Interest exists in the development of transparent conducting oxide materials, which have diverse applications in areas such as transparent coatings for display technologies, solar cells, and optoelectronics. Since many of the applications require the use of thin film forms, the need is to establish useful experimental approaches to the fabrication of such structures. One relatively new method in this area is oxygen-plasma assisted atomic beam epitaxy (OPABE) in which oxide layers are grown under normal molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) conditions with the addition of an oxygen atom beam to ensure full oxidation of the depositing metallic species. Work in this area has to date mainly focussed on the growth of relatively stable oxides such as ZnO, MgO and In₂O₃ which are the strongly thermodynamically favoured reaction products, across a broad range of reaction conditions. In contrast, the present work is concerned with the growth of Cu2O and a range of delafossite materials, namely CuInO₂, CuCrO₂ and CuGaO₂, which are expected to require much more sensitive control to achieve the desired reaction product. Studies of the OPABE growth of Cu₂O on MgO (100) and MgO (110) substrates have been carried out, using a broad range of physical techniques to characterise the grown Cu₂O deposits. It is demonstrated that CuO is the favoured reaction product at low growth temperatures, although Cu₂O becomes increasingly favoured as the growth temperature increases. Alternatively, it is also shown that a novel bilayer growth method, whereby some pure Cu is deposited prior to oxide growth, can be used to form the desired Cu (I) phase. Varying crystal orientations are seen, depending on the exact growth conditions; core level and valence band X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), optical band gap and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements are used to characterise the deposits. Further growth investigations of the delafossite compounds CuInO₂, CuCrO₂ and CuGaO₂ using OPABE are also recorded, and for the case of CuInO₂, comparison is also made with the pulsed laser deposition approach. For all three materials systems, oriented crystal growth on basal planes sapphire substrates is seen, with either the (001) plane or the (015) plane orienting parallel to the substrate depending on the growth temperature, provided approximately correct metal fluxes are used as set by the Knudsen-cell temperatures. The typical valence band electronic structure of delafossite materials is observed in all three cases, and XPS peak shifts suggest that the layers can be electrically doped by adding appropriate metal fluxes during growth. AFM measurements show the grown films are relatively rough and it is suggested that the growth mode follows an island growth mechanism in which oriented three dimensional islands formed at the start of growth gradually enlarge and coalesce as the film thickens. Optical absorption measurements are consistent with the generally accepted optical band gaps of the materials concerned.

In this thesis, the structural, optical, and electrical properties of wurtzite MgxZn1-xO:Al and MgxZn1-xO:Ga thin films have been investigated in dependence on Mg and dopant concentration. Among the transparent conductive oxides (TCOs), ZnO based compounds have gained renewed interest as a transparent electrode for large scale applications such as defroster windows, at panel displays, touch screens, and thin film solar cells due to low material and processing cost, non-toxicity, and suitable physical properties. In general, these applications require transparent electrodes with lowest possible resistivity of rho < 10^-3 Ohmcm and lower [1]. Recently, it has been reported that Ga and Al doped ZnO thin films can be deposited with respective resistivity of 5x10^-5 Ohmcm [2] and 3 x10^-5 Ohmcm [3] which are similar to the data obtained for other practical TCOs, i.e. the resistivity of about 4x 10^-5 Ohmcm for Sn doped In2O3 (ITO) thin films [4]. Moreover, the bandgap of ZnO can be increased by alloying with Mg offering band alignment between transparent electrode and active (or buffer) layer of the device, e.g. Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells [5]. The tunable bandgap of these transparent electrodes can further increase the efficiency of the devices by avoiding energy losses in the interface region of the layers. From this point of view, this work has been aimed to investigate the doping efficiency and limits in transparent conductive (Mg,Zn)O alloys. For this purpose, the samples investigated in this work have been grown by pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) using a novel, continuous composition spread method (CCS). In general, this method allows to grow thin films with lateral composition gradient(s) [6, 7]. All MgxZn1-xO:Al and MgxZn1-xO:Ga thin films have been deposited on 2-inch in diameter glass, c- or r-plane sapphire substrates using threefold segmented PLD targets in order to grow thin films with two perpendicular, lateral composition gradients, i.e. the Mg composition is varied in one direction whereas the Al/Ga concentration is varied in a perpendicular direction [7, 8]. In order to investigate the influence of the temperature, samples grown at different substrate temperatures in the range of 25 to 600 C were investigated. The optical and electrical measurements have been carried out on (5x 5)mm^2 samples that were cut from the CCS wafers along the respective composition gradients, i.e. Mg and Al/Ga contents. Subsequently, physical properties of thin films have been analyzed for a large range of Al/Ga content between 0.5 and 7 at.%, which corresponds to doping concentrations between 2x 10^20 and 3x 10^21 cm^-3, for different Mg contents x(Mg) ranging from 0.01 to 0.1. It has been found that practically the limiting the dopant concentrations is about 2 x10^21 cm^-3. Further, the electrical data suggests, that the compensating intrinsic defect is doubly chargeable hinting to the zinc vacancy (V_Zn) as microscopic origin. Increasing the dopant concentration above 2 x10^21 cm^-3 leads to a degradation of electrical and structural properties [8]. Further, the influence of growth and annealing temperatures on structural, electrical and optical properties of the films has been studied. For that purpose, Al and Ga doped (2.5 at.% = 1x10^21 cm^-3) Mg0.05Zn0.95O thin films have been chosen from CCS samples grown at T_g = (25 - 600) C . For both doping series, the samples grown at higher temperatures exhibit better crystalline quality compared to the samples grown at lower growth temperatures. As a result, samples grown at higher temperatures reveal higher Hall mobility. For the Al-doping series, the highest free charge carrier density of n = 8.2x 10^20 cm^-3 was obtained for an Mg0.05Zn0.95O:Al thin film grown at 200 C, with corresponding Hall mobility of mu = 13.3 cm^2/Vs, a resistivity of rho = 5.7x10^-4 Ohmcm, and optical bandgap of E_g = 3.8 eV. Interestingly, the free charge carrier density of n = (5 - 8) x 10^20 cm^-3 for samples grown with T_g > 300 C is clearly higher than the value of n = 1.25 x 10^20 cm^-3 that was obtained for the high temperature grown sample, i.e. at T_g = 600 C. Furthermore, for all T_g, Al-doped films have a higher doping efficiency than the Ga-doped counterparts. In order to look deeper into the microscopic origin of this behavior, the samples were post-annealed in vacuum at 400 C. Experimental results showed that the free charge carrier density of Al-doped samples first decreased and saturated afterward with increasing annealing time. On the other hand, the free charge carrier density of the Ga-doped samples first slightly increased and saturated with increasing annealing time. For both doping series, the saturation value of n ~ 1 x 10^20 cm^-3 was very close to the data that has been observed for (i) high temperature grown samples and (ii) the solubility limit of Al in ZnO of 0.3 at.% = 1.2x 10^20 cm^-3, that has been determined by Shirouzu et al. for high temperature grown (T_g > 600 C) Al-doped ZnO [9]. Correspondingly, the optical bandgap also changed, i.e. increased (decreased) for Al- (Ga-) doping series, and approached a constant value of 3.5 0 +- 0.1 eV which is explained by generation of acceptor-like compensating defects, and the solubility limit of the dopants. From XRD data, no secondary phases were found for as-grown and post-annealed films. However, the slight improvement of crystalline quality has been observed on post-annealed samples. Further, it has been shown that the growth and annealing temperatures are important as they strongly affect the metastable state of the solid solution that samples grown at low temperature represent. The low solubility limit of the dopants, i.e. 0.3 at.% for Al in ZnO under equilibrium condition, can be increased by preparing samples by non-equilibrium growth techniques [10]. This is also consistent with experimental results of this work that Al- as well as Ga-doped metastable ZnO and (Mg,Zn)O thin films can be prepared with highest possible doping efficiency for the dopant concentration up to 2.5 at.% when growth or annealing temperatures below 400 C are used.

