Thesis (Ph.D.); Submitted to Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (US); 19 Dec 2004. / Published through the Information Bridge: DOE Scientific and Technical Information. "IS-T 2692" Satoshi Matsuzaki. US Department of Energy 12/19/2004. Report is also available in paper and microfiche from NTIS.

Thesis (Ph.D.); Submitted to Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge, MA (US); 1 Sep 2003. / Published through the Information Bridge: DOE Scientific and Technical Information. "JLAB-PHY-03-167" "DOE/ER/40150-2745" Marat Rvachev. 09/01/2003. Report is also available in paper and microfiche from NTIS.

De nombreuses observations astrophysiques indiquent l'existence de grandes quantités de masse manquante dans l'Univers, et ce de l'échelle galactique à l'échelle cosmologique. Découvrir la nature de cette masse invisible constitue le problème de la matière noire, qui apparaît comme l'un des enjeux majeurs de la physique moderne. Cette thèse s'inscrit dans le contexte de la détection indirecte de matière noire. Cette dernière serait composée de nouvelles particules élémentaires, dont les produits d'annihilation pourraient être observés dans le rayonnement cosmique. Nous étudions dans ce travail deux des canaux de recherche les plus prometteurs : les photons gamma et les anti-noyaux.Les objets astrophysiques permettant de placer les meilleures contraintes actuelles en rayons gamma sont les galaxies naines sphéroïdes (dSphs) de la Voie Lactée. La première partie de notre travail a été consacrée à contraindre les facteurs J d'annihilation de ces objets, qui quantifient l'amplitude des flux gamma attendus. Nous avons pour cela mis au point une configuration optimisée d'analyse de Jeans, pour reconstruire les profils de densité de matière noire et leurs incertitudes à l'aide des données cinématiques stellaires. Notre configuration a été obtenue à l'aide de tests systématiques sur de très nombreuses dSphs simulées, et nous l'avons appliquée à vingt-trois dSphs de la Voie Lactée. La seconde partie de notre travail a consisté à mener une recherche de noyaux d'anti-hélium dans les données collectées par l'expérience AMS-02 sur la Station Spatiale Internationale. Nous avons pour cela mis au point une classification par arbres de décision boostés, et notre analyse préliminaire a permis d'obtenir les meilleures contraintes actuelles sur les rapports anti-hélium sur hélium. / Many astrophysical observations suggest the existence of large amounts of missing mass in the Universe, from the galactic to the cosmological scale. Discovering the nature of this invisible mass forms the dark matter problem, which appears as one of the major challenges of modern physics. This thesis is established in the context of indirect detection of dark matter. The latter could consist of new elementary particles, whose annihilation products may be observed in cosmic rays. We study in this work two of the most promising research channels!: gamma-rays and anti-nuclei.The best constraints on dark matter properties from gamma-ray observations come from the dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) of the Milky Way. The first part of our work was devoted to computing the annihilation J-factors of these objects, which quantify the magnitude of the expected gamma-ray flux. We have developed an optimized Jeans analysis setup in order to reconstruct the dark matter density profiles of these objects and their associated uncertainties, using stellar kinematic data. Our optimized setup was obtained using systematic tests on numerous simulated dSphs, and we applied it to twenty-three dSphs of the Milky Way. The second part of our work was dedicated to the search for anti-helium nuclei in the cosmic ray data collected by the AMS-02 experiment on the International Space Station. We have developed a classification method using boosted decision trees, and our preliminary analysis has led to the best constraints to date on the anti-helium to helium ratio.

