Neste trabalho são apresentadas a preparação, a metodologia adotada para a nucleação de nanopartículas (NPs) de prata e a investigação das propriedades luminescentes do sistema vítreo GeO2-PbO dopado com íons de túlio e codopado com íons de túlio e itérbio, na presença de NPs de prata, visando aplicação em dispositivos fotônicos. Este sistema vítreo apresenta uma larga janela de transmissão (400 4500 nm) quando comparado aos silicatos, boratos e fosfatos, alto índice de refração (2,0), baixas energia de fônon (700 cm-1), alta resistência mecânica e durabilidade química. Com a finalidade de se obter maior controle sobre o processo de nucleação das NPs, realizaram-se tratamentos térmicos de várias formas, variando-se principalmente as grandezas tempo e temperatura. A partir da Microscopia Eletrônica de Transmissão (MET), a presença das NPs no material vítreo pôde ser confirmada, e pelas análises de Espectroscopia de Energia Dispersiva (EDS Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy), determinamos que as NPs possuem em sua composição prata, podendo elas serem puramente metálicas, e em alguns casos, compostas de prata e elementos da matriz. As medidas de absorção evidenciaram a incorporação dos íons Tm3+ e Yb3+ na forma trivalente, e a presença das bandas de absorção associadas à Ressonância dos Plasmons Superficiais (RPS) da prata, localizadas no intervalo de 420 a 550 nm. Foram medidas as bandas associadas à conversão ascendente (CA) do Tm3+ em 480, 650 e 800 nm, devidas às transições 1G4 3H6, 1G4 3F4, 3H4 3H6, respectivamente. Nas amostras contendo NPs de prata, tratadas a 420 °C, não foi observada a banda de RPS da prata. Entretanto, um aumento na luminescência foi verificado, assim como a presença das NPs por MET. No caso das amostras tratadas por intervalos de tempo contínuos e não-contínuos, observamos a tendência de formação de NPs menores, maiores e agregados, e maior tendência de aumento da luminescência para o segundo caso; no caso da variação da temperatura, observamos a formação da banda de RPS da prata para tratamentos superiores a 500 °C realizados em curto intervalo de tempo, e um aumento considerável da luminescência. As variações no processo de nucleação das NPs foram relacionadas às formas de tratamento adotadas. O estudo da variação da intensidade de luminescência em função da potência do laser de excitação mostrou que as NPs não interferem nos processos de CA dos íons Tm3+. Desta forma, o aumento da luminescência foi atribuído ao aumento do campo local nas proximidades dos íons de terras-raras (TRs). Portanto, o desenvolvimento de um método adequado de tratamento térmico desempenha um papel fundamental no processo de nucleação das NPs, e pode permitir um aumento considerável da luminescência proveniente dos íons de TRs, e conferir novas propriedades aos materiais e aplicações em dispositivos fotônicos. / This work presents the preparation and the methodology used for the nucleation of silver nanoparticles (NPs), and the investigation of the luminescent properties of PbO-GeO2 glass system doped with thulium ions and codoped with thulium and ytterbium ions, in the presence of NPs silver, for application in photonic devices. This glass system presents a large transmission window (400 4500 nm) when compared to silicates, borates and phosphates, high refractive index (2.0), low phonon energy (700 cm-1), high mechanical strength and chemical durability. In order to obtain greater control over the process of nucleation of NPs, different processes were used for the heat-treatment, varying mainly the time and the temperature. From the transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the presence of NPs in the glassy material could be confirmed, and from Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) analysis, it was determined that the NPs have silver in their composition. The NPs may be purely metallic and, in some cases, composed by silver and elements of the matrix glass. Optical Absorption measurements showed the incorporation of Tm3+ and Yb3+ ions in the trivalent form, and the presence of absorption bands related to the Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) of silver, located in the range of 420 to 550 nm. Bands associated to Tm3+ upconversion (UPC) frequency centered around 480, 650 and 800 nm were observed due to transitions 1G4 3H6, 1G4 3F4, 3H4 3H6, respectively. The SPR of silver NPs were not observed for the samples heat-treated at 420 °C, which contained silver NPs in their composition. However, an increase in the luminescence was observed and the presence of NPs was confirmed by TEM analyses. For the samples heat-treated by continuous and non-continuous time intervals, we observed the tendency of the formation of smaller, larger and aggregated NPs, and a higher tendency of enhancement of the luminescence for the second case. For the samples heat-treated at different temperatures in short time interval, we observed the formation of the SPR band for temperatures higher than 500 °C, and a considerable increase in the luminescence. Variations in the process of NPs nucleation were related to the different heat-treatments adopted. The study of the luminescence intensity variation as function of the laser power excitation showed that the NPs do not interfere in the Tm3+ UPC luminescence processes. Thus, the enhancement in the luminescence was attributed to local field enhancement in the proximities of rare-earth ions (REIs). Therefore, the development of an appropriate method of heat-treatment plays an important role in the process of NPs nucleation, and enables a considerable increase in the luminescence from the REIs, and gives new properties to materials which are of great interest for applications in photonic devices.