Cette thèse présente un modèle thermique et électrique de paroi photovoltaïque (PV) intégrée ou semi-intégrée au bâtiment. La particularité du modèle est le transfert de chaleur entre le panneau et le bâtiment, décrit de telle manière que leurs modèles respectifs soient totalement couplés. Ceci a l'avantage de permettre la prédiction de l'impact de l'installation PV sur le champ de température du bâtiment et donc sur le confort thermique associé. Le but de l'étude est de mettre en évidence l'impact des panneaux PV en termes d'isolation thermique ou de protection solaire pour le bâtiment et la résultante en termes de gain énergétique. De plus, une séquence expérimentale a été menée à l'île de La Réunion, où le climat est tropical et humide, avec un rayonnement solaire important. Dans de telles conditions, il est important de minimiser la sollicitation thermique à travers l'enveloppe du bâtiment, en particulier la toiture. Le modèle est intégré à un code de simulation thermique du bâtiment (ISOLAB) et peut prédire l'impact des panneaux PV installés selon différentes configurations, mais aussi le productible photovoltaïque de l'installation. Finalement, l'étude expérimentale est utilisée pour fournir des éléments de validation du modèle numérique et une analyse de sensibilité est lancée pour mettre en évidence les paramètres les plus influents du modèle. Il a été démontré que les paramètres radiatifs du panneau PV ont un impact important sur le champ de température du bâtiment et que leur détermination doit être faite correctement. Les résultats de cette analyse sont ensuite utilisés pour optimiser le modèle thermique à l'aide du logiciel d'optimisation GenOpt. / This thesis presents a thermal and electrical modelling of PV walls integrated to buildings. The particularity of this model is that the heat transfer that occurs through the panel to the building is described so that both building and PV thermal modelling are fully coupled. This has the advantage of allowing the prediction of the impact of PV installation on the building temperature field and also the comfort inside it. The aim of this study is to show the impact of the PV panels in terms of level of insulation or solar protection for the building. Moreover, the study has been conducted in La Reunion Island, where the climate is tropical and humid, with a strong solar radiation. In such conditions, it is important to minimise the thermal load through the roof of the building. The thermal model is integrated in a building simulation code and is able to predict the thermal impact of PV panels installed on buildings in several configurations and also their production of electricity. Finally, the experimental study is used to give elements of validation for the numerical model and a sensitivity analysis has been run to put in evidence the governing parameters. It has been shown that the radiative properties of the PV panel have a great impact on the temperature field of the tested building and the determination of these parameters has to be taken with care. Results of sensitivity analysis are used to optimize the PV thermal model using the GenOpt optimization program.

In the digital world of today, information is always at risk regardless of its state, at rest or in transit. Cryptography is the technology that promises to address the security issues that emerge. Hence, it was a reasonable consequence to introduce cryptography to databases. However, manually encrypting and decrypting data along with the key management is a burden for the regular user of a database. The need for removing this burden gave birth to Transparent Data Encryption (TDE).   TDE technology is widely available nowadays and a number of vendors have developed their own solutions for protecting data at rest in a transparent way to the end user. However, cryptographic operations are resource intensive and introduce an overhead to the computational operations. The burden of cryptographic operations has drawn the interest of both academia and the industry for a long time before TDE appeared on the horizon. Hence, a lot of research has been done to measure the performance impact of those operations.   Despite the extensive study for the performance of cryptographic algorithms, the performance of the TDE systems and the add-on computational burden for the introduced encryption has not yet been studied thoroughly. As a result, the current Thesis project tries to develop a theoretical benchmarking framework that evaluates the performance of Transparent Data Encryption systems. The study is conducted utilizing the Design Research methodology.   The developed benchmarking framework focuses on the basic performance metrics of TDE systems, Elapsed time, CPU time and Hard Disk memory consumption. These metrics are calculated for varying key lengths, encryption algorithms and table sizes.  The framework follows a five - step procedure that includes the creation of topology - lab environment, creation of databases and definition of scenarios, activation of TDE feature, sequencial execution of scenarios and analysis of the results. The developed framework is evaluated by applying it on real TDE systems.

