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Item Open Access Using umbrella integration to find minimum free energy paths(2015) Bohner, Matthias Ulrich; Kästner, Johannes (Prof. Dr.)The analysis of the detailed mechanism of chemical reactions is a key task of computational chemistry. The detailed knowledge may help to improve known processes or even contribute to the development of new ones. In this way ecological and economic demands can be reduced. Furthermore, the course of a reaction path also plays an important role in the action of drugs. Understanding the binding of the active ingredient to receptors, such as proteins, can make it possible to optimize drugs by reducing side effects, or even to find new effects. Unfortunately, chemical reactions are usually too fast to observe intermediate states by experimental methods. This is where theoretical chemistry joins the game. In theoretical chemistry we combine the coordinates of all atoms with the configuration space. The potential energy forms a hypersurface in this space. Minima represent stable or metastable states. Saddle points represent transition states which are the most unfavourable configurations occurring on the most favourable path between two minima. If the path of a reaction is known, all intermediate states can be observed by theoretical methods. However, these calculations are usually computationally costly. This is the reason why, in contrast to experimental methods, it is in general impossible to sample the whole configuration space. This would in most cases exceed the available computational resources. It is therefore necessary to use techniques enabling a reaction path to be found without sampling the whole configuration space. In the case of a thermodynamic ensemble, e.g. the contents of a test tube, statistical information has to be included. The corresponding potential is the so-called free energy landscape, for which some degrees of freedom of the configuration space are thermostatistically integrated out. Consequently this function includes statistical and energetic properties. The free energy can in general only be calculated by statistical simulations (Monte--Carlo or molecular dynamics). Unfortunately, the transition states in which we have a special interest are rarely sampled. Special methods have to be applied to get sufficient sampling as well in areas of these rare events. In this work a non-physical quadratic potential is used to bias the equation of motion of the particles while doing molecular dynamics simulations. In this way unfavourable areas in the configuration space can also be sampled sufficiently. This technique is called umbrella sampling. The bias is applied to one or more coordinates which describe the reaction and therefore are called reaction coordinates. An umbrella sampling run will result in a distribution of the reaction coordinates. The expectation value of this distribution will be located close to the minimum of the bias function without in general corresponding to it. The difference between the minimum of the bias function and the expectation value can be used to calculate the gradient of the underlying free energy surface. Similarly, the covariance of the distribution of the reaction coordinate can be used to calculate the Hessian of the free energy surface. This method of interpreting the data gained by umbrella sampling is called umbrella integration. At first these values are used for an iterative search of the saddle points, which represent the transition states. From these configurations, free energy paths can be constructed by following the gradient down to the minima. This algorithm was successfully tested for the alanine dipeptide system. This simple method has the disadvantages that it works serially and that one needs good initial guesses for the saddle points in order to find them. Therefore, in a second part of the work, the established method of nudged elastic band optimization (NEB) is extended for use in the free energy surface. NEB optimization searches for a reaction path. This path is discretized into a number configurations, so-called images. For the sake of equal distribution of the images along the path a non-physical spring force between the images is used. The force, which is actually minimized during the NEB optimisation, consists of the projection of the real force of the underlying potential perpendicular to the path, and the projection of the spring force parallel to the path. An optimizer is developed which archives quadratic convergence of NEB optimizations in the noise-free potential energy surface of some test systems. This optimiser uses gradients and Hessians at each step. For the free energy surface both values can be calculated by umbrella integration as mentioned above. NEB optimizations within the free energy are performed in this work in the following way: at first a guess path is assumed, e.g. a straight