abstract: Obtaining local electrochemical (EC) information is extremely important for understanding basic surface reactions, and for many applications. Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) can obtain local EC information by scanning a microelectrode across the surface. Although powerful, SECM is slow, the scanning microelectrode may perturb reaction and the measured signal decreases with the size of microelectrode. This thesis demonstrates a new imaging technique based on a principle that is completely different from the conventional EC detection technologies. The technique, referred to as plasmonic-based electrochemical imaging (PECI), images local EC current (both faradaic and non-faradaic) without using a scanning microelectrode. Because PECI response is an optical signal originated from surface plasmon resonance (SPR), PECI is fast and non-invasive and its signal is proportional to incident light intensity, thus does not decrease with the area of interest. A complete theory is developed in this thesis work to describe the relationship between EC current and PECI signal. EC current imaging at various fixed potentials and local cyclic voltammetry methods are developed and demonstrated with real samples. Fast imaging rate (up to 100,000 frames per second) with 0.2×3µm spatial resolution and 0.3 pA detection limit have been achieved. Several PECI applications have been developed to demonstrate the unique strengths of the new imaging technology. For example, trace particles in fingerprint is detected by PECI, a capability that cannot be achieved with the conventional EC technologies. Another example is PECI imaging of EC reaction and interfacial impedance of graphene of different thicknesses. In addition, local square wave voltammetry capability is demonstrated and applied to study local catalytic current of platinum nanoparticle microarray. This thesis also describes a related but different research project that develops a new method to measure surface charge densities of SPR sensor chips, and micro- and nano-particles. A third project of this thesis is to develop a method to expand the conventional SPR detection and imaging technology by including a waveguide mode. This innovation creates a sensitive detection of bulk index of refraction, which overcomes the limitation that the conventional SPR can probe only changes near the sensor surface within ~200 nm. / Dissertation/Thesis / Video for Figure 3.2 C to H / Video for Figure 3.5 / Video for Figure 5.5 / Video for Figure 6.7 / Video for Figure 6.11 / Ph.D. Electrical Engineering 2011

Title: Magnetic nanostructures for recording and optical sensors Author: Eva Lišková Department: Institute of Physics, Charles University Supervisor: Prof. Ing. Štefan Višňovský, DrSc. Abstract: Magneto-optical (MO) spectra of multilayered structures with enhanced MO effect were studied using the polar and longitudinal Kerr spectroscopy with oblique angle of light incidence in the photon energy range 1.2 eV to 5 eV. The samples with Fabry- Perot cavity like architecture, were modeled using Yeh matrix formalism. Two sets of samples, with composition FeF2/Fe/FeF2 and AlN/Fe/AlN, were prepared by molecular beam epitaxy and sputtering. The relations were studied between the position of the enhanced peak in the MO spectra and the structure. Second part of this work was devoted to the Pt/Co/Pt structures and the influence of the ion implantation on MO spectra and structural composition. The studied multilayer structures present interest for MO sensor and memory applications. Keywords: Magneto-optical Kerr effect, Magneto-optical sensor, Fabry-Perot resonator, Ion implantation

La technologie RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) prend une place de plus en plus importante dans la société d'aujourd'hui notamment dans des domaines aussi variés que la santé, la sécurité, la logistique... Le développement de cette technologie met en évidence de nouvelles contraintes comme la réduction des zones de lecture et la géo-localisation pour le stockage et le suivi de marchandises. Dans ce contexte, la thèse s'est focalisée sur le développement d'antennes pour lecteur RFID dans le cadre du projet SPINNAKER piloté par TAGSYS RFID et soutenu par OSEO. L'objectif de cette étude est de concevoir des antennes compactes et directives à polarisation circulaire en bande UHF et SHF. L'antenne hélice présente toutes ces caractéristiques à l'exception de la hauteur, très importante dès que l'on souhaite obtenir des performances élevées surtout en gain. Dans ce manuscrit, trois solutions sont proposées pour réduire la hauteur de l'antenne hélice tout en répondant aux cahiers des charges. La première solution consiste à utiliser un réflecteur de forme cylindrique ou conique qui permet de réduire la hauteur d'une antenne hélice classique d'un facteur quatre pour atteindre 0,9λ. La réduction de la hauteur se traduit par une augmentation de la surface autour de l'antenne avec une dimension latérale de 2,3λ. La seconde solution consiste à utiliser l'antenne hélice avec une cavité Fabry-pérot. La hauteur du système antennaire obtenue est de 0,5λ avec un diamètre de 2λ. La dernière solution développée dans la thèse introduit une surface CMA à la solution précédente qui permet de réduire la hauteur à 0,25λ. Toutes les solutions proposées ont été validées expérimentalement. / Over the past 20 years, the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology is having a huge expansion. Nowadays, it is frequently used in different areas as the health, the security and the logistic. A lot of researches are ongoing on this topic, especially in order to reduce the reading zone of the readers and to locate the tags. This thesis focuses on the development of new antennas for Readers RFID devices and is part of the SPINNAKER project supported by OSEO. The antennas requirements are circular polarization, high directivity and gain with low profile. The helix antennas meet all these requirements except the axial length. In this manuscript, we propose three solutions to reduce the helix antenna axial length. The first one uses a cylindrical or conical optimal reflector to reduce the length by four. This reduction affects directly the surface witch increases up to 2.3λ. The second solution uses the helix antenna as a circular polarization feed for a Fabry-Perot (FP) cavity. The final antenna presents a cavity height of 0.5λ and a 2λ diameter. The last solution conserves the FP cavity in which we include an Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC) to reduce the cavity height to 0.25λ. All these solutions are validated by measurements.

