Neste trabalho desenvolvemos processos de crescimento e caracterização de fibras monocristalinas de SrTiO3 e Sr2RuO4 puros e como soluções sólidas através da técnica LHPG (laser heated pedestal growth). Esses processos são descritos desde as sínteses dos compostos, preparação dos nutrientes e sementes necessários para aplicação da técnica. Alguns resultados inéditos foram obtidos relativos à influência de cada um desses procedimentos e das alterações de parâmetros próprios da técnica na qualidade e características das fibras monocristalinas obtidas através dos resultados da caracterização estrutural, composicional e elétrica das fibras desses compostos. Diversas fibras monocristalinas de SrTiO3 puro foram obtidas diretamente a partir de nutrientes dos reagentes SrCO3 e TiO2, enquanto que, fibras monocristalinas de Sr2RuO4, (um novo composto de grande interesse tecnológico), foram obtidas de nutrientes de SrRuO3. A importância desses dois últimos resultados, inéditos até então, será discutida em detalhes neste trabalho. Deficiência de rutênio de até 75% do valor nominal dos nutrientes, além de gradientes de composição indesejados, foram encontrados no volume das fibras monocristalinas de algumas composições da solução sólida. Neste último caso a qualidade das fibras parece depender fortemente da taxa de puxamento do nutriente e da semente, respectivamente, bem como do processo utilizado na preparação da matéria prima. / In this work we developed characterization and crystal growth processes of Sr2RuO4, pure SrTiO3 and some compounds of the solid solution SrTi1-xRuxO3 through the LHPG (laser heated pedestal growth) technique. These processes are described from the synthesis of compounds and the preparation of seeds and nutrients necessary for the application of the technique. Some new results related to change of parameters of the technique and the influence of each preparation procedure on the quality and characteristics of the fibers were obtained through the results of the structural, compositional and electrical characterization of single crystal fibers of these compounds. Several SrTiO3 single crystal fibers were directly obtained from nutrients of the reagents SrCO3 and TiO2 while Sr2RuO4 (a new compound of considerable technological interest) single crystal fibers were obtained from SrRuO3 nutrients. The importance of these last two results, that are unknown up to now, will be discussed in detail in this work. Ruthenium deficiency up to 75% of the nominal value of the nutrients, besides undesired composition gradients, were found in the bulk of solid solution single crystal fibers of some compositions. In this last case, apparently the qualities of the single crystal fibers have a strong dependence on the feeding and pulling rates of nutrient and seed, respectively, as well as of the processes used for start materials preparation.

Abstract During the last decade, the maximum capacity of an optical fiber transmission line more than doubled every year to match the fast-growing communication need. The technology break through in dry fiber fabrication opens the possibility for fiber bandwidth all the way from 1.3

In the last years, intensive research on new tunable solid state laser materials has been carried out. For the spectral range from 1300 to 1600 nm the Cr4+ ion seems to be the most promising laser-ion. In order to meet the the demand of broad-band devices, we employed the Cr4+ doped YAG crystal fibers with high optical quality thin films design and coating (high index material TiO2, low index material SiO2) to achieve the development of high efficiency crystal fiber lasers. In this thesis, crystal fiber was used as the laser gain medium, and coated with optical thin films at both end faces (input face 900-1100 nm AR and 1300-1600 nm HR; output face 1300-1600 nm HR) as the laser cavity to reduce the loss and promote laser efficiency. During the experiment, we tried to optimize the coating conditions to acquire high density, stable index and low absorption coefficient thin films. With different thin film thickness and stacking designs, the electric field distribution was designed to be away from the laser interface and high index region to increase the laser-induced damage threshold and lifetime for high power pumping. In addition, CaO and Cr2O3 were deposited on Cr4+:YAG source rods before the laser-heated-pedestal growth to increase CaO and Cr2O3 doping concentration for higher fluorescence efficiency and signal saturation power.