Cette thèse rapporte les premières études exploratoires menées en vue de réaliser un amplificateur optique fonctionnant dans la bande S des télécommunications (autour de 1470 nm) dans une fibre en silice dopée au thulium dans le but d'augmenter la bande passante utilisable par le procédé de multiplexage en longueur d'onde (WDM) des réseaux optiques en silice standard. Pour permettre d'amplifier un signal optique à l'aide des ions de thulium dans une fibre composé d'un verre à haute énergie de phonon comme la silice, nous avons adapté les processus de fabrication des préforme par MCVD de manière à modifier de moins de 10% mol la composition du cœur de silice de la fibre. Ainsi, l'apport d'Al2O3 permet, en modifiant l'environnement des terres rares, de réduire les désexcitations non radiatives entre les niveaux 3H4 et 3H5 des ions de thulium. Le temps de vie du niveau 3H4 est ainsi multiplié par 3, de 14us pour la silice pure à 50us pour 8,7 %mol d'al2O3. L'efficacité quantique passe alors de 2% à plus de 8%. Grâce à cette amélioration du matériau et à l'optimisation des paramètres optogéométriques de la fibre optique à l'aide d'un modèle numérique, nous avons pu mesurer l'amplification en bande S d'un signal lumineux sur un échantillon majoritairement composé de silice fabriqué au laboratoire. Ce gain, de plus de 1dB pour 1400mW de puissance de pompe optique, est un résultat de premier ordre pour ce type de dispositif, validant l'approche de la modification de l'environnement du thulium dans la silice. De plus les simulations numériques prédisent un gain supérieur à 20 dB pour 1W de puissance de pompe pour le matériau élaboré, avec un schéma de pompage plus efficace.

High power thulium fiber lasers are interesting for a myriad of applications due to their potential for high average output power, excellent beam quality, compactness, portability, high operating efficiency and broad, eye-safe spectral range from 1.8-2.1 microns. Currently, the majority of thulium laser research effort is being invested into scaling average output powers; however, such output powers are being scaled with no degree of control on laser system output spectrum or temporal behavior. Thulium fiber laser technology is not useful for many of its most important applications without implementation of techniques enabling tunable, narrow spectral widths with appropriate pulse durations for particular applications. This work outlines several techniques for spectral control of thulium fiber lasers and investigates scaling of average laser powers while using these techniques to maintain a desired spectral output. In addition, an examination of operation in both nanosecond and picosecond pulsed regimes and scaling of average powers and pulse energies in these regimes to useful power levels is conducted. The demonstration of thulium fiber laser systems for applications in frequency conversion and spectral beam combination is also discussed. In addition to the experimental results, theoretical modeling of thulium fiber amplifier operation, simple thermal management analysis, as well as practical fiber and system design considerations for future power scaling are presented. Experimental and theoretical results of this work will enable the successful design of future extremely high power spectrally and temporally controlled thulium fiber laser systems.

