Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) is a category of imaging techniques that can retrieve the phase information of the sample quantitatively. QPI features label-free contrast and non-contact detection. It has thus gained rapidly growing attention in biomedical imaging. Capable of resolving biological specimens at tissue or cell level, QPI has become a powerful tool to reveal the structural, mechanical, physiological and spectroscopic properties. Over the past two decades, QPI has seen a broad spectrum of evolving implementations. However, only a few have seen successful commercialization. The challenges are manifold. A major problem for many QPI techniques is the necessity of a custom-made system which is hard to interface with existing commercial microscopes. For this type of QPI techniques, the cost is high and the integration of different imaging modes requires nontrivial hardware modifications. Another limiting factor is insufficient sensitivity. In QPI, sensitivity characterizes the system repeatability and determines the quantification resolution of the system. With more emerging applications in cell imaging, the requirement for sensitivity also becomes more stringent. In this work, a category of highly sensitive full-field QPI techniques based on wavelength shifting interferometry (WSI) is proposed. On one hand, the full-field implementations, compared to point-scanning, spectral domain QPI techniques, require no mechanical scanning to form a phase image. On the other, WSI has the advantage of preserving the integrity of the interferometer and compatibility with multi-modal imaging requirement. Therefore, the techniques proposed here have the potential to be readily integrated into the ubiquitous lab microscopes and equip them with quantitative imaging functionality. In WSI, the shifts in wavelength can be applied in fine steps, termed swept source digital holographic phase microscopy (SS-DHPM), or a multi-wavelength-band manner, termed low coherence wavelength shifting interferometry (LC-WSI). SS-DHPM brings in an additional capability to perform spectroscopy, whilst the LC-WSI achieves a faster imaging rate which has been demonstrated with live sperm cell imaging. In an attempt to integrate WSI with the existing commercial microscope, we also discuss the possibility of demodulation for low-cost sources and common path implementation. Besides experimentally demonstrating the high sensitivity (limited by only shot noise) with the proposed techniques, a novel sensitivity evaluation framework is also introduced for the first time in QPI. This framework examines the Cramér-Rao bound (CRB), algorithmic sensitivity and experimental sensitivity, and facilitates the diagnosis of algorithm efficiency and system efficiency. The framework can be applied not only to the WSI techniques we proposed, but also to a broad range of QPI techniques. Several popular phase shifting interferometry techniques as well as off-axis interferometry is studied. The comparisons between them are shown to provide insights into algorithm optimization and energy efficiency of sensitivity. / Doctor of Philosophy / The most common imaging systems nowadays capture the image of an object with the irradiance perceived by the camera. Based on the intensity contrast, morphological features, such as edges, humps, and grooves, can be inferred to qualitatively characterize the object. Nevertheless, in scientific measurements and research applications, a quantitative characterization of the object is desired. Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) is such a category of imaging techniques that can retrieve the phase information of the sample by properly design the irradiance capturing scheme and post-process the data, converting them to quantitative metrics such as surface height, material density and so on. The imaging process of QPI will neither harm the sample nor leave exogenous residuals. As a result, it has thus gained rapidly growing attention in biomedical imaging. Over the past two decades, QPI has seen a broad spectrum of evolving implementations, but only a few have seen successful commercialization. The challenges are manifold whilst one stands out - that they have expensive optical setups that are often incompatible with existing commercial microscope platforms. The setups are also very complicated such that without professionals having solid optics background, it is difficult to operate the system to perform imaging applications. Another limiting factor is the insufficient understanding of sensitivity. In QPI, sensitivity characterizes the system repeatability and determines its quantification resolution. With more emerging applications in cell imaging, the requirement for sensitivity also becomes more stringent. In this work, a category of highly sensitive full-field QPI techniques based on wavelength shifting interferometry (WSI) is proposed. WSI images the full-field of the sample simultaneously, unlike some other techniques requiring scanning one probe point across the sample. It also has the advantage of preserving the integrity of the interferometer, which is the key structure to enable highly sensitive measurement for QPI methods. Therefore, the techniques proposed here have the potential to be readily integrated into the ubiquitous lab microscopes and equip them with quantitative imaging functionality. Differed by implementations, two WSI techniques have been proposed, termed swept source digital holographic phase microscopy (SS-DHPM), and low coherence wavelength shifting interferometry (LC-WSI), respectively. SS-DHPM brings in an additional capability to perform spectroscopy, whilst the LC-WSI achieves a faster imaging rate which has been demonstrated with live sperm cell imaging. In an attempt to integrate WSI with the existing commercial microscope, we also discuss the possibility of demodulation for low-cost sources and common path implementation. Besides experimentally demonstrating the high sensitivity with the proposed techniques, a novel sensitivity evaluation framework is also introduced for the first time in QPI. This framework not only examines the realistic sensitivity obtained in experiments, but also compares it to the theoretical values. The framework can be widely applied to a broad range of QPI techniques, providing insights into algorithm optimization and energy efficiency of sensitivity.

