Ce travail de thèse présente un dispositif expérimental original permettant la mesure, dans des conditions comparables, des fluctuations de l'aimantation d'un échantillon et de sa réponse à un champ magnétique. Une comparaison quantitative permet, via le théorème de fluctuation-dissipation, une mesure absolue de la température lorsque l'échantillon est à l'équilibre thermodynamique. Pour des systèmes vitreux, la "température effective" ---une extension conservant le formalisme du théorème de fluctuation-dissipation de la température pour les système à faible production d'entropie--- est rendue accessible. Un échantillon "verre de spin" ($CdCr_{1,7}In_{0,3}S_4$) aux propriétés vitreuses étudiées depuis de nombreuses années a permis cette mesure. Le régime fortement vieillissant, non-stationnaire, est étudié; la mesure nécessaire des fluctuations thermiques est très délicates (l'amplitude de ces fluctuations correspond à la réponse de l'échantillon à des variations de l'ordre du millionième du champ magnétique terrestre). <br> Les résultats obtenus montrent en premier lieu une dynamique de quasi-équilibre, confirmant des résultats précédents. Le régime fortement vieillissant est maintenant également atteint. Toutefois, les mesures ne peuvent pas être traduites directement en terme de température effective, car expérimentalement, on observe systématiquement la coexistence d'une dynamique stationnaire et de la dynamique de vieillissement. Une analyse par scaling est proposée pour séparer ces deux contributions. Sous réserve de validité de cette analyse, les mesures confirment alors les principales caractéristiques attendues pour la température effective, et notamment son indépendance en fonction de l'âge du système. <br> Les différents modèles connus ne permettent cependant pas d'expliquer complètement toutes les caractéristiques de la température effective mesurée, certaines d'entre elles paraissant encore antinomiques...

A l’aide d’un interféromètre différentiel à quadrature de phase nous mesurons les fluctuations thermiques de la déflexion d’un micro-levier. Il est alors possible de déduire différentes propriétés mécaniques du levier telles que raideur, fréquences de résonance, facteurs de qualité etc. Dans un tel système, la précision maximale sur les mesures est limitée par le bruit de grenaille des photodiodes (shot-noise). Afin d’augmenter le rapport signal sur bruit, nous augmentons l’intensité lumineuse du laser de mesure, diminuant ainsi le bruit de fond des spectres de fluctuations thermique. En revanche, l’augmentation de l’intensité du laser a pour effet de décaler vers les basses fréquences les résonances du levier. Une première partie de ce travail de thèse a pour objectif la compréhension de ce phénomène. Ainsi, nous associons le décalage en fréquence à un échauffement du levier par le laser de l’interféromètre et au flux de chaleur associé le long du levier. Nous développons alors un modèle permettant de relier cet effet à la température de l’extrémité du levier en se basant sur un profil de température linéaire. Une seconde partie de ce travail vise à mesurer la température effective d’un levier à l’aide d’une extension du théorème fluctuation-dissipation. Nous montrons que les fluctuations de ce système hors équilibre sont plus faibles que celles attendues compte tenu du profil de température. Nous cherchons alors à identifier l’origine de ce déficit de fluctuations. Dans une dernière partie nous estimons les profils de température sur des leviers en faisant varier leurs paramètres géométriques ou leur coefficient d’absorption, ainsi que la position du laser chauffant le levier. / Thanks to a home made quadrature phase differential interferometer, we measure the thermal fluctuations ofa cantilever. It is then possible to infer various mechanical properties such as eigenfrequencies, stiffness,quality factor, etc. In such system, the maximal precision on the measure is limited by the shotnoise of thephotodiodes. To increase the signal-noise ratio we raise the light intensity of the laser, lowering thebackground noise. Doing so, the cantilever eigen frequencies shifts to lower values. A fisrt part of this thesiswork has for objective the understanding of this phenomenon. Thus, we associate this frequency shift with aheating of the cantilever by the laser. We develop a model linking this effect to the temperature at the freeend of the cantilever assuming a linear temperature profile.A second part of this thesis leads us to estimate the effective temperature of a cantilever using thefluctuation-dissipation theorem. We show that the fluctuations of our out of equilibrium system are lower thanthe fluctuations expected at equilibrium.In the last part, we estimate the temperature profiles on cantilevers by varying their geometry, absorptioncoefficient and laser position.

