In this thesis, I present the work performed towards a proposal to couple a piezoelectric, nanomechanical beam to a radio frequency single electron transistor (RF-SET). Lumped element RF circuit theory is applied to 50 ...

As a successor of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, the SNO+ experiment is planned to start data taking in early 2013. Making use of the liquid scintillator, Linear Alkylbenzene (LAB), the SNO+ experiment aims to perform ...

This thesis describes three different design projects that are intellectually connected by the fact that they all involve the development of apparatus to facilitate the precise control of sample temperature in modern ...

In this thesis superconducting correlations on both a one-dimensional chain and a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice are analyzed using the t-J model Hamiltonian. Both systems use periodic boundary conditions and different ...

In the past decade, nanomechanical resonators have found use in the work towards understanding mesoscopic quantum systems and the necessary validation of quantum mechanics on this scale. In 2010, the observation and state ...

The dynamics of molecules in the gas and liquid phase is investigated using ultrafast optical techniques. The development of sub-25 fs ultrafast sources using noncollinear optical parametric amplification is discussed. ...

A Pan-style scanning tunneling microscope (STM), with a vertical coarse approach mechanism, was designed, built and tested. The microscope will be operated in ultra-high vacuum and also at cryogenic temperatures (8 K) ...

A small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) study of quenched-in nanovoids in 99.988 and 99.995 at.% aluminum (Al) is presented. Nanovoids are agglomerations of point defects (vacancies) in the metallic host. SAXS is a ...

We present the first fully self-consistent, axisymmetric, dynamical model of the Andromeda galaxy (M31). We constrain the physical parameters of the model with datasets on all radial scales: the bulge projected velocity ...

For the SNO+ neutrinoless double beta decay search, various backgrounds, ranging from impurities present naturally to those produced cosmogenically, must be understood and reduced. Cosmogenic backgrounds are particularly ...