Relativistic Electron Acceleration in a Wake Field Generated by the Intense Femtosecond Laser Interaction with a Mixture Jet of Deuterium Clusters and Molecules

High energy electron acceleration in a wake field generated in the intense ultrashort （30fs） laser pulse cluster gas jet interaction is experimentally demonstrated. Relativistic electrons with energy of 60 MeV were observed. These high energy electrons split into two beams due to the relativistic self-focusing of the laser.     

Electron energy spectrum in the field-ionized plasma

In this article, the effect of ionization on the energy spectrum of electrons within the interaction of a laser pulse with hydrogen atoms is investigated using particle-in-cell simulation codes. The results show that the behaviour of electrons' energy distribution function in the field-ionized plasma, which occurred due to the field ionization, compared with that in the pre-plasma strongly depends on the pulse shape. For short rise-time pulses (here 30 fs), due to the rapid enhancement of laser electric field, ionization occurs quickly, and as a result, there is not much difference in the electron energy in both the media. However, for pulses with rise time of 40 fs, in the pre-plasma state, the electron population reaches higher energies compared with the field-ionized plasma state. The main reason for this difference is the nonlinear wave breaking that happens earlier due to density inhomogeneity in the field-ionized plasma. On the other hand, at longer rise-time pulses (here 60 and 70 fs), electrons achieve higher energies in the field-ionized plasma than those in the case of pre-plasma. In this case, because of density fluctuations in the field-ionized plasma, the Raman backscattered radiations are seeded by a strong initial noise at the earlier times and the Mendonca condition for chaos threshold is met sooner. Therefore, the electrons gain more energy through the stochastic mechanism that is in agreement with chaotic nature of the motion.     

Dopant-induced ignition of helium nanodroplets in intense few-cycle laser pulses

We demonstrate ultrafast resonant energy absorption of rare-gas doped He nanodroplets from intense few-cycle (~10 fs) laser pulses. We find that less than 10 dopant atoms "ignite" the droplet to generate a nonspherical electronic nanoplasma resulting ultimately in complete ionization and disintegration of all atoms, although the pristine He droplet is transparent for the laser intensities applied. Our calculations at those intensities reveal that the minimal pulse length required for ignition is about 9 fs.     

Radiation damping effects on the interaction of ultraintense laser pulses with an overdense plasma

A strong effect of radiation damping on the interaction of an ultraintense laser pulse with an overdense plasma slab is found and studied via a relativistic particle-in-cell simulation including ionization. Hot electrons generated by the irradiation of a laser pulse with a radiance of I lambda(2)>10(22) W microm(2)/cm(2) and duration of 20 fs can convert more than 35% of the laser energy to radiation. This incoherent x-ray emission lasts for only the pulse duration and can be intense. The radiation efficiency is shown to increase nonlinearly with laser intensity. Similar to cyclotron radiation, the radiation damping may restrain the maximal energy of relativistic electrons in ultraintense-laser-produced plasmas.     

超紧凑型飞秒电子衍射仪的设计

由于空间电荷效应的限制,产生百飞秒的极短电子脉冲是超快电子衍射技术的一大难点.同时,电子的穿透深度随着电子能量的增加而增加,而电子的散射几率却具有相反的规律.因而,除了时间分辨的提升,还需要可宽范围调节的电子能量以优化不同厚度样品对其的需求.基于此,提出并设计了一种新型超紧凑电子枪,结合均匀场阴极和可移动阳极的配置,可在10-125 kV加速电压范围内实现100 fs量级时间分辨率.通过优化设计高压电极轮廓,使得其轴上和整个阴极面的场增强因子在不同阴阳极间距下均小于约4%,从而保证了不同加速电压下最大轴上场强均可达10 MV/m量级,有效地抑制了电子脉冲的展宽效应;进一步将阳极小孔设计成可放置致密电镜载网的阶梯孔,一方面可将载网支撑的样品紧贴小孔后方放置,最大程度上缩短了电子从阴极到样品的时间弥散,同时也可以有效地减弱阳极孔对电子束的散焦效应,提升电子束的横向聚焦性能.     

利用等离子体非线性系数实现超强脉冲的压缩

超短脉冲压缩技术在强场物理研究中有非常重要的作用,但由于强场电离现象在惰性气体自相位调制脉冲压缩技术中限制了脉冲的能量。Tempea等人提出可以采用等离子体非线性系数对脉冲进行压缩,本文在考虑毛细管内表面电离的情况下,讨论能量为10mJ左右,脉宽为50fs的脉冲的压缩问题,发现可以将脉冲压缩至5fs左右。计算表明频谱展宽可以在气体密度很低的情况下进行,这样半可以减小电子对脉冲传输的影响。同时,由于毛细管内表面也处于电及状态,从而使脉冲能量不会受到电离阈值的.限制。     

Additional acceleration and collimation of relativistic electron beams by magnetic field resonance at very high intensity laser interaction

