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The organisation and dynamic behaviour of a copolyelectrolyte monolayer is discussed A linear diblock copolymer of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(4-viny ethylpyridinium bromide) (QP4VP) has been the main focus of the study, although films of both the unquaternised copolymer, PMMA-P4VP and a PMMA homopolymei have also been examined for comparative purposes. The polymers were spread or subphases of water and potassium chloride solutions of varying concentrations to determine changes in structure and dynamics with polymer surface concentration and subphase salt concentration. Monolayer behaviour has been characterised from surface pressure isotherms and the use of Brewster angle microscopy. It has been demonstrated that the shape of the isotherm is dependent on the potassium chloride concentration of the subphase. Information on the organisation of the system has been determined by neutron reflectometry. A systematic variation in organisation occurs as both polymer surface concentration and subphase potassium chloride concentration change. The polyelectrolytic QP4VP block stretches more into the subphase with increasing surface concentration or decreasing salt concentration. The results have been compared to scaling laws for polymer brushes. Dynamic behaviour has been studied by the use of surface quasi-elastic light scattering (SQELS) and resonance between the capillary and dilational waves of the system is observed. The phenomenon of mode mixing and the application of viscoelastic models to the system have also been examined. It has been discovered that an accurate description of the surface viscoelastic properties of the system could not be obtained by the use of standard viscoelastic models. Mode mixing was not observed, even in those systems where negative dilational viscosities were found.

Solvated brush layers formed by linear polystyrenes have been investigated under quiescent and solvent shear-flow conditions using neutron reflectometry. Cyclohexane and toluene were used as solvents, and the polystyrene chains were tethered by one end to macroscopically flat silicon substrates via short poly-4-vinylpyridine end- groups. The brush systems were studied using a purpose built flow reflectometry cell. The brush height was found to increase with improving thermodynamic quality of the solvent due to increasingly strong repulsive excluded volume interactions between chain segments. Model fitting of the reflectivity data revealed that the polymer volume fraction profile was well described by parabola-like functions in agreement with the predictions of self-consistent field theory. No changes in the reflectivity profiles were observed upon exposure of the brush layers to solvent flow-induced area average shear rates of up to 147 000 s(^-1). This observation has been rationalised through a number of considerations, including comparison with recent theoretical predictions. Aqueous micellar dispersions of diblock copolymers of styrene and ethylene oxide have been studied using small angle neutron scattering in the concentration range 0.05 to 6.5 weight % copolymer. The micelles formed were found to be spherically symmetric, consisting of a polystyrene core surrounded by a corona of highly stretched solvated polyethylene oxide chains. At higher concentrations, the intermicellar interaction has been interpreted using an analytic structure factor originally developed to describe macroion solutions. On subjecting the dispersions to Couette shear, no evidence for long-range ordering of the micelles was observed in the diffraction patterns.

Le but de cette thèse est d'améliorer les techniques d'analyse de données de la réflectométrie à balayage de fréquence pour la détermination du profil de densité des plasmas de fusion. Au cours des deux dernières décennies, des améliorations significatives ont été apportées sur la partie matérielle et sur d'extraction des signaux, mais l'analyse des données est en retard et nécessite d'autres améliorations pour répondre aux spécifications exigées pour un fonctionnement en continu des futurs réacteurs. Les améliorations obtenues lors de ce travail de thèse sur la reconstruction des profils de densité fournissent une meilleure précision en un temps plus court ceci même en présence de trou de densité conduisant à une mesure des propriétés de la turbulence suffisamment précise pour valider des modèles numériques et permettant la surveillance en temps réel de la forme et de la position du plasma / The goal of this PhD is to improve the data analysis techniques of frequency swept reflectometry for determination of the density profile of fusion plasmas. There has been significant improvements in the last two decades on the hardware design and signal extraction techniques, but the data analysis is lagging behind and require further improvements to meet the required standards for continuous operation in future reactors. The improvements obtained in this thesis on the reconstruction of density profiles provide a better accuracy in a shorter time, even in the presence of a density hole, also enabling sufficiently precise measurements of the properties of turbulence used to validate numerical models, and allowing real-time monitoring of the shape and position of the plasma