Large amounts of money are being applied to the construction of the next generation of spallation sources for neutron scattering. Neutron powder diffraction instruments will be an important element of these facilities and the incorporation of detectors into these instruments with a high neutron capture efficiency is desirable. A new detector design named the Flexible Embedded Fiber Detector (FEFD) has been developed and tested for this thesis. This detector is based on wavelength shifting fibers embedded in a zinc-sulfide lithium-fluoride based scintillator. The virtue of this design is that the detecting surface can be curved around the Debye-Scherrer rings. This virtue is lacking in other detector designs, making them more complex and poorer in performance than our FEFD detectors. Monte Carlo calculations were performed to determine the neutron capture efficiencies of our FEFD detectors, which proved to be much higher than those of the proposed powder diffractometer design for the Spallation Neutron Source and about equal with the efficiency for the ISIS powder diffractometer design. Four FEFD detector prototypes were then fabricated and tested at the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source at Argonne National Laboratory. We find that our measured and calculated relative efficiencies are in good agreement.

M. Tech. (Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Applied and Computer Science), Vaal University of Technology / Cadmium and cobalt complexes of urea and thiourea were synthesized using ethanol as a solvent. All complexes were refluxed at 70 - 80 °C, left to cool at room temperature, washed with methanol and acetone to remove impurities and dried at an open environment. The characterization of complexes was done using FTIR spectroscopy, elemental analysis and TGA. The complexes were found to coordination with the ligands through sulphur and oxygen atoms to the metal, instead of nitrogen. These were as results of wavelength shifting from high to low frequency from spectra of the complexes as compare to their free ligands. These observations make these complexes good candidates for the possible use in synthesis of metal sulphides or oxides nanoparticles. Thermogravimetric analyses of all the complexes were conducted to check the stability of use as precursors for nanoparticles at low and high temperature. A number of thiourea and urea complexes with cadmium and cobalt have been prepared and used in the preparation of metal sulphides/oxides nanoparticles. Complexes start to decompose at low temperature about 100°C and the last decomposition step was at about 800-900°C, which is convenient to thermal decomposition of precursors in the high boiling solvents or capping agent to prepare surface capped metal sulphides/oxides nanoparticles. The complexes were easy to synthesize, low cost and stable in air and were obtained in reasonable yields. All the complexes reported in this study have been used as single source molecular precursor in the preparation of cadmium oxide, cadmium sulphide, cobalt oxide, cobalt sulphide nanoparticles (normal) and as mixture of any two complexes to form core-shells nanoparticles. Quality nanoparticles synthesis requires three components: precursors, organic surfactants and solvents. The synthesis of the nanoparticles can be thought of as a nucleation event, followed by a subsequent growth period. Both the nucleation and growth rates were found to be dependent upon factors such as temperature, growth time, and precursor concentration. For a continuous flow system the residence time (at nucleation and growth conditions) was also found to be important. In order to separate the nucleation and growth events, injection techniques were employed to achieve rapid nucleation of nanoparticles with final size dictated by the growth temperature and/or residence time through the growth zone of the reaction system. Good crystalline normal nanoparticles were obtained from thermolysis of the precursors in hexadecylamine (HDA) as the capping agent at fixed concentrations, temperature and time. All nanoparticles showed a blue-shift in band edges with good photoluminescence behaviour which is red-shifted from their respective band edges and XRD patterns, the crystal structure are in hexagonal phase. The particles showed rods, spheres and hexagonal shapes. Nucleation and growth mechanism brings new avenue in nanostructures called core-shells, which have been reported to have improved luminescence, quantum yields, decreased fluorescence lifetimes, and benefits related to the tailoring of the relative band-gap positions between the two materials. In this study cadmium and cobalt complexes of urea and thiourea were separately dispersed in TOP and injected separately (allowing nucleation/core to occur, followed by the shell) in hot HDA at 180ºC for 1hour to yield core-shell nanoparticles. Parameters, such as concentration, temperature