Title: Individualization of pre-race microcycle for cross-country skiers Objectives: The aim of the thesis was to estimate the appropriate load of selected competitors before the competition. Methods: The work is conceived as a case study. It is a quantitative research based on measured values obtained from the trainer Ercolina Upper Body Power. We estimated the appropriate load in pre-race microcycle of five elite cross-country skiers. Results: Collected data have prevented the pre-race microcycle to be identical for all competitors. We achieved microcycle individualization for each competitor, which lead to better physical and psychological preparedness. Keywords: cross-country skiing, double poling, load, simulator, heart rate

Les phénomènes de charge des isolants ont été étudiés à l'aide d'un microscope électronique à balayage qui permet d'injecter de très faibles doses d'électrons dans une large gamme d'énergie et de mesurer simultanément l'émission électronique secondaire et la charge générée dans le matériau par influence. Les résultats obtenus ont permis de montrer que le rendement électronique secondaire est un bon moyen de caractériser l'état de charge d'un isolant et de classer ces matériaux en deux grandes classes selon leur capacité à relaxer les charges générées : · Les "piégeurs", de fortes résistivités, piégent de manière stable les charges pendant des mois. · Les "conductifs", de résistivités plus faibles, relaxent les charges plus ou moins rapidement selon la densité et la mobilité des charges intrinsèques au matériau. Les résultats obtenus ont également montré que le paramètre fondamental qui contrôle la cinétique de charge des isolants est la densité de courant primaire J0. Pour les "piégeurs", différents régimes de charge (autorégulé, vieillissement, dégradation) fonction de la densité de courant J0 et du domaine d'énergie considéré ont été observés. L'étude des "conductifs" a révélé l'existence d'un courant permanent au sein de ces matériaux, caractérisé par le rendement stationnaire qui permet de fixer la valeur limite de J0 que peut supporter un "conductif" sans accumulation de charges. Ces résultats ont permis de définir quel type de matériau devait être utilisé d'un point de vue électrique pour réduire voire annuler la déviation des électrons par les espaceurs des écrans plats à effet champ, mais aussi de mettre en place une nouvelle voie d'exploration du champ interne produit par polarisation thermique d'échantillons vitreux. Nous avons également développé une nouvelle voie d'exploration de l'évolution spatio-temporelle des charges piégées sur les isolants "piégeurs" grâce à l'utilisation d'un microscope à force électrostatique. Les premiers résultats montrent la grande stabilité des charges au sein de ces matériaux.

Material and structure engineering are increasingly employed in active optical media,in this context defined as media capable of providing laser or/and optical parametric gain. For laser materials, the main aim of the engineering is to tailor the absorption and emission cross sections in order to optimise the laser performance. At the same time, the engineering also results in a collateral modification of the material’s nonlinear response. In the first part of this work, the nonlinear index of refraction is characterised for two crystallographic forms of laser-ion doped and undoped double-tungstate crystals. These laser crystals have broad gain bandwidths, in particular when doped with Yb3+. As shown in this work, the crystals also have large Kerr nonlinearities, where the values vary significantly for different chemical compositions of the crystals. The combination of a broad gain bandwidthand a high Kerr nonlinearity makes the laser-ion doped double tungstates excellent candidates to employ for the generation of ultrashort laser pulses by Kerr-lens modelocking. The second part of the work relates to the applications of engineered second-order nonlinear media, which here in particular are periodically-poled KTiOPO4 crystals. Periodic structure engineering of second-order nonlinear crystals on a submicrometre scale opens up for the realisation of novel nonlinear devices. By the use of quasi-phase matching in these structures, it is possible to efficiently downconvert a pump wave into two counterpropagating parametric waves, which leads to a device called a mirrorless optical parametric oscillator. The nonlinear response in these engineered submicrometre structures is such that the parametric wave that propagates in the opposite direction of the pump automatically has a narrow bandwidth, whereas the parametric wave that propagates with the pump essentially is a frequency-shifted replica of the pump wave. The unusual spectral properties andthe tunabilities of mirrorless optical parametric oscillators are investigated. / QC 20120330

