O titanato de estrôncio é um dielétrico com elevada energia de gap entre a banda de va-lência e a banda de condução, porém quando alguns íons de oxigênio são removidos de sua estrutura cristalina, o composto se torna um semicondutor dopado do tipo n com um regime de ionização de impurezas diferente dos outros semicondutores convencionais. Além disto, o composto exibe uma supercondutividade anômala que diverge da teoria BCS no que diz respeito às interações elétron-fônon. Na medida em que o oxigênio é removido do cristal, a resistividade elétrica diminui no composto, sendo assim, este trabalho tem o objetivo de estudar a evolução do tratamento térmico que transforma o estado isolante em um semicondutor através de medidas de resistividade elétrica in situ durante o tratamento de desoxigenação de monocristais de titanatos de estrôncio crescidos pelo método Floating zone. Com o interesse de estudar as propriedades físicas do sistema Sr1-xCaxTiO3, amostras com diferentes teores de cálcio na faixa entre x = 0 e x = 0,05 foram preparadas e caracteriza-das por difratometria de raios X e medidas de calor específico. A cinética de desoxigena-ção é descrita por modelos matemáticos ajustados sobre pontos experimentais adquiridos nas medidas de resistividade elétrica in situ durante o tratamento térmico. Foi observado que a cinética de desoxigenação é de primeira ordem com energia de ativação de 1,4±0,1 eV, que concorda com os dados previamente reportados na literatura. / Strontium titanate is a dielectric material with large energy gap between valence and con-duction bands. However, when some oxygen ions are removed from the crystal structure it becomes n-type semiconductor with an impurity ionization regime which differs from conventional semiconductors. Furthermore, this compound exhibits non-conventional su-perconductivity which can not be described by electron-phonon interaction predicted by BCS theory. When oxygen gets out from the sample electrical resistivity decreases. The goal of this work is study the deoxygenation kinetics during annealing which turns an insulator into a semiconductor using in situ electrical resistivity measurements during the thermal an-nealing of titanate single crystals grown by Floating zone Method. In order to study physical properties of Sr1-xCaxTiO3 system, samples with different cal-cium contents between x = 0 and 0.05 were prepared and characterized by X-ray difratom-etry and heat capacity. Deoxygenation kinetics were analyzed by models with fits the experimental data acquired at in situ electrical resistivity measurements. It was observed that deoxygenation kinetics is of first order with energy activation of 1,4±0,1 eV The estimated value for activation energy agrees with previously reported data.

Neste trabalho descrevemos a concepção e o desenvolvimento de uma página na Internet sobre o tema da supercondutividade, bem como o uso e avaliação da página como instrumento de ensino em uma turma de terceiro ano do Ensino Médio do Colégio Frederico Jorge Logemann em Horizontina/RS. Para esse desenvolvimento, foram necessários alguns recursos de hipermídia e a página representa o produto educacional da dissertação. A implementação do tema deu-se à luz de epistemologias contemporâneas que problematizam visões ingênuas sobre a natureza da ciência. Para tanto, destacam-se as epistemologias de Popper (1993), Kuhn (1978), Lakatos (1989) e Laudan (1977) devido à sua relevância no ensino de física, com ênfase na principal convergência existente entre essas visões de ciência: a oposição ao empirismo-indutivismo. Como referencial teórico psicológico, utilizamos a psicologia sócio-histórica de Vygotsky para uma maior compreensão do processo ensino-aprendizagem envolvido no presente projeto. Avaliamos a implementação do projeto a partir de instrumentos que tornaram evidentes a aprendizagem significativa dos alunos sobre o tema. A metodologia utilizada durante as aulas, em que o assunto foi abordado, foi basicamente pautada na utilização da página desenvolvida para essa finalidade, bem como na realização de atividades experimentais, por parte dos alunos, para que pudessem visualizar a parte prática envolvida na montagem do experimento e os resultados encontrados. A partir das animações