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A magneto-optical apparatus has been designed to investigate flux and current distributions in various forms of high-temperature superconductor after the application of external magnetic fields, transport currents, and both in sequence. It is concluded that flux motion depends significantly on the superconductor characteristic flux pinning strength and geometry. The flux profiles at the surface of an isolated thin film strip, and thin films in x-array and shunted-x-array arrangements have been studied in detail. It has been found that the theoretical flux profile, characterised by a logarithmic singularity at its edges and a vertical slope at the flux front, become rounded when the sample thickness is taken into account. Experiment has confirmed that the current density reaches its critical value in the flux-penetrated region while there is a continuous non-zero current density in the central flux-free region. Also magnetic interactions exist between the strips. Band-shaped and dome-shaped flux distributions caused by geometrical barrier at different weak pinning strengths were observed in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x single crystals between 20 K and 70 K. The geometrical barrier also governs the transport current leading to a square-shaped distribution near the crystal edges at 20 K. Cracks and defects in Bi-2223/Ag tapes were visualised without destruction of the tape. The inhomogeneous flux distribution indicated that defects, including cracks, in superconducting filaments limit the current-carrying capacity of the tape. In addition, at 70 K a fraction of the transport current has been found to flow in the silver sheath. An investigation of the influence of the twin planes on vortex motion in a YBa2Cu3O7-d single crystal has shown that after a twin barrier is initially overcome, the twin planes, regardless of their directions, act as an easy-flow channel for vortex penetration at low temperatures as the pinning strength in the twin planes is weaker than that in the untwinned region, whereas, they act as a barrier at high temperatures where the pinning strength in the twin planes is stronger. Furthermore, vortex penetration along the twin planes is a factor of four greater than that for the untwinned region at 25 K.

Graduation date: 1996

Graduation date: 1993

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-175). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--California Institute of Technology, 1992. UM #92-32, 184. / Advisor names found in the Acknowledgments pages of the thesis. Title from home page. Viewed 02/01/2010. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-98).

Firefighters routinely have to go through buildings with reduced visibility due to smoke. Moving through even the simplest apartment building can become a perilous task when you remove visual sensing, and introduce fires, toxic gasses and extremely high temperatures. While a number of tools, both low and high tech, exist to aid firefighters, none of them are perfectly able to solve this problem. This thesis proposes using sonar to supplement those tools, and documents the development of a flame-penetrating sonar. To the authors knowledge, no previous effort has been made to develop sonar for firefighting applications. Traditional ultrasonic range finders were found unable to penetrate flames, and thus a pulse-compression based sonar is presented here. A prototype sonar is developed to allow experimental testing of this technique. A number of experiments were conducted to understand the limitations of this device. This sonar was able to overcome the scattering of the flame, and even detect the extents of the flame. A number of applications of this technology can be imagined other than assisting firefighters. Military personnel, or anyone else needing to navigate obscured environments could use this technology. Other applications could be two-dimensional and three-dimensional temperature field reconstruction for industrial applications. The author believes combination sensors using sonar, thermal-imaging, global positioning system, dead reckoning, etc, are the only way to solve the problem of firefighter navigation. / text

published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy