Low dimensional nanostructures of zinc oxide (ZnO), cupric oxide (CuO), and their composite nanostructures possess remarkable physical and chemical properties. Fundamental understanding and manipulation of these unique properties are crucial for all potential applications. Integration of nanostructured ZnO and CuO and their hybrid composites may play a significant role in the existing technology while paving the way for new exciting areas. Solution based low temperature synthesis of ZnO and CuO nanostructures have attracted extensive research efforts during the last decade. These efforts resulted in a plenteous number of nanostructures ranging from quantum dots into very complex three dimensional nanomaterials. Among the various low temperature synthesis methods the hydrothermal technique became one of the most popular approaches. The use of hydrothermal approach enabled the synthesis of diversity of nanomaterials on conventional and nonconventional substrates such as metals, glass, plastic and paper etc. The primary objectives of this thesis are to study and understand the characteristics of nanostructured ZnO, CuO, and their hybrid composites synthesized at low temperature. Likewise, the hybrid composites were successfully utilized to fabricate light emitting diodes and sensors. This thesis is organized into three major parts. In the beginning the synthesis and characterization of nanostructured ZnO, CuO, and their composite nanostructures are elaborated. Efforts have been made to understand the selective assembly of hierarchical CuO nanostructures on ZnO nanorods and to correlate it to the observed unique properties of the CuO/ZnO composite nanostructures. In the second part of the thesis fabrication, characterization, and device application of ZnO/p-polymer hybrid light emitting diode (HyLEDs) on flexible substrates are presented. In particular single and blended p-type light emissive polymers were controllably developed for potential greener and cheaper white light emitters. It was found that the HyLEDs exhibited rectifying diode characteristics together with white light emission covering the entire visible range. In the third part, pH and relative humidity sensing applications of CuO nanoflowers, and CuO/ZnO nanocorals, respectively, are described. A pH sensor based on CuO nanoflowers demonstrated good sensitivity and reproducibility over a wide range of pH. By taking the advantages of the selective growth of CuO nanostructures on ZnO nanorods and their naturally formed p-n heterojunction the realization of high sensitivity humidity sensor was achieved. The humidity sensor fabricated from the CuO/ZnO nanocorals displayed the highest sensitivity factor reported so far for its constituent materials; along with reasonably fast dynamic responses. A brief outlook into future challenges and opportunities are also presented in the last part of the thesis. / Nanophotonics

Ce travail concerne l'intégration, par épitaxie sous jets moléculaires (EJM), de matériaux nitrures d’éléments III (en particulier GaN) sur des substrats et couches tremplins à base d’oxyde de zinc (ZnO). L’objectif était la réalisation et l’étude d’hétérostructures nitrures de type puits quantiques (PQs) (Al,Ga)N/GaN et (In,Ga)N/GaN, en vue d’évaluer leurs potentialités pour la réalisation de diodes électroluminescentes (LEDs). En particulier, deux orientations cristallographiques ont été étudiées : le plan « polaire » (0001) (dit plan C) et le plan « non polaire » (11-20) (dit plan A). Les couches de GaN orientées suivant le plan A (11-20), « a-GaN », ont été épitaxiées sur des tremplins de (Zn, Mg)O (11-20) / saphir (10-12) réalisés par EJM. L’anisotropie de la morphologie de surface, de la microstructure cristalline, ainsi que de l'émission optique des couches de a-GaN, a été mise en évidence. Une série d'échantillons de PQs de a-(GaN/Al0.2Ga0.8N) avec des épaisseurs de puits différentes a été fabriquée, et l'absence d’effet Stark quantique confiné dans ces hétérostructures a été établie. Des procédés de croissance de GaN sur des substrats de ZnO massifs d’orientation A, « a-ZnO », et C, « c-ZnO », ont également été développés. En particulier, des couches de GaN (0001), « c-GaN », avec une polarité Ga- ou N- ont été épitaxiées sur la face O de substrats c-ZnO. Les mécanismes de détermination de la polarité ont été analysés. Des