Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube electrodes for all-plastic, electronic device applications

In this thesis, new mechanically robust, high performance transparent conducting films of commercially sourced arc-made Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNTs) on both glass and flexible substrates were produced using spin-coating or spray deposition, interlayer or stencil patterning methods and used for fabricating efficient, flexible polymer-fullerene bulk hetero-junction solar cells. After carefully optimizing the dispersion process of SWCNTs with H2O:SDS (up to 0.03 wt.%) and developing and efficient surfactant removal/p-doping procedure with nitric acid, highly conductive and smooth SWCNT thin films (ca. 30 nm) were obtained with more than 6,500 Scm-1 at > 69 % transmittance and 7 nm (r.m.s.) roughness. In particular, SWCNT films spray coated from H2O:SDS exhibited electrical conductivities of up to 7694 ± 800 Scm-1. To our knowledge, these values are the highest so far reported for SWCNT electrodes. Peak values for the ratio of the dc conductivity to the optical conductivity (σdc/σop) were obtained as up to 24, which is quite similar to state of the art SWCNT films so far reported. In addition, two patterning methods were developed to define electrode patterns of SWCNT thin films for electronic device applications. Interlayer lithography provided a fast and high resolution patterning procedure for SWCNT thin films at micron and sub-micron length scales, which is important for the fabrication of high-speed transistors requiring short channel lengths, and offers an attractive route to fabricating high-density integrated circuits. In addition, stencil patterning provides a simple and fast method, which is well suited for low resolution electronic device applications such as organic solar cells. The patterned highly conductive SWCNT electrodes were incorporated into P3HT:PCBM bulk heterojunction solar cell applications, obtaining the best device performance of 3.6 %, which is the best result so far reported in the literature. Finally, to break through the limited performance (σdc/σop < 25) of SWCNT thin films, layered hybrid thin films of SWCNTs on reduced Graphene-Oxide were fabricated by a simple spray coating method and the optimised hybrid films were incorporated into relatively efficient organic solar cells (2 % efficiency)

A Method of Experimentally Probing Transeverse Momentum Dependent Distributions

We calculate the double spin asymmetry A_LL(x, y, z, P_hT) of pi^0 production with the spectator model and the model based on the factorization ansatz. We also calculate the double spin asymmetry for the integration over the range of (x,y,z) for the setups of the experiments of COMPASS, HERMES, and JLab. We find that the results are characteristically dependent on the model used. Therefore, we suggest that the measurements of the double spin asymmetry provides a method of experimentally probing the transeverse momentum dependent distributions.Comment: 10 pages, 31 figure

Ruin Analysis in a Discrete-time Sparre Andersen Model with External Financial Activities and Random Dividends

In this thesis, we consider a risk model which incorporates multiple threshold levels characterizing an insurer's minimal capital requirement, dividend paying situations, and external financial activities. Our model is based on discrete monetary and time units, and the main quantities of interest are the finite-time ruin probabilities and the expected total discounted dividends paid prior to ruin. We mainly focus on the development of computational methods to attain these quantities of interest. One of the popular methods in the current literature used for studying such problems involves a recursive approach which incorporates appropriate conditioning arguments on the claim times and sizes, and we implement this procedure as well. Furthermore, ruin can occur due to both a claim as well as interest expense accumulation as our model allows the insurer to borrow money from an external fund. In this thesis, we consider only non-stochastic interest rates for both lending and borrowing activities. After constructing appropriate recursive formulae for the finite-time ruin probabilities and the expected total discounted dividends paid prior to ruin, we investigate various numerical examples and make some observations concerning the impact our threshold levels have on finite-time ruin probabilities and expected total discounted dividends paid prior to ruin

Surplus Solid Angle as an Imprint of Horava-Lifshitz Gravity

We consider the electrostatic field of a point charge coupled to Horava-Lifshitz gravity and find an exact solution describing the space with a surplus (or deficit) solid angle. Although, theoretically in general relativity, a surplus angle is hardly to be obtained in the presence of ordinary matter with positive energy distribution, it seems natural in Horava-Lifshitz gravity. We present the sudden disappearance and reappearance of a star image as an astrophysical effect of a surplus angle. We also consider matter configurations of all possible power law behaviors coupled to Horava-Lifshitz gravity and obtain a series of exact solutions.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure; minor changes, published versio

N=5 three-algebras and 5-graded Lie superalgebras

We discuss a generalization of N=6 three-algebras to N=5 three-algebras in connection to anti-Lie triple systems and basic Lie superalgebras of type II. We then show that the structure constants defined in anti-Lie triple systems agree with those of N=5 superconformal theories in three dimensions.Comment: 15 pages, v3: typos corrected, references added, and published versio

A robot arm simulation with a shared memory multiprocessor machine

A parallel processing scheme for a single chain robot arm is presented for high speed computation on a shared memory multiprocessor. A recursive formulation that is derived from a virtual work form of the d'Alembert equations of motion is utilized for robot arm dynamics. A joint drive system that consists of a motor rotor and gears is included in the arm dynamics model, in order to take into account gyroscopic effects due to the spinning of the rotor. The fine grain parallelism of mechanical and control subsystem models is exploited, based on independent computation associated with bodies, joint drive systems, and controllers. Efficiency and effectiveness of the parallel scheme are demonstrated through simulations of a telerobotic manipulator arm. Two different mechanical subsystem models, i.e., with and without gyroscopic effects, are compared, to show the trade-off between efficiency and accuracy

Vision with a Passion

This paper was presented by Dr. Sung Soo Kim at the Spring Convocation of Dordt College, January 17, 2008