De nombreuses applications modernes nécessitent l’utilisation de matériaux transparents dans le visible et le proche infrarouge. C’est le cas des vitrages pour le bâtiment, des vitres de voitures ou encore d’écrans de téléphone portable. La stratégie mise en place dans ces travaux de thèse est d’obtenir en surface d’un verre sodo-calcique, un matériau barrière aux propriétés similaires à la silice. Deux approches de traitements de surface visent à d’une part, modifier la chimie de surface par un traitement sous champ électrique assisté par voie thermique et d’obtenir une couche riche en SiO2 en surface. D’autre part, un revêtement est déposé sur le verre sodo-calcique, utilisé ici comme substrat. Ce dépôt se fait par pulvérisation cathodique magnétron et permettra de mettre en forme un matériau composite SiO2-TiO2 aux propriétés optiques de transparence et mécaniques de dureté optimisées et d’y associer des propriétés photocatalytiques performantes. / Many applications of the modern wolrd need transparent material especially in the visible range and near-IR. That is the case for windows for building or car, laptop screen. The purpose is to obtain a silica rich layer on the top of a soda-lime glass with similar properties to silica. Two ways have been defined. The first one is thermal poling treatment which consist in a thermal treatment electric field assisted to modify the surface chemistry and monitoring a silica rich layer on the top. The second way is to get a thin film by magnetron sputtering on the top of the soda-lime glass used here as substrate. A SiO2-TiO2 material is got with efficient optical properties of transparencey and mechanical properties (hardness). Photocatalytic activity have been demonstrated and provide self-cleaning properties.

[pt] Diversos fatores têm atraído esforços para o desenvolvimento de novas estruturas para circuitos planares de microondas. Várias propostas são encontradas na literatura técnica, explorando diferentes formas de miniaturização dos circuitos, melhoria de eficiência de acoplamento, aumento de banda ou redução de perdas. Entre elas, encontra-se a utilização de materiais ferroelétricos, cujas propriedades dielétricas podem ser alteradas com a aplicação de uma tensão elétrica, permitindo a fabricação de uma nova classe de dispositivos ativos compactos; contudo, esses materiais têm desvantagens como altas perdas e dificuldades de fabricação. Em paralelo, a disseminação das telecomunicações ópticas gera uma demanda de novos componentes ópticos para os sistemas: mais eficientes, com maior capacidade e menor custo. A utilização de fibras ópticas de sílica em telecomunicações torna desejável que esses novos componentes sejam realizados em materiais compatíveis com a sílica, como por exemplo alguns tipos de vidro. A polarização eletro térmica surgiu como uma forma de produzir dispositivos eletro-ópticos ativos a partir de vidros utilizados como substratos de guias de onda ópticos passivos. Neste trabalho, os processos de tratamento eletro-térmicos utilizados nos substratos ópticos são aplicados a substratos dielétricos para uso em microondas. São verificados os efeitos resultantes nas alterações das propriedades dielétricas na faixa de microondas e a aplicação potencial em componentes e circuitos. Os tratamentos se constituem fundamentalmente na aplicação de alta tensão ao substrato na presença de temperatura elevada, visando à migração controlada de íons no material. Os substratos estudados são a alumina, substrato tradicional de microondas com elevada constante dielétrica, e os vidros, boro-silicato e sodo-cálcico, que estão atualmente sendo utilizados como substratos para guias ópticos e para construção de dispositivos ópticos ativos. É caracterizada a perda dielétrica dos vidros tratados para utilização como substrato para circuitos planares de microondas. O desenvolvimento