Owing to the increasing demand on the telecommunication bandwidth and the advent of the OH--free dry fiber developed by Lucent Technology, a new transmission bandwidth for the fiber optical communication which is centered around 1400 nm has been created in recent years. However, the corresponding light sources, optical amplifiers and other devices needed in the new transmission window are still under development. This thesis is to dissert with respect to the Cr4+:YAG crystal fiber based ASE (amplified spontaneous emission) light sources which emit light with broadband wavelengths from around 1200 nm to 1600 nm. Our previous study showed that side-pumping configuration can achieve a maximum ASE power of 0.65 mW with a pump power of 11 W at 980 nm in wavelength, whereas the end-pumping configuration successfully generated an optimum ASE power of 2.45 mW with a pump power of 11 W using a 1064-nm Yb fiber laser. This thesis reviewed the Cr4+:YAG material and studied on the single and double-pumping configuration of ASE light source, numerical simulations of the L-I curve of both configurations, and of the emission and the gain spectrum of the material, plus the introductions of the experiments needed for the simulations will be reported.

Pulling bulk crystal into fiber is suitable for laser, amplified spontaneous emission (ASE), and optical amplifier applications in optical communications because of its structural similarity to silica fiber. Moreover, fiber configuration can confine pump light in a small cross-sectional area with a high energy density for a long distance. Among crystal fiber growth techniques, the laser-heated pedestal growth method (LHPG) was adopted. It is crucible free and can therefore produce high-purity, low-defect-density single crystals. However, interface loss of the crystal fiber is one of the main causes of optical loss. In order to reduce the optical loss, a proper method to clad the fiber is important for high device performance. For laser application, high-efficient Nd:YAG lasers were demonstrated using gradient-index crystal fibers. We used controlled profile of the active ion resulted in index difference of 0.0284 between the center and the edge of the fiber to confine the laser beam in the center region and thus reduced the interface loss. A laser output power of 80 mW was achieved with a slope efficiency of 28.9%, which, to our knowledge, is the highest ever achieved for diode-laser-pumped Nd:YAG fiber laser. For ASE and optical amplifier applications, Cr4+:YAG crystal fiber was studied due to its fluorescent spectrum just covering the low loss window of silica optical fiber. To reduce the fiber diameter and propagation loss, a novel cladding technique, codrawing LHPG (CDLHPG), was developed. Although fused-silica-clad fiber can be made with a 29-micron-diameter core and a propagation loss of less than 0.1 dB/cm, which is a factor of 7 smaller than that of an unclad fiber, it has almost no Cr4+ fluorescence in the core area due to the entering of SiO2 in YAG. With proper controlled growth parameters of the CDLHPG method, a double-clad fiber with a core diameter of 25 micron was successfully grown. Up to 2.36 mW of ASE with a bandwidth of 265 nm was demonstrated. After splicing the double-clad fiber with conventional single mode fiber, we successfully demonstrated the first transition metal-doped fiber amplifier in the optical fiber communication band. Up to 16-dB of gross gain at 1.47 micron was achieved.

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Based on a full-wave formulation, a vector boundary element method (VBEM) is proposed to model the photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) (microstructured fibers). The accuracy and efficiency of the approach are confirmed by comparing the results calculated with those in previous literatures. With employing the VBEM, the guiding characteristics, including the effective indexes, vector mode patterns, and the polarization properties of the PCFs are investigated. There polarization characteristics of the PCFs with elliptical air holes (EPCFs) and the one ring air-hole EPCF embedded in the step-index core are studied and discussed. In addition, based on the VBEM formulations, a novel and efficient numerical approach to calculate the dispersion parameters of the PCFs is also proposed. The effect of the PCF geometrical structure on the group velocity dispersion property is reviewed, and then the one-ring defect and two-ring defect PCFs are studied and designed for the ultra-flattened dispersion applications. As an example, a four-ring (two-ring defect) PCF with flattened dispersion of ¡Ó0.25 ps/km/nm from 1.295£gm to 1.725£gm wavelength is numerically demonstrated.