disponíveis no material didático, a idéia foi promover compreensão do fenômeno e suas conseqüências. A página elaborada e fundamentada em epistemologias contemporâneas mostrou-se um material didático capaz de envolver o estudante em discussões relevantes sobre as propriedades dos materiais supercondutores, suas aplicações, bem como sobre o aspecto epistemológico abordado, percebidos através das opiniões emitidas pelos alunos durante as aulas, pelo interesse demonstrado no decorrer do processo e pelo seu desempenho em testes de conhecimento. / In this work we describe the conception and development of a webpage about superconductivity, as well as its implementation in a third high school grade of Frederico Jorge Logemann school., in Horizontina/RS. In order to make this development were needed some hypermedia resources and the webpage represents the educational product of this dissertation. The implementation of the theme is the result of contemporary epistemologies that question naive views about the nature of science. Thus, we consider the epistemologies of Popper (1993), Kuhn (1978), Lakatos (1978) and Laudan (1977) because of their relevance in Physics teachings, emphasizing the principal convergence that exists among these theories: the opposition to the empiricism-inductive theory. As a theoretical psychological framework, we used the social-historical psychology of Vygotsky to a better comprehension of the learning-teaching process involved in this work. We have evaluated the implementation of the project from instruments that make evident the students’ meaningful learning about the theme. The metodology used during the classes, which approached the subject, was based, basically, on the utilization of the webpage developed to this end, as well as on the achievement of experimental activities, by the students, in order to see the practical part involved in the experiment assembling and the results that were found in it. From the animations that were available in the didactic materials, the idea was to promote the comprehension of the phenomenon and its consequences. The webpage that was made and based on the contemporary epistemologies appeared unveiled a didactic material that is able to involve the student in relevant discussions about the properties of the superconductor materials, their applications, as well as about the epistemological aspect that was approached, all this data was realized throw the students’ oppinion during the classes, by their interest showed during the process and by their performance in knowledge tests.

Dans le cadre de ma thèse, j’ai étudié des supraconducteurs par une nouvelle  technique de spectroscopie optique. Cette technique, inspirée de détecteurs de photons utilisés en astrophysique, permet de faire des mesures de 0 à 300 GHz, avec une résolution de ~1 GHz, à une température de ~100 mK. Les supraconducteurs étudiés sont lithographiés sous la forme de résonateurs pour devenir des détecteurs de photons dont leur fréquence de résonance varie en fonction de leur densité superfluide.  Au cours de cette thèse, j’ai fabriqué et étudié des résonateurs à partir de différents matériaux supraconducteurs (en couches minces). La dimensionnalité joue un rôle essentiel dans la supraconductivité. A priori, en deux dimensions un système ne devrait pas être supraconducteur mais il existe de nombreux contre-exemples (monocouche de FeSe, interface d’oxydes,…). Dans ce contexte l’aluminium est particulièrement intéressant car le mécanisme supraconducteur est conventionnel (couplage électron-phonon) et que l’on peut faire varier son épaisseur (couches minces) et sa microstructure (aluminium granulaire) relativement facilement. La thèse se compose de deux parties.Dans une première partie je me suis intéressé à l’influence de l’épaisseur sur la supraconductivité de couches minces d’aluminium (de 15nm à 200nm). Dans la majorité des matériaux supraconducteurs, la température critique diminue avec l’épaisseur alors que dans certains matériaux, comme dans l’aluminium, elle augmente. Différentes théories existent pour expliquer ce phénomène mais il n’existe actuellement aucun consensus. Par des techniques combinées de spectroscopie à forte résolution et de résistivité, j’essaye d’apporter un