Magnetic detection has been realized by deploying Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR) sensors--microfabricated structures originally developed for use as readout elements in computer hard-drives. We successfully transferred the GMR technology to the lab-on-a-chip arena, and demonstrated the versatility of the concept in several important areas: real-time, integrated monitoring of the properties of multiphase droplet flows; rapid quantitative determination of the concentration of magnetic nanoparticles in droplets of ferrofluids; and high-speed detection of individual magnetic microparticles and magnetotactic bacteria. The study also includes novel schemes for hydrodynamic flow focusing that work in conjunction with GMR-based detection to ensure precise navigation of the sample stream through the GMR detection volume, therefore effectively establishing a novel concept of a microfabricated …

The viscosities of both aqueous and cyanate ester monomer (BECy) based suspensions of alumina nanoparticle were studied. The applications for these suspensions are different: aqueous suspensions of alumina nanoparticles are used in the production of technical ceramics made by slip casting or tape casting, and the BECy based suspensions are being developed for use in an injection-type composite repair resin. In the case of aqueous suspensions, it is advantageous to achieve a high solids content with low viscosity in order to produce a high quality product. The addition of a dispersant is useful so that higher solids content suspensions can be used with lower viscosities. For BECy suspensions, the addition of nanoparticles to the BECy resin is expected to enhance the mechanical properties of the cured composite. The addition of saccharides to aqueous suspensions leads to viscosity reduction. Through DSC measurements it was found that the saccharide molecules formed a solution with water and this resulted in lowering the melting temperature of the free water according to classic freezing point depression. Saccharides also lowered the melting temperature of the bound water, but this followed a different rule. The shear thinning and melting behaviors of the suspensions were used to develop …

Two ionic and one neutral methyl(oxo)rhenium(V) compounds were synthesized and structurally characterized. They were compared in reactivity towards the ligands triphenylphosphane, pyridines, pyridine N-oxides. Assistance from Broensted bases was found on ligand displacement of ionic rhenium compounds as well as nucleophile assistance on oxidation of all compounds. From the kinetic data, crystal structures, and an analysis of the intermediates, a structural formula of PicH{sup +}3{sup -} and mechanisms of ligand displacement and oxidation were proposed.

The Matteucci effect, which mainly manifests itself as the change of magnetization of a material with torsional stress, is currently of great technological interest because of the search for magnetic torque sensors. Magnetic torque sensors are important to future improvements of automobiles and industrial robots. It is well known that the magnetic state of a material depends on both the external magnetic field and external stress which causes strain and change in magnetization of the material. The former phenomenon has been well understood in both theory and application. However, the magnetic state dependence of stress is not adequately understood and the experimental data is of limited extent. In this project, the Matteucci effect in iron, cobalt, nickel and permalloy rods has been documented when they were in magnetic remanence status along the axis and nickel ring when they were in remanence status along the circumference. The effect of annealing on the magnetomechanical effect in nickel and the temperature dependence of the magnetomechanical sensitivity has also been examined. Factors related to the sensitivity at equilibrium condition have been theoretically developed. it is found in the experiments that the mechanism of magnetic domain wall movement plays an important role rather than the …

This dissertation describes the efforts to design and implement the Generalized Portable SHMEM library, GPSHMEM, as well as supplementary tools. There are two major components of the GPSHMEM project: the GPSHMEM library itself and the Fortran 77 source-to-source translator. The rest of this thesis is divided into two parts. Part I introduces the shared memory model and the distributed shared memory model. It explains the motivation behind GPSHMEM and presents its functionality and performance results. Part II is entirely devoted to the Fortran 77 translator call fgpp. The need for such a tool is demonstrated, functionality goals are stated, and the design issues are presented along with the development of the solutions.

Organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) are among the most promising for flat panel display technologies. They are light, bright, flexible, and cost effective. And while they are emerging in commercial product, their low power efficiency and long-term degradation are still challenging. The aim of this work was to investigate their device physics and improve their performance. Violet and blue OLEDs were studied. The devices were prepared by thermal vapor deposition in high vacuum. The combinatorial method was employed in device preparation. Both continuous wave and transient electroluminescence (EL) were studied. A new efficient and intense UV-violet light emitting device was developed. At a current density of 10 mA/cm{sup 2}, the optimal radiance R could reach 0.38 mW/cm{sup 2}, and the quantum efficiency was 1.25%. using the delayed EL technique, electron mobilities in DPVBi and CBP were determined to be {approx} 10{sup -5} cm{sup 2}/Vs and {approx} 10{sup -4} cm{sup 2}/Vs, respectively. Overshoot effects in the transient El of blue light emitting devices were also observed and studied. This effect was attributed to the charge accumulation at the organic/organic and organic/cathode interfaces.

The work presented in this dissertation has investigated three distinct areas of interest in the field of quasicrystals: bulk structure, transport properties, and electronic structure. First, they have described the results of a study which explored the fundamental interactions between the atomic species of the icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn quasicrystal. The goal of this work was to determine whether the pseudo-MacKay or Bergman type clusters have a special stability or are merely a geometric coincidence. This was carried out by using laser vaporization to produce gas-phase metal clusters, which were analyzed using time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Both the kinetic and thermodynamic stabilities of the clusters were probed. The data indicated no special stability for either pseudo-MacKay or Bergman type clusters as isolated units. This, however, is not proof that these clusters are simply a geometric coincidence. It is possible that such clusters only have stability in the framework of the bulk matrix and do not exist as isolated units. Next, they have reported their investigations of the bulk thermal transport properties of a decagonal Al-Ni-Co two dimensional quasicrystal in the temperature range 373K-873K. The properties of a sample oriented along the periodic axis and another oriented along the aperiodic axis were measured. A …

A magnetic tunnel junction is a device that changes its electrical resistance with a change in an applied magnetic field. A typical junction consists of two magnetic electrodes separated by a nonmagnetic insulating layer. The magnetizations of the two electrodes can have two possible extreme configurations, parallel and antiparallel. The antiparallel configuration is observed to have the higher measured resistance and the parallel configuration has the lower resistance. To switch between these two configurations a magnetic field is applied to the device which is primarily used to change the orientation of the magnetization of one electrode usually called the free layer, although with sufficient high magnetic field the orientation of the magnetizations of both of the electrodes can be changed. The most commonly used models for describing and explaining the electronic behavior of tunnel junctions are the Simmons model and the Brinkman model. However, both of these models were designed for simple, spin independent tunneling. The Simmons model does not address the issue of applied magnetic fields nor does it address the form of the electronic band structure in the metallic electrodes, including the important factor of spin polarization. The Brinkman model is similar, the main difference between the two …

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) offers many advantages over conventional analytical methods, such as speed, simplicity, high resolution, low cost, and small sample consumption, especially for the separation of enantiomers. However, chiral method developments still can be time consuming and tedious. They designed a comprehensive enantioseparation protocol employing neutral and sulfated cyclodextrins as chiral selectors for common basic, neutral, and acidic compounds with a 96-capillary array system. By using only four judiciously chosen separation buffers, successful enantioseparations were achieved for 49 out of 54 test compounds spanning a large variety of pKs and structures. Therefore, unknown compounds can be screened in this manner to identify optimal enantioselective conditions in just one rn. In addition to superior separation efficiency for small molecules, CE is also the most powerful technique for DNA separations. Using the same multiplexed capillary system with UV absorption detection, the sequence of a short DNA template can be acquired without any dye-labels. Two internal standards were utilized to adjust the migration time variations among capillaries, so that the four electropherograms for the A, T, C, G Sanger reactions can be aligned and base calling can be completed with a high level of confidence. the CE separation of DNA can be …

CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) is a widely used technique in engineering design field. It uses mathematical methods to simulate and predict flow characteristics in a certain physical space. Since the numerical result of CFD computation is very hard to understand, VR (virtual reality) and data visualization techniques are introduced into CFD post-processing to improve the understandability and functionality of CFD computation. In many cases CFD datasets are very large (multi-gigabytes), and more and more interactions between user and the datasets are required. For the traditional VR application, the limitation of computing power is a major factor to prevent visualizing large dataset effectively. This thesis presents a new system designing to speed up the traditional VR application by using parallel computing and distributed computing, and the idea of using hand held device to enhance the interaction between a user and VR CFD application as well. Techniques in different research areas including scientific visualization, parallel computing, distributed computing and graphical user interface designing are used in the development of the final system. As the result, the new system can flexibly be built on heterogeneous computing environment, dramatically shorten the computation time.

The oxidation resistance of a high-temperature alloy is dependent upon sustaining the formation of a protective scale, which is strongly related to the alloying composition and the oxidation condition. The protective oxide scale only provides a finite period of oxidation resistance owing to its eventual breakdown, which is especially accelerated under thermal cycling conditions. This current study focuses on the long-term cyclic oxidation behavior of a number of commercial wrought alloys. The alloys studied were Fe- and Ni-based, containing different levels of minor elements, such as Si, Al, Mn, and Ti. Oxidation testing was conducted at 1000 and 1100 C in still air under both isothermal and thermal cycling conditions (1-day and 7-days). The specific aspects studied were the oxidation behavior of chromia-forming alloys that are used extensively in industry. The current study analyzed the effects of alloying elements, especially the effect of minor element Si, on cyclic oxidation resistance. The behavior of oxide scale growth, scale spallation, subsurface changes, and chromium interdiffusion in the alloy were analyzed in detail. A novel model was developed in the current study to predict the life-time during cyclic oxidation by simulating oxidation kinetics and chromium interdiffusion in the subsurface of chromia-forming alloys.

The scientific community has recently experienced an overall effort to reduce the physical size of many experimental components to the nanometer size range. This size is unique as the characteristics of this regime involve aspects of pure physics, biology, and chemistry. One extensively studied example of a nanometer sized experimental component, which acts as a junction between these three principle scientific theologies, is deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA). These biopolymers not only contain the biological genetic guide to code for the production of life-sustaining materials, but are also being probed by physicists as a means to create electrical circuits and furthermore as controllable architectural and sensor motifs in the chemical disciplines. Possibly the most common nano-sized component between these sciences are nanoparticles composed of a variety of materials. The cross discipline employment of nanoparticles is evident from the vast amount of literature that has been produced from each of the individual communities within the last decade. Along these cross-discipline lines, this dissertation examines the use of several different types of nanoparticles with a wide array of surface chemistries to understand their adsorption properties and to construct unique miniaturized analytical and immunoassay platforms. This introduction will act as a …

Organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) constitute a new and exciting emissive display technology. In general, the basic OLED structure consists of a stack of fluorescent organic layers sandwiched between a transparent conducting-anode and metallic cathode. When an appropriate bias is applied to the device, holes are injected from the anode and electrons from the cathode; some of the recombination events between the holes and electrons result in electroluminescence (EL). Until now, most of the efforts in developing OLEDs have focused on display applications, hence on devices within the visible range. However some organic devices have been developed for ultraviolet or infrared emission. Various aspects of the device physics of doped small molecular OLEDs were described and discussed. The doping layer thickness and concentration were varied systematically to study their effects on device performances, energy transfer, and turn-off dynamics. Low-energy-gap DCM2 guest molecules, in either {alpha}-NPD or DPVBi host layers, are optically efficient fluorophores but also generate deep carrier trap-sites. Since their traps reduce the carrier mobility, the current density decreases with increased doping concentration. At the same time, due to efficient energy transfer, the quantum efficiency of the devices is improved by light doping or thin doping thickness, in comparison with …