Cette recherche visait à clarifier les mécanismes de bas niveau impliqués dans la détection de la modulation de fréquence (FM). Les sons naturels véhiculent des modulations d’amplitude et de fréquence saillantes essentielles à la communication. L’analyse des réponses de neurones auditifs du noyau cochléaire montre que les propriétés spectro-temporelles des stimuli de FM de basse cadence sont représentées par deux mécanismes distincts basés sur le verrouillage en phase à l’enveloppe temporelle (ENV) et à la structure temporelle fine (TFS). La contribution relative de chaque mécanisme s’avère très dépendante des paramètres de stimulation (fréquence porteuse, cadence de modulation et profondeur de modulation) mais aussi du type de neurones, chacun étant spécialisé pour un type de représentation ou l'autre. L’existence de ces deux mécanismes de codage neuronal a été confirmée chez les auditeurs humains en utilisant deux paradigmes psychophysiques. Les résultats de ces études démontrent également que le mécanisme de codage de TFS est efficace dans des conditions d'écoute défavorables (e.g. en présence de modulations interférentes). Cependant, le mécanisme de codage de TFS est susceptible de se dégrader avec l'âge et plus encore avec la perte auditive, alors que le mécanisme de codage d’ENV semble relativement épargné. Deux modèles computationnels ont été développés afin d’expliquer les contributions des indices d’ENV et de TFS dans le système auditif normal et malentendant. / This research aimed at clarifying the low-level mechanisms involved in frequency-modulation (FM) detection. Natural sounds convey salient amplitude- and frequency-modulation patterns crucial for communication. Results from single auditory neurons in the cochlear nucleus show that the spectro-temporal properties of low-rate FM stimuli are accurately represented by two distinct mechanisms based on neural phase-locking to temporal envelope (ENV) and temporal fine structure (TFS) cues. The relative contribution of each mechanism was found to be highly dependent on stimulus parameters (carrier frequency, modulation rate and modulation depth) and also on the type of neuron, with clear specializations for one type of representation or the other. The validity of those two neural encoding mechanisms was confirmed for human listeners using two psychophysical paradigms. Results from those studies also demonstrate that the TFS coding mechanism is efficient in adverse listening conditions, like in the presence of interfering modulations. However, the TFS coding mechanism is prone to decline with age and even more with hearing loss, while the ENV coding mechanism seems relatively spared. Two computational models were developed to fully explain the contributions of ENV and TFS cues in the normal and impaired auditory system.