éclairage nouveau à l’augmentation de la température critique dans l’aluminium lors de la diminution de l’épaisseur. J’interprète ce phénomène comme étant lié à un durcissement des phonons, ce qui ne constitue pas une explication habituellement citée.Dans une deuxième partie, on présente des supraconducteurs désordonnés, à savoir l’oxyde d’indium (InOx) et l’aluminium granulaire (GrAl). Dans ces matériaux, on a mis en évidence des excitations sous le gap supraconducteur par des mesures de spectroscopie optique. Ces excitations, dont l’origine est discutée, sont a priori inattendues dans les supraconducteurs conventionnels.Ainsi, on a mis en évidence dans des résonateurs d’oxyde d’indium la détection très sélective en énergie de photons ayant une énergie très inférieure au gap supraconducteur. On explique le mécanisme de détection en démontrant qu’il est lié à l’excitation des modes de résonance d’ordre supérieur, associée à la non linéarité de l’inductance cinétique avec le courant circulant dans le résonateur.Dans l’aluminium granulaire, on a étudié certaines excitations sous le gap supraconducteur dans deux échantillons de résistivité différente. Une antenne radio-fréquences placée devant le cryostat illumine les résonateurs. On choisit un résonateur quelconque et on sélectionne la fréquence des photons délivrés par l'antenne de telle sorte qu'elle corresponde aux différentes excitations que l'on souhaite étudier. On s'intéresse alors à l'influence de la puissance des photons incidents sur l’évolution de la résonance. On met en évidence des comportements non standards de la fréquence de résonance ainsi que du facteur de qualité, selon les excitations étudiées. / During my PhD-thesis, I studied superconductors thanks to a new optical spectroscopy measurements technique, based on photon detectors for astrophysics. This technique enables measurements ranging from 0 to 300 GHz with a resolution of ~1 GHz at a temperature of ~100 mK. The superconductors are lithographed into resonators whose resonance frequency depends on the superfluid density. During this thesis, I made and studied resonators from different superconducting materials in thin films.Dimensionality plays a fundamental role in superconductors. In principle, in two dimensions a system should not be superconducting but there are a lot of counterexamples like single layer of FeSe or oxide interfaces. In this context, aluminum is particularly interesting for mainly two reasons. First, the superconducting mechanism is conventional : it consists in an electron-phonon coupling. Then, it is pretty easy to modify its thickness (thin films) and its microstructure (granular aluminum).The manuscript is composed of two parts.In the first part, I studied the role played by the thickness on the superconductivity of aluminum thin films, ranging from 15 nm to 200 nm. In most superconductors, the critical temperature decreases with thickness, whereas in some materials like aluminum, it increases. Several theories may explain this phenomenon but there is currently no consensus. Thanks to combined techniques of high resolution optical spectroscopy and of resistivity measurements, I suggest that the origin of the critical temperature increase in aluminum thin films would be phonon hardening. This explanation is not among the popular ones.In the second part, we present disordered superconductors, namely indium oxide (InOx) and granular aluminum (GrAl). In these materials, we evidenced sub-gap optical absorptions. In principle, these absorptions are unexpected in superconductors. We show that they are caused by higher order resonance mode excitations combined with kinetic inductance non-linearity with the current circulating in the resonator.In granular aluminum, we studied some sub-gap excitations in two samples with a different room temperature resistivity. A radio-frequency antenna situated in front of the dilution refrigerator illuminates the resonators. We choose a resonator and we select the photon frequency in such a way that it matches with the different studied excitations. We observe the influence of the incident photon power on the resonance. We evidence non standard behaviors of resonance frequency and quality factor, according to the studied excitations.

