Few-cycle or single optical cycle pulse duration, carrier–envelope phase (CEP) control, high pulse energy are several signature requirements to laser sources dictated by modern high-intensity physics. The advent of the technique of chirped pulse amplification (CPA) 25 years ago and the invention of Ti:sapphire ensured a steady pulse intensity increase around the wavelength of 800 nm. However, the average power of the most advanced Ti:sapphire sources is limited to about 20 W, roughly defining the current state of the art as 1 TW peak power at a 1-kHz repetition rate. The goal of this project is to achieve a radical breakthrough in the average power and energy scalability of 5-100-kHz (multi)mJ femtosecond sources while ensuring wavelength tunability, CEP stability and the few-cycle pulse duration. Although Yb-doped materials are well suited for average power scaling because of the low parasitic heat excreted by the optical pump on the laser crystal, no broadband Yb amplifiers exist to date that could generate femtosecond pulses at the energy level higher than just a few mJ at a kHz repetition rate as a result of the low brightness of pump laser diodes and shortcomings of heat transport from the amplifier crystal. In this project, the 4 partners bring together their complementary proprietary knowhow that provides a perfect combination to resolve the multi tens kHz amplifier scalability challenge. The enabling pioneering concept contributed by CELIA to this project is a scalable fiber pump laser with an excellent beam quality and the concept of high-brightness pumping of long Yb materials with these fiber pump sources. The project will consists in the development of a high average power fiber pump laser around 976 nm, a controlled growth technique of long Yb-doped crystals and new laser architectures adapted to these crystals. The CIMAP laboratory is a expert in Yb-doped single crystal growth. The Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l’Institut d’Optique (LCF) works on diode pump femtosecond oscillators and amplifiers since many years. The startup compny Azur Light Systems will bring his industrial expertise to create an all fibered prototype pump laser. Finally, CELIA has become an expert in the design of innovative fibers (Rod type fibers and Bragg fibers) and develop since its beginning high energy femtosecond systems at high and ultrahigh repetition rates. CELIA has also pioneered the development of the high average power fiber lasers at 976 nm and naturally proposes the patented present concept of high brightness pumping of Yb materials . The mature Yb source will produce sub-200-fs pulses and reach the average power of 100 W, with a repetition rate ranging from 5 (20 mJ) to 100 KHz (1 mJ). This source can be used both as a direct high- intensity source for HHG attosecond pulse train generation as well as a pump source for a parametric amplifier generating few cycle pulses at 2 µm and further production of isolated attosecond pulses. Despite the high volume of technological innovation envisaged in this project, its emphasis lies on demonstrating the enabling nature of these laser source in table- top high-field applications that are in dire demand for higher statistics. The 10-100 KHz multi mJ level system should open unprecedented opportunities for coincidence momentum imaging and pump-probe experiments using XUV pulses and attosecond pulse trains.

Sensors, optical sources and other active or passive optical components need to be pigtailed for an easy integration inside all-fibre architectures. The system design is greatly simplified; it is less sensitive to vibrations and is inherently protected against dust. Using such fibre pigtailed components simplifies the maintenance; a failed component is in field replaced by a technician, thus reducing the maintenance costs. One underlying problem of these components is the fabrication cost associated with the pigtailing. Indeed, the optical beam size at the output of the fibre is less than 10 µm, requiring a very accurate positioning of the optical elements. Moreover, the mode profile inside the component may differ from the fibre one. All these points lead to extra cost and optical losses. One solution to these drawbacks is to fabricate “inline optical components” made from the fibre itself, thus alleviating all the pigtailing problems. Our aim in this project is to create a new class of optical components based on the same pervasive platform: a tapered silica nanofibre. Nanofibres are produced by pulling heated optical fibres, typically telecom fibres, down to diameters of a few hundred nanometres. This pulling technique results in a nanofibre linked to the un-stretched sections of the original fibre by two tapered sections. During its propagation in these tapers, the mode guided by the core of the initial un-tapered fibre is adiabatically transformed into a mode guided inside the nanofibre section. First advantage, this propagation in the whole device, including the nanofibre and the tapered sections, presents very large transmissions, higher than 99%. Second advantage, the light confinement as the fibre diameter is reduced enhances the intensity up to a few hundred times. This extreme light confinement associated with their very high optical damage threshold makes nanofibres an ideal platform for implementing optical nonlinear interactions. Third advantage, for diameters lower than the wavelength, the guided optical mode presents a large evanescent field outside the fibre, paving the way to the external world probing. This makes nanofibres an ideal system for developing sensors. This feature also allows a simple tailoring of the nanofibre properties by depositing functional materials onto its surface. For other applications, this implies an encapsulation of the nanofibre to protect this evanescent field. These nanofibres can thus be seen as a generic platform for developing inline optical components. As an additional advantage, this generic platform breaks down one of the main technical barriers preventing expansion of high performance organic materials in the optical waveguide world that is the complexity of the technological processes for waveguide fabrication and connectorization. The use of a nanofibre thin enough to give access for the light to the surrounding material would greatly simplify the waveguide fabrication and would allow more rapid screening of potential high performance organic materials, thereby allowing novel materials to be developed. In this project, we will thus develop a new equipment for pulling nanofibres with high reproducibility, low tolerances and with on demand shapes. Simultaneously, we will study new processes for nanofibre functionalization using multilayer polymer coatings and metallic deposits (allowing Surface Brillouin scattering and interaction with plasmons, and surface second order and third order nonlinearities). Then, in order to exemplify the versatility of this platform, we develop three high demanding applications requiring different functionalizations: sources for quantum information, surface Brillouin sensors, frequency comb generation for radar signal processing. At the end of this project, we will propose a new class of inline components all based on a single versatile technological nanofibre platform and an exploitation plan for their future industrialization.