Ce travail porte sur l’étude des phénomènes induits par implantation d’hydrogène et/ou d’hélium dans le silicium monocristallin. Le cloquage et l’exfoliation dus à la coimplantation d’hélium et d’hydrogène ont été étudiés en fonction des paramètres d’implantation (énergie, fluence, courant, rapport H/He) et des conditions de recuit. Un comportement de type fenêtre à été observé dont le maximum de surface exfoliée dépend uniquement de la fluence. Deux mécanismes d’exfoliation liés aux régimes de fluence ont été identifiés et discutés. D’autre part, la microstructure des échantillons a été étudié par MET, et les déformations ont été mesurées par diffraction des Rayons X. Un modèle décrivant la distribution des contraintes dans le substrat implanté a été proposé. Le phénomène de delamination des substrats qui apparaît pour des conditions particulières d’implantation a également été étudié, comparé aux phénomènes de cloquage et exfoliation, et expliqué en utilisant des concepts de la mécanique de la fracture. Enfin, l’interaction élastique entre précipités d’He et d’H a été étudiée pour des profils d’implantation superposés et décalés. Dans ce dernier cas, nous avons montré que le champ de contraintes générées par les plaquettes d’hélium en surpression pouvait être utilisé comme source locale de contraintes pour contrôler la formation et la croissance de plaquettes d’hydrogène. Afin d’interpréter nos résultats expérimentaux, nous avons développé un modèle basé sur l’interaction élastique pour la nucléation des précipités dans un solide semi-infini. / The present work relates an investigation of H2 + and He+ coimplanted (001)-Si substrates. The phenomena of blistering and exfoliation were studied by SEM as a function of the implantation parameters (energy, fluence, current and H/He ration) and annealing protocol. A window behavior as function of the implanted fluence was observed and two distinct fluence dependents mechanisms of exfoliation were indentified and discussed. The microstructure of the implanted samples was studied using TEM and related to ballistic effects and stress-strain dependent interactions. The strain was measured using DRX and a model to describe the stress-strain distribution into the implanted layer is developed. A new phenomenon of delamination of thin layer from implanted Si substrates was observed to emerge from particular implantation conditions. The behavior was studied and explained using fracture mechanics concepts and contrasted to blistering/exfoliation processes. Finally, the elastic interaction between He and H plate-like precipitates giving rise to arranged nanostructure was demonstrated and studied using TEM. An elasticity based model was developed to understand the behavior. The result set the basis for further developments of nanostructures within a crystalline matrix by manipulating preferential orientations of precipitates in nanometric scale.

Ensuring food security in a world with an increasing population and demand on natural resources is becoming ever more pertinent. Plant breeders are using an increasingly diverse range of data types such as phenotypic and genotypic data to identify plant lines with desirable characteristics suitable to be taken forward in plant breeding programmes. These characteristics include a number of key morphological and physiological traits, such as disease resistance and yield that need to be maintained and improved upon if a commercial plant variety is to be successful. The ability to predict and understand the inheritance of alleles that facilitate resistance to pathogens or any other commercially important characteristic is crucially important to experimental plant genetics and commercial plant breeding programmes. However, derivation of the inheritance of such traits by traditional molecular techniques is expensive and time consuming, even with recent developments in high-throughput technologies. This is especially true in industrial settings where, due to time constraints relating to growing seasons, many thousands of plant lines may need to be screened quickly, efficiently and economically every year. Thus, computational tools that provide the ability to integrate and visualize diverse data types with an associated plant pedigree structure will enable breeders to make more informed and subsequently better decisions on the plant lines that are used in crossings. This will help meet both the demands for increased yield and production and adaptation to climate change. Traditional family tree style layouts are commonly used and simple to understand but are unsuitable for the data densities that are now commonplace in large breeding programmes. The size and complexity of plant pedigrees means that there is a cognitive limitation in conceptualising large plant pedigree structures, therefore novel techniques and tools are required by geneticists and plant breeders to improve pedigree comprehension. Taking a user-centred, iterative approach to design, a pedigree visualization system was developed for exploring a large and unique set of experimental barley (H. vulgare) data. This work progressed from the development of a static pedigree visualization to interactive prototypes