The effect of low energy nitrogen molecular ion beam bombardment on metals and compound semiconductors has been studied, with the aim to investigate at the effects of ion and target properties. For this purpose, nitrogen ion implantation in aluminium, iron, copper, gold, GaAs and AIGaAs is studied using XPS and Angle Resolve XPS. A series of experimental studies on N+2 bombardment induced compositional changes, especially the amount of nitrogen retained in the target, were accomplished. Both monoenergetic implantation and non-monoenergetic ion implantation were investigated, using the VG Scientific ESCALAB 200D system and a d. c. plasma cell, respectively. When the samples, with the exception of gold, are exposed to air, native oxide layers are formed on the surfaces. In the case of monoenergetic implantation, the surfaces were cleaned using Ar+ beam bombardment prior to implantation. The materials were then bombarded with N2+ beam and eight sets of successful experiments were performed on each sample, using a rastered N2+ ion beam of energy of 2, 3, 4 and 5 keV with current densities of 1 μA/cm2 and 5 μA/cm22 for each energy. The bombarded samples were examined by ARXPS. After each complete implantation, XPS depth profiles were created using Ar+ beam at energy 2 ke V and current density 2 μA/cm2 . As the current density was chosen as one of the parameters, accurate determination of current density was very important. In the case of glow discharge, two sets of successful experiments were performed in each case, by exposing the samples to nitrogen plasma for the two conditions: at low pressure and high voltage and high pressure and low voltage. These samples were then examined by ARXPS. On the theoretical side, the major problem was prediction of the number of ions of an element that can be implanted in a given matrix. Although the programme is essentially on experimental study, but an attempt is being made to understand the current theoretical models, such as SATVAL, SUSPRE and TRIM. The experimental results were compared with theoretical predictions, in order to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms responsible. From the experimental results, considering possible experimental uncertainties, there is no evidence of significant variation in nitrogen saturation concentration with ion energy or ion current density in the range of 2-5 ke V, however, the retention characteristics of implantant seem to strongly depend on the chemical reactivity between ion species and target material. The experimental data suggests the presence of at least one thermal process. The discrepancy between the theoretical and experimental results could be the inability of the codes to account for molecular ion impact and thermal processes.

This thesis presents details on both theoretical and experimental aspects of UV written fibre gratings. The main body of the thesis deals with the design, fabrication and testing of telecommunication optical fibre grating devices, but also an accurate theoretical analysis of intra-core fibre gratings is presented. Since more than a decade, fibre gratings have been extensively used in the telecommunication field (as filters, dispersion compensators, and add/drop multiplexers for instance). Gratings for telecommunication should conform to very high fabrication standards as the presence of any imperfection raises the noise level in the transmission system compromising its ability of transmitting intelligible sequence of bits to the receiver. Strong side lobes suppression and high and sharp reflection profile are then necessary characteristics. A fundamental part of the theoretical and experimental work reported in this thesis is about apodisation. The physical principle of apodisation is introduced and a number of apodisation techniques, experimental results and numerical optimisation of the shading functions and all the practical parameters involved in the fabrication are detailed. The measurement of chromatic dispersion in fibres and FBGs is detailed and an estimation of its accuracy is given. An overview on the possible methods that can be implemented for the fabrication of tunable fibre gratings is given before detailing a new dispersion compensator device based on the action of a distributed strain onto a linearly chirped FBG. It is shown that tuning of second and third order dispersion of the grating can be obtained by the use of a specially designed multipoint bending rig. Experiments on the recompression of optical pulses travelling long distances are detailed for 10 Gb/s and 40 Gb/s. The characterisation of a new kind of double section LPG fabricated on a metal-clad coated fibre is reported. The fabrication of the device is made easier by directly writing the grating through the metal coating. This device may be used to overcome the recoating problems associated with standard LPGs written in step-index fibre. Also, it can be used as a sensor for simultaneous measurements of temperature and surrounding medium refractive index.

B-ISDN is a universal network which supports diverse mixes of service, applications and traffic. ATM has been accepted world-wide as the transport technique for future use in B-ISDN. ATM, being a simple packet oriented transfer technique, provides a flexible means for supporting a continuum of transport rates and is efficient due to possible statistical sharing of network resources by multiple users. In order to fully exploit the potential statistical gain, while at the same time provide diverse service and traffic mixes, an efficient traffic control must be designed. Traffic controls which include congestion and flow control are a fundamental necessity to the success and viability of future B-ISDN. Congestion and flow control is difficult in the broadband environment due to the high speed link, the wide area distance, diverse service requirements and diverse traffic characteristics. Most congestion and flow control approaches in conventional packet switched networks are reactive in nature and are not applicable in the B-ISDN environment. In this research, traffic control procedures mainly based on preventive measures for a private ATM-based network are proposed and their performance evaluated. The various traffic controls include CAC, traffic flow enforcement, priority control and an explicit feedback mechanism. These functions operate at call level and cell level. They are carried out distributively by the end terminals, the network access points and the internal elements of the network. During the connection set-up phase, the CAC decides the acceptance or denial of a connection request and allocates bandwidth to the new connection according to three schemes; peak bit rate, statistical rate and average bit rate. The statistical multiplexing rate is based on a `bufferless fluid flow model' which is simple and robust. The allocation of an average bit rate to data traffic at the expense of delay obviously improves the network bandwidth utilisation.