In this thesis I investigate several aspects of local quantum criticality, a concept of key importance in a number of physical contexts ranging from critical heavy fermion compounds to quantum dot systems. Quantum critical points are associated with second order phase transitions at zero temperature. In contrast to their finite-temperature counterparts, the zero-point motion cannot be neglected near a quantum critical point. As a result, the incorporation of quantum dynamics leads to an effective dimension larger than the spatial dimension of the system for the order parameter fluctuations within the Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson treatment of criticality. This so-called quantum-to-classical mapping works well for the critical properties in insulating systems but apparently fails in systems containing gapless fermions. This has been experimentally most clearly been demonstrated within a particular class of intermetallic compounds called heavy fermions. A particular way in which the Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson paradigm fails is for critical Kondo destruction that seems to underlie the unconventional quantum criticality seen in the heavy fermions. I focus on studying the properties of critical Kondo destruction and the emergence of energy-over-temperature-scaling in systems without spatial degrees of freedom, i.e., so-called quantum impurity systems. In particular, I employ large-N techniques to address critical properties of this class of quantum phase transitions in and out of equilibrium. As quantum critical systems are characterized by a scale-invariant spectrum with many low-lying excitations, it may appear that any perturbation can lead to a response beyond the linear response regime. Understanding what governs the non-linear response regime near quantum criticality is an interesting area. Here, I first present a path integral version of the Schrieffer-Wolff transformation which relates the functional integral form of the partition function of the Anderson model to that of its effective low-energy model. The equivalence between the low-energy sector of the Anderson model in the Kondo regime and the spin-isotropic Kondo model is usually established via a canonical transformation performed on the Hamiltonian, followed by a projection. The resulting functional integral assumes the form of a spin path integral and includes a geometric phase factor, i.e. a Berry phase. The approach stresses the underlying symmetries of the model and allows for a straightforward generalization of the transformation to more involved models. As an example of the efficiency of the approach I apply it to a single electron transistor attached to ferromagnetic leads and derive the effective low-energy model of such a magnetic transistor. As Kondo screening is a local phenomenon, it and its criticality can be studied using the appropriate impurity model. A general impurity model to study critical Kondo destruction is the pseudogap Bose-Fermi Kondo model. Here, I concentrate on the multi-channel version of the model using the dynamical large-N study. This model allows to study the non-trivial interplay between two different mechanisms of critical Kondo destruction. The interplay of two processes that can each by itself lead to critical Kondo destruction. The zero-temperature residual entropy at various fixed points for the model is also discussed. The two channel Anderson model exhibits several continuous quantum phase transitions between weak- and strong-coupling phases. The non-crossing approximation (NCA) is believed to give reliable results for the standard two-channel Anderson model of a magnetic impurity in a metal. I revisit the reliability of the NCA for the standard two channel Anderson model (constant conduction electron density of states) and investigate its reliability for the two-channel pseudogap Anderson model. This is done by comparing finite-temperature, finite-frequency solutions of the NCA equations and asymptotically exact zero-temperature NCA solutions with numerical renormalization-group calculations. The phase diagram of this model is well established. The focus here will be on the dynamical scaling properties obtained within the NCA. Finally, I study the thermal and non-thermal steady state scaling functions and the steady-state dynamics of the pseudogap Kondo model. This model allows us to study the concept of effective temperatures near fully interacting as well as weak-coupling fixed points and compare the out-of-equilibrium scaling properties of critical Kondo destruction to those of the traditional spin-density wave (SDW) scenario. The differences I identify can be experimentally probed. This may be helpful in identifying the nature of the quantum critical points observed in certain heavy fermion compounds.

Nous avons étudié expérimentalement les fluctuations de micro-particules browniennes piégées à l'aide de pinces optiques dans un réseau de puits de potentiels voisins. Nous donnons un descriptif général du montage expérimental, puis détaillons quatre utilisations différentes du système. Nous avons d'abord utilisé une unique particule dans un double puits de potentiel pour modéliser un système mémoire à deux niveaux, avec lequel nous avons vérifié le principe de Landauer sur le coût minimal en énergie pour l'effacement d'un bit d'information. Nous avons également appliqué une version détaillée d'un théorème de fluctuation à la procédure d'effacement de l'information pour retrouver la limite énergétique attendue. Nous avons ensuite étudié l'interaction hydrodynamique entre deux particules dont l'une est soumise à une température effective. Nous avons montré qu'il n'y a pas de fluctuations anormales lors de la transition sol-gel de la gélatine, contrairement à ce qui avait été observé précédemment, et que ce système ne pouvait donc pas être utilisé pour étudier des températures effectives. En revanche, nous avons montré que l'ajout d'un forçage aléatoire bien choisi sur la position d'un piège créait une température effective. Nous avons montré que le forçage d'une des particules résultait en une corrélation instantanée entre les mouvements des deux particules, et s'accompagnait d'un échange de chaleur de la particule virtuellement chaude à la particule froide en équilibre avec le bain thermique. Nous avons obtenu un bon accord entre les données expérimentales et les prédictions d'un modèle de couplage hydrodynamique. Enfin, nous décrivons l'utilisation de canaux micro-fluidiques pour réaliser un écoulement cisaillé à l'échelle micrométrique, et nous discutons de la possibilité d'interpréter un cisaillement en terme de température effective en testant une relation de fluctuation-dissipation. / We experimentally study the fluctuations of Brownian micro-particles trapped with optical tweezers arranged in various spatial configurations. We give a general description of the set-up and detail four different experiments we conducted. We first use a single particle in a double-well potential to model a two-state memory system. We verify the Landauer principle on the minimal energetic cost to erase one bit of information, and we use a detailed version of a fluctuation theorem to retrieve the expected energetic bound. We then use two particles in two different traps to study the hydrodynamic interactions between two systems kept at different effective temperatures. Contrary to what was previously observed, we show that the sol-gel transition of gelatine does not provide any anomalous fluctuations for the trapped particle when the sample is quenched below gelification temperature. However, we show that an effective temperature is created when a well chosen random noise is added on one trap position. We demonstrate that the random forcing on one particle induces an instantaneous correlation between the two particles motions, and an energy exchange from the virtually hot particle to the cold one, which is in equilibrium with the thermal bath. We show a good agreement between the experimental data and the predictions from an hydrodynamic coupling model. Finally, we describe the use of micro-fluidic channels to create a shear flow at the micron size, and we discuss the possibility to interpret the force due to the shear-flow in terms of an effective temperature by testing a fluctuation-dissipation relation.