and capping molecule as factor affecting nucleation and growth of the core-shells were monitored. The core-shell nanoparticles were characterized by UV/Vis spectroscopy, XRD and TEM. We observed spherical, tripod, bipods, hexagonal and irregular shaped nanoparticle as the concentration of the precursors was increasing, however we were able to form core-shells nanoparticles in one set of experiment 1:3 CdS-CdO, which are assumed to be a reverse type I coreshells nanoparticles. Exciton absorption peaks at higher energy than the fundamental absorption edge of bulk indicate quantum confinement effect in nanoparticles as a consequence of their small size. XRD patterns, crystals range from hexagonal, cubic and mixture of hexagonal and orthorhombic. A low temperature studies were also conducted a mixture of hexagonal and sphererical shapes with sheets like onion morphology were observed. / NRF HUB & SPOKES (VUT)

Das IceCube Neutrino-Observatorium ist ein am geografischen Südpol im Eis installierter Neutrinodetektor. In IceCube werden Neutrinos mit Tscherenkow-Strahlung von Sekundärteilchen aus Neutrino Interaktionen detektiert. Für den Nachfolgedetektor IceCube-Gen2, werden neue und verbesserte Lichtdetektoren gesucht. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt die Entwicklung eines dieser Lichtdetektoren. Dieser basiert auf Wellenlängen schiebenden und Licht leitenden Technologien. Der Detektor mit dem Namen "Wavelength-shifting Optical Module" (WOM) verwendet eine transparente Röhre, mit wellenlängenschiebender Farbe, als passiver Photonendetektor. Das in der Wellenlänge verschobene Licht wird durch Totalreflexion, zu kleinen PMTs an beiden Enden geleitet. Die Auswahl dieses Designs reduziert die Kosten und verbessert das Signal-Rausch-Verhältnis wesentlich, möglicherweise können mit dieser Lösung extragalaktische Supernova in zukünftigen Detektoren beobachtet werden. Als eine Kernkomponente wird die wellenlängenschiebende Röhre ausführlich untersucht. Verschiedene Messaufbauten und Auswertungsmethoden werden entwickelt, um diese im Anschluss zu untersuchen und zu bewerten. Iterative Verbesserungen der Materialien und des Farbauftrageverfahren als auch Messmethoden, resultieren in einer kombinierten Einfang-, Wellenlängenschiebe- und Transporteffizienz von 28,1 +/- 5,4 % der Röhre. Ein Model zur Beschreibung des Lichtverhaltens in der Röhre wird entwickelt um eine Diskrepanz zwischen Theorie und Messung zu untersuchen. Die Kombination zwischen Messung und Model, bestätigt die Aussagekraft des Models und zeigt, dass ein Großteil der Verluste beim Lichttransport zustande kommen. Darüber hinaus werden die physikalischen Eigenschaften des WOM in die IceCube Simulationsumgebung eingebaut. Der Vergleich zu einem Konkurrenzmodul zeigt eine Überlegenheit des WOM um den Faktor 1,05 +/- 0,07. Es werden Vorschläge und Ausblicke für Verbesserungen der Leistungsfähigkeit des WOMs gegeben. / The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is an in ice neutrino detector located at the geographic South Pole. In IceCube neutrinos are detected via Cherenkov light produced by secondary particles in neutrino interactions. For the upgraded detector IceCube-Gen2, new and improved light detectors are sought-after. This work describes the development of one of those light detectors based on a novel combination of wavelength-shifting and light-guiding technology. The detector named the Wavelength-shifting Optical Module (WOM) utilizes a large transparent tube, coated with wavelength-shifting paint as a passive photon detector. The wavelength-shifted light is guided via total internal reflection towards small active light detectors, at each end of the tube. This design reduces costs and improves the signal to noise ratio significantly, thereby potentially enabling extragalactic supernova detections in future detectors. As a core component, the wavelength-shifting tube is extensively investigated. Different measurement setups and evaluation techniques are developed and investigated. Iterative improvement of materials and coating techniques as well as measurement methods currently result in a combined photon capture, shift and transport efficiency of 28.1 +/- 5.4 % for the tube. Those results contrast the theoretical maximum of 74.5 %. A model is developed to describe the light propagation and loss processes in the tube and to understand the discrepancies between theory and measurement. The combination of the measurements with the model, validate the descriptive qualities of the model and show that most of the light is lost during the light propagation in the tube. Additionally, the physical properties of the WOM are included in the IceCube simulation framework. A comparison to a competing module showed that the WOM outperforms by a factor of 1.05 +/- 0.07 in photon detection numbers. Where applicable, suggestions and outlooks are given to enhance the performance of the WOM.