de dispositivos ópticos ativos em substratos vítreos também implica na fabricação de circuitos elétricos de microondas sobre o mesmo substrato, para alimentar esses dispositivos com dados em altas taxas. Os vidros possuem altas perdas dielétricas nessa faixa devido à presença de íons alcalinos. A criação, pelo tratamento eletro-térmico, de uma camada de depleção de íons, próxima à superfície abaixo do circuito, permite a redução dessas perdas efetivas em circuitos planares. Outro efeito investigado é a possibilidade de se produzir um comportamento similar ao efeito ferroelétrico em um substrato de microondas. A camada de depleção criada pelo tratamento eletro-térmico provoca alterações na estrutura e permite a gravação de um campo elétrico estático devido ao deslocamento de íons. É estudada a influência desse campo dentro do material na variação de suas propriedades dielétricas, e a resposta à aplicação de uma tensão de controle externa. Estuda-se então a possibilidade de substituição por substratos tratados dos materiais ferroelétricos no desenvolvimento de componentes como chaves, acopladores e atenuadores variáveis e filtros de microondas. / [en] Several factors have been attracting research efforts to the development of new planar structures for microwave planar circuits. Various proposals can be found in the technical literature, exploring different ways of miniaturization of circuits, improvement of coupling efficiency, increase of bandwidth or reduction of losses. Among these is the use of ferroelectric materials, whose dielectric properties can be altered with the application of an electrical voltage, enabling the fabrication of a new class of compact active devices; however, such materials present some disadvantages, like very high losses and difficulties in manufacturing. Parallel to that, the dissemination of optical telecommunications generates a demand for new optical components for the systems, with greater efficiency and capacity but lower cost. Due to the use of silica optical fibers in telecommunications, it is desirable that these new components are fabricated in materials compatible to silica, as for example some types of glass. The electro-thermal polarization emerged as a way of producing active electro-optical devices from glass substrates used for passive optical waveguides. In this work, the processes of electro-thermal treatment used in optical substrates are applied to dielectric substrates for microwave use. The resulting effects on the changes in dielectric properties in the microwave frequency range and potential application in components and circuits are assessed. Such treatments are constituted fundamentally by the application of high voltage to the substrate in the presence of high temperature, aiming at the controlled migration of ions in the material. The substrates considered are alumina, conventional microwave substrate with high dielectric constant, and glasses, borosilicate and soda-lime, which are currently being used as substrates for optical waveguides and for the construction of active optical devices. The dielectric loss of treated glasses as substrates for planar microwave circuits is characterized. The development of active optical devices in vitreous substrates also implies the manufacture of microwave electrical circuits on the same substrate, in order to feed these devices with data at high rates. Glasses have high dielectric losses in this frequency range due to the presence of alkali ions. The creation by the electro-thermal treatment of an ion- depleted layer, near the surface below the planar circuit, enables the reduction of the effective losses in planar circuits. Another investigated effect is the possibility of creating a behavior similar to the ferroelectric effect in the microwave substrate. The depletion layer created by the electro-thermal treatment causes alterations in the structure and allows the recording of a static electric field by the displacement of ions. The influence of this field within the material on the variation of its dielectric properties, and the response to the application of an external control voltage are assessed. Then, the substitution for treated substrates of ferroelectric materials in the development of components such as switches, variable couplers and attenuators and microwave filters is considered.

