Modern scientific and engineering problems often require simulations with a level of resolution difficult to achieve in reasonable amounts of time—even in effectively parallelized programs. Therefore, applications that exploit high performance computing (HPC) systems have become invaluable in academia and industry over the past two decades. Addressing the questions that...
The ring disclination is a topological defect that may be suitable for light polarization inside of a nematic liquid crystal. Due to its stability and chirality, the ring disclination could also allow for theoretical applications to quantum and classical field theories as a model for fundamental particles. In order to...
Nuclear fusion reactors comprise a significant field of study due to their potential to provide a limitless, clean, and sustainable source of energy. The inertial electrostatic confinement fusor is a type of fusion-generating device that accelerates deuterium gas to the conditions required for fusion. The goal of this research was...
Nuclear fusion has the potential to meet the energy needs of our civilization for centuries to come and does not produce harmful greenhouse gasses or produce long-lasting radioactive waste. A fusion reaction can be readily demonstrated in a confinement scheme known as inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion. In this work,...
Semiconducting materials which can be ambipolarly doped are highly desirable in many electronics applications, including use as solar cell materials. SnZrS₃ is being investigated for the possibility of ambipolar doping, with potential applications as a solar cell absorber layer. This dissertation covers the synthesis of SnZrS₃ and the related compound...
In this work, we systematically explore the effectiveness of optical aberration correction over a wide range of optical depths using the Segmented and Zernike Polynomial bases. We manufacture a set of 16 optical phantom samples consisting of a clear polyester resin substrate embedded with varying concentrations of aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃)...
I examine the strong co-variability between the surface divergence and vorticity and how it varies with latitude in the Pacific Ocean using surface vector winds from reanalysis and satellite scatterometer observations. This analysis was motivated in part by a significant correlation between divergence and vorticity over the global oceans that...
This work demonstrates correlation of microwave signals encoded with 16-bit codes using the parametric interaction of spin waves. Signal processing correlators are devices that compare two signals, such as a reference code and a received code, where the output indicates the similarity between the signals. Correlators are used in communication...
This thesis presents the results from Monte Carlo calculations on classical vector spins in
face-centered-cubic (FCC) lattices. The goal of the study was to understand the effect of
interlayer coupling, dilution of magnetic atoms in the lattice, and symmetry-changing
strain.
Experimental work by T. M. Giebultowicz et al. and J....
In this thesis, I present studies in the field of terahertz [THz] spectroscopy. It covers both the generation and detection of ultra-fast broadband THz pulses, as well as the transmission properties of vertically grown multi-walled carbon nanotube forests [MWCNTs]. We have found that these vertically grown MWCNTs respond strongly to...