Consideration is given to the conditions under which floating drops of water, here referred to as water boules, form, exist and coalesce. Particular emphasis is placed on the part played by electric charge and electric fields in these processes. The literature is reviewed in terms of both the phenomenon of floating drops and of the development of hydrostatics, hydrodynamics and electrohydrodynamics as applicable to the subject. . Experimental investigations to ascertain the boundary conditions to the influence of such electrical forces are described, together with observations of the connected electrical events. It is confirmed that boules will fail to form at all, i) under conditions of high humidity, and ii) in the presence of an electric field greater than a certain value. This is investigated experimentally, and shown to be approximately 34kV/m, this figure being about two-thirds that previously reported. Boules traversing a plane water surface are demonstrated to acquire additional charge in the process. In the case of drops dispensed from a grounded source, forming boules and crossing a bulk water surface some 15cm wide, the additional charge gathered is significant. Boules of 0.055g mass were found to have a mean charge of 1.6 x 10-12C on leaving a water surface, having arrived as drops with an average charge of 5.8 x 10-14C. Possible charging mechanisms are discussed. The origin of the initial drop charge is considered, and measurements of this are presented from (i), conventional Faraday cup determinations, and (ii), induction methods applied to free-falling drops. Experimental investigation of the time-dependent electrical records of the coalescence of a dispensed drop with a plane water surface shows the whole coalescence process to have a two-part form. This detail is commonly hidden within more conventional charge-transfer measurements. For the coalescences investigated experimentally an small initial event is shown to occur, involving a charge transfer in the range 1.2 – 4.8 x 10-12C. Oscillograms taken from a large number of coalescences show this preliminary event to be a general feature of the coalescence process, with a number of such traces being appended to the thesis. This initial event is followed by a larger one where the signs of the signals from the drop and the bulk surface are opposite to those of the initial event, and whose potential magnitude is broadly in agreement with that anticipated by double layer disruption. The interfacial potential difference necessary for the onset of instability and subsequent coalescence in the case of closely opposed drops is shown to be dependent on the relative humidity of the ambient air. Consideration is given to G I Taylor’s equation describing the critical potential for the onset of instability between closely spaced drops, and this is shown experimentally to require correction for different humidities. It is demonstrated that the critical potential, Vc, at a relative humidity of 100% is approximately 50% of that at 40% RH. Possible reasons for this are discussed, drawing attention to the problem of establishing an accurate DC relative permittivity value for vapour-laden air in small interfacial gaps. The rôle of evaporation in modifying the system geometry is considered experimentally and theoretically, and shown to be significant only for humidities < 50%. The complex nature of the interface in the case of very small air-gaps is discussed, together with the implications of these investigations for the interfacial stability of a floating drop or boule system. A theoretical model based on a consideration of the complex liquid-air-liquid interface as a capacitive system is developed, and shown to be in good agreement with practical observations. This model demonstrates that the parts played by electrical forces, together with environmental factors, are likely to be significant in terms of coalescence at stages prior to gap thinning to the point where London/van-der-Waals forces become dominant. Interfacial potentials are calculated in a boule system at a number of times between 0.1 and 10 seconds, and shown to be sufficient to promote instability and coalescence. Full data based on a number of values of instability potentials is appended to the thesis. Development of the model raises questions concerning the validity of currently accepted values both for interfacial stability in small gaps and for the relative permittivity of humid air in similar situations. Suggestions are made for future work in such areas, together with possible methodologies. The phenomenon of floating water drops is therefore shown to be compatible with the general coalescence process, the event time being modified by such diverse factors as the impact energy with the surface, the ambient humidity and the magnitude of the initial drop charge. The latter is shown to be the dominant factor in the case of drops arriving on a clean surface with low kinetic energies, with the small charge inherent on any water drop being sufficient to produce potentials adequate to promote eventual instability.