line between two points in the configuration space, usually minima. This path is discretized into a number of images. Molecular dynamics umbrella sampling simulations are performed on each image. The gradient and Hessian from the umbrella integration are fed into the newly developed NEB optimizer. This way one does not need good starting guesses for the saddle points but an interpolation between the much more easily accessible minima is sufficient. Furthermore, the need for independent molecular dynamics runs at each image makes the method intrinsically parallel. The whole method is applied to the well-studied alanine dipeptide system and compared with the results from the serial method. Subsequently the algorithm is applied to a much more costly system of binding a ligand to its receptor in water.Item Open Access Comparative sensitivity analysis of muscle activation dynamics(2015) Rockenfeller, Robert; Günther, Michael; Schmitt, Syn; Götz, ThomasWe mathematically compared two models of mammalian striated muscle activation dynamics proposed by Hatze and Zajac. Both models are representative for a broad variety of biomechanical models formulated as ordinary differential equations (ODEs). These models incorporate parameters that directly represent known physiological properties. Other parameters have been introduced to reproduce empirical observations. We used sensitivity analysis to investigate the influence of model parameters on the ODE solutions. In addition, we expanded an existing approach to treating initial conditions as parameters and to calculating second- order sensitivities. Furthermore, we used a global sensitivity analysis approach to include finite ranges of parameter values. Hence, a theoretician striving for model reduction could use the method for identifying particularly low sensitivities to detect superfluous parameters. An experimenter could use it for identifying particularly high sensitivities to improve parameter estimation. Hatze’s nonlinear model incorporates some parameters to which activation dynamics is clearly more sensitive than to any parameter in Zajac’s linear model. Other than Zajac’s model, Hatze’s model can, however, reproduce measured shifts in optimal muscle length with varied muscle activity. Accordingly we extracted a specific parameter set for Hatze’s model that combines best with a particular muscle force-length relation.Item Open Access A first example of a lyotropic smectic C* analog phase : design, properties and chirality effects(2015) Bruckner, Johanna Ricarda; Gießelmann, Frank (Prof. Dr. rer. nat.)The subject of this thesis is the discovery and characterization of a novel lyotropic liquid crystalline phase. It is the lyotropic counterpart of the thermotropic SmC* phase, which became famous as the only ferroelectric material in nature which is fluid. In addition to providing evidence for the existence of this lyotropic SmC* analog phase, the main focus of the work presented is on the investigation of its structural properties and chirality effects. The schematic phase diagrams of various surfactant / solvent systems were studied systematically. The results show that certain structural elements are required for the formation of the lyotropic SmC* analog phase. In addition to a SmC*-promoting aromatic core and a hydrogen-bonding head group, the presence of an ethylene glycol unit linking those two elements seems to be crucial for the surfactant molecule. The solvent molecules should be highly polar, possess a small molecular volume and be able to form multiple hydrogen bonds leading to a dense three-dimensional hydrogen bond network. Of the systems investigated, only one surfactant molecule formed the lyotropic SmC* analog phase with the two solvents water or formamide. The detailed phase diagrams of these surfactant / solvent systems exhibit a variety of lyotropic liquid crystalline phases. Remarkably, the lyotropic SmC* analog phase occurs only at elevated solvent concentrations, which shows that this is a true lyotropic phase. The SmC* analog nature of the lyotropic phase was demonstrated by the observation of characteristic textures such as broken fan-shaped textures, schlieren textures, zigzag defects, spontaneous tilt domains in the surface-stabilized state and pitch lines, as well as one- and two-dimensional X-ray experiments. Furthermore, temperature and concentration dependent measurements of the layer spacing as well as of the tilt angle were performed. The latter showed that the tilt angle decreases with increasing solvent concentration and that the lamellar Lα to SmC* analog phase transition is driven from first to second order. A significant result of this thesis is that the lyotropic SmC* analog phase also exhibits analog chirality effects as known from its thermotropic counterpart, even though the surfactant bilayers are separated by substantial layers of achiral solvent molecules. The investigation of