Nearly 50 million people are afflicted with epilepsy, worldwide. These patients suffer from unprovoked seizures, where neurons in the cerebral cortex under go uncontrolled, hypersynchronous firing of neurons. 30\% of patients with epilepsy do not respond to drug treatments. For these patients, surgical treatment involving the removal or disconnection of brain matter is one of the only alternatives. Such surgical treatments often rely on long-term monitoring of neuronal activity in the brain using subdurally implanted surface electrodes to locate the epileptic focus, but these clinical methods for mapping neuronal activity suffer from low spatial resolutions and poor noise, which can limit the success of surgical treatments where an error of even 1 mm can be critical. The work described here involves the development of an implantable system for performing optical recordings of intrinsic signal (ORIS) on the surface of the brain. By taking advantage of the unique absorption spectrum of hemoglobin, cerebral blood volume (CBV) can be measured via reflectivity changes in the brain at at specific wavelengths of light. Due to the metabolic demands of the brain, the exaggerated neuronal activity and spiking associated with epileptic seizures can be detected indirectly through changes in CBV. While high resolution ORIS measurements have been recorded using externally mounted CCD sensors, this work presents some of the first developments in producing a fully implantable ORIS sensor. Progress in the development of an implantable ORIS sensor described here includes: an implantable organic light emitting diode (OLED) and organic photodetector (OPD) integrated on a highly flexible parylene-c substrate, an implantable sensor using a microLED array embedded on a flexible polyimide substrate, and the application of quantum dots to microLEDs for optical down-conversion. Successful in vivo detection of seizures is achieved with high signal-to-noise using these methods. Additionally, spatial localization of seizure activity is performed using the microLED array. These developments represent crucial first steps in the development of a full 2D neuronal mapping system using implantable ORIS devices.

1. Gain modulation induced by the injected optical signals in Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA) is the basis of the whole work in this thesis. For a good understanding of the gain dynamics in SOA, we studied the propagation of lightwave and the carrier density dynamics in SOAs. Detailed theory and simulation results about the gain modulation characteristics induced by the injected signals into the SOA are presented. The simulation results have a good guidance for the experiments in this thesis. / 2. The theory of the actively mode-locked ring laser is studied. Following the theoretical discussion about the actively mode-locked ring laser, the experimental study about a novel actively mode-locked ring laser based on cross-gain-modulation in a SOA, which is employed as both the gain medium and mode-locking element, is proposed and demonstrated. Stable uniform pulse trains with pulse-widths about 24ps at 5GHz repetition frequency are obtained. The wavelength of the mode-locked optical pulses can be continuously tuned from 1533nm to 1565nm. In the whole tuning range, the pulse-width and bandwidth of the output pulses are respectively within 22-26ps and 0.7-0.8nm. / 3. Generation and wavelength switching of picosecond pulses by optically modulating a SOA in a ring laser with eight cascaded fiber Bragg gratings playing the role of the wavelength selecting element is proposed and demonstrated. Stable amplitude equalized pulse trains with a pulsewidth about 43ps at 2.5GHz have been obtained by injecting optical control signals into the laser. When we change the modulation frequency of the injected optical signals from 2.5 GHz to 10 GHz, wavelength switchable optical pulses at 10 GHz have also been obtained through optimizing the experimental parameters such as the SOA driving current and the power of the injection optical signals. Wavelength switching among eight wavelengths is achieved by merely tuning an intra-cavity optical delay line. The theoretical analysis of multi-wavelength operation using the proposed ring cavity has also been presented. / 4. In the actively mode-locked ring laser based on 1.55mum SOA, there exist changes of both gain and refractive index since the wavelengths of the control signal and the data signal are in the same gain spectral region. The gain change is sometimes unwanted because it may result in the amplitude fluctuations of the mode locked pulses and pattern effects. We proposed an all-optical FM actively mode-locked ring laser scheme based on a 1.3mum SOA as a gain-transparent phase modulation only element. The principle of the phase modulation in 1.3mum SOA has been discussed. / 5. Optical clock recovery, which extracts a continuous train of pulses or clock from the modulated data, is an essential technology to realize all optical signal processing such as all optical regeneration repeater and all optical de multiplexing. We experimentally studied all optical clock recovery at 10GHz with switchable wavelengths using the proposed mode-locked ring laser. Very stable clock signals corresponding to the bit rate of the injection data have been obtained by injecting 10Gbit/s 231-1 PRBS data signals into the laser cavity. The side-mode-suppression ratio of the recovery clock signals is better than 28dB. The clock recovery scheme can still function well when the wavelength, polarization state and the density of zeros of the injected data signals are changed. / 6. Finally, we discussed the noises in all optical networks and all optical methods of noise reduction. All optical noise reduction methods are reviewed. We also discussed the feasibility of all optical noise reduction method using the proposed ring laser scheme. / With the advances in Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) and Optical Time Division Multiplexing (OTDM) technologies and their ever-widening applications, optical transport networks will eventually evolve into all optical networks based on DWDM and OTDM or their combination. However, the adoption of optical technologies has a significant impact on network transmission performance because there will be many optical amplifiers, wavelength division multiplexing devices and optical cross connects which may bring optical noises and time jitters to the all optical networks. Hence many key technologies including the generation of ultrashort optical pulses and all optical signal regeneration are needed in order to realize all optical transport networks. This dissertation mainly describes the generation of optical pulses and all optical clock recovery for all optical signal regeneration. Several theoretical and experimental research results have been obtained as follows. / He Jian. / "April 2006." / Adviser: K. T. Chan. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: B, page: 6610. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

