The above-threshold detachment of negative ions in half-cycle laser field

We study partial detachment rate and photodetachment asymmetry of F⁻ detached by half-cycle linearly polarized laser field using numerical simulation. Similar to photodetachment for negative ions in few-cycle laser fields, we find that partial detachment rates of a couple opposite directions in the above-threshold detachment of F⁻ are not equal, the detachment is asymmetric. Furthermore, the photodetachment asymmetry degree increases with carrier-envelop phase (CEP) as the peak laser intensity becoming stronger or the pulse width becoming shorter. The maximal asymmetry degree is stronger with higher laser intensity. We confirm the effect of the CEP, laser intensity and pulse width on the above-threshold detachment of F⁻ in half-cycle laser fields. It provides a possible way to determine the CEP of half-cycle laser fields by measuring detached photoelectrons.     

Carrier-envelope phase measurement using plasmonic-field-enhanced high-order harmonic generation of H atom in few-cycle laser pulses

We investigate the plasmonic-field-enhanced high-order harmonic generation (HHG) of H atom driven by few-cycle laser pulses, by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE). Compared with the homogeneous field, HHG spectra generated by inhomogeneous field exhibit two-plateau structure. We analyze the origin of the two plateaus by using the semiclassical trajectory method. Our results from both classical and TDSE simulations show that the cutoffs of the two plateaus are dramatically affected by the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of laser pulse in the inhomogeneous field, even for a little longer pulse. Thus, we can determine the CEP of driving laser based on the cutoff position of HHG generated in the inhomogeneous field.     

通过梯形激光场和半周期场的合成扩展高次谐波截止频率

本文提出了一个在少周期梯形激光场上叠加半周期场来扩展高次谐波谱截止频率的方案.通过采用求解含时薛定谔方程,理论模拟了一维模型氢分子离子体系在不同激光场条件下的高次谐波谱,并结合时频分布图,分析了半周期场对高次谐波产生的影响.计算结果表明,使用梯形激光和半周期场的组合方法,可以有效实现扩展谐波截止频率的目的 .     

通过梯形激光场和半周期场的合成扩展高次谐波截止频率

本文提出了一个在少周期梯形激光场上叠加半周期场来扩展高次谐波谱截止频率的方案。通过采用求解含时薛定谔方程,理论模拟了一维模型氢分子离子体系在不同激光场条件下的高次谐波谱,并结合时频分布图,分析了半周期场对高次谐波产生的影响。计算结果表明,使用梯形激光和半周期场的组合方法,可以有效实现扩展谐波截止频率的目的。     

Measurement of Carrier-Envelope Phase and Field Strength of a Few-Cycle Pulse by Non-sequential Double Ionization

We propose a method to measure the carrier-envelop phase （CEP） and the intensity of a few-cycle pulse by controlling the non-sequentiai double ionization （NSDI） process. By using an additional static electric field, we can change the momentum distribution of the double-charged ions parallel to the laser polarization from an asymmetrical double-hump structure to a nearly symmetrical one. It is found that the ratio between the strength of the static electric field and that of the laser field is sensitive to the CEP but robust against the intensity fluctuation. Therefore we can determine the OEP of a few-cycle pulse precisely by measuring the static electric field. Fhrthermore, if the CEP of the few-cycle pulse is fixed at a certain value, we can also calibrate the intensity of the laser pulse by the static electric field.     

Influence of the carrier-envelope phase of few-cycle pulses on ponderomotive surface-plasmon electron acceleration

Control over basic processes through the electric field of a light wave can lead to new knowledge of fundamental light-matter interaction phenomena. We demonstrate, for the first time, that surface-plasmon (SP) electron acceleration can be coherently controlled through the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of an excitation optical pulse. Analysis indicates that the physical origin of the CEP sensitivity arises from the electron's ponderomotive interaction with the oscillating electromagnetic field of the SP wave. The ponderomotive electron acceleration mechanism provides sensitive (nJ energies), high-contrast, single-shot CEP measurement capability of few-cycle laser pulses.     