the helical pitch showed that it is in the order of several micrometers for both solvents. The temperature dependence of the pitch is comparable to the thermotropic case. The concentration dependence, in contrast, is counterintuitive, the helical twist increasing with increasing formamide concentration even though the number density of chiral molecules in the mixtures decreases. The second chirality effect investigated was the polar electro-optical switching between two surface-stabilized states. The polar nature of the observed effect indicates that the lyotropic SmC* analog phase possesses a spontaneous electrical polarization similar to its thermotropic analog. Based on the results obtained in this thesis, a first model of the lyotropic analog of the SmC* phase was developed. The model suggests that the correlation of the director tilt as well as its helical precession takes place via a strong, three-dimensional hydrogen bond network formed by the solvent molecules. When the solvent concentration is increased, the solvent layers become thicker and their rigidity is reduced, which explains the effects observed. In addition to the stated aims of this thesis, the phase diagram of the selected surfactant using N-methylformamide as solvent was investigated. It showed that no lyotropic SmC* analog phase occurs with a solvent unable to form a three-dimensional hydrogen bond network. However, two other interesting phases appear by adding this solvent. The first phase is a rare example of a re entrant cholesteric phase and the second is a solvent-induced twist grain boundary phase, which is the first observation of this phase in a lyotropic liquid crystal. In conclusion, this work shows that a lamellar, tilted, fluid phase exists in lyotropic liquid crystals and that it exhibits characteristic chirality effects, namely helicity and spontaneous electrical polarization, known from the thermotropic ferroelectric SmC* phase. These results contribute significantly to a better understanding of lyotropic liquid crystals and bridge a substantial gap between the two fields of liquid crystalline research.Item Open Access Anion exchange membranes for fuel cells and flow batteries : transport and stability of model systems(2015) Marino, Michael G.; Maier, Joachim (Prof. Dr.)Polymeric anion exchange materials in membrane form can be key components in emerging energy storage and conversions systems such as the alkaline fuel cell and the RedOx flow battery. For these applications the membrane properties need to include good ionic conductivity and sufficient chemical stability, two aspects, that are not sufficiently understood in terms of materials science. Materials fulfilling both criteria are currently not available. The transport of ions and water in a model anion exchange membrane (AEM) as well as the alkaline stability of their quaternary ammonium functional groups is therefore investigated in this thesis from a basic point of view but with the aim to bring these technologies one step closer to large scale application, as they have several advantages compared to existing energy storage and conversion systems. The hydroxide exchanging alkaline fuel cell (AFC), for example, is in principle more cost-effective than the more common acidic proton exchange fuel cell (PEMFC). Unfortunately AFCs suffer from base induced decomposition of the membrane. Especially the quaternary ammonium (QA) functional groups are easily attacked by the nucleophilic hydroxide. QAs with higher alkaline stability are required but there is considerable disagreement regarding which QAs are suitable, with widely varying and partially contradicting results reported in the literature. In this thesis, the decay of QA salts was investigated under controlled accelerated aging conditions (up to 10 M NaOH and 160 °C). This allowed a stability comparison based solely on the molecular structure of the QAs. A number of different approaches to stabilize the QAs which potentially inhibit degradation reactions such as β-elimination, substitution and rearrangements were compared. These include β-proton removal, charge delocalization, spacer-chains, electron-inducing groups and conformational confinement. Heterocylic 6-membered QAs based on the piperidine structure proved to be by far the most stable cations at the chosen conditions. This was not readily apparent from their structure since they contain β-protons in anti-periplanar positions, which generally cause rapid decomposition in other types of QAs. The geometry of the cyclic structure probably exerts strain on the reaction transition states, kinetically inhibiting the degradation reactions. Other stabilization approaches resulted in markedly less stable compounds. Noticeably the benzylic group, which is the current standard covalent tether between QA and polymer, degrades very fast compared to almost all aliphatic QAs. The results of this stability study suggest that