This thesis demonstrates a technology that enables pipetting-free high-throughput screening (HTS) on a miniaturized platform, eliminating the need for thousands of one-by-one pipetting and conventional liquid handling systems. This platform enhances accessibility to HTS and enables HTS to be used in small-to-medium scale laboratories. In addition, it allows large-scale combinatorial screening with a small number of valuable cells, such as patients' primary cancer cells. This technique will have a high impact for widespread use of HTS in the era of personalized medicine. In this thesis, the author firstly describes the need and concept of 'partipetting' for pipetting-free HTS platform. It is realized by the one-step pipetting and self-assembly of encoded drug-laden microparticles (DLPs) on the microwells. Next, the technical implementations required for the platform demonstration are described. It includes preparation of encoded DLPs, plastic chip fabrication, and realization of automated system. Lastly, screening of sequential drug combinations using this platform is demonstrated. This shows the potential of the proposed technology for various applications.

This book proposes the air insulation prediction theory and method in the subject of electrical engineering. Prediction of discharge voltage in different cases are discussed and worked out by simulation. After decades, now bottlenecks of traditional air discharge theories can be solved with this book. Engineering applications of the theory in air gap discharge voltage prediction are introduced. This book serves as reference for graduate students, scientific research personnel and engineering staff in the related fields.

Cold atomic gases trapped and manipulated on atom chips allow the realization of seminal one-dimensional (1d) quantum many-body problems in an isolated and well controlled environment. In this context, this thesis presents an extensive experimental study of non-equilibrium dynamics in 1d Bose gases, with a focus on processes that go beyond simple dephasing dynamics. It reports on the observation of recurrences of coherence in the post-quench dynamics of a pair of 1d Bose gases and presents a detailed study of their decay. The latter represents the first observation of phonon-phonon scattering in these systems. Furthermore, the thesis investigates a novel cooling mechanism occurring in Bose gases subjected to a uniform loss of particles. Together, the results presented show a wide range of non-equilibrium phenomena occurring in 1d Bose gases and establish them as an ideal testbed for many-body physics beyond equilibrium.

This book revisits the long-standing puzzle of cross-scale energy transfer and dissipation in plasma turbulence and introduces new perspectives based on both magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and Vlasov models. The classical energy cascade scenario is key in explaining the heating of corona and solar wind. By employing a high-resolution hybrid (compact finite difference & WENO) scheme, the book studies the features of compressible MHD cascade in detail, for example, in order to approximate a real plasma cascade as "Kolmogorov-like" and to understand features that go beyond the usual simplified theories based on incompressible models. When approaching kinetic scales where plasma effects must be considered, it uses an elementary analysis of the Vlasov-Maxwell equations to help identify the channels through which energy transfer must be dissipated. In addition, it shows that the pressure-strain interaction is of great significance in producing internal energy. This analysis, in contrast to many other recent studies, does not make assumptions about wave-modes, instability or other specific mechanisms responsible for the dynamics - the results are direct consequences of the Vlasov-Maxwell system of equations. This is an important step toward understanding dissipation in turbulent collisionless plasma in space and astrophysics.

Micro/nano-mechanical systems are a crucial part of the modern world providing a plethora of sensing and actuation functionalities used in everything from the largest cargo ships to the smallest hand-held electronics; from the most advanced scientific and medical equipment to the simplest household items. Over the past few decades, the processes used to produce these devices have improved, supporting dramatic reductions in size, but there are fundamental limits to this trend that require a new production paradigm. The 2004 discovery of graphene ushered in a new era of condensed matter physics research, that of two-dimensional materials. Being only a few atomic layers thick, this new class of materials exhibit unprecedented mechanical strength and flexibility and can couple to electric, magnetic and optical signals. Additionally, they can be combined to form van der Waals heterostructures in an almost limitless number of ways. They are thus ideal candidates to reduce the size and extend the capabilities of traditional micro/nano-mechanical systems and are poised to redefine the technological sphere. This thesis attempts to develop the framework and protocols required to produce and characterise micro/nano-mechanical devices made from two-dimensional materials. Graphene and its insulating analogue, hexagonal boron nitride, are the most widely studied materials and their heterostructures are used as the test-bed for potential device architectures and capabilities. Interlayer friction, electro-mechanical actuation and surface reconstruction are some of the key phenomena investigated in this work.

