Quand un faisceau d'ions énergétiques traverse un plasma magnétisé plus rapidement que la vitesse d'Alfvén, il peut déstabiliser des ondes électromagnétiques. Cela résulte en une augmentation des fluctuations magnétiques, un ralentissement du faisceau et un chauffage du plasma. Cette instabilité faisceau-plasma magnétisée est commune dans des environnements comme les rayons cosmiques dans le milieu interstellaire ou les ions réfléchis au choc d'étrave terrestre, ou dans des plasmas de laboratoire. Sous certaines conditions, les collisions coulombiennes entre les ions peuvent avoir une influence et même supprimer le développement de l'instabilité. Ce travail fournit les premières recherches sur le sujet. Nous étudions l'instabilité numériquement avec un code hybride-PIC intégrant un module de collision Monte-Carlo nouvellement développé. Nos résultats pour le régime sans collision confirment les études précédentes sur la présence de modes résonants et non-résonant, et fournit une base de comparaison pour le cas collisionel. Nous trouvons que les collisions diminuent l'amplitude des fluctuations magnétiques, et identifions plusieurs régimes caractérisés par la compétition entre l'accroissement de l'instabilité et les collisions. Même dans des plasmas faiblement collisionnels, le ralentissement peut induire une augmentation rapide des échanges d'énergie collisionels, ce qui laisse moins d'énergie libre pour l'amplification des fluctuations magnétiques et cause un chauffage plus efficace du plasma. Pour le mode résonant, l'augmentation du chauffage du faisceau réduit le nombre de particules résonant avec les ondes et mène à une réduction de son taux d'accroissement. / When a beam of energetic ions streams in a magnetized plasma background with a bulk velocity higher than the local Alfvén speed, it can drive electromagnetic waves unstable. The result is enhanced magnetic field fluctuations, the slowing down of the beam and plasma heating. This so-called magnetic streaming instability is commonly present in space plasma, such as streaming cosmic rays in the interstellar medium or reflected ions at shocks, as well as in laboratory plasmas. Under certain physical conditions, Coulomb collisions between ions can influence and even suppress the development of the instability. This work provides the first investigation of such effects. We study the magnetic streaming instability numerically with a hybrid-PIC code with a newly developed Monte Carlo ion-ion Coulomb collision module. Our results for the collisionless regime confirm previous studies related to the existence of resonant and non-resonant modes, and provide the groundwork for the comparison with the collisional cases. We find that collisions generally lower the amplitude of the magnetic field fluctuations, and we identify several regimes which are characterized by the competition between the growth of the instability and collisions. Even in weakly-collisional plasmas, the slowing down of the beam can actually induce a rapid increase of collisional energy exchanges, which leave less free energy for the non-linear growth of the magnetic field fluctuations and cause a more efficient heating of the plasma. For the resonant mode the enhanced heating of the beam reduces the number of particles resonating with the waves and leads to a reduction of its growth rate.

The northernmost extent of the New Madrid seismic zone in the central USA has been investigated using an integrated approach involving both compressional-wave (P) and horizontally polarized-wave (SH) seismic reflection and regional and dedicated borehole geophysical information in order to assess seismic hazard and risk. Our study area, centered around southernmost Illinois and western Kentucky, USA, represents an area of concentrated facilities (e.g., lock and dam sites and chemical plants on the Ohio River near its confluence with the Mississippi River) as well as an area of high potential soil amplification due to earthquake shaking. Integrated high-resolution seismic reflection profiles were used to investigate deformation in Mississippi embayment sediments localized over Paleozoic bedrock faults. A major zone of faulting (Olmsted fault) is identified from combined P-wave and SH-wave seismic profiles and from borehole data. Lower resolution, but deeper penetration, P-wave reflection profiles identify fault disruption of Paleozoic bedrock and disruption of Cretaceous and Tertiary stratal markers. Higher resolution, but shallower penetration, SH-wave images show deformation of Wisconsin till at the base of the Quaternary section that has propagated upward from bedrock faults. A northeast trend, parallel to New Madrid zone seismicity patterns, of faulting is observed with mainly normal faults that appear to dip to the northwest. Also observed are reverse faults and positive flower structures associated with a possible right-lateral strike-slip deformation that would be expected from seismicity patterns. The tectonic history deduced from the sum of geological and geophysical information indicates that faulting began in the Cretaceous accompanied by an over-thickening of the Cretaceous strata (McNairy Formation) in a locally subsiding structure bounded by the Olmsted fault, followed by lesser amounts of displacement near the base of the Holocene. Comparison of our geological structural information with recent earthquake data suggests that deformation in this critical region is ongoing.