Yeung, Him Ching = 以粉末混合方法及夾心樣品方法製作的硼化鎂的特性研究 / 楊謙靖. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Yeung, Him Ching = Yi fen mo hun he fang fa ji jia xin yang pin fang fa zhi zuo de peng hua mei de te xing yan jiu / Yang Qianjing. / Abstract --- p.i / 摘要 --- p.iii / Acknowledgments --- p.v / Table of contents --- p.vi / List of table captions --- p.viii / List of figure captions --- p.ix / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Superconductors --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- Classifications --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.2 --- Conventional versus unconventional --- p.2 / Chapter 1.1.3 --- Type I and Type II superconductors --- p.4 / Chapter 1.1.4 --- Critical current Jc and the Bean´ةs Model --- p.5 / Chapter 1.2 --- Magnesium diboride --- p.8 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Structure --- p.8 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- Physical properties --- p.8 / Chapter 1.2.3 --- Chemical properties --- p.9 / Chapter 1.2.4 --- Conduction mechanisms --- p.9 / Chapter 1.2.5 --- Fabrication methods --- p.9 / Chapter 1.3 --- Objectives of this work --- p.10 / References --- p.12 / Figures --- p.14 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Methodology and instrumentation --- p.17 / Chapter 2.1 --- Experimental procedures --- p.17 / Chapter 2.2 --- Samples preparation --- p.17 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Powder mixing approach --- p.17 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Sandwich structure approach --- p.18 / Chapter 2.3 --- Samples fabrication --- p.18 / Chapter 2.4 --- Determination of compositions --- p.18 / Chapter 2.5 --- Characterization --- p.19 / Chapter 2.5.1 --- X-ray diffractometry (XRD) --- p.19 / Chapter 2.5.2 --- Microstructural analysis --- p.20 / Chapter 2.5.3 --- Magnetic measurements --- p.20 / Chapter 2.5.3.1 --- Setup for Jc measurements --- p.21 / Reference --- p.22 / Figures --- p.23 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Powder mixing approach --- p.26 / Chapter 3.1 --- Results --- p.26 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- XRD results --- p.26 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Compositions --- p.27 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- SEM results --- p.28 / Chapter 3.1.3.1 --- Sample sintered at 600°C --- p.28 / Chapter 3.1.3.2 --- Samples sintered at 700°C and 800°C --- p.28 / Chapter 3.1.3.3 --- Sample sintered at 900°C --- p.29 / Chapter 3.1.3.4 --- Sample sintered at 1000°C --- p.29 / Chapter 3.1.3.5 --- Sample sintered at 1050°C --- p.29 / Chapter 3.1.4 --- VSM results --- p.30 / Chapter 3.1.4.1 --- Tc measurements --- p.30 / Chapter 3.1.4.2 --- Hysteresis loops --- p.31 / Chapter 3.1.5 --- Jc measurements --- p.31 / Chapter 3.1.5.1 --- Direct measurement --- p.31 / Chapter 3.1.5.2 --- The Bean´ةs Model --- p.32 / Chapter 3.2 --- Discussions --- p.32 / Chapter 3.3 --- Summary --- p.35 / References --- p.36 / Figures --- p.37 / Tables --- p.47 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Sandwich structure approach --- p.49 / Chapter 4.1 --- Results --- p.49 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- SEM results --- p.49 / Chapter 4.1.1.1 --- Surface of the Mg disk --- p.49 / Chapter 4.1.1.2 --- Inner region of the Mg disk --- p.50 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- XRD results --- p.50 / Chapter 4.1.2.1 --- Surface of the Mg disk --- p.50 / Chapter 4.1.2.2 --- Inner region of the Mg disk --- p.51 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- VSM results --- p.51 / Chapter 4.1.3.1 --- Tc measurement --- p.51 / Chapter 4.1.3.2 --- Hysteresis loops --- p.52 / Chapter 4.2 --- Discussions --- p.52 / Chapter 4.3 --- Summary --- p.54 / Reference --- p.54 / Figures --- p.55 / Tables --- p.61 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Growth Mechanism --- p.62 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.62 / Chapter 5.2 --- Brief summary of results --- p.62 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Powder mixing approach --- p.62 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Sandwich structure approach --- p.63 / Chapter 5.3 --- Formation of the MgB2 platelets --- p.63 / Chapter 5.4 --- Size of the MgB2 platelets --- p.67 / Chapter 5.5 --- Summary --- p.68 / References --- p.69 / Figures --- p.70 / Tables --- p.75 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Conclusions and suggestions of future work --- p.76 / Chapter 6.1 --- Summary --- p.76 / Chapter 6.2 --- Future work --- p.77 / Appendix 1 --- p.79 / Appendix 2 --- p.81

