This thesis focuses on the energy band engineering of graphene. It presents pioneering findings on the controlled growth of graphene and graphene-based heterostructures, as well as scanning tunneling microscopy/scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STM/STS) studies on their electronic structures. The thesis primarily investigates two classes of graphene-based systems: (i) twisted bilayer graphene, which was synthesized on Rh substrates and manifests van Hove singularities near Fermi Level, and (ii) in-plane h-BN-G heterostructures, which were controllably synthesized in an ultrahigh vacuum chamber and demonstrate intriguing electronic properties on the interface. In short, the thesis offers revealing insights into the energy band engineering of graphene-based nanomaterials, which will greatly facilitate future graphene applications.

For upper-level undergraduate students, and first-year graduate students in materials science, metallurgy, electrical engineering, and applied physics.;This Third Edition is the result of a thorough re-examination of the entire text, incorporating suggestions and corrections by students and professors who have used the text. Explanations and descriptions have been expanded, and additional information has beeen added on high Tc, superconductors, diamond films, "buckminsterfullerene", and thin magnetic materials. Adopted by more than 20 colleges and universities, this text has proven to be a solid introduction to the electrical, optical, and magnetic properties of materials.;It contains comprehensive coverage of electronic properties in metals, semiconductors, and insulators at a fundamental level; stresses the use of wave properties as an integrating theme for the discussion of phonons, photons, and electrons; includes a complete set of illustrative problems along with exercises and answers; and features a careful indication of both Gaussian and SI unit systems.

As the sequel to the proceedings of the International Conference of Continuum Mechanics Focusing on Singularities (CoMFoS15), the proceedings of CoMFoS16 present further advances and new topics in mathematical theory and numerical simulations related to various aspects of continuum mechanics. These include fracture mechanics, shape optimization, modeling of earthquakes, material structure, interface dynamics and complex systems.. The authors are leading researchers with a profound knowledge of mathematical analysis from the fields of applied mathematics, physics, seismology, engineering, and industry. The book helps readers to understand how mathematical theory can be applied to various industrial problems, and conversely, how industrial problems lead to new mathematical challenges.

This thesis experimentally demonstrates the much discussed electronic charge-glass states in solids. It focuses on quasi-two-dimensional organic conductors of the -(BEDT-TTF)2X family, which form anisotropic triangular lattices, and examines their electronic properties using various measurements: resistivity, time-resolved electric transport, X-ray diffraction analysis, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The hallmark of the charge glass caused by geometrical frustration of lattice structure for those materials is successfully observed for the first time. The thesis provides new insights into the exotic properties of matter driven by strong electron correlations and crystalline frustration. The introduction enables beginners to understand fundamentals of the charge-glass states and the organic-conductor family -(BEDT-TTF)2X. The comprehensive and detailed descriptions of the experimental demonstration make this a valuable resource.

This book is an in-depth treatment of the theoretical background relevant to an understanding of materials that can be obtained by using high-energy electron diffraction and microscopy.

This book provides microscopic insights into chemical properties of NO on metal surfaces. NO/metal systems have been studied intensively to understand heterogeneous catalysis to detox exhaust NOx gas. The identification and componential analysis of various and mixed chemical species of NO adsorbed onto the surfaces have been significant challenges faced by conventional experimental techniques, such as vibrational spectroscopies. The author investigated "individual" NO molecules on Cu surfaces using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). STM not only provides information on the geometric, electronic, and vibrational properties at the single-molecule level; it is also able to manipulate molecules on surfaces to induce chemical reaction. Exploiting those techniques, the author chemically identified individual NO-related species on the surfaces and discovered new reaction processes for NO reduction, which provides microscopic insights into the catalytic mechanisms. The author also visualized wave functions of electrons in a valence orbital of NO and demonstrated that the wave functions are modified by the formation of covalent bonding or hydrogen bonding. This is, namely, "the visualization of quantum mechanics in real space," which is certainly worth reading. Furthermore, the book demonstrates that direct observation of valence orbitals helps to elucidate the reactivity of molecules adsorbed onto surfaces. This innovative approach to studying molecular properties will contribute to further development of STM and its related methods.

