I present the results of a comprehensive assessment of companions to 454 solar-type stars within 25 pc. New observational aspects of this work include surveys for (1) very close companions with long-baseline interferometry at the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array, (2) close companions with speckle interferometry, and (3) wide proper motion companions identified by blinking multi-epoch archival images. I have also obtained and included unpublished results from extensive radial velocity monitoring programs. The many sources utilized enable a thorough evaluation of stellar and brown dwarf companions. The results presented here include eight new companion discoveries, four of which are wide common proper motion pairs discovered by blinking archival images, and four more are from the spectroscopic data. The overall observed fractions of single, double, triple, and higher order systems are 57%±3%, 33%±2%, 8%±1%, and 3%±1%, respectively, counting all stellar and brown dwarf companions. The incompleteness analysis indicates that only a few undiscovered companions remain in this well-studied sample, showing that a majority of the solar-type stars are single. Bluer, more massive stars are more likely to have companions than redder, less massive ones. I confirm earlier expectations that more active stars are more likely to have companions. A preliminary, but important indication is that brown dwarfs, like planets, prefer stars with higher metallicity, tentatively suggesting that brown dwarfs may form like planets when they are companions to stars. The period distribution is unimodal and roughly Gaussian with peak and median values of about 300 years. The period-eccentricity relation shows a roughly flat distribution beyond the circularization limit of about 12 days. The mass-ratio distribution shows a clear discontinuity near a value of one, indicating a preference for twins, which are not confined to short orbital periods, suggesting that stars form by multiple formation mechanisms. The ratio of planet hosts among single, binary, and multiple systems are statistically indistinguishable, suggesting that planets are as likely to form around single stars as they are around components of binary or multiple systems at sufficiently wide separations.

Optical coherence tomography is an imaging modality with an outstanding resolution. During the project, a time domain OCT system based on a Michelson fibre interferometer was implemented and put into operation. A super-luminescent diode with a centre wavelength of 1295nm and a bandwidth of 45nm was selected as light source and a linear variable delay line as reference. Basic tests were made on phantoms constructed of filter foils and on gel-like agar slices with optical properties similar to human tissue. It was shown that the achievable resolution was at least 36um and can be increased. The system can easily be enhanced to create two-dimensional images. / Optische Kohärenztomographie ist ein bildgebendes Verfahren mit einer hervorragenden räumlichen Auflösung. Im Laufe des Projekts wurde ein OCT-System basierend auf einem faseroptischen Michelson-Interferometer implementiert und in Betrieb genommen. Als Lichtquelle wurde eine Superlumineszenzdiode mit einer Mittenwellenlänge von 1295nm und einer Bandbreite von 45nm gewählt. Eine variable optische Verzögerungsleitung diente als Referenz. Erste Messungen an Filterfolien und gelähnlichen Agarphantomen, die die optischen Eigenschaften von menschlichem Gewebe nachbildeten, lieferten eine räumliche Auflösung von mindestens 36um. Durch die modulare Bauweise ist das System leicht für zweidimensionale Aufnahmen erweiterbar.

In order to prepare for the prospective need for heritage 3D recording, the main objective of this research was to investigate a new depth measuring method that can reduce identified limitations of current point-to-point measuring approaches. The limitations were time-money consumption, intrusiveness, accuracy assumption and efficiency. In many disciplines other than heritage recording, optical moir?? interferometry techniques (OMIT) are well developed as a measuring method and are considered fast, non-intrusive, accurate, and efficient. Based on these considerations, this research hypothesized that OMIT, as a measuring method, is feasible with respect to time-consumption and accuracy in acquiring depth measurement for fine-grain surface relief for historic recording. To test this hypothesis, a feasibility investigation was carried in which OMIT was used for surface relief topographic recording. This goal was approached by performing a comparison study between the OMIT measuring method as the investigated method and the hand measuring method as the control method. For each method, the comparison required performing eight experimental samplings of relief recording for a pre-designed physical model surface. The data collected from the hand measuring samples were the depth measurements of predefined points on the model surface and the timeconsumption for both measuring and data preparing processes. The data collected from the OMIT measuring samples were moir?? dark fringes generated on the model surface and the time-consumption for both moir?? generating and data preparing processes. For measurement accuracy evaluation, the collected depth data were prepared in the form of topographic contour drawings. For the OMIT feasibility evaluation, a comparison was carried out to examine the resulting topographic contour drawings for depth measurement accuracy level and measuring process time-consumption. In conclusion, the OMIT method showed higher depth measurement accuracy levels and lower process time-consumption than the hand method. The OMIT method also demonstrated less intrusiveness and more efficiency. This superiority validates the feasibility of using fine-grain surface relief for heritage recording purposes. Finally, the observed advantages of the OMIT method were presented to establish potentials for future developments and investigations. The observed limitations of the method were also pointed out to establish trends for recommendations and further studies.

