VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Back-action and coherent oscillation in a suspended nanotube resonator

The constant development of mesoscopic physics demands ever more precise and fast measurement and control of nanoscale objects. In this thesis, I demonstrate a sensitive electrical measurement of a carbon nanotube mechanical resonator at radio frequency, and the observation of its coherent oscillation as a consequence of the measurement back-action.
A single-electron transistor is embedded in the nanotube, the conductance of which is sensitive to the resonator displacement. The measurement scheme exploits this linear transduction and amplifies the electrical signal with an impedance-matching tank circuit followed by cryogenic amplifiers. As a result, the vibration displacement can be continuously monitored at radio frequency, with a sensitivity approaching within a factor 470 of the standard quantum limit.
The remarkable sensitivity is accompanied with strong back-action forces from electron tunnelling which randomly perturb the mechanical states. Despite its stochastic nature, in the subsequent experiments I observed self-sustaining coherent mechanical oscillation induced by such back-action. The emergence of the coherent oscillation from a static source is reminiscent of unconventional lasing without stimulated emission. The single-electron transistor, pumped by a constant bias, plays the role of a gain medium while the resonator functions as a phonon cavity. Other analogues of laser behaviour, including injection locking, classical squeezing through anharmonicity, and frequency narrowing through feedback, were demonstrated.
These experiments together explored a new paradigm of electromechanics, which might facilitate future fundamental physics research as novel probes at the nanoscale.

Advisor: Laird, E
Briggs, A
An investigation of stimulated emission processes in thin-film molecular materials and structures

Molecular semiconductor materials are highly attractive as gain media for solid state lasers and amplifiers. Devices based on thin-film structures show great potential in miniaturised, tunable and flexible lasing applications at a low cost. The ultimate aim in this context is the realisation of electrically pumped organic semiconductor lasers. One of the main challenges is understanding the relationship between material properties and stimulated-device performance, i.e. identifying generally applicable molecular structures that facilitate amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) or lasing.
This thesis comprehensively investigates stimulated emission processes in thin-film molecular materials and structures by numerical modelling and experimental characterisation on amorphous and glassy spin-coated samples. Absorption and emission spectroscopies are used to obtain material properties in photo-physics, and excited state lifetime is extracted from transient photoluminescence measurement. A 2-level spatial-temporal model reveals some of the key material and structure parameters for ASE in planar thin-films, which is guided by nonuniformly distributed modal gain. Meanwhile, a semi-automated ASE measurement set-up is introduced, followed by a reliable gain characterisation based on a modified single-pass travelling wave approach with homogeneous saturation. New metrics, ‘gain versus pump’ and ‘gain length product’, are proposed to evaluate gain media independent of measurement conditions. Furthermore, resonance energy transfer in molecular blends is studied systematically. Results from a set of samples with varying donor-acceptor concentration ratios unambiguously link photoluminescence quantum efficiency and excited state lifetime to ASE performance, which opens the door to tailor-made materials for organic semiconductor lasers.

Keywords: Optical gain
Organic semiconductor lasers
Amplified spontaneous emission
Advisor: Stavrinou, PN
Bradley, DDC
Gaetano Salvemini’s exile in Great Britain and the construction of a transnational anti-fascist network (1925-1934)

