Second harmonic imaging of chloroplasts using the two-photon laser scanning microscope

BackgroundSecond harmonic information reveals information about the structure of spatially oriented structures with an asymmetry. We study the second harmonic images of the grana and intergranal parts of chloroplasts in the leaves of the shade moss Plagiomnium affine.ResultsA two-photon microscope with blocking filters to suppress fluorescence generated both forward and backward second harmonic illumination to be captured. In the starch free chloroplasts of the single cell layered laminae strong second harmonic generation (SHG) from the granal regions was emitted. Upon illumination the chloroplasts changed their orientation affecting the SHG signal. Chloroplast is reoriented upon illumination.ConclusionsSHG signals were successfully obtained from the grana without any possible confusion from SHG starch grains due to their absence.     

Enhancing the resolution of the forward second harmonic imaging using the two-photon laser scanning microscope

The effect of increasing the numerical aperture and changing the immersion imaging medium of the objective in the forward second harmonic imaging of the grana and intergranal parts of chloroplasts in the leaves of shade moss Plagiomnium affine plant were demonstrated. Also the enhancement of the forward second harmonic generation images and simultaneously records the forward and backward second harmonic signals were demonstrated. The second harmonic signals in the forward and backward directions are generated by a tightly focused linearly polarized femtosecond pulses laser.

Conclusions

Forward second harmonic signals were successfully enhanced by capturing higher order of diffraction rays from the samples using high numerical aperture water immersion objective.     

Investigation on high efficiency temporal phase modulated broadband second harmonic laser

In this paper, it is the first time to experimentally demonstrate the second harmonic generation (SHG) of temporal phase modulated broadband laser. The SHG conversion efficiency and the characteristic of SHG spectrum are investigated in detail and the relation between SHG conversion efficiency and incident fundamental light intensity is obtained. The highest efficiency of nearly 70% is achieved at the fundamental pulse intensity of 1.6 GW/cm². The experimental results show that the SHG spectrum widths under high and low intensity are both half of the incident fundamental lights, and don’t result in the spectrum narrowing. The obtained results are very useful for operation at the second harmonic wavelength in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) laser facility.     

Second harmonic generation of a self-focused Hermite-Gaussian laser in plasma

Second harmonic generation (SHG) using intense Hermite-Gaussian laser beam (HGLB) propagating through the plasma for mode-indices m = 0 and m = 1 is reported in the present work. Ponderomotive force induced density perturbation beats with the oscillatory velocity of electrons at incident laser frequency, generate the second harmonic nonlinear current that give rise to SHG. Using paraxial approximations, we have derived the coupled equations for the beam width parameter of HGLB and second harmonic's normalized amplitude. Resonance condition is obtained by considering wiggler magnetic field which providing an extra momentum to the second harmonic photon and this result a significant increase in the amplitude of SHG. Our analysis shows the prominent rise in normalized amplitude of second harmonic on increasing the value of the intensity of fundamental laser pulse, normalized wiggler magnetic field and normalized density of plasma. It is notified that the gain of SHG is more prominent for m = 1. Dependency of laser and plasma parameters on SHG is also reported in the current work.     

Highly efficient SHG of a sequence of laser pulses with a random peak intensity and duration

One of the methods of obtaining a highly efficient second-harmonic generation (SHG) for laser pulses with random amplitudes and durations is mathematically modeled. The essence of the method proposed consists of the use of quadratic nonlinearity of the medium under conditions of a large mismatch between the wave numbers of the fundamental wave and the second harmonic. In the literature, the SHG under these conditions is referred to as the cascade SHG. Under certain conditions, this process is equivalent to the action similar to that of the cubic nonlinearity. This allows one to implement the both compression and decompression of laser pulses due to the cascade generation at a fairly low intensity of the pulses such that the Kerr nonlinearity does not manifest itself. The cascade generation is shown to enable one to implement tenfold or higher suppression of fluctuations of the input peak intensity of the laser radiation in the regime of free generation, which potentially makes it possible to implement the SHG under optimum conditions for all pulses in the sequence.     