LEDs bleues contenant une zone active constituée de PQs (In, Ga)N / GaN ont été réalisées sur des substrats c-ZnO. Des puissances de sortie atteignant 40 µW à 20 mA et 0,1 mW à 60 mA ont été mesurées. Enfin, des PQs (In, Ga)N / GaN ont été fabriqués sur substrats a-ZnO et comparés à des PQs fabriqués sur c-ZnO avec des conditions de croissance équivalentes. Les résultats indiquent une concentration en In plus importante dans le cas des PQs épitaxiés sur c-ZnO et une polarisation de l’émission de PL suivant la direction <1-100> dans le cas des PQs épitaxiés sur a-ZnO. / This work focus on the integration of III-nitride materials, by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), on ZnO based templates and substrates. The objective is to explore the potential of (Al,Ga)N/GaN and (In,Ga)N/GaN multi-quantum wells (MQWs) grown on ZnO for the fabrication of light emitting diodes (LEDs). In particular, two crystal orientations are studied: the polar (0001) plane (c-plane) and the nonpolar (11-20) plane (a-plane). The structural and optical properties of epitaxial layers are mainly characterized by AFM, SEM, XRD, TEM and PL. A-plane (11-20) GaN layers have been grown on a-(Zn,Mg)O/r-sapphire templates by MBE. The surface morphology, the crystal microstructure, as well as the optical emission of a-GaN layers show strong anisotropic properties. A series of a-plane Al0.2Ga0.8N/GaN MQWs with different well thicknesses have been fabricated and the absence of quantum confined Stark effect in these nonopolar heterostructures has been evidenced. Processes of growing GaN on both c- and a- plane bulk ZnO substrates have been developed. In particular, GaN layers with either Ga- or N- polarities have been grown on O face ZnO, and their polarity determination mechanisms have been analyzed. (In,Ga)N/GaN MQWs based blue LEDs have been demonstrated on c- ZnO substrates. Output powers of 40 µW at 20 mA and 0.1 mW at 60 mA have been measured. Finally, a-plane (In,Ga)N/GaN MQWs are fabricated on bulk a-ZnO substrates and compared with c-plane MQWs grown under similar conditions. PL measurements indicate that a-plane MQWs exhibit a lower In incorporation efficiency and a polarized emission along <1-100> direction.

This paper describes recent progress in a continuing program to develop and apply RM³ (recess mounting with monolithic metallization) technologies for heterogeneous integration. Particular emphasis is placed on the APB (aligned pillar bonding) and MASA (magnetically assisted statistical assembly) technologies. Next, ongoing research on applications of RM3 integration to produce optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEICs) for optical clock distribution, diffuse optical tomography, and smart pixel arrays are described. Finally, potential new applications of these technologies in intra- and interchip optical signal interconnects, in fluorescent dye detection and imaging for biomedical applications, and in III-V mini-IC integration on Si-CMOS for enhancing off-chip drive capabilities are outlined. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

The thermal interface layer can be a limiting element in the cooling of microelectronic devices. Conventional solders, pastes and pads are no longer sufficient to handle the high heat fluxes associated with connecting the device to the sink. Carbon nanotubes(CNTs) have been proposed as a possible thermal interface material(TI M), due to their thermal and mechanical properties, and prior research has established the effectiveness of vertically arranged CNT arrays to match the capabilities of the best conventional TIMs. However, to reach commercial applicability, many improvements need to be made in terms of improving thermal and mechanical properties as well as cost and manufacturing ease of the layer. Prior work demonstrated a simple method to transfer and bond CNT arrays through the use of a nanometer thin layer of gold as a bonding layer. This study sought to improve on that technique. By controlling the rate of deposition, the bonding temperature was reduced. By using different metals and thinner layers, the potential cost of the technique was reduced. Through the creation of a patterned array, a phase change element was able to be incorporated into the technique. The various interfaces created are characterized mechanically and thermally.

