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Ce travail porte sur la réalisation de dispositifs quantiques fonctionnant en régime de couplage fort entre une excitation d'un gaz d'électrons dans un puits quantique semiconducteur et un mode de cavité dans le moyen infra- rouge. Les quasi-particules issues de ce couplage lumière-matière sont appelées "polaritons intersousbande". La première partie de ce manuscrit est consacrée à l'étude d'un dis- positif électroluminescent basé sur une structure à cascade quantique in- sérée dans une microcavité planaire. Par une analyse détaillée des spectres d'électroluminescence à différents voltages, je démontre que les états de po- laritons sont peuplés de façon résonante, à une énergie qui dépend du voltage appliqué à la structure. Les résultats expérimentaux sont analysés et in- terprétés à l'aide d'un modèle reliant les spectres d'électroluminescence aux propriétés de l'injecteur de la structure à cascade. Pour augmenter la sélectivité de l'injection et observer ainsi une exaltation de l'émission spontanée, un nouveau type de cavité est développé dans la sec- onde partie de ce travail. Il s'agit d'une cavité basée sur un confinement plas- monique, dans laquelle la lumière est confinée entre deux plans métalliques, dans une épaisseur très inférieure à la longueur d'onde. Le miroir supérieur est façonné en réseau. L'influence des différents paramètres du réseau est étudiée et deux régimes sont mis en évidence: un régime où le mode de cavité se couple à un mode de plasmon de surface et un régime où le mode de cavité ne présente pas de dispersion en énergie. En insérant des puits quantiques dopés dans une cavité de ce deuxième type, les régimes de couplage fort puis de couplage ultra-fort lumière-matière sont démontrés jusqu'à température ambiante. La valeur importante du dédoublement de Rabi et la forte densité d'états polaritoniques obtenues dans ce type de cavité en font un candidat très prometteur pour la réalisation de dispositifs électroluminescents infrarouges de grande efficacité radiative et fonctionnant sans inversion de population.

This paper describes recent progress in a continuing program to develop and apply RM³ (recess mounting with monolithic metallization) technologies for heterogeneous integration. Particular emphasis is placed on the applicability of RM³ integration to in-plane geometries for on-chip optical clock and signal distribution and on the suitability of commercially processed IC wafers for use as substrates for rectangular dielectric waveguides. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Two experimental projects involving perovskite manganese oxide compounds are presented. The first involved dielectric and transport studies of the insulator-metal transition as a function of charge-carrier doping in La1-xCaxMnO3 (0 < x < 0.15) bulk samples. The results provide new insight into the role of competing magnetic, lattice and Coulomb energies in determining the insulator-metal transition near x=0.22. The second project involved the growth, structural characterization, and resistive anisotropy of a-axis oriented Nd0.2Sr0.8MnO3 thin films with thicknesses t in the range 10 nm< t < 150 nm. Thicker films develop regular crack arrays which are the origin of a highly anisotropic in-plane electrical resistance. These cracks form parallel to the crystallographic c-axis on films with tensile strain deposited on NdGaO3 (100) and La0.3Sr0.7Al0.65Ta0.35O3 (110) substrates. Films grown under compressive strain on LaAlO3 (110) substrates have no cracks.