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This thesis presents experimental and theoretical work on the use of dark optical solitons as data carriers in communications systems. The background chapters provide an introduction to nonlinear optics, and to dark solitons, described as intensity dips in a bright background, with an asymmetrical phase profile. The motivation for the work is explained, considering both the superior stability of dark solitons and the need for a soliton solution suitable for the normal, rather than the anomalous (bright soliton) dispersion regime. The first chapters present two generation techniques, producing packets of dark solitons via bright pulse interaction, and generating continuous trains of dark pulses using a fibre laser. The latter were not dark solitons, but were suitable for imposition of the required phase shift by virtue of their extreme stability. The later chapters focus on the propagation and control of dark solitons. Their response to periodic loss and gain is shown to result in the exponential growth of spectral sidebands. This may be suppressed by reducing the periodicity of the loss/gain cycle or using periodic filtering. A general study of the response of dark solitons to spectral filtering is undertaken, showing dramatic differences in the behaviour of black and 99.9% grey solitons. The importance of this result is highlighted by simulations of propagation in noisy systems, where the timing jitter resulting from random noise is actually enhanced by filtering. The results of using sinusoidal phase modulation to control pulse position are presented, showing that the control is at the expense of serious modulation of the bright background. It is concluded that in almost every case, dark and bright solitons have very different properties, and to continue to make comparisons would not be so productive as to develop a deeper understanding of the interactions between the dark soliton and its bright background.

Third Generation cellular communication systems are expected to support mixed cell architecture in which picocells, microcells and macrocells are used to achieve full coverage and increase the spectral capacity. Supporting higher numbers of mobile terminals and the use of smaller cells will result in an increase in the number of handovers, and consequently an increase in the time delays required to perform these handovers. Higher time delays will generate call interruptions and forced terminations, particularly for time sensitive applications like real-time multimedia and data services. Currently in the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), the handover procedure is initiated and performed by the fixed part of the Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN). The mobile terminal is only capable of detecting candidate base stations suitable for the handover; it is the role of the network to interrogate a candidate base station for a free channel. Handover signalling is exchanged via the fixed network and the time delay required to perform the handover is greatly affected by the levels of teletraffic handled by the network. In this thesis, a new handover strategy is developed to reduce the total time delay for handovers in a microcellular system. The handover signalling is diverted from the fixed network to the air interface to prevent extra delays due to teletraffic congestion, and to allow the mobile terminal to exchange signalling directly with the candidate base station. The new strategy utilises Packet Reservation Multiple Access (PRMA) technique as a mechanism to transfer the control of the handover procedure from the fixed network to the mobile terminal. Simulation results are presented to show a dramatic reduction in the handover delay as compared to those obtained using fixed channel allocation and dynamic channel allocation schemes.

Groupe Spécial Mobile (GSM) has been developed as the pan-European second generation of digital mobile systems. GSM operates in the 900 MHz frequency band and employs digital technology instead of the analogue technology of its predecessors. Digital technology enables the GSM system to operate in much smaller zones in comparison with the analogue systems. The GSM system will offer greater roaming facilities to its subscribers, extended throughout the countries that have installed the system. The GSM system could be seen as a further enhancement to European integration. GSM has adopted a contention-based protocol for multipoint-to-point transmission. In particular, the slotted-ALOHA medium access protocol is used to coordinate the transmission of the channel request messages between the scattered mobile stations. Collision still happens when more than one mobile station having the same random reference number attempts to transmit on the same time-slot. In this research, a modified version of this protocol has been developed in order to reduce the number of collisions and hence increase the random access channel throughput compared to the existing protocol. The performance evaluation of the protocol has been carried out using simulation methods. Due to the growing demand for mobile radio telephony as well as for data services, optimal usage of the scarce availability radio spectrum is becoming increasingly important. In this research, a protocol has been developed whereby the number of transmitted information packets over the GSM system is increased without any additional increase of the allocated radio spectrum. Simulation results are presented to show the improvements achieved by the proposed protocol. Cellular mobile radio networks commonly respond to an increase in the service demand by using smaller coverage areas. As a result, the volume of the signalling exchanges increases. In this research, a proposal for interconnecting the various entitles of the mobile radio network over the future broadband networks based on the IEEE 802.6 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) is outlined. Simulation results are presented to show the benefits achieved by interconnecting these entities over the broadband Networks.

