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Spring 2011
The field of plasmonics has offered the promise to combine electronics and photonics at the nanometer scale for ultrafast information processing speeds and compact integration of devices. Various plasmonic waveguide schemes were proposed with the potential to achieve switching functionalities and...
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Spring 2014
Nanomechanical torque magnetometry is emerging to become one of the most highly-sensitive methods for measuring magnetostatic interactions in mesoscopic magnetic materials. Here, advances in torque magnetometry are offered for the probing of new physics and extending the functionality of the...
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Nanofabrication Methods Towards a Photonically-Based Torque Magnetometer for Measurement of Individual Single-Crystalline Yttrium-Iron-Garnet Microstructures
DownloadSpring 2012
This thesis describes preparation and nanofabrication of single crystalline yttrium-iron-garnet (YIG) for the purposes of ultra-clean torque magnetometry, as well as the design, fabrication, and testing of photonic crystal-based nanoelectromechanical systems for sensing applications. A focused...
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Mechanisms of Aggregation and Separation of Water and Solids from Bitumen Froth using Cluster Size Distribution
DownloadFall 2016
The large-scale corrosion and equipment damage caused by water and solids respectively in bitumen froth necessitate their removal using various methods. This study is aimed at understanding how water and solids aggregate (water-water, water-solid and solid-solid) in bitumen froth and what the...
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Spring 2010
Most crude oils contain traces of vanadyl porphyrins within their asphaltene fraction. Although these metals are only present in trace quantities, they have a significant detrimental impact on crude oil processing units; therefore, their selective removal is highly desirable. The current work...
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Colloid Science of Sand Remediation: A Study Motivated by the Non-Aqueous Extraction of Bitumen from Oil Sands
DownloadFall 2014
The current water-based method of bitumen extraction requires withdrawal of fresh water from the Athabasca River — a practice which leads to the continual buildup of tailings ponds and other environmental concerns. As Alberta’s bitumen production is expected to more than double by 2020, there is...
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Fall 2015
Drop transfer from one solid surface to another through stretching liquid bridges between them is important for many industrial applications. Due to the different dominate forces, three possible regimes exist: Quasi-static Regime, where the transfer process is only dominated by surface forces;...
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Spring 2015
The minable oil sands extraction process can be understood on a scale of a single oil sand grain. When the oil sand ore is mixed with warm water, each sand granule is initially covered with bitumen film which ruptures under the composite effect of shear and interfacial forces, while water...
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Spring 2010
New methods to fabricate nanometer sized structures will be a major driving force in transforming nanoscience to nanotechnology. There are numerous examples of the incorporation of nanoscale structures or materials enhancing the functionality of a device. Graphitic carbon is a widely used...
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Fabrication and testing of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrates for the detection of biomolecules
DownloadSpring 2014
Biosensing involves the detection of analytes using biological elements as receptor agents for the specific binding of molecules to a surface. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), a surface-sensitive vibrational spectroscopy technique used to amplify Raman signals, provides unique...