Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (Physics): Recent submissions
Now showing items 21-40 of 62
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Application of vertically aligned arrays of metal-oxide nanowires in heterojunction photovoltaics
(University of the Western Cape, 2020)The commercial need to improve the performance of low-cost organic solar cells has led to the idea for this research. The study discusses the synthesis of one dimensional TiO2 and ZnO nanowire arrays synthesised using a ... -
The effects on student knowledge and engagement when using a culturally responsive framework to teach ASTR 101
(University of the Western Cape, 2020)The U.S. has a problem: it is not effectively utilizing all the bright young minds available to its science & engineering workforce. In 2012 the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) reported ... -
Radiometric investigation of soil and beach sand in Zanzibar
(University of the Western Cape, 2020)This study presents the results of radiometric investigation of soil and beach sand in Zanzibar. The activity concentration of natural radionuclides (40K, and 232Th and 238U decay products) in beach sand and soil samples ... -
A large-scale clustering analysis of radio galaxies
(University of the Western Cape, 2019)The distribution of the visible structure in the Universe is in part dependent on the in uence of the dark matter structure. Measurements of large-scale structure can therefore be related to the dark matter distribution ... -
Cosmology with next generation radio telescopes
(University of the Western Cape, 2019)The next generation of radio telescopes will revolutionize cosmology by providing large three-dimensional surveys of the universe. This work presents forecasts using the technique 21cm intensity mapping (IM) combined ... -
The observed bispectrum for SKA and other galaxy surveys
(University of the Western Cape, 2019)Next-generation galaxy surveys will usher in a new era of high precision cosmology. They will increasingly rely on the galaxy bispectrum to provide improved constraints on the key parameters of a cosmological model to ... -
Nuclear structure studies in the A=136 region using transfer reactions
(University of the Western Cape, 2018)This thesis describes research work undertaken to study neutron pairing correlations in 136Ba via the 138Ba(p, t) pair transfer reaction and to perform high-precision spectroscopy of low-lying states in 136Cs using the ... -
Synthesis of the metallocenes for the production of exotic high energy ion beams
(University of the Western Cape, 2019)The Subatomic Physics Department of iThemba Laboratory for Accelerated Based Sciences (iThemba LABS) conducts experiments that require a variety of particle beams in order to study nuclear properties (reaction, structure, ... -
Neutral hydrogen in galaxies, its content and the effect of environment on its evolution
(University of the Western Cape, 2018)Using two hydrodynamic galaxy formation simulations from the Mufasa project that I helped develop, we aim to better understand the relationship between galaxy evolution and its cold gas content commonly known as the ... -
Test of traditional vibrational wisdom by 2 proton stripping onto targets of 108;110Pd,114Cd,115In
(University of the Western Cape, 2018)The cadmium nuclei have traditionally been regarded as among the best examples of spherical vibrational nuclei. However, advances in nuclear spectroscopy have begun to detail the properties of these nuclei at the two and ... -
Transport and thermodynamic properties of rare earth compounds and alloys
(University of the Western Cape, 2017)Rare-earth (RE) elements possess an incompletely lled 4f shell, which is very small compared to typical interatomic distances. As a result of this, RE elements and compounds exhibit characteristic properties, which deviate ... -
Proton conductivity stability studies by modelling
(University of the Western Cape, 2016)In this thesis, some of the challenges experienced by high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells are explored through material modelling techniques. A very important aspect for a fuel cell is that it should ... -
Simulating the neutral hydrogen distribution during cosmic reionization
(University of the Western Cape, 2018)We improve on the physical treatment of ionising source and sink populations in the large scale semi-numerical simulations by implementing new physically motivated parametrizations taken from high-resolution radiative ... -
Imprints of Primordial Non-Gaussianity on Large Scale Structure in the Universe
(University of the Western Cape, 2016)Large scale structure in the universe is one of the most important probing tools for cosmological modelling. Assuming the hot big bang model of the universe, the expansion history has undergone two phases of acceleration. ... -
Structural and gas sensing properties of TiO₂-based (Sn, Mg) nano-structures induced by mechanical milling and annealing
(University of the Western Cape, 2015)Titanium oxynitride has attracted research interest for the fact that it is a bioactive non-toxic material. It is suitable for surface coating of biomaterials and in other applications such as anti-reflective coatings, ... -
Hot-wire chemical vapour deposition of nanocrystalline silicon and silicon nitride : growth mechanisms and filament stability
(University of the Western Cape, 2012)Nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) is an interesting type of silicon with superior electrical properties that are more stable compared to amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). Silicon nitride (SiNₓ) thin films are currently the ... -
Probing the expansion history of the universe using upernovae and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations
(University of the Western Cape, 2016)The standard model of cosmology (the ɅCDM model) has been very successful and is compatible with all observational data up to now. However, it remains an important task to develop and apply null tests of this model. These ... -
Using semantic profiling to characterize pedagogical practices and student learning : a case study in two introductory physics courses
(University of the Western Cape, 2016)Framed by the South African imperative of widening epistemological access to undergraduate science studies, this research takes the form of a case study to investigate the educational affordances of an extended introductory ... -
Relativistic corrections to the power spectrum
(University of the Western Cape, 2015)The matter power spectrum is key to understanding the growth of large-scale structure in the Universe. Upcoming surveys of galaxies in the optical and HI will probe increasingly large scales, approaching and even exceeding ... -
Modelling the growth of large-scale structure with interacting fluids
(University of the Western Cape, 2015)Prevailing astronomical and astrophysical observations suggest that we live in a spatially flat cold dark matter (CDM) universe - currently going through a period of accelerated expansion possibly driven by “dark energy” ...