In the course of this thesis gold nanoparticle/polyelectrolyte multilayer structures were prepared, characterized, and investigated according to their static and ultrafast optical properties. Using the dip-coating or spin-coating layer-by-layer deposition method, gold-nanoparticle layers were embedded in a polyelectrolyte environment with high structural perfection. Typical structures exhibit four repetition units, each consisting of one gold-particle layer and ten double layers of polyelectrolyte (cationic+anionic polyelectrolyte). The structures were characterized by X-ray reflectivity measurements, which reveal Bragg peaks up to the seventh order, evidencing the high stratication of the particle layers. In the same measurements pronounced Kiessig fringes were observed, which indicate a low global roughness of the samples. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images veried this low roughness, which results from the high smoothing capabilities of polyelectrolyte layers. This smoothing effect facilitates the fabrication of stratified nanoparticle/polyelectrolyte multilayer structures, which were nicely illustrated in a transmission electron microscopy image. The samples' optical properties were investigated by static spectroscopic measurements in the visible and UV range. The measurements revealed a frequency shift of the reflectance and of the plasmon absorption band, depending on the thickness of the polyelectrolyte layers that cover a nanoparticle layer. When the covering layer becomes thicker than the particle interaction range, the absorption spectrum becomes independent of the polymer thickness. However, the reflectance spectrum continues shifting to lower frequencies (even for large thicknesses). The range of plasmon interaction was determined to be in the order of the particle diameter for 10 nm, 20 nm, and 150 nm particles. The transient broadband complex dielectric function of a multilayer structure was determined experimentally by ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy. This was achieved by simultaneous measurements of the changes in the reflectance and transmittance of the excited sample over a broad spectral range. The changes in the real and imaginary parts of the dielectric function were directly deduced from the measured data by using a recursive formalism based on the Fresnel equations. This method can be applied to a broad range of nanoparticle systems where experimental data on the transient dielectric response are rare. This complete experimental approach serves as a test ground for modeling the dielectric function of a nanoparticle compound structure upon laser excitation. / Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurden Gold-Nanopartikel/Polyelektrolyt Multischichtstrukturen hergestellt, strukturell charakterisiert und bezüglich ihrer optischen Eigenschaften sowohl statisch als auch zeitaufgelöst analysiert. Die Strukturen wurden mithilfe der Dip-coating oder der Spin-coating Methode hergestellt. Beide Methoden ermöglichen das Einbetten einzelner Partikellagen in eine Polyelektrolytumgebung. Typische Strukturen in dieser Arbeit bestehen aus vier Wiederholeinheiten, wobei jede aus einer Nanopartikelschicht und zehn Polyelektrolyt-Doppellagen (kationisches und anionisches Polyelektrolyt) zusammengesetzt ist. Die Stratizierung der Gold-Nanopartikellagen wurde mittels Röntgenreflektometrie-Messungen im Kleinwinkelbereich nachgewiesen, welche Bragg Reflexionen bis zur siebten Ordnung aufzeigen. Das ausgeprägte Kiessig Interferenzmuster dieser Messungen weist zudem auf eine geringe globale Rauheit hin, die durch Oberflächenanalysen mit einem Rasterkraftmikroskop bestätigt werden konnte. Diese geringe Rauheit resultiert aus den glättenden Eigenschaften der Polyelektrolyte, die die Herstellung von Multilagensystemen mit mehreren Partikellagen erst ermöglichen. Die Aufnahme eines Transmissionselektronenmikroskops veranschaulicht eindrucksvoll die Anordnung der Partikel in einzelne Schichten. Durch photospektroskopische Messungen wurden die optischen Eigenschaften der Strukturen im UV- und sichtbaren Bereich untersucht. Beispielsweise wird eine Verschiebung und Verstärkung der Plasmonenresonanz beobachtet, wenn eine Goldnanopartikellage mit transparenten Polyelektrolyten beschichtet wird. Erst wenn die bedeckende Schicht dicker als die Reichweite der Plasmonen wird, bleibt die Absorption konstant. Die spektrale Reflektivität jedoch ändert sich auch mit jeder weiteren adsorbierten Polyelektrolytschicht. Die Reichweite der Plasmonenresonanz konnte auf diese Art für Partikel der Größe 10 nm, 20 nm und 150 nm bestimmt werden. Die Ergebnisse wurden im Kontext einer Effektiven Mediums Theorie diskutiert. Die komplexe dielektrische Funktion einer Multilagenstruktur wurde zeitabhängig nach Laserpulsanregung für einen breiten spektralen Bereich bestimmt. Dazu wurden zuerst die Änderungen der Reflektivität und Transmittivität simultan mittels der Pump-Probe (Anrege-Abtast) Spektroskopie gemessen. Anschließend wurden aus diesen Daten, mithilfe eines Formalismus, der auf den Fresnelschen Formeln basiert, die Änderungen im Real- und Imaginärteil der dielektrischen Funktion ermittelt. Diese Methode eignet sich zur Bestimmung der transienten dielektrischen Funktion einer Vielzahl von Nanopartikelsystemen. Der rein experimentelle Ansatz ermöglicht es, effektive Medien Theorien und Simulationen der dielektrischen Funktion nach Laserpulsanregung zu überprüfen.

The flexible substrate was fabricated by BaTi4O9 mixed with O-Cresol Novolac Epoxy, polyether imide or surface active agents. The electrical and physical characteristic measured had been finished. The dielectric property influence of substrate was changed from percentage of BaTi4O9. The dielectric constant model was used by Jayasundere and Smith equation (J. S. eq.) and Lichtenecker equation (L. eq.) The study of crystalline grain, orientation and phase transfer temperature was used by SEM, XRD, and DSC, respectively. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss tangent of the composite was measured using an HP4294A impedance analyzer. The TM mode calculated by resonate frequency of the composite was measured using an HP4156C network analyzer. The dielectric constant was obtained to TM mode at high frequency. The result was showed that dielectric constant at low frequency of BaTi4O9, OCN Epoxy and PEI are 57, 5.8 and 3.65, respectively. OCN Epoxy is better than PEI of electrical characteristic. However, OCN Epoxy is not flexible. For this reason, the PEI was focused on electrical property at high frequency. The BaTi4O9 exhibited a dielectric constant of 39 at frequency during 3~10 GHz. The dielectric constant was measured of 10 at frequency during 2~16 GHz with 70 wt% PEI composite. The dielectric constant is higher than FR-4 substrate to 6.4 of the composite. The low dielectric constant is obtaining to reduce stuffing.

