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Georgia Institute of Technology

Magnetic quartz crystal microbalance

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

In this thesis, a new technique for using quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) in magnetic field was explored. This technique would take advantage of the sensitive nature of QCM to vibration changes. The idea is to perturb the QCM vibrations with magnetic materials on it by applying magnetic field. A new instrument called magnetic QCM (MQCM) was constructed to explore this technique. The thesis contains three bodies of work. The first body describes the development of the MQCM instrument and the demonstration of the technique. The resonance frequency of a QCM with conducting polymer (polyaniline) suspension in poly(ethylene glycol) was observed to increase with increasing applied DC magnetic field. The change in population of free spins through doping with HCl vapor is reflected in increased frequency-field curve magnitude. The second body of work describes the study of QCM proximity phenomenon discovered during the MQCM instrument development process. When an object approaches a vibrating QCM, the resonant frequency changes. This proximity effect is seen at the distance of 10 mm in air and becomes more pronounced as the distance decreases. This effect depends on the value of quality factor, conductivity of the object, and electrical connection of the object to the QCM electrodes. A simple modified Butterworth van-Dyke model is used to describe this effect. It must be recognized that this effect may lead to experimental artifacts in a variety of analytical QCM applications. The third body of work describes an improved version of MQCM. The complex geometry such as particle suspension were simplified to alternating stack of ferromagnetic and diamagnetic layers. When magnetic field was applied, changes in the QCM admittance magnitude and phase curves were observed. A mass-equivalent stack of continuous consecutive layers of nickel and gold was also exposed to magnetic field but no changes were observed. Butterworth-van-Dyke model attributed the effect to internal shear friction loss among other losses is modulated by the magnetic field. Quantum effect was considered. However, after examining SEM surface images, the source of acoustic response to magnetic field is more likely from interfacial stresses.

Degree

thesis:*
Department dc:contributor.department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Georgia Institute of Technology
Year dc:date.issued
2008

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Yu, George Yang
Advisors dc:contributor.advisor
  • Hunt, William D.
  • Janata, Jiří
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Allen, Mark
  • Brand, Oliver
  • Ferguson, Ian
  • Lyon, Anew

Subjects

dc:subject × 7

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/1853/24615
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:repository.gatech.edu:1853/24615

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Georgia Tech
Base URL
repository.gatech.edu/server/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-27
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Yu, George Yang. Magnetic quartz crystal microbalance. Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/24615