This thesis presents several advanced optical techniques that are crucial for improving high capacity transmission systems. The basic theory of optical fibre communications are introduced before optical solitons and their usage in optically amplified fibre systems are discussed. The design, operation, limitations and importance of the recirculating loop are illustrated. The crucial role of dispersion management in the transmission systems is then considered. Two of the most popular dispersion compensation methods - dispersion compensating fibres and fibre Bragg gratings - are emphasised. A tunable dispersion compensator is fabricated using the linear chirped fibre Bragg gratings and a bending rig. Results show that it is capable of compensating not only the second order dispersion, but also higher order dispersion. Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) are studied and discussed. Different dispersion maps are performed for all Raman amplified standard fibre link to obtain maximum transmission distances. Raman amplification is used in most of our loop experiments since it improves the optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) and significantly reduces the nonlinear intrachannel effects of the transmission systems. The main body of the experimental work is concerned with nonlinear optical switching using the nonlinear optical loop mirrors (NOLMs). A number of different types of optical loop mirrors are built, tested and implemented in the transmission systems for noise suppression and 2R regeneration. Their results show that for 2R regeneration, NOLM does improve system performance, while NILM degrades system performance due to its sensitivity to the input pulse width, and the NALM built is unstable and therefore affects system performance.

This thesis is devoted to the tribology at the head~to~tape interface of linear tape recording systems, OnStream ADRTM system being used as an experimental platform, Combining experimental characterisation with computer modelling, a comprehensive picture of the mechanisms involved in a tape recording system is drawn. The work is designed to isolate the mechanisms responsible for the physical spacing between head and tape with the aim of minimising spacing losses and errors and optimising signal output. Standard heads-used in ADR current products-and prototype heads- DLC and SPL coated and dummy heads built from a AI203-TiC and alternative single-phase ceramics intended to constitute the head tape-bearing surface-are tested in controlled environment for up to 500 hours (exceptionally 1000 hours), Evidences of wear on the standard head are mainly observable as a preferential wear of the TiC phase of the AI203-TiC ceramic, The TiC grains are believed to delaminate due to a fatigue wear mechanism, a hypothesis further confirmed via modelling, locating the maximum von Mises equivalent stress at a depth equivalent to the TiC recession (20 to 30 nm). Debris of TiC delaminated residues is moreover found trapped within the pole-tip recession, assumed therefore to provide three~body abrasive particles, thus increasing the pole-tip recession. Iron rich stain is found over the cycled standard head surface (preferentially over the pole-tip and to a lesser extent over the TiC grains) at any environment condition except high temperature/humidity, where mainly organic stain was apparent, Temperature (locally or globally) affects staining rate and aspect; stain transfer is generally promoted at high temperature. Humidity affects transfer rate and quantity; low humidity produces, thinner stains at higher rate. Stain generally targets preferentially head materials with high electrical conductivity, i.e. Permalloy and TiC. Stains are found to decrease the friction at the head-to-tape interface, delay the TiC recession hollow-out and act as a protective soft coating reducing the pole-tip recession. This is obviously at the expense of an additional spacing at the head-to-tape interface of the order of 20 nm. Two kinds of wear resistant coating are tested: diamond like carbon (DLC) and superprotective layer (SPL), 10 nm and 20 to 40 nm thick, respectively. DLC coating disappears within 100 hours due possibly to abrasive and fatigue wear. SPL coatings are generally more resistant, particularly at high temperature and low humidity, possibly in relation with stain transfer. 20 nm coatings are found to rely on the substrate wear behaviour whereas 40 nm coatings are found to rely on the adhesive strength at the coating/substrate interface. These observations seem to locate the wear-driving forces 40 nm below the surface, hence indicate that for coatings in the 10 nm thickness range-· i,e. compatible with high-density recording-the substrate resistance must be taken into account. Single-phase ceramic as candidate for wear-resistant tape-bearing surface are tested in form of full-contour dummy-heads. The absence of a second phase eliminates the preferential wear observed at the AI203-TiC surface; very low wear rates and no evidence of brittle fracture are observed.

A detailed description of the Arabic Phonetic System is given. The syllabic behaviour of the Arabic language is highlighted. Basic statistical properties Of the Arabic language (phoneme and syllabic frequency of repetition) are included. A thorough review of the speech processing techniques, used in speech analysis, synthesis and recognition applications are presented. The development of a PC-based speech processing system is described. The system has proven to be a useful tool in Arabic speech analysis and recognition applications. A sample speotrographic study of two pairs of Arabic similar sounds was performed. it is shown that no clear acoustical property exist in distinguishing between the phonemes /O/ and /f/ except the gradual rise of F1 during formant movements (transitions). The development of an automatic Arabic syllabic segmentation algorithm is described. The performance of the algorithm is tested with monosyllabic and multisyllabic words. An overall accuracy of 92% was achieved. The main parameters affecting the accuracy of the segmentation algorithm are discussed. The syllabic units generated from applying the Arabic syllabic segmentation algorithm are utilized in the implementation of three major speech applications, namely, automatic Arabic vowel recognition system, isolated word recognition system and an acoustic-phonetic model for Arabic. Each application is fully described and its performance results are indicated.