Starting from quantum mechanical and condensed matter foundations, this book introduces into the necessary theory behind spin electronics (Spintronics). Equations of spin diffusion, -evolution and -tunelling are provided before an overview is given of simulation of spin transport at the atomic scale. Furthermore, applications are discussed with a focus on elementary spintronics devices such as spin valves, memory cells and hard disk heads.

In this thesis, ultimate sensitive measurement for weak force imposed on a suspended mirror is performed with the help of a laser and an optical cavity for the development of gravitational-wave detectors. According to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, such measurements are subject to a fundamental noise called quantum noise, which arises from the quantum nature of a probe (light) and a measured object (mirror). One of the sources of quantum noise is the quantum back-action, which arises from the vacuum fluctuation of the light. It sways the mirror via the momentum transferred to the mirror upon its reflection for the measurement. The author discusses a fundamental trade-off between sensitivity and stability in the macroscopic system, and suggests using a triangular cavity that can avoid this trade-off. The development of an optical triangular cavity is described and its characterization of the optomechanical effect in the triangular cavity is demonstrated. As a result, for the first time in the world the quantum back-action imposed on the 5-mg suspended mirror is significantly evaluated. This work contributes to overcoming the standard quantum limit in the future.

This thesis both broadens and deepens our understanding of the Brownian world. It addresses new problems in diffusion theory that have recently attracted considerable attention, both from the side of nanotechnology and from the viewpoint of pure academic research. The author focusses on the difussion of interacting particles in restricted geometries and under externally controlled forces. These geometries serve, for example, to model ion transport through narrow channels in cell membranes or a Brownian particle diffusing in an optical trap, now a paradigm for both theory and experiment. The work is exceptional in obtaining explicit analytically formulated answers to such realistic, experimentally relevant questions. At the same time, with its detailed exposition of the problems and a complete set of references, it presents a clear and broadly accessible introduction to the domain. Many of the problem settings and the corresponding exact asymptotic laws are completely new in diffusion theory.

This work reports on the generation of artificial magnetic fields with ultracold atoms in optical lattices using laser-assisted tunneling, as well as on the first Chern-number measurement in a non-electronic system. It starts with an introduction to the Hofstadter model, which describes the dynamics of charged particles on a square lattice subjected to strong magnetic fields. This model exhibits energy bands with non-zero topological invariants called Chern numbers, a property that is at the origin of the quantum Hall effect. The main part of the work discusses the realization of analog systems with ultracold neutral atoms using laser-assisted-tunneling techniques both from a theoretical and experimental point of view. Staggered, homogeneous and spin-dependent flux distributions are generated and characterized using two-dimensional optical super-lattice potentials. Additionally their topological properties are studied via the observation of bulk topological currents. The experimental techniques presented here offer a unique setting for studying topologically non-trivial systems with ultracold atoms.

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 thesis demonstrates a full Mach-Zehnder interferometer with interacting Bose-Einstein condensates confined on an atom chip. It relies on the coherent manipulation of atoms trapped in a magnetic double-well potential, for which the author developed a novel type of beam splitter. Particle-wave duality enables the construction of interferometers for matter waves, which complement optical interferometers in precision measurement devices, both for technological applications and fundamental tests. This requires the development of atom-optics analogues to beam splitters, phase shifters and recombiners. Particle interactions in the Bose-Einstein condensate lead to a nonlinearity, absent in photon optics. This is exploited to generate a non-classical state with reduced atom-number fluctuations inside the interferometer. This state is then used to study the interaction-induced dephasing of the quantum superposition. The resulting coherence times are found to be a factor of three longer than expected for coherent states, highlighting the potential of entanglement as a resource for quantum-enhanced metrology.