and finally the Helium pedigree visualization software. At each stage of the development process, user feedback in the form of informal and more structured user evaluation from domain experts guided the development lifecycle with users' concerns addressed and additional functionality added. Plant pedigrees are very different to those from humans and farmed animals and consequently the development of the pedigree visualizations described in this work focussed on implementing currently accepted techniques used in pedigree visualization and adapting them to meet the specific demands of plant pedigrees. Helium includes techniques to aid problems with user understanding identified through user testing; examples of these include difficulties where crosses between varieties are situated in different regions of the pedigree layout. There are good biological reasons why this happens but it has been shown, through testing, that it leads to problems with users' comprehension of the relatedness of individuals in the pedigree. The inclusion of visual cues and the use of localised layouts have allowed complications like these to be reduced. Other examples include the use of sizing of nodes to show the frequency of usage of specific plant lines which have been shown to act as positional reference points to users, and subsequently bringing a secondary level of structure to the pedigree layout. The use of these novel techniques has allowed the classification of three main types of plant line, which have been coined: principal, flanking and terminal plant lines. This technique has also shown visually the most frequently used plant lines, which while previously known in text records, were never quantified. Helium's main contributions are two-fold. Firstly it has applied visualization techniques used in traditional pedigrees and applied them to the domain of plant pedigrees; this has addressed problems with handling large experimental plant pedigrees. The scale, complexity and diversity of data and the number of plant lines that Helium can handle exceed other currently available plant pedigree visualization tools. These techniques (including layout, phenotypic and genotypic encoding) have been improved to deal with the differences that exist between human/mammalian pedigrees which take account of problems such as the complexity of crosses and routine inbreeding. Secondly, the verification of the effectiveness of the visualizations has been demonstrated by performing user testing on a group of 28 domain experts. The improvements have advanced both user understanding of pedigrees and allowed a much greater density and scale of data to be visualized. User testing has shown that the implementation and extensions to visualization techniques has improved user comprehension of plant pedigrees when asked to perform real-life tasks with barley datasets. Results have shown an increase in correct responses between the prototype interface and Helium. A SUS analysis has sown a high acceptance rate for Helium.

Helium-3 surface spin echo spectroscopy (HeSE) has been used to measure the diffusive dynamics of adsorbates on close-packed metal surfaces, namely hydrogen on Cu(111), Pd(111) and Ru(0001), carbon and oxygen on Ru(0001), and oxygen on Cu(111). Chapter 2 reviews the HeSE technique and describes the relevant dynamical models and statistical methods used to interpret data in later chapters. The performance of the ionizing detector is analysed, with a focus on the signal-to-noise ratio. In Chapter 3 expressions for the classical intermediate scattering function (ISF) are introduced for open and closed systems. The effects of corrugation and surface-perpendicular motion on the amplitude of different components in the ISF are modelled analytically and compared with simulation. The exact ISF for a particle on a flat surface, obeying the Generalized Langevin Equation with exponential memory friction, is calculated analytically. In Chapter 4 the analytical ISF is calculated for quantum Brownian motion and for coherent tunneling dynamics in a tight binding system. The bounce method for calculating quantum mechanical hopping rates in dissipative systems is applied to model diffusion of hydrogen on Ru(0001). Chapter 5 presents the first HeSE measurements of carbon and oxygen diffusion. C/Ru(0001) diffusion is assigned to a small carbon cluster. The jump rate has an activation energy $E_{A}=292\pm7\,$meV in the temperature range $550\,\textrm{K}\leq T \leq 1300\,$K. Oxygen diffusion is significantly slower. By comparison of literature data with the new HeSE results, the activation energy for oxygen diffusion at low coverage is estimated as $650\pm10$meV. Oxygen measurements at high coverage $\theta\approx0.22\,$ML are consistent with strong mutual O-O interactions. Surface diffusion is also observed after exposing Cu(111) to oxygen. Chapter 6 presents low-coverage measurements of protium (H) and deuterium (D) diffusion on Ru(0001), Pd(111) and Cu(111). In the quantum activated regime there is evidence for multiple jumps in all three systems, suggesting a low dynamical friction. The measurements on Ru(0001) indicate that the deep tunneling rate is much slower for D than for H.