Gaetano Salvemini was one of the most prominent intellectuals forced into exile during the Fascist period. The critical bibliography on Salvemini’s biography and intellectual production is already substantial, but the period of his European exile (1925- 1934) has remained largely unexplored. In-depth research carried out on archival sources in Britain, Italy, and the USA has allowed me to reappraise the importance of this period. Between 1925 and 1934, Salvemini benefitted from the support of a transnational network which had its headquarters in Britain. The network shared Salvemini’s anti-Fascist views and helped him to disseminate his work as a counterbalance to the propaganda machine of the Fascist regime.
This thesis is divided into two parts. The first investigates Salvemini’s decision to go into exile and his choice of London as his headquarters, and considers the vital role played by the Anglo-Florentine community in providing him with preliminary contacts in Britain between 1922 and 1925. British-Italian diplomatic relations are also taken into account as key factors influencing the importance Salvemini attributed to British public opinion in the anti-Fascist struggle.
The second part explores Salvemini’s network in Britain. It focuses on the vital role played by a group of British anti-Fascist women who inspired and coordinated Salvemini’s anti-Fascist activities, including the organisation of conferences and lectures, the publication of essays and articles, the creation of anti-Fascist committees, and clandestine trips to Italy. Analysis of these activities makes it possible to map the British and transnational ramifications of Salvemini’s network.
This thesis fills a distinct gap in Salvemini’s biography and contributes more broadly to research on political and cultural attitudes towards Fascism and anti-Fascism in Britain during the interwar period.

Keywords: Gaetano Salvemini
anti-Fascism in Great Britain
Italian anti-Fascist Exiles
Advisor: Bonsaver, G
Cultures of political participation in late medieval cities

This thesis examines how late medieval urban societies responded to the fundamental problem of how to organise an increasingly complex and unequal society, and what role to give to the different and unequal agents of that society in the common enterprise of governance. It studies the logic behind political participation, why it happened, when it happened, and for what purposes. Using the towns of Burgos and Tournai in the period c.1380 – c.1520 as case studies, it considers the ways in which medieval urban societies organised and structured the participation of the different members of the body politic in ways that were imperfect and unstable, but also strikingly intelligent, creative, and nuanced. It proposes that these towns developed a political culture, which I have called corporate republicanism, which was based on a pragmatic logic of common duty toward the common good, corporatism as an organisational logic, deliberation as the basic tool for collective political action, and consensus as the main goal of political processes.
This thesis has three primary objectives. First, it re-assesses what political participation meant, what forms it could take, and what role it played in late medieval urban societies. Second, it challenges ideas on political inclusion and exclusion and proposes a much more inclusive view of institutional politics. Finally, through the choice of the case studies of Burgos and Tournai, this thesis also challenges the dichotomy, very present in urban studies, between the study of the ‘city-states’ of the Low Countries, Germany, and Italy, versus the royal towns of France, England, and Castile. Most importantly, it studies civic political cultures beyond ‘national’ frameworks in order to provide a model of understanding of urban politics that, although not universal, can be applied to different polities across Europe.

Keywords: Corporatism
Oligarchies
Banners
Direct Participation
Guilds
Commons
Political Participation
Burgos
Assemblies
Tournai
Representatives
Neighbourhoods
Advisor: Skoda, H
Lacey, H
Understanding rape adjudication in Delhi trial courts

This thesis undertakes a socio-legal analysis of rape prosecutions in Delhi. It explores the hypothesis that rape adjudication is best understood by examining the implementation of law in its postcolonial context, rather than by reference solely to its formal scope. Specifically, this thesis deploys a postcolonial feminist framework. Postcolonial feminism highlights that the scope and operation of law assumes fixed gendered, racial and other social hierarchies. It critiques these assumptions.
The key question addressed in this thesis is what are the factors associated with acquittal and conviction in rape prosecutions in Delhi? The data sources used to respond to this question include judgments (n=254); observation in six courtrooms and interviews with victims, victim-support personnel, lawyers and judges (n=61). A thematic analysis is used to identify the factors influencing adjudication in four categories of cases: where the victim’s testimony supports the defendant; where her consent is vitiated by deception (‘deceptive sex’); where elopement is prosecuted as rape; and other contested cases.
This thesis concludes that the criminal justice system is entrenched in its historical and socio-economic context. This context includes intersecting power structures such as those of gender, caste and class. Women’s experiences within and outside the legal system are shaped by these structures. Finally, the operation of the criminal justice system is influenced by multiple constitutive agencies with distinctive institutional cultures.
This thesis is one of the only academic studies to focuss on Indian rape trials, following extensive legal reform in 2013. It is one of the first socio-legal analyses of deceptive sex cases in South Asia. It demonstrates the potential of using postcolonial feminism to analyse legal materials. It also engages with the methodological hurdles encountered by researchers in opaque, bureaucratic postcolonial environments. Its findings are relevant for scholars and practitioners interested in feminist analyses of criminal justice institutions.