hydroxide exchange membranes for alkaline fuel cells, which are significantly more stable than current materials are achievable. Besides stability, the transport of anions and water in AEMs was investigated in this Hydroxide exchange membranes (HEM) have been reported to exhibit surprisingly low ionic conductivities compared to their proton exchange membrane (PEM) counterparts. This is partially because hydroxide charge carriers are rapidly converted to carbonates when a HEM comes into contact with ambient air. Careful exclusion of CO2 was required to investigate pure hydroxide form membranes. For this purpose a custom glove box was designed and built that allowed preparation and measurements of HEM samples in a humidified CO 2 -free atmosphere. It was found that the conductivity reduction of a carbonate contaminated HEM is not only due to the reduced ionic mobility of carbonate charge carriers compared to hydroxide, but also because of reduced water absorption of the corresponding membrane which decreases conductivity even further. Pure HEMs can in fact achieve conductivities within a factor of two of PEMs at equal ion exchange capacity at sufficient hydration, according to the differences in the ionic mobility of hydroxide and hydronium. At lower water contents though, the hydroxide mobility decreases faster than that of hydronium in comparable PEMs due to reduced dissociation and percolation as well as a break-down of structural diffusion Apart from the HEM, membranes in other ionic forms were investigated. Generally, all investigated AEM properties were found to change if the type of anion was exchanged. This comprises the degree of dissociation, conductivity, membrane morphology and sometimes even water diffusion. Remarkably, at low water contents, the ionic conductivity of the HEM sank below that of the halides, despite the much higher hydroxide mobility in aqueous solution. A gradual break-down of the hydroxide structural diffusion is probably responsible. Another noticeable observation was that the degree of dissociation for at least the bromide and chloride form membranes remains almost constant over a considerable water content range, suggesting the formation of associates consisting of several ions, which probably also exists in other ionic forms.Item Open Access Aluminum-induced crystallization of semiconductor thin films(2015) Qu, Fei; Schmitz, Guido (Prof. Dr.)Thin film materials of the semiconductors, such as silicon (Si), germanium (Ge) or their alloys, are turning into the most promising functional materials in the energy technology. However, the morphologies of these semiconductor thin films must be varied to be suitable for the different applications, e.g. a large-grained layer as the seed layer of thin film solar cells, a porous structure for anode materials of high energy rechargeable lithium (Li) ion batteries. Due to the collective interdiffusion process during the aluminum (Al)-induced crystallization, in this thesis, the suitable morphologies are achieved for the corresponding applications under the different fabrication conditions. A large-grained Si layer can be formed by the crystallization of Si in a porous Al layer, which is obtained by applying a bias voltage. Since the Al grain boundaries are contaminated by e.g. oxygen (O), the diffusion of Si in the Al grain boundaries is retarded. It can lead to a reduction of the nucleation density of Si. At a certain high temperature, a collective diffusion process of Si in Al is activated. Consequently, a large-grained Si layer with (100) texture can be formed. By purposely interrupting the annealing of nanocrystalline Al/amorphous Si (a-Si) bilayers, a porous structure of the crystallized Si can be developed due to the incomplete intermixing of Si and Al. Due to the different dominant diffusion processes of Si in Al at the different annealing temperatures, the most Si diffuses along the different paths in the Al layer, such as triple junction, grain boundary and Al bulk. Therefore, it can develop the different morphologies of the porous Si layers after the selectively etching of Al. By introducing an amorphous Ge interlayer between the crystalline Al and amorphous Si layer, the Al grain boundaries are not essential for the crystallization of the amorphous Si in contrast to the case in Al/Si bilayer system. Si crystallizes continuously on the pre-crystallized Ge seeds which form initially at the original interface of crystalline Al and amorphous Ge. The thermodynamic models to interpret the fundamentals of these different crystallization behaviors of Si are established based on the change of the interface energy between the different phases of the whole system during the crystallization. Using the effective diffusivity, the dominant diffusion process of Si in Al can be investigated to explore the morphological dependence of the crystallized Si layer on the annealing conditions.Item Open