Cosmic rays are highly energetic charged particles, mainly protons and heavier nuclei, impinging the Earth continuously from outer space. Although these particles were discovered over a century ago, the quest for their origin remains one of the most fundamental problems in Astrophysics.
This project aims to investigate the cosmic ray origin using measurements with the LOFAR radio telescope in the Netherlands. One of the major challenges in cosmic ray measurements using ground-based experiments is the identification of the elemental type of the particles.
Analogous to charge in electronics, the valley degree of freedom in the field of valleytronics constitutes the binary states and offer a tremendous advantage in data processing speeds over the electrical charge. Valleytronics has recently attracted a lot of attention where electrons carry a pseudospin that has a distinct crystal momentum and quantum valley number.
The significant separation of the crystal momentum protects the pseudospin from inter-valley scattering and leads to room temperature valley-based quantum computing and communications.
In general, it is hard to control the valley pseudospin because the valley state is not strongly coupled to any external magnetic and electric fields. The emergence of two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides makes it possible to control the electron’s pseudospin of the electron by lifting the valley degeneracy through breaking the time-reversal symmetry.
The manipulation of localized electromagnetic radiation through plasmonic device in combination with Raman spectroscopy provides the possibility to investigate the biological materials (proteins, DNA, and biological cells) efficiently. This project aims to design and fabricate the planar and nanoCone-based biomedical devices to unveil molecular mechanism of biological samples in their physiological medium through different spectroscopy techniques. This will allow to innovate the fabrication of next-generation sensors eventually using the nanofabrication tools for high sensitive (down to femtomolar (10-15 M) concentration) and sub-diffraction spatial resolution (SdSR) imaging (< λ/10 ).
The project will be in three stages:
The physical phenomenon that is playing role at the base of the proposed research is the generation of surface plasmons when light interacts with the metal surface. The design and fabrication of plasmonic devices to analyze the biomolecules with the concentration down to fM sensitivity. Furthermore, astonishing spatial resolution imaging with chemical information through Raman spectroscopy will be carried out to understand the cell functioning at molecular level.
The droplet size distributions (DSDs) of crude oil emulsions are of prime importance because they are crucial in the stability and viscosity of emulsions. The conventional optical microscopy-based techniques are generally used to determine DSDs of oil-in-water (OW) as well as water-in-oil (WO) emulsions. However, optical methods have little or no success in providing the DSDs below the droplet size range of one micron. Therefore, non-optical methods such as electron microscopy-based methods must be employed. That is why, in this project, both scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) technique will be applied on the imaging of crude-oil emulsions for the determination of DSDs in deep submicron range.
The proposed method herein will be applied on various types of emulsions so that fundamental mechanisms of emulsifications of crude-oil can be addressed. The outcome of the project will directly help the United Arab Emirates’ oil industry by providing higher resolution datasets on droplet sizes in emulsions, which can in turn can be utilized to improve treatment methods that already in use currently.
Two-dimensional (2D) materials of atomic thickness have emerged as nano-building blocks to develop high-performance separation membranes that feature unique nanopores and nanochannels. These 2D-material membranes exhibit extraordinary permeation properties, opening a new avenue to ultra-fast and highly selective membranes for water and gas separation. As such, membrane-based technologies for water purification and desalination have been increasingly applied to address the global challenges of water scarcity and the pollution of aquatic environments. However, progress in water purification membranes has been constrained by the inherent limitations of conventional polymeric membrane materials. Herein, we proposed a novel nano-mesh 2D material for efficient water desalination membranes. The sub nanometer pores in 2D materials provides passage to the water molecules and prohibit the ion transport. Well-controlled, high-density sub-nanometer pores will be created in the highly crystalline 2D materials to form nano-mesh 2D materials. This nano-mesh 2D material will be transformed into a membrane using wet-filtration zipping technology. The membrane performance in water desalination will be evaluated by employing Reverse Osmosis (RO). Our approach to fabricate the nano-mesh 2D material and its membrane using wet-filtration zipping technology can be concatenated with the current cellulose paper manufacturing technology, thereby possessing a huge industrial potential. It is expected that nano-mesh 2D material membranes will drive the water desalination to its maximum extent, resolving the global and regional water crisis effectively. Furthermore, the research objectives allow revealing fundamental aspects of novel nano-mesh 2D materials, water desalination using nano-mesh 2D material membranes, and set a benchmark for the design and development of more efficient advanced membranes and facilities.
This project aligns the University research vertical “Water and Environment” and research horizontal “Advanced Materials and Manufacturing”. The successful implementation of nano-mesh 2D membranes in large-scale industrial processes will promote a paradigm shift in the water desalination of sea water, and stimulate future research in water treatment and desalination, dialysis, gas separation, fuel cells, as well as emission conversion.
We suggest a project aimed at improving the understanding of ultracold molecules, with a focus on their creation and applications in astrophysics and quantum computation. It has four objectives. First, to conduct original theoretical/experimental spectroscopic studies for selected molecules. Second, to use the obtained data to investigate methods related to the production of ultracold diatomic molecules. Third, to model the behavior of candidate ultracold molecules in quantum computing applications. And fourth, to apply our models to the detailed understanding of astrophysical processes. Results will add value to various astrophysical spectroscopic databases such as the ExoMol database. There is also significant potential for contribution to the UAE Space Agency, and in particular with the HOPE Mission. Finally, the results of the project, related to Quantum computation, align directly with The KU Research Center on Cyber-Physical Systems (C2PS) needs and should complement its scientific activities.
Silicon comprises 90% of almost all integrated-circuits and photovoltaics and a great percentage of detectors deployed worldwide today. Investments in Si-FABs has exceeded $64 billion for the first time ever in 2018 and is posed to grow further in the next coming years. One segment that is enjoying remarkable growth exceeding 25% is Si-photonics with numerous applications in the pipelines serving the trend of increasing device speed and functionality. One investment of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, Global Foundries, is heavily entrenched in Si-photonics; but all the new products such as Si-Transceivers operates currently with III-V compound emitters integrated with Si due to the fact that Si is an indirect bandgap semiconductor with low emission efficiency. This research aims to revolutionize the industry by introducing monolithic all Si-photonic devices via realization of efficient Si light emitters at the bandgap based on novel techniques that proved two order of magnitude efficiency enhancement prototypes.