Advisor: Hoyle, C
Zedner, L
Placing the post-extractive moment: experiential evidence and historical accounts in the Central Appalachian coalfields

Through concepts of space and place, this work considers at length the post-extractive moment in Central Appalachia as it relates to conceptions of identity and development. Complex historical trajectories of resource extraction complicate the Central Appalachian narrative, as evidenced and explored through the lens of community voices and community elites. Competing visions of 'development' for the region are apparent, giving credence and conversation to the concept of a single plan for development or a singular experience of resource extraction. Within these themes deeply located in the rich history and economic trajectory of Central Appalachia, this work also explores the discipline of 'development' as a whole, making arguments for a more robust and thick depiction of how 'development' is considered and labeled. Through post-development theories of power and place, this work argues that power and place are thickly entwined and defy easy categorization of places located in the Global North, but experiencing conditions of under-development more common in the Global South - thus challenging paradigms of development thought itself.

Keywords: International development
Advisor: Sud, N
Irish women and radical internationalism: from suffrage to antifascism, 1916-1939

This thesis is a transnational political history of Irish women who proceeded from the suffrage campaign into the networks of interwar radical internationalism, grounded in the personal relationships and spatial contexts which shaped their careers. The project provides a detailed analysis of Irish women’s engagement with internationalist movements such as international communism and antifascism. Adopting an inclusive definition of Irishness, activists born in Ireland are included in the study alongside those with Irish ancestry who identified with Irish political causes later in their careers. Figures prominent in the analysis include Charlotte Despard (1844-1939), Katherine Gillett Gatty (1870-1952), May O’Callaghan (1881-1973) and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington (1877-1946). The thesis offers a history of the Irish left that expands its focus beyond the island of Ireland, encompassing activism in locations such as East London during the First World War, Moscow in the late 1920s and continental European antifascist networks. In doing so, it offers insights into a broad spectrum of Irish radicals and their international counterparts.
The thesis demonstrates how a focus in the historiography of the Irish radical left on prominent socialist republican figures and organisations has marginalised women and obscured revealing case studies. Challenging a tendency in British and Irish women’s history to consider women’s internationalism as synonymous with liberal internationalism, my approach explores how radical communist-inspired internationalism influenced many activist women during this period. Responding to recent methodological insights in histories of international communism, particularly a turn towards transnational and biographical approaches, my project demonstrates how looking beyond formal Communist Party members can highlight hitherto obscure activists involved in Irish leftist groups and in the Comintern. Exploring a diverse set of Irish radical women alongside their comrades, this thesis ultimately argues that their profoundly transnational post-suffrage careers were sustained by connections to the initiatives and comradeships fostered by radical internationalism.

Advisor: Paseta, S
Priestland, D
Rhodium "PONOP" pincer complexes for amine-borane dehydrogenation

This thesis explores the reactivity of the {Rh(PONOP)}+ fragment with the tertiary amine-borane, H3B·NMe3, and the secondary amine-borane, H3B·NMe2H, with an overall aim of gaining mechanistic insight into the transition metal-catalysed dehydrocoupling of amine-boranes.
Chapter One provides a thorough outline of the background that the work reported in this thesis follows on from. Chapter Two describes the synthesis of several {Rh(PONOP)}+–based complexes as potential pre-catalysts for amine-borane dehydrocoupling. Their stoichiometric reactivity with H3B·NMe3 and H3B·NMe2H is described and an amine-borane sigma complex is isolated and fully characterised. A neutral, monohydride complex, Rh(PONOP)H, is also synthesised and fully characterised. At the end of this chapter, adaptation of the PONOP ligand is preliminarily investigated. Chapter Three builds upon Chapter Two and describes an in-depth study of the catalytic dehydrocoupling of H3B·NMe2H with {Rh(PONOP)}+. Speciation studies, kinetic measurements and DFT calculations lead to a mechanistic proposal where neutral Rh(PONOP)H is a key intermediate. The roles of amine (NMe2H), boronium ([H2B(NMe2H)2][BArF4]), and ammonium ([NMe2H2][BArF4]) in catalysis are also probed. Finally, in Chapter Four the general reactivity of Rh(PONOP)H is explored. In particular, the potential of Rh(PONOP)H as a catalyst for the reduction of CO2 is probed and Rh(PONOP)H is found to catalytically react with H3B·NMe2H in the presence of CO2.