In this thesis, luminescence properties of ZnO nanostructures (nanorods, nanotubes, nanowalls and nanoflowers) are investigated by different approaches for possible future application of these nanostructures as white light emitting diodes. ZnO nanostructures were grown by different growth techniques on different p-type substrates. Still it is a challenge for the researchers to produce a stable and reproducible high quality p-type ZnO and this seriously hinders the progress of ZnO homojunction LEDs. Therefore the excellent properties of ZnO can be utilized by constructing heterojunction with other p-type materials. The first part of the thesis includes paper I-IV. In this part, the luminescence properties of ZnO nanorods grown on different p-type substrates (GaN, 4H-SiC) and different ZnO nanostructures (nanorods, nanotubes, nanoflowers, and nanowalls) grown on the same substrate were investigated. The effect of the post-growth annealing of ZnO nanorods and nanotubes on the deep level emissions and color rendering properties were also investigated. In paper I, ZnO nanorods were grown on p-type GaN and 4H-SiC substrates by low temperature aqueous chemical growth (ACG) method. The luminescence properties of the fabricated LEDs were investigated at room temperature by electroluminescence (EL) and photoluminescence (PL) measurements and consistency was found between both the measurements. The LEDs showed very bright emission that was a combination of three emission peaks in the violet-blue, green and orange-red regions in the visible spectrum. In paper II, different ZnO nanostructures (nanorods, nanotubes, nanoflowers, and nanowalls) were grown on p-GaN and the luminescence properties of these nanostructures based LEDs were comparatively investigated by EL and PL measurements. The nanowalls structures were found to be emitting the highest emission in the visible region, while the nanorods have the highest emissions in the UV region due to its good crystal quality. It was also estimated that the ZnO nanowalls structures have strong white light with the highest color rendering index (CRI) of 95 with correlated color temperature (CCT) of 6518 K. In paper III, we have investigated the origin of the red emissions in ZnO by using post-growth annealing. The ZnO nanotubes were achieved on p-GaN and then annealed in different ambients (argon, air, oxygen and nitrogen) at 600 oC for 30 min. By comparative investigations of EL spectra of the LEDs it was found that more than one deep level defects are involved in the red emission from ZnO nanotubes/p-GaN LEDs. It was concluded that the red emission in ZnO can be attributed to oxygen interstitials (Oi) and oxygen vacancies (Vo) in the range of 620 nm (1.99 eV) to 690 nm (1.79 eV) and 690 nm (1.79 eV) to 750 nm (1.65 eV), respectively. In paper IV, we have investigated the effect of post-growth annealing on the color rendering properties of ZnO nanorods based LEDs. ZnO nanorods were grown on p-GaN by using ACG method. The as grown nanorods were annealed in nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and air ambients at 600 oC for 30 min. The color rendering indices (CRIs) and correlated color temperatures (CCTs) were estimated from the spectra emitted by the LEDs. It was found that the annealing ambients especially air, oxygen, and nitrogen were found to be very effective. The LEDs based on nanorods annealed in nitrogen ambient, have excellent color rendering properties with CRIs and CCTs of 97 and 2363 K in the forward bias and 98 and 3157 K in the reverse bias. In the 2nd part of the thesis, the junction temperature of n-ZnO nanorods based LEDs at the built-in potential was modeled and experiments were performed to validate the model. The LEDs were fabricated by ZnO nanorods grown on different p-type substrates (4H-SiC, GaN, and Si) by the ACG method. The model and experimental values of the temperature coefficient of the forward voltage near the built-in potential (~Vo) were compared. It was found that the series resistance has the main contribution in the junction temperature of the fabricated devices. In the 3rd part of the thesis, the influence of helium (He+) ion irradiation bombardment on luminescence properties of ZnO nanorods based LEDs were investigated. ZnO nanorods were grown by the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth method. The fabricated LEDs were irradiated by using 2 MeV He+ ions with fluencies of ~ 2×1013 ions/cm2 and ~ 4×1013 ions/cm2. It was observed that the He+ ions irradiation affects the near band edge emissions as well as the deep level emissions in ZnO. A blue shift about 0.0347 eV and 0.082 eV was observed in the PL spectra in the near band emission and green emission, respectively. EL measurements also showed a blue shift of 0.125 eV in the broad green emission after irradiation. He+ ion irradiation affects the color rendering properties and decreases the color rendering indices from 92 to 89.

Ce travail de thèse, réalisé au sein du CEA-LETI, consiste en la décorrélation des différents mécanismes ayant lieu dans une LED à base de GaN par voie de simulation numérique et de caractérisation expérimentale. Dans les chapitres 1 et 2, les théories des différents mécanismes présents dans une diode/LED sont décrites. Dans le chapitre 3, la simulation numérique d’une structure LED VTF ("vertical thin film" en langue anglaise) détermine les mécanismes prédominants dans les différentes gammes de tension. Une étude paramétrique s’ensuit afin d’évaluer les interactions entre les mécanismes.Dans le chapitre 4, les simulations sont effectuées en ajoutant un modèle de dépendance des mobilités des porteurs au champ électrique. En présence de ce modèle, les caractéristiques électro-optiques simulées tendent vers les caractéristiques réelles à haute tension.Les résultats des mesures de vitesse des porteurs dans le GaN-p sont également reportés dans le chapitre 4. En utilisant un