For the interpretation of experiments for acceleration of electrons at interaction up to nearly GeV energy in laser produced plasmas, we present a new model using interaction magnetic fields. In addition to the ponderomotive acceleration of highly relativistic electrons at the interaction of very short and very intense laser pulses, a further acceleration is derived from the interaction of these electron beams with the spontaneous magnetic fields of about 100 MG. This additional acceleration is the result of a laser-magnetic resonance acceleration (LMRA) around the peak of the azimuthal magnetic field. This causes the electrons to gain energy within a laser period. Using a Gaussian laser pulse, the LMRA acceleration of the electrons depends on the laser polarization. Since this is in the resonance regime, the strong magnetic fields affect the electron acceleration considerably. The mechanism results in good collimated high energetic electrons propagating along the center axis of the laser beam as has been observed by experiments and is reproduced by our numerical simulations. PACS 41.75.Jv; 52.38.Kd; 52.65.Cc     

Femtosecond opto‐magnetism: ultrafast laser manipulation of magnetic materials

This review summarizes the recent progress in the study of ultrafast nonthermal effects of light on magnetic materials. It is demonstrated that due to opto‐magnetic phenomena an intense 100 fs circularly polarized laser pulse acts on the spins similar to an equivalently short effective magnetic field pulse up to 1 T. The review shows that using such opto‐magnetic phenomena one may selectively excite different modes of magnetic resonance, realize quantum control of magnons, trigger magnetic phase transitions and switch spins on a subpicosecond time‐scale. All these findings open new insights into the understanding of ultrafast magnetic excitation and, considering recent progress in the development of compact ultrafast lasers, may provide new prospects for applications of ultrafast opto‐magnetic phenomena in magnetic storage and information processing technology.     

Characterization of relativistic electrons generated by a cone guiding laser pulse

We demonstrated the interaction of a gold cone target with a femto second(fs) laser pulse above the relativistic intensity of 1.37×10 18 μm 2 W/cm 2.Relativistic electrons with energy above 2 MeV were observed.A 25%-40% increase of the electron temperature is achieved compared to the case when a plane gold target is used.The electron temperature increase results from the guiding of the laser beam at the tip and the intense quasistatic magnetic field in the cone geometry.The behavior of the relativistic electrons is verified in our 2D-PIC simulations.     

Clocking femtosecond X rays

Linear-accelerator-based sources will revolutionize ultrafast x-ray science due to their unprecedented brightness and short pulse duration. However, time-resolved studies at the resolution of the x-ray pulse duration are hampered by the inability to precisely synchronize an external laser to the accelerator. At the Sub-Picosecond Pulse Source at the Stanford Linear-Accelerator Center we solved this problem by measuring the arrival time of each high energy electron bunch with electro-optic sampling. This measurement indirectly determined the arrival time of each x-ray pulse relative to an external pump laser pulse with a time resolution of better than 60 fs rms.     

Femtosecond photomagnetic switching of spins in ferrimagnetic garnet films

We demonstrate that intense laser pulses can be used to directly control the spins in ferrimagnetic garnet films. Through an ultrafast and nonthermal photomagnetic effect the magnetocrystalline anisotropy is modified to create a new long-lived equilibrium orientation for the magnetization. Simultaneously, the magnetization is rotated into this new state by precession in a strong transient optically generated magnetic field. All take place within the 100 fs duration of a single laser pulse, thus demonstrating the feasibility of photomagnetic switching on the femtosecond time scale.     

Nuclear fusion driven by coulomb explosions of large deuterium clusters

Recent experiments on the interaction of intense, ultrafast laser pulses with large van der Waals bonded clusters have shown that these clusters can explode with substantial kinetic energy. By driving explosions in deuterium clusters with a 35 fs laser pulse, we have accelerated ions to sufficient kinetic energy to produce DD nuclear fusion. By diagnosing the fusion yield through measurements of 2.45 MeV fusion neutrons, we have found that the fusion yield from these exploding clusters varies strongly with the cluster size, consistent with acceleration of deuterons via Coulomb explosion forces.     

Few cycle dynamics of multiphoton double ionization

In intense field ionization, an electron removed from the atomic core oscillates in the combined fields of the laser and the parent ion. This oscillation forces repeated revivals of its spatial correlation with the bound electrons. The total probability of double ionization depends on the number of returns and therefore on the number of optical periods in the laser pulse. We observed the yield of Ne(2+) relative to Ne(+) with 12 fs pulses to be clearly less compared to 50 fs pulses in qualitative agreement with our theoretical model.     

氢团簇在飞秒强激光场中的动力学行为

利用分子动力学方法研究了氢团簇在飞秒强激光场中的动力学行为. 与库仑爆炸模型所预言的不同, 团簇的膨胀是各向异性的, 质子平均动能沿激光场极化方向上的分量要明显大于垂直于激光场极化方向上的分量. 讨论了团簇各向异性膨胀产生的原因, 分析了激光和团簇参数对各向异性程度的影响.     