Access Optical and magnetization studies on europium based iron pnictides(2015) Zapf, Sina; Dressel, Martin (Prof. Dr.)The investigations carried out in the framework of this thesis mainly concentrate on europium based iron pnictides. These are a peculiar member of the 122 family as they develop at low temperatures (~20K) an additional magnetic order of the local rare earth moments. Therefore, europium based iron pnictides provide a unique platform to study the interplay of structural, magnetic and electronic effects in high-temperature superconductors. For this challenging purpose, we have employed SQUID magnetometry and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy on EuFe2(As1-xPx)2 single crystals. By systematic studies of the in- and out-of-plane magnetic properties of a series of single crystals, we derived the complex magnetic phase diagram of europium based iron pnictides, which contains an A-type antiferromagnetic and a re-entrant spin glass phase. Furthermore, we have investigated the magneto-optical properties of EuFe2As2, revealing a much more complex magnetic detwinning process than expected. These studies demonstrate a remarkable interdependence between magnetic, electronic and structural effects that might be very important to understand the unconventional superconductivity in these fascinating materials.Item Open Access Nitriding behavior of Ni and Ni-based binary alloys(2015) Fonovic, Matej; Mittemeijer, Eric J. (Prof. Dr. Ir.)Gaseous nitriding is a prominent thermochemical surface treatment process which can improve various properties of metallic materials such as mechanical, tribological and/or corrosion properties. This process is predominantly performed by applying NH3+H2 containing gas atmospheres serving as the nitrogen donating medium at temperatures between 673 K and 873 K (400 °C and 600 °C). NH3 decomposes at the surface of the metallic specimen and nitrogen diffuses into the surface adjacent region of the specimen whereas hydrogen remains in the gas atmosphere. One of the most important parameters characterizing a gaseous nitriding process is the so-called nitriding potential (rN) which determines the chemical potential of nitrogen provided by the gas phase. The nitriding potential is defined as where and are the partial pressures of the NH3 and H2 in the nitriding atmosphere. In contrast with nitriding of alpha-Fe where the nitriding potential is usually in the range between 0.01 and 1 atm-1/2, nitriding of Ni and Ni-based alloys requires employing nitriding potentials higher than 100 atm-1/2 and even up to infinity (nitriding in pure NH3 atmosphere). This behavior is compatible with decreased thermodynamic stability of the 3d-metal nitrides with increasing atomic number. Depending on the nitriding conditions (temperature, nitriding potential and treatment time), different phases are formed at the surface of the Ni-based alloys. By applying very high nitriding potential, formation of hexagonal Ni3N at the surface of the specimen (known as external nitriding) leads to the development of a compound layer, which may improve tribological properties. Underneath the Ni3N compound layer, two possibilities exist: (i) alloying element precipitation within the nitrided zone (known as internal nitriding) and/or (ii) development of metastable and precipitate-free microstructure known as expanded austenite or S-phase, which can enhance surface hardness, fatigue properties and corrosion properties.Nitriding of multicomponent Ni-based alloys is usually applied in the industry. Nevertheless, the understanding of nitriding is mostly based on phenomenological research and experience. Thereby there is still absence of complete understanding of nitriding of Ni-based alloys, which requires further detailed investigations. Since studying the nitrided multicomponent alloys is complicated, in this thesis fundamental investigations were performed on pure nickel and binary Ni-based model alloys.This thesis focuses on the nitriding behavior of pure nickel, which will result with an thermodynamic evaluation of the Ni-N system. Furthermore, deeper insights in the nitriding behavior of the binary Ni-based alloys is obtained upon nitriding Ni-4 wt.% Ti and Ni-2 wt.% Ti (Ni-5 at.% Ti and Ni-2.5 at.