Compared with the detector devices made of inorganic semiconductors, organic photodetectors are granted with additional strengths, such as flexibility, high scalability and bio-compatibility. However, in the family of organic optoelectronic devices, the detectors that are capable of detecting photons at two or multiple specific wavelengths are still missing. Such photodetectors are highly interesting because they could identify the target objects or materials much more precisely by detecting the reflected, transmitted or emitted photons at two or multiple characteristic wavelengths. In this thesis project, the optical simulations using Transfer Matrix Method (TMM) were performed on the organic devices to achieve the dual wavelength narrowband detection in the near-infrared (NIR) spectral range of 700 ~ 1100 nm. The devices use the fact that, at the interface of the blended organic electron donating and accepting materials, the charge-transfer (CT) states with the transition energies that are lower than the optical gap of the neat materials are formed. Combined with a Fabry-Perot resonant cavity, the CT absorption can be dramatically enhanced at certain wavelengths. The simulation results show that the two detection wavelengths can be tuned independently from 650 to 1100 nm. The spectral resolution (full with at half maximum - FWHM) of the detection bands varies between 10 and 30 nm. The simulated external quantum efficiency (EQE) is ~35% at 700 nm and ~10% at 1000 nm, respectively. A possible application of such photodetectors is for example moisture detection, where two of the characteristic absorption peaks of water are located at around 750 and 960 nm. By optimizing the thickness of the two photo-absorbing layers in a tandem device structure, the detection bands can be tuned to match with those two wavelengths for simultaneous and precise detection.

[pt] Nanopartículas metálicas apresentam um pico no espectro de absorção devido ao efeito de LSPR (Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance – Ressonância de Plasmon de Superfície Localizado). A posição espectral do pico depende da forma, do tamanho, do material das nanopartículas e do índice de refração do meio em que se encontra. Conhecendo como a posição espectral deste pico varia de acordo com o índice de refração externo, pode-se utilizar, em princípio, estas nanopartículas como elemento sensor para medir a refração de líquidos e gases. Um sensor de índice de refração foi desenvolvido fabricando-se nanopartículas metálicas na extremidade de uma fibra óptica. Estas nanopartículas foram fabricadas a partir de um filme de ouro evaporado na extremidade de uma fibra óptica que depois foi aquecida. As nanopartículas assim formadas possuem uma distribuição não homogênea de forma e tamanho. De forma a se obter um maior controle do tamanho e da forma das nanopartículas metálicas fabricadas para o desenvolvimento de um sensor óptico com maior controle dos parâmetros, foi investigada nesta dissertação a formação de nanopartículas de prata por síntese química. Diferentes processos para a síntese foram investigados. As nanopartículas de prata localizadas na extremidade da fibra óptica foram caracterizadas quanto à resposta do sinal de LSPR quando as nanopartículas estavam em contato com meios com diferentes índices de refração. Visando ainda a investigação de sistemas de fibras ópticas com aplicação em sensoriamento, foi realizada uma simulação da deformação de cavidades elípticas formadas no interior de fibras ópticas quando estas estão sujeitas à aplicação de uma tensão longitudinal da fibra. Este tipo de cavidade pode ser usada como sensor de deformação devido à interferência das múltiplas reflexões no interior da cavidade. / [en] Metallic nanoparticles show a peak in the absorption spectrum due to the Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) effect. The position of this peak depends on the shape, size and the type of the nanoparticles as well as on the refractive index of the surrounding media. From the dependence of the position of the peak with the external refractive index, it is possible to use these nanoparticles as a sensor element to measure the refractive index of liquids and gas. A refractive index sensor was developed with nanoparticles deposited at the end face of an optical fiber. These nanoparticles, fabricated from a heated gold film deposited at the end face of the fiber, have a non homogenous distribution of size and form. In order to obtain a better control of the size and form of the fabricated metallic nanoparticles, aiming the development of an optical sensor with control of the involved parameters, it was investigated in this work the formation of silver nanoparticles by chemical synthesis. Furthermore, extending the investigation of fiber optics systems with applications on sensing, it was performed a simulation of the deformation of elliptical air cavities, formed in the interior of optical fibers, under the effect of longitudinal stress along the fiber. This type of system can be used as a deformation sensor due to the multiple interference reflections in the interior of the cavity.

