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This work treats the thermal and mechanical performances of gas-filled, flat plate solar collectors in order to achieve a better performance than that of air filled collectors. The gases examined are argon, krypton and xenon which all have lower thermal conductivity than air. The absorber is formed as a tray connected to the glass. The pressure of the gas inside is near to the ambient and since the gas volume will vary as the temperature changes, there are potential risks for fatigue in the material. One heat transfer model and one mechanical model were built. The mechanical model gave stresses and information on the movements. The factors of safety were calculated from the stresses, and the movements were used as input for the heat transfer model where the thermal performance was calculated. It is shown that gas-filled, flat plate solar collectors can be designed to achieve good thermal performance at a competitive cost. The best yield is achieved with a xenon gas filling together with a normal thick absorber, where normal thick means a 0.25 mm copper absorber. However, a great deal of energy is needed to produce the xenon gas, and if this aspect is taken into account, the krypton filling is better. Good thermal performance can also be achieved using less material; a collector with a 0.1 mm thick copper absorber and the third best gas, which is argon, still gives a better operating performance than a common, commercially produced, air filled collector with a 0.25 mm absorber. When manufacturing gas-filled flat plate solar collectors, one way of decreasing the total material costs significantly, is by changing absorber material from copper to aluminium. Best yield per monetary outlay is given by a thin (0.3 mm) alu-minium absorber with an argon filling. A high factor of safety is achieved with thin absorbers, large absorber areas, rectangular constructions with long tubes and short distances between glass and absorber. The latter will also give a thin layer of gas which gives good thermal performance. The only doubtii ful construction is an argon filled collector with a normal thick (> 0.50 mm) aluminium absorber. In general, an assessment of the stresses for the proposed construction together with appropriate tests are recommended before manufacturing, since it is hard to predict the factor of safety; if one part is reinforced, some other parts can experience more stress and the factor of safety actually drops.

L’objectif des travaux menés au cours de cette thèse concerne l’étude et la réalisation de composants passifs planaires à couches magnétiques (YIG) fonctionnant à haute température (200°C). Pour cela, des études ont été effectuées en deux phases : une première partie sur la mécanique des empilements des couches minces et une seconde partie sur la caractérisation électrique des couches minces et des composants planaires réalisés (inductances planaires). La première phase a permis de mettre en évidence l’intégrité mécanique de la structure, c’est-à-dire une bonne adhésion des couches minces de cuivre sur le substrat magnétique (YIG) jusqu’à une température de 200°C. La deuxième phase sur la partie électrique des couches minces et des composants planaires a permis de mettre en évidence qu’aucune modification n’a été apportée à la structure du composant, et met en évidence que le composant garde ces mêmes propriétés électriques après un cyclage thermique (25°C – 200°C – 25°C) / The objective of the works carried out during this thesis concerns the study and realization of planar passive components with magnetic layers (YIG) operating at high temperature (200 ° C). For this, studies were carried out in two phases: a first part on the mechanics of stacking thin films and a second part on the electrical characterization of thin films and planar components realized (planar inductances). The first phase made it possible to demonstrate the mechanical integrity of the structure, that is to say a good adhesion of the thin copper layers on the magnetic substrate (YIG) up to a temperature of 200 ° C. The second phase on the electrical part of the thin layers and the planar components made it possible to demonstrate that no modification has been made to the structure of the component and shows that the component retains these same electrical properties after cycling Thermal (25 ° C - 200 ° C - 25 ° C)

When azobenzene-modified photosensitive polymer films are irradiated with light interference patterns, topographic variations in the film develop that follow the electric field vector distribution resulting in the formation of surface relief grating (SRG). The exact correspondence of the electric field vector orientation in interference pattern in relation to the presence of local topographic minima or maxima of SRG is in general difficult to determine. In my thesis, we have established a systematic procedure to accomplish the correlation between different interference patterns and the topography of SRG. For this, we devise a new setup combining an atomic force microscope and a two-beam interferometer (IIAFM). With this set-up, it is possible to track the topography change in-situ, while at the same time changing polarization and phase of the impinging interference pattern. To validate our results, we have compared two photosensitive materials named in short as PAZO and trimer. This is the first time that an absolute correspondence between the local distribution of electric field vectors of interference pattern and the local topography of the relief grating could be established exhaustively. In addition, using our IIAFM we found that for a certain polarization combination of two orthogonally polarized interfering beams namely SP (↕, ↔) interference pattern, the topography forms SRG with only half the period of the interference patterns. Exploiting this phenomenon we are able to fabricate surface relief structures below diffraction limit with characteristic features measuring only 140 nm, by using far field optics with a wavelength of 491 nm. We have also probed for the stresses induced during the polymer mass transport by placing an ultra-thin gold film on top (5–30 nm). During irradiation, the metal film not only deforms along with the SRG formation, but ruptures in regular and complex manner. The morphology of the cracks differs strongly depending on the electric field distribution in the interference pattern even when the magnitude and the kinetic of the strain are kept constant. This implies a complex local distribution of the opto-mechanical stress along the topography grating. The neutron reflectivity measurements of the metal/polymer interface indicate the penetration of metal layer within the polymer resulting in the formation of bonding layer that confirms the transduction of light induced stresses in the polymer layer to a metal film. / Azobenzolhaltige Polymere gehören zu einer Klasse funktionaler Materialien, bei denen durch ein äußeres Strahlungsfeld eine starke mechanische Reaktion ausgelöst werden kann. Durch die Bindung an das Polymerrückgrat können die Azobenzole, die unter UV-Belichtung eine Photoisomerisierung ausführen, was zum Teil drastische Effekte zur Folge hat. Unter Belichtung mit Intensitätsmustern, d.h. mit räumlich variierender Verteilung der Polarisation oder der Intensität des einfallenden Lichts verändert sich die Topographie der azobenzolhaltigen Filme, was zur Bildung von Oberflächengittern (engl. Surface Relief Gratings, SRG) führt. In dieser Arbeit wurde eine neue Methode vorgeschlagen, bei der das Verhalten elastischer/morphologischer Eigenschaften unter verschiedenen Belichtungsbedingungen, d.h. mit unterschiedlicher Verteilung der Polarisation und der Intensität in situ lokal als Funktion der Position entlang der SRG aufgenommen werden kann. Außerdem wurde hier vorgeschlagen, opto-mechanische Spannungen, die innerhalb der photosensitiven Polymerfilme während der Belichtung entstehen, mit Hilfe dünner aufgebrachter metallischen Schichten abzubilden und zu analysieren.