Les signaux de communication, dont la parole, contiennent des modulations d'amplitude et de fréquence relativement lentes qui jouent un rôle capital dans l'identification et la discrimination des sons. Le but de ce programme de recherche doctorale est de comprendre plus finement les mécanismes impliqués dans la perception de l'AM et de la FM, et de clarifier les effets du vieillissement et de la perte auditive neurosensorielle sur ceux-ci. Les seuils auditifs de détection d'AM et de FM sont mesurés pour des sujets normo-entendants (NE) jeunes et âgés, ainsi que pour des sujets malentendants (ME) âgés, à basse fréquence porteuse (500 Hz) et à basse cadence de modulation (2 et 20 Hz). Le nombre de cycles de modulation, N, varie entre 2 et 9. Les seuils de détection de FM sont mesurés en présence d'une AM interférente, de façon à contraindre l'utilisation des indices d’enveloppe temporelle. Pour l'ensemble des groupes, les seuils de détection d'AM et de FM sont meilleurs à 2 qu'à 20 Hz. La sensibilité à l'AM et la FM s'améliore lorsque N augmente, démontrant une intégration temporelle des indices d’AM et de FM. Pour l’AM, les effets du vieillissement et de la perte auditive sont antagonistes: aux deux cadences de modulation, la sensibilité à l'AM décline avec l'âge, tandis qu'elle s'améliore en présence d'une perte auditive. L'intégration temporelle est similaire pour les deux groupes de NE, tandis que l'intégration temporelle est améliorée chez les sujets ME. Pour la sensibilité à la FM, l'âge dégrade sélectivement les seuils de détection de FM à basse cadence de modulation, tandis que la perte auditive a un effet délétère global aux deux cadences de modulation. L'intégration temporelle est similaire pour l'ensemble des groupes. Deux modèles computationnels (mono-bande et multi-bandes) utilisant un banc de filtres de modulation et un processus d'appariement de gabarit sont développés pour rendre compte des données. Pris ensemble, les données psychophysiques et de modélisation suggèrent que: 1) pour des cadences de modulation rapides, la détection d'AM et de FM sont encodés par un mécanisme commun, probablement basé sur les indices d’enveloppe temporelle. A l'inverse, à basse cadence de modulation, l'AM et la FM sont encodés par des mécanismes distincts, utilisant probablement et respectivement des indices d’enveloppe temporelle et de structure temporelle fine; 2) le vieillissement dégrade la sensibilité à l'AM et la FM (i.e. les indices d’enveloppe temporelle et de structure temporelle fine), mais affecte plus fortement ces derniers; 3) la perte auditive n'affecte pas la sensibilité à l'AM (indices d’enveloppe temporelle), mais dégrade la sensibilité à la FM aux deux cadences de modulation; 4) Les processus décisionnels et mnésiques impliqués dans l'intégration temporelle d'AM et de FM sont préservés par le vieillissement. En présence d'une perte auditive, l'intégration temporelle d'AM est améliorée, probablement en raison de la perte de compression cochléaire, tandis que l'intégration temporelle en FM reste préservée. Toutefois, certains aspects de l’efficacité de traitement (modélisés par un bruit interne) déclinent avec l’âge et encore plus fortement avec une perte auditive. Les implications de ces résultats pour la définition, le diagnostic et la réhabilitation de la presbyacousie sont discutés. / Communication sounds, including speech, contain relatively slow (<5-10 Hz) patterns of amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM) that play an important role in the discrimination and identification of sounds. The goal of this doctoral research program was to better understand the mechanisms involved in AM and FM perception and to clarify the effects of age and hearing loss on AM and FM perception. AM and FM detection thresholds were measured for young and older normal-hearing (NH) listeners and for older hearing-impaired (HI) listeners, using a low carrier frequency (500 Hz) and low modulation rates (2 and 20 Hz). The number of modulation cycles, N, varied between 2 to 9. FM detection thresholds were measured with and without an interfering AM to disrupt temporal-envelope cues. For all groups of listeners, AM and FM detection thresholds were lower for the 2-Hz than for the 20-Hz rate. AM and FM sensitivity improved with increasing N, demonstrating temporal integration for AM and FM detection. As for AM thresholds, opposite effects of age and hearing loss were observed: AM sensitivity declines with age, but improves with hearing loss at both modulation rates. Temporal integration of AM cues was similar across NH listeners, but better for HI listeners. As for FM sensitivity, ageing degrades FM thresholds at the low modulation rate only, whereas hearing loss has a deleterious effect at both modulation rates. Temporal integration of FM cues was similar across all groups. Two computational models (a single-band and a multi-band version) using the modulation filterbank concept and a template-matching decision strategy were developed in order to account for the data. Overall, the psychophysical and modeling data suggest that: 1) at high modulation rates, AM and FM detection are coded by a common underlying mechanism, possibly based on temporal-envelope cues. In contrast, at low modulation rates, AM and FM are coded by different mechanisms, possibly based on temporal-envelope cues and temporal-fine-structure cues, respectively. 2) Ageing reduces sensitivity to both AM and FM (i.e., both temporal-envelope and temporal-fine-structure cues), but more so for the latter. 3) Hearing loss does not affect sensitivity to AM (temporal-envelope cues) but impairs FM sensitivity at both rates. 4) The memory and decision processes involved in the temporal integration of AM and FM cues are preserved with age. With hearing loss, the temporal integration of AM cues is enhanced, probably due to the loss of amplitude compression, while the temporal integration of FM cues remains unchanged. Still, some aspects of processing efficiency (as modeled by internal noise) decline with age and even more following cochlear damage. The implications for the definition, diagnosis and rehabilitation of presbyacysis are discussed.

Multi-metallic aerogels have recently emerged as a novel and promising class of unsupported electrocatalyst materials due to their high catalytic activity and improved durability for various electrochemical reactions. Aerogels can be prepared by a spontaneous one-step gelation process, where the chemical co-reduction of metal precursors and the prompt formation of nanochain-containing hydrogels, as a preliminary stage for the preparation of aerogels, take place. However, detailed knowledge about the homogeneity and chemical distribution of these three-dimensional Pd–Pt aerogels at the nano-scale as well as at the macro-scale is still unclear. Therefore, we used a combination of spectroscopic and microscopic techniques to obtain a better insight into the structure and elemental distribution of the various Pd-rich Pd–Pt aerogels prepared by the spontaneous one-step gelation process. Synchrotron-based extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy and high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF) scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) in combination with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) were employed in this work to uncover the structural architecture and chemical composition of the various Pd-rich Pd–Pt aerogels over a broad length range. The Pd80Pt20, Pd60Pt40 and Pd50Pt50 aerogels showed heterogeneity in the chemical distribution of the Pt and Pd atoms inside the macroscopic nanochain-network. The features of mono-metallic clusters were not detected by EXAFS or STEM-EDX, indicating alloyed nanoparticles. However, the local chemical composition of the Pd–Pt alloys strongly varied along the nanochains and thus within a single aerogel. To determine the electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) of the Pd–Pt aerogels for application in electrocatalysis, we used the electrochemical CO stripping method. Due to their high porosity and extended network structure, the resulting values of the ECSA for the Pd–Pt aerogels were higher than that for a commercially available unsupported Pt black catalyst. We show that the Pd–Pt aerogels possess a high utilization of catalytically active centers for electrocatalytic applications based on the nanostructured bimetallic framework. Knowledge about the homogeneity and chemical distribution of the bimetallic aerogels can help to further optimize their preparation by the spontaneous one-step gelation process and to tune their electrocatalytic reactivity.

