Advances in photonic materials are critical to the progress of photonic devices and optical systems. Even though a variety of materials, e.g. semiconductors, oxide based glasses, and polymers exist which are being used for numerous applications, there is a growing need to develop and find new materials in order to push the limits we are bound by with conventional materials, in pursuit of higher performance, higher levels of integration and lower cost. In this realm, new material development has had a considerable impact, as it is the material properties (optical, thermal, mechanical, electrical, ...) in addition to their processing and compatibilities with standard processes that enable us the creation of entirely new devices or improve the performance of currently available optical devices. In this dissertation, I will demonstrate the application of two new materials for novel photonic components. In the first part of the dissertation, I discuss how a hybrid approach to the silicon photonics platform can reduce thermal sensitivity using sol-gel based inorganic-organic hybrid materials. The approach is to design the optical waveguide so that it maintains its performance in a passive manner in response to environmental temperature variations and, thus, does not need external temperature control resulting in reduced electrical power consumption. Sol-gel materials are well-known, but they haven’t been exploited like polymers and titanium dioxide to be cladding layers to enable athermal silicon waveguides. In this work I show their advantages with respect to previous materials that were employed for athermal microring resonators. I studied the thermal curing parameters of the sol-gel and its effect on thermal wavelength shift of the microring resonance. With this method, I was able to achieve a thermal shift down to -6.8 pm/°C for transverse electric (TE) polarization, as well as thermal shifts below 1 pm/°C for transverse magnetic (TM) polarization in the C band under different curing conditions, all while preserving high Q resonator performance. The results and methodology described opens a new and more manufacturable approach to attain athermal silicon photonic devices. In the second part of the dissertation, I introduced a new, sulfur rich, low cost copolymer material developed by our colleagues in the chemistry department. This copolymer has unique properties that conventional optical polymers, such as polymethylmethacrylate and polycarbonate, lack, while also having low cost. I demonstrated that these polymers have very good processing capabilities, being easily moldable to make free space optical elements and solution processable for use in integrated optics. I studied their linear and nonlinear optical properties, finding them to possess high refractive indices and transparencies over a wide range from 550 nm to 6 µm, except for a small region of absorption from 3-3.3 µm. Finally, I demonstrated that these new copolymers are suitable and economical alternative for shortwave and midwave infrared optics (SWIR and MWIR, respectively).

Les nanoparticules d’or (AuNPs) intriguent tout particulièrement ces dernières années de par leurs propriétés fascinantes. Elles sont variables selon la forme et la taille des nanoparticules ce qui en fait des objets ouvrant des perspectives dans plusieurs domaines. L’or est d’autant plus intéressant qu’il a une grande flexibilité de ces bandes de résonance plasmon de surface, allant du visible au proche infrarouge (IR). Au cours de cette thèse, nous avons donc travaillé sur la synthèse d’AuNPs de tailles et de formes différentes pour pouvoir travailler à de nombreuses longueurs d’onde du visible à l’IR. Cette multitude de AuNPs nous a permis d’étudier l’effet de ces différentes résonances plasmons sur des chromophores afin d’essayer de comprendre les mécanismes de ces interactions. Le but final de ces travaux, outre l’amélioration de la compréhension de ces interactions, est la réalisation de matériaux monolithiques pour l’optique par une approche sol-gel permettant l’incorporation de molécules optiquement actives et de ces systèmes plasmoniques, qui donnent des propriétés intéressantes aux matériaux obtenus. Nous nous sommes intéressés plus précisément aux propriétés d’absorption non-linéaire, dans le but de réaliser des matériaux limiteurs optiques pour protéger des systèmes optiques contre des rayonnements intenses, comme les lasers. Ces systèmes ont commencé à être mis au point dans les thèses précédentes faites au laboratoire mais la compréhension amenée par ces travaux auront permis d’approfondir les interactions particules-chromophores et le rôle de la longueur d’onde de la résonance plasmon afin d’optimiser l’efficacité en limitation optique. / Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) particularly intrigued over the last decades because of their fascinating properties. They vary according to the size and shape of nanoparticles making objects opening opportunities in many areas. Gold is especially interesting since it has a great flexibility of these resonance surface plasmon bands ranging from the visible to near infrared (IR).In this thesis, we worked on the synthesis of AuNPs of different sizes and shapes in order to be able to work in many wavelengths from visible to IR. This multitude of AuNPs enabled us to study the effect of these different plasmon resonances of chromophores in an effort to understand the mechanisms of these interactions. The ultimate goal of this work, in addition to improving the understanding of these interactions, is the realization of monolithic materials for optics by a sol-gel approach allowing the incorporation of optically active molecules and these plasmonic systems, which give interesting properties to the obtained materials. We focused specifically on nonlinear absorption properties, in order to produce optical limiting materials to protect optical systems against intense radiation, such as lasers.These systems began to be developed in previous PhD thesis made in our laboratory but the understanding brought by this work have helped deepen the particles-chromophore interactions and the role of the wavelength of the plasmon resonance in order to optimize efficiency in optical limiting.

