Absorption optical bistability in semiconductors under the action of an external electric field

The conditions for the realization of absorption optical bistability under the simultaneous action of two (radiative and nonradiative) mechanisms of recombination of free charge carriers are investigated. It is shown that, in the diffusion mechanism of stream of free electrons from the beam axis, the temperature dependence of radiative recombination does not expand the temperature range of the thermostat in which the optical bistability occurs. A scheme is proposed with application of an external transverse electric field, which makes it possible to realize absorption optical bistability at any ambient temperature. An important advantage of this scheme is the conservation of the state of a bistable system after the action of a light pulse and a significant decrease in the energy spent on cooling of the medium.     

A new method for measuring the threshold of stimulated Brillouin scattering

A new method for measuring the threshold of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) based on the generation location of a Stokes beam is proposed for the first time to our knowledge. The length of the medium cell is selected to be longer than the free gain length of pump pulses in the Brillouin medium. The reflected light from a certain mirror in front of the medium cell is chosen as the reference beam, and the SBS threshold is measured by the "jump" of the delay between the Stokes beam and the reference beam. An 8-ns Q-switched single-longitudinal-mode pulse is used as the pump and the typical SBS medium FC-72 is selected as the nonlinear medium in our experiment. The SBS threshold intensity is measured to be 173-178 mW/cm 2 , which is consistent with existing results measured with the transmitted energy limiting method.     

高斯光束与谐振腔基模模式光路谐振匹配的分析与校准

为了降低高斯光束与谐振腔耦合过程中失调量和失配量对基于无源谐振腔测量技术精度的影响, 采用高斯光束变换规律、模式耦合有关理论以及光束传播坐标变换等相关理论, 就失调量和失配量对基模耦合效率的影响分别进行分析和模拟, 并据此给出了一般情况下两个参考量同时存在时基模耦合效率的表达式. 分析表明: 失配量的存在主要影响激光器与谐振腔的耦合效率, 而对高阶模式的激发影响较小, 因此对谐振腔的衰减线型影响较小; 失调量的存在对谐振腔高阶模式的激发起主要作用, 给测量带来严重误差. 该结论为利用腔出射光信号来确定误调参量值的实验方案提供了依据. 因此, 在考虑光源光谱线宽的情况下, 就光源光谱线宽的特性提出两种装调校准方案: 基于法布里-珀罗干涉仪法和基于多维象限探测器探测谐振腔出射光的调节回路, 这将为分析基于无源谐振腔的相关技术测量误差来源以及实现测量系统的高精度装调提供理论指导.     

Optical bistability at two-wave action of light on a molecular gas

An optically bistable two-wave scheme implemented upon absorption of light energy by a molecular gas is proposed. Switching from one state into another is performed by a pulse at one of the two frequency. At the same time, the medium is continuously exposed to light of another frequency. It is shown that, under certain conditions, the system switched to the upper state remains in this state for an arbitrarily long time. This effect makes it possible to implement long-term dynamic memory and logical operations. A two-wave action on a molecular gas also decreases several tens or hundreds of times the intensities necessary for switching a system from one state to another.     

Demonstration of the interaction between two stopped light pulses

This study reports the first experimental demonstration that two light pulses were made motionless and interacted with each other through a medium. The scheme with motionless light pulses maximizes the interaction time and can achieve a considerable efficiency even below single-photon level. To demonstrate the enhancement of optical nonlinear efficiency, the experiment in this study used the process of one optical pulse switched by another based on the effect of electromagnetically induced transparency. Moving light pulses activate switching at an energy per area of 2 photons per atomic absorption cross section as discussed in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 4611 (1999)]. This study demonstrates that motionless light pulses can activate switching at 0.56 photons per atomic absorption cross section, and that the light level can be further reduced by increasing the optical density of the medium. The result of this work enters a new regime of low-light physics.     

光束正入射至界面时的自旋-轨道相互作用及其增强

光束正入射至均匀突变界面时的自旋-轨道相互作用表现为拓扑荷数为±2的、自旋可控的涡旋相位.然而,该涡旋相位的物理来源以及界面的性质在自旋-轨道相互作用过程中起到何种作用,这些问题还有待解决.首先建立一个简洁的菲涅耳琼斯矩阵来描述这种自旋-轨道相互作用,并揭示其中的涡旋相位其实是一种贝里(Berry)几何相位,它来源于光束本身的拓扑结构,而界面的性质影响自旋-轨道相互作用的转换效率.一般情况下,转换效率极低,限制了其应用.因此,基于上述理论,提出采用光轴平行于界面法线方向的单轴薄层材料,来极大地增强这种自旋-轨道相互作用.     

Helical Cerenkov effect, a novel radiation source

The observability of the helical Cerenkov effect as a novel radiation source is discussed. Depending on the value of the index of refraction of the medium, the strength of the uniform magnetic field, and the electron beam energy, helical Cerenkov radiation can occur in the same spectral regions as the ordinary Cerenkov effect, that is, from microwave to visible wavelengths. From the kinematics point of view, I argue that for a microwave wavelength of 10^-1cm this effect should be observable in a medium with an index of refraction of 1.4, with a beam energy of 3 MeV, and a uniform magnetic field of 4 T. On the specific level, however, for the sake of simplicity, I discuss the observability of this effect for visible light with the central wavelength of 5×10^-5 cm which can be achieved with 2 MeV in beam energy, silica aerogel as a medium (with an index of refraction of 1.075), and uniform magnetic fields from 5 to 10 T. For a 10-T magnetic field, I calculate that in the visible region of 250 to 750 nm an electron will produce a photon per 10 cm of traveled length. As to the stimulated helical Cerenkov emission, I estimate that respectable gains are possible even if the beam passes close to the dielectric rather than through it. In addition to being potentially a new radiation source, the helical Cerenkov effect could possibly be used as a detector of radiation by energetic electrons that are trapped in a medium by strong magnetic fields     

A possible scheme to obtain e-e- and e+e- collisions at energies of hundreds of GeV

As a contribution to the discussion on very long term developments in the field of high energy physics, it is pointed out that it is possible to devise e^-e^- and e⁺e^- colliding beam machines which are not affected by the large synchrotron losses typical of conventional storage rings. The scheme proposed here makes use of two collinear superconducting linacs which at the same time accelerate and recover the energy fed to the electron and positron beams.     

