用变换方程测量窄带阿秒超紫外线XUV脉冲的强度时间结构

阿秒超紫外线(extreme ultra-violet, XUV)与飞秒超短激光脉冲共同激发惰性气体原子产生光电子，其终态能量与光电子产生时刻即激光相位有关. 介绍光电子的激光相位确定法，并利用光电子能谱本身(其比例谱)，计算出待测窄带XUV脉冲的强度时间结构. 研究表明，在与激光线性极化方向成0°或180°方向测量得到的光电子能谱动态范围大，容易解谱. XUV脉冲的时间宽度的测量范围为半个激光振荡周期，时间分辨率主要取决于测量系统的时间晃动和控制精度. 关键词： 光电子能谱 相位确定法 变换方程 脉冲强度时间结构     

附加谐波脉冲生成强的39阿秒孤立脉冲

采用多周期800 nm激光组合它的27次谐波脉冲生成超短、宽频的孤立阿秒脉冲.研究表明,脉宽为1 fs的27次谐波脉冲可以有效地控制电子动力学过程.将其加入到单色激光场的特定时域,可以控制电离概率在半个光学周期内迅速提升,使得谐波的转化效率相对于单色场情形增强4个数量级,并实现单一的短量子路径选择,出现频宽为108 eV的超连续辐射谱,叠加该连续谱140次到210次谐波获得了脉宽为39as的强、短孤立脉冲.与文献[7]中采用5 fs/800 nm激光附加紫外阿秒脉冲的方法相比,该方案生成的连续谱频带增宽一 关键词： 组合激光脉冲 连续辐射谱 阿秒脉冲     

阿秒脉冲测量的研究进展

对于发生在原子范围内的电子动力学过程的观测需要阿秒量级的时间分辨率.理论和实验研究都已证明,用周期量级超短脉冲直接泵浦的高次谐波过程可以产生阿秒脉冲序列甚至单个的阿秒脉冲,将阿秒脉冲用于测量超快动力学过程之前先要对阿秒脉冲本身性质做出描述,传统的自相关方法和互相关方法不能直接推广到阿秒量级超短脉冲的测量.文章详细介绍了近几年发展起来的阿秒脉冲测量方法,分析了它们的分辨极限和局限性.     

Ionization phase-match gating for wavelength-tunable isolated attosecond pulse generation

High-order harmonic emission can be confined to the leading edge of an 800 nm driver laser pulse under moderately intense focusing conditions (7×10¹⁴ W/cm²) (Pfeifer et al. in Opt. Express 15:17120, 2007). Here, the experimentally observed curtailment of harmonic production on the leading edge of the driver pulse is shown to be controlled by an ionization-induced phase-matching condition. The transient plasma density inherent to the process of high-harmonic generation terminates the harmonic emission by an ultrafast loss of phase matching on the leading edge of the laser pulse. The analysis is supported by a reconstruction of the in situ intensity envelope of the driver pulse with attosecond temporal resolution, performed by measurements of the carrier-envelope phase dependence of individual half-cycle harmonic cutoffs. The method opens the way to wavelength-tunable isolated attosecond pulse generation.     

Controlling the spacing of attosecond pulse trains from relativistic surface plasmas

When a laser pulse hits a solid surface with relativistic intensities, XUV attosecond pulses are generated in the reflected light. We present an experimental and theoretical study of the temporal properties of attosecond pulse trains in this regime. The recorded harmonic spectra show distinct fine structures which can be explained by a varying temporal pulse spacing that can be controlled by the laser contrast. The pulse spacing is directly related to the cycle-averaged motion of the reflecting surface. Thus the harmonic spectrum contains information on the relativistic plasma dynamics.     

任意夹角的双色偏振激光作用下孤立阿秒脉冲的产生

本文选取脉宽为12 fs波长为2000 nm和800 nm的两束线性偏振激光, 适当调节两束激光的偏振方向的夹角θ, 发现当θ=π/2时, 高次谐波谱的第二级平台出现了“漏斗形”凹槽.当θ为π/6时, 得到了290 eV的超宽连续谱的高次谐波发射, 利用小波变换合理的解释了高次谐波形状及截止位置. 在该段连续谱上任意截取70 eV宽度的频率, 都可以得到脉宽约为60 as的孤立阿秒脉冲. 适当减小截取范围可以得到线性偏振的脉宽94 as的孤立阿秒脉冲. 这为实验中产生能灵活调节的孤立阿秒脉冲提供了一种方案.     