Second harmonic generation due to quadrupole interaction in a photonic crystal slab: angle dependence and symmetry of the unit cell

We investigate second harmonic generation (SHG) from a photonic crystal slab consisting of centrosymmetric materials. The SHG signal is observed in the transmission direction when the incident laser excites the quasiwaveguide mode. As the SHG frequency approaches the exciton level, the SHG intensity increases resonantly. When the incident angle is exactly 0, the SHG signal vanishes even if the transmission dip is excited. This fact is readily explained by a quadrupole theory based on the Lorentz oscillator model, where the source of the nonlinearity is the Lorentz force. When the unit cell in the photonic crystal lacks inversion symmetry, the SHG signal is expected even for the normal incidence. It is experimentally demonstrated for a square array of triangular semiconductor slabs.     

Waveform Measurement of Ultra-Short Optical Pulses Based on Two-Photon Absorption in Si-Image Sensor

We demonstrate a novel waveform mesurement system of ultra-short optical pulses based on the two-photon absorption process in a Si-image sensor. Using an interferometer with a tilt mirror in the reference path, the relative time difference between the signal and reference pulses is spatially distributed on the Si-image sensor, so the intensity auto-correlation is monitored as an image at a time without using moving parts. This system can create or remove an interference fringe pattern overlapped on the auto-correlation image by controlling the polarization states of the laser pulse, which is useful for measuring the crossing angle between the signal and reference beams as well as avoiding contamination of the interference fringe into the auto-correlation image. We successfully measured optical pulses less than 100 fs from a fiber ring laser with a temporal resolution of 0.4 fs. The obtained waveform agreed well with that observed with a conventional second harmonic generation (SHG) based auto-correlator.     

Mechanisms for second harmonic generation in the interaction of a superintense ultrashort laser pulse with cluster plasma

The effects of the interaction of an intense femtosecond laser pulse with large atomic clusters are considered. The pulse intensity is of the order of 10¹⁸ W cm^?2. New effects appear when the magnetic component of the Lorentz force is taken into account. The second harmonic of laser radiation is generated. The second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency is proportional to the square of the number of atoms in a cluster and the square of the laser radiation intensity. The resonance increase in the SHG efficiency at the Mie frequencies (both at the second harmonic frequency and fundamental frequency) proved to be insignificant because of the fast passage through the resonance during cluster expansion. The mechanisms of the expansion and accumulation of energy by electrons and ions in the cluster are discussed in detail. The energy accumulation by electrons mainly occurs due to stimulated inverse bremsstrahlung upon elastic reflection of the electrons from the cluster surface. The equations describing the cluster expansion take into account both the hydrodynamic pressure of heated electrons and the Coulomb explosion of the ionized cluster caused by outer shell ionization. It is assumed that both inner shell and outer shell ionization is described by the over barrier mechanism. It is shown that atomic clusters are more attractive for the generation of even harmonics than compared to solid and gas targets.     

Intense laser-induced electronic and optical properties in double finite oscillator potential

In the present paper, a theoretically study of the non-resonant laser field effect on the optical response, such as nonlinear optical rectification (NOR), second (SHG) and third harmonic generation (THG) coefficients in double finite oscillator potential (DFO) quantum wells is performed in the framework of the effective mass approximation. The obtained results reveal that, energy states and optical response is significantly affected by the non-resonant intense laser field (ILF) intensity and symmetry of the structure. Also it was found that the laser field is more effective on the optical response in the DFO potential when the asymmetric character of the confinement potential is strong. Thus, the NOR, SHG and THG coefficients with designated values can be obtained by using a properly adjusted ILF intensity and symmetry parameter of confinement potential.     

Automatically tunable second-harmonic generation of dye lasers

A new technique which realizes the phase-matching of second harmonic generation (SHG) over a wide spectral range without mechanical or temperature tuning of the SHG crystal is developed. The phase-matching is achieved by changing the angle of the laser beam incident on the SHG crystal using dispersive components such as gratings or prisms. Over the entire spectral range of a Rhodamine-6G dye laser, the phase-matching is realized with a KDP crystal using this technique. This system is capable of producing tunable coherent ultraviolet light from 2300 Å to 3500 Å with an extremely fast scanning rate, if the dispersion of the prism and the SHG crystal is carefully matched.     

