In line with The Paris Agreement, the world is now changing towards more sustainable options for all sorts of energy development. The solar energy sector is growing rapidly as a result of this. One area that holds great potential in changing many of the worlds heating processes, is concentrating solar power (CSP). The basic principle of CSP is to reflect incoming sunlight and concen- trate it to heat a fluid. To do so, it is crucial to find a reflector material that shows both good optical performance initially as well as over time to produce heat in the most efficient way possible and compete with the fossil fueled options. In this investigation, four different, commercially available reflecting materi- als, for concentrating solar power, have been tested under accelerated aging conditions to simulate the wear of outside conditions for many years. Impacts from humidity, temperature fluctuations, UV radiation and acid rain have been included in the study. From the results, it will be argued that a silver based polymer film is the best option, out of the four tested, in terms of the combination of durability and high reflectance properties. However, conclusions about how to properly mea- sure the reflectance of a solar reflector is also presented and advices on how to get reliable results in a similar investigation in the future is presented.

La présente étude avait pour but d'identifier de nouvelles stratégies pour la présentation sélective d'enzymes à la surface de nanoparticules virales dans le but d’une application potentielle dans la technologie des biocapteurs ou des puces à protéines. Les potyvirus ont été choisis comme nanosupports modèles. Les Potyvirus, le genre le plus large de la famille des Potyviridae, la seconde plus grande famille de virus de plante, sont responsables de très graves pertes dans les cultures. Ils forment des capsides flexibles en forme de bâtonnet entourant une seule molécule d'ARN positif simple brin. Les événements moléculaires conduisant à la sélection et à l'encapsidation spécifiques de l'ARN potyviral sont inconnus. Afin de mieux exploiter le potentiel de ces virus comme nanosupports, la première étape de ce travail a porté sur l’étude, in vivo, du processus d'encapsidation de l'ARN de particules de potyvirus. Des études précédentes ont montré que la protéine d'enveloppe (CP) du virus de la pomme de terre A (PVA) interfère avec la traduction de l'ARN viral lorsqu'elle est fournie en excès en trans suggérant que cela pourrait se produire pour initier l’encapsidation de l’ARN viral. Dans cette étude, nous avons montré que cette inhibition est médiée par des interactions CP-CP co-traductionnelles se produisant entre deux populations de CP, produites en trans et en cis et permettant très probablement le recrutement spécifique de l'ARN potyviral pour son encapsidation. En accord avec les études d'assemblage in vitro publiées précédemment nous proposons un mécanisme selon lequel l’encapsidation de l'ARN viral est initiée par des interactions CP-CP co-traductionnelles. Dans la deuxième partie de ce travail, différentes approches ont été testées afin d’organiser des enzymes sur les plateformes virales dans le but d’optimiser la canalisation des intermédiaires réactionnels. Parmi les trois stratégies testées seule celle utilisant un peptide qui se liant aux anticorps, le peptide z33 de la protéine A de Staphylococcus aureus a été couronnée de succès. Une couverture de 87 % des sites sur les particules de potyvirus avec