| Summary: | It is no exaggeration to state that the low-loss optical fibre has revolutionised the way in which we as a society lead our lives. The transfer and management of vast tracts of data generated minute by minute world over is only possible due to the development of the optical fibre and corresponding optical amplifiers, necessary for the implementation of telecommunications networks over large distances. Outside of the telecommunications sphere, the optical fibre has also made a huge impact on the laser market in the past three decades, due to the inherently robust nature and alignment-free operation of fibre based devices. Fibre lasers have now penetrated into the manufacturing market, and are finding increasing applications in numerous areas from medicine to defence. Typical fibre laser sources are constrained to operate in the emission bands of common rare-earth dopants, such as, ytterbium, erbium, or thulium. However, it is possible to extend the spectral coverage of standard fibre lasers through nonlinear conversion techniques. The temporal properties of pulsed laser sources, can be similarly manipulated, through the combined management of nonlinearity and dispersion. The work presented in this thesis is based upon these two themes of spectral and temporal diversity. Firstly, I will examine fibre-based parametric wavelength conversion, demonstrating fibre laser sources in the visible and near-visible spectral regions, suitable for bio-photonics imaging applications. Secondly, I will look at fibre-based nonlinear chirped pulse amplification, in particular, the design and implementation of a femtosecond μJ level source for future experiments in nonlinear optics. Both areas of research are tied together by the common thread of utilising new and emerging optical fibre based technology for nonlinear wavelength conversion.
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