Use of photoelectron laser phase determination method for attosecond measurements with quantum-mechanical calculations

This paper calculates quantum-mechanically the photoelectron energy spectra excited by attosecond x-rays in the presence of a few-cycle laser. A photoelectron laser phase determination method is used for precise measurements of the pulse natural properties of x-ray intensity and the instantaneous frequency profiles. As a direct procedure without any previous pulse profile assumptions and time-resolved measurements as well as data fitting analysis, this method can be used to improve the time resolutions of attosecond timing and measurements with metrological precision. The measurement range is half of a laser optical cycle.     

Single quantum path control by a fundamental chirped pulse combined with a subharmonic control pulse

In this paper, we study the issue of single quantum path control and its role in attosecond pulse generation. By carrying out the time-dependent Schrödinger equation analysis for the harmonic emission from a single He atom irradiated by the two-color laser field, consisting of a short 800 fundamental chirped pulse and a subharmonic 800–2400 nm control pulse, we find that the most favorable condition for attosecond generation is at the fundamental chirp parameter β = 4.55 together with the zero-phase 2000 nm control pulse, in which the single quantum path (short quantum path) is selected to contribute to the harmonic spectrum exhibiting an ultrabroad supercontinuum of a 337 eV bandwidth. Finally, an isolated attosecond pulse as short as 39 as is thus generated directly.     

Single attosecond pulse generation from asymmetric molecules with a multicycle laser pulse

A new scheme for single attosecond pulse generation from asymmetric molecules with a multicycle laser pulse is proposed. It is shown that both even and odd harmonics are generated from the asymmetric molecules, and the attosecond pulses are produced every full cycle of the driving laser field rather than each half-cycle. By filtering the harmonics in the cutoff of the spectrum, a single attosecond pulse can be obtained with a multicycle laser pulse with a duration of 2 times longer than the few-cycle pulse conventionally used.     

Broadband attosecond pulse shaping

We use semiconductor (Si) and metallic (Al, Zr) transmission filters to shape, in amplitude and phase, high-order harmonics generated from the interaction of an intense titanium sapphire laser field with a pulsed neon gas target. Depending on the properties of the filter, the emitted attosecond pulses can be optimized in bandwidth and/or pulse length. We demonstrate the generation of attosecond pulses centered at energies from 50 to 80 eV, with bandwidths as large as 45 eV and with pulse durations compressed to 130 as.     

用光电子能谱相位确定法同时测量阿秒超紫外线XUV脉冲的频率和强度时间分布

介绍阿秒超紫外线(XUV)激发惰性气体原子产生光电子并在强激光电场中运动的半经典近似 方法，以及同时、直接、全面地测量阿秒XUV脉冲频率和强度时间分布的光电子能谱相位确定法. 采用飞秒超短脉冲激光和XUV间的交叉关联技术，从不同激光强度下、与激光线性极化方向成0°或180°方向上测得的光电子能量积分谱，可以重建XUV的频率和强度时间分布. XUV脉冲时间宽度的测量范围从1／4到1／2激光振荡周期，时间分辨率取决于激光束和XUV脉冲之间的相对延时控制精度和光路抖动时间. 所述方法可用于在阿秒尺度上的超快速测量，以及有关电子在原子和分子中运动的超快速动力学过程研究. 关键词： 阿秒测量 光电子能谱 相位确定法 超紫外线 频率和强度时间分布     

Carrier-Envelope-Phase Dependence of Emission Properties of High-Order Harmonic Generation

The carrler-envelope-phase （CEP） dependence of the emission properties of high-order harmonic generation （HHG） are quantitatively investigated. Calculation shows that a two-cycle laser with CEP of 15° can produce a single energy distribution pulse peaked at 0.94 radian （tad） and spanned 1.29 tad with the cutoff energy 2.9Up ＋ Ip and a bandwidth 0.86Up （where Up is the ponderomotive potential of the laser field and Ip is the atomic ionization potential）. The CEP dependence of the energy and temporal localizations of the single distribution pulse show interesting 180° periodic structures. These characteristics may be useful in optimizing attosecond x-ray sources and measurements.     

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.     

