<p>Over the last two decades, an increasing number of highway construction and maintenance projects in the United States have been completed at night to avoid or mitigate traffic congestion delays. Working at night entails several advantages, including lower traffic volumes at night, reduced impact on local businesses, more freedom for lane closures, longer possible work hours, lower pollution, cooler temperatures for equipment and material, and fewer overall crashes due to lower traffic volumes at night. Although nighttime roadway operations may minimize traffic disruptions, there are several safety concerns for motorists passing by and for workers in the nighttime work zone. For instance, just in 2019, there were 842 work zone fatalities reported in the United States, with 48% of these being associated with fatalities on night shifts. Additionally, 70% of these fatalities involved drivers/occupants under the age of 50. Moreover, improper lighting arrangements or excessive lighting levels produced by temporary lighting systems installed at the job site could cause harmful levels of glare for the traveling public and workers leading to an increase level of hazards and crashes in the vicinity of the work zone. </p> <p>To address the issue of glare, very few studies have been conducted to evaluate and quantify glare at work zones. Most of these studies were limited to the determination of disability glare levels of lighting systems (balloon lights and light towers) with a metal-halide type light source by using the veiling luminance ratio (<em>VL ratio</em>) as a criterion for limiting disability glare. However, deeper evaluation of the effects of driver’s age on the veiling luminance ratio, and the use of energy-efficient lighting systems which employ light-emitting diode (LED) type light sources were not performed.</p> <p>This thesis focuses on determining and evaluating disability glare on nighttime work zones as a step towards developing appropriate lighting strategies for improving the safety of workers and motorists during nighttime highway construction and maintenance projects. Disability glare is the glare that impairs our vision of objects without necessarily causing discomfort and it can be evaluated using the veiling luminance ratio (<em>VL ratio</em>). In this study, disability glare values were determined by using lighting data (vertical illuminance and pavement luminance measurements) from testing 49 lighting arrangements. Two LED balloon lights, a metal-halide light tower, and an LED light tower were utilized for the field lighting experiments. The disability glare level evaluation examines the effects of mounting height, power output, rotation angle, and aiming angle of luminaires on the veiling luminance ratio values (which is a criterion for limiting disability glare). </p> <p>The analysis of the disability glare values revealed four major findings regarding the roles played by the mounting height, power output, lighting system orientation, aiming angles of luminaries, and driver’s age on disability glare levels as follows: (i) an increase in mounting heights of both balloon lights and light towers resulted in lower veiling luminance ratio values (or disability glare); (ii) compared to the "perpendicular" and "away" orientations, orienting the light towers in a "towards" direction (45 degrees) significantly increases the disability glare levels of the lighting arrangement; (iii) increasing the tilt angles of luminaires of the portable light towers resulted in an increase in veiling luminance ratio values; (iv) for balloon lights, at observers ages over 50, <em>VL ratio</em> values were found to be greater than the maximum recommended; (v) for LED light towers oriented towards the traffic, at driver’s ages over 40, <em>VL ratio</em> values exceed the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) recommended value; and (vi) for metal-halide light towers oriented towards the traffic, at driver’s ages over 50, <em>VL ratio</em> values exceed the IES recommended value. The results from this research study can provide State Transportation Agencies (STAs) and roadway contractors with a means to improve glare control strategies for nighttime work.</p>