Die Effizienz von Verbindungshalbleitern hängt von ihrer lokalen Zusammensetzung und ihrer räumlichen Elementverteilung ab. Um die opto-elektronischen Eigenschaften solcher Bauelemente zu optimieren, ist ein detailliertes Verständnis und die Kontrolle der Zusammensetzungsgradienten entscheidend. Industriell wichtige Bauelemente sind Absorberschichten für Dünnschichtsolarzellen, die eine hohe Effizienz in Kombination mit einem geringen Materialbedarf und einer hohen elastischen Flexibilität bieten. Ein gängiges Herstellungsverfahren für Dünnschicht-Solarzellenabsorber ist das Annealen bei hohen Temperaturen. Im Gegensatz zu dem, was bei Fick'schen Diffusionsprozessen zu erwarten wäre – führt dieses regelmäßig zur Bildung steiler und stabiler Zusammensetzungsgradienten, die oft von den optimalen Profilen für hocheffiziente Absorber abweichen. In dieser Arbeit liegt das Hauptaugenmerk auf den mechanischen Spannungen, die sich im Inneren von Dünnschichten entwickeln, und auf deren Auswirkungen auf Diffusionsprozesse und die mikrostrukturelle Entwicklung des Materials. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Bildung von elastischen Spannungen die endgültigen Elementverteilungen stark beeinflusst und sogar zur Bildung von starken und stabilen Zusammensetzungsgradienten führt. In dieser Arbeit wird weiterhin argumentiert, dass die Wirkung der Spannungen auf die Gleichgewichts-Zusammensetzungsprofile von den mikrostrukturellen Eigenschaften des Materials abhängen kann, insbesondere vom Vorhandensein von Leerstellenquellen. Ein Vergleich numerischer Berechnungen mit Echtzeitdaten der energiedispersiven Röntgenbeugung, die während der Dünnschichtsynthese in-situ erfasst wurden, hilft zu zeigen, dass die so entwickelten Interdiffusionsmodelle die experimentell beobachteten Beugungsspektren und insbesondere die Stagnation der Interdiffusion vor Erreichen der vollständigen Durchmischung teilweise reproduzieren können. / The operational efficiency of compound semiconductors regularly depends on their local elemental composition and on the spatial distribution of contained elements. To optimize the opto-electronic properties of such devices, a detailed understanding and control of compositional gradients is crucial. Industrially important devices are thin-film solar cell absorber layers which deliver high photo-conversion efficiencies in combination with a low demand of material and high elastic flexibility. These materials use local variations in composition to tune their opto-electronic properties. A common fabrication process for thin-film solar cell absorbers involves annealing at high temperatures to achieve specific compositional gradients, which – contrary to what could be expected from simple Fickian diffusion processes – regularly results in the formation of steep and stable compositional gradients, often deviating from the optimal profiles for high-efficiency absorbers. In this work attention is focused especially on mechanical stresses developing inside thin-films and on their effects on diffusion processes and on the material’s micro-structural evolution. It is shown that the formation of elastic stresses strongly influences the final elemental distributions, even leading to the formation of strong and stable final compositional gradients. However, this thesis also argues that their exact effect on equilibrium composition profiles may depend on the detailed micro-structural properties of the material, especially on the presence of vacancy sources and sinks. A comparison of numerical calculations with real-time synchroton-based energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction data acquired in-situ during thin-film synthesis helps to demonstrate that the such developed interdiffusion models can partly reproduce the experimentally observed diffraction spectra and, especially, the stagnation of interdiffusion before total intermixing is achieved.

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