Traditional naval vessels with steel structures have the benefit of large safety factors and a distinct material endurance limit. However, as performance requirements and budget constraints rise, the demand for lighter weight vessels increases. Reducing the mass of vessels is commonly achieved by the use of aluminum or composite structures, which requires closer attention to be paid to crack initiation and propagation. It is rarely feasible to require a lengthy inspection process that removes the vessel from service for an extended amount of time. Structural health monitoring (SHM), involving continuous measurement of the structural response to an energy source, has been proposed as a step towards condition-based maintenance. Furthermore, using a passive monitoring system with an array of sensors has several advantages: monitoring can take place in real-time using only ambient noise vibrations and neither deployment of an active source nor visual access to the inspected areas are required. Passive SHM on a naval vessel is not without challenge. The structures of ships are typically geometrically complex, causing scattering, multiple reflections, and mode conversion of the propagating waves in the vessel. And rather than a distinct and predictable input produced by controlled active sources, the vibration sources are hull impacts, smaller waves, and even onboard machinery and activity. This research summarizes findings from data collected onboard a Navy vessel and presents recommendations data processing techniques. The intent is to present a robust method of passive structural health monitoring for such a vessel using only ambient vibrations recordings.

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Lithium niobate (LiNbO3) and KTiOPO4 (KTP) are ferroelectric crystals of considerable interest in different fields of optics and optoelectronics. Due to its large values of the nonlinear optical, electro-optic (EO), piezoelectric and acousto-optical coefficients, LiNbO3 is widely used for laser frequency conversion using the quasiphase matching (QPM) approach where the sign of nonlinearity has been periodically modulated by electric field poling (EFP). In the microwave and telecommunication field LiNbO3 is used for surface acoustic devices and integrated optical modulators. KTP and its isomorphs, on the other hand, exhibit slightly lower nonlinear coefficients but have much higher photorefractive damage thresholds, so that it is mainly used in the fabrication of QPM devices for both UV, IR and visible light generation and in high power applications. This thesis focus on different key issues: (1) accurate characterization of specific optical properties of LiNbO3, which are of interest in nonlinear and EO applications; (2) in-situ visualization and characterization of domain reversal by EFP in LiNbO3 and KTP crystals for a through understanding of the ferroelectric domain switching; (3) fabrication of periodic surface structures at sub-micron scale in LiNbO for photonic applications. An interferometric method is used for accurate measurement of ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices in uniaxial crystals, which is of great interest in the proper design of QPM crystals. A digital holography (DH) based method is presented here for 2D characterization of the EO properties of LiNbO , which is considerably interesting in the applications where the proper design of the EO device requires a spatially resolved information about the EO behaviour and the existing pointwise techniques are not sufficient. A DH method for novel in-situ monitoring of domain reversal by EFP in both LiNbO3 and KTP, is also presented here. The technqiue could be used as a tool for high fidelity periodic domain engineering but also provides information about domain kinetics, internal field and crystals defects. 3 3 3 Finally this thesis presents novel results concerning nanoscale periodic surface structuring of congruent LiNbO3. Holographic lithography (HL) is used for sub-micron period resist patterning and electric overpoling for surface domain reversal. Surface structures are obtained by selective etching. Moiré effect is also used in the HL to fabricate complicated structures with multiple periods. The depth compatibility with waveguide implementation allows foreseeing possible applications of these structures for Bragg gratings or innovative photonic crystal devices, exploiting the additional nonlinear and EO properties typical of LiNbO3. / QC 20100824

This thesis presents the results of the STAMPAS all-sky search for long transient gravitational waves in the 2005-2007 LIGO-Virgo data. Gravitational waves are perturbations of the space-time metric. The Virgo and LIGO experiments are designed to detect such waves. They are Michelson interferometers with 3 km and 4 km long arms, whose light output is altered during the passage of a gravitational wave.Until very recently, transient gravitational wave search pipelines were focused on short transients, lasting less than 1 second, and on binary coalescence signals. STAMPAS is one of the very first pipelines entirely dedicated to the search of long transient gravitational wave signals, lasting from 1s to O(100s).These signals originate, among other sources, from instabilities in protoneutron stars as a result of their violent birth. The standing accretion shock instability in core collapse supernovae or instabilities in accretion disks are also possible mechanisms for gravitational wave long transients. Eccentric black hole binary coalescences are also expected to emit powerful gravitational waves for several seconds before the final plunge.STAMPAS is based on the correlation of data from two interferometers. Time-frequency maps of the data are extracted, and significant pixels are clustered to form triggers. No assumption on the direction, the time or the form of the signals is made.The first STAMPAS search has been performed on the data from the two LIGO detectors, between 2005 and 2007. After a rigorous trigger selection, the analysis revealed that their rate is close to Gaussian noise expectation, which is a significant achievement. No gravitational wave candidate has been detected, and upper limits on the astrophysical rates of several models of accretion disk instability sources and eccentric black holes binary coalescences have been set. The STAMPAS pipeline demonstrated its capabilities to search for any long transient gravitational wave signals during the advanced detector era.Keywords: Gravitational waves, Interferometry, Long transients, Signal Processing, Accretion Disk Instabilities, Eccentric Black Hole Binaries.