O titanato de estrôncio é um dielétrico com elevada energia de gap entre a banda de va-lência e a banda de condução, porém quando alguns íons de oxigênio são removidos de sua estrutura cristalina, o composto se torna um semicondutor dopado do tipo n com um regime de ionização de impurezas diferente dos outros semicondutores convencionais. Além disto, o composto exibe uma supercondutividade anômala que diverge da teoria BCS no que diz respeito às interações elétron-fônon. Na medida em que o oxigênio é removido do cristal, a resistividade elétrica diminui no composto, sendo assim, este trabalho tem o objetivo de estudar a evolução do tratamento térmico que transforma o estado isolante em um semicondutor através de medidas de resistividade elétrica in situ durante o tratamento de desoxigenação de monocristais de titanatos de estrôncio crescidos pelo método Floating zone. Com o interesse de estudar as propriedades físicas do sistema Sr1-xCaxTiO3, amostras com diferentes teores de cálcio na faixa entre x = 0 e x = 0,05 foram preparadas e caracteriza-das por difratometria de raios X e medidas de calor específico. A cinética de desoxigena-ção é descrita por modelos matemáticos ajustados sobre pontos experimentais adquiridos nas medidas de resistividade elétrica in situ durante o tratamento térmico. Foi observado que a cinética de desoxigenação é de primeira ordem com energia de ativação de 1,4±0,1 eV, que concorda com os dados previamente reportados na literatura. / Strontium titanate is a dielectric material with large energy gap between valence and con-duction bands. However, when some oxygen ions are removed from the crystal structure it becomes n-type semiconductor with an impurity ionization regime which differs from conventional semiconductors. Furthermore, this compound exhibits non-conventional su-perconductivity which can not be described by electron-phonon interaction predicted by BCS theory. When oxygen gets out from the sample electrical resistivity decreases. The goal of this work is study the deoxygenation kinetics during annealing which turns an insulator into a semiconductor using in situ electrical resistivity measurements during the thermal an-nealing of titanate single crystals grown by Floating zone Method. In order to study physical properties of Sr1-xCaxTiO3 system, samples with different cal-cium contents between x = 0 and 0.05 were prepared and characterized by X-ray difratom-etry and heat capacity. Deoxygenation kinetics were analyzed by models with fits the experimental data acquired at in situ electrical resistivity measurements. It was observed that deoxygenation kinetics is of first order with energy activation of 1,4±0,1 eV The estimated value for activation energy agrees with previously reported data.

This research concerns the effects on samples of nominal composition Bil.8Pb0.2Sr2Ca2cu30y which were exposed to hot, dense argon in a ballistic compressor. The investigations were concentrated on two specimens which were exposed to hot, dense argon at about 1800 K (peak pressure 330 atm) and 1500 K (peak pressure 230 atm), respectively. Sample Bi #1 showed a completely melted surface structure after triple exposure in the ballistic compressor at 1800 K while the surface of sample Bi #7 was just partly melted after double exposure at 1500 K. Changes in flux trapping capability and qualitative Meissner effect were investigated in addition to the properties described by Duan, et al. ( 17, 18, 3 2] , who reported changes in critical temperature, crystal structure, surface morphology and composition after exposure of samples to hot, dense argon. After triple exposure in the ballistic compressor at a temperature of approximately 1800 K, sample Bi #1 showed an enhanced Meissner effect on the exposed side compared to the unexposed side of the pellet, while no difference in Meissner effect was found between the exposed and the unexposed side of sample Bi #7. EDS analysis showed that both samples are inhomogeneous in chemical surface composition. Oxygen loss due to exposure to hot, dense argon could not be demonstrated. X-ray analysis indicated that the melted surface layer of sample Bi # 1 after triple exposure to hot, dense argon contains smaller crystals than before exposure in the ballistic compressor. Tc measurements gave varying results which are explainable by the chemical inhomogeneity of the specimens. An increase in the amount of trapped flux due to exposure of the samples to hot, dense argon could not be demonstrated

