This research has shown that epilayers with residual impurity concentrations of 5 x 10{sup 13} cm{sup {minus}3} can be grown by producing the purest Pb available in the world. These epilayers have extremely low minority acceptor concentrations, which is ideal for fabrication of IR absorbing layers. The Pb LPE growth of Ge also has the advantageous property of gettering Cu from the epilayer and the substrate. Epilayers have been grown with intentional Sb doping for IR absorption on lightly doped substrates. This research has proven that properly working Ge BIB detectors can be fabricated from the liquid phase as long as pure enough solvents are available. The detectors have responded at proper wavelengths when reversed biased even though the response did not quite reach minimum wavenumbers. Optimization of the Sb doping concentration should further decrease the photoionization energy of these detectors. Ge BIB detectors have been fabricated that respond to 60 cm{sup {minus}1} with low responsivity. Through reduction of the minority residual impurities, detector performance has reached responsivities of 1 A/W. These detectors have exhibited quantum efficiency and NEP values that rival conventional photoconductors and are expected to provide a much more sensitive tool for new scientific discoveries in a …

The authors consider polymers, modeled as self-avoiding walks with interactions on a hexagonal lattice, and examine the applicability of certain Monte Carlo methods for estimating their mean properties at equilibrium. Specifically, the authors use the pivoting algorithm of Madras and Sokal and Metroplis rejection to locate the phase transition, which is known to occur at {beta}{sub crit} {approx} 0.99, and to recalculate the known value of the critical exponent {nu} {approx} 0.58 of the system for {beta} = {beta}{sub crit}. Although the pivoting-Metropolis algorithm works well for short walks (N < 300), for larger N the Metropolis criterion combined with the self-avoidance constraint lead to an unacceptably small acceptance fraction. In addition, the algorithm becomes effectively non-ergodic, getting trapped in valleys whose centers are local energy minima in phase space, leading to convergence towards different values of {nu}. The authors use a variety of tools, e.g. entropy estimation and histograms, to improve the results for large N, but they are only of limited effectiveness. Their estimate of {beta}{sub crit} using smaller values of N is 1.01 {+-} 0.01, and the estimate for {nu} at this value of {beta} is 0.59 {+-} 0.005. They conclude that even a seemingly simple system …

The effects of stress on germanium lasers doped with single, double, and triple acceptors have been investigated. The results can be explained quantitatively with theoretical calculations and can be attributed to specific changes in the energy levels of acceptors in germanium under stress. In contrast to previous measurements, gallium-doped Ge crystals show a decrease in lasing upon uniaxial stress. The decrease seen here is attributed to the decrease in heavy hole effective mass upon application of uniaxial stress, which results in a decreased population inversion. The discrepancy between this work and previous studies can be explained with the low compensation level of the material used here. Because the amount of ionized impurity scattering in low-compensated germanium lasers is small to begin with, the reduction in scattering with uniaxial stress does not play a significant role in changing the laser operation. Beryllium-doped germanium lasers operate based on a different mechanism of population inversion. In this material it is proposed that holes can transfer between bands by giving their energy to a neutral beryllium atom, raising the hole from the ground to a bound excited state. The free hole will then return to zero energy with some probability of entering the other …

This thesis investigates ultrasonic wave propagation in unconsolidated sands in the presence of different pore fluids. Laboratory experiments have been conducted in the sub-MHz range using quartz sand fully saturated with one or two liquids. Elastic wave propagation in unconsolidated granular material is computed with different numerical models: in one-dimension a scattering model based on an analytical propagator solution, in two dimensions a numerical approach using the boundary integral equation method, in three dimensions the local flow model (LFM), the combined Biot and squirt flow theory (BISQ) and the dynamic composite elastic medium theory (DYCEM). The combination of theoretical and experimental analysis yields a better understanding of how wave propagation in unconsolidated sand is affected by (a) homogeneous phase distribution; (b) inhomogeneous phase distribution, (fingering, gas inclusions); (c) pore fluids of different viscosity; (d) wettabilities of a porous medium. The first study reveals that the main ultrasonic P-wave signatures, as a function of the fraction on nonaqueous-phase liquids in initially water-saturated sand samples, can be explained by a 1-D scattering model. The next study investigates effects of pore fluid viscosity on elastic wave propagation, in laboratory experiments conducted with sand samples saturated with fluids of different viscosities. The last study …

Interest in utilizing aluminum alloys in automobiles has increased in recent years as a result of the desire to lower automobile weight and, consequently, increase fuel economy. While aluminum alloy use in cast parts has increased, outer body panel applications are still being investigated. The industry is interested in improving the formability of these sheet alloys by a combination of alloy design and processing. A different avenue of improving the formability of these alloys may be through patterning of the sheet surface. Surface patterns hold the lubricant during the forming process, with a resulting decrease in the sheet-die surface contact. While it has been speculated that an optimum surface pattern would consist of discrete cavities, detailed investigation into the reduction of forming friction by utilizing discrete patterns is lacking. A series of discrete patterns were investigated to determine the dependence of the forming friction of automotive aluminum alloys on pattern lubricant carrying capacity and on material strength. Automotive aluminum alloys used in outer body panel applications were rolled on experimental rolls that had been prepared with a variety of discrete patterns. All patterns for each alloy were characterized before and after testing both optically and, to determine pattern lubricant capacity, …