% Ti) alloys. Thereby, the development of large residual macrostresses parallel to the surface of the specimen is related with the N concentration gradient in the nitrided zone.Item Open Access Combining field and laboratory measurements to determine the erosion risk of cohesive sediments best(2015) Noack, Markus; Gerbersdorf, Sabine Ulrike; Hillebrand, Gudrun; Wieprecht, SilkeIn contrast to non-cohesive sediments, the incipient motion of cohesive sediments is characterized by much more complex interactions between several sedimentary, biological, and chemical parameters. Thus, site-specific investigations are required to obtain information about the erosion stability of cohesive materials. This becomes even more relevant for contaminated sediments, stored in riverine sediments as a “burden of the past”, because of their remobilization potential during flood events. This article represents a twofold measuring strategy for the detection of erosion thresholds: an in situ device for determination of critical shear stresses in the field, and a laboratory approach where sediment cores are withdrawn and subsequently analyzed over depth. The combined measuring strategy was applied in the River Elbe and at selected sites of the catchment of the River Saale. The results show a great variety of erosion thresholds over depth, demonstrating the need to conduct vertical analyses, especially when addressing buried layers with contaminations. The latter is only possible in the laboratory but the in situ device revealed clear benefits in capturing the loose flocculent layer on top of the sediment that might be easily lost during sediment retrieval and transport. Consequently, it is ideal to combine both approaches for a comprehensive insight into sediment stability.Item Open Access Ion beam lithographic and multilayer fresnel zone plates for soft and hard X-rays: nanofabrication and characterization(2015) Keskinbora, Kahraman; Schütz, Gisela (Prof. Dr.)X-ray microscopy has become an important analytical characterization method for a plethora of applications in materials science, physics, chemistry and biology, thanks to the emergence of modern synchrotron radiation facilities. These facilities enable high brilliance, energy tunable, variable polarization X-rays which gives access to mass density, elemental, chemical, electronic and magnetic properties of materials. In the soft X-ray energies nearly all elements can be probed by spectromicroscopic methods. Another important property of synchrotron radiation is the time structure in the ns to ps range, which can be utilized for sophisticated time resolution studies. These opportunities can be combined with high spatial resolution which is determined by the focusing method and the optic. Focusing of X-rays has historically been a difficult task due to strong absorption and weak phase shift of X-rays within matter. The required phase shift of X-rays, which depends on the real part of the complex refractive index, differs from 1 (the vacuum refractive index) only on the order of 10^-2 to 10^-6 and conventional lenses do not work. One very successful X-ray optic is the Fresnel Zone Plate (FZP), a diffractive optic that act as a lens under certain conditions and can focus X-rays to nanometer sized spots. The resolution of the FZP depends on the width of the outermost zone and is highly correlated with the smallest feature that can be fabricated. Conventionally, the e-beam lithography (EBL) is used for production FZPs which could resolve up to 10 nm structures with serious limitations. One difficulty of EBL is its ever increasing complexity for many-step fabrication of smaller features or intricate geometries. Therefore, EBL is mostly constrained to planar, binary geometries with moderate efficiencies strongly decreasing with energy and not effective for hard X-rays. Special 3D geometries in the form of kinoform lenses can theoretically have 100 % focusing efficiencies. Attempts to approximate these geometries via EBL increased the number of process steps even further. The smallest FZP feature size even for low aspect ratios achievable via EBL is fundamentally limited due to the proximity effect which is the interaction and spread of electrons within the resist material. We addressed these issues by focusing our research on alternative FZP fabrication techniques as high-speed ion beam lithography (IBL), and gray scale ion lithography to realize efficient kinoforms. Another approach towards full-material multilayer FZPs with infinite aspect ratio was based on atomic layer deposition (ALD) with subsequent ion beam slicing. Each of these three methods targets specific challenges faced by the e-beam lithography based FZP fabrication techniques. All the fabricated FZPs were tested for their resolution and efficiency performances at a state of the art scanning transmission X-ray microscope at BESSY for soft X-rays and/or at optical test stations at ESRF and PETRA III for hard X-rays. Using IBL the rapid preparation of a 110 nm thick Au FZP with 50 µm diameter and 50 nm ∆r in less than 13 minutes is demonstrated. Employed for X-ray microscopy, the FZP clearly resolved 28.5 nm features with a cut-off of 24.3 nm at ~1120 eV. Additional process improvements were made towards smaller zones with higher zone quality. They allowed the preparation of a FZP with 30 nm outermost half-period remarkably, in about 8 min. This FZP was shown to clearly resolve 21 nm features on a multilayer test object with large room for improvement. This high through-put FZP production route is of special interest not only concerning