Interaction of light filaments generated by femtosecond laser pulses in air

The interaction of two light filaments propagating in air is simulated. Simulations show that the interaction of the two light filaments displays interesting features such as attraction, fusion, repulsion, and spiral propagation, depending on the relative phase shift and the crossing angle between them. A long and stable channel can be formed by fusing two in-phase light filaments. The channel becomes unstable with the increase of the crossing angle and phase shift. The interaction of two light filaments in different planes is studied and the spiral propagation is observed.     

Generation of a variable linear array of phase-coherent supercontinuum sources

We investigate the coherence properties of a linear array of white-light sources produced in bulk media by ultrashort laser pulses. The array is generated out of the spatial interference pattern between two laser pump pulses, so that the number of supercontinuum sources and their separations can be easily manipulated by varying the geometry of the laser beam interaction. We find that all the secondary white-light sources which arise from the generation of filaments in the optical medium are well phase-locked and are thus able to generate stable and high-visibility multiple-beam interference patterns in the far-field. Observations are compared to the results of a simple model which takes into account a clamping of the peak laser intensity inside the filaments and includes intensity-dependent phase shifts among the different sources. PACS 42.65.Jx; 42.65.Ky; 42.65.Re     

Quantum Phase Transition and Thermal Entanglement in the Isotropic XXX Model

We investigate the quantum phase transition (QPT) and the pairwise thermal entanglement in the three-qubit Heisenberg XXX chain with Dzyaloshinskii--Moriya (DM) interaction under a magnetic field. The ground states of the system exist crossing points, which shows that the system exhibits a QPT. At a given temperature, the entanglement undergoes two sudden changes (platform-like behavior) as the DM interaction or external magnetic field increases. This special property can be used as the entanglement switch, which is also influenced by the temperature. We can modulate the DM interaction or external magnetic field to control the entanglement switch.     

空气中等离子光栅诱导探测光丝三次谐波辐射放大的实验研究

对探测光丝的不同位置与等离子光栅相互作用和探测光丝作用到等离子光栅不同位置引起三次谐波的增强进行了实验研究.研究发现,探测光丝的三次谐波信号强度对于探测光丝不同位置与等离子光栅相互作用和等离子光栅内部钳制的激光强度具有极强的依赖关系.与等离子光栅相互作用,三次谐波信号与等离子光栅基波信号的相位匹配与否是解释探测光丝三次谐波信号强度变化的关键.控制探测光丝以小角度与等离子光栅相互作用是实现探测光丝三次谐波信号有效放大的最佳途径.     

Ionization of a hydrogen atom from its ground state by a coherent bichromatic laser field

We study the “coherent phase control” between the three-photon ionization by a fundamental laser field and the one-photon ionization by its third harmonic for a hydrogen atom in its ground state. The relative phase δ of the harmonic field with respect to the fundamental laser radiation “modulates” the interference between the two ionization channels, which is important near the crossing points between the ionization rates of the two individual processes. Numerical results for the total ionization rate and for the angular distribution of the photoelectrons as a function of the phase δ are presented for frequencies located in the vicinity of the atomic resonances corresponding to the absorption of two laser photons. Received 31 August 2000 and Received in final form 6 February 2001     

Filamentation of interacting femtosecond laser pulses in air

The filamentation of two co-propagated femtosecond (fs) laser pulses in air is studied by numerical simulation. Depending on the different initial separation distances, relative phase shift and crossing angles, simulations show attraction, fusion, repulsion and collision of the two pulses. A long plasma channel can be formed by two in-phase pulses with small separation distance and cross angle. The coupling of two laser beam becomes weaker when the separation distance or cross angle between two beams is larger. In this case, the filamentation of each pulse develops independently. Our simulation results will be helpful for understanding the effect of the initial amplitude and phase modulation of laser pulse on the filamentation characteristics.     