Gravitational waves have been predicted by Einstein in his General Relativity theory. Theyare perturbation of the space-time metric and we try to reveal them by laser interferometry. More precisely,gravitational wave detectors are km long Michelson interferometers combined with Fabry-Perot cavities.The network of first generation detectors (Virgo, LIGO, GEO) did not permit a direct detection afterseveral observational runs in coincidence at the nominal sensitivity. A second generation of detectors is inpreparation with in particular the European project Advanced Virgo. This detector should have a sensitivityincreased by an order of magnitude compared to Virgo. The interferometer mirrors play a crucial role inthe Advanced Virgo sensitivity as it is limited by the mirror thermal noise in the mid-frequency regionand by the amount of photons collected in the interferometer cavities at high frequencies. The high powercirculating in the Fabry-Perot cavities induces important thermal lensing effect. This thesis is interestedfirst in the thermal lensing effect in the interferometer for different optical configurations. Then we areinterested in the mirrors composing the Fabry-Perot arm cavity from the calculation of the requirements interms of flatness to the realization of the mirrors flatness and its measurement. The mirror flatness shouldbe sub-nanometric in order to limit the optical losses in the Fabry-Perot cavities to reduce the effect of theshot noise and of the diffused light. We will see the correction of the substrates flatness by the so-calledcorrective coating technique. Finally, we study the uniformity of the dielectric multilayer coating depositionnecessary to obtained high-reflective mirrors. We study in particular the planetary motion of the substratesin the coating machine.

In this work, a characterization and optimization of the grating-based x-ray imaging technique is presented. The investigations are introduced by analytical considerations, are underpinned with numerical simulations and validated using exemplary experiments. A detailed examination of the image formation in a grating interferometer is given, highlighting the dependence of the measured signal on the profile of the gratings. Subsequently, it is shown analytically and in experiments that grating-based imaging can be performed using three basic grating arrangements, which differ in their requirements on grating fabrication and experimental implementation. By a characterization of the measurement signal for each arrangement, a dependence of the signal strength on the sample position within the interferometer is identified. The consecutive evaluation of the impact of this position dependence on radiographic and tomographic data leads to the derivation of optimized reconstruction algorithms and to a correction of resulting image artifacts. Additionally, it is shown that the simultaneous measurement of attenuation and phase images allows the determination of the atomic number of the sample, opening new possibilities for material discrimination. Apart from these investigations on the contrast formation, various imperfections of the technique are investigated: The properties of the image noise are examined in a detailed statistical analysis, yielding a fundamental understanding of the signal-to-noise behavior of the three available contrast channels. Additionally, beam-hardening artifacts at polychromatic x-ray sources are investigated and their correction by a linearization approach is resented. By a subsequent analysis of the influence of various different grating imperfections on the image quality, tolerance limits for grating fabrication are specified. Furthermore, analytical considerations show that gratings with a duty cycle of 1/3 are advantageous with respect to the signal-to-noise ratio in comparison to common gratings with a duty cycle of 1/2. In conclusion, the results, concepts and methods developed in this work broaden the understanding of grating-based x-ray imaging and constitute a step forward towards the practical implementations of the technique in imaging applications.

This research aims to understand the reliability of Sn-Ag-Cu solder interconnects used in plastic ball grid array (PBGA) packages using microstructure evolution, laser moiré interferometry and finite-element modeling. A particle coarsening based microstructure evolution of the solder joint material during thermal excursions was studied for extended periods of time lasting for several months. The microstructure evolution and particle coarsening was quantified, and acceleration factors were determined between benign field-use conditions and accelerated thermal cycling (ATC) conditions for PBGA packages with different form factors and for two different lead-free solder alloys. A new technique using laser moiré interferometry was developed to assess the deformation behavior of Sn-Ag-Cu based solder joints during thermal excursions. This technique can used to estimate the fatigue life of solder joints quickly in a matter of few days instead of months and can be extended to cover a wide range of temperature regimes. Finite-element analysis (FEA) in conjunction with experimental data from the ATC for different lead-free PBGA packages was used to develop a fatigue life model that can be used to predict solder joint fatigue life for any PBGA package. The proposed model will be able to predict the mean number of cycles required for crack initiation and crack growth rate in a solder joint.