Broadband Terahertz Wave Generation from Monolayer Graphene Driven by Few-Cycle Laser Pulse

We theoretically investigate the characteristics of terahertz(THz) radiation from monolayer graphene exposed to normal incident few-cycle laser pulses, by numerically solving the extended semiconductor Bloch equations. Our simulations show that the THz spectra in low frequency regions are highly dependent on the carrier envelope phase(CEP) of driving laser pulses. Using an optimal CEP of few-cycle laser pulses, we can obtain broadband strong THz waves, due to the symmetry breaking of the laser-graphene system. Our results also show that the strength of the THz spectra depend on both the intensity and central wavelength of the laser pulses. The intensity dependence of the THz wave can be described by the excitation rate of graphene, while wavelength dependence can be traced back to the band velocity and the population of graphene. We find that a near single-cycle THz pulse can be obtained from graphene driven by a mid-infrared laser pulse.     

Carrier Envelope Phase Description for an Isolated Attosecond Pulse by Momentum Vortices

As a crucial parameter for a few-cycle laser pulse, the carrier envelope phase(CEP) substantially determines the laser waveform. We propose a method to directly describe the CEP of an isolated attosecond pulse(IAP) by the vortex-shaped momentum pattern, which is generated from the tunneling ionization of a hydrogen atom by a pair of time-delayed, oppositely and circularly polarized IAP-IR pulses. Superior to the angular streaking method that characterizes the CEP in terms of only one streak, our method describes the CEP of an IAP by the features of multiple streaks in the vortex pattern. The proposed method may open the possibility of capturing sub-cycle extreme ultraviolet dynamics.     

Minimizing dispersive distortions in carrier-envelope phase sweeping with glass wedges

A systematic experimental study is performed to examine the f-2f technique for sweeping the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of few-cycle laser pulses by changing the amount of positive dispersion in the extracavity beam path. Slightly changing the dispersion not only changes the CEP but affects the entire spectral-phase function. As a result, large discrepancies are found between the true CEP as independently measured with a stereo-above-threshold-ionization spectrometer and the CEP detected by an f-2f interferometer when sweeping the phase with glass wedges. A new CEP-stabilization scheme is proposed and experimentally shown to significantly improve the performance of CEP sweeping.     

Effect of pulse duration on generation of attosecond pulse with coherent wake emission

High-order harmonics and attosecond pulse generation with coherent wake emission are theoretically investigated for the effect of pulse duration and carrier envelope phase (CEP) of few-cycle laser pulse. We find that short pulse duration will cause the negative chirp for the high harmonics. When the laser pulse is shortened to a few cycles, the influence of the laser CEP on the chirp of the harmonics will also become more prominent.     

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.     

Improved carrier-envelope phase locking of intense few-cycle laser pulses using above-threshold ionization

A robust nonoptical carrier-envelope phase (CEP) locking feedback loop, which utilizes a measurement of the left-right asymmetry in the above-threshold ionization (ATI) of Xe, is implemented, resulting in a significant improvement over the standard slow-loop f-to-2f technique. This technique utilizes the floating average of a real-time, every-single-shot CEP measurement to stabilize the CEP of few-cycle laser pulses generated by a standard Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplified laser system using a hollow-core fiber and chirped mirror compression scheme. With this typical commercially available laser system and the stereographic ATI method, we are able to improve short-term (minutes) CEP stability after a hollow-core fiber from 450 to 290 mrad rms and long-term (hours) stability from 480 to 370 mrad rms.     

激光脉宽对谐波频移和振幅强度的影响

数值研究了激光脉宽对H_2~+和T_2~+谐波辐射的影响.计算结果表明:(i)对于谐波频移现象:在少周期激光场下,H_2~+和T_2~+谐波辐射呈现红移.随着激光脉宽增大,H_2~+谐波辐射呈现蓝移; T_2~+谐波辐射红移减弱.(ii)对于谐波振幅强度:H_2~+和T_2~+谐波辐射强度会随着激光脉宽增大而增强.但是,在少周期激光场下,H_2~+谐波截至能量附近的强度要大于T_2~+.在多周期激光场下,T_2~+谐波截至能量附近的强度要大于H_2~+.     

