Enhancing electromagnetic performance of metal devices : from nanoscale materials studies to device optimization and macroscale reconfiguration
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The interaction of electromagnetic waves with metals results in a rich diversity of physical phenomena across the electromagnetic spectrum. Metals are ubiquitous to many applications ranging from antennas for radio frequency communication to plasmonic waveguides designed for subwavelength light confinement, and there exist many varying strategies for improving the performance of these metallic electromagnetic devices ranging from microwave to optical frequencies. This thesis presents five main studies that are linked to the enhancement of electromagnetic performance of metal devices, from investigations of nanoscale metal crystal structure all the way to large-scale metallic antenna reconfiguration. First, we introduce a fabrication technique termed metal-on-insulator rapid melt growth. We demonstrate that rapid melt growth is a high-throughput, high-yield crystal growth process that can be harnessed to produce gold bicrystals on a silicon dioxide substrate to enable fundamental grain boundary studies. Next, we investigate the mechanical properties of gold grain boundaries with tailored misorientation angles produced via rapid melt growth. Through in situ transmission electron microscope tensile testing, we found that grain boundaries are inherently strong and failure occurs transgranularly via twin formation or plastic collapse. Next, we report that inhomogeneous distributions of platinum impurities in nanoscale structured gold has a large impact on the thermoelectric properties of gold. As well, in the absence of platinum, the photothermoelectric response of gold is sensitive to subtle changes in crystal structure, indicating that certain lattice defects should be carefully considered in thermoelectric devices. Next, we demonstrate that inverse design methods can be used to improve the coupling efficiency of plasmonic fiber-to-slot grating couplers through a boundary optimization algorithm. Additionally, we design grayscale, multilayer dielectric metamaterials operating in the radio frequency regime with improved functionality using topology optimization and additive manufacturing techniques. Lastly, we demonstrate the use of pneumatically-driven soft continuum robots to construct deployable monopole antennas that are capable of controlling operating frequency. As well, we show that soft robotic actuation strategies can be exploited to actively control the polarization state of a helical antenna.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2021; ©2021 |
| Publication date | 2021; 2021 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Gan, Lucia Tang |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Fan, Jonathan Albert |
| Thesis advisor | Fan, Jonathan Albert |
| Thesis advisor | Okamura, Allison |
| Thesis advisor | Vuckovic, Jelena |
| Degree committee member | Okamura, Allison |
| Degree committee member | Vuckovic, Jelena |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Electrical Engineering |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Lucia T. Gan. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2021. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/yb892hx6374 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2021 by Lucia Tang Gan
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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