Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have gained increasing attention due to their promising applications (e.g., gas storage/separations, and catalysis) as nanoporous materials stemming from generally ultrahigh porosities and surface areas. Recently, research has shifted to synthesize MOF thin films and micropatterns that enable new applications (e.g., optoelectronics, smart coatings, and sensors).
In...
Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) is used to characterize amorphous and crystalline thin films of TiO2. Amorphous precursor films of TiO2 are deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering on fused silica and silicon substrates. Annealing the amorphous precursor films induces them to crystallize into either pure or mixed phases of the three...
The purpose of this research is to provide a simple fabrication method for zinc oxide and antimony sulfide based thin film solar cells. Both a ZnO nanorod electron conducting structure and a stibnite absorber show promise in a solar cell. Initial attempts at using only ZnO and Sb2S3, however, resulted...
Exciton polaritons are quasiparticles composed of a quantum superposition of matter and light states that arises from the coupling of a standing wave photon and an exciton. This research has two primary objectives: to design and fabricate a Fabry-Perot microcavity system in which to produce exciton polaritons; and to show...
Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are crystalline compounds formed from reacting a metal ion with an organic ligand. They represent a promising new avenue in materials science for gas separations and storage. Certain MOFs, in particular Mg-MOF-74, have shown a strong affinity for the capture of CO2. This project investigated a known...
The amorphous to crystalline phase change is of great interest for the production and operation of phase change memory and germanium electronic devices. Phase change memory relies on the ability to differentiate between differences in optical or electrical properties between the amorphous and crystalline phases of a single material. Amorphous...
In this dissertation, the structure and electronic properties of multiple metal oxide thin films are characterized and presented. Prompt inorganic condensation (PIC) of metal-oxo and –hydroxo clusters was evaluated as a technique for making metal oxide clusters in two separate studies. The first focuses on the synthesis of lithium niobate...
A series of seven magnesium-doped copper scandium oxide films were made by radio frequency sputtering, and intercalated at various oxygen pressures to create different oxygen concentrations in each film. The objectives of this study were to verify the p-type nature of these transparent conductive thin films, to determine the correlation...
The optical transition in high-fraction polymorphs of titania (TiO2) were investigated to determine the band gap behavior of the most common polymorphs—brookite, rutile, and anatase—the values of which are varied in the literature. The direct optical band gaps of brookite, rutile, and anatase, were determined to be 3.37(7)eV, 3.41(11)eV and...
As a group of promising semiconductor materials, metal chalcogenides in thin film form have been widely used in electronics and optoelectronics applications, such as solar cell devices and photon sensors. Unfortunately, the film size and product throughput are limited by the current vacuum-based thin film deposition techniques. Solution-based thin film...