The development of communications technologies has led to an ever-increasing requirement for a wider bandwidth of microwave signal processing systems. To overcome the inherent electronic speed limitations, photonic techniques have been developed for the processing of ultra-broadband microwave signals. A dispersive delay line (DDL) is able to introduce different time delays to different spectral components, which are used to implement signal processing functions, such as time reversal, time delay, dispersion compensation, Fourier transformation and pulse compression. An electrical DDL is usually implemented based on a surface acoustic wave (SAW) device or a synthesized C-sections microwave transmission line, with a bandwidth limited to a few GHz. However, an optical DDL can have a much wider bandwidth up to several THz. Hence, an optical DDL can be used for the processing of an ultra-broadband microwave signal. In this thesis, we will focus on using a DDL based on a linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating (LCFBG) for the processing of broadband microwave signals. Several signal processing functions are investigated in this thesis. 1) A broadband and precise microwave time reversal system using an LCFBG-based DDL is investigated. By working in conjunction with a polarization beam splitter, a wideband microwave waveform modulated on an optical pulse can be temporally reversed after the optical pulse is reflected by the LCFBG for three times thanks to the opposite dispersion coefficient of the LCFBG when the optical pulse is reflected from the opposite ends. A theoretical bandwidth as large as 273 GHz can be achieved for the time reversal. 2) Based on the microwave time reversal using an LCFBG-based DDL, a microwave photonic matched filter is implemented for simultaneously generating and compressing an arbitrary microwave waveform. A temporal convolution system for the calculation of real time convolution of two wideband microwave signals is demonstrated for the first time. 3) The dispersion of an LCFBG is determined by its physical length. To have a large dispersion coefficient while maintaining a short physical length, we can use an optical recirculating loop incorporating an LCFBG. By allowing a microwave waveform to travel in the recirculating loop multiple times, the microwave waveform will be dispersed by the LCFBG multiple times, and the equivalent dispersion will be multiple times as large as that of a single LCFBG. Based on this concept, a time-stretch microwave sampling system with a record stretching factor of 32 is developed. Thanks to the ultra-large dispersion, the system can be used for single-shot sampling of a signal with a bandwidth up to a THz. The study in using the recirculating loop for the stretching of a microwave waveform with a large stretching factor is also performed. 4) Based on the dispersive loop with an extremely large dispersion, a photonic microwave arbitrary waveform generation system is demonstrated with an increased the time-bandwidth product (TBWP). The dispersive loop is also used to achieve tunable time delays by controlling the number of round trips for the implementation of a photonic true time delay beamforming system.

The objective of this dissertation is to generate high power ultrashort optical pulses from an all-semiconductor mode-locked laser system. The limitations of semiconductor optical amplifier in high energy, ultrashort pulse amplification are reviewed. A method to overcome the fundamental limit of small stored energy inside semiconductor optical amplifier called "eXtreme Chirped Pulse Amplification (X-CPA)" is proposed and studied theoretically and experimentally. The key benefits of the concept of X-CPA are addressed. Based on theoretical and experimental study, an all-semiconductor mode-locked X-CPA system consisting of a mode-locked master oscillator, an optical pulse pre-stretcher, a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) pulse picker, an extreme pulse stretcher/compressor, cascaded optical amplifiers, and a bulk grating compressor is successfully demonstrated and generates >kW record peak power. A potential candidate for generating high average power from an X-CPA system, novel grating coupled surface emitting semiconductor laser (GCSEL) devices, are studied experimentally. The first demonstration of mode-locking with GCSELs and associated amplification characteristics of grating coupled surface emitting SOAs will be presented. In an effort to go beyond the record setting results of the X-CPA system, a passive optical cavity amplification technique in conjunction with the X-CPA system is constructed, and studied experimentally and theoretically.

