THALES Research and Technology

Thales is one of the world premier professional electronics groups and a major player in numerous commercial markets. It has a revenue of over € 12 billion, 65,000 employees and is present in over 40 countries. Thales Research and Technology formerly Thomson-CSF LCR, located near Paris, is the main multidisciplinary research unit of the Thales group.

With over 250 highly skilled staff, 13000 sq. m of labs of which 1700 sq. m of clean rooms, its research teams perform pioneering work in the most advanced areas of optics & optoelectronics, electronic components for microwave applications, advanced interconnect and packaging, materials, software architecture and cognitive science.

In addition to R&D activities, TRT also provides scientific and technical advice, expertise or services for the company. It has been participating in or leading numerous research programs, either domestic or EU-funded, in the frame of ACTS, TELEMATICS, ESPRIT, BRITE-EURAM, TIDE, GROWTH, IST, NMP.

In the Laser & Nonlinear Optics Laboratory, research has been active on Quasi-Phase Matching since 1989, and on orientation-patterned GaAs for IR applications since 1993. The lab presently holds a dominant position in this new promising field. Initially targeted for short pulse generation in the transparency bands of the atmosphere, preferably relying on 1 or 1.5 µm pumping lasers, OP-GaAs crystals have proved limited in such operation regimes by a detrimental coefficient of two-photon absorption. MIRSURG requirements, free from those limitations, represent a unique opportunity for TRT to valorize and ultimately exploit the significant know-how obtained to date in terms of crystal fabrication and therefore constitute a strong motivation.