Ce travail concerne le développement d’une fibre optique à structure originale permettant la montée en puissance moyenne et crête dans les systèmes lasers à 2μm. La gestion des effets thermiques est devenue aujourd’hui un enjeu primordial notamment pour essayer de repousser le seuil d’apparition des instabilités modales transverses. Le principe mis en avant ici est basé sur la rupture de symétrie de la gaine microstructurée de la fibre afin d’améliorer la délocalisation des modes d’ordre supérieur vers l’extérieur du milieu à gain. Ainsi une propagation quasi-monomode est obtenue dans une fibre apériodique passive avec un coeur de 140μm à 2μm. Un travail de modélisation a été mené de manière à proposer d’autres structures basées sur une modulation contrôlée de l’indice de réfraction dans le milieu à gain afin de repousser encore plus le seuil du régime multimode. En outre, la fabrication de la première fibre dopée thulium à large aire modale (Dcoeur = 18μm) par la méthode REPUSIL a montré une efficacité de 50%. Ensuite, la fabrication de la première fibre rigide complètement apériodique à gaine réduite dopée thulium a été réalisée. Une fibre avec un coeur de 29μm et un diamètre extérieur de 769μm et une longueur de 86cm a été caractérisée en configuration laser et a permis d’obtenir une émission laser à 2μm de 3,8W (puissance limitée par la puissance de la diode de pompe disponible) avec un rendement de 20% et une qualité de faisceau quasi-monomode. De plus, une fibre passive complètement apériodique à polarisation unique avec un coeur de 140μm a également été réalisée et a permis d’obtenir un ratio d’extinction de polarisation de 16,5dB à 2μm. / This work deals with the development of an original leaky structure of optical fiber aiming at generating a high power laser radiation at 2μm in CW and pulsed regimes. The management of thermal effects in high power/energy regime became a major issue, in particular to push further the transverse modal instabilities threshold. Our approach consists in breaking the symmetry of the microstructured fiber cladding for to improve the delocalization of the high order modes outside of the gain medium. Thus, an effective single-mode propagation at a 2μm operating wavelength was first demonstrated into a passive aperiodic fibers whose the core diameter reaches up to 140 μm. After implementing some Stress Applying Parts over our aperiodic design, a PER of 16.5dB was achieved at 2μm using a single polarization passive FA-LPF with a core of 140 μm. Thence, a numerical study on the tailoring the active core refractive index has been carried out so as to fend off the threshold of multimodedness. Additionally, the first LMA Tm-doped fiber (Dcoeur = 18μm) fabricated by the REPUSIL method and showing an efficiency of 50% is demonstrated. Thereafter, the fabrication of the first rod-type Tm-doped FA-LPF with reduced cladding is shown. A 29 μm core FA-LPF was characterized in laser configuration, leading to an effective single-mode emission of 3.8W of average power at 2μm strictly restricted by the available pump power and an efficiency of 20%.

Dans le cadre d'un contrat CIFRE entre la société Thales L.A.S. France et le laboratoire XLIM (UMR 7252 du CNRS et de l'Université de Limoges), mon projet de thèse consiste à développer des architectures de fibres optiques dopées aux ions d'ytterbium pour l'amplification d'impulsions avec une haute puissance crête à 1 µm dans l'optique de réaliser une combinaison cohérente de faisceau afin d'obtenir une source laser avec une très haute puissance crête et une haute cadence de répétition. Basé sur un design de fibres à large cœur appelées FA-LPF, deux axes de développement sont abordés. Le premier concerne l'amélioration des tolérances à une courbure externe appliquée sur les FA-LPFs. A l'aide d'une étude numérique, une stratégie novatrice est mise en place pour mitigé les effets d'une courbure. L'architecture est alors dénommée FA-LPF assistée par saut d'indice. Une émission laser monomode en régime continu d'une puissance optique de 65 W est démontrée avec un rayon de courbure de 60 cm pour un diamètre de mode de 47 µm. Le second axe est l'implémentation du contrôle de la polarisation dans les FA-LPFs. L'objectif est d'obtenir un signal linéairement polarisé. Plusieurs architectures testées numériquement permettent une propagation à polarisation linéaire unique dans des structures passives sur un large spectre optique, avec notamment une propagation monomode à polarisation unique à 1400 nm pour un diamètre de cœur de 140 µm. La meilleure des quatre, appelée FA-LPF 4+2 SAP, est fabriquée avec des dopants actifs d'ytterbium. En raison de défauts de fabrication, les fibres obtenues sont à maintien de polarisation. Un ratio de polarisation de 17 dB est obtenu en configuration amplification en régime continu avec un gain de 24 dB (une puissance émise de 50 W). / As part of a CIFRE contract between Thales L.A.S. France and the XLIM laboratory (UMR 7252 of the CNRS and the University of Limoges), my thesis project consists in the development of ytterbium-doped optical fiber architectures for pulses amplification with high peak power at a wavelength of 1 µm in order to achieve a coherent beam combination to obtain a laser source with both a very high peak power and a high repetition rate. Based on a large-core fibre design called FA-LPF, two development axes are addressed. The first one concerns the tolerances improvement to an external bending applied on the FA-LPF. With the help of a numerical study, an innovative strategy is implemented to mitigate the effects of bending. The architecture is then called step-index assisted FA-LPF. A single a singlemode laser emission in continuous regime with an optical power of 65 W is demonstrated with a 60 cm bending radius for a 47 µm mode field diameter. The second axis is the implementation of the polarisation control in FA-LPFs. The goal is to obtain a linearly polarised signal. Several numerically tested architectures allow single linear polarisation propagation in passive structures over a broadband optical spectrum, including a singlemode single-polarisation propagation at 1400nm for a core diameter of 140 µm. The best architecture, called FA-LPF 4+2 SAP, is fabricated with active ytterbium dopants. Due to manufacturing defects, the obtained fibres act as polarisation maintaining fibres. A polarisation extinction ratio of 17 dB is obtained in an amplification configuration in continuous regime with 24 dB of gain (an emitted power of 50 W).