Le développement de sources laser générant des impulsions femtoseconde à très haut taux de répétition est l'un des axes de recherche les plus porteur de ces 10 dernières années, et ouvre la voie pour de nombreuses applications industrielles et scientifiques. Les lasers à fibres permettent d'obtenir des sources de forte puissance moyenne, mais le fort confinement de la lumière générant de fortes non-linéarités, limite l'énergie des impulsions de sortie. Les amplificateurs à cristaux quant à eux, ne permettent généralement pas d'obtenir des impulsions aussi courtes que dans les lasers à fibres principalement à cause des propriétés spectroscopiques des cristaux, mais cependant ils permettent d'obtenir des énergies bien plus élevées. La post-compression par effets non-linéaires est une des solutions permettant de réduire la durée de ces impulsions. Cependant, les non-linéarités sont généralement préjudiciables, et limitent les performances des lasers (principalement en terme de qualité temporelle des impulsions). Une technique mise en oeuvre pour contrôler et exploiter positivement ces non-linéarités afin d'obtenir des impulsions courtes et de bonne qualité, tout en atteignant des énergies élevées dans les amplificateurs régénératifs à cristaux, est présentée dans cette thèse.L'application d'un étirement négatif à l'impulsion avant amplification, permet de compenser dans certaines conditions, la dispersion positive des composants de l'amplificateur ainsi que la phase non-linéaire accumulée durant l'amplification . Nous avons donc étudié théoriquement et expérimentalement les différents régimes d'amplification non-linéaire, afin de trouver les paramètres optimaux. Ceci à permis de démontrer des impulsions ultracourtes et d'excellentes qualités temporelles même avec de fortes intégrales B. En considérant le couplage de la dispersion et des effets non-linéaires, ainsi que la bande de gain des milieux à gain, nous avons pu générer des impulsions sub-100 fs pour des puissances crêtes de plusieurs centaines de MW. Ces résultats obtenus dans des amplificateurs à très fort gain (50 dB) nous ont permis d'établir de nouveaux records de durées pour ce type d'architectures.Une autre étude sur la montée en puissance a permis de dimensionner une nouvelle gamme d'amplificateurs à cristaux, exploitant la géométrie pavé (usuellement appelée "slab") pour optimiser l'évacuation thermique. Une source de plus de 60 W a été réalisée, démontrant le potentiel de montée en puissance de ce type d'amplificateurs. Nous avons également mis en évidence les limites de cette architecture, en montrant des dégradations spatiales liées aux effets thermiques, problèmes majeurs lors de la montée en puissance.5 articles ont été rédigés grâce à ces résultats théoriques et expérimentaux. Ces travaux ont été présentés dans dix conférences. Enfin, ils ont permis à la société Amplitude Systèmes de procéder à la mise sur le marché de deux nouvelles gammes de produits : un laser compact et intégré et le TANGOR 100 W. / The development of laser sources delivering femtosecond pulses at high repetition rate is one of the main axe of reaserch of these 10 past years and is a key for many industrial and scientific applications. In one hand, fiber lasers allow to reach high average power sources, but the strong confinment of the light leads to high nonlinearities limiting output pulse energy. In the other hand, bulk amplifiers cannot provide as short pulse duration as fiber lasers because of crystals spectroscopic properties. However they can reach higher energy. Usually nonlinear effects are deletarious and limit output temporal pulse quality. A technic to tailor and exploid positively these nonlinearities in order to obtain shorter pulses together with high pulse energy in bulk regenerative amplifier is presented in this thesis.Negative dispersion managment prior amplification permits to precompensate the amplifier positive dispersion together with the accumulated nonlinear phase aquired during amplification. In order to deliver ultrashort pulses with an excellent temporal quality theoritical studies have been carried out to optimise the paramaters. By considering dispersion, nonlinearities and limited gain bandwidth, we could demonstrated sub-100 fs pulses with a peak power of hundreds of MW. These results established new pulse duration record in high gain (50 dB) bulk amplifiers.Another study allowed to design new amplifier geometries for power scaling. This has been done by using slab crystal geometry to improved heat dissipation. More than 60W average power has been demonstrated, highlighting the potential of such architecture for high power lasers. We also studied limitations of such design, especially thermal degradation effects, which are one of the main issues of high power bulk amplifier.5 articles have been written thanks to these theoritical and experimental results and have been presented in 10 conferences. As industrial results Amplitude Systemes has lunched into market two new lines of products: a compact and all integrated laser and a TANGOR 100 W.