红外激光场中共振结构原子对极紫外光脉冲的压缩效应

通过数值求解一维原子的含时薛定谔方程, 研究了具有共振结构的原子在双色场(红外激光(IR)+极紫外光(XUV)) 驱动下发射高次谐波的特征. 研究结果表明, 具有共振结构的原子所发射的高次谐波与无共振结构原子(简称为一般原子)发射的高次谐波有明显不同, 共振结构的原子除了在某一能量附近(原子的共振能量+电离能)高次谐波的强度有很大提高外, 它还对XUV光的响应较一般原子表现得更为敏感, 即使XUV光的强度较弱, 也能够明显提高XUV光脉冲中心频率附近的谐波强度, 更重要的是通过调节双色场的时间延迟, 能使输入的XUV光的脉宽得到明显的压缩, 通过时间-频率分析给出了发生这种现象的原因. 由此提出了通过滤波-连续反馈的方式可使XUV光的脉冲从200 as压缩至120 as左右.     

Generation of an attosecond X-ray pulse in a thin film irradiated by an ultrashort ultrarelativistic laser pulse

The possibility of generating an attosecond x-ray pulse in a thin solid-density plasma layer irradiated by a femtosecond laser pulse of ultrarelativistic intensity has been demonstrated in numerical simulation. Changes in the plasma layer parameters during the light pulse result in the generation of a wide, partly continuous radiation spectrum in the layer. The separation of limited parts in the reflected or transmitted light spectrum makes it possible to obtain isolated short electromagnetic pulses with an intensity reaching 1% of the exciting light intensity.     

Isolated sub-30-attosecond pulse generation using a multicycle two-color chirped laser and a static electric field

We present a theoretical investigation of high-order harmonic generation in a chirped two-color laser field, which is synthesized by a 10-fs/800-nm fundamental chirped pulse and a 10-fs/1760-nm subharmonic pulse. It is shown that a supercontinuum can be produced using the multicycle two-color chirped field. However, the supercontinuum reveals a strong modulation structure, which is not good for the generation of an isolated attosecond pulse. By adding a static electric field to the multicycle two-color chirped field, not only the harmonic cutoff is extended remarkably, but also the quantum paths of the high-order harmonic generation （HHG） are modified significantly. As a result, both the extension of the supercontinuum and the selection of a single quantum path are achieved, producing an isolated 23-as pulse with a bandwidth of about 170.6 eV. Furthermore, the influences of the laser intensities on the supercontinuum and isolated attosecond pulse generation are investigated.     

双色激光脉冲辐照下38 as孤立短脉冲的产生

通过数值求解一维含时薛定谔方程, 本文研究了具有特定波长的双色激光脉冲与氦原子相互作用产生的高次谐波和阿秒脉冲, 这里双色激光脉冲由5 fs较低强度基频钛宝石主脉冲与另一束较高强度的1330 nm 红外附加脉冲构成. 研究发现, 若两束脉冲之间的相对相位选择合适, 可以获得宽带连续辐射的高次谐波谱, 叠加该连续辐射谱可获得脉宽为38 as的孤立短脉冲. 进一步研究发现, 不同于以往孤立阿秒脉冲研究中选出长、短量子路径之一作为辐射源, 这里单阿秒脉冲来源于长、短两个量子路径的贡献, 只是这两个量子路径在很宽的谐波次数变化范围内辐射时刻比较集中. 关键词： 双色激光脉冲 阿秒脉冲 量子路径     

Coherent hard x rays from attosecond pulse train-assisted harmonic generation

High-order harmonic generation from atomic systems is considered in the crossed fields of a relativistically strong infrared laser and a weak attosecond pulse train of soft x rays. Due to one-photon ionization by the x-ray pulse, the ionized electron obtains a starting momentum that compensates the relativistic drift, which is induced by the laser magnetic field, and allows the electron to efficiently emit harmonic radiation upon recombination with the atomic core in the relativistic regime. This way, short pulses of coherent hard x rays of up to 40 keV energy can be generated.     

激光脉冲绝对相位对产生阿秒脉冲的影响

在用超短激光脉冲产生和测量阿秒脉冲的过程中，绝对相位成为一个非常重要的影响因素。讨论了绝对相位对阿秒脉冲的产生和激光振荡的关系的影响，发现高次谐波的产生过程非常稳定，阿秒脉冲和驱动它的激光振荡之间的稳定的相位关系并不会受绝对相位的随机性的破坏，从而为采用交叉相关技术直接测量由强场原子高次谐波过程产生的阿秒脉冲宽度提供了理论依据，正确解释了文献[13]上报道的实验结果。