The theory of Brownian motion is a cornerstone of modern physics. In this thesis, we introduce a nonequilibrium extension to this theory, namely an effective Markovian theory of the Brownian motion of a heated nanoparticle. This phenomenon belongs to the class of nonequilibrium steady states (NESS) and is characterized by spatially inhomogeneous temperature and viscosity fields extending in the solvent surrounding the nanoparticle. The first chapter provides a pedagogic introduction to the subject and a concise summary of our main results and summarizes their implications for future developments and innovative applications. The derivation of our main results is based on the theory of fluctuating hydrodynamics, which we introduce and extend to NESS conditions, in the second chapter. We derive the effective temperature and the effective friction coefficient for the generalized Langevin equation describing the Brownian motion of a heated nanoparticle. As major results, we find that these parameters obey a generalized Stokes–Einstein relation, and that, to first order in the temperature increment of the particle, the effective temperature is given in terms of a set of universal numbers. In chapters three and four, these basic results are made explicit for various realizations of hot Brownian motion. We show in detail, that different degrees of freedom are governed by distinct effective parameters, and we calculate these for the rotational and translational motion of heated nanobeads and nanorods. Whenever possible, analytic results are provided, and numerically accurate approximation methods are devised otherwise. To test and validate all our theoretical predictions, we present large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of a Lennard-Jones system, in chapter five. These implement a state-of-the-art GPU-powered parallel algorithm, contributed by D. Chakraborty. Further support for our theory comes from recent experimental observations of gold nanobeads and nanorods made in the the groups of F. Cichos and M. Orrit. We introduce the theoretical concept of PhoCS, an innovative technique which puts the selective heating of nanoscopic tracer particles to good use. We conclude in chapter six with some preliminary results about the self-phoretic motion of so-called Janus particles. These two-faced hybrids with a hotter and a cooler side perform a persistent random walk with the persistence only limited by their hot rotational Brownian motion. Such particles could act as versatile laser-controlled nanotransporters or nanomachines, to mention just the most obvious future nanotechnological applications of hot Brownian motion.

The theory of Brownian motion is a cornerstone of modern physics. In this thesis, we introduce a nonequilibrium extension to this theory, namely an effective Markovian theory of the Brownian motion of a heated nanoparticle. This phenomenon belongs to the class of nonequilibrium steady states (NESS) and is characterized by spatially inhomogeneous temperature and viscosity fields extending in the solvent surrounding the nanoparticle. The first chapter provides a pedagogic introduction to the subject and a concise summary of our main results and summarizes their implications for future developments and innovative applications. The derivation of our main results is based on the theory of fluctuating hydrodynamics, which we introduce and extend to NESS conditions, in the second chapter. We derive the effective temperature and the effective friction coefficient for the generalized Langevin equation describing the Brownian motion of a heated nanoparticle. As major results, we find that these parameters obey a generalized Stokes–Einstein relation, and that, to first order in the temperature increment of the particle, the effective temperature is given in terms of a set of universal numbers. In chapters three and four, these basic results are made explicit for various realizations of hot Brownian motion. We show in detail, that different degrees of freedom are governed by distinct effective parameters, and we calculate these for the rotational and translational motion of heated nanobeads and nanorods. Whenever possible, analytic results are provided, and numerically accurate approximation methods are devised otherwise. To test and validate all our theoretical predictions, we present large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of a Lennard-Jones system, in chapter five. These implement a state-of-the-art GPU-powered parallel algorithm, contributed by D. Chakraborty. Further support for our theory comes from recent experimental observations of gold nanobeads and nanorods made in the the groups of F. Cichos and M. Orrit. We introduce the theoretical concept of PhoCS, an innovative technique which puts the selective heating of nanoscopic tracer particles to good use. We conclude in chapter six with some preliminary results about the self-phoretic motion of so-called Janus particles. These two-faced hybrids with a hotter and a cooler side perform a persistent random walk with the persistence only limited by their hot rotational Brownian motion. Such particles could act as versatile laser-controlled nanotransporters or nanomachines, to mention just the most obvious future nanotechnological applications of hot Brownian motion.:1 Introduction and Overview 2 Theory of Hot Brownian Motion 3 Various Realizations of Hot Brownian Motion 4 Toy Model and Numerical Methods 5 From Experiments and Simulations to Applications 6 Conclusion and Outlook