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 book offers a review of the use of extended ablation plasmas as nonlinear media for HHG of high-order harmonic generation (HHG). The book describes the different experimental approaches, shows the advantages and limitations regarding HHG efficiency and discusses the particular processes that take place at longer interaction lengths, including propagation and quasi-phase matching effects. It describes the most recent approaches to harmonic generation in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) range with the use of extended plasma plumes, and how these differ from more commonly-used gas-jet sources. The main focus is on studies using extended plasmas, but some new findings from HHG experiments in narrow plasma plumes are also discussed. It also describes how quasi-phase-matching in modulated plasmas, as demonstrated in recent studies, has revealed different means of tuning enhanced harmonic groups in the XUV region. After an introduction to the fundamental theoretical and experimental aspects of HHG, a review of the most important results of HHG in narrow plasmas is presented, including recent studies of small-sized plasma plumes as emitters of high-order harmonics. In Chapter 2, various findings in the application of extended plasmas for harmonic generation are analyzed. One of the most important applications of extended plasmas, the quasi-phase-matching of generated harmonics, is demonstrated in Chapter 3, including various approaches to the modification of perforated plasma plumes. Chapter 4 depicts the nonlinear optical features of extended plasmas produced on the surfaces of different non-metal materials. Chapter 5 is dedicated to the analysis of new opportunities for extended plasma induced HHG. The advantages of the application of long plasma plumes for HHG, such as resonance enhancement and double-pulse method, are discussed in Chapter 6. Finally, a summary section brings together all of these findings and discuss the perspectives of extended plasma formations for efficient HHG and nonlinear optical plasma spectroscopy. The book will be useful for students and scholars working in this highly multidisciplinary domain involving material science, nonlinear optics and laser spectroscopy. It brings the new researcher to the very frontier of the physics of the interaction between laser and extended plasma; for the expert it will serve as an essential guide and indicate directions for future research.

Magnetic perovskite with multi functional properties (magneto-resistive, magneto-dielectric, multiferroics, spintronics, etc.) have attracted increasing attention due to their possible applications towards storage materials and intriguing fundamental Physics. Despite the numerous investigations on multi functional materials in the past few years, a very few magnetic perovskites have been known to realize as ferromagnetic-insulators. In perovskites centred transition metal oxides strong interplay between lattice, charge, spin and/or orbital degrees of freedom provide a fantastic playground to tune their physical properties. The main purpose of this book is to introduce the phenomenon and physics of complex magnetism (phase separation, spin glass, frustrations, etc.) in perovskite manganites and cobaltites via an experimental approach. The book is organized into four chapters; Chap. 1 gives a brief introduction of various interesting phenomena in magnetic perovskites. Chapter 2 describes the results of the investigations on electronic phase separation and glassy ferromagnetism of the hole-doped perovskite manganites and cobaltites. Ordered and disordered effects and related aspects in hole-doped perovskite cobaltites are described in Chap. 3. Finally, in Chap. 4 the bismuth based magnetic perovskite is discussed.

This complete introduction to plasma physics and controlled fusion by one of the pioneering scientists in this expanding field offers both a simple and intuitive discussion of the basic concepts of this subject and an insight into the challenging problems of current research. In a wholly lucid manner the work covers single-particle motions, fluid equations for plasmas, wave motions, diffusion and resistivity, Landau damping, plasma instabilities and nonlinear problems. For students, this outstanding text offers a painless introduction to this important field; for teachers, a large collection of problems; and for researchers, a concise review of the fundamentals as well as original treatments of a number of topics never before explained so clearly. This revised edition contains new material on kinetic effects, including Bernstein waves and the plasma dispersion function, and on nonlinear wave equations and solitons. For the third edition, updates was made throughout each existing chapter, and two new chapters were added; Ch 9 on "Special Plasmas" and Ch 10 on Plasma Applications (including Atmospheric Plasmas).

As a continuation of classical condensed matter physics texts, this graduate textbook introduces advanced topics of correlated electron systems, mesoscopic transport,quantum computing, optical excitations and topological insulators. The book is focusing on an intuitive understanding of the basic concepts of these rather complex subjects.