Polarization entangled photon pairs on demand are considered to be an important building block of quantum communication technology. It has been demonstrated that semiconductor quantum dots (QDs), which exhibit a certain spatial symmetry, can be used as a triggered, on-chip source of polarization entangled photon pairs. Due to limitations of the growth, the as-grown QDs usually do not exhibit the required symmetry, making the availability of post-growth tuning techniques essential. In this work first the QD-morphology of hundreds of QDs is correlated with the optical emission of neutral excitons confined in GaAs/AlGaAs QDs. It is presented how elastic anisotropic stress can be used to partially restore the symmetry of self-assembled GaAs/AlGaAs and InGaAs/GaAs QDs, making them as candidate sources of entangled photon pairs. As a consequence of the tuning of the QD-anisotropy we observe a rotation of the polarization of the emitted light. The joint modification of polarization orientation and QD anisotropy can be described by an anticrossing of the so-called bright excitonic states. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that anisotropic stress can be used to tune the purity of the hole states of the QDs by modifying the degree of heavy and light hole mixing. This ability might be interesting for applications using the hole spin as a so-called quantum bit.

<div>Hearing loss hinders the communication ability of many individuals despite state-of-the-art interventions. Animal models of different hearing-loss etiologies can help improve the clinical outcomes of these interventions; however, several gaps exist. First, translational aspects of animal models are currently limited because anatomically and physiologically specific data obtained from animals are analyzed differently compared to noninvasive evoked responses that can be recorded from humans. Second, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the neural representation of everyday sounds (e.g., naturally spoken speech) in real-life settings (e.g., in background noise). This is even true at the level of the auditory nerve, which is the first bottleneck of auditory information flow to the brain and the first neural site to exhibit crucial effects of hearing-loss. </div><div><br></div><div>To address these gaps, we developed a unifying framework that allows direct comparison of invasive spike-train data and noninvasive far-field data in response to stationary and nonstationary sounds. We applied this framework to recordings from single auditory-nerve fibers and frequency-following responses from the scalp of anesthetized chinchillas with either normal hearing or noise-induced mild-moderate hearing loss in response to a speech sentence in noise. Key results for speech coding following hearing loss include: (1) coding deficits for voiced speech manifest as tonotopic distortions without a significant change in driven rate or spike-time precision, (2) linear amplification aimed at countering audiometric threshold shift is insufficient to restore neural activity for low-intensity consonants, (3) susceptibility to background noise increases as a direct result of distorted tonotopic mapping following acoustic trauma, and (4) temporal-place representation of pitch is also degraded. Finally, we developed a noninvasive metric to potentially diagnose distorted tonotopy in humans. These findings help explain the neural origins of common perceptual difficulties that listeners with hearing impairment experience, offer several insights to make hearing-aids more individualized, and highlight the importance of better clinical diagnostics and noise-reduction algorithms. </div>

Single self-assembled semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are able to emit single-photons and entangled-photons pairs. They are therefore considered as potential candidate building blocks for quantum information processing (QIP) and communication. To exploit them fully, the ability to precisely control their optical properties is needed due to several reasons. For example, the stochastic nature of their growth ends up with only little probability of finding any two or more QDs emitting indistinguishable photons. These are required for two-photon quantum interference (partial Bell-state measurement), which lies at the heart of linear optics QIP. Also, most of the as-grown QDs do not fulfil the symmetries required for generation of entangled-photon pairs. Additionally, tuning is required to establish completely new systems, for example, 87Rb atomic-vapors based hybrid semiconductoratomic (HSA) interface or QDs with significant heavy-hole (HH)-light-hole (LH) mixings. The former paves a way towards quantum memories and the latter makes the optical control of hole spins much easier required for spin- based QIP. This work focuses on the optical properties of a new type of QDs optimized for HSA experiments and their broadband tuning using strain. It was created by integrating the membranes, containing QDs, onto relaxor-ferroelectric actuators and was quantified with a spatial resolution of ~1 µm by combining measurements of the µ-photoluminescence of the regions surrounding the QDs and dedicated modeling. The emission of a neutral exciton confined in a QD usually consists of two fine-structure-split lines which are linearly polarized along orthogonal directions. In our QDs we tune the emission energies as large as ~23meV and the fine-structure-splitting by more than 90 µeV. For the first time, we demonstrate that strain is able to tune the angle between the polarization direction of these two lines up to 40° due to increased strain-induced HH-LH mixings up to ~55%. Compared to other quantum emitters, QDs can be easily integrated into optoelectronic devices, which enable, for example, the generation of non-classical light under electrical injection. A novel method to create sub-micrometer sized current-channels to efficiently feed charge carriers into single QDs is presented in this thesis. It is based on focused-laserbeam assisted thermal diffusion of manganese interstitial ions from the top GaMnAs layer into the underlying layer of resonant tunneling diode structures. The combination of the two methods investigated in this thesis may lead to new QDbased devices, where direct laser writing is employed to preselect QDs by creating localized current-channels and strain is used to fine tune their optical properties to match the demanding requirements imposed by QIP concepts.