Tellurite glass is a material with advantageous optical properties, such as high transparency from visible to mid-infrared wavelengths, high nonlinearity, and high solubility of light-emitting rare earth dopants. Although tellurite has been investigated in fibers and in some waveguide studies, there is still much to explore about it in integrated photonics. Here, we use a hybrid platform that monolithically combines tellurite with commercially available silicon nitride chips. The platform leverages silicon nitride’s many advantages, including its low propagation losses, mature fabrication techniques with small feature sizes, and low cost for mass production, to enable the development of new on-chip tellurite glass light sources. This thesis aims to study the optical properties of distributed Bragg reflector cavities and explore their potential for lasing when the tellurite is doped with different rare earths, namely erbium and thulium. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the context of this work, introducing the materials and cavity used here. Chapter 2 introduces the basic theory behind waveguides and Bragg gratings, as well as rare earth rate equation gain models, coupled mode theory, and a laser model based on the shooting method. Chapter 3 discusses the design, fabrication, and characterization of passive properties of distributed Bragg reflector cavities using undoped tellurite. Chapters 4 and 5 present proof-of-concept laser demonstrations, by using tellurite doped with erbium and thulium, respectively. These lasers constitute the first demonstrations of distributed Bragg reflector lasers in this hybrid tellurite-silicon nitride platform. Chapter 6 combines the laser model introduced in Chapter 2 with the designs and results from Chapters 3–5 to investigate different routes to optimize the laser performances by studying how their efficiencies vary with different parameters, such as background loss, cavity and grating lengths, and rare earth concentration. Chapter 7 summarizes this work and provides insights into future research work. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Integrated photonics is an emerging technology that revolves around tiny circuits on chips, similar to electronics, but using light instead of electricity. Photonic integrated circuits can help achieve faster and more power-efficient devices for a wide range of applications. In this work, we explore the potential of tellurite glass, a material that has promising optical properties, to achieve on-chip lasers. Lasers are one of the fundamental components in these light-driven circuits but are challenging to be realized on a chip-scale. We achieved compact lasers, which are more than ten times thinner than a strand of hair, a couple of centimeters long, and emit invisible (infrared) eye-safe light. These devices are compatible with volume production and there is much room for optimizing them. The lasers investigated here are highly promising for applications including imaging systems (LiDAR) for autonomous vehicles, augmented and virtual reality, data communications, and chemical and physical sensors.

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Fiber based ultrashort pulse laser sources are desirable for many applications; however generating high peak powers in fiber lasers is primarily limited by the onset of nonlinear effects such as self-phase modulation, stimulated Raman scattering, and self-focusing. Increasing the fiber core diameter mitigates the onset of these nonlinear effects, but also allows unwanted higher-order transverse spatial modes to propagate. Both large core diameters and single-mode propagation can be simultaneously attained using photonic crystal fibers. Thulium-doped fiber lasers are attractive for high peak power ultrashort pulse systems. They offer a broad gain bandwidth, capable of amplifying sub-100 femtosecond pulses. The longer center wavelength at 2 ?m theoretically enables higher peak powers relative to 1 [micro]m systems since nonlinear effects inversely scale with wavelength. Also, the 2 [micro]m emission is desirable to support applications reaching further into the mid-IR. This work evaluates the performance of a novel all-fiber pump combiner that incorporates a thulium-doped photonic crystal fiber. This fully integrated amplifier is characterized and possesses a large gain bandwidth, essentially single-mode propagation, and high degree of polarization. This innovative all-fiber, thulium-doped photonic crystal fiber amplifier has great potential for enabling high peak powers in 2 [micro]m fiber systems; however the current optical-to-optical efficiency is low relative to similar free-space amplifiers. Further development and device optimization will lead to higher efficiencies and improved performance.

The aim of this thesis is to develop both Yb and Tm fiber laser sources with all fiber cavities. Both wavelength ranges provide useful laser sources for optical pumping of helium. The goal is to develop Tm laser sources operating at 2058 nm to optically quench 3He (2058.63 nm) and 4He (2058.69 nm) singlets (21S0). We also have developed Yb laser sources at 1083 nm to optical pump the triplet states of helium and laser cool an atomic beam of helium.

No description available.