Formation of the holographic image of a diffuse object in second-harmonic radiation generated by a nonlinear medium

Results of experiments on recording three-dimensional holographic images of extended diffuse objects using an SHG hologram generating the second harmonic are presented. In this case, the object image is formed by the second-harmonic radiation whose wavelength is smaller than the wavelength of object and reference waves recorded on a hologram by a factor of two. Elements of the theory of an SHG hologram are considered. A holographic image of a transparency object illuminated with diffuse light is obtained. It is shown that the resolving power of this image is close to the limit determined by diffraction effects. An experiment on defocusing the reconstructed image showed that it was localized in one spatial plane and, therefore, was three-dimensional.     

Photonic band-gap enhanced second-harmonic generation in a planar lithium niobate waveguide

Enhanced second-harmonic generation (SHG) conversion efficiency was theoretically predicted in waveguide geometry with coupling to a one-dimensional grating photonic band gap (PBG). We report a series of experiments using samples made with lithium niobate. A waveguide was fabricated near the surface by applying the proton-exchange technique. The characteristics of waveguide modes were determined by several techniques: prism coupling, diffraction, and Cherenkov radiation. The WKB method was used to analyze the results. Ultraviolet laser lithography was applied to make PBG gratings on the sample. We further investigated Cherenkov second-harmonic generation (CSHG), i.e., SHG radiated into the substrate, under the condition of a band-edge PBG resonance in the waveguides. The SHG inside planar waveguides was also experimentally investigated. We fabricated waveguides with multiple pump modes and found that the second mode was more efficient in enhancing the second harmonic signal. This result is explained by our model. Several samples were investigated in detail; the highest conversion efficiency of CSHG with a PBG was enhanced around 50 times above the CSHG signal without a PBG. A numerical model was constructed with parameters calculated from our sample characterization data to interpret the experimental results.     

Implementation and evaluation of a detector for forward propagated second harmonic signals

Second harmonic generation (SHG) is emerging as an alternative non-linear imaging method. The fact that most commercial multi-photon microscopes can be easily adapted to image SHG makes it appealing to explore the kind of sample information given by SHG. Here we describe an SHG detection implementation designed to optimize the collection of forward propagating light. A Hamamatsu H957-08 PMT is inserted at the back-focal plane of the condenser on an inverted Nikon TE300, and controlled by the existing electronics of a BioRad 1024MP system. Evaluation of the performance was done on common SHG generating preparations, KH₂PO₄ crystals and collagen. We concluded that positioning a detector at the back focal plane of the condenser provides a highly efficient detection system for second harmonic signals, with many advantages over a detector sited at the lamp housing.     

双波长双脉冲激光三次谐波的产生方法

提出双波长双脉冲激光产生三次谐波的方法。波长不同的两脉冲激光束由反射使它们合拢后通过两块非线性的BBO晶体 ,激光脉冲第一次通过BBO晶体产生两波长的二次谐波 (SHG) ,它们由各自的反射镜反射再次通过BBO又产生了二次谐波 ,这两次产生的二次谐波和基波通过用于产生三次谐波的BBO晶体可产生双波长的三次谐波 ,它们由 45°斜置的耦合镜输出。文中分析了满足二次谐波和三次谐波的四个相位匹配的条件 ,该方法也可用于腔内双波长双脉冲的三次谐波激光的产生 ,给出了相应的实验结果。     

Nonlinear Optical Rectification,Second and Third Harmonic Generations in Square-Step and Graded-Step Quantum Wells under Intense Laser Field

For square-step quantum wells(SSQWs) and graded-step quantum wells(GSQWs), the nonlinear optical rectification(NOR), second harmonic generation(SHG) and third harmonic generation(THG) coefficients under an intense laser field(ILF) are analyzed. The found results indicate that ILF can ensure a vital influence on the shape and height of the confined potential profile of both SSQWs and GSQWs, and alterations of the dipole moment matrix elements and the energy levels are adhered on the profile of the confined potential. According to the results, the potential profile and height of the GSQWs are affected more significantly by ILF intensity compared to SSQWs. These results indicate that NOR, SHG and THG coefficients of SSQWs and GSQWs may be calibrated in a preferred energy range and the magnitude of the resonance peak(RP) by tuning the ILF parameter. It is feasible to classify blue or red shifts in RP locations of NOR, SHG and THG coefficients by varying the ILF parameter. Our results can be useful in investigating new ways of manipulating the opto-electronic properties of semiconductor QW devices.     