motif d’échantillon spécifique et la méthode de mesure quatre points, les résultats suggèrent une tendance à saturer de la vitesse des porteurs, ou une tendance à décroître de la mobilité, à fort champ électrique. Ces résultats renforcent l’hypothèse de simulation utilisée dans le chapitre 4.Les simulations présentées dans les chapitres 3 et 4 permettent de proposer un schéma équivalent d’une LED en décorrélant les différents mécanismes et en ne gardant que les mécanismes dominants. Ce schéma équivalent permettrait, par exemple, à identifier les différents régimes dans une caractéristique électrique d’une LED réelle afin de procéder des améliorations du fonctionnement de la LED.Le chapitre 5 présente une étude par électroluminescence pulsée, une méthode de caractérisation fréquentielle, sur des LED commerciales. L’étude des temps de montée et de descente des signaux électro-optiques, ainsi que l’étude de durée de vie différentielle des porteurs de charge dans une LED, fourniraient des informations supplémentaires concernant l’injection des porteurs dans la LED. / This PhD. works, which was carried out inside CEA-LETI, aims to dissociate the various mechanisms occurring inside a GaN-based LED employing numerical simulation and experimental characterization. In the chapters 1 and 2, various mechanisms occurring inside a diode/LED are theoretically described. In chapter 3, through numerical simulation, the dominant mechanisms as well as their locations in a VTF ("vertical thin film") LED structure are determined for different voltage ranges. A parametric study follows to assess the interactions between the mechanisms.In chapter 4, the simulations are carried out with an additional field-dependent model for charge carrier mobility. With this model enabled, the simulated LED-electrical-and-optical characteristics approximate the real LED characteristics.Carrier-velocity characterization on p-type GaN, using a specific sample structure and the resistivity method, is also shown in chapter 4. It can be inferred from the results that under strong electric-fields, the carrier velocity might saturate, or the carrier mobility might decrease. These results strengthen the hypothesis used for the simulations in this chapter 4.The simulations introduced in the chapters 3 and 4 allow the proposition of an equivalent circuit for a GaN-based LED by dissociating the different mechanisms and retaining the dominant ones. This equivalent circuit could help, for instance, identify the different regimes in a real-LED electrical characteristics in order to improve the LED’s performance.Chapter 5 introduces pulsed electroluminescence, a frequential characterization method, on commercial LEDs. The studies of rise-time and fall-time of electro-optical signals, and the study of the differential lifetime of charge carriers in an LED would provide supplementary information concerning the carrier injection into the LED.

Recent trends in mobile broadband indicates that the available radio frequency (RF) spectrum will not be enough to support the data requirements of the immediate future. Visible light communication, which uses visible spectrum to transmit wirelessly could be a potential solution to the RF ’Spectrum Crunch’. Thus there is growing interest all over the world in this domain with support from both academia and industry. Visible light communication( VLC) systems make use of light emitting diodes (LEDs), which are semiconductor light sources to transmit information. A number of demonstrators at different data capacity and link distances has been reported in this area. One of the key problems holding this technology from taking off is the unavailability of power efficient, miniature LED drive schemes. Reported demonstrators, mostly using either off the shelf components or arbitrary waveform generators (AWGs) to drive the LEDs have only started to address this problem by adopting integrated drivers designed for driving lighting installations for communications. The voltage regulator based drive schemes provide high power efficiency (> 90 %) but it is difficult to realise the fast switching required to achieve the Mbps or Gbps data rates needed for modern wireless communication devices. In this work, we are exploiting CMOS technology to realise an integrated LED driver for VLC. Instead of using conventional drive schemes (digital to analogue converter (DAC) + power amplifier or voltage regulators), we realised a current steering DAC based LED driver operating at high currents and sampling rates whilst maintaining power efficiency. Compared to a commercial AWG or discrete LED driver, circuit realised utilisng complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology has resulted in area reduction (29mm2). We realised for the first time a multi-channel CMOS LED driver capable of operating up to a 500 MHz sample rate at an output current of 255 mA per channel and > 70% power efficiency. We were able to demonstrate the flexibility of the driver by employing it to realise VLC links using micro LEDs and commercial LEDs. Data rates up to 1 Gbps were achieved using this system employing a multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) scheme. We also demonstrated the wavelength division multiplexing ability of the driver using a red/green/blue commercial LED. The first integrated digital to light converter (DLC), where depending on the input code, a proportional number of LEDs are turned ON, realising a data converter in the optical domain, is also an output from this research. In addition, we propose a differential optical drive scheme where two output branches of a current DAC are used to drive two LEDs achieving higher link performance and power efficiency compared to single LED drive.