The following work deals with basics of fiber optics, history of fiber optics, and methods of measuring physical quantities with the use of fiber optic sensors. The work includes facts about physics, chemistry and biology - these elements are necessary for a full understanding of the issue. In order to create an optical fiber temperature sensor based on Fabry Perot resonator principle, several methods of manufacturing the optical cavity are investigated. A practical part of paper consist in the manufacturing of the miniature fiber thermometer, its coating and testing.

Realising Si-based electrically driven light emitters in a process technology compatible with mainstream microelectronics CMOS technology is key requirement for the implementation of low-cost Si-based optoelectronics and thus one of the big challenges of semiconductor technology. This work has focused on the development of microcavity enhanced silicon LEDs (MCLEDs), including their design, fabrication, and experimental as well as theoretical analysis. As a light emitting layer the abrupt pn-junction of a Si-diode was used, which was fabricated by ion implantation of boron into n-type silicon. Such forward biased pn-junctions exhibit room-temperature EL at a wavelength of 1138 nm with a reasonably high power efficiency of 0.1% [1]. Two MCLEDs emitting light at the resonant wavelength about 1150 nm were demonstrated: a) 1 MCLED with the resonator formed by 90 nm thin metallic CoSi2 mirror at the bottom and semitranparent distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) on the top; b) 5:5 MCLED with the resonator formed by high reflecting DBR at the bottom and semitransparent top DBR. Using the appoach of the 5:5 MCLED with two DBRs the extraction efficiency is enhanced by about 65% compared to the silicon bulk pn-junction diode.:List of Abbreviations and Symbols 1 Introduction and motivation 2 Theory 2.1 Electronic band structure of semiconductors 2.2 Light emitting diodes (LED) 2.2.1 History of LED 2.2.2 Mechanisms of light emission 2.2.3 Electrical properties of LED 2.2.4 LED e ciency 2.3 Si based light emitters 2.4 Microcavity enhanced light emitting pn-diode 2.4.1 Bragg reflectors 2.4.2 Fabry-Perot resonators 2.4.3 Optical mode density and emission enhancement in coplanar Fabry-Perot resonator 2.4.4 Design and optical properties of a Si microcavity LED 3 Preparation and characterisation methods 3.1 Preparation techniques 3.1.1 Thermal oxidation of silicon 3.1.2 Photolithography 3.1.3 Wet chemical cleaning and etching 3.1.4 Ion implantation 3.1.5 Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (PECVD) of silicon nitride 3.1.6 Magnetron sputter deposition 3.2 Characterization techniques 3.2.1 Variable Angle Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (VASE) 3.2.2 Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) 3.2.3 Microscopy 3.2.4 Electroluminescence and photoluminescence measurements 4 Experiments, results and discussion 4.1 Used substrates 4.1.1 Silicon substrates 4.1.2 Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) substrates 4.2 Fabrication and characterization of distributed Bragg reflectors 4.2.1 Deposition and characterization of SiO2 4.2.2 Deposition of Si 4.2.3 Distributed Bragg Reflectors (DBR) 4.2.4 Conclusions 4.3 Design of Si pn-junction LED 4.4 Resonant microcavity LED with CoSi2 bottom mirror 4.4.1 Device preparation 4.4.2 Electrical Si diode characteristics 4.4.3 EL spectra 4.4.4 Conclusions 4.5 Si based microcavity LED with two DBRs 4.5.1 Test device 4.5.2 Device fabrication 4.5.3 LED on SOI versus MCLED 4.5.4 Conclusions 5 Summary and outlook 5.1 Summary 5.2 Outlook A Appendix A.1 The parametrization of optical constants A.1.1 Kramers-Kronig relations A.1.2 Forouhi-Bloomer dispersion formula A.1.3 Tauc-Lorentz dispersion formula A.1.4 Sellmeier dispersion formula A.2 Wafer holder List of publications Acknowledgements Declaration / Versicherung

Optofluidics is a relatively new and exciting field that includes the integration of optical waveguides into microfluidic platforms. The purpose of this field of study is to miniaturize previously developed optical systems used for biological and chemical analysis with the end goal of placing bench-top optics into microscopic packages. Mundane optical alignment and sample manipulation procedures would then be intrinsic to the platform and allow measurements to be completed quickly and with reduced human interaction. Biosensors based on AntiResonant Reflecting Optical Waveguides (ARROWs) consist of hollow-core waveguides used for fluid sample manipulation and analysis, as well as solid-core waveguides used in interfacing external components located at the chip edges. Hollow-core ARROWs are particularly useful for their ability to provide specifically tailored analyte volumes that are easily configurable depending upon the target experiment. Adaptations of standard planar microfabrication methods allow for complex integrated ARROW designs. Integrated spectral filtering with high rejection can be implemented on-chip, removing the need for additional off-chip components and increasing device sensitivity. Additional techniques to increase device sensitivity and utility, such as hybrid ARROW platforms and optical manipulation of samples, are also explored.

