<p>Infrared intersubband absorption of III-nitride materials has been studied rigorously due to its broad potential applications into optoelectronic devices. III-nitrides have advantages of large conduction band offset, large longitudinal-optical phonon energy, and fast intersubband relaxation time. These special characteristics make nitrides promising materials for intersubband devices in the near-infrared range. However, the existence of challenges from these materials delays the progress towards the realization of high performance nitride intersubband devices. In this document, we discuss the challenges of III-nitrides and our efforts towards high intersubband transitions strength of different nitrides, in particular non-polar m-plane AlGaN/GaN, non-polar m-plane near strain-balanced (In)AlGaN/InGaN, and polar lattice-matched InAlN/GaN. Samples are characterized by multiple methods including atomic force microscopy, high-resolution x-ray diffraction, high-resolution (scanning) transmission electron microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.</p> <p>Polar c-plane AlGaN/GaN exhibits good agreement between experimental and predicted results for the intersubband transition energy. However, the lattice strain between layers caused by the lattice mismatch between materials leads to a large number of defects, affecting the vertical transport and resulting in low-quality devices. Lattice-matched InAlN/GaN was suggested as an alternative to eliminate this lattice strain, thus providing a better quality material for devices. We discuss the challenges of growing homogeneous InAlN alloys that persist after exploring a wide range of growth conditions. Additionally, the non-polar mplane AlGaN/GaN is also being investigated. Low Al-composition m-plane AlGaN/GaN experimental intersubband absorption shows good agreement with the theoretical results. As the Al composition exceeds 60%, however, the m-plane AlGaN alloy becomes kinetically unstable during plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy growth, resulting in unique nanostructures that affect the intersubband transition energy and linewidth. For the first time, we reported the ISBA energy of near strain-balanced non-polar m-plane (In)AlGaN/InGaN heterostructures in the mid-infrared range with narrow linewidths comparable to tdth-half-max published in the literature for non-polar m-plane AlGaN/GaN superlattices. Additionally, we propose polar near lattice-matched Sc0.15Al0.85N/GaN as an alternative to c-plane lattice-matched InAlN/GaN. </p>

No description available.

La détermination des propriétés des matériaux soumis à des chocs est un enjeu essentiel dans de nombreux domaines industriels. L’objectif de cette thèse est de proposer une nouvelle méthode fondée sur l’interrogation en bande millimétrique d’un solide soumis à un choc. Deux paramètres doivent être mesurés simultanément, la vitesse du choc et la vitesse matérielle associée afin de pouvoir construire la polaire de choc du matériau d’étude. Dans un premier temps, un état de l’art des techniques de mesure existantes est réalisé pour cibler les performances et limites de l’existant. Dans un second temps, on s’intéresse à la modélisation de la propagation des ondes électromagnétiques dans des milieux à plusieurs interfaces en mouvement et avec un gradient d’indice pour représenter des cas de choc soutenu et non soutenu. Enfin, des campagnes expérimentales d’impact plan sont présentées sur différents matériaux, inertes et explosifs, pour confronter la théorie développée aux résultats de mesure. Pour le cas des chocs soutenus, les résultats sont en très bon accord et permettent de valider le modèle. Le cas des chocs non soutenus est plus complexe. Une approche par réseau de neurones est envisagée pour permettre de remonter aux vitesses et aux indices de réfraction. Enfin, des mesures de la permittivité complexe de nombreux explosifs sont présentées. / The mechanical properties of solids under shock wave loading are a key factor in many industrial applications. This work aims at defining a new approach for the simultaneous measurement of shock wave and particle velocity during a shock event, using millimeter wave interrogation. With the two determined parameters, the shock polar of any material can be derived. First, a review of the classical methods to determine these quantities is presented, to identify the advantages and limits of such techniques. A modelization work is then performed to understand the propagation of electromagnetic waves in a stratified mediumwith moving interfaces and different refractive index in each of the layers. Such a configuration can be used to describe both steady and unsteady shocks on solids. Last, experimental results of plane impact tests on both inert and reactive materials are presented and analyzed to comfort the modelization. For steady shocks, the results are in very good agreement and prove the developed model to be adequate. The case of unsteady shocks is more complex, and a neural network approach is described to solve the problem. Finally, new data on the permittivity of high explosives and a new setup are described.

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Cellular_ polar research station Antarctica is the driest, the busiest and most extensive place on Earth, half-year-shrouded. People still live here. They set up the research stations in which they live and work. In these extreme climatic conditions, the station originates and disappears due to natural behaving. Stations provide researchers with safety and space for research, including comfort. They are built in different ways and provide different comforts, according to technological and transport options.

Flight testing methods are developed to find the drag polar for small UAVs powered by electric motors with fixed-pitch propellers. Wind tunnel testing was used to characterize the propeller-motor efficiency. The drag polar was constructed using data from flight tests. The proposed methods were implemented for a small UAV. A drag polar was found for this aircraft with CDo equal to 0.021, K1 equal to 0.229, and K2 equal to -0.056. This drag polar was then used to find the following performance parameters; maximum velocity, minimum velocity, velocity for maximum range, velocity for maximum endurance, maximum rate of climb, maximum climb angle, minimum turn radius, maximum turn rate, and maximum bank angle. Applications in UAV control and mission planning are also proposed.