Abstract A projected fringe profilomertry ¡]PFP¡^ using a supercontinuum light illumination for micro-scale measurement is proposed. The supercontinuum light is generated by launching ultra short laser into a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fibers. The supercontinuum light with the following advantage¡G ¡]1¡^ Depth of the field is very large in the projected system. ¡]2¡^No speckle noise in the illumination system. Experiment results has shown that using supercontinuum light is superior to other illumination system This study indicates that the proposed measurement scheme could be applied to 3D shape measurements with large depth variation, especially for semi-conductor devices¡Bmicro electro-mechanical devices and biomedical species.

During the last decade, the maximum capacity of an optical fiber transmission line more than doubled every year to match the fast-growing communication need. The technology break through in dry fiber fabrication opens the possibility for fiber bandwidth all the way from 1300 nm to 1600 nm. The fast increasing demand of communication capacity results in the emergence of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology, enabling tens of channels with different wavelengths transmitted simultaneously on an optical fiber. In consequence, it raises the requirement of spectral bandwidth of all the optical components used in the optical transport networking systems. Cr4+:YAG has potential to meet this demand because its 3T2¡÷3A2 transition has a strong spontaneous emission that just covers the low-loss window of optical fiber. The crystalline host offers a excellent mechanical characteristic. Such a fiber is, therefore, eminently suitable for super-wideband optical source since the required pump power is expected to be higher. We have successfully demonstrated a diode-laser pumped Cr:YAG crystal fiber ASE light source. The crystal fibers are grown by the laser-heated pedestal growth technique. Using a 46.6 mm-long Cr:YAG single crystal fiber of a 3-dB ASE width of 265 nm and a power spectral density ¡V22.1 dBm/nm was achieved. In the future, to further increase the quantum efficiency and output power we will reduce the core diameter, lengthen the fiber, increase the Cr4+ doping concentration, fabricate double-cladding, coat the fiber facets, and improve the cooling system.

Cr4+ doped Yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) has a strong spontaneous emission that can generate near-infrared emission from 1.2 to 1.6 £gm. This broadband emission have aroused great interest in developing tunable wavelength lasers and amplified spontaneous emitter (ASE).In this dissertation, The valence states of Cr ions in Ca or Ca/Mg co-doped Cr:YAG single-crystal fibers are studied. The fibers were grown using the laser-heated pedestal growth (LHPG) method, followed by annealing treatments up to 1500 oC. The concentrations of the Cr3+ and Cr4+ ions in octahedral and tetrahedral sites in oxygen or nitrogen environments were characterized for the first time to our knowledge. Above 700 oC, migration of Cr4+ between octahedral and tetrahedral sites takes place, the ratio is about 4%; its relative stabilization energy was estimated. For Ca,Cr:YAG annealed in an oxygen or nitrogen environment, it was 0.25 and 0.3 eV, respectively. For Mg,Ca,Cr:YAG annealed in oxygen or nitrogen, it was 0.47 and 0.49 eV, respectively. For the Ca,Cr:YAG crystal fiber (Ca/Cr=113.1%) with oxygen annealing, about 35% and 2.5% of Ca ions took part in charge compensation for Cr4+ in the octahedral and tetrahedral sites, respectively. The density of oxygen vacancies depends on the concentration of Ca ions. The estimated ratios of the unreacted oxygen vacancies to total oxygen vacancies were about 63% and 88% for oxygen and nitrogen annealing, respectively. The main limitation on the concentration of Cr4+ in the tetrahedral site of YAG is the presence of unreacted oxygen vacancies. Furthermore, chromium ions tend to diffuse outward during the LHPG of YAG crystal fiber, in which the average Cr4+ ion concentration decreases significantly after each diameter-reduction step. The Cr4+ ions are replenished using an electron gun to deposit Cr2O3 and divalent-ion oxide (CaO or MgO) on the source rod circumference before growth. It was observed that Ca2+ has better efficiency to diffuse into the source rod more efficiently than Mg2+generating fewer defects and stacking faults. By CaO deposition and post growth annealing at 1350 oC under an oxygen environment, a 110% increase in Cr4+ concentration was obtained. The achieved Cr4+ concentration and the ratio of Cr4+ to total Cr were 1.76 10^18 cm^-3 and 5.5, respectively.