@phdthesis{Heinrich2022,
  author    = {Heinrich, Robert},
  title     = {Multi-species gas detection based on an external-cavity quantum cascade laser spectrometer in the mid-infrared fingerprint region},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-26864},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-268640},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Laser spectroscopic gas sensing has been applied for decades for several applications as atmospheric monitoring, industrial combustion gas analysis or fundamental research. The availability of new laser sources in the mid-infrared opens the spectral fingerprint range to the technology where multiple molecules possess their fundamental ro-vibrational absorption features that allow very sensitive detection and accurate discrimination of the species. The increasing maturity of quantum cascade lasers that cover this highly interesting spectral range motivated this research to gain fundamental knowledge about the spectra of hydrocarbon gases in pure composition and in complex mixtures as they occur in the petro-chemical industry. The long-term target of developing accurate and fast hydrocarbon gas analyzers, capable of real-time operation while enabling feedback-loops, would lead to a paradigm change in this industry. This thesis aims to contribute to a higher accuracy and more comprehensive understanding of the sensing of hydrocarbon gas mixtures. This includes the acquisition of yet unavailable high resolution and high accuracy reference spectra of the respective gases, the investigation of their spectral behavior in mixtures due to collisional broadening of their transitions and the verification of the feasibility to quantitatively discriminate the spectra when several overlapping species are simultaneously measured in gas mixtures. To achieve this knowledge a new laboratory environment was planned and built up to allow for the supply of the individual gases and their arbitrary mixing. The main element was the development of a broadly tunable external-cavity quantum cascade laser based spectrometer to record the required spectra. This also included the development of a new measurement method to obtain highly resolved and nearly gap-less spectral coverage as well as a sophisticated signal post-processing that was crucial to achieve the high accuracy of the measurements. The spectroscopic setup was used for a thorough investigation of the spectra of the first seven alkanes as of their mixtures. Measurements were realized that achieved a spectral resolution of 0.001 cm-1 in the range of 6-11 µm while ensuring an accuracy of 0.001 cm-1 of the spectra and attaining a transmission sensitivity of 2.5 x 10-4 for long-time averaging of the acquired spectra. These spectral measurements accomplish a quality that compares to state-of-the art spectral databases and revealed so far undocumented details of several of the investigated gases that have not been measured with this high resolution before at the chosen measurement conditions. The results demonstrate the first laser spectroscopic discrimination of a seven component gas mixture with absolute accuracies below 0.5 vol.\% in the mid-infrared provided that a sufficiently broad spectral range is covered in the measurements. Remaining challenges for obtaining improved spectral models of the gases and limitations of the measurement accuracy and technology are discussed.},
  subject      = {Quantenkaskadenlaser},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Ochs2022,
  author    = {Ochs, Maximilian Thomas},
  title     = {Electrically Connected Nano-Optical Systems: From Refined Nanoscale Geometries to Selective Molecular Assembly},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-29114},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-291140},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Metallic nano-optical systems allow to confine and guide light at the nanoscale, a fascinating ability which has motivated a wide range of fundamental as well as applied research over the last two decades. While optical antennas provide a link between visible radiation and localized energy, plasmonic waveguides route light in predefined pathways. So far, however, most experimental demonstrations are limited to purely optical excitations, i.e. isolated structures are illuminated by external lasers. Driving such systems electrically and generating light at the nanoscale, would greatly reduce the device footprint and pave the road for integrated optical nanocircuitry. Yet, the light emission mechanism as well as connecting delicate nanostructures to external electrodes pose key challenges and require sophisticated fabrication techniques. This work presents various electrically connected nano-optical systems and outlines a comprehensive production line, thus significantly advancing the state of the art. Importantly, the electrical connection is not just used to generate light, but also offers new strategies for device assembly. In a first example, nanoelectrodes are selectively functionalized with self-assembled monolayers by charging a specific electrode. This allows to tailor the surface properties of nanoscale objects, introducing an additional degree of freedom to the development of metal-organic nanodevices. In addition, the electrical connection enables the bottom-up fabrication of tunnel junctions by feedback-controlled dielectrophoresis. The resulting tunnel barriers are then used to generate light in different nano-optical systems via inelastic electron tunneling. Two structures are discussed in particular: optical Yagi-Uda antennas and plasmonic waveguides. Their refined geometries, accurately fabricated via focused ion beam milling of single-crystalline gold platelets, determine the properties of the emitted light. It is shown experimentally, that Yagi-Uda antennas radiate light in a specific direction with unprecedented directionality, while plasmonic waveguides allow to switch between the excitation of two propagating modes with orthogonal near-field symmetry. The presented devices nicely demonstrate the potential of electrically connected nano-optical systems, and the fabrication scheme including dielectrophoresis as well as site-selective functionalization will inspire more research in the field of nano-optoelectronics. In this context, different future experiments are discussed, ranging from the control of molecular machinery to optical antenna communication.},
  subject      = {Nanooptik},
  language  = {en}
}