En cette fin d'année 2015, la construction de la 2e génération de détecteurs d'ondes gravitationnelles s'achève. Il s'agit des grands interféromètres de Michelson, dont les bras mesurent 3 km de long (Advanced Virgo) et 4 km de long (Advanced LIGO). Les ondes gravitationnelles, prédites par Einstein en 1916 dans sa théorie de la Relativité Générale n'ont pas été détectées de façon directe par la 1ère génération d'interféromètres. Mais aujourd'hui, la sensibilité a été augmentée d'un ordre de grandeur et le 100ème anniversaire de la théorie d'Einstein pourrait bien ouvrir officiellement l'ère de l'astronomie gravitationnelle. Si la sensibilité des nouveaux interféromètres est désormais exceptionnelle, c'est grâce aux avancées techniques et technologiques, et notamment grâce aux nouveaux miroirs des cavités Fabry-Pérot installés dans les bras de l'interféromètre. Cette thèse présente la conception, le développement et la caractérisation de ses miroirs aux qualités exceptionnelles. Elle s'intéresse aux pertes de lumière diffusée dans les cavités, pertes de diffusion générées par l'état de surface des miroirs et par les défauts d'uniformité des dépôts des couches minces à haute réflectivité. En étudiant la planéité des surfaces, nous verrons comment les modifications techniques du procédé de dépôt IBS ont permis d'améliorer la courbure et la planéité des surfaces. Nous verrons comment nous avons caractérisé ces surfaces avec l'interféromètre de Fizeau à décalage de longueur d'ondes. Nous montrerons enfin comment nous avons atteint les spécifications prévues lors de la conception des miroirs, diminuant les pertes de lumière diffusée dans les cavités Fabry-Pérot à un niveau encore inégalé de seulement quelques dizaines de ppm / In the year of 2015 the construction of the 2nd generation of detectors devoted to gravitational waves is going to be completed. These are large laser Michelson interferometers with arm respectively 3 km (Advanced Virgo) and 4 km (Advanced LIGO) in length. The gravitational waves, predicted by Einstein in 1916 within his theory of general relativity, have not been observed by the first generation of detectors. However, interferometers are now on the way of being ten times more sensitive than before, and so, on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of general relativity, the era of gravitational wave astronomy can start. If laser interferometer will be able to reach unprecedented sensitivity, it is thanks to new technological developments. In particular the new state of the art mirrors installed in the interferometer arms have exceptional performances. This thesis details the design, the development and the characterization of these remarkable large mirrors. My work will deal with the cavity optical loss due to the diffused light itself linked to the mirrors surface quality and to the high reflectivity coating uniformity. By studying the surface flatness, we will understand how it could be influenced by the deposition technique implemented in the coating machine. We will see also how to measure the mirror surfaces by wavelength shifting Fizeau interferometer. Finally, we will detail how we proceeded in order to reach the tight specifications for the mirrors, with in the end only tens of ppm for the cavity round trip losses