l'enzyme a été obtenue. Cette stratégie a été utilisée pour piéger deux enzymes, la 4-coumarate: coenzyme A ligase (4Cl2) et stilbène synthase (STS), catalysant des étapes consécutives dans la voie de synthèse de resvératrol à partir de lysats cellulaires solubles d’E. coli clarifiés, à la surface de particules de potyvirus immobilisées sur les parois d'un tube en polypropylène. Cette stratégie rassemble les approches ascendante et descendante pour construire des nanomatériaux à base de virus et offre un moyen efficace et économique pour co-immobiliser et purifier des enzymes / The present study intended to identify new strategies for the selective presentation of biocatalysts on the surface of viral nanoparticles with potential application in biosensor technology or protein chips. Potyviruses were chosen as model nanoscaffolds for biocatalysts. Potyviruses are the largest genus in the family Potyviridae and cause significant plant damage. They form flexible rod-shaped capsids surrounding a single stranded positive sense RNA molecule. The molecular events leading to the specific selection and encapsidation of potyviral RNA are unknown. To better exploit the potential of these viruses as nanocarriers, the first step in this study was to look into their in vivo RNA encapsidation process. Earlier studies showed that Potato virus A (PVA) coat protein (CP) interferes with viral RNA translation when provided in excess in trans and it was suggested this could occur to initiate viral RNA encapsidation. In this follow up study, we used the agroinfiltration approach for the transient expression of full length, truncated or mutated viral RNAs with wild type CP (CPwt) and showed that this inhibition is mediated by co-translational CPCP interactions occurring between two CP populations, produced in trans and in cis. Because CP inhibited translation of the entire viral genome and virus particles were formed later than during normal infection, it was assumed that the CP acted during this inhibition process to specifically recruit viral RNA for encapsidation. In line with previously published in vitro assembly studies, we propose a mechanism through which viral RNA encapsidation is initiated through co-translational CP-CP interactions. The second part of this work entailed the investigation of novel approaches for organizing biocatalysts on virus platforms. The aim was to control the display of enzymes on virus surfaces while maximizing channelling of reaction intermediates. Three strategies were tested but only one involving an antibody binding peptide, the z33 peptide from Staphylococcus aureus was successful. An 87 % occupancy of accessible sites on the potyvirus particles by the enzyme was achieved. The same strategy was used to graft potyvirus particles with two enzymes: 4- coumarate:coenzyme A ligase (4CL2) and stilbene synthase (STS), catalysing consecutive steps in resveratrol synthetic pathway or a protein chimera, generated by the genetic fusion of both enzymes. This was achieved by trapping either the monoenzymes or the protein chimera from clarified soluble E. coli cell lysates on to the surface of potyvirus particles preimmobilized in a polypropylene tube. Resveratrol was synthesized from both mono-enzymes and the protein chimera in solution and on potyvirus particles. This strategy brings together a bottom-up and top down approach for designing virus based nano-materials and offers a cost effective and efficient way to co-immobilize and purify enzymes.