Investigation on the output energy characteristic of optical limiting based on stimulated Brillouin scattering

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) featuring sub-nanosecond response time takes place at a high power threshold, which enables its application at a high power density. When the intensity of input light excesses the SBS threshold, strong SBS process takes place through SBS medium, leading to a quick energy transfer from pump to the Stokes and thereby an optical limiting characteristic in the output energy. In this paper, the correlation between SBS output energy and input power density is numerically simulated and validated in the Nd: YAG Q-switch laser system. The results indicate that not only the output energy exhibits an optical limiting characteristic, but also the clamped value of output energy can be controlled by changing the medium or the focal length.     

Stand for testing scintillation neutron detectors

A stand for studying the characteristics of time-of-flight neutron detectors is described. Plastic scintillation detectors in the form of rectangular prisms with cross sections of 100 × 100 and 100 × 200 mm² and lengths of 300, 400, and 500 mm are viewed through by photomultipliers from the two ends. The detectors are irradiated with a collimated 14-MeV neutron beam produced in the d + t → n+ ⁴He reaction. The collimated beam makes it possible to investigate the spatial resolution of long detectors. The interaction point is determined either from the arrival time of light pulses to the opposite ends of the scintillators or from the ratio of the amplitudes of the signals at the ends of the scintillators. The stand proposed also makes it possible to measure the absolute efficiency of detectors of different length at a neutron energy of 14 MeV.     

光在二维无序介质中的动态传播过程

用有限时域差分 FDTD 法研究了光在二维无序介质中的动态传播过程.数值模拟了某一高斯脉冲光束入射到无序介质中光场的空间分布随时间的演化,结果表明：在光束入射的初期,能量从光源区向外传播并出现了清晰的波前传播的特点;经过一定的时间后,有部分能量从光源区向外扩散,而大部分能量逐渐聚集在介质中的一些小区域内,这与整体散射模型关于无序介质中光子局域化的研究相吻合,而且更清晰地呈现了形成光子局域化过程中的物理现象及整体散射干涉效应的重要机理作用.     

能量传递制冷机制中激光制冷的最佳泵浦频率和最大制冷效率

在能量传递型激光制冷中,对于非均匀线宽比较窄的情况,引起最大制冷效率的激发光频率不随温度的变化而变化最大制冷效率与温度呈三次暴的关系。对于非均匀线宽比较宽的情况。随着温度的降低,最佳激发光频率与非均匀线形的中心频率差越来越大,并在较低的温度下迅速拉大它们间的距离。由能量传递机制所引起的荧光制冷最大效率也随着温度的降低而越来越低,并在最后趋于零。它们随温度的降低而降低的规律与实验中得到的结论相符合。     

Influence of light polarization on the diffraction efficiency of TIR holograms

Normally when forming a TIR hologram two interference gratings are stored in the recording medium. The object beam interferes with the incoming and with the reflected reference beam. An appropriate selection of the polarization orientations of the interfering light beams leads to the suppression of one of the grating systems. Even to reconstruct TIR hologram it is not all the same in which orientation the reconstructing laser beam is polarized. With the proper selection of the polarization orientations of the forming and reconstructing laser light the diffraction efficiency for TIR holograms can be optimized.     

Transverse Effects in Slow Light Propagation

The effect of finite control beam on the transverse spatial profile of the slow light propagation in an electromagnetically induced transparency medium is studied. From the second-order wave equation and linear response of an EIT medium to the signal field, we find it is possible to produce an effective waveguide for the signal field. The existence and properties of a set of localized, stationary transverse modes are demonstrated. Especially, by carefully manipulating the profile of the control beam, we can realize single-mode propagation for the signal field, which may be important for potential applications.     

激光场相干叠加光束合成技术

光束拼接激光相干合成中,拼接占空比不高导致合成光束能量集中度不够理想,为了解决这个问题,提出了激光场相干叠加光束合成技术路线,设计了基于半反半透合束镜的多级激光场相干叠加光束合成方案。研究了子光束之间的光强差和波面误差对相干合成的影响,结果表明,激光场相干叠加光束合成中,对参与合成子光束的光强差、相位差的容差均不难满足:仅考虑单一因素时,子束光强相差三倍时合成效率仍可达90%,相位误差小于π/5时,合成效率可达到90.5%。搭建了基于半透半反合束镜的两束激光场相干叠加光束合成实验装置,实验验证了激光场相干叠加光束合成技术的可行性,在闭环情况下得到了稳定的合成光束输出,合成效率可达95%以上。     

多晶碲化锌薄膜载能子超快动力学实验研究

利用双波长飞秒激光抽运-探测实验方法测量了掺氮多晶ZnTe薄膜在飞秒激光加热情况下载能子超快动力学过程. 采用包含电子弛豫过程和晶