Acutumine is a tetracyclic alkaloid isolated from the Asian vine Menispermum dauricum with selective T-cell cytotoxicity and antiamnestic properties. We have developed a total synthetic route to this congested alkaloid, during which we also found a novel, stereoselective radical-crossover reaction that combines an intramolecular radical conjugate addition with a subsequent enolate hydroxylation. Key features of this synthesis also include a reagent-controlled diastereoselective ketone allylation, an anionic oxy-Cope rearrangement to form a congested quaternary sterocenter, a pyridine-mediated selective ozonolysis, and a Lewis acid promoted Michael-type cyclization.

During ice voyages, level ice and iceberg with huge inertia force can cause large deformation and even damage on the ship hull structure. Hence the hull structure for ice voyage requires higher strength than it for open water voyages. A container ship will be re-designed for ice voyages in the thesis. Generally, the ice strength is evaluated in ice class rules. IACS polar class and FSICR are adopted in this thesis. Ice class rules are based on experience and experiment data, but there has been no exact formula or parameters to described the ice properties so far. In other words, the results from ice class rules include uncertainties. In order to improve physical understanding, non-linear FE simulations will be processed after the re-design. In the simulations, the ship has a collision with different ice scenarios. The simulations are carried on ANSYS Workbench Explicit Dynamic using the solver of Auto-dyna. Afterwards, the results from the two designs schemes are compared and analysed.

This dissertation has its focus on two different topics: 1. non-asymptotic analysis of polar codes as a new paradigm in error correcting codes with very promising features, and 2. network properties for wireless networks of practical size. In its first part, we investigate properties of polar codes that can be potentially useful in real-world applications. We start with analyzing the performance of finite-length polar codes over the binary erasure channel (BEC), while assuming belief propagation (BP) as the decoding method. We provide a stopping set analysis for the factor graph of polar codes, where we find the size of the minimum stopping set. Our analysis along with bit error rate (BER) simulations demonstrates that finite-length polar codes show superior error floor performance compared to the conventional capacity-approaching coding techniques. Motivated by good error floor performance, we introduce a modified version of BP decoding while employing a guessing algorithm to improve the BER performance. Each application may impose its own requirements on the code design. To be able to take full advantage of polar codes in practice, a fundamental question is which practical requirements are best served by polar codes. For example, we will see that polar codes are inherently well-suited for rate-compatible applications and they can provably achieve the capacity of time-varying channels with a simple rate-compatible design. This is in contrast to LDPC codes for which no provably universally capacity-achieving design is known except for the case of the erasure channel. This dissertation investigates different approaches to applications such as UEP, rate-compatible coding, and code design over parallel sub-channels (non-uniform error correction). Furthermore, we consider the idea of combining polar codes with other coding schemes, in order to take advantage of polar codes' best properties while avoiding their shortcomings. Particularly, we propose, and then analyze, a polar code-based concatenated scheme to be used in Optical Transport Networks (OTNs) as a potential real-world application The second part of the dissertation is devoted to the analysis of finite wireless networks as a fundamental problem in the area of wireless networking. We refer to networks as being finite when the number of nodes is less than a few hundred. Today, due to the vast amount of literature on large-scale wireless networks, we have a fair understanding of the asymptotic behavior of such networks. However, in real world we have to face finite networks for which the asymptotic results cease to be valid. Here we study a model of wireless networks, represented by random geometric graphs. In order to address a wide class of the network's properties, we study the threshold phenomena. Being extensively studied in the asymptotic case, the threshold phenomena occurs when a graph theoretic property (such as connectivity) of the network experiences rapid changes over a specific interval of the underlying parameter. Here, we find an upper bound for the threshold width of finite line networks represented by random geometric graphs. These bounds hold for all monotone properties of such networks. We then turn our attention to an important non-monotone characteristic of line networks which is the Medium Access (MAC) layer capacity, defined as the maximum number of possible concurrent transmissions. Towards this goal, we provide a linear time algorithm which finds a maximal set of concurrent non-interfering transmissions and further derive lower and upper bounds for the cardinality of the set. Using simulations, we show that these bounds serve as reasonable estimates for the actual value of the MAC-layer capacity.

Historical climate disturbances such as glacial cycling and fluctuating stream, lake, and sea levels strongly influence the distribution and evolutionary trajectories of Antarctic terrestrial species. Antarctic invertebrates, with limited long-range mobility, including the ubiquitous sentinel nematode species Scottnema lindsayae, are especially sensitive to climate disturbances. We tested hypotheses associated with the historical geographic and population genetic structure of this species as it occurs across the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDVs) of Antarctica. In order to reconstruct the influence of climate disturbance and ecological conditions on this species, partial mitochondrial COI gene sequences were sequenced and analyzed from individual S. lindsayae collected from sites across the MDVs reflecting a opposing gradients of climate disturbance during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). We found that populations were strongly geomorphic barriers with distinct haplotypes associated with valleys except among valleys that experienced glacial advance and retreat during the LGM. One monophyletic clade corresponds with valley systems that were undisturbed during the LGM indicating putative refugia areas. A second monophyletic clade corresponds to recent dispersal and expansion of evolutionarily younger populations into valleys that were strongly reworked by glacial activity during the LGM. Our work shows that contemporary populations of these animals are strongly structured by prior climate history. Such findings can be useful for interpreting long-term monitoring of demographic shifts of soil organisms in response to changing climate trends in the McMurdo Dry Valleys.