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abstract: Connected health is an emerging field of science and medicine that enables the collection and integration of personal biometrics and environment, contributing to more precise and accurate assessment of the person’s state. It has been proven to help to establish wellbeing as well as prevent, diagnose, and determine the prognosis of chronic diseases. The development of sensing devices for connected health is challenging because devices used in the field of medicine need to meet not only selectivity and sensitivity of detection, but also robustness and performance under hash usage conditions, typically by non-experts in analysis. In this work, the properties and fabrication process of sensors built for sensing devices capable of detection of a biomarker as well as pollutant levels in the environment are discussed. These sensing devices have been developed and perfected with the aim of overcoming the aforementioned challenges and contributing to the evolving connected health field. In the first part of this work, a wireless, solid-state, portable, and continuous ammonia (NH3) gas sensing device is introduced. This device determines the concentration of NH3 contained in a biological sample within five seconds and can wirelessly transmit data to other Bluetooth enabled devices. In this second part of the work, the use of a thermal-based flow meter to assess exhalation rate is evaluated. For this purpose, a mobile device named here mobile indirect calorimeter (MIC) was designed and used to measure resting metabolic rate (RMR) from subjects, which relies on the measure of O2 consumption rate (VO2) and CO2 generation rate (VCO2), and compared to a practical reference method in hospital. In the third part of the work, the sensing selectivity, stability and sensitivity of an aged molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) selective to the adsorption of hydrocarbons were studied. The optimized material was integrated in tuning fork sensors to detect environmental hydrocarbons, and demonstrated the needed stability for field testing. Finally, the hydrocarbon sensing device was used in conjunction with a MIC to explore potential connections between hydrocarbon exposure level and resting metabolic rate of individuals. Both the hydrocarbon sensing device and the metabolic rate device were under field testing. The correlation between the hydrocarbons and the resting metabolic rate were investigated. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Chemical Engineering 2018

Thesis advisor: Shih-Yuan Liu / This dissertation describes progress in the field of polycyclic boron- nitrogen-containing systems, especially for potential application in organic-based optoelectronic devices and hydrogen storage materials. The replacement of a BN unit for a CC unit organic compounds (BN/CC isosterism) can have a profound effect on the electronic structure and even function of a given molecular topology without changing its physical structure very much. Direct comparison between a BN-containing molecule and its direct all-carbon analogue is crucial to establishing the origin of these differences. The synthesis and optoelectronic characterization of boron- nitrogen-containing analogues of naphthalene, anthracene, and tetracene are disclosed. Also examined herein is the aromatic Claisen rearrangement applied to an azaboryl allyl ether. Finally, the chemistry of saturated BN heterocycles, including an iridium-catalyzed transfer dehydrogenation method for synthesizing BN-fused azaborines. Also disclosed is the actual application of these cyclic amine-boranes in supplying hydrogen for a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Chemistry.

Nanowire solar cells have great potential as candidates for high efficiency, next-generation solar cell devices. To realize their potential, accurate and efficient modeling techniques en- compassing both optical and electrical phenomena must be developed. In this work, a coupled optical and electronic model of GaAs nanowire solar cells was developed, with the goal of building a platform for automated, algorithmic device optimization. Significant work was done on the optical portion of model, with the goal of reducing run- times and improving the level of automation. Enhancements were made to an open-source implementation of the Rigorous Coupled Wave Analysis method for solving Maxwell’s equations, to make it more accurate for modeling nanowire solar cells. Its accuracy and efficiency were thoroughly investigated, and with the enhancements presented here it was shown to be an effective technique for rapid optical modeling of nanowire devices. Purely optical optimizations of a sample AlInP-passivated GaAs nanowire on a GaAs substrate were performed to demonstrate the efficacy of the technique using a Nelder-Mead simplex optimization of device geometry. The optical model was then coupled into a finite volume method based electrical model implemented in TCAD Sentaurus, to compute device efficiencies and ultimately optimize electrical device performance. As a first step, an algorithmic optimization of a p-i-n nanowire solar cell consisting of an AlInP-passivated GaAs nanowire on a Si substrate was performed using the generation rates computed by the enhanced RCWA implementation. The overall geometry was fixed to the result of the optical optimization, and only internal electrical parameters were optimized. The results showed that significant performance improvements can be obtained with the right choice of doping levels and doping region configurations, even without optimizing the global device geometry.

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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-163). Investigates the behaviour of the intensity noise in a multimode Nd:YAG laser. The collective modes of oscillation are excited by broadband ambient noise. Because the phase of the excitation is unknown, a cross spectral technique to measure the antiphase dynamics directly and form a picture of the intensity noise interference for two to five mode operation is developed. For three mode operation, the contributions of the longitudinal modes to collective modes is measured.

Includes bibliographical references. Electronic publication; full text available in PDF format; abstract in HTML format. Investigates the behaviour of the intensity noise in a multimode Nd:YAG laser. The collective modes of oscillation are excited by broadband ambient noise. Because the phase of the excitation is unknown, a cross spectral technique to measure the antiphase dynamics directly and form a picture of the intensity noise interference for two to five mode operation is developed. For three mode operation, the contributions of the longitudinal modes to collective modes is measured. Electronic reproduction.[Australia] :Australian Digital Theses Program,2001. ix, 163 leaves : ill., charts ; 30 cm.

Bibliography: leaves 154-156. / 156 leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / This thesis describes the construction of a low-power end pumped Nd:YAG laser and the subsequent theoretical and experimental investigation of the antiphase dynamics exhibited by the laser. The end pumped laser was modelled by extending the classical model of Tang Statz deMars to non-uniform pump along the active medium. The anomalous threshold behaviour of the laser, where modes with lower gain can supass modes with higher gain as the pump power increases, was accounted for. The antiphase dynamics were explored by modulating the pump power and measuring the transfer functions from this input to various outputs. The laser's response to various sources of noise was also studied. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Chemistry and Physics, Discipline of Physics and Mathematical Physics, 2003?