This dissertation has three parts which are distinctive from the perspective of their frequency regime of operation and from the nature of their contributions to the science and engineering communities. The first part describes work that was conducted on a vertical-external-cavity surface emitting-laser (VECSEL) in the optical frequency regime. We designed, fabricated, and tested a hybrid distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirror for a VECSEL sub-cavity operating at the laser emission wavelength of 1057 nm. The DBR mirror was terminated with a highly reflecting gold surface and integrated with an engineered pattern of titanium. This hybrid mirror achieved a reduction in half of the number of DBR layer pairs in comparison to a previously reported, successful VECSEL chip. Moreover, the output power of our VECSEL chip was measured to be beyond 4.0Wwith an optical-to-optical efficiency of 19.4%. Excellent power output stability was demonstrated; a steady 1.0 W output at 15.0 W pump power was measured for over an hour. The second part reports on an ultrafast in situ pump-probing of the nonequlibrium dynamics of the gain medium of a VECSEL under mode-locked conditions. We proposed and successfully tested a novel approach to measure the response of the inverted carriers in the active region of a VECSEL device while it was operating under passively mode-locked conditions. We employed the dual-frequency-comb spectroscopy (DFCS) technique using an asynchronous optical sampling (ASOPS) method based on modified time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) to measure the nonequilibrium dynamics of the gain medium of a phase-locked VECSEL that we designed and fabricated to operate at the1030 nm emission wavelength. Our spectroscopic studies used a probe pulse of 100 fs and an in situ pump pulse of 13 ps. We probed the gain medium of the VECSEL and recorded a depletion time of 13 ps, a fast recovery period of 17 ps, and 110 ps for the slow recovery time. Our scans thus demonstrated a 140 ps full depletion-recovery cycle in the nonequilibrium state. The third part discusses work in the microwave and millimeter wave frequency regimes. A new method to fabricate Luneburg lenses was proposed and demonstrated. This type of lens is well known; it is versatile and has been used for many applications, including high power radars, satellite communications, and remote sensing systems. Because the fabrication of such a lens requires intricate and time consuming processes, we demonstrated the design, fabrication and testing of a Luneburg lens prototype using a 3-D printing rapid prototyping technique both at the X and Ka-V frequency bands. The measured results were in very good agreement with their simulated values. The fabricated X-band lens had a 12 cm diameter and produced a beam having a maximum gain of 20 dB and a beam directivity (half-power beam width (HPBW)) ranging from 12° to 19°). The corresponding Ka-V band lens had a 7 cm diameter; it produced a beam with a HPBW about the same as the X-band lens, but with a maximum gain of more than 20 dB.

Orientador: Daniel Pereira / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Fisica Gleb Wataghin / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T18:30:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Costa_LeversonFariasLamonier_D.pdf: 15914858 bytes, checksum: 1c9b9d5747ffb493f5451d81d2898051 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: Neste trabalho realizamos três importantes etapas: 1) montar e caracterizar um laser selado de 13C02, 2) empregar o laser selado de 13C02 como fonte de bombeamento óptico para a molécula de metanol CH30H, e utilizá-lo pela primeira vez, para excitar o isótopo de metanol 13CH30H para geração de ondas na região do TeraHertz (THz) e 3) Propor "assignments" para as transições THz do CH30H e do 13CH30H. Para excitar as respectivas moléculas de metanol, um tubo comercial selado de 13C02 foi montado e caracterizado num ressonador laser Fabry-Perot. Dois cabeçotes de aluminio foram conectados por 4 barras de invar, separado em 135cm. Em um dos cabeçotes, temos uma grade de difração (150 linhas/mm) na configuração Littrow para selecionar as linhas de emissao do respectivo laser. 0 2° cabeçote suporta um espelho de saída de ZnSe (90% de refletividade com 10m de raio de curvatura) acoplado num PZT para sintonia fina da frequência do laser. No sistema de alimentação, usamos uma fonte de alta tensão comercial (25kV, 8mA) operando em regime DC. Com isso, utilizamos o respectivo laser para excitar as moléculas CH30H e 13CH30H, onde fomos pioneiro no uso do mesmo para bombeio óptico da molécula 13CH30H. Decorrente disso, obtemos os espectros de absorção em torno de cada linha de emissão do 13C02 dos respectivos metanol. Estes dados serviram de referenda para investigação sistemática de novas emissões THz, onde observamos e caracterizamos 12 novas linhas THz do CH30H e 19 do 13CH30H. Todas foram caracterizadas em relação ao seu comprimento de onda, offset, pressao de trabalho, polaridade e intensidade relativa.Utilizando os dados de linhas THz observados por nós, e os espectros de absorção a Transformada de Fourier do CH30H e do 13CH30H, um programa computacional intitulado "Ritz", identificou "assignments" para 4 transições THz do CH30H e 9 emissoes THz para 13CH30H, respectivamente / Abstract: In this work we accomplish three important tasks: to mount and to characterize a laser sealed-off 13C02 to optically pump first time methanol molecules CH30H and 13CH30H for generation of TeraHertz waves; Proposed assignments for transistions THz of the CH30H and 13CH30H. For optical pumping we use a commercial sealed-off 13C02, tube in a homemade Fabry-Perot laser resonator, mounted on two aluminum blocks connected by invar rods and separeted by 1.35m. One block holds a grating (150grooves/mm) used in Littrow configuration to select the emission line, while the second block supports a ZnSe output mirror (90% reflectivity and 10m radius of curvature) mounted on a PZT for fine frequency tuning. We use high voltage power supply (25kV, 8mA) to operate the 13C02 laser in CW regime. A cooling system maintains operation of the laser tube at -10o C. Output powers of l0 W and 1l0 MHz tuning range are typical for lines with higher optical gains. After, molecules CH30H and 13CH30H, optoacoustics spectroscopy (OA) signal, obtained around each sealed-off 13C02 laser line were the starting point to search for THz laser lines. For the more intense OA signal, a systematic investigation was performed to observe and characterize 12 new THz lines of the CH30H and 19 THz emissions of 13CH30H that they had been characterized in wavelength, offset, working pressure, relativepolarity and relative intensity. The available data has been compared a Ritz analysis of the high-resolution Fourier-Transform absorption spectrum of CH30H and 13CH30H, resulting in the assignments for 4 THz transistions of the CH30H and 9 THz emissions for 13CH30H, respectively / Doutorado / Física Atômica e Molecular / Doutor em Ciências