<p>This thesis aims to investigate how one fundamental component of the inner-ear (cochlear) response to all sounds, the temporal fine structure (TFS), is used by the auditory system in everyday hearing. Although it is well known that neurons in the cochlea encode the TFS through exquisite phase locking, how this initial/peripheral temporal code contributes to everyday hearing and how its degradation contributes to perceptual deficits are foundational questions in auditory neuroscience and clinical audiology that remain unresolved despite extensive prior research. This is largely because the conventional approach to studying the role of TFS involves performing perceptual experiments with acoustic manipulations of stimuli (such as sub-band vocoding), rather than direct physiological or behavioral measurements of TFS coding, and hence is intrinsically limited. The present thesis addresses these gaps in three parts: 1) developing assays that can quantify TFS coding at the individual level 2) comparing individual differences in TFS coding to differences in speech-in-noise perception across a range of real-world listening conditions, and 3) developing deep neural network (DNN) models of speech separation/enhancement to complement the individual-difference approach. By comparing behavioral and electroencephalogram (EEG)-based measures, Part 1 of this work identified a robust test battery that measures TFS processing in individual humans. Using this battery, Part 2 subdivided a large sample of listeners (N=200) into groups with “good” and “poor” TFS sensitivity. A comparison of speech-in-noise scores under a range of listening conditions between the groups revealed that good TFS coding reduces the negative impact of reverberation on speech intelligibility, and leads to reduced reaction times suggesting lessened listening effort. These results raise the possibility that cochlear implant (CI) sound coding strategies could be improved by attempting to provide usable TFS information, and that these individualized TFS assays can also help predict listening outcomes in reverberant, real-world listening environments. Finally, the DNN models (Part 3) introduced significant improvements in speech quality and intelligibility, as evidenced by all acoustic evaluation metrics and test results from CI listeners (N=8). These models can be incorporated as “front-end” noise-reduction algorithms in hearing assistive devices, as well as complement other approaches by serving as a research tool to help generate and rapidly sub-select the most viable hypotheses about the role of TFS coding in complex listening scenarios.</p>

No description available.

Despite increasing attention for the recently found ferro- and antiferroelectric properties, the polymorphism in hafnia- and zirconia-based thin films is still not sufficiently understood. In the present work, we show that it is important to have a good quality X-ray absorption spectrum to go beyond an analysis of the only the first coordination shell. Equally important is to analyze both EXAFS and XANES spectra in combination with theoretical modelling to distinguish the relevant phases even in bulk materials and to separate structural from chemical effects. As a first step toward the analysis of thin films, we start with the analysis of bulk references. After that, we successfully demonstrate an approach that allows us to extract high-quality spectra also for 20 nm thin films. Our analysis extends to the second coordination shell and includes effects created by chemical substitution of Hf with Zr to unambiguously discriminate the different polymorphs. The trends derived from X-ray absorption spectroscopy agree well with X-ray diffraction measurements. In this work we clearly identify a gradual transformation from monoclinic to tetragonal phase as the Zr content of the films increases. We separated structural effects from effects created by chemical disorder when ration of Hf:Zr is varied and found differences for the incorporation of the substitute atoms between powders and thin films, which we attribute to the different fabrication routes. This work opens the door for further in-depth structural studies to shine light into the chemistry and physics of these novel ferroelectric thin films that show high application relevance.

Cette thèse, motivée par le développement récent des techniques d’obtention de molécules froides, présente une étude théorique assez complète du système collisionnel ionique 3,4He + N2+. La relaxation rotationnelle de l’ion moléculaire a été décrite dans les régimes froid et ultrafroid, pour lesquels l’interaction spin-rotation du radical paramagnétique joue un rôle crucial. L’apparition de nouvelles résonances spécifiques de cette interaction a été analysée. Un autre phénomène directement lié à cette interaction, celui de la réorientation du moment magnétique associé au spin électronique du diatome induite par collision avec l’hélium, a été étudié d’abord en l’absence puis en présence d’un champ magnétique externe. Les mêmes méthodes de dynamique quantique inélastique ont été utilisées pour l’étude de la collision H2 + HF d’intérêt astrochimique. / Abstract