O óxido de índio dopado com estanho é um semicondutor degenerado de alta transparência no espectro visível e alta condutância elétrica. Por suas propriedades, ele é utilizado como eletrodo transparente em diversas aplicações. Algumas destas aplicações exigem que os filmes sejam depositados sobre substratos poliméricos, que degradam em temperaturas acima de 100 °C. Por este motivo, métodos de deposição que utilizam baixas temperaturas são necessários. O objetivo deste trabalho é o desenvolvimento de técnicas de deposição de filmes de óxido de índio dopado com estanho, em baixas temperaturas (< 100 °C), pelo método de magnetron sputtering de rádio fequência. Filmes foram obtidos sobre substratos de silício, vidro e policarbonato, e suas propriedades físicas, elétricas, ópticas, químicas e estruturais foram analisadas por perfilometria, elipsometria, curvas corrente-tensão, prova de quatro pontas, medidas de efeito Hall, difratometria de raios-X e espectrofotometria. Filmes depositados sobre silício e vidro tiveram resistividade elétrica mínima da ordem de 10^-4 Ohm.cm, enquanto a resistividade do filme obtido sobre policarbonato foi da ordem de 10^-3 Ohm.cm. A transmitância óptica média no espectro visível das amostras variou de 66 a 87 %. Do ponto de vista estrutural, as amostras tenderam a apresentar fase amorfa e cristalina, com orientação preferencial ao longo da direção [100]. De modo geral, as amostras obtidas de 75 a 125 W tiveram as melhores propriedades para serem utilizadas em aplicações que exijam eletrodos transparentes, considerando aspectos elétricos e ópticos. / Indium-tin oxide is a degenerate semiconductor that shows high transmittance in the visible region of the spectrum and high electrical conductance. Because of its properties, this material is used as transparent electrode in a wide variety of applications. Some of these applications demand the indium-tin oxide layer to be deposited over polymer substrates, which degrade at temperatures above 100 °C. Because of this degradation problem, deposition methods at low temperatures are needed. The purpose of this work is the development of low temperature (< 100 °C) indium-tin oxide deposition processes by radio frequency magnetron sputtering method. Thin films were deposited over silicon, glass and polycarbonate substrates, and their physical, electrical, optical, chemical and structural properties were analyzed by surface high step meter, ellipsometry, current-voltage curves, four-point probe analysis, Hall effect measurements, X-ray diffractometry and spectrophotometry. Films deposited over silicon and glass substrates showed minimal electrical resistivity in the order of 10^-4 Ohm.cm, while the resistivity of the film obtained over polycarbonate was in the order of 10^-3 Ohm.cm. The average transmittance in the visible spectrum varied over the range 66 to 87 %. According to the structural study, the films present both amorphous and crystalline phases, with crystallites showing preferential orientation along the [100] direction. In general, films deposited with power varying over the range 75 to 125 W showed the best results to be applied as transparent electrodes, considering electrical and optical aspects.