This practical, comprehensive book introduces both semiconductors and integrated optics at a fundamental level, and provides in-depth derivations and analysis of key integrated optical components for more advanced study. Written from an engineer's point of view, the book emphasizes practical application; the author develops and explains the concepts and techniques needed to solve real-world problems and to understand the engineering issues involved. The book first discusses semiconductor optical material systems and then addresses the waveguide in depth. Next, it covers active devices such as lasers, modulators and detectors. Finally, there is a survey of integration and hybridization, plus the development of photonic integrated circuits. With its clear explanations and design examples, the book provides both experienced and budding engineers with the information necessary to design both the structure and fabrication process of a semiconductor integrated optical device.

This thesis introduces a unique approach of applying atomic force microscopy to study the nanoelectromechanical properties of 2D materials, providing high-resolution computer-generated imagery (CGI) and diagrams to aid readers' understanding and visualization. The isolation of graphene and, shortly after, a host of other 2D materials has attracted a great deal of interest in the scientific community for both their range of extremely desirable and their record-breaking properties. Amongst these properties are some of the highest elastic moduli and tensile strengths ever observed in nature. The work, which was undertaken at Lancaster University's Physics department in conjunction with the University of Manchester and the National Physical Laboratory, offers a new approach to understanding the nanomechanical and nanoelectromechanical properties of 2D materials by utilising the nanoscale and nanosecond resolution of ultrasonic force and heterodyne force microscopy (UFM and HFM) - both contact mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. Using this approach and developing several other new techniques the authors succeeded in probing samples' subsurface and mechanical properties, which would otherwise remain hidden. Lastly, by using a new technique, coined electrostatic heterodyne force microscopy (E-HFM), the authors were able to observe nanoscale electromechanical vibrations with a nanometre and nanosecond resolution, in addition to probing the local electrostatic environment of devices fabricated from 2D materials.

Recent years have shown important and spectacular convergences between techniques traditionally used in theoretical physics and methods emerging from modern mathematics (combinatorics, probability theory, topology, algebraic geometry, etc). These techniques, and in particular those of low-dimensional statistical models, are instrumental in improving our understanding of emerging fields, such as quantum computing and cryptography, complex systems, and quantum fluids. This book sets these issues into a larger and more coherent theoretical context than is currently available. For instance, understanding the key concepts of quantum entanglement (a measure of information density) necessitates a thorough knowledge of quantum and topological field theory, and integrable models. To achieve this goal, the lectures were given by international leaders in the fields of exactly solvable models in low dimensional condensed matter and statistical physics.

This book is a passionate account of the scientific breakthroughs that led to the solution of the first protein structures and to the understanding of their function at atomic resolution. The book is divided into self-standing chapters that each deal with a protein or protein family. The subject is presented in a fluid, non-technical style that will engage student and scientists in biochemistry, biophysics, molecular and structure biology and physiology.

This work sheds new light on fundamental aspects of phase separation in polymer-blend thin films. A key feature underlying the theoretical models is the unification of one-dimensional thermodynamic phase equilibria with film evolution phenomena in two- and three dimensions. Initially, an established 'phase portrait' method, useful for visualising and calculating phase equilibria of polymer-blend films, is generalised to systems without convenient simplifying symmetries. Thermodynamic equilibria alone are then used to explain a film roughening mechanism in which laterally coexisting phases can have different depths in order to minimise free energy. The phase portraits are then utilised to demonstrate that simulations of lateral phase separation via a transient wetting layer, which conform very well with experiments, can be satisfactorily explained by 1D phase equilibria and a 'surface bifurcation' mechanism. Lastly, a novel 3D model of coupled phase separation and dewetting is developed, which demonstrates that surface roughening shadows phase separation in thin films.

This book provides a series of concise lectures on the fundamental theories of statistical mechanics, carefully chosen examples and a number of problems with complete solutions.
Modern physics has opened the way for a thorough examination of infra-structure of nature and understanding of the properties of matter from an atomistic point of view. Statistical mechanics is an essential bridge between the laws of nature on a microscopic scale and the macroscopic behaviour of matter. A good training in statistical mechanics thus provides a basis for modern physics and is indispensable to any student in physics, chemistry, biophysics and engineering sciences who wishes to work in these rapidly developing scientific and technological fields.
The collection of examples and problems is comprehensive. The problems are grouped in order of increasing difficulty.