The recent development of photonics and applications puts new challenges for systems using emission, transmission and modulation of light. For these reasons, novel optical materials attract a special interest for their enabling properties for novel technologies. In this work, we performed the research on fundamental properties and the possibility of implementation of electro-optical response of Poly-3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl (P3HT) nanofibers, which belong to the class of organic semiconductor crystalline materials. Our research demonstrated that an external electric field allows controlling the orientation of nanofibers dispersed in a solution by changing the electrical properties of P3HT crystals. This method was used to introduce a collective alignment of P3HT nanofibers and to impact the optical properties of the colloid. The spectroscopic and polarization measurements show that P3HT nanofibers possess optical anisotropy in a wide range of visible spectrum. This property combined with the ability to manipulate the orientation of nanofibers dynamically, was used for direct phase and intensity modulation of transmitted light. Along with these investigations, several engineering and technology tasks were solved. We have designed the transverse electro-optical cell using all-optical-fiber approach, as well as the longitudinal electro-optical cell was fabricated using a novel polymer molding technique. The obtained research results demonstrate the potential of P3HT crystalline nanofibers as a material class of large niche of applications, not only limited to photovoltaics but also being implemented in electro-optical systems to control light polarization and propagation. / <p>QC 20171229</p>

L’oxyde de Zinc (ZnO) est un oxyde semi-conducteur à large bande interdite dont un paramètre primordial est la valeur importante de l’énergie du premier exciton. Ces caractéristiques font de ZnO un matériau à fort potentiel applicatif notamment pour l’électronique. Cette thèse développe d’une part l’étude de la croissance contrôlée de nanostructures de ZnO sur différents supports et d’autre part l’étude de l’intégration de telles nanostructures dans des nano-composants. Plusieurs méthodes de préparation ont été utilisées au cours de ce travail : l’élaboration par voie chimique en phase vapeur et la synthèse hydrothermale qui ont permis l’obtention de nanofils, « nanopilliers » de taille et de densité variables pouvant être alignés perpendiculairement au support. L’intégration de ces réseaux alignés de nanofils dans des nano-composants a montré une émission stimulée par pompage optique utilisant un laser femtoseconde présentant un seuil de 96KW/cm2. Une couche de platine utilisée comme miroir de haute réflectivité a par ailleurs montré une diminution du seuil jusque 17.3KW/cm2. Des microtiges de ZnO présentant un arrangement périodique avec des faces parallèles entre elles, obtenues sur un film mince monocristallin de GaN, a permis l’obtention d’une cavité résonante de qualité. Par pompage optique, une émission stimulée est observée dans ces hétérojonctions GaN / micro-tiges de ZnO. Des expériences d’électoluminescence ont montré une raie d’émission unique centrée à 407nm avec une largeur à mi-hauteur de 0.7nm. L’analyse par photoluminescence de ces hétérojonctions a montré que cette émission provenait des micro-tiges de ZnO. Enfin, des réseaux très compacts de nanofils de ZnO sur substrat de silicium ont été obtenus par pulvérisation magnétron et ont permis la conception de nano-photodetecteurs. / ZnO is a wide band gap semiconductor material, which has a band gap of 3.37 eV at room temperature, its most important characteristic is the high exciton bounding energy of 60 meV. Based on these characteristics, ZnO has potential applications in short wavelength photoelectric devices. The dissertation develops the following creative research on the problems of the growth controlled ZnO nanostructures, design and preparation of nanodevices. Exploring chemical vapor deposition method, through controlling the oxygen flux, the conversion from 1D to 2D growth was realized, thus ZnO nanobolt arrays were obtained; exploring hydrothermal method, through adjusting the size of the seed particle and solution concentration, ZnO nanowires with different size were obtained. The stimulated emission were observed with threshold of 96 KW/cm2 excited by femtosecond laser in the optically pumped aligned ZnO nanowires; in order to lower the threshold of the stimulated emission, Pt layer as a high reflectivity mirror was fabricated on Si substrate, optical loss has been effectively decreased, thus the threshold of the stimulated emission was further lowered to 17.3 KW/cm2 for the optically pumped ZnO nanowires. The ZnO microcrystalline film obtained by hydrothermal method with multiple growth present periodically arranged structure with parallel sides. The electrically pumped single mode lasing emission located at 407 nm with FWHM of 0.7 nm was obtained based on ZnO microcrystalline film /p-GaN heterojunction. Closely packed ZnO nanowire array was fabricated on Si substrate by magnetron sputtering method, the visible and UV dual bands alternative photo-detection was realized through adjusting forward and reverse bias.

Thermoelectric materials are important in today’s society with a variety of applications. The material properties that determinate the efficiency of a thermoelectric device are mostly constants. In order to develop more efficient thermoelectric devices new materials and solutions need to be made. Minimizing the thermal conductivity in thermoelectric materials is of great interest to make them more effective.   One effective way of lowering the thermal conductivity is to introduce holes in the lattice and create a phononic crystal. The main focus of this master thesis has been on how to place these holes and to optimize the geometry to minimize thermal conductivity. The method used in this report is based solely on simulations, which were done using Comsol Multiphysics 5.2a. The results are compared to already published results. Different geometries are tested to see how it affects the thermal conductivity and to optimize the phononic crystal. The Maxwell-Eucken model is also used to see how porosity affects the thermal conductivity and to analyze what the lowering in thermal conductivity depends on.   The result showed a substantial reduction in thermal conductivity when creating a phononic crystal compared to bulk silicon. The simulated reduction compared to bulk silicon is up to 98.5% when introducing holes in the lattice, while Maxwell-Eucken only predicted a 74% reduction due to porosity.   The conclusion is that by creating holes in a periodical pattern, phonon dispersion will occur, which lower the thermal conduction significantly.

No description available.