O óxido de índio dopado com estanho é um semicondutor degenerado de alta transparência no espectro visível e alta condutância elétrica. Por suas propriedades, ele é utilizado como eletrodo transparente em diversas aplicações. Algumas destas aplicações exigem que os filmes sejam depositados sobre substratos poliméricos, que degradam em temperaturas acima de 100 °C. Por este motivo, métodos de deposição que utilizam baixas temperaturas são necessários. O objetivo deste trabalho é o desenvolvimento de técnicas de deposição de filmes de óxido de índio dopado com estanho, em baixas temperaturas (< 100 °C), pelo método de magnetron sputtering de rádio fequência. Filmes foram obtidos sobre substratos de silício, vidro e policarbonato, e suas propriedades físicas, elétricas, ópticas, químicas e estruturais foram analisadas por perfilometria, elipsometria, curvas corrente-tensão, prova de quatro pontas, medidas de efeito Hall, difratometria de raios-X e espectrofotometria. Filmes depositados sobre silício e vidro tiveram resistividade elétrica mínima da ordem de 10^-4 Ohm.cm, enquanto a resistividade do filme obtido sobre policarbonato foi da ordem de 10^-3 Ohm.cm. A transmitância óptica média no espectro visível das amostras variou de 66 a 87 %. Do ponto de vista estrutural, as amostras tenderam a apresentar fase amorfa e cristalina, com orientação preferencial ao longo da direção [100]. De modo geral, as amostras obtidas de 75 a 125 W tiveram as melhores propriedades para serem utilizadas em aplicações que exijam eletrodos transparentes, considerando aspectos elétricos e ópticos. / Indium-tin oxide is a degenerate semiconductor that shows high transmittance in the visible region of the spectrum and high electrical conductance. Because of its properties, this material is used as transparent electrode in a wide variety of applications. Some of these applications demand the indium-tin oxide layer to be deposited over polymer substrates, which degrade at temperatures above 100 °C. Because of this degradation problem, deposition methods at low temperatures are needed. The purpose of this work is the development of low temperature (< 100 °C) indium-tin oxide deposition processes by radio frequency magnetron sputtering method. Thin films were deposited over silicon, glass and polycarbonate substrates, and their physical, electrical, optical, chemical and structural properties were analyzed by surface high step meter, ellipsometry, current-voltage curves, four-point probe analysis, Hall effect measurements, X-ray diffractometry and spectrophotometry. Films deposited over silicon and glass substrates showed minimal electrical resistivity in the order of 10^-4 Ohm.cm, while the resistivity of the film obtained over polycarbonate was in the order of 10^-3 Ohm.cm. The average transmittance in the visible spectrum varied over the range 66 to 87 %. According to the structural study, the films present both amorphous and crystalline phases, with crystallites showing preferential orientation along the [100] direction. In general, films deposited with power varying over the range 75 to 125 W showed the best results to be applied as transparent electrodes, considering electrical and optical aspects.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:31:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luiz Antonio Fossaluzza junior.pdf: 4580835 bytes, checksum: 4fdd68a1c6733e08c016db3e5dd34d0b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-11-23 / This work investigates a technique to encrypt the optical signal for Transparent Optical Network, TON, in order to safeguard the confidentiality and guarantee the security of informations that are transmitted through the Telecommunications Network. The technique is assessed on the physical layer of the reference model for open systems interconnection, OSI, and consists of slicing spectrally optical signal and to apply various attenuations and delays to each of the slices spectral considered. These slices are multiplexed and the resulting signal, which will be propagated by an optical network transparent, it will be ideally unintelligible to eavesdropper who try to steals it. At this point is possible to evaluate the quality of the encryption used by measuring the output of the encoder the bit error rate, BER, the encrypted signal, BERC. In principle, as highest BERC,it will be lowest the probability of an eavesdropper decode the signal. To get to your destination, the signal is received in the decoder circuit, which has the same physical structure of the circuit which encoded the original signal. The application of the factors of attenuation and delay in this distorted signal is adjusted for the reconstruction of optical signal generated by the transmitter. On the output of decoder, performs the measurement of BER of signal