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Un nouveau contrôleur de EMCCD (Electron multiplying Charge Coupled Device) est présenté. Il permet de diminuer significativement le bruit qui domine lorsque la puce EMCCD est utilisé pour du comptage de photons: le bruit d'injection de charge. À l'aide de ce contrôleur, une caméra EMCCD scientifique a été construite, caractérisée en laboratoire et testée à l'observatoire du mont Mégantic. Cette nouvelle caméra permet, entre autres, de réaliser des observations de la cinématique des galaxies par spectroscopie de champ intégral par interférométrie de Fabry-Perot en lumière Ha beaucoup plus rapidement, ou de galaxies de plus faible luminosité, que les caméras à comptage de photon basées sur des tubes amplificateurs. Le temps d'intégration nécessaire à l'obtention d'un rapport signal sur bruit donné est environ 4 fois moindre qu'avec les anciennes caméras. Les applications d'un tel appareil d'imagerie sont nombreuses: photométrie rapide et faible flux, spectroscopie à haute résolution spectrale et temporelle, imagerie limitée par la diffraction à partir de télescopes terrestres (lucky imaging), etc. D'un point de vue technique, la caméra est dominée par le bruit de Poisson pour les flux lumineux supérieurs à 0.002 photon/pixel/image. D'un autre côté, la raie d'hydrogène neutre (HI) à 21 cm a souvent été utilisée pour étudier la cinématique des galaxies. L'hydrogène neutre a l'avantage de se retrouver en quantité détectable au-delà du disque optique des galaxies. Cependant, la résolution spatiale de ces observations est moindre que leurs équivalents réalisés en lumière visible. Lors de la comparaison des données HI, avec des données à plus haute résolution, certaines différences étaient simplement attribuées à la faible résolution des observations HI. Le projet THINGS (The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey a observé plusieurs galaxies de l'échantillon SINGS (Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey). Les données cinématiques du projet THIGNS seront comparées aux données cinématiques obtenues en lumière Ha, afin de déterminer si la seule différence de résolution spatiale peut expliquer les différences observées. Les résultats montrent que des différences intrinsèques aux traceurs utilisées (hydrogène neutre ou ionisé), sont responsables de dissemblances importantes. La compréhension de ces particularités est importante: la distribution de la matière sombre, dérivée de la rotation des galaxies, est un test de certains modèles cosmologiques. / A new EMCCD (Electron multiplying Charge Coupled Device) controller is presented. It allows the EMCCD to be used for photon counting by drastically taking down its dominating source of noise : the clock induced charges. A new EMCCD camera was built using this controller. It has been characterized in laboratory and tested at the observatoire du mont Mégantic. When compared to the previous generation of photon counting cameras based on intensifier tubes, this new camera renders the observation of the galaxies kinematics with an integral field spectrometer with a Fabry-Perot interferometer in Ha light much faster, and allows fainter galaxies to be observed. The integration time required to reach a given signal-to-noise ratio is about 4 times less than with the intensifier tubes. Many applications could benefit of such a camera: fast, faint flux photometry, high spectral and temporal resolution spectroscopy, earth-based diffraction limited imagery (lucky imaging), etc. Technically, the camera is dominated by the shot noise for flux higher than 0.002 photon/pixel/image. The 21 cm emission line of the neutral hydrogen (HI) is often used to map the galaxies kinematics. The extent of the distribution of the neutral hydrogen in galaxies, which goes well beyond the optical disk, is one of the reasons this line is used so often. However, the spatial resolution of such observations is limited when compared to their optical equivalents. When comparing the HI data to higher resolution ones, some differences were simply attributed to the beam smearing of the HI caused by its lower resolution. The THINGS (The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey) project observed many galaxies of the SINGS (Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey) project. The kinematics of THINGS will be compared to the kinematic data of the galaxies obtained in Ha light. The comparison will try to determine whether the sole beam smearing is responsible of the differences observed. The results shows that intrinsic dissimilarities between the kinematical tracers used are responsible of some of the observed disagreements. The understanding of theses differences is of a high importance as the dark matter distribution, inferred from the rotation of the galaxies, is a test to some cosmological models.