In the mid-1920s, the great Albert Einstein proposed that at extremely low temperatures, a gas of bosonic particles will enter a new phase where a large fraction of them occupy the same quantum state. This state would bring many of the peculiar features of quantum mechanics, previously reserved for small samples consisting only of a few atoms or molecules, up to a macroscopic scale. This is what we today call a Bose-Einstein condensate. It would take physicists almost 70 years to realize Einstein's idea, but in 1995 this was finally achieved. The research on Bose-Einstein condensates has since taken many directions, one of the most exciting being to study their behavior when they are placed in optical lattices generated by laser beams. This has already produced a number of fascinating results, but it has also proven to be an ideal test-ground for predictions from certain nonlinear lattice models. Because on the other hand, nonlinear science, the study of generic nonlinear phenomena, has in the last half century grown out to a research field in its own right, influencing almost all areas of science and physics. Nonlinear localization is one of these phenomena, where localized structures, such as solitons and discrete breathers, can appear even in translationally invariant systems. Another one is the (in)famous chaos, where deterministic systems can be so sensitive to perturbations that they in practice become completely unpredictable. Related to this is the study of different types of instabilities; what their behavior are and how they arise. In this thesis we compare classical and quantum mechanical nonlinear lattice models which can be applied to BECs in optical lattices, and also examine how classical nonlinear concepts, such as localization, chaos and instabilities, can be transfered to the quantum world.

Les résonateurs à modes de galerie sont des cavités diélectriques qui supportent des modes à très haut facteur de qualité et à faible volume qui demeurent confinés à l'interface air-diélectrique pour des durées pouvant atteindre voire dépasser la microseconde. L'intérêt de ce fort confinement des modes pour de longues durées est l'accentuation de l'interaction lumière-matière. Par conséquent, de nombreuses interactions non-linéaires telles que l'effet Kerr ou encore l'effet Brillouin à des puissances seuil inversement proportionnelles au carré voire au cube du facteur de qualité du résonateur ont lieu en son sein. Ces propriétés donnent accès à de nombreuses applications dans des domaines divers et variés tels que la spectroscopie, les télécommunications ou encore les micro-ondes. Les travaux de cette thèse ont pour but d'exploiter les non-linéarités Kerr et Brillouin dans les résonateurs à mode galerie à la longueur d'onde de 1550 nm afin de générer des micro-ondes ultra-stables à des fréquences comprises entre 5 et 30 GHz. Le premier chapitre introduit la théorie, la fabrication, le couplage et la caractérisation de résonateurs à des modes de galerie. Le second chapitre concerne la génération de micro-ondes. Nous y présentons nos résultats expérimentaux, la modélisation numérique de peignes de Kerr, ainsi que l'analyse d'instabilités oscillatoires d'origine thermique observées lors de nos travaux expérimentaux, puis nous concluons. Le dernier chapitre traite de l'interaction photons-phonons via le processus de diffusion Brillouin stimulée dans ces mêmes expérimentaux ainsi que le modèle temporel que nous avons développé pour suivre la dynamique de l'onde transmise et de celle rétrodiffusée. Le dernier chapitre conclue nos travaux. Les travaux présentés dans ce manuscrit ont été financé par l'European Research Council dans le cadre du projet NextPhase. / Whispering galery mode resonators are dielectric cavities that support modes with ultra-high quality factor and small volume that remain confined in their inner periphery for time duratioons that can be as long as few microseconds. The strong confinement of these modes for such long durations strongly enhances nonlinear effect suchs as Kerr effect or Brillouin effect. These resonators can therefore be used for several applications such as spectroscopy, telecommunications or microwave generation. The objective of this thesis is to use Kerr and Brillouin nonlinearities in these resonators at the laser wavelength of 1550 nm, in order to generate high spectral purity microwave signals with frequencies rangong fros 5 to 30 GHz. The first chapter oh the thesis intriduces the theory, fabrication, coupling and characterisation of whispering gallery mode resonators. The second chapter is about the generation of Kerr optical frequency combs in these resonators and their application to the generation of microwave signals. We present our experimental resuktsdn the numerical modelling of Kerr combs, the analysis of oscillatory instabilities (due to thermal effect) observed during our experiments, and conclue. The third chapter concerns photon-phonon interactions via stimulated Brillouin scattering in these resonators and their application to the generation of microwave signals. We present our experimental results and the temporal model that we developed to track the dynamics of the forward and backscattered fields. The last chapter conclude the thesis. The research presented in this thesis has benne funded by the European Research Council through the project Nextphase.