decoded, the BERD. Ideally, BERD must be the lowest possible. For technique evaluation, it was simulated, with the version 8.7 of the software VPITransmissionMaker, of company VPIPhotonics Inc, the operation of the devices of cryptography, propagation and the elements of decoded signal. All simulations considered that the spectral slicing was carried out by means of filters with ideal profile. The results indicates that the BERC may reach up to 42% and 24%, to encrypted signals with modulation on-off Keying non return to zero (NRZ-OOK) and differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK) respectively, and that both are free of errors (BERD< 10-15 for the signal NRZ-OOK and BERD< 10-6 for DQPSK modulation) when decoded. / Este trabalho aborda uma t?cnica para criptografar o sinal ?ptico em redes ?pticas transparentes (Transparent Optical Network, TON), de modo a salvaguardar o sigilo e garantir a seguran?a das informa??es que s?o transmitidas atrav?s da Rede de Telecomunica??es. A t?cnica avaliada ? relativa ? camada f?sica do modelo de refer?ncia para interconex?o de sistemas abertos (open systems interconnection, OSI) e consiste em dividir espectralmente um sinal ?ptico e em aplicar diferentes atenua??es e atrasos a cada uma das fatias espectrais consideradas. A seguir essas fatias s?o multiplexadas e o sinal resultante, que ser? propagado por uma rede ?ptica transparente, estar? idealmente inintelig?vel para intrusos que tentem furt?-lo. Nesse ponto ? poss?vel avaliar a qualidade da criptografia utilizada, medindo-se na sa?da do codificador a taxa de erro de bit (bit error rate, BER) do sinal criptografado, BERC. Em princ?pio, quanto maior BERC, menor a probabilidade de um intruso decodificar o sinal. Ao chegar ao seu destino, o sinal ? recebido no circuito decodificador, que possui a mesma estrutura f?sica do circuito que codificou o sinal original. A aplica??o dos fatores de atenua??o e atraso neste sinal distorcido ? ajustada para a reconstru??o do sinal ?ptico gerado pelo transmissor. Na sa?da do decodificador, efetua-se a medi??o da BER do sinal decodificado, BERD. Idealmente, BERD deve ser a menor poss?vel. Para avalia??o da t?cnica, simulou-se, com a vers?o 8.7 do software VPITransmissionMaker, da empresa VPIPhotonics Inc, a opera??o dos dispositivos de criptografia, da propaga??o e dos elementos de decriptografia do sinal. Todas as simula??es consideraram que o fatiamento espectral foi realizado por meio de filtros com perfil ideal. Os resultados indicam que a BERC pode atingir at? 42% e 24%, para sinais codificados com modula??o n?o retorno ao zero com chaveamento on-off (non return to zero on-off keying, NRZ-OOK) e por deslocamento de fase diferencial em quadratura (differential quadrature phase shift keying, DQPSK) respectivamente, e que ambos n?o apresentam erros (BERD< 10-15 para o sinal NRZ-OOK e BERD< 10-6 para a modula??o DQPSK) quando decodificados.

O objetivo desta pesquisa foi avaliar o desempenho térmico de brises transparentes, por meio de medidas em células-teste construídas em escala 1:1, na cidade de Campinas, São Paulo. Trata-se de um estudo que faz avaliação comparativa das temperaturas internas e superficiais dos brises e do vidro da janela em seis células-teste, quatro delas protegidas com brises transparentes horizontais e verticais combinados, constituídos por vidros, outra protegida com brise-soleil metálico horizontal e uma sem dispositivo de proteção solar, sendo esta considerada de referência. Foram selecionados quatro tipos de vidro com diferentes características ópticas: vidro float comum incolor, vidro impresso mini-boreal, vidro float comum azul e vidro refletivo metalizado a vácuo prata médio. Foi possível concluir que os brises de vidro refletivo prata, float azul e impresso possuem um desempenho térmico similar entre si e ao brise metálico estudado, e que o brise de vidro float incolor não apresenta um resultado de desempenho térmico satisfatório. Com relação aos procedimentos de medidas de campo, foram verificadas as modificações necessárias, para trabalhos futuros que tenham o mesmo objetivo dessa pesquisa, ou similares a esse. Além da avaliação do desempenho térmico, foi também iniciada uma avaliação do desempenho luminoso dos brises. Por meio das medidas dos níveis de iluminação natural dentro das células-teste constatou-se que o brise de vidro impresso apresentou um ótimo desempenho luminoso e que o brise de vidro refletivo prata reduziu significativamente a iluminância dentro da célula-teste, obtendo um desempenho luminoso inferior até mesmo ao brise metálico / This research intended to evaluate thermal performance of transparent solar protections using measurements in full scale test cells, located in the city of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. Surface (window and shading device) and