La pollution de l’air intérieur est aujourd’hui reconnue comme un enjeu de santé publique. La règlementation impose depuis 2012 un étiquetage des matériaux de construction et d’ameublement en matière d’émission de polluants volatils. Bien que les méthodes de mesure d’émission de polluants soient nombreuses, il n’existe aucun matériau-standard émissif de référence pour les polluants de l’air intérieur qui permettrait la comparaison et la validation des mesures d’émission. L’objectif de ce travail est de produire des matériaux émissifs de référence en utilisant des matériaux à porosité contrôlée avec des tailles de pores adaptées à celle du polluant-cible pour un relargage contrôlé en concentration en fonction du temps. Les matériaux étudiés sont des polymères inorganiques ou hybrides organique-inorganiques synthétisés par voie sol-gel sous forme de blocs monolithiques ou déposés sur des substrats solides (verre ou textile). Différents matériaux microporeux ou/et mésoporeux ont été dopés au toluène et au naphtalène par exposition à leur vapeur saturante pendant des durées variables (2h à plusieurs jours). Ceci permet d’étudier l’influence de la taille des pores du matériau sur la vitesse de relargage du polluant. Le suivi cinétique du relargage spontané des polluants est réalisé selon un 1er mode statique avec une mesure optique du spectre d’absorption du polluant gazeux dans l’UV en fonction du temps. Dans le 2ème mode, le relargage dynamique sous balayage d’air du matériau dopé disposé dans une cellule FLEC normalisée est réalisé avec une mesure en continu de la concentration du polluant par chromatographie en phase gazeuse. Nous avons montré qu’il est possible de produire des matériaux à porosité contrôlée avec des gammes de distributions de tailles de pores allant de 0,8 à 12 nm. En choisissant judicieusement la matrice poreuse et la durée de dopage et en contrôlant les conditions de mise en œuvre (température, humidité), nous pouvons imposer la vitesse de relargage du polluant. Les gammes de vitesses d’émission vont de 30 µg.m-3.h-1 (classe A+) à 8.104 µg.m-3.h-1 (classe C) pour le toluène et de 2,6.103 à 2,6.104 µg.m-3.h-1 pour le naphtalène. Ces résultats montrent que ces matériaux pourront être utilisés pour une large gamme de polluants. / Indoor air pollution is now recognized as a public health issue. Since 2012, the regulations have required the labelling of construction and furnishing materials with regard to the emission of volatile pollutants. Although there are many methods for measuring pollutant emissions, there is no standard reference emissive material for indoor air pollutants that would allow for comparison and validation of emission measurements. The objective of this work is to produce reference emissive materials by using porous materials with pore sizes tailored to the doped target pollutant with controlled release in pollutant concentration over time. The materials studied are inorganic or hybrid organic-inorganic polymers synthesized by sol-gel in the form of monolithic blocks or deposited on solid substrates (glass or textile). Various microporous and/or mesoporous materials have been doped with toluene and naphthalene pollutants by exposure to the latters’ saturated vapour for varying periods of time (2 hours to several days). The influence of the size of the pores of the material on the release of the pollutant has been studied. The kinetic monitoring of the spontaneous release of pollutants is carried out in two independent modes. A 1st static mode involves an optical measurement of the absorption spectrum of the gaseous pollutant in the UV as a function of time. In the 2nd mode, the dynamic air-sweeping release of the doped material placed in a standard FLEC cell is carried out with continuous measurement of the pollutant concentration by gas chromatography. We have shown that it is possible to produce materials with controlled porosity with narrow pore size distributions over the 0.8 to 12 nm domain. Further, by choosing judiciously the porous matrix and doping time and controlling the experimental conditions of release (temperature, humidity), we can impose the rate of release of the pollutant. The emission velocity ranges from 30 µg.m-3.h-1 (class A+) to 8.104 µg.m-3.h-1 (class C) for toluene and from 2.6.103 to 2.6.104 µg.m-3.h-1 for naphthalene. These results indicate that these materials can be used for a wide range of pollutants.