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:31:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2006Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:41:44Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 conti_ecg_dr_arafo.pdf: 812838 bytes, checksum: c0f89cff921f9b0a2343ffde10308ae3 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O objetivo desse estudo foi avaliar a microdureza Vickers de um cimento resinoso químico (C&B Cement - Bisco) e um de ativação dual (RelyX ARC - 3M ESPE), fotopolimerizado por diferentes fontes de luz, em função de diferentes profundidades do canal radicular, na cimentação de pinos de fibra de vidro. Os aparelhos fotopolimerizadores empregados foram: Optilux 360 (Demetron) - luz halógena; Radii (SDI) - LED; UltraLume 5 (Ultradent) - LED. Nenhuma diferença estatisticamente significante foi observada nos valores de microdureza Vickers, dos terços cervical, médio e apical do canal radicular, para o cimento resinoso químico (G1), e os terços cervicais do cimento resinoso dual, para todos os aparelhos fotopolimerizadores (G2, G3 e G4) (p>0.05). Porém, o aparelho de luz halógena (G2) e o LED UltraLume 5 (G4) apresentaram comportamentos semelhantes, proporcionando uma diminuição gradativa nos valores médios de microdureza do cimento resinoso dual, do terço cervical para o apical (p<0.001). Os menores valores de microdureza foram encontrados nos terços apical do sistema RelyX ARC fotopolimerizado com luz halógena ou com LED UltraLume 5. / This study evaluated the Vickers microhardness of a chemically cured resin cement (C&B Cement - Bisco) and a dual cure cement (RelyX ARC - 3M ESPE), light cured by different light sources, according to the different root canal depths, for luting of glass fiber posts. The light curing units employed were Optilux 360 (Demetron) - halogen lamp; Radii (SDI) - LED; UltraLume 5 (Ultradent) - LED. No statistically significant difference was observed in Vickers microhardness values at the cervical, middle and apical root thirds for the chemically cured resin cement (G1), and at the cervical third for the dual resin cement, for all light curing units (G2, G3 and G4) (p>0.05). However, the halogen lamp unit (G2) and LED UltraLume 5 (G4) presented similar performance, providing gradual reduction in mean microhardness values for the dual resin cement from the cervical to the apical third (p<0.001). The lowest microhardness values were found at the apical third for the system RelyX ARC light cured with halogen lamp or LED UltraLume 5.

This work presents a study for the design and implementation of a LED Street light Luminaire. It shows the necessary characteristics for the proposed fixture replace the traditional models with High Pressure Sodium lamps (HPS), which are commonly used in Brazil. For this, it has been done a study and implementation of a LED fixture prototype that can replace a conventional fixture, keeping the photometric characteristics required by Brazilian standards. With this, is possible a significant reduction in the electrical power consumption by exploring the LED features such as high energy efficiency, long life, low luminous flux depreciation during the life and facility for light direction control. Here is presented an analysis of some traditional HPS lamps models to allow comparison of results of the prototype proposed. In this study is verified that the proposed LED fixture can reach similar levels of illuminance on the road that HPS modes, however using almost 50% of electric power. / Este trabalho apresenta um estudo para o projeto e a implementação de uma luminária de Iluminação Pública a base de LEDs, onde são apresentadas as características necessárias para que a luminária de LED proposta possa substituir os modelos tradicionais com lâmpadas de Vapor de Sódio de Alta Pressão (VSAP), que são usualmente utilizados no Brasil. Para tal, foi realizado um estudo detalhado e a implementação de um protótipo de uma luminária de LEDs que possa substituir as luminárias convencionais, mantendo as características fotométricas exigidas pelas normas vigentes no Brasil. Com isso, é possível uma redução significativa no consumo de energia elétrica, explorando as características dos LEDs como: alta eficiência energética, longa durabilidade, baixa depreciação luminosa e facilidade no direcionamento da luz. É apresentada uma análise elétrica e fotométrica de alguns modelos tradicionais bem como do protótipo proposto para permitir a comparação de resultados. No estudo é verificado que com a luminária de LED proposta pode-se atingir níveis de iluminação similares aos das luminárias com lâmpadas VSAP utilizando praticamente 50 % da potência elétrica.

Tomographic Particle Image Velocimetry Using Colored Shadow Imaging by Meshal K Alarfaj, Master of Science King Abdullah University of Science & Technology, 2015 Tomographic Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is a recent PIV method capable of reconstructing the full 3D velocity field of complex flows, within a 3-D volume. For nearly the last decade, it has become the most powerful tool for study of turbulent velocity fields and promises great advancements in the study of fluid mechanics. Among the early published studies, a good number of researches have suggested enhancements and optimizations of different aspects of this technique to improve the effectiveness. One major aspect, which is the core of the present work, is related to reducing the cost of the Tomographic PIV setup. In this thesis, we attempt to reduce this cost by using an experimental setup exploiting 4 commercial digital still cameras in combination with low-cost Light emitting diodes (LEDs). We use two different colors to distinguish the two light pulses. By using colored shadows with red and green LEDs, we can identify the particle locations within the measurement volume, at the two different times, thereby allowing calculation of the velocities. The present work tests this technique on the flows patterns of a jet ejected from a tube in a water tank. Results from the images processing are presented and challenges discussed.