internal air temperatures were compared for six test cells. One of them was unprotected, for reference purposes, another was obstructed with a metallic shading device and the other four had transparent glass horizontal and vertical shades installed. Four different types of glass with different optical properties were selected: float clear glass, mini-boreal printed glass, float blue glass and metallic silver reflective glass. The results of the thermal appraisal showed that silver reflective glass, float blue and printed glass shadings achieved similar performance, not very different to the ones obtained for the metallic shading device. Therefore the float clear glass shading did not attain a satisfactory result. The field measurements procedures were also evaluated and test cells characteristics problems were identified, in order to suggest changes for future research in this area. This research began to evaluate light performance of the same solar protections. For light performance evaluation were measured the daylight in the center of each test cell and outside. It was concluded that printed glass shadings presented very good results and silver reflective glass reduced the daylight inside the test cell

La réalisation de céramiques transparentes de type Er:YAG pour application laser nécessite une transparence parfaite ce qui implique une grande qualité de la poudre utilisée et une parfaite maîtrise des procédés de fabrication. Afin d’obtenir une céramique transparente, la première partie de cette thèse a consisté à corriger le principal défaut de deux poudres de YAG expérimentales. Dans la première poudre, un taux de soufre élevé a été mesuré et l’objectif a été d’éliminer cette impureté par des traitements chimiques et thermiques, tout en gardant les caractéristiques structurales et granulométriques de la poudre de départ. La seconde poudre présentait un déficit en yttrium et le but a été de corriger ce déséquilibre par l’ajout d’yttrine. Dans un deuxième temps, afin de s’affranchir des problèmes de non-reproductibilité de la qualité des poudres commerciales de YAG, la possibilité d’obtenir des céramiques transparentes YAG par frittage réactif à partir de poudres d’alumine et d’yttrine a été étudiée. Lors de cette étude, le mélange, la stoechiométrie, la compaction, la densification et les transformations de phase ont été suivis dans le but de réaliser une carte de frittage de ce mélange. La dernière étude concerne l’obtention de céramiques transparentes à gradient de dopage suivant trois approches ayant pour point commun l’emploi de la technique de frittage SPS. La première a consisté en l’assemblage de céramiques déjà totalement densifiées, la deuxième, de céramiques pré-frittées et enfin, la dernière, d’un empilement de lits de poudres. Les mesures de diffusion des ions Erbium à travers l’interface ont permis de comparer ces différentes approches. / The realization of transparent Er:YAG ceramics for laser application requires a perfect transparency that implies a high quality of the used powder and a perfect control of the manufacturing processes. However, the quality of the starting powder is sometimes insufficient and its characteristics are not suitable in terms of stoichiometry, impurities or particle morphology. In this case, a pre-treatment of the powder and the use of sintering aids are necessary to obtain transparency. In order to prepare transparent ceramics, the first part of this work consisted in correcting the main defects of two experimental YAG powders. In the first powder, a high level of sulfur was measured and the objective was to eliminate this impurity by chemical and thermal treatments, while keeping the structural characteristics and particle size of the starting powder. In the second powder, the measured stoichiometry showed an yttrium deficiency of 5.3 mol% and the purpose was to correct the Y/Al ratio by addition of yttria. In a second part, in order to overcome the problems of non-reproducibility of the quality of YAG commercial powders, the possibility of obtaining YAG transparent ceramics by reactive sintering from alumina and yttria powders was investigated. The last part of this study concerned the development of transparent ceramics with doping gradients by three approaches having in common the use of SPS sintering. The first involved the assembly of fully dense ceramics; the second, pre-sintered ceramics and finally, the last approach a stack of powder layers. The measurement of Erbium ion diffusion through the interface made it possible to compare these different approaches.

Recherche de nouveaux verres transparents dans l'infrarouge. Il s'agit de verres thihalogénés à base de sulfure d'antimoine et de plomb. Etude des propriétés thermiques, mécaniques et optiques en vue de leur application comme fibres optiques.