Laser-induced nonthermal fragmentation of C60 studied by semiclassical dynamics simulation

Photofragmentation of the C₆₀ fullerene induced by ultrafast laser pulses is studied by semiclassical dynamics simulation. The simulation study is focused on the excitation below the continuum levels. A laser pulse of 40 fs (FWHM) with an effective photon energy of 2.0 eV and different intensities was selected to interact with the C₆₀ fullerene. The simulation results show that averaged fragmentation size distribution over groups of initial geometries selected at random exhibits a power law pattern with the peak at C₂ at high laser pulse intensities. The threshold for the C₆₀ fragmentation was determined. The simulation finds that as many as 55 electrons are excited from the occupied molecular orbitals to unoccupied molecular orbitals upon the laser irradiation and that the number of the fragments significantly depends on the number of electrons excited. Finally, the temperature examination seems to suggest that the nonthermal effect may play a significant role in laser fragmentation of the C₆₀ fullerene.     

Generation of an isolated sub-100 attosecond pulse in the water-window spectral region

We propose a scheme to generate isolated attosecond pulses in the water-window spectral region. Based on the numerical solutions of the single active electron model, we investigate high-order harmonic generation in helium atoms driven by a multi-cycle two-colour optical field synthesized by an intense 2000 nm, 20 fs pulse and its frequency-doubled pulse. When the latter is slightly detuned and properly phase shifted with respect to the fundamental laser pulse, an ultra-broad extreme ultraviolet supercontinuum with a spectral width of 130~eV can be generated in the 270--400~eV spectral regions. A supercontinuum from 280--340~eV in the water window can be selected to yield an isolated 67 attosecond pulse without employing any phase compensation. This water window coherent x-ray pulse with less than 100 attosecond duration is a potential tool for studying the ultrafast electronic dynamics of biological samples in water.     

强激光与高密度气体相互作用中电子和离子加速的数值模拟

在现有的一维粒子模拟程序的基础上发展了带光电离和碰撞电离及蒙特卡罗两体碰撞的模拟程序(1D PIC-MCC). 用此程序模拟研究了短脉冲激光与He气靶相互作用时电子和离子的加速过程. 研究表明当强激光与过临界密度的微米厚度的平面靶相互作用时，靶前表面物质将被激光脉冲前沿迅速离化；新生的电子被激光场有质动力加速成为高能电子，这些电子穿入到靶内，通过电子碰撞电离离化靶内物质；一部分高能电子穿透靶后，会在靶的后表面形成强的电荷分离场，该场迅速离化靶后表面物质，同时使得后表面离子得到加速. 部分穿透靶的超热电子将被电荷分离场重新拉回靶内，在靶的前后表面振荡. 一些振荡电子在此过程中得到电荷分离场加速，离开前表面，在前表面也形成电荷分离场，使前表面离子得到加速. 关键词： 激光等离子体 光电离和碰撞电离 电子加速 离子加速     

Multi-terawatt laser system generating 12-fs pulses at 100 Hz repetition rate

We have developed a laser system generating high peak-power ultrashort pulses based on the chirped pulse amplification of a Ti:sapphire laser. The pulse duration of the laser is reduced to 12 fs, owing to the successful compensation of gain narrowing during amplification with novel optics. The pulse energy and the repetition rate are 40 mJ and 100 Hz, respectively, as a consequence of sufficient energy extraction from a laser medium in the final stage of a multipass amplifier chain, which is designed to balance focusing with a thermal lens against defocusing with convex mirrors without cryogenic cooling for Ti:sapphire crystals. The laser pulses delivered from this laser system are suitable for generating an intense attosecond pulse train in a vacuum ultraviolet or extreme ultraviolet region.     

Structural deformation of nitro group of nitromethane molecule in liquid phase in an intense femtosecond laser field

The structural deformation of NO_2 group induced by an intense femtosecond laser field of liquid nitromethane(NM)molecule is detected by time-and frequency-resolved coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy(CARS) technique with the intense pump laser. Here, we present the mechanism of molecular alignment and deformation. The CARS spectra and its FFT spectra of liquid NM show that the NO_2 torsional mode couples with the CN symmetric stretching mode and that the NO_2 group undergoes ultrafast structural deformation with a relaxation time of 195 fs. The frequency of the NO_2 torsional mode in liquid NM(50.8±0.3 cm~(-1)) at room temperature is found. Our results prove the structural deformation of two groups in liquid NM molecule occur simultaneously in the intense laser field.     

超强飞秒激光与固体靶产生的超热电子加热机制

 在SILEX-1激光器上测量了超强飞秒激光与Ta靶相互作用产生的出射超热电子能谱及角分布，研究了出射超热电子加热机制。激光脉宽为 30 fs，激光功率密度为8.5×10¹⁸ W/cm²。靶前法线方向超热电子温度为550 keV。从实验结果可知：共振吸收是靶前法线方向超热电子主要加热机制，这与靶前存在大密度标长预等离子体的实验条件吻合。靶厚为6～50 μm时，靶后超热电子沿法线方向出射；靶厚为2 mm时，该发射峰消失。