In this thesis, the author argues that the supersymmetric Standard Model, while avoiding the fine tuning in electroweak symmetry breaking, requires unnaturalness/fine tuning in some (other) sector of the theory. For example, Baryon and Lepton number violating operators are allowed which lead to proton decay and flavor changing neutral currents. He studies some of the constraints from the latter in this thesis. He has to impose an R-parity for the theory to be both natural and viable. In the absence of flavor symmetries, the supersymmetry breaking masses for the squarks and sleptons lead to too large flavor changing neutral currents. He shows that two of the solutions to this problem, gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking and making the scalars of the first two generations heavier than a few TeV, reintroduce fine tuning in electroweak symmetry breaking. He also constructs a model of low energy gauge mediation with a non-minimal messenger sector which improves the fine tuning and also generates required Higgs mass terms. He shows that this model can be derived from a Grand Unified Theory despite the non-minimal spectrum.

In a paper of 1988 [41] on statistical mechanics of the nonlinear Schroedinger equation, it was observed that a Gibbs canonical ensemble associated with the nonlinear Schroedinger equation exhibits behavior reminiscent of a phase transition in classical statistical mechanics. The existence of a phase transition in the canonical ensemble of the nonlinear Schroedinger equation would be very interesting and would have important implications for the role of this equation in modeling physical phenomena; it would also have an important bearing on the theory of weak solutions of nonlinear wave equations. The cubic Schroedinger equation, as will be shown later, is equivalent to the self-induction approximation for vortices, which is a widely used equation of motion for a thin vortex filament in classical and superfluid mechanics. The existence of a phase transition in such a system would be very interesting and actually very surprising for the following reasons: in classical fluid mechanics it is believed that the turbulent regime is dominated by strong vortex stretching, while the vortex system described by the cubic Schroedinger equation does not allow for stretching. In superfluid mechanics the self-induction approximation and its modifications have been used to describe the motion of thin superfluid vortices, which …

Multicusp ion sources are capable of producing ions with low axial energy spread which are necessary in applications such as: ion projection lithography (IPL) and focused ion beams for the next generation lithographic tools and nuclear science experiments such as radioactive ion beam production. The axial ion energy spread for multicusp source is approximately 6 eV which is too large for IPL and radioactive ion beam applications. The addition of a magnetic filter which consists of a pair of permanent magnets to the multicusp source reduces the energy spread considerably. The reduction is due to the improvement in the uniformity of the axial plasma potential distribution in the discharge region. Axial ion energy spread of the filament driven ion source has been measured using three different techniques. In all cases, it was found to be less than 2 eV. Energy spread of the radio frequency (RF) driven source has also been explored, and it was found to be less than 3 eV with the proper RF-shielding. A new multicusp source configuration has been designed and constructed to further reduce the energy spread. To achieve a more uniform axial plasma potential distribution, a cylindrical magnetic filter has been designed and constructed …

In 1971, Jetz and Graham discovered that the silicon-hydrogen bond in silanes could be broken under mild photochemical conditions in the presence of certain transition metal carbonyls. Such reactions fall within the class of oxidative addition. A decade later, similar reactivity was discovered in alkanes. In these cases a C-H bond in non-functionalized alkanes was broken through the oxidative addition of Cp*Ir(H){sub 2}L (Cp* = (CH{sub 3}){sub 5}C{sub 5}, L = PPh{sub 3}, Ph = C{sub 6}H{sub 5}) to form Cp*ML(R)(H) or of Cp*Ir(CO){sub 2} to form Cp*Ir(CO)(R)(H). These discoveries opened an entirely new field of research, one which naturally included mechanistic studies aimed at elucidating the various paths involved in these and related reactions. Much was learned from these experiments but they shared the disadvantage of studying under highly non-standard conditions a system which is of interest largely because of its characteristics under standard conditions. Ultrafast time-resolved IR spectroscopy provides an ideal solution to this problem; because it allows the resolution of chemical events taking place on the femto-through picosecond time scale, it is possible to study this important class of reactions under the ambient conditions which are most of interest to the practicing synthetic chemist. Certain of the …

A variety of phenomena involves atomic motion on the femtosecond time-scale. These phenomena have been studied using ultrashort optical pulses, which indirectly probe atomic positions through changes in optical properties. Because x-rays can more directly probe atomic positions, ultrashort x-ray pulses are better suited for the study of ultrafast structural dynamics. One approach towards generating ultrashort x-ray pulses is by 90{sup o} Thomson scattering between terawatt laser pulses and relativistic electrons. Using this technique, the author generated {approx} 300 fs, 30 keV (0.4 {angstrom}) x-ray pulses. These x-ray pulses are absolutely synchronized with ultrashort laser pulses, allowing femtosecond optical pump/x-ray probe experiments to be performed. Using the right-angle Thomson scattering x-ray source, the author performed time-resolved x-ray diffraction studies of laser-perturbated InSb. These experiments revealed a delayed onset of lattice expansion. This delay is due to the energy relaxation from a dense electron-hole plasma to the lattice. The dense electron-hole plasma first undergoes Auger recombination, which reduces the carrier concentration while maintaining energy content. Longitudinal-optic (LO) phonon emission then couples energy to the lattice. LO phonon decay into acoustic phonons, and acoustic phonon propagation then causes the growth of a thermally expanded layer. Source characterization is instrumental in utilizing ultrashort …