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III-Nitride semiconductor materials have garnered significant attention among researchers due to their diverse applications stemming from their remarkable electrical and optical properties. This present thesis encompasses theoretical investigations conducted on InAlN and AlGaN for the purpose of designing light-emitting diodes (LEDs), along with experimental characterization experiments on BGaN thin films. The primary objective of this research is to delve deeply into the optoelectronic applications of InAlN and analyze the current state of BGaN. Theoretical studies were carried out on InAlN-based deep-ultraviolet (DUV) LEDs, with a particular focus on elucidating the polarization properties exhibited by this material when combined with AlGaN. Additionally, an estimation of the band alignment of this system was included, taking into account the available reported data. The intention behind this work is to underscore the importance of designing novel optoelectronic devices that incorporate ternary-to-ternary heterointerfaces. However, it is crucial to carefully consider both the advantages and disadvantages of such interfaces in terms of carrier injection efficiency and radiative efficiency. The experimental section of this thesis entailed the fabrication and characterization of BGaN thin films. A comprehensive understanding and development of this material are essential, as boron-alloys have garnered attention due to their unique properties. Nevertheless, there have been reports of epitaxial complications and theoretical limits associated with these alloys. In this section, we present the characteristics of the first conductive memory-effect-obtained p-type BGaN, doped with magnesium. Although the characterization of the reported samples includes techniques such as HRXRD, AFM, SEM, Hall, CTLM, SIMS, and CL, it is important to note that a more profound fundamental study is still underway. The relevance of this work can be summarized into two key aspects: Firstly, it provides valuable insights and descriptions of novel heterojunctions for ultraviolet LEDs from a physics perspective. Secondly, it contributes to material advancements in the pursuit of developing new ternary-alloys, offering a material science perspective.

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The present work aims at enhancing the external quantum efficiencies of ultra-violet (UV) sensitive photodetectors (PDs) and light emitting diodes (LEDs)for any light polarization. Deep UV solid state devices are made out of AlGaN or MgZnO and their performances suffer from the high resistivity of their p-doped regions. They require transparent p-contacts; yet the most commonly used transparent contacts have low transmission in the UV: indium tin oxide (ITO) and nickel-gold (Ni/Au 5/5 nms) transmit less than 50% and 30% respectively at 300 nm. Here we investigate the use of surface plasmons (SPs) to design transparent p-contacts for AlGaN devices in the deep UV region of the spectrum. The appeal of using surface plasmon coupling arose from the local electromagnetic field enhancement near the metal surface as well as the increase in interaction time between the field and semiconductor if placed on top of a semiconductor. An in/out-coupling mechanism is achieved by using a grating consisting of two perpendicularly oriented sets of parallel aluminum lines with periods as low as 250 nm. The incident light is first coupled into SPs at the air/aluminum interface which then re-radiate at the aluminum/AlGaN interface and the photons energy is transferred to SP polaritons (SPPs) and back to photons. High transmission can be achieved not only at normal incidence but for a wider range of incident angles. iv A finite difference time domain (FDTD) package from R-Soft was used to simulate and design such aluminum gratings with transparency as high as 100% with tunable peak wavelength, bandwidth and angular acceptance. A rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA) was developed in Matlab to validate the FDTD results. The high UV transparency meshes were then fabricated using an e-beam assisted lithography lift-off process. Their electrical and optical properties were investigated. The electrical characterization was very encouraging; the sheet resistances of these meshes were lower than those of the conventionally used transparent contacts. The optical transmissions were lower than expected and the causes for the lower measurements have been investigated. The aluminum oxidation, the large metal grain size and the line edge roughness were identified as the main factors of inconsistency and solutions are proposed to improve these shortcomings. The effect of aluminum oxidation was calculated and the passivation of aluminum with SiO2 was evaluated as a solution. A cold deposition of aluminum reduced the aluminum grain size from 60 nm to 20 nm and the roughness from 5 nm to 0.5 nm. Furthermore, replacing the conventional lift-off process by a dry back-etch process led to much smoother metal line edges and much high optical transparency. The optical measurements were consistent with the simulations. Therefore, reduced roughness and smooth metal line edges were found to be especially critical considerations for deep UV application of the meshes.