气流加热对气动光学效应的影响

以光束穿过三维高速流场为物理模型,研究了由于辐射加热气流对流场的干扰及激光束穿过流场后光束远场的分布。应用二维哈特曼波前测量系统,对高功率光束在风洞高速气流传输中的气动光学效应进行了测量。结果表明,气流未电离情况下,激光与高速气流相互作用对气流的温度、密度等参数影响很小,通过该区域流场的光束波前基本没有变化。     

Quantum Signatures of Chaos in Adiabatic Interaction Between a Trapped Ion and a Laser Standing Wave

We study quantum motion around a classical heteroclinic point of a single trapped ion interacting with a strong laser standing wave. We construct a set of exact coherent states of the quantum system and from the exact solutions reveal that quantum signatures of chaos can be induced by the adiabatic interaction between the trapped ion and the laser standing wave, where the quantum expectation values of position and momentum correspond to the classically chaotic orbit. The chaotic region on the phase space is illustrated. The energy crossing and quantum resonance in time evolution and the exponentially increased Heisenberg uncertainty are found. The results suggest a theoretical scheme for controlling the unstable regular and chaotic motions.     

强激光与超音速自由剪切层的相互作用

 以波长为10.6μm,半径0.1m,焦距106m的激光束穿过二维超音速自由射流剪切层流场为物理模型，研究了由于辐射加热强激光束对流场的干扰以及激光束穿过流场后光束远场强度的分布。结果表明：由于流场的存在，使光束的远场强度分布产生了较为明显的变化，对于射流出口处不同的马赫数以及出口压力，流场对光场的远场强度分布影响不同；对于没有引起气体介质电离的强激光束，由辐射加热引起的对超音速自由射流剪切层流场的影响可以忽略。     

激光等离子体动量转换效率的实验研究

强激光与固体靶相互作用时，产生的高速喷射的等离子体对靶具有强烈的反冲作用，因此，激光等离子体可以作为一种新型的推进动力源.与传统的化学燃料推动相比，激光等离子体具有较高的比冲和有效载荷比等特点.对纳秒激光脉冲与铝、石墨、铅和碳氢靶相互作用时，等离子体对靶的冲量进行了实验测量，研究了大气与真空环境下的靶动量与激光聚焦面积的关系，并对部分实验结果与理论计算的数值进行了比较.实验结果显示，大气与真空环境下的靶动量有很大的差异，并且真空下的靶动量受材料性质的影响较大，与以往长脉冲激光的实验结果有很大的不同. 关键词： 激光等离子体 动量 动量耦合系数     

Heavy nuclei confinement effect in a pulsed light field

It is a model theoretical work of the applied character in which: “Outside the framework of the dipole approximation (with an accuracy of about v/c) the effective interaction force between stripped uranium nuclei in the presence pulsed field of two laser waves extending towards each other is theoretically studied. It is shown that the effective interaction force between uranium nuclei, can become an attractive force on certain time intervals in the presence of the pulsed laser field. As a result the pulsed laser field can slow down backward motion of nuclei in 7 times.”     

Interactions between one-dimensionalquadratic soliton-like beams

The interaction between two quadratic soliton-like beams was investigated for beams launched parallel to one another, and at small crossing angles. The experiments were performed in titanium in-diffused lithium niobate slab waveguides near a Type I phase-matching condition for second harmonic generation (SHG). Only beams at the fundamental frequency were launched and the second harmonic required for quadratic soliton formation was generated upon propagation into the waveguide. The results of the interaction were found to depend on the relative phase between the input fundamental beams, the net phase mismatch for SHG and on the beam crossing angle. Good agreement with numerical simulations of the different interactions was found. In general, the results of the interactions were similar to those found in saturable Kerr-like media.     

Filamentation instability in two counter-streaming laser plasmas

The filamentation instability was observed in the interaction of two counter-streaming laser ablated plasma flows,which were supersonic, collisionless, and also closely relevant to astrophysical conditions. The plasma flows were created by irradiating a pair of oppositely standing plastic(CH) foils with 1ns-pulsed laser beams of total energy of 1.7 k J in two laser spots. With characteristics diagnosed in experiments, the calculated features of Weibel-type filaments are in good agreement with measurements.     

Filaments in high-speed counter-streaming plasma interactions driven by high-power laser pulses

Interactions of two counter-streaming plasmas driven by high power laser pulses are studied on Shenguang II laser facility.Filamentary structures were observed in the interaction region after the electrostatic shockwave decay.Theoretical analysis and observations indicate that the filaments are because of collisionless mechanisms,which are caused by the electromagnetic instability,such as the beam-Weibel instability.Collision experiments were also carried out for comparison and no filaments were generated.     