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

Supraconductivité et ferromagnétisme sont deux états de la matière antagonistes. Néanmoins, il est possible, dans des nanostructures hybrides, de coupler leur paramètre d'ordre dans des jonctions Josephson ferromagnétiques où le flux magnétique produit par l'aimantation produit une différence de phase entre les supraconducteurs : la phase Aharonov-Bohm. C'est par l'effet Josephson AC qui transforme une tension continue en un courant alternatif que nous avons accédé à la dynamique de l'aimantation. Nous avons observé que lorsque la tension à travers la jonction est égale à la fréquence caractéristique des modes ferromagnétiques, il apparaît une résonance dans la courbe courant/tension. Nous avons expliqué cet effet par analogie avec la diffraction à travers une couche dont l'indice de réfraction dépend du temps, et nous avons établi une correspondance avec la mesure des résonances ferromagnétiques effectuées sur un échantillon de taille macroscopique. Ces expériences ouvrent des perspectives nouvelles d'étude des ondes de spin dans des systèmes de très petite taille. Nous nous sommes également intéressés au bruit et la relaxation de phase dans de telles jonctions que si considérées comme des sources de phase sont potentiellement utiles pour l'électronique quantique. Par des mesures d'échappement, nous avons montré que le bruit thermique est dominant au moins aux températures supérieures à 350mK. Nous avons également déterminé le temps de relaxation de la phase avec une expérience de type pompe sonde. A ce but, nous avons utilisé une transition de phase cinétique observée en régime non-stationnaire, lors que la fréquence d'excitation est comparable au temps de relaxation.

In all textbooks, the microscopic mechanism of superconductivity is described as an attractive interaction between pairs of electrons which are bound together by lattice polarization forces. The recent discovery of materials which superconduct at unexpectedly high temperatures, raised some doubts on the general validity of this picture. Our prospect was to study their electrodynamic excitation spectrum in the microwave frequency range (0.1 to 10~\cm), where the photon energy is of the same scale as the attractive interaction responsible for the pairing mechanism. In particular we were interested by coherence effect, a characteristic peak that appears in the temperature dependence of the optical conductivity and is a consequence of the peculiar pairing symmetry. By developing a novel detection scheme, we have measured for the first time the conductivity coherence peak on conventional superconductors: Nb and Pb. Then, we have broaden our study to new classes of two-dimensional compounds including organic metals and the cuprates. For all those materials, the inferred pair symmetry was found to be invariant under time reversal, in full agreement with that proposed in the original model.\

Cette thèse porte sur l'étude, par microscopie à µSQUID, des propriétés du réseau de vortex dans les supraconducteurs non conventionnels. La plus grande partie est dédiée au supraconducteur triplet Sr2RuO4. Dans un premier temps, le supraconducteur conventionnel<br />NbSe2 est étudié. Il sert de référence pour les supraconducteurs non conventionnels images ensuite. Un réseau de vortex hexagonal est observé à bas champ, et une rotation du réseau de<br />30° par rapport aux axes cristallographiques a lieu en augmentant le champ. Dans un second temps, nous présentons l'étude de vortex dans Sr2RuO4. On observe pour la première fois des vortex individuels à bas champ et en augmentant le champ une coalescence a lieu. En tenant compte du fait que le piégeage est faible et des expériences déjà effectuées, on explique cette coalescence par la présence des domaines de différente chiralité. Un rôle important joue aussi l'anisotropie, des chaînes de vortex sont observés pour des champs inclinés. Nous trouvons qu'à des angles d'inclinaison près de couches ab, une décoration des chaînes a lieu.<br />Ces résultats démontrent que Sr2RuO4 est un supraconducteur non conventionnel fortement anisotrope. Dans une dernière partie, nous présentons les images des domaines magnétiques dans la phase normale du supraconducteur ferromagnétique URhGe. Nous observons aussi des vortex individuels et une formation des domaines dans le supraconducteur non conventionnel UPt3. Ces domaines ressemblent à ceux de Sr2RuO4, une parallèle peut être faite entre les deux supraconducteurs triplet.