This third volume describes continuous bodies treated as classical (Boltzmann) and spin (Cosserat) continua or fluid mixtures of such bodies. It discusses systems such as Boltzmann continua (with trivial angular momentum) and Cosserat continua (with nontrivial spin balance) and formulates the balance law and deformation measures for these including multiphase complexities. Thermodynamics is treated in the spirit of Muller-Liu: it is applied to Boltzmann-type fluids in three dimensions that interact with neighboring fluids on two-dimensional contact surfaces and/or one-dimensional contact lines. For all these situations it formulates the balance laws for mass, momenta, energy, and entropy. Further, it introduces constitutive modeling for 3-, 2-, 3-d body parts for general processes and materially objective variable sets and their reduction to equilibrium and non-equilibrium forms. Typical (reduced) fluid spin continua are liquid crystals. Prominent nematic examples of these include the Ericksen-Leslie-Parodi (ELP) formulation, in which material particles are equipped with material unit vectors (directors). Nematic liquid crystals with tensorial order parameters of rank 1 to n model substructure behavior better, and for both classes of these, the book analyzes the thermodynamic conditions of consistency. Granular solid-fluid mixtures are generally modeled by complementing the Boltzmann laws with a balance of fluctuation (kinetic) energy of the particles. The book closes by presenting a full Reynolds averaging procedure that accounts for higher correlation terms e.g. a k-epsilon formulation in classical turbulence. However, because the volume fraction is an additional variable, the theory also incorporates 'k-epsilon equations' for the volume fraction.

This book presents the topology optimization theory for laminar flows with low and moderate Reynolds numbers, based on the density method and level-set method, respectively. The density-method-based theory offers efficient convergence, while the level-set-method-based theory can provide anaccurate mathematical expression of the structural boundary. Unsteady, body-force-driven and two-phase properties are basic characteristics of the laminar flows. The book discusses these properties, which are typical of microfluidics and one of the research hotspots in the area of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), providing an efficient inverse design approach for microfluidic structures. To demonstrate the applications of this topology optimization theory in the context of microfluidics, it also investigates inverse design for the micromixer, microvalve and micropump, which are key elements in lab-on-chip devices.

A definitive new investigation of the science of snowflakes by the world's leading expert A snowflake's sophisticated symmetry emerges when crystalline ice grows from water vapor within the winter clouds. While certain iconic snowflake shapes are visually familiar to us, microscopic close-ups of falling snow reveal a rich menagerie of lesser-known forms, including slender needle clusters, hollow columns, bullet rosettes, triangular crystals, and exotic capped columns. What explains the myriad and unusual structures of snowflakes that materialize under different atmospheric conditions? In Snow Crystals, Kenneth Libbrecht delves into the science of snowflakes, examining why ice crystals grow the way they do, how patterns emerge, and what they illuminate about the fundamental physics of crystal growth, structure formation, and self-assembly. Libbrecht-the world's foremost expert on snowflakes-describes the full range of physical processes underlying their occurrence. He explores such topics as the centuries-long development of snow crystal science, the crystalline structure of ice, molecular dynamics at the ice surface, diffusion-limited growth, surface attachment kinetics, computational models of snow crystal growth, laboratory techniques for creating and studying snow crystals, different types of natural snowflakes, and photographing snow crystals. Throughout, Libbrecht's extensive detailed discussions are accompanied by hundreds of beautiful full-color images. From the molecular dynamics of surface premelting to the aerodynamics of falling snow, Snow Crystals chronicles the continuing quest to fully understand this fascinating phenomenon.

This book presents the most important advances in the class of topological materials and discusses the topological characterization, modeling and metrology of materials. Further, it addresses currently emerging characterization techniques such as optical and acoustic, vibrational spectroscopy (Brillouin, infrared, Raman), electronic, magnetic, fluorescence correlation imaging, laser lithography, small angle X-ray and neutron scattering and other techniques, including site-selective nanoprobes. The book analyzes the topological aspects to identify and quantify these effects in terms of topology metrics. The topological materials are ubiquitous and range from (i) de novo nanoscale allotropes of carbons in various forms such as nanotubes, nanorings, nanohorns, nanowalls, peapods, graphene, etc. to (ii) metallo-organic frameworks, (iii) helical gold nanotubes, (iv) Moebius conjugated polymers, (v) block co-polymers, (vi) supramolecular assemblies, to (vii) a variety of biological and soft-matter systems, e.g. foams and cellular materials, vesicles of different shapes and genera, biomimetic membranes, and filaments, (viii) topological insulators and topological superconductors, (ix) a variety of Dirac materials including Dirac and Weyl semimetals, as well as (x) knots and network structures. Topological databases and algorithms to model such materials have been also established in this book. In order to understand and properly characterize these important emergent materials, it is necessary to go far beyond the traditional paradigm of microscopic structure-property-function relationships to a paradigm that explicitly incorporates topological aspects from the outset to characterize and/or predict the physical properties and currently untapped functionalities of these advanced materials. Simulation and modeling tools including quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, 3D visualization and tomography are also indispensable. These concepts have found applications in condensed matter physics, materials science and engineering, physical chemistry and biophysics, and the various topics covered in the book have potential applications in connection with novel synthesis techniques, sensing and catalysis. As such, the book offers a unique resource for graduate students and researchers alike.