the low cost and easy availability. A large array of these optical components is attractive, for experiments such as one-shot ultra-high brilliance FEL investigations due to the radiation damage or for instance for coded-aperture arrays for high-angle resolving X-ray astronomy. Towards fabrication of kinoforms for high efficiency X-ray focusing, we have performed various materials optimization studies in order to achieve a high surface quality optic. After various trials the materials were finally optimized and the fabricated lenses achieved more than 14 % absolute diffraction efficiency that is almost 90 % compared to the theoretical prediction. This confirms how closely we were able to replicate the ideal three dimensional surface relief structure for the first time. It was possible to carry out imaging with these lenses with half-pitch resolutions down to 60 nm. The kinoform lenses were tested at the soft X-ray range where a significant absorption is present in materials. These results also potentially pave the way for very high efficiency hard X-ray focusing which can in principle be utilized in laboratory based X-ray sources, X-ray astronomy and the new rising field of X-ray ptychography. To fabricate high resolution ML-FZPs, Al2O3/Ta2O5multilayers, deposited on a smooth glass optical fiber via atomic layer deposition using non-dedicated instruments were carefully cut-out, sliced and polished to a high quality surface finish using focused ion beams. Following the transfer of the slice to a TEM grid as holder the slices were polished to a high surface finish quality, also via a focused ion beam. Fabricated ML-FZPs were synchrotron tested using an in-house constructed 2-axis tilt stage specially designed for aligning ML-FZP with respect to the X-ray optical axis. The results showed that it was possible to resolve 21 nm features in direct imaging at 1200 eV and sub-30 nm focusing at 8 keV. This is the highest demonstrated resolving power for a multilayer type FZP, to date to the best of our knowledge. Results exhibit the potential for high-resolution hard X-ray focusing where this type of optics are especially efficient. For ultra-high resolution hard and soft X-ray imaging, with potentially achievable ∆r of a few nm is well below what can be achieved through any lithography method available today.Item Open Access Large-area low-cost fabrication of complex plasmonic nanostructures for sensing applications(2015) Zhao, Jun; Giessen, Harald (Prof. Dr.)In this thesis, we introduce hole-mask colloidal lithography and nanosphere lithography techniques for low-cost nanofabrication of large-area (about 1 cm^2) plasmonic nanostructures with different complex shapes. For the first one, we use thin film PMMA-gold hole-masks, which are first prepared with polystyrene colloids, combined with following tilted-angle-rotation evaporation to fabricate large-area randomly deposited plasmonic nanostructures. For the second one, we use hexagonal close-packed polystyrene nanosphere monolayers directly as evaporation masks to fabricate large-area periodic plasmonic nanostructures. We describe the fabrication process step by step, and manufacture a variety of different plasmonic nanostructures for different sensing applications. For example, we use split-ring-resonators for antenna-assisted surface-enhanced infrared absorption measurements to detect monolayer molecules with an up to 20000-fold enhancement factor. We also utilize asymmetric double split-ring- resonators for localized surface plasmon resonance sensing with experimental sensitivities of up to 520 nm/RIU and figures of merit up to 2.9. Furthermore, we investigate plasmonic oligomers consisting of touching triangular building blocks, which show fundamental modes, higher-order modes, as well as Fano resonances due to coupling between bright and dark modes within the same complex structures. Large-area low-cost direct contact Au-Pd hydrogen sensors are demonstrated, which show much improved spectral shifts as large as 30 nm upon hydrogen exposure. Additionally, we improve hole-mask colloidal lithography for three-dimensional and multishape fabrication. With multiple repetitions of hole-mask lithography, single-layer metasurfaces with complex, multi-shape plasmonic nanostructures can be created that exhibit desired optical functionalities. Large-area and low-cost fabrication of different samples with independently tunable resonances is demonstrated. These single-layer metasurfaces could find possible applications as bifunctional surface-enhanced infrared absorption and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, multi-line, as well as broadband substrates. The fabrication method is particularly suited for the creation of large-area, single-layer C3-symmetric chiral metasurfaces, and this approach circumvents common problems with elliptical birefringence and can be utilized for interaction with chiral substances.