This book introduces a novel Ti-Sb-Te alloy for high-speed and low-power phase-change memory applications, which demonstrates a phase-change mechanism that differs significantly from that of conventional Ge2Sb2Te5 and yields favorable overall performance. Systematic methods, combined with better material characteristics, are used to optimize the material components and device performance. Subsequently, a phase-change memory chip based on the optimized component is successfully fabricated using 40-nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor technology, which offers a number of advantages in many embedded applications.

This pioneering book presents new models for the thermomechanical behavior of composite materials and structures taking into account internal physico-chemical transformations such as thermodecomposition, sublimation and melting at high temperatures (up to 3000 K). It is of great importance for the design of new thermostable materials and for the investigation of reliability and fire safety of composite structures. It also supports the investigation of interaction of composites with laser irradiation and the design of heat-shield systems. Structural methods are presented for calculating the effective mechanical and thermal properties of matrices, fibres and unidirectional, reinforced by dispersed particles and textile composites, in terms of properties of their constituent phases. Useful calculation methods are developed for characteristics such as the rate of thermomechanical erosion of composites under high-speed flow and the heat deformation of composites with account of chemical shrinkage. The author expansively compares modeling results with experimental data, and readers will find unique experimental results on mechanical and thermal properties of composites under temperatures up to 3000 K. Chapters show how the behavior of composite shells under high temperatures is simulated by the finite-element method and so cylindrical and axisymmetric composite shells and composite plates are investigated under local high-temperature heating. < The book will be of interest to researchers and to engineers designing composite structures, and invaluable to materials scientists developing advanced performance thermostable materials.

This work revolves around the hydrogen economy and energy-storage electrochemical systems. More specifically, it investigates the possibility of using magnetron sputtering for deposition of efficient thin-film anode catalysts with low noble metal content for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEM-WEs) and unitized regenerative fuel cells (PEM-URFCs). The motivation for this research derives from the urgent need to minimize the price of such electrochemical devices should they enter the mass production. Numerous experiments were carried out, correlating the actual in-cell performance with the varying position of thin-film catalyst within the membrane electrode assembly, with the composition of high-surface support sublayer and with the chemical structure of the catalyst itself. The wide arsenal of analytical methods ranging from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy through electrochemical atomic force microscopy to photoelectron spectroscopy allowed the description of the complex phenomena behind different obtained efficiencies. Systematic optimizations led to the design of a novel PEM-WE anode thin-film iridium catalyst which performs similarly to the standard counterparts despite using just a fraction of their noble metal content. Moreover, the layer-by-layer approach resulted in the design of a Ir/TiC/Pt bi-functional anode for PEM-URFC which is able to operate in both the fuel cell and electrolyzer regime and thus helps to cut the cost of the whole conversion system even further.

With this volume, Ezequiel P. M. Leiva and co-authors fill a gap in the available literature, by providing a much-needed, comprehensive review of the relevant literature for electrochemists, materials scientists and energy researchers. For the first time, they present applications of underpotential deposition (UPD) on the nanoscale, such as nanoparticles and nanocavities, as well as for electrocatalysis. They also discuss real surface determinations and layer-by-layer growth of ultrathin films, as well as the very latest modeling approaches to UPD based on nanothermodynamics, statistical mechanics, molecular dynamics and Monte-Carlo simulations.

This book reports on the successful implementation of an innovative, miniaturized galvanic cell that offers unprecedented control over and access to ionic transport. It represents a milestone in fundamental studies on the diffusive transport of lithium ions between two atomically thin layers of carbon (graphene), a highly relevant aspect in electrodes for energy and mass storage in the context of batteries. Further, it is a beautiful example of how interdisciplinary work that combines expertise from two very distinct fields can significantly advance science. Machinery and tools common in the study of low-dimensional systems in condensed matter physics are combined with methods routinely employed in electrochemistry to enable truly unique and powerful experiments. The method developed here can easily be generalized and extended to other layered materials as well as other ionic species. Not only the method but also the outcome of its application to Li diffusion and intercalation in bilayer graphene is remarkable. A record chemical diffusion coefficient is demonstrated, exceeding even the diffusion of sodium chloride in water and surpassing any reported value of ion diffusion in single-phase mixed conducting materials. This finding may be indicative of the exceptional properties yet to be discovered in nanoscale derivatives of bulk insertion compounds.

