ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I give my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Professor Prabhakar Bandaru,
who has given me the chance to pursue my childhood dream of being a scientist.
His faith in me and the support he provided all these years are deeply appreciated.
My thanks also go to Professor Charles W. Tu for the opportunity and resources
he has given me to complete my project. His kind invitations to so many
party and group lunches were also a very welcome relief from the grind of graduate
school.
This work could not have been completed without the tremendous resources
of the Nano3 cleanroom, and the helpful staffs: Ryan, Bernd, Larry, Maribel, and
Sean. I would also like to acknowledge Charlotte Lauve, our great admin who
make things happen for us students.
For my peers, I would like to thank Yanjin Kuang, who performed the MBE
growth and X-Ray diffraction of GaNxAs1−x for the work in Chapter 5. Additionally,
he has become a very good friend and a great colleague. His quiet strength of
conviction has also taught me a lesson. I also would like to acknowledge my labmates.
Calvin Patel, who assisted in the set up of measurement system in Chapter
3. Max Aubain, for the fun times he brings with his positive disposition. Mark
Hoefers, for being in the trench together. His presence has given me motivation to
do more.
Finally, I want to thank my mom for all her love. It has been very difficult
to be away from home, especially in my last year here. Thank you for your patience.
Chapter 2, in part, is a reprint of the material as it appears in the journal
articles:
• P. Pichanusakorn and P.R. Bandaru, “Minimum length scales for enhancement
of the power factor in thermoelectric nanostructure”, Journal of Applied