YBCO Transition Edge Sensors Used For Very Low Noise Thermal Control

In electrically substituted radiometers, the ultra low noise control of the temperature is required. In this framework, we present results dedicated to the temperature regulation of copper plates, 3 cm diameter and 1 mm thick, using YBa2Cu3O7-d (YBCO) transition edge sensors (TES). One of the TES was used as the active thermometer of the temperature control unit, whereas the two others measured the plate temperature behavior. Two heating resistors were wound along a spiral pattern, just underneath the copper plate, to minimize the heating delay. The correlation between the two TES was clearly highlighted by applying a small heat perturbation through the second distributed resistor, the path of which closely follows that of the main resistor. Calibrated temperature oscillations of 30 microK rms at 10mHz together with spectral analysis were measured and a temperature resolution in the range of a few microK rms was achieved.Comment: 6 pages, ASC 2002 (Applied Superconductivity Conference), Houston, TX USA (Aout 2002): Oral contribution, to be published in IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. June 200

Découverte interactive de règles d'association via une interface visuelle

En nous appuyant sur des hypothèses majoritairement empruntées à des travaux sur les systèmes anthropocentrés d'aide à la décision, nous décrivons dans cet article un environnement interactif de fouille de règles d'association dans lequel l'utilisateur pilote le processus, en jouant le rôle d'une heuristique dans un environnement de recherche complexe. Afin de permettre à la fois une représentation visuelle accessible et une instanciation aisée des outils d'interactivité le modèle choisi est ici un graphe en niveaux - les niveaux étant associés aux cardinaux des sous-ensembles d'attributs des prémisses. Le processus a été déployé dans un logiciel prototype dont l'analyse des résultats ouvre de nouvelles perspectives sur l'analyse comportementale d'un utilisateur en situation de fouille

Uncooled bolometer response of a low noise La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 thin film

We report measurements of the optical responses of a La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 (LSMO) sample at a wavelength of 533 nm in the 300-400 K range. The 200 nm thick film was grown by pulsed laser deposition on (100) SrTiO3 substrate and showed remarkably low noise. At 335 K the temperature coefficient of the resistance of a 100 micrometers wide 300 micrometers long LSMO line was 0.017 K-1 and the normalized Hooge parameter was 9 e-30 m3, which is among the lowest reported values. We then measured an optical sensitivity at I = 5 mA of 10.4 V.W-1 and corresponding noise equivalent power (NEP) values of 8.1 e-10 W.Hz-1/2 and 3.3 e-10 W. Hz-1/2 at 30 Hz and above 1kHz, respectively. Simple considerations on bias current conditions and thermal conductance G are finally given for further sensitivity improvements using LSMO films. The performances were indeed demonstrated on bulk substrates with G of 10-3 W.K-1. One could expect a NEP reduction by three orders of magnitude if a membrane-type geometry was used, which makes this LSMO device competitive against commercially available uncooled bolometers.Comment: 15 pages. Accepted for publication in Appl. Phys. Let

HOBIT - un Concept Innovant pour le Transformation des Pratiques Pédagogiques

International audienceHOBIT désigne un nouveau concept destiné à transformer les pratiques pédagogiques concernant l’enseignement de l’optique. Sur une table technique interactive, il permet de placer des composants optiques factices et d’agir sur leurs réglages et de visualiser en temps réel non seulement le phénomène optique résultant mais aussi de bénéficier d'un soutien pédagogique en faisant appel à la réalité augmentée. Nous mettrons l’accent sur la notion de rupture pédagogique qui peut être atteinte avec ce nouveau concept à travers quelques exemples choisis

Creativity out of chaos

Creativity is said to be highly desired in post-modern and post-industrial organizations Creativity and anarchy on the one hand, and managerialism, on the other, can be seen as different forms of knowledge, two opposed ideals. In many organizational as well as societal reforms we currently observe it is the managerialist ideal that wins over the anarchic. In this paper, we wonder if people fear anarchy? We reflect on the possible reasons for the fear, and we also try to explain why we believe that anarchic organizing should not be avoided or feared

Evidence of charge carrier number fluctuations in InN thin films?

Due to its small band-gap and its high mobility, InN is a promising material for a large number of key applications like band-gap engineering for high efficiency solar cells, light emitting diodes, and high speed devices. Unfortunately, it has been reported that this material exhibits strong surface charge accumulation which may depend on the type of surface. Current investigations are conducted in order to explain the mechanisms which govern such a behavior and to look for ways of avoiding it and/or finding applications that may use such an effect. In this framework, low frequency noise measurements have been performed at different temperatures on patterned MBE grown InN layers. The evolution of the 1/f noise level with temperature in the 77 K-300 K range is consistent with carrier number fluctuations thus indicating surface mechanisms: the surface charge accumulation is confirmed by the noise measurements

Low-frequency noise considerations for sensors based on manganites

International audienceLow frequency noise considerations for sensors based on La0.33Sr0.67MnO3 (LSMO) thin films are discussed in this paper. Thanks to special attention on the film quality, onthe electrical readout electronics and on the patterned geometries, epitaxially grown LSMO thin films can show a very low level of low-frequency noise and can thus be used to fabricate high signal-to-noise ratio sensors such as uncooled bolometers and uncooled low-field magnetoresistances