On the fundamental possibility of creating a laser reference for a local acoustic pressure in a fluid

The possibility of establishing an unambiguous relation between the amplitude of a local acoustic pressure in a fluid and the parameter laser radiation scattered on microparticles located in this region has been studied. The fundamental difficulty of the problem, which has not been overcome in preceding works, is due to the uncontrollable phase taper of probe laser beams even in the simplest case of a harmonic acoustic wave. It has been shown that the inclusion of nonlinear components of the phase taper makes it possible to unambiguously express the amplitude of the local excess pressure in the region of interference of two crossing laser beams in terms of the parameters of the medium and the parameters of scattered radiation. This indicates the fundamental possibility of creating a laser reference for acoustic pressure in fluids.     

Predissociation and the vibrational spectrum of molecular oxygen in an intense laser field. A Schumann-Runge band interval

The probabilities of predissociation and vibronic transitions between the states of the oxygen molecule in the Schumann-Runge band in the presence of a strong laser field are examined. The interaction of the molecule with the laser field is described using the rotating wave approximation. The predissociation probabilities for the avoided crossing of two adiabatic molecular terms are calculated within the framework of the Landau-Zener model. The energies of the vibrational states in the laser field are determined by diagonalization of the adiabatic Hamiltonian in the harmonic oscillator basis set. The predissociation thresholds are determined and the Franck-Condon factors are calculated as functions of the frequency and intensity of the external electromagnetic field.     

Ultra-fast spreading on superhydrophilic fibrous mesh with nanochannels

In this paper, we fabricated a TiO₂ mesh with ultra-fast spreading superhydrophilic property without UV irradiation. Through electrospinning process followed by calcinations, we obtained meshes with special micropores and nanochannels composite hierarchical structures. Each fiber exhibits a bundle structure of aligned elementary filaments with nanochannels, which should be resulted from phase separation and stretch of electrostatic force during electrospinning process. The mesh shows ultra-fast spreading property within only tens of milliseconds (ms). It is concluded that the special topography offered a multi-scale 3D capillary effect that play crucial role in ultra-fast spreading superhydrophilic property of the mesh. This study provides interesting insights to design novel materials concerning liquid transport and dissipation, which may find its way in various applications.     

The magnesium ramsey interferometer: Applications and prospects

In this paper it will be shown that an atom interferometer, based on the coherent splitting of the atomic wavefunction by four travelling waves (Ramsey interferometer), may be explained by a purely mechanical interpretation. As our first application of this Ramsey interferometer we have measured the phase shifts respectively optical length changes in a magnesium atomic beam caused by the acceleration of the partial atomic wave in one arm of the interferometer. This acceleration was achieved by the dipole force exerted by an off-resonant crossing laser beam which interacted with the ground state part of the wavefunction only. Further applications of this interferometer and improvements due to laser cooling will be discussed.     

Cherenkov interaction of vortices with a free surface

The interaction of vortex filaments in an ideal incompressible fluid with the free surface of the latter is investigated in the canonical formalism. A Hamiltonian formulation of the equations of motion is given in terms of both canonical and noncanonical Poisson brackets. The relationship between these two approaches is analyzed. The Lagrangian of the system and the Poisson brackets are obtained in terms of vortex lines, making it possible to study the dynamics of thin vortex filaments with allowance for finite thickness of the filaments. For two-dimensional flows exact equations of motion describing the interaction of point vortices and surface waves are derived by transformation to conformal variables. Asymptotic steady-state solutions are found for a vortex moving at a velocity lower than the minimum phase velocity of surface waves. It is found that discrete coupled states of surface waves above a vortex are possible by virtue of the inhomogeneous Doppler effect. At velocities higher than the minimum phase velocity the buoyant rise of a vortex as a result of Cherenkov radiation is described in the semiclassical limit. The instability of a vortex filament against three-dimensional kink perturbations due to interaction with the “image” vortex is demonstrated. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 115, 894–919 (March 1999)