In this study, particle sorting and transportation
in Brownian liquids were explored by
translating an optical standing wave. The
standing wave is produced by crossing two
coherent beams of light, and determining
the resulting period by the angle of the
intersection. Adjusting the period and
velocity of wave ridges allows...
Antibiotin was labeled with colloidal Au
nanoparticles as a method of amplifying the
localized surface plasmon resonance
(LSPR) extinction maximum shift. This shift
allows for the monitoring of binding events
on the surface of nanosphere nithography
(NSL) fabricated silver nanoparticles. A
shift of +2.9 nm was observed for the
colloidal...
There is a continuing need for patterning
multifunctional materials to harness their
features and explore synergy among
diverse properties and phenomena. Soft
lithography, among various patterning
techniques, is a versatile method that can
generate inorganic patterns in a parallel
mode. Experimentation was performed
making use of flexible soft lithography to...
Second harmonic generation (SHG),
a nonlinear optical tool, was used to
characterize DNA bound through a
chemical linker to the flat surface of a
hemispherical lens. Contact angle
measurements were used to guarantee
that the chemical linker did not hydrolyze
under experimental conditions. SHG
experiments followed the effects of salt...
Two-phase multiferroic nanostructures
have the potential to display magnetoelectricity
(ME) through interphase mechanical
coupling. Nanoscale ME-based technology
may lead to the next generation of computer
memory. In this research, soft electron
beam lithography (soft-eBL) was used to
fabricate submicron-sized structures of
cobalt ferrite (magnetostrictive) and barium
titanate (piezoelectric) as bottom...
Oligonucleotide-functionalized gold
nanoparticles (DNA-Au NPs) find
ubiquitous use in various biomolecular
detection schemes due to their unique
chemical and physical properties. This
study investigates the effects of nanoparticle
size and concentration of salt in
solution on the DNA loading of the Au NP
surface. The DNA loading studies are
performed...
The use of a variable resistor-capacitor
(RC) bridge circuit was previously reported
to be a viable solution to the spurious
contribution of fringe capacitance during
nanoscale impedance microscopy (NIM).
In this paper, a refinement of this technique
combined with standard NIM is presented
as an impedance characterization tool for
organic...
This project involved the study of Brownian
motion of polystyrene microspheres in the
presence of gravity and a one-dimensional
sinusoidal optical potential generated by
the interference of two laser beams. An
exponential relationship was observed
between applied laser power and particle
residence time of individual interference
fringes. Increasing laser power...
Weak interactions in ligand-receptor
pairs are important in biological systems.
However, the energetics of these interactions
are often difficult to quantify for ligandreceptor
pairs. Weak interactions are a part
of reorganization energy, which plays a role
in electron transfer reactions. Under certain
conditions the rate of electron transfer
can be...
This project focused on the growth of Cu2O
nanocubes in microwells from nanoparticle
“seeds.” The seeds were first formed by the
reduction of copper sulfate with ascorbic
acid in the presence of the surfactant
poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). Upon reaction
within the microwell, the seed solution
formed a larger single crystal....