Characterization of a broadband pulse for phase controlled multiphoton microscopy by single beam SPIDER

We present what we believe to be a new version of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction (SPIDER) using only a single-phase and polarization controlled laser beam. Two narrow pulses and one broadband pulse are selected out of an ultrafast laser pulse by a polarization and phase control technique to generate second harmonic generation (SHG) signals, which are equivalent to a spectral shear interferogram in the conventional SPIDER method. The spectral phase of the broadband laser pulse is extracted analytically with double quadrature spectral interferometry (DQSI). An arbitrary spectral phase can be retrieved with great precision and compensated in situ at the sample position of a microscope. This new method requires no separate reference beam and is suitable for nonlinear optical microscopy with a phase controlled laser pulse.     

Concentrated second‐harmonic generation from a single Al‐covered ZnS nanobelt

Here we report on the hybrid nanostructures where a single ZnS nanobelt was half‐covered with an aluminum (Al) film, which is an ideal platform for studying the second‐harmonic generation (SHG) enhancement effects of the Al coating. It was fabricated by the lift‐off process and allowed for the accurate comparison of the SHG intensity between the Al‐covered and the same bare ZnS nanobelt under consistent test conditions. The results indicate that the Al coating in the hybrid nanostructures not only confines the pumping laser in the ZnS effectively, but also concentrates the emitted SHG signal greatly, increasing the signal collection efficiency. By the combination of these two effects, ∼60 times enhancement of the SHG intensity is achieved at the optimized geometry size (width and thickness) of the ZnS nanobelts. The Al‐based hybrid nanostructures open up new possibilities for low‐cost, highly efficient and directional coherent nanolight sources at short wavelengths.

     

应用级联倍频方法提高倍频系统输出稳定性研究

提出应用级联倍频方法提高倍频系统输出稳定性,并就该方法的有效性进行了理论分析和模拟计算.分析和计算结果不但证明级联倍频方法能实现倍频系统稳定输出,而且还表明可以通过仔细调节第一块倍频晶体中波矢方向 k 与光轴间夹角、两块倍频晶体间的间隔,能调节改变实现倍频系统最稳输出时所需第二块晶体的理论计算长度,使之与第二块倍频晶体的实际加工长度一致,最终实现系统稳定倍频输出.级联倍频方法在实现高输出稳定性的同时能实现高的倍频转换效率,对应用于光参量啁啾脉冲放大系统的高稳定抽运源系统的设计建造具有重要参考意义. 关键词： 级联倍频 稳定倍频输出 光参量啁啾脉冲放大     

Linear and nonlinear absorption,SHG and photobleaching behaviors of Dy doped GaSe single crystal

The linear absorption, nonlinear absorption (NA), second harmonic generation (SHG) and carrier mobilities of undoped and 0.1 at% Dy doped GaSe single crystals grown by modified Bridgman method have been studied by UV–vis, open aperture Z-scan, SHG and transmission ultrafast pump probe spectroscopy experiments. Both linear absorption and SHG measurements clearly showed that the doping of GaSe crystal with Dy³⁺ leads to a shift in the linear absorption edge. The mechanisms contributing to the NA behavior were explained and discussed. The photobleaching behaviors of the crystals were investigated by delaying of the probe signal in transmission pump-probe spectroscopy experiments.     

Generation of femtosecond laser pulses at 396 nm in K_3B_6O_(10)Cl crystal

K_3B_6O_(10)Cl(KBOC), a new nonlinear optical crystal, shows potential advantages for the generation of deep ultraviolet(UV) light compared with other borate crystals. In this paper we study for the first time the second harmonic generation(SHG) of a femtosecond Ti:sapphire amplifier with this crystal. Laser power is obtained to be as high as 220 m W at the central wavelength of 396 nm with a 1-mm-long crystal, and the maximum SHG conversion efficiency reaches 39.3%. The typical pulse duration is 83 fs. The results show that second harmonic(SH) conversion efficiency has the room to be further improved and that the new nonlinear crystal is very suited to generate the high efficiency deep ultraviolet laser radiation below 266 nm.