Monolithic materials are not meeting the increasing demand for flexible, lightweight and compact high energy density dielectrics. This limitation in performance is due to the trade-off between dielectric constant and dielectric breakdown. Insulating polymers are of interest owing to their high inherent electrical resistance, low dielectric loss, flexibility, light weight, and low cost; however, capacitors produced with dielectric polymers are limited to an energy density of ~1-2 J/cc. Polymer nanocomposites, i.e., high dielectric particles embedded into a high dielectric breakdown polymer, are promising candidates to overcome the limitations of monolithic materials for energy storage applications. The main objective of this dissertation is to simultaneously increase the dielectric permittivity and dielectric breakdown without increasing the loss, resulting in a significant enhancement in the energy density over the unmodified polymer. The key is maintaining a low volume content to ensure a high inter-particle distance, effectively minimizing the effect of local field on the composite's dielectric breakdown. The first step is studying the particle size and aspect ratio effects on the dielectric properties to ensure a judicious choice in order to obtain the highest enhancement. The best results, as a combination of dielectric constant, loss and dielectric breakdown, were with the particles with the highest aspect ratio. Further improvement in the dielectric behavior is observed when the nanoparticles surface is chemically tailored to tune transport properties. The particles treatment leads to better dispersion, planar distribution and stronger interaction with the polymer matrix. The planar distribution of the high aspect ratio particles is essential to limit the enhancement of local fields, where minimum local fields result in higher dielectric breakdown in the composite. The most significant improvement in the dielectric properties is achieved with chemically-treated nano TiO2 with an aspect ratio of 14 at a low 4.6 vol% loading, where the energy density increased by 500% compared to pure PVDF. At this loading, simultaneous enhancement in the dielectric constant and dielectric breakdown occurs while the dielectric loss remains in the same range as that of the pristine polymer.

The objective of this thesis is to develop high dielectric constant nanoparticle dispersion for switchable aircraft antenna systems. Two steps were designed to achieve the objective. First, obtain high dielectric, high aspect ratio nanoparticles and disperse them in dielectric oil medium. Second, manipulate the particle-oil dispersion using an external alternating current (AC) electric field to increase the effective dielectric constant. In order to obtain high dielectric dispersions, different sizes and shapes of titanium dioxide (TiO2) and barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanoparticles were purchased and measured. However, after a number of experiments detailed in the thesis, it was found that none of the commercially available nanoparticles could satisfy our requirements for a minimum effective dielectric constant. Thus, to achieve the goals above, we synthesized high aspect ratio BaTiO3 nanowires with BaC2O4 and TiO2 powders as precursors using a molten salt method. The as-synthesized BaTiO3 nanowires were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) mapping. The nanowires have a diameter ranging from 100 nm to 300 nm, and their lengths range from 1.5 micrometers to 5 micrometers. Mechanical stirring and bath sonication were used to obtain even colloidal dispersions. Different concentrations of BaTiO3 nanoparticles well dispersed in the oil medium were successfully manipulated using AC electric field. To monitor the change in microstructure of BaTiO3 nanoparticles, optical microscopy was used to observe the alignment of particles in the sample under the applied electric field. Various parameters including the magnitude, frequency, and duration of the electric field, and the concentration of BaTiO3 nanoparticles were investigated to achieve the optimal alignment of nanoparticles. The experimental results were validated by theoretical analysis using Maxwell-Garnett mixing rule. It was demonstrated that the effective dielectric constant of the colloidal dispersions would increase with the increase of the magnitude, frequency and duration of applied electric field. Synthesized BaTiO3 nanowire-based dispersions exhibit significant enhancement of the effective dielectric constant compared to other colloidal materials. The effective dielectric constant of 5 wt percent BaTiO3-oil dispersions could reach up to 10 when aligned at 1000 V/mm electric field at 1 kHz frequency for 1 hour.

With the increasing demand for high performance communication networks and the proliferation of mobile devices, significant advances in antenna design are essential. In recent years the rising demands of the mobile wireless communication industry have forced antennas to have increased performance while being limited to an ever decreasing footprint. Such design constraints have forced antenna designers to consider frequency agile antennas so that their behavior can adapt with changing system requirements or environmental conditions. Frequency agile antennas used for mobile handset applications must also be inexpensive, robust, and make use of electronic switching with reasonable DC power consumption. Previous works have addressed a number of these requirements but relatively little work has been performed on frequency agile dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs). The objective of this thesis is to investigate the use of DRAs for frequency reconfigurability. DRAs are an attractive option due to their compactness, very low losses leading to high radiation efficiencies (better than 95%) and fairly wide bandwidths compared to alternatives. DRA’s are also well suited for mobile communications since they can be placed on a ground plane and are by nature low gain antennas whose radiation patterns typically resemble those of short electric or magnetic dipoles. One way to electronically reconfigure a DRA, in the sense of altering the frequency band over which the input reflection coefficient of the antenna is below some threshold, is to partially load one face of the DRA with a conducting surface. By altering the way in which this surface connects to the groundplane on which the DRA is mounted, the DRA can be reconfigured due to changes in its mode structure. This connection was first made using several conducting tabs which resulted in a tuning range of 69% while having poor cross polarization performance. In order to address the poor cross polarization performance a second conducting surface was placed on the opposing DRA wall. This technique significantly reduced the cross polarization levels while obtaining a tuning range of 83%. The dual-wall conductively loaded DRA was then extended to include a full electronic implementation using PIN diodes and varactor diodes in order to achieve discrete and continuous tuning respectively. The two techniques both achieved discrete tuning ranges of 95% while the varactor implementation also had a continuous tuning range of 59% while both maintaining an acceptable cross polarization level.