Department of Physics

Recent Submissions

  • Optical tweezers for advanced microscopy 

    Erasmus, Anneke (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03)
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: The integration of lasers into microscopy has enabled new areas of research and expanded existing ones. Not only can one now image samples to resolutions and contrast unheard of before lasers became ...

  • Investigating the photo-induced ultrafast insulator-metal phase transition in organic Cu(DCNQI)2 salts by ultrafast electron diffraction 

    Smit, Albert Bart (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03)
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: This work presents the structural dynamics of the organic crystal Cu(DCNQI)2 (DCNQI: dicyanoquinonediimine) as it undergoes a photo-induced insulator-to-metal (IM) transition. Cu(DCNQI)2, a radical ion ...

  • Point spread function engineering for fluorescence microscopy 

    Holinirina Dina Miora, Ratsimandresy (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03)
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: A tool for biological imaging is developed within this work. It consists of engineering the point spread function (PSF) of a fluorescent molecule or a nanoparticle emitter by modulating the phase of the ...

  • New developments in the nuclear binary cluster-core in the heavy nuclear region 

    Kaya, Boniface Dimitri Christel Kimene (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : The atomic nucleus is a complex many-body interacting system, which exhibits a underlying correlated set of nucleon states. The cluster model is one of the most reliable models that predicts the strongly ...

  • Non-commutative quantum mechanics in 3-dimensional fuzzy space and its applications 

    Groenewald, Hendrikus Wilhelm (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03)
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: As the structure of space-time at very short length scales comparable to the Planck length remains a contentious issue, this study aims to determine whether non-commutative space-time would prove to be ...

  • Photophysics and photovoltaic application of direct heteroarylation derived isoindigo based copolymers 

    Tegegne, Newayemedhin (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03)
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: Environmental friendliness, ease of fabrication, low cost and mechanical flexibility make organic solar cells a potential future of renewable energy sources. The structure of organic materials such as ...

  • A microscopic description of elastic scattering from unstable nuclei within a relativistic framework 

    Yahya, Wasiu Akanni (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03)
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: In this dissertation, a microscopic study of proton elastic scattering from unstable nuclei at intermediate energies using relativistic formalisms is presented. We have employed both the original ...

  • Bayesian parameter estimation for discrete data spectra 

    Wang, Li (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Discrete spectra are ubiquitous in physics; for example nuclear physics, laser physics and experimental high energy physics measure integer counts in the form of particles in dependence of angle, ...

  • Charge dynamics in hybrid and organic-inorganic light harvesting thin films followed with femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy 

    Minda, Iulia (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : In order to bridge the gap between traditional sources of electricity and the increasing global demand for it, as a society we must move towards renewable sources of energy such as solar radiation. ...

  • Noninvasive measurement of dynamic correlations in spin systems 

    Uhrich, Philipp Johann (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Dynamic correlations hψ| O1(t1)O2(t2)|ψi of quantum observables are useful quantities for the study of quantum dynamics. Attempts at measuring these correlations are however complicated, due to the ...

  • Studying the structural phase transition of organic Cu(DCNQI)2 with ultrafast electron diffraction 

    Payne, Nancy (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Organic molecular solids combine the richness of molecular and solid state physics. The structure and properties of organic solids can be modified to a great extent—for example, by utilising isotope ...

  • Field theory of reversible and active network formation 

    Pachong, Stanard Mebwe (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : This dissertation presents a statistical physics analysis of randomly cross-linked polymer networks with both reversible and permanent cross-links. The theory used here is adapted from the field theory ...

  • Driven nonequilibrium systems modeled with Markov processes 

    Nyawo, Pelerine Tsobgni (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : We study in this thesis the fluctuations of time-integrated functionals of Markov processes, which represent physical observables that can be measured in time for noisy systems driven in nonequilibrium ...

  • Spectroscopy of low lying states in 136Cs 

    Rebeiro, B.; Triambak, S.; Lindsay, R.; Adsley, P.; Burbadge, C.; Ball, G.; Bildstein, V.; Faestermann, T.; Garrett, P. E.; Hertenberger, R.; Radich, A.; Rand, E.; Varela, A.; Wirth, H.-F. (IOP Publishing, 2016)
    The low-lying excited states in 136Cs relevant to the double beta decay of 136Xe were studied via a 138Ba(d, α)136Cs transfer reaction with a high resolution magnetic spectrometer. Preliminary results from the experiment ...

  • Distorted-wave Born approximation study of the 11Li(p,t) 9Li reaction 

    Cowley, A. A. (IOP Publishing, 2016)
    The reaction 11Li(p,t) 9Li(gs) at an incident energy of 4 MeV is treated in terms of a simplistic distorted-wave Born approximation transfer. The halo neutrons involved in the reaction are treated as a di-neutron cluster ...

  • Diffusions conditioned on occupation measures 

    Angeletti, Florian; Touchette, Hugo (AIP, 2016-02)
    A Markov process fluctuating away from its typical behavior can be represented in the long-time limit by another Markov process, called the effective or driven process, having the same stationary states as the original ...