Ce travail de thèse porte sur les mécanismes d’amorçage en détonation par choc des explosifs solides de type coulé-fondu. Les explosifs solides sont des matériaux hétérogènes constitués de grains de matière énergétique dans un liant pouvant être lui-même énergétique. Si l’existence des points chauds, sites préférentiels d’initiation des réactions chimiques à l’échelle locale, est largement reconnue, la topologie de la croissance des réactions, et l’influence de la microstructure sur cette dernière n’est que peu étudiée dans les explosifs coulés-fondus. Deux familles d’explosifs ont été retenues pour cette étude : les hexolites, mélanges de grains d’hexogène (RDX) et d’un liant trinitrotoluène (TNT) et les ontalites, composées d’oxynitrotriazole (ONTA) et de TNT. Les recherches se sont orientées autour du triptyque : caractérisation – expérimentations – modélisation.Un important travail de compilation et de ré-exploitation de données issues de la littérature, associé à une modélisation des équations d’état des explosifs purs, ont permis de définir des lois permettant de calculer le comportement de ces derniers sous choc. Ces lois ont ensuite été validées par une méthode de mélange sur différentes compositions coulées-fondues et composites. Parallèlement, la microstructure des compositions d’étude a également été caractérisée via des mesures de granulométrie et de microtomographie, inédites sur ce type d’explosif.Des expérimentations d’impact plan soutenu ont été réalisées afin d’établir les diagrammes de marche des ondes de choc réactives, permettant de relier la profondeur de transition à la détonation à la pression de sollicitation. Elles ont permis de mettre en lumière l’influence de la microstructure sur la sensibilité au choc de deux hexolites et d’acquérir des données sur deux ontalites. L’utilisation de deux métrologies innovantes, la radio-interférométrie à 94 GHz et les fibres optiques à réseau de Bragg, a permis de mesurer la transition choc – détonation (TCD) de façon continue avec une résolution inédite. Enfin des essais d’impact plan non soutenu ont été réalisés à des fins de validation.Un modèle de TCD est proposé. Ce dernier, basé sur une approche de germination-croissance des fronts de déflagration à l’échelle locale, permet de prendre en compte la microstructure des explosifs. Ces travaux semblent mettre en évidence l’influence de la fracturation des grains d’explosif sous choc, qu’il conviendra d’étudier dans le futur. Enfin, une étape de terminaison des réactions lors de la TCD, associée à des calculs thermocinétiques détaillés, a été étudiée. / This study deals with the detonation initiation by shock of condensed melt-cast high explosives. Solid explosives are heterogeneous materials, made of energetic material grains in a binder, which can be energetic itself. If the existence of hot-spots, preferred initiation sites for chemical reaction at the local scale, is widely recognized, the reaction growth topology, and the microstructure influence, are poorly known for melt-cast explosives. We study here two melt-cast explosive families: hexolites, a mix of hexogen (RDX) grains and trinitrotoluene (TNT) binder, and ontalites made of nitrotriazolone (NTO) and TNT. This study has been focused on the triptyque: characterization - experimentations - modeling.An important work of compilation and re-exploitation of literature data, combined with pure explosives’ equation of state modeling, allowed us to define laws to calculate the explosives’ comportment under a shock solicitation. These ones have been validated, thanks to a mixing method, on different melt-cast and cast-curd plastic bonded explosives. At the same time, the compositions’ microstructure has been also characterized via granulometry measurements and microtomographies, never published for this type of explosive.Plate impact tests have been performed in order to establish the reactive shock trajectory of these compositions, allowing us to determine the relation between the run-distance of detonation and the input pressure. It brought the microstructure influence on hexolite shock sensitivity to light, and gave us some first results for ontalites. The use of continuous and innovative measurements, as microwave interferometry and chirped fiber Bragg gratings, allowed us to study the shock to detonation transition (SDT) with a resolution never seen before. Finally, non-sustained plate impact test have been performed for a validation purpose.A SDT model is proposed. Based on a germination-growth approach of deflagration fronts at the local scale, it takes into account the explosive’s microstructure. This work seems to show the grain fragmentation under shock influence, point we will have to study in the future. Finally, a completion step of reactions, associated with chemical kinetics calculations, has been studied.