Diseases affecting small vessels (less than 150µm diameter) are important causes of morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular and cerebrovascular causes, alone or in association with diseases of large arteries. Predictive biomarkers are obtained from vascular imaging for large vessels. Research on these biomarkers has increased considerably in recent years, because they are more predictive of cardiovascular events than traditional risk factors such as blood pressure. However, at present, these biomarkers are mainly dedicated to the study of large arteries (carotid, aorta). There is indeed no procedure allowing quantitative imaging of small vessels which had proved its interest in the care of patients, due to limitations of imaging technology at this scale. The issue is nevertheless important because high blood pressure and diabetes mainly affects small vessels. In recent years, adaptive optics (AO) imaging of the retina has demonstrated its ability to document retinal structures at the micrometer scale in humans. This technology has now reached sufficient technical maturity to enter clinical routine in a short delay. In continuation of a multidisciplinary collaborative project involving ophthalmologists, engineers, researchers and the manufacturer of an AO camera (the iPhot project, funded by ANR TecSan 2009), we incidentally observed that the latest version of the prototype allowed to document the structure of small arteries, so far inaccessible by other imaging methods. This opens the possibility to develop one or more quantitative biomarkers of the microcirculation. The objective of the ReVeal project is to make vascular imaging by AO simple, efficient and medically useful. For this, we will aim at validating technically and medically new biomarkers measured from small vessel images of OA, in an integrated approach combining an interactive technological developments and medical evaluation. This industrial development project includes four workpackages to be undertaken in parallel: 1- transverse and longitudinal evaluation of vascular imaging in controls and well characterized patients through a multidisciplinary medical network (Head: Clinical Investigation Center 503); 2-implementation of new technology solutions dedicated to vascular imaging (responsible: Imagine Eyes, with Onera-DOTA) 3-Development of software for image processing (co-leaders: Onera-DTIM and L2TI), and 4 - Development of software for data analysis (co-leaders: Telecom ParisTech and ISEP). Eventually it is expected that vascular imaging by OA will play a pivotal role in assessing and monitoring treatment against hypertension and diabetes.

We bring together researchers on quantum information theory, Bose-Einstein condensates and atom interferometry to create and detect entanglement of large, spatially separated samples. Our purpose is both to gain a deeper understanding of of quantum information in many body systems as well as to develop practical approaches for manipulating and exploiting it. The ultimate goal is to enhance the performance of a separated path atom interferometer using entangled samples. Atomic interactions in BEC's consititute a non-linearity highly analogous to four wave mixing or parametric down conversion in optics, and which can be exploited to create entanglement. Two separate lines of research have been pursued in the past; on the one hand one can use the spin degrees of freedom of an atom to produce atom pairs whose spins are entangled, and on the other one can entangle the motional degrees of freedom in a spirit close to that of the original EPR proposal. In the CEBBEC project, these two lines of research will be brought together in both the technological sense (using one kind of entanglement to make another) and conceptual one (studying complex situations in which both spin and motion are entangled) giving rise to new possibilites for applications and new theoretical challenges. The participating partners have developed sophisticated detection technologies which allow us to make new types of mesaurements. We intend to respond to the great need for theoretical work to understand and exploit them. Finally, we will address practical applications and explore their metrological validity. The EU's Future and Emerging Technologies agenda aims to foster transformative research in quantum information science by coordinating efforts of different research communities. Our project aims to bring together two separate lines of research in which European groups have been leading players and to exploit the common ground that they share. We plan to combine the manipulation of atomic spins and of motional degrees of freedom. The present project will develop a unified approach in both the technological sense (using one kind of entanglement to make another) and conceptual one (studying complex situations in which both spin and motion are entangled) giving rise to new possibilities for applications and new theoretical challenges. We plan to optimize the extraction of relevant information from (entangled) physical systems as discussed in the Target Outcomes of the Call Announcement. In this context, we may go even farther and achieve new or radically enhanced functionalities with our research.

Optical imaging of small objects (inferior to mm) in a highly scattering environment becomes increasingly challenging with imaging depth (cm to meter range). It would lead to disruptive innovations for in-situ characterization, e.g. non-destructive control, turbid media (pollutant detection, …), or medical imaging. Acousto-Optic Imaging (AOI) is a multimodal technique based on the interaction between light and ultrasound (US) at a given depth. AOI faces limited flux collection and sub-ms instabilities speckle in a dynamic environment, thereby imposing short acquisition times. In HULOT, we propose a new instrumentation chain which addresses both of these bottlenecks including key innovations, with a fully programable ultrasound scanner and a new powerful laser source working in a quasi continuous regime (ideally 100W during 100 microseconds). The latter will be tunable in wavelength in the deep red, its temporal width will enable to dispose of a high power during the correlation time of instabilities. We will add a spatio-temporal shaping of the US and light in order to increase the volume of light tagged by the US, detected by CMOS camera-based sensors. An improvement of two orders of magnitude in detection efficiency is expected and will open new perspectives for imaging and characterization of these complex media.