Dans le cadre de cette thèse, nous avons développé une technique expérimentale basée sur un traitement laser ultraviolet continu permettant la croissance de nanoparticules (NP) d’argent et/ou d’or dans des verres soda-lime préalablement dopés aux ions Ag+ et/ou Au3+. L’originalité de cette méthode réside dans la très forte photosensibilité du verre à la longueur d’onde utilisée (244 nm), par rapport aux résultats de la littérature. Dans les verres échangés à l’argent, des NP de grand diamètre (jusqu’à 250 nm) et très concentrées ont été obtenues et le mécanisme de leur formation a été explicité. Nous avons ensuite montré que les substrats ainsi fabriqués sont adaptés pour la détection d’espèces chimiques faiblement concentrées via l’effet de diffusion Raman exaltée de surface, en choisissant comme molécule test la rhodamine 6G, ce qui était le but initial de ce travail. Nous nous sommes ensuite intéressés à la nanostructuration du verre par des NP d’argent : ainsi, des lignes de NP (de diamètre 80 nm), périodiquement espacées de 160 nm ont été obtenues pour des durées d’insolation « suffisamment longues ». Après avoir caractérisé expérimentalement ces arrangements périodiques de NP d’argent, nous avons montré un très bon accord entre nos résultats expérimentaux et la théorie classique des ripples (ou modèle de Sipe). Ce résultat est sans aucun doute le plus original de ce travail de thèse. D’autre part, nous avons montré que l’insolation laser à 244 nm permet la croissance de NP d’or de diamètre 50 nm dans les verres dopés Au3+ par poling thermique. Le codopage du verre avec des NP d’argent et d’or a également été obtenu / In this thesis, we have developed an experimental method based on the use of a continuous ultraviolet laser to process a soda-lime glass doped with either Ag+ or Au3+ ions for the growth of silver and/or gold nanoparticles (NP). The main advantage of method lies in the very high photosensitivity of the glass at the laser wavelength (244 nm), compared to the results of the literature. In silver-exchanged soda-lime glasses, highly concentrated silver NP of large diameter (up to 250 nm) have been obtained and their growth is fully elucidated. We have then shown that these substrates are well-suited to get efficient surface enhanced raman scattering effect with rhodamine 6G as test molecule, which was the first aim of this thesis. A third part is then dedicated to the growth of periodic nanostructures embedded with silver NP at the surface of the glass. Silver NP (of average diameter 80 nm) are aligned along lines periodically spaced by 160 nm. After experimental characterization of these periodic arrangements, we have demonstrated very good agreement between these experimental results and classical ripples theory (known as Sipe’s model in the literature).This result is undoubtedly the most original result of this manuscrit. We have then shown that laser exposure at 244 nm allows the growth of gold NP in soda-lime glass beforehand doped with Au3+ ions by thermal poling. Codoping of the glass containing with both silver and gold nanoparticles has also been achieved

The topic of this thesis is development ofdevices fortelecom applications based on poled optical fibers. The focusis on two different specific functions, wavelength conversionand optical switching. Optical switching is demonstrated in a poled optical fiberat telecom wavelengths (~1.55 mm). The fiber has two holesrunning along the core in which electrodes are inserted. Thefiber device is made electro-optically active with a polingprocess in which a strong electric field is recorded in thefiber at a temperature of 270 o C. The fiber is then put in onearm of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and by applying a voltageacross the two electrodes in the fiber the refractive index ismodulated and the optical signal switched from one output portto the other. So far the lowest switching voltage achieved is~1600 V which is too high for a commercial device, but byoptimizing the design of the fiber and the poling process aswitching voltage as low as 50 V is aimed for. A method to deposit a thin silver electrode inside the holesof an optical fiber is also demonstrated. A new way of creatingperiodic electrodes by periodically ablating the silver filmelectrode inside the holes of an optical fiber is also shown.The periodic electrodes can be used to create a quasi-phasematched (QPM) nonlinearity in the fiber which is useful forincreasing the efficiency of a nonlinear process such aswavelength conversion. Poling of a fiber with silver electrodesshowed a huge increase in the nonlinearity. This could be dueto a resonant enhancement caused by silver nanoclusters. <b>Keywords:</b>Poling, twinhole fiber, fiber electrodes,silver film electrodes, silver diffusion, quasi-phase matching,optical switching, frequency conversion, optical modulation / NR 20140805