Keywords: Rhodium
Pincer ligands
Catalysis
Amine-borane
PONOP ligands
Advisor: Weller, A
Contesting Armenianness: plurality, segregation and multilateral boundary making among Armenians in contemporary Turkey

During the last three decades, Turkey’s Armenian landscape witnessed an unprecedented process of diversification, triggered by developments on the national and regional levels. Whereas members of the Christian Armenian minority had traditionally been the sole representatives of Armenian identity in Turkey, they now find themselves next to two other groups of Armenians: first, officially Muslim and hence ‘non-Armenian’ citizens of the Republic of Turkey who, drawing on their Armenian ancestors Islamised or Alevised decades or centuries earlier, have recently started to publicly identify as Armenians in growing numbers and to approach the established Christian Armenian community; and second, citizens of neighbouring Armenia who engaged in a labour migration towards Turkey after the independence of their country and its sinking into a political, economic, and energy crisis in the early 1990s. Going beyond the official categorisation of Armenians in Turkey, limited in scope and imposing a particular interpretation of Armenianness, this ethnography studies the various people self-identifying as Armenians in contemporary Turkey, revealing their plurality, heterogeneity and internal divisions. It studies the often-differing meanings, interpretations, productions and experiences of Armenianness among the Christian Armenians, the Muslim/Alevi Armenians, and the migrant Armenians. Furthermore, it not only describes and illustrates, but also aims to understand and explain their segregation and internal boundary making processes. In that endeavour, it argues that the making of symbolic and social boundaries between the three Armenian factions is conditioned both by irreconcilable differences between each one’s understanding and expectations of Armenianness, and by practical factors related to interest and security. Finally, broadening its scope of analysis, the dissertation argues that the making of intra-Armenian boundaries is also influenced or conditioned by the particular Armenian factions’ relations and boundaries with third parties (e.g. the Turks, the Kurds, the Turkish state), thus advancing a theory of multilateral social boundary making.

Keywords: Boundary Making
Religion
Ethnicity
Armenians
Turkey
Nationalism
Advisor: Olszewska, Z
Berg, ML
Reassessing ownership of English in ELF through self-perceived L2 identity and self- directed English accent preference among Hong Kong students in UK universities

With English being the preeminent medium of international interaction, millions are learning and using English as an additional language: L2-users are outnumbering L1-users at an ever-growing rate. The relevance of native-speaker norms is thus called into question. In terms of pronunciation, L2-users are given more space to assert and communicate their identities by means of L1-influenced accents. While L2-users are the key participants of ELF interactions, ownership of English is no longer conceptualized as belonging exclusively to natives as English has become an integral part of many non-native speakers’ identity. However, Hong Kong L2-users’ adherence to native pronunciation appears to persist. The current study sought to understand the self-directed accent preference and their self-perceived L2 identity among Hong Kong students studying in UK universities. 116 UK-based Hong Kong students completed a questionnaire and 5 in-depth interviews were conducted. It was revealed that Hong Kong L2-users in the study largely prefer native accent despite regular ELF encounters. While questionnaire results show that participants display traits of ownership claim over English, this sense of ownership does not lead to a stronger appreciation for the L1-influence accent. Although many express that English constitutes a salient part of their identity, they choose not to reflect their claim of English ownership through accent choice. The strong preference for native accent appeared to be driven mainly by pragmatic reasons rather than identity-related reasons. Native accents are believed to ensure effective communication due to their high intelligibility, whereas Hong Kong accent was viewed as having marginal significance in signalling participants’ cultural identity but project an undesirable identity as incompetent L2- users.

