Future quantum technologies will require high-efficiency, on-demand sources of entangled photons. A possible route to building such light sources employs two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors interfaced with a source of Cooper pairs. To investigate the possibility of such devices, we are testing methods to make high transparency n-type contacts, p-type contacts, and...
Materials with a strong spin Hall effect and Rashba-Edelstein effect have the potential to improve the efficiency of solid-state magnetic memory technologies and other magnetic logic devices. Heavy metals have been identified as having these properties, including the beta crystal phase of tungsten. In this work, we determine the strength...
Spontaneous quasicrystal (QC) formation has not been observed in pure metals either in computation or in experiments (excluding epitaxial growth of thin atomic layers on a QC template). In this thesis work, dodecagonal QC (DDQC) grains are first discovered to spontaneously form during thermal devitrification of pure tantalum (Ta) metallic...
The optical and electronic properties of amorphous oxide thin films depend crucially on chemical composition, and deposition process variations which give rise to sub-gap defect states. Consequently, there is a need for a reliable, high-throughput method to extract sub-gap defect densities of states in amorphous oxide thin films. We present...
The severity of wildfires around the globe is increasing. At the same time, urban development is expanding outward into areas where severe fires occur. There is an increased risk of home loss to fires in areas where severe fires and urban expansion meet. Ignition of homes or nearby fuel is...
Additive manufacturing has become a promising method for the fabrication of inexpensive, green, flexible sensors and electronics. Printed electronics on low- temperature substrates are very appealing for the flexible hybrid electronics market for their use in disposable and biocompatible electronic applications and in areas like packaging, wearables, and consumer electronics....
In this dissertation, the structural properties, thermodynamics and defect behavior of amorphous metal oxides and polyoxometalates are studied. Amorphous metal oxides have many applications, most notably as a semiconducting material used as the active matrix of thin film transistors. Alas, the amorphous nature of these materials makes studying them rather...
Despite climate change requiring the cutback of fossil fuel consumption, the world continues to increase its energy demands each year. To meet the ambitious goals outlined during the Paris Agreement in 2015, which set a goal to limit global warming to 1.5°C [1], changes in energy production methods are necessary....
Critical Infrastructures (CIs) such as energy, water supply, telecommunications, and transportation are highly vulnerable to cascading failures due to their interdependent operations. A resilient network is crucial to withstand the impact of functionality loss in disruptive events. This research evaluates network expansion as a proactive resilience strategy in which new...
Magnetic materials can be used in modern soft robotics as a method for external stimulus actuation and motion control. By combining aspects of biology and mechanics, devices are fabricated to create a structure capable of complex movement. Applications that these devices are subject to can be broken down into four...