Gallium nitride (GaN) light emitting diodes (LED) embody a large field of research that aims to replace inefficient, conventional light sources with LEDs that have lower power, higher luminosity, and longer lifetime. This thesis presents an international collaboration effort between the State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics in Peking University (PKU) of Beijing, China and the Electrical Engineering Department of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Over the course of 2 years, Cal Poly’s side has simulated GaN LEDs within the pure blue wavelength spectrum (460nm), focusing specifically on the effects of reflection gratings, transmission gratings, top and bottom gratings, error gratings, 3-fold symmetric photonic crystal, and 2-fold symmetric nano-imprinted gratings. PKU used our simulation results to fabricate GaN high brightness LEDs from the results of our simulation models. We employed the use of the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method, a computational electromagnetic solution to Maxwell’s equations, to measure light extraction efficiency improvements of the various grating structures. Since the FDTD method was based on the differential form of Maxwell’s equations, it arbitrarily simulated complex grating structures of varying shapes and sizes, as well as the reflection, diffraction, and dispersion of propagating light throughout the device. We presented the optimized case, as well as the optimization trend for each of the single grating structures within a range of simulation parameters on the micron scale and find that single grating structures, on average, doubled the light extraction efficiency of GaN LEDs. Photonic crystal grating research in the micron scale suggested that transmission gratings benefit most when grating cells tightly pack together, while reflection gratings benefit when grating cells space further apart. The total number of grating cells fabricated on a reflection grating layer still affects light extraction efficiency. For the top and bottom grating structures, we performed a partial optimization of the grating sets formed from the optimized single grating cases and found that the direct pairing of optimized single grating structures decreases overall light extraction efficiency. However, through a partial optimization procedure, top and bottom grating designs could improve light extraction efficiency by 118% for that particular case, outperforming either of the single top or bottom grating cases alone. Our research then explored the effects of periodic, positional perturbation in grating designs and found that at a 10-15% randomization factor, light extraction efficiency could improve up to 230% from the original top and bottom grating case. Next, in an experiment with PKU, we mounted a 2-fold symmetric photonic crystal onto a PDMS hemi-cylinder by nano-imprinting to measure the transmission of light at angles from near tangential to normal. Overall transmission of light compared with the non-grating design increases overall light extraction efficiency when integrated over the range of angles. Finally, our research focused on the 3-fold symmetric photonic crystal grating structure and employed the use of 3-D FDTD methods and incoherent light sources to better study the effects of higher-ordered symmetry in grating design. Grating cells were discovered as the source of escaping light from the GaN LED model. The model revealed that light extraction efficiency and the far-field diffraction pattern could be estimated by the position of grating cells in the grating design.

Light has a wide and profound non-visual impact on the human body. It is related to the suppression or synthesis of a hormone called melatonin which regulates the human circadian clock. In Nordic countries like Sweden, lack of natural light in winter may lead to negative health effects such as circadian disorders or depression. At the same time, the underground metro system in Stockholm carries more than one million passengers on a weekday. The lighting in the train carriage may have distinct circadian effects on the passengers. The paper takes the metro system in Stockholm as an example, calculates the non-visual effects of the artificial lighting in the train according to Equivalent Melanopic Lux (EML), Circadian Stimulus (CS) and Melanopic Equivalent Daylight Illuminance (M-EDI) Models, compares with current guidance and suggestions, considers the daylighting conditions of Stockholm, and proposes a new design solution with adjustable LEDs to achieve a better healthful circadian lighting result.

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Integration of optical wireless communications (OWC) within switched-mode power supplies (SMPS) / Although visible light communication(VLC) systems can provide high density links for use with IoT devices, an energy efficient, high rate method of designing a VLC transmitter is still unclear. Present designs for transmitters such as the bias-T, designs with switch manipulation, and interleaved converters are not commercially viable due to costly and complex designs that sacrifice energy efficiency for data rate. A design allowing for efficient, high rate communications, while maintaining a low cost would allow for widespread adoption of this technology. In this thesis, a novel approach of integrating power converters and VLC systems is explored by replacing commutating diodes with LEDs. By leveraging switched-mode power supply(SMPS) structures, the power dissipated within the converter may be harnessed and used for communications. The result is a simple and energy efficient solution capable of high rate links. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate buck and boost SMPS topologies that simultaneously increase energy efficiency and provide communications at SMPS switching rate without increasing component count. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)