Introduction Performance in cross-country skiing is influenced by the skier’s ability to continuously produce propelling forces and force magnitude in relation to the net external forces. A surrogate indicator of the “power supply” in cross-country skiing would be a physiological variable that reflects an important performance-related capability, whereas the body mass itself is an indicator of the “power demand” experienced by the skier. To adequately evaluate an elite skier’s performance capability, it is essential to establish the optimal ratio between the physiological variable and body mass. The overall aim of this doctoral thesis was to investigate the importance of body-mass exponent optimization for the evaluation of performance capability in cross-country skiing. Methods In total, 83 elite cross-country skiers (56 men and 27 women) volunteered to participate in the four studies. The physiological variables of maximal oxygen uptake (V̇O2max) and oxygen uptake corresponding to a blood-lactate concentration of 4 mmol∙l-1 (V̇O2obla) were determined while treadmill roller skiing using the diagonal-stride technique; mean oxygen uptake (V̇O2dp) and upper-body power output (Ẇ) were determined during double-poling tests using a ski-ergometer. Competitive performance data for elite male skiers were collected from two 15-km classical-technique skiing competitions and a 1.25-km sprint prologue; additionally, a 2-km double-poling roller-skiing time trial using the double-poling technique was used as an indicator of upper-body performance capability among elite male and female junior skiers. Power-function modelling was used to explain the race and time-trial speeds based on the physiological variables and body mass. Results The optimal V̇O2max-to-mass ratios to explain 15-km race speed were V̇O2max divided by body mass raised to the 0.48 and 0.53 power, and these models explained 68% and 69% of the variance in mean skiing speed, respectively; moreover, the 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the body-mass exponents did not include either 0 or 1. For the modelling of race speed in the sprint prologue, body mass failed to contribute to the models based on V̇O2max, V̇O2obla, and V̇O2dp. The upper-body power output-to-body mass ratio that optimally explained time-trial speed was Ẇ ∙ m-0.57 and the model explained 63% of the variance in speed. Conclusions The results in this thesis suggest that V̇O2max divided by the square root of body mass should be used as an indicator of performance in 15-km classical-technique races among elite male skiers rather than the absolute or simple ratio-standard scaled expression. To optimally explain an elite male skier’s performance capability in sprint prologues, power-function models based on oxygen-uptake variables expressed absolutely are recommended. Moreover, to evaluate elite junior skiers’ performance capabilities in 2-km double-poling roller-skiing time trials, it is recommended that Ẇ divided by the square root of body mass should be used rather than absolute or simple ratio-standard scaled expression of power output. / <p>Incorrect ISBN in printed thesis: 973-91-7601-270-3</p>

<p>The topic of this thesis is the development of devices for telecom applications based on poled optical fibers. The focus is on a specific function, optical switching/modulation.</p><p>Some of the most important results are summarized below. Optical switching at telecom wavelengths (1.55 μm) is demonstrated in an all-fiber switch based on a fiber with internal electrodes. The fiber is made electro-optically active with a thermal poling process in which a strong electric field is recorded in the glass at a temperature of 255 °C. After poling, the fiber is put in one arm of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and by applying a voltage across the two electrodes the refractive index is modulated and the optical signal switched from one output port to the other. A switching voltage of 190 V at 1550 nm was achieved, which to the best of our knowledge is the lowest value reported. By carefully matching the lengths of the fibers in the two arms of the interferometer the optical bandwidth could be made as large as 20 nm. The extinction ratio, determined by the power ratio in the two arms, was 30 dB and the highest modulation frequency was 30 MHz. Poled fibers were packaged to increase the thermal and mechanical stability and to make handling easier. 40 Gb/s transmission test through the device showed no bit-error-rate performance degradation. Protection switching of a 10 Gb/s signal is also demonstrated.</p><p>The depletion region in a poled fiber was found to be wedge-shaped and very wide, 13 μm and completely overlapped with the core. In a time-resolved poling experiment the recorded electric field was measured. The sign of the field changed after ~20 min, when the depletion region passed through the core, which led to the conclusion that an electric field is present also outside of the depletion region.</p><p>A ring laser was constructed with an erbium doped fiber as the gain medium. A fiber modulator was placed inside the cavity and when a small RF signal, with a frequency matched to the cavity ground frequency, was applied to the modulator the laser was modelocked. The output pulse train contained pulses of sub ns duration and is the first demonstration of mode-locking using poled fibers.</p><p>A sampled grating with 16 channels spaced by 50 GHz was inserted into the cavity. The fiber modulator had optical bandwidth of 7 nm with center wavelength that depends on the applied voltage. By applying of 10 – 210 V to the modulator it was possible to tune the laser to 11 of the 16 channels for a total tuning range of over 4 nm.</p><p>A scheme to deposit 1 μm thin silver electrodes inside the holes of an optical fiber is demonstrated together with a new method of creating periodic electrodes by periodically ablating the silver film electrodes. The periodic electrodes are used to create a quasi-phase matched (QPM) nonlinearity in a fibers which is showed in a proof of principle experiment.</p>