This book presents the wide range of topics in two-dimensional physics of quantum Hall systems, especially fractional quantum Hall states. It covers the fundamental problems of two-dimensional quantum statistics in terms of topology and the corresponding braid group formalism for composite fernions, and the main formalism used in many-body quantum Hall theories, the Chern-Simons theory. Numerical studies are introduced for spherical systems and the composite fermion theory is tested. The book introduces the concept of the hierarchy of condensed states, the BCS paired Hall state, and multi-component quantum Hall systems and spin quantum Hall systems.

This work takes advantage of high-resolution silicon stencil masks to build air-stable complementary OTFTs using a low-temperature fabrication process. Plastic electronics based on organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) pave the way for cheap, flexible and large-area products. Over the past few years, OTFTs have undergone remarkable advances in terms of reliability, performance and scale of integration. Many factors contribute to the allure of this technology; the masks exhibit excellent stiffness and stability, thus allowing OTFTs with submicrometer channel lengths and superb device uniformity to be patterned. Furthermore, the OTFTs employ an ultra-thin gate dielectric that provides a sufficiently high capacitance to enable the transistors to operate at voltages as low as 3 V. The critical challenges in this development are the subtle mechanisms that govern the properties of aggressively scaled OTFTs. These mechanisms, dictated by device physics, are well described and implemented into circuit-design tools to ensure adequate simulation accuracy.

This thesis develops a nested sampling algorithm into a black box tool for directly calculating the partition function, and thus the complete phase diagram of a material, from the interatomic potential energy function. It represents a significant step forward in our ability to accurately describe the finite temperature properties of materials. In principle, the macroscopic phases of matter are related to the microscopic interactions of atoms by statistical mechanics and the partition function. In practice, direct calculation of the partition function has proved infeasible for realistic models of atomic interactions, even with modern atomistic simulation methods. The thesis also shows how the output of nested sampling calculations can be processed to calculate the complete PVT (pressure-volume-temperature) equation of state for a material, and applies the nested sampling algorithm to calculate the pressure-temperature phase diagrams of aluminium and a model binary alloy.

This book explores new experimental phase diagrams of non-oxide ceramics, with a particular focus on the silicon nitride, silicon carbide and aluminum nitride, as well as the ultra-high temperature ceramic (UHTC) systems. It features more than 80 experimental phase diagrams of these non-oxide ceramics, including three phase diagrams of UHTC systems, constructed by the authors. Physical chemistry data covering the period since the 1970s, collected by the author Z.K.Huang, is presented in six tables in the appendixes. It also includes 301 figures involving about 150 material systems. Most of the phase diagrams have been selected from the ACerS-NIST database with copyright permission. The book methodically presents numerous diagrams previously scattered in various journals and conferences worldwide. Providing extensive experimental data, it is a valuable reference resource on ceramics development and design for academic researchers, R&D engineers and graduate students.

Lianwei Li's Ph.D. thesis solves a long-standing problem in polymer physics: how does a hyperbranched chain pass through a cylindrical pore smaller than its size under an elongational flow field? The question was asked by the Nobel Laureate, the late Professor de Gennes in the 70s but has never been seriously addressed through real experiments. This thesis outlines how Lianwei Li developed a novel polymerization strategy using a seesaw-type macromonomer to prepare a set of "defect-free" hyperbranched chagins with different overall molar masses and controllable uniform subchain lengths. The author then unearthed how the critical (minimum) flow rate at which a hyperbranched chain can pass through the pore, is dependent on the overall molar mass and the subchain length. The experimental results give a unified description of polymer chains with different topologies passing through a small cylindrical pore, which enables us to separate chains by their topologies instead of their sizes in ultrafiltration. In addition, this research also reveals how the chain structure of amphiphilic hyperbranched block and graft copolymers affect their solution properties, including the establishments of several classic scaling laws that relate the chain size and the intrinsic viscosity to the overall molar mass and the subchain length, respectively. This work has led to numerous publications in high-impact peer-reviewed journals.