Advisor: Briggs Baffoe-Djan, J
Decadent Indochina and French Colonial Literature, 1880s to 1920s

This thesis investigates the long-neglected relationship between Decadence and colonialism at the fin de siècle which also coincided with the age of France’s high imperialism. Generally considered a European literary and cultural movement, Decadence has rarely been examined outside its Western boundaries, not least in connection with the empire. The fin-de-siècle colonial literature of Indochina emerges as a particularly compelling case reflecting a complex interplay between Decadence and colonialism, aesthetics and politics, at a time when France was seeking to redefine its national identity in relation to the increasingly significant concept of la plus Grande France and in opposition to other European powers.
By combining colonial discourse analysis with postcolonial and cultural studies approaches, with special emphasis on a historicist approach, this thesis engages in close readings of novels, short stories and poetry written by a number of French travellers and colonisers, most notably Paul Bonnetain, Jules Boissière, Albert de Pouvourville, Claude Farrère, Myriam Harry, Clotilde Chivas-Baron, and Jeanne Leuba. In particular it focuses on three key decadent tropes: opium, subversive sexualities, and the allure of the néant seen in terms of both spirituality and the ruins of past civilisations. Reading Decadence against colonial ideology and in relation with a wide range of fin-de-siècle scholarly and popular discourses, reveals that the decadent articulation of the colonial encounter is fundamentally political, in contrast to its perceived aestheticist detachment. Through its ambiguous propensity for revelling in what it deprecates, decadent literature often introduces ambivalence and oppositional counter-narratives disrupting the colonialist foundations on which the French rule in Indochina and the neat boundaries between coloniser and colonised are built. A postcolonial reading of decadent literature suggests the presence of ‘critical Decadence’ that points to a need to reassess the monolithic pro-colonial view of colonial literature.

Keywords: French Orientalism
Decadence
Fin de siècle
Occultism
Opium
Indochina
Ruins
Angkor
Colonial literature
Sexuality
Empire
Buddhism
Decadent literature
Belle époque
Advisor: Yee, J
Search for electron neutrino anomalies with the MicroBooNE detector

The Micro Booster Neutrino Experiment (MicroBooNE) is a Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) located in the Booster Neutrino Beam at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The experiment was devised to investigate a series of observed anomalies concerning short-baseline neutrino oscillation physics. The LArTPC technology enables the experiment to study neutrino-argon scattering with unprecedented detail.
This thesis presents a cosmic-ray characterisation and rate measurement. The understanding of cosmic activity in the detector - MicroBooNE's dominant background - is then used to develop cosmic rejection tools. A flavour-agnostic neutrino selection is constructed, which forms the cornerstone of this and further analyses. Inclusive muon and electron charged-current neutrino interaction selections with unprecedented purity and efficiency are presented.
The first fully-automated characterisation of electron neutrinos in a muon neutrino beam with the LArTPC detector technology is performed. The Booster Neutrino Beam has an energy peaking around 1GeV and an intrinsic electron content of approximately 0.5%. The analysis investigates electrons produced in charged-current electron neutrino interactions. The kinematics of the electrons are measured along with comparisons to simulation. Most of the systematic uncertainties are constrained using a data-driven sample of charged-current muon neutrino events. The measurement of electron neutrinos originating from the Booster Neutrino Beam is a crucial component towards understanding the nature of the observed excess of low-energy electromagnetic-like events at its predecessor, MiniBooNE.

Keywords: Low-energy excess
MicroBooNE
Accelerator
Booster Neutrino Beam
Neutrino
Electron Neutrino
Time Projection Chamber
LArTPC
Liquid argon
Advisor: Guenette, R
Weber, A