La chaîne laser Apollon 10PW est un projet de grande envergure visant à fournir des impulsions de 10 PW et atteindre des intensités sur cibles de 10^22 W/cm^2. Dans l’état de l'art actuel, les lasers à dérive de fréquence (CPA) de haute intensité à base de cristaux titane saphir (Ti:Sa), sont limités à des puissances de crête de 1,3 PW pour des impulsions de 30-fs, en raison du rétrécissement spectral par gain dans les amplificateurs. Pour accéder au régime multipetawatt, le rétrécissement de gain doit être évité. Pour cela une technique alternative d’amplification appelée amplification paramétrique optique d'impulsions à dérive de fréquence (OPCPA) est utilisée. Elle offre la possibilité d’amplifier sur des très larges bandes spectrales de gain et d’accéder à des durées d'impulsion aussi courtes que 10 fs. Le laser Appolon 10 PW exploite une technologie hybride d’OPCPA et de Ti:Sa-CPA pour atteindre in fine des impulsions de 15 fs avec une énergie de 150 J. L’OPCPA est réalisé essentiellement sur les étages d'amplification de basse énergie et de très fort gain (ou le rétrécissement par le gain se fait le plus ressentir), ceci pour obtenir des impulsions de 100 mJ, 10 fs. Deux étages OPCPA sont préus ; le premier en régime picoseconde, le second en régime nanoseconde, et subséquemment on utilisera le Ti:Sa pour l'amplification de très haute énergie pour atteindre le régime multi-Joule.Les travaux de cette thèse porte sur le pilote OPCPA du laser Apollon-10 PW et se concentre sur le développement d’une source d’impulsions ultra-courtes avec un contraste élevé. Pour atteindre l’objectif final de 15 fs, 150 J, le pilote doit permettre l’obtention d’impulsions dont le spectre supporte des durées de 10 fs, ceci avec un contraste temporel d'au moins 10^10. Dans cette thèse nous nous intéressons à la mise en œuvre des premiers étages du pilote. Ce travail concerne les étages de compression, de nettoyage d’impulsions et d’amplification OPCPA en régime picoseconde. Ainsi, en partant d'une source commerciale Ti:Sa délivrant des impulsions de 25-fs avec un contraste de 10^8, nous réalisons tout d’abord un élargissement spectral par auto-modulation de phase et une amélioration du contraste par génération de polarisation croisée (XPW). Ensuite, nous nous intéressons aux différents étireurs ps possibles incluant un filtre dispersif programmable (dazzler) en vue d’injecter l’OPCPA picoseconde de manière optimale. La solution directe utilisant un bloc de verre BK7 a été retenue et son association avec un compresseur compact pour le diagnostique de la compressibilité a été étudiée. Enfin, l’amplificateur OPCPA ps a été mis en œuvre dans des configurations à simple et double étages. / The Apollon-10 PW laser chain is a large-scale project aimed at delivering 10 PW pulses to reach intensities of 10^22 W/cm^2. State of the art, high intensity lasers based solely on chirped pulse amplification (CPA) and titanium sapphire (Ti:Sa) crystals are limited to peak powers reaching 1.3 PW with 30-fs pulses as a result of gain narrowing in the amplifiers. To access the multipetawatt regime, gain narrowing can be suppressed with an alternative amplification technique called optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA), offering a broader gain bandwidth and pulse durations as short as 10 fs. The Apollon-10 PW laser will exploit a hybrid OPCPA-Ti:Sa-CPA strategy to attain 10-PW pulses with 150 J and 15 fs. It will have two high-gain, low-energy amplification stages (10 fs ,100 mJ range) based on OPCPA in the picosecond and nanosecond timescale and afterwards, and will use Ti:Sa for power amplification to the 100-Joule level.Work in this thesis involves the progression of the development on the Apollon-10 PW front end and is focused on the development of a high contrast, ultrashort seed source supporting 10-fs pulses, stretching these pulses prior to OPCPA and the implementation of the picosecond OPCPA stage with a target of achieving 10-mJ pulses and maintaining its bandwidth. To achieve the final goal of 15-fs, 150-J pulses, the seed source must have a bandwidth supporting 10-fs and a temporal contrast of at least 10^10. Thus from an initial commercial Ti:Sa source delivering 25-fs pulses with a contrast of 10^8, spectral broadening via self-phase modulation and contrast enhancement with cross polarized (XPW) generation was performed. Subsequently, the seed pulses were stretched to a few picoseconds to match the pump for picosecond OPCPA. Strecher designs using an acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter (dazzler) for phase control in this purpose are studied. A compact and straightforward compressor using BK7 glass is used and an associated compressor for pulse monitoring was also studied. Lastly, the picosecond OPCPA stage was implemented in single and dual stage configurations.

The Apollon-10 PW laser chain is a large-scale project aimed at delivering 10 PW pulses to reach intensities of 10^22 W/cm^2. State of the art, high intensity lasers based solely on chirped pulse amplification (CPA) and titanium sapphire (Ti:Sa) crystals are limited to peak powers reaching 1.3 PW with 30-fs pulses as a result of gain narrowing in the amplifiers. To access the multipetawatt regime, gain narrowing can be suppressed with an alternative amplification technique called optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA), offering a broader gain bandwidth and pulse durations as short as 10 fs. The Apollon-10 PW laser will exploit a hybrid OPCPA-Ti:Sa-CPA strategy to attain 10-PW pulses with 150 J and 15 fs. It will have two high-gain, low-energy amplification stages (10 fs ,100 mJ range) based on OPCPA in the picosecond and nanosecond timescale and afterwards, and will use Ti:Sa for power amplification to the 100-Joule level.Work in this thesis involves the progression of the development on the Apollon-10 PW front end and is focused on the development of a high contrast, ultrashort seed source supporting 10-fs pulses, stretching these pulses prior to OPCPA and the implementation of the picosecond OPCPA stage with a target of achieving 10-mJ pulses and maintaining its bandwidth. To achieve the final goal of 15-fs, 150-J pulses, the seed source must have a bandwidth supporting 10-fs and a temporal contrast of at least 10^10. Thus from an initial commercial Ti:Sa source delivering 25-fs pulses with a contrast of 10^8, spectral broadening via self-phase modulation and contrast enhancement with cross polarized (XPW) generation was performed. Subsequently, the seed pulses were stretched to a few picoseconds to match the pump for picosecond OPCPA. Strecher designs using an acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter (dazzler) for phase control in this purpose are studied. A compact and straightforward compressor using BK7 glass is used and an associated compressor for pulse monitoring was also studied. Lastly, the picosecond OPCPA stage was implemented in single and dual stage configurations.