On 18 May 2020 Aušrinė Jurkevičiūtė, a PhD student of Institute of Materials Science, has defended her doctoral dissertation and became a new addition to the collective of employees with doctor degree.
Aušrinė’s dissertation title: Laser patterning of nanocomposite diamond-like carbon thin films with metal nanoparticles and investigation of their optical and structural properties.
Field of Science: Materials Engineering.
Supervisor: prof. dr. Tomas Tamulevičius.
Dissertation is dedicated to investigation of properties of diamond-like carbon and its nanocomposites with copper and silver nanoparticles and their laser patterning possibilities. These metals are interesting due to plasmonic properties and can be applied in sensors. However, due to oxidation the properties may change over time and passivating materials are necessary. In dissertation, many different analysis methods are used to analyse samples and to prove that diamond-like carbon effectively protects metals from oxidation while maintaining plasmonic properties of metals. It is also shown that direct laser interference patterning is capable to induce periodic structures in nanocomposites and change nanoparticle diameter distributions.
The research was carried out in laboratories of KTU Institute of Materials Science in “Santaka Valley” and during the internships in Mads Clausen Institute at University of Southern Denmark. Advanced technology equipment was employed: from spectroscopic ellipsometer to helium ion microscope.
Dissertation will also be considered for European doctor degree in “Physics and Chemistry of Advanced Materials” programme. If all programme partners will agree on dissertation worthiness, Aušrinė Jurkevičiūtė will obtain additional diploma.
The dissertation defence was carried online which ensured that even during the quarantine doctorate study process does not stop. The dissertation is openly available online.
