Femtosecond laser interaction with dielectrics has unique characteristics for micromachining, notably non-thermal interaction with materials, precision and flexibility. The nature of this interaction is highly nonlinear due to multiphoton ionization, so the laser energy can be nonlinearly absorbed by the material, leading to permanent change in the material properties in a localized region of Mu-m3. This dissertation demonstrated the potential of these nonlinear interactions induced changes (index modification and ablation for machining) in the dielectrics and explored several practical applications. We studied femtosecond laser ablation of Poly-methayl methacrylate (PMMA) under single and multiple pulse irradiation regimes. We demonstrated that the onset of surface ablation in dielectric surface is associated with surface swelling, followed by material removal. Also, the shape of the ablation craters becomes polarization dependent with increasing fluence, except for circular polarization. The morphology of the damaged/ablated material was examined by optical and scanning electron microscopy. The dynamics of laser ablation of PMMA was simulated using a 2 dimensional Molecular Dynamics model and a 3 dimensional Finite Difference Time Domain model. The results from numerical simulations agreed well with experimental results presented in this thesis. We also demonstrated the formation of nano-pillar within the ablation crater when the surface of bulk-PMMA was irradiated by two femtosecond pulses at a certain delay with energies below single shot ablation threshold. With increasing fluence, the nano-pillar vanished and the structure within the ablation crater resembled volcanic eruption. At higher fluences we demonstrated nanoscale porosity in PMMA. For application, a novel in-line fiber micro-cantilever was fabricated in bend insensitive fiber, that provides details of in-line measurement of frequency and amplitude of vibration, and can be further extended to be used as chemical/bio and temperature sensors. By modifying the refractive index at random spacing within the single mode fiber core, a unique quasi-random micro-cavities fiber laser was fabricated, which exhibits comparable characteristics with a commercial fiber laser in terms of narrow linewidth and frequency stability.

High-temperature superconductors belong to the group of strongly correlated materials. In these compounds, complex repulsive electron interactions and a large number of degrees of freedom lead to a rich variety of states of matter. Exotic phases like the pseudogap, charge-, spin- and pair-density waves, but also the remarkable phenomenon of superconductivity emerge, depending on doping level and temperature. However, up to now it is unclear what exactly causes these states, to what extent they are coexisting or competing, and where their borders in the phase diagram lie. A better understanding could help in finding the mechanism behind high-temperature superconductivity, but would also provide a better insight into the puzzling behavior of strongly correlated materials. This thesis tries to resolve some of these questions with focus on the underdoped pseudogap regime. Mesa structures of bismuth-based cuprate superconductors were studied using intrinsic tunneling, which allows spectroscopic characterizations of electronic density of states inside the material. A micro/nano fabrication method was developed to further reduce mesa areas into the sub square-micrometer range, in order to minimize the effect of crystal defects and measurement artifacts caused by heating induced by the measurement current. The comparison of energy scales in Bi-2201 and Bi-2212 cuprates shows that the pseudogap phenomenon is not connected to superconductivity, but possibly represents a competing spin-singlet order that is universal to all cuprates. The analysis of the upper critical field in Bi-2201 reveals a low anisotropy, which gives evidence of paramagnetically limited superconductivity. Furthermore, a new electrical doping method is demonstrated, which enables the reversible tuning the doping level of Bi-2212 and study a broad doping range upon a single sample. Using this method, two distinct critical points were observed under the superconducting dome in the phase diagram: one at the overdoped side, associated with the onset of the pseudogap and a metal to insulator transition, and one at optimal doping, associated with an enhanced "dressed" electron energy. Finally, a novel angular-dependent magnetotunneling technique is introduced, which allows for the separation of the superconducting and non-superconducting contributions to the pseudogap phenomenon. The method reveals that after an abrupt decay of the energy gap for T→Tc, weak superconducting correlations persist up to several tens of degrees above Tc.