L’utilisation de câbles électriques et leurs longueurs dans certains systèmes électriques ont fortement augmenté au cours des dernières années. Or, la fiabilité de ces systèmes repose en partie sur la fiabilité des réseaux électriques. On constate en pratique qu’une part non négligeable des pannes et des dysfonctionnements de ces systèmes proviennent des défauts dans les liaisons filaires et non des équipements électriques. La connaissance de ces réseaux filaires et en particulier la détection de leurs défauts est donc importante. De nombreuses méthodes ont été développées pour tester l’état des câbles. Parmi ces méthodes on peut distinguer les méthodes de réflectométrie largement utilisées et facilement embarquables. Généralement ces méthodes sont très bien adaptées pour détecter et localiser les défauts francs mais les défauts non francs sont pratiquement transparents à ces méthodes car ils ont des conséquences électriques très faibles. Pour s’affranchir de ces limitations des améliorations en termes de mesure et traitement sont nécessaires. Dans cette thèse, trois nouvelles méthodes de diagnostic filaire ont été développées pour améliorer et faciliter la détection et la localisation de tous types de défauts filaires. Chacune des ces méthodes répond à un obstacle que nous avons rencontré pendant les trois années de recherche. Un premier obstacle concerne le phénomène de dispersion du signal dans les câbles qui rend la détection des défauts et du vieillissement des câbles très difficile. Un autre obstacle lié à la détection des défauts non-francs présente un enjeu actuel majeur du diagnostic filaire car leurs signatures sont très faibles et parfois noyées dans le bruit ou masquées par la proximité d’une autre impulsion d’amplitude plus importante. Les trois méthodes sont les suivantes : – La première méthode proposée, baptisée « corrélation adaptative » fournit un nouvel algorithme pour compenser la dispersion du signal. Elle permet de mieux localiser et mieux détecter les singularités sur des câbles de n’importe quelle longueur. – La deuxième méthode proposée, baptisée TRR (en anglais Time reversal Reflectometry) est basée sur le principe de la réflectométrie et du retournement temporel. Elle permet de caractériser le vieillissement des câbles électriques. – La troisième méthode proposée, baptisée RART (Réflectométrie associée à un processus de retournement temporel) est basée sur les principes de la réflectométrie et du retournement temporel et permet d’améliorer la détection des défauts électriques liés à une dégradation de l’isolant. Ces travaux de thèse ont montré les performances et la facilité de ces méthodes visant à assurer la sureté de fonctionnement des systèmes électriques que ce soit dans des moyens de transport, un bâtiment ou même des réseaux de communication. / The use of electric cables in electrical systems has been significantly increasing over the last decades. However, the reliability of these systems is partially based on the reliability of electrical networks. Current practices show that a significant number of failures and malfunctions of these systems come from faults in wired links and not from electrical devices. Therefore, the knowledge of the state of wire networks and particularly the detection of their faults is important. Several methods have been developed to test the status of cables. Among them, reflectometry methods are widely used and easily embeddable. Generally, these methods are appropriate to detect and locate hard faults but soft faults are virtually transparent to them because this kind of fault has very low electrical consequences. Improvements in measurement and treatment are necessary to overcome the limitations of these methods. In this respect, three new methods for wire diagnosis have been studied and developed to improve and ease the detection and location of soft wire faults. Each of these methods circumvents one or more of the barriers encountered during this research’s duration. First barrier, the phenomenon of signal dispersion in cables makes the detection of faults and of cable aging difficult or imprecise. Another barrier, the detection of soft faults, represents currently a major issue of wire diagnosis because the amplitude of soft faults signatures is very small and sometimes noisy or masked by the proximity of higher pulses. The three methods can briefly described as follows : – The first method, called "adaptive correlation", provides a new algorithm to compensate signal’s dispersion. It improves fulat’s location and the detection of singularities on cables regardless their lengths. – The second method, called TRR (Time Reversal Reflectometry), is based on the principle of reflectometry and time reversal. It allows the characterization of aging of electrical cables. – The third method, called RART (Reflectrometry combined with a time reversal process), is also based on the principle of reflectometry and time reversal. It improves the detection of electrical faults related to degradation of insulation. This research illustrates the efficiency and applicability of the proposed methods. It also demonstrates the potential of the proposed methods to improve safety in operation of electrical systems whether in transport, construction, or even communication networks.

This diploma thesis deals with the preparation of the very thin films and their investigation by scanning probe microscopy methods. The ultrathin films of Pt on Pt(111) were created by pulsed laser deposition and the ultrathin films of Co on Pt(111) were deposited by thermal evaporation. The coverage of the substrate was much smaller than one monolayer (in order of hundredths of monolayer). The nucleation theory was verified by these experiments using so-called Onset method. Further graphene sheets were prepared on layer of Si/SiO2 by the mechanical exfoliation from the graphite crystal. The fabricated graphene sheets were studied by micro-Raman spectroscopy, microreflectometry, atomic force microscopy and similar techniques. These methods proved the thinnest graphite layers were consisted of two graphene monolayers.