This report dedicated to obtaining the HDR (Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches), is composed of two distinct parts: the first one summarizes my professional career highlighting my research activities in the different positions that I have held since obtaining my engineering degree, and the main research topics I am interested in. The scientific part describes precisely the content of my research related to the development of fiber-optic distributed sensors, the applications of distributed optical fiber sensors in civil engineering structures and other specific structures, and secondly, the impact of environmental parameters on the performances of optical fiber sensors. The summary of my professional career highlights a particular aspect of my profile since I had the chance to work in the field of applied research before my thesis, as a research engineer in optoelectronics. This experiment, in a laboratory carrying out activities of design, realization and characterization of solid laser sources, makes it possible to extend the wavelengths of the laser emission by using nonlinear optical crystals through the generation of the second harmonic or the optical parametric oscillation. This allowed me to conduct applied research and realize the importance of working in a team. The experience of the thesis in vertical external cavity semiconductor lasers for the generation of short pulses has allowed me to acquire new knowledge in fast non-linear optics, and the dynamics of semiconductor lasers. This step is followed by my postdoctoral experience, in which I worked on sorting techniques of carbon nanotubes, their photonic characteristics, and their uses as saturable absorbers in lasers. Following my recruitment at IFSTTAR in October 2010, as a researcher on the theme of fiber optic sensors, I have invested in different projects, to make the use of distributed optical fiber sensors an evident solution in the civil engineering structures monitoring, integration of optical fiber sensors in new specific applications. In parallel, I developed a research activity related to the "development of distributed optical fiber sensors". I worked on the study of impact of each component of the system and to focus first and foremost on the heart of a distributed fiber sensor system: the laser. In this thesis, I introduce the issues and challenges of my work, describe the main investigations conducted and their results, and prefigure medium and long-term research.