Elastic waves are used in fields as diverse as the non-destructive evaluation of materials, medicine, seismology and telecommunications. Elastic Waves in Solids 2 analyzes the radiation, scattering and generation of these waves. It studies the emission of bulk or surface waves from sources localized on the surface of an isotropic or anisotropic solid. It then examines the scattering of a longitudinal or transverse elastic wave by one or more cylindrical or spherical heterogeneities. Finally, it explores the methods and devices used to generate and detect elastic waves, using the piezoelectric effect or the interaction with a laser beam. Accompanying figures illustrate these properties, and the text provides the orders of magnitude of some characteristic parameters. This book is intended for students completing a master's degree in acoustics, mechanics, geophysics or engineering, as well as teachers and researchers in these disciplines.

The research in this book represents the culmination of a drive to build the first discharge gas laser unencumbered by the effects of diffraction. This breakthrough has been achieved through careful implementation of a discharge within a hollow-core optical fibre, and by developing measurement and analysis techniques to demonstrate laser action in an experimental optical cavity. Gas lasers were amongst the earliest laser types to be demonstrated and commercialised, but it was recognised that noble gas lasers were limited by the minimum bore diameter of the laser tube, which is set by diffraction. The advent, in 2011, of hollow optical fibres with optical and physical properties suitable for gas discharge lasers opened up the opportunity to break this diffraction limit. Using a mixture of helium and xenon gas, lasing in the mid-infrared range was achieved using a 100m core flexible hollow optical fibre which, at 1m long, is several hundred times the diffraction-limited Rayleigh length.

This book systematically reviews the history of lead-free piezoelectric materials, including the latest research. It also addresses a number of important issues, such as new types of materials prepared in a multitude of sizes, structural and physical properties, and potential applications for high-performance devices. Further, it examines in detail the state of the art in lead-free piezoelectric materials, focusing on the pathways to modify different structures and achieve enhanced physical properties and new functional behavior. Lastly, it discusses the prospects for potential future developments in lead-free piezoelectric materials across disciplines and for multifunctional applications. Given its breadth of coverage, the book offers a comprehensive resource for graduate students, academic researchers, development scientists, materials producers, device designers and applications engineers who are working on or are interested in advanced lead-free piezoelectric materials.

This thesis presents first observations of superconductivity in one- or two-atomic-scale thin layer materials. The thesis begins with a historical overview of superconductivity and the electronic structure of two-dimensional materials, and mentions that these key ingredients lead to the possibility of the two-dimensional superconductor with high phase-transition temperature and critical magnetic field. Thereafter, the thesis moves its focus onto the implemented experiments, in which mainly two different materials thallium-deposited silicon surfaces and metal-intercalated bilayer graphenes, are used. The study of the first material is the first experimental demonstration of both a gigantic Rashba effect and superconductivity in the materials supposed to be superconductors without spatial inversion symmetry. The study of the latter material is relevant to superconductivity in a bilayer graphene, which was a big experimental challenge for a decade, and has been first achieved by the author. The description of the generic and innovative measurement technique, highly effective in probing electric resistivity of ultra-thin materials unstable in an ambient environment, makes this thesis a valuable source for researchers not only in surface physics but also in nano-materials science and other condensed-matter physics.

The book covers recent advances and progress in understanding both the fundamental science of lasers interactions in materials science, as well as a special emphasis on emerging applications enabled by the irradiation of materials by pulsed laser systems. The different chapters illustrate how, by careful control of the processing conditions, laser irradiation can result in efficient material synthesis, characterization, and fabrication at various length scales from atomically-thin 2D materials to microstructured periodic surface structures. This book serves as an excellent resource for all who employ lasers in materials science, spanning such different disciplines as photonics, photovoltaics, and sensing, to biomedical applications.