  • An overview of the first decade of PollyNET : an emerging network of automated Raman-polarization lidars for continuous aerosol profiling 

    Baars, Holger; Kanitz, Thomas; Engelmann, Ronny; Althausen, Dietrich; Heese, Birgit; Komppula, Mika; Preißler, Jana; Tesche, Matthias; Ansmann, Albert; Wandinger, Ulla; Lim, Jae-Hyun; Ahn, Joon Young; Stachlewska, Iwona S.; Amiridis, Vassilis; Marinou, Eleni; Seifert, Patric; Hofer, Julian; Skupin, Annett; Schneider, Florian; Bohlmann, Stephanie; Foth, Andreas; Bley, Sebastian; Pfüller, Anne; Giannakaki, Eleni; Lihavainen, Heikki; Viisanen, Yrjo; Hooda, Rakesh Kumar; Pereira, Sergio Nepomuceno; Bortoli, Daniele; Wagner, Frank; Mattis, Ina; Janicka, Lucja; Markowicz, Krzysztof M.; Achtert, Peggy; Artaxo, Paulo; Pauliquevis, Theotonio; Souza, Rodrigo A. F.; Sharma, Ved Prakesh; Van Zyl, Pieter Gideon; Beukes, Johan Paul; Sun, Junying; Rohwer, Erich G.; Deng, Ruru; Mamouri, Rodanthi-Elisavet; Zamorano, Felix (Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2016)
    The paper gives an overview of the observations on four continents and two research vessels obtained with eight Polly systems. The specific aerosol types at these locations (mineral dust, smoke, dust-smoke and other dusty ...

  • Computing the Arnold Tongue in the Zipoy-Voorhees Space-time 

    Sherif, Abbas Mohamed (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : In this thesis I study the integrability of the geodesic equations of the ZipoyVoorhees metric. The Zipoy-Voorhees spacetime is a one parameter family of Stationary Axisymmetric Vacuum spacetimes (SAV’s) ...

  • Methods for the radiological characterisation of the FiR 1 TRIGA research reactor decommissioning waste 

    Ackermann, Tarryn (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Every nuclear reactor will eventually reach the end of its life time. With more than 60 new power reactors currently under construction, the need for understanding the safe decommissioning of a nuclear ...

  • A near infrared femtosecond laser source for observation of charge transfer processes in semiconductors 

    Ahmed, Essraa Taha (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Near infrared femtosecond laser pulses were generated in the spectral range 900 - 2400 nm using the idler of a noncollinear optical parametric amplifier (NOPA). The amplitude and phase of four exemplary ...

  • Supercontinuum pulse characterisation and compression 

    Viljoen, Ruan (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03)
    AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING : In hierdie projek word die infrastruktuur van 'n hoë-resolusie nie-lineêre mikroskoop ontwikkel. Spesifiek word daar gekyk na generering van breëband lig deur middel van 'n fotoniese-kristalvesel ...

  • Fluorescence and self-absorption free excitation spectroscopy of carbon monoxide isotopomers in the vacuum ultraviolet 

    De Bruyn, Andre (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Carbon Monoxide (CO) is the most abundant heteronuclear diatomic molecule in the universe and has been of great interest in the fields of astrophysics and astronomy. CO is additionally, a prototype ...

  • Quantum corrections to the kink-antikink potential 

    Lee, Zander (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : In quantum field theory vacuum polarization effects may drastically alter the classical properties of non-perturbative field configurations. This is especially the case when comparing the vacuum ...

  • Control of CO2 vibrational dynamics via shaped-pulse coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy 

    Attie, Hendriks (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : In this work we investigate the coherent control of carbon dioxide (CO2) vibrational dynamics using Coherent anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS). During CARS, vibrational modes are excited via stimulated ...

  • Proton pencil beam kernels as extracted from Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations 

    Chisapi, Maluba Vernon J. (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : The contribution of primary protons, secondary protons, heavy recoil ions, and other secondary particles to the total energy deposited in water by a proton pencil beam (in the therapeutic energy regime) ...

  • Elemental Analysis of Mosses and Lichens from the Western Cape (South Africa) using INAA and ICP-MS 

    Ndlovu, Ntombizikhona Beaulah (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Mosses and lichens, analyzed by nuclear and related techniques, have been extensively used as biomonitors in the European countries to provide information about air quality, but not in South Africa. ...

  • Ultrafast photochromism in metal-organic complexes 

    Von Stein, Xavier (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Dithizone (H2Dz), an analytical reagent typically used in colourimetric analysis, reacts with various transition metals to form metal dithizonate complexes. These complexes display strong absorption ...

  • Search for the scissors resonance in 182Ta 

    Brits, Christiaan Petrus (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT :Relatively small changes to the overall shape of the photon strength function such as the scissors or pygmy resonances can have a significant impact on reaction rates. Reaction rates are important for ...

  • Charge carrier effects in free standing Si membranes investigated by linear and second harmonic optical techniques 

    Ndebeka, Wilfrid Innocent (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Silicon (Si) based materials have been of technological importance throughout the years and today silicon remains a leading material in microelectronics industries. The silicon/silicon dioxide (Si/SiO2) ...

  • Cave front tracking experiment 

    Green, Mark (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12)
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Seismic tomography, a procedure to trace seismic wave velocity variation, has been used for more than 100 years to “see through rock”. Initially the recording of seismic waves from natural sources ...

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