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.

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.

At the Dawn of the 21st century, the field of specialty optical fibers experienced a scientific revolution with the introduction of the stack-and-draw technique, a multi-steps and advanced fiber fabrication method, which enabled the creation of well-controlled micro-structured designs. Since then, an extremely wide variety of finely tuned fiber structures have been demonstrated including novel materials and novel designs. As the complexity of the fiber design increased, highly-controlled fabrication processes became critical. To determine the ability of a novel fiber design to deliver light with properties tailored according to a specific application, several mode analysis techniques were reported, addressing the recurring needs for in-depth fiber characterization. The first part of this dissertation details a novel experiment that was demonstrated to achieve modal decomposition with extended capabilities, reaching beyond the limits set by the existing mode analysis techniques. As a result, individual transverse modes carrying between ~0.01% and ~30% of the total light were resolved with unmatched accuracy. Furthermore, this approach was employed to decompose the light guided in Large-Mode Area (LMA) fiber, Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) and Leakage Channel Fiber (LCF). The single-mode performances were evaluated and compared. As a result, the suitability of each specialty fiber design to be implemented for power-scaling applications of fiber laser systems was experimentally determined. The second part of this dissertation is dedicated to novel specialty fiber laser systems. First, challenges related to the monolithic integration of novel and complex specialty fiber designs in all-fiber systems were addressed. The poor design and size compatibility between specialty fibers and conventional fiber-based components limits their monolithic integration due to high coupling loss and unstable performances. Here, novel all-fiber Mode-Field Adapter (MFA) devices made of selected segments of Graded Index Multimode Fiber (GIMF) were implemented to mitigate the coupling losses between a LMA PCF and a conventional Single-Mode Fiber (SMF), presenting an initial 18-fold mode-field area mismatch. It was experimentally demonstrated that the overall transmission in the mode-matched fiber chain was increased by more than 11 dB (the MFA was a 250 ?m piece of 50 ?m core diameter GIMF). This approach was further employed to assemble monolithic fiber laser cavities combining an active LMA PCF and fiber Bragg gratings (FBG) in conventional SMF. It was demonstrated that intra-cavity mode-matching results in an efficient (60%) and narrow-linewidth (200 pm) laser emission at the FBG wavelength. In the last section of this dissertation, monolithic Multi-Core Fiber (MCF) laser cavities were reported for the first time. Compared to existing MCF lasers, renown for high-brightness beam delivery after selection of the in-phase supermode, the present new generation of 7-coupled-cores Yb-doped fiber laser uses the gain from several supermodes simultaneously. In order to uncover mode competition mechanisms during amplification and the complex dynamics of multi-supermode lasing, novel diagnostic approaches were demonstrated. After characterizing the laser behavior, the first observations of self-mode-locking in linear MCF laser cavities were discovered.

Light can exert optical forces on matter. In the macroscopic world these forces are minuscule, but on the microscopic or atomic scale, these forces are large enough to trap and manipulate particles. They may even be used to cool atoms to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. This thesis details a number of experiments concerned with the optical manipulation of atoms and micron-size particles using free space light beams and photonic crystal fibres. Two atom guiding experiments are described. In the first experiment, a spatial light modulator is used to generate higher blue-detuned azimuthal Laguerre-Gaussian LG) beams, which are annular beams with a hollow core. These LG beams are then used to guide laser cooled rubidium-85 atoms within the dark core over a distance of 30 mm. The second atom guiding experiment involves attempting to guide laser cooled and thermal rubidium atoms through a hollow-core photonic crystal fibre using red-detuned light. Hollow-core photonic crystal fibres are fibres that are able to guide light with low attenuation within a hollow core. For this experiment a hot wire detection system was designed, along with a number of complex vacuum systems. The first dual-beam fibre trap for micron-size particles constructed using endlessly single-mode photonic crystal fibre (ESM-PCF) is described. The characteristics of dual-beam fibre traps are governed by the fibres used. As ESM-PCF has considerably different properties in comparison to conventional single- or multimode fibres, this dual beam ESM-PCF trap exhibits some novel characteristics. I show that the dual beam ESM-PCF trap can form trapping, repulsive and line potentials; an interference-free ‘white light’ trap; and a dual-wavelength optical conveyor belt.