Polymer-based piezoelectric and triboelectric generators form the basis of well-known energy harvesting methods that are capable of transforming ambient vibrational energy into electrical energy via electrical polarization changes in a material and contact electrification, respectively. However, the low energy conversion efficiency and limited thermal stability of polymeric materials hinder practical application. While nanostructured polymers and polymer-based nanocomposites have been widely studied to overcome these limitations, the performance improvement has not been satisfactory due to limitations pertaining to long-standing problems associated with polymeric materials; such as low crystallinity of nanostructured polymers, and in the case of nanocomposites, poor dispersion and distribution of nanoparticles in the polymer matrix. In this thesis, novel functional polymeric nanomaterials, for stable and physically robust energy harvesting applications, are proposed by developing advanced nanofabrication methods. The focus is on ferroelectric polymeric nanomaterials, as this class of materials is particularly well-suited for both piezoelectric and triboelectric energy harvesting. The thesis is broadly divided into two parts. The first part focuses on Nylon-11 nanowires grown by a template-wetting method. Nylon-11 was chosen due to its reasonably good ferroelectric properties and high thermal stability, relative to more commonly studied ferroelectric polymers such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene (P(VDF-TrFE)). However, limitations in thin-film fabrication of Nylon-11 have led to poor control over crystallinity, and thus investigation of this material for practical applications had been mostly discontinued, and its energy harvesting potential never fully realised. The work in this thesis shows that these problems can be overcome by adopting nanoporous template-wetting as a versatile tool to grow Nylon-11 nanowires with controlled crystallinity. Since the template-grown Nylon-11 nanowires exhibit a polarisation without any additional electrical poling process by exploiting the nanoconfinement effect, they have been directly incorporated into nano-piezoelectric generators, exhibiting high temperature stability and excellent fatigue performance. To further enhance the energy harvesting capability of Nylon-11 nanowires, a gas -flow assisted nano-template (GANT) infiltration method has been developed, whereby rapid crystallisation induced by gas-flow leads to the formation of the ferroelectric δʹ-phase. The well-defined crystallisation conditions resulting from the GANT method not only lead to self-polarization but also increases average crystallinity from 29 % to 38 %. δʹ-phase Nylon-11 nanowires introduced into a prototype triboelectric generator are shown to give rise to a six-fold increase in output power density as observed relative to the δʹ-phase film-based device. Interestingly, based on the accumulated understanding of the template-wetting method, Nylon-11, and energy harvesting devices, it was found that thermodynamically stable α-phase Nylon-11 nanowires are most suitable for triboelectric energy generators, but not piezoelectric generators. Notably, definitive dipole alignment of α-phase nanowires is shown to have been achieved for the first time via a novel thermally assisted nano-template infiltration (TANI) method, resulting in exceptionally strong and thermally stable spontaneous polarization, as confirmed by molecular structure simulations. The output power density of a triboelectric generator based on α-phase nanowires is shown to be enhanced by 328 % compared to a δʹ-phase nanowire-based device under the same mechanical excitation. The second part of the thesis presents recent progress on polymer-based multi-layered nanocomposites for energy harvesting applications. To solve the existing issues related to poor dispersion and distribution of nanoparticles in the polymer matrix, a dual aerosol-jet printing method has been developed and applied. As a result, outstanding dispersion and distribution. Furthermore, this method allows precise control of the various physical properties of interest, including the dielectric permittivity. The resulting nanocomposite contributes to an overall enhancement of the device capacitance, which also leads to high-performance triboelectric generators. This thesis therefore presents advances in novel functional polymeric nanomaterials for energy harvesting applications, with improved performance and thermal stability. It further offers insight regarding the long-standing issues in the field of Nylon-11, template-wetting, and polymer-based nanocomposites.