Generation of soft x-ray and water window harmonics using a few-cycle, phase-locked, optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier

Multimillijoule, few-cycle, carrier-envelope-phase (CEP)-locked, near-IR pulses at 750 nm from an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier are applied to the generation of CEP-dependent, soft x-ray high harmonics around the boron K-edge at 188 eV. The dependence on the CEP manifests the phase coherence of high harmonics preserved in the highest-photon energy ever reported. Multimillijoule optical pulses also allow the extension of the cutoff energy up to 325 eV, exceeding the carbon K-edge of the water window. However, in this spectral range, the CEP dependence of harmonic spectra is not observed, suggesting the degradation of temporal coherence due to the heavy ionization of helium atoms.     

Quantum path control in the presence of a half-cycle pulse to generate isolated attosecond pulse

Quantum path control on the harmonic emission from hydrogen molecular ion is investigated via combining an intense few-cycle laser and a half-cycle pulse (HCP). The results show that the quantum paths of returning electrons can be effectively modified due to the introduction of the HCP which extremely dominates the acceleration process of ionized electron. With the favorable conditions, the long quantum path is completely eliminated and an isolated 61 as pulse can be obtained by superposing proper harmonics. Moreover, the electron wave packet distributions and the double-well model are presented to explore the underlying physical mechanism.     

周期量级飞秒脉冲电场在非线性克尔介质中的传输

采用时间转换法研究了周期量级飞秒脉冲电场在非线性克尔介质中的传输.由于周期量级飞秒脉冲电场的脉宽小于介质拉曼响应的特征时间,在传输过程中脉冲电场会发生剧烈的变形和分裂,并在频谱上观察到了强烈的拉曼感应频移和色散波.由于周期量级脉冲电场依赖于载波包络相位,发现在脉冲电场传输过程中,主脉冲电场和色散波电场的相位线性地依赖于初始脉冲的载波包络相位.     

Multi-mJ carrier envelope phase stabilized few-cycle pulses generated by a tabletop laser system

A compact system for the generation of few-cycle multi-mJ Carrier Envelope Phase (CEP) stabilized pulses is presented. At the output 1.9?mJ, 5.7?fs pulses were achieved after hollow fiber compression (HFC) of 5?mJ, 25?fs circularly-polarized pulses from a Ti:sapphire multipass chirped pulse amplifier (CPA). Polarization control of the generated pulses was done using all reflective phase retarders which can be nearly arbitrarily scaled for increasing energies. The CEP noise from the amplifier system is shown to be 190?mrad rms over a period of more than 7?hours. The full system, i.e., oscillator, amplifier, CEP stabilization, and HFC is compact enough to fit on a standard optical table.     

Carrier-envelope-phase effect in nonsequential double ionization of Ar atoms by few-cycle laser pulses

A classical ensemble method is used to investigate nonsequential double ionization(NSDI) of Ar atoms irradiated by linearly polarized few-cycle laser pulses. The correlated-electron momentum distribution(CMD) exhibits a strong dependence on the carrier-envelope phase(CEP). When the pulse duration is four cycles, the CMD shows a cross-like structure, which is consistent with experimental results. The CEP dependence is more notable when the laser pulse duration is decreased to two cycles and a special L-shaped structure appears in CMD. Recollision time of returning electrons greatly depends on CEP, which plays a significant role in accounting for the appearance of this structure.     

Circularly polarized few-optical-cycle solitons in Kerr media: A complex modified Korteweg-de Vries model

We consider the propagation of few-cycle pulses (FCPs) in cubic nonlinear media exhibiting a “crystal-like” structure, beyond the slowly varying envelope approximation, taking into account the wave polarization. By using the reductive perturbation method we derive from the Maxwell–Bloch–Heisenberg equations, in the long-wave-approximation regime, a non-integrable complex modified Korteweg-de Vries equation describing the propagation of circularly polarized (CP) FCPs. By direct numerical simulations of the governing nonlinear partial differential equation we get robust CP FCPs and we show that the unstable ones decays into linearly polarized half-cycle pulses, whose polarization direction slowly rotates around the propagation axis.