The atom probe is an analysis technique based on the emission of ionized species from a needle-shaped sample (apex radius &lt; 100 nm) under the influence of a very strong electric field ( 10-50 V/nm). A DC-voltage is applied on the sample in order to generate a field slightly below the one necessary to remove atoms (in the form of ions) from its surface. An ultrashort (femtosecond) laser pulse is used to trigger the emission. The evaporated ions are accelerated in the electric field and projected onto a position sensitive detector where a magnified image of the surface is formed (magnication from 10^6 to 10^7). Time of flight mass spectrometry is used to chemically identify the evaporated atoms. The technique thus allows to analyze the composition of a 3D volume with sub-nanometer resolution. Imec conducts research in order to introduce the 3D characterization with quasi-atomic resolution capabilities of the technique to the semiconductor industry. It became quickly apparent that a detailed understanding of the laser interaction with the nanoscale samples is crucial in order to interpret the analysis results. In this work, we briefly introduce the principles of the technique and review some of its applications. We then summarize some of the currently unexplained experimental observations, taken from the literature or from experiments conducted at Imec. Based on those observations, we introduce a thermally assisted model of field evaporation that includes the electromagnetic nature of light and the semiconducting character of silicon. The optical absorption of the nanoscale sample is computed by numerical simulations using the FDTD algorithm. The temperature evolution at the tip apex is obtained by solving a coupled thermal conduction-carrier recombinations problem and the shape of the mass spectrum is deduced. We discuss the model and confront its results to experimental data. We show that the model qualitatively explains many experimental aspects of the characterization of silicon by means of an atom probe analysis. Nevertheless, we show that at this stage the model lacks quantitative accuracy and we suggest several ways to improve it. / atom probe, LA-WATAP, field evaporation, femtosecond laser pulse interaction with nanoscale silicon objects, Sommerfeld's half plane problem, FDTD - Yee's scheme.

In this project, nanopore arrays have been fabricated on bulk silicon and on silicon membranes by electrochemical etching. First, the surface of bulk silicon and silicon membranes have been patterned by photolithography and then invert pyramidal pit arrays have been formed by KOH etching. To fabricate nanopore arrays, bulk silicon and silicon membranes with the inverted pyramidal structure were electrochemically etched with backside illumination and by breakdown methods, respectively. Pore morphology was then characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). On bulk silicon, etching by backside illumination did not form promising nanopore arrays; while arrays of nanopores with ~8 nm in diameter have been fabricated to a depth of 18 μm by tuning the applied breakdown bias. On silicon membranes, arrays of nanopores with 18±4 nm diameter have been etched through the membranes with the buried oxide remaining on the backside using the breakdown method.

Intermodulated force microscope (ImAFM) is a type of dynamic AFM. ImAFM opens up possibilities for mapping the topography and making quantitative determinations of material parameters at the same time. With increased information the need to generate more informative images of the sample emerges. In this Bachelor's degree project I have created tools for rendering images of a sample. The topography is plotted as the height and a material parameter is color coded on topography. Shadows and reflections are important for the eye's interpretation of height differences in a image so the tools created in this project will meet this need. / Intermodulerat Atomkraftmikroskop (ImAFM) är en typ av dynamisk AFM. Med ImAFM finns möjlighet för kartläggning av topografin och kvantitativa bestämningar utav fleramaterial parametrar för provet. Med ökad information kommer behovet om att bygga upp mer informativa bilder utav det scannade provet. I detta kandidatexamensarbete skapas verktyg för att rendera bilder utav provet. Topografin plottas som höjden och materialparametern färgkodas och läggs ovan på topografin. För att få förståelse för höjdskillnader i en bild är skuggor och reflektioner viktiga för ögat. Verktygen som skapas inriktas på att tillgodose detta behov.

As of today 189 countries have signed the Paris agreement which states that the mean temperature of the world should not increase with more than 2°C when compared to pre industrial levels. This causes a great shift in the energy sector sand the hunt for newer and better renewable sources continues. A such source is solar heat, which can be harvested with concentrating solar collectors. Absolicon solar collectors in Härnösand, produces a concentrating solar collector where the incident light passes though a protective glass cover and then is reflected and concentratedinto a reciever tube where the heat is transferred away. The place on earth that get the most light per year is in northern Chile in the Atacama desert, which then becomes an obvious candidate for solar heating in their mining industries if it were not for the lack of rainfall and the high amountsof dust in the area. In this report the effect of dust accumulations on the transmittance of the protective glass covers has been explored, such as the settlement rate between different angled glass surfaces were compared to rotating glass covers. Together with other effects of the dust present in Chile, such as cementation, where the dust acts ascements and stick to the surface after being moisturised. It was found that the rotating solar collectors should experience a lesser dust accumulation rate than that of the stationary solar collectors with the same glasscover placed in a 45° angle, and that the dust accumulated could experience cementation after only a few wet/dry cycles which is still a cause for the solar collectors to be regularly cleaned before this could happen.