Ce travail porte sur l’étude des phénomènes induits par implantation d’hydrogène et/ou d’hélium dans le silicium monocristallin. Le cloquage et l’exfoliation dus à la coimplantation d’hélium et d’hydrogène ont été étudiés en fonction des paramètres d’implantation (énergie, fluence, courant, rapport H/He) et des conditions de recuit. Un comportement de type fenêtre à été observé dont le maximum de surface exfoliée dépend uniquement de la fluence. Deux mécanismes d’exfoliation liés aux régimes de fluence ont été identifiés et discutés. D’autre part, la microstructure des échantillons a été étudié par MET, et les déformations ont été mesurées par diffraction des Rayons X. Un modèle décrivant la distribution des contraintes dans le substrat implanté a été proposé. Le phénomène de delamination des substrats qui apparaît pour des conditions particulières d’implantation a également été étudié, comparé aux phénomènes de cloquage et exfoliation, et expliqué en utilisant des concepts de la mécanique de la fracture. Enfin, l’interaction élastique entre précipités d’He et d’H a été étudiée pour des profils d’implantation superposés et décalés. Dans ce dernier cas, nous avons montré que le champ de contraintes générées par les plaquettes d’hélium en surpression pouvait être utilisé comme source locale de contraintes pour contrôler la formation et la croissance de plaquettes d’hydrogène. Afin d’interpréter nos résultats expérimentaux, nous avons développé un modèle basé sur l’interaction élastique pour la nucléation des précipités dans un solide semi-infini. / The present work relates an investigation of H2 + and He+ coimplanted (001)-Si substrates. The phenomena of blistering and exfoliation were studied by SEM as a function of the implantation parameters (energy, fluence, current and H/He ration) and annealing protocol. A window behavior as function of the implanted fluence was observed and two distinct fluence dependents mechanisms of exfoliation were indentified and discussed. The microstructure of the implanted samples was studied using TEM and related to ballistic effects and stress-strain dependent interactions. The strain was measured using DRX and a model to describe the stress-strain distribution into the implanted layer is developed. A new phenomenon of delamination of thin layer from implanted Si substrates was observed to emerge from particular implantation conditions. The behavior was studied and explained using fracture mechanics concepts and contrasted to blistering/exfoliation processes. Finally, the elastic interaction between He and H plate-like precipitates giving rise to arranged nanostructure was demonstrated and studied using TEM. An elasticity based model was developed to understand the behavior. The result set the basis for further developments of nanostructures within a crystalline matrix by manipulating preferential orientations of precipitates in nanometric scale.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:53:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T13:59:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP / FAPESP:03/01261-0

Dans les nouvelles centrales nucléaires dites 4ème génération, comme d’ailleurs les anciennes, le dioxyde d’uranium devra opérer dans des milieux hostiles de températures et d’irradiation avec la présence des produits de fission (PF) et des particules alpha (α). Le fonctionnement dans ces conditions extrêmes induira des déplacements d’atomes et dégradera les propriétés thermiques et mécaniques du combustible UO2. La compréhension du comportement des défauts lacunaires, des PF et de l’hélium est cruciale pour prévoir le comportement du dioxyde d’uranium au sein de ces futures installations nucléaires. La première partie de cette thèse est consacrée à l’étude des défauts lacunaires induits par l’implantation de krypton et d’iode (quelques MeV) dans l’UO2 polycristallin et leurs stades de recuits. L’analyse par spectroscopie d’annihilation de positons (PAS) a permis de mettre en évidence la création de défauts de Schottky VU-2VO dans le cas des implantations iode et la formation de clusters lacunaires contenant du gaz pour les implantations krypton. L’évolution en température de ces défauts générés dépend des paramètres d’implantation (nature des ions, énergie, fluence). Cette étude a montré les rôles importants que peuvent jouer les défauts lacunaires et la présence des gaz de fission dans l’évolution du matériau UO2. Ensuite, nous nous sommes intéressés à l’étude et à la caractérisation, par PAS et les techniques d’analyse par faisceau d’ions (NRA/C et RBS/C), du comportement de l’hélium dans l’UO2. Les mesures de NRA/C et RBS/C révèlent une localisation d’une grande fraction d’hélium dans les sites interstitiels octaédriques de la matrice UO2. La localisation de l’hélium reste stable dans ces sites pour T< 600°C, évoluent légèrement entre 600 et 700°C et devient aléatoire à 800°C. Les mesures PAS mettent en évidence trois stades d’évolution des défauts lacunaires : la recombinaison par migration des interstitiels d’oxygène, l’agglomération des défauts entre 600 et 800°C et leur dissociation et élimination lorsque la température augmente. Ces résultats suggèrent que le transport d'hélium est assisté par les défauts lacunaires. / In the new fourth generation nuclear plants, as in the old ones, uranium dioxide must operate in hostile environments of temperature and irradiation with the presence of fission products (FP) and alpha particles (α). Operation in these extreme conditions will induce atoms displacements and degrade the thermal and mechanical properties of UO2 fuel. Understanding the behavior of induced vacancy defects, FP and helium is crucial to predict the uranium dioxide behavior in the future nuclear reactors. The first part of this thesis is dedicated to the study of vacancy defects induced by krypton and iodine implantation (a few MeV) in the UO2 polycrystalline and of their evolution under annealing. Analysis by positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) has highlighted the creation of Schottky defects VU-2VO in the case of iodine implantations and formation of vacancy clusters containing the gas for krypton implantation. The temperature evolution of these defects depends on the implantation parameters (nature of the ion energy, fluence). This study showed the important roles that can play vacancy defects and the presence of fission gases in the evolution of UO2 material. Then we were interested in the study of the helium behavior in UO2 its location and migration, agglomeration and interaction with vacancy defects by using PAS and ion beam analysis (NRA/C and RBS/C). The NRA/C and RBS/C characterizations showed a localization of a large helium fraction in the octahedral interstitial sites of the UO2 matrix. The helium location in these sites remains stable for T <600°C, changing slightly between 600 and 700°C and becomes random at 800°C. Positron annihilation spectroscopy reveals three stages of vacancy defects evolution : The recombination with oxygen interstitial migration, defects agglomeration between 600 and 800°C and their dissociation and elimination when the temperature increases. These results suggest that the He transport is assisted by the vacancy defects.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:53:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T13:59:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Uma nova metodologia para a medida absoluta da fração efetiva de nêutrons atrasados &beta;eff, baseada em técnicas de análise de ruído microscópico e no modelo de Duas- Regiões, foi desenvolvida no reator IPEN/MB-01. Diferentemente das demais técnicas, tais como o Método de Bennet Modificado, o Método do Número de Nelson e o Método da fonte de 252Cf, a principal vantagem da metodologia proposta é a obtenção de &beta;eff de um modo puramente experimental, sem a necessidade de quaisquer outros parâmetros, sejam estes calculados ou provenientes de outros experimentos. Com a finalidade de validar este novo método, uma série de experimentos Rossi-&alpha; e Feynman-&alpha; foram realizados no reator IPEN/MB-01. De acordo com a metodologia proposta, &beta;eff foi estimado com uma incerteza de 0.67%, a qual atende aos requisitos de precisão almejados. Além disso, o tempo de geração de nêutrons prontos , dentre outros parâmetros, também foi obtido experimentalmente via esta metodologia. Em geral, os parâmetros medidos estão em acordo com resultados provenientes de experimentos de análise de ruído macroscópico. Nas comparações teoria-experimento, os valores de &beta;eff medidos neste trabalho mostram que a biblioteca JENDL3.3 apresenta a melhor performance (dentro de 1%). Esta concordância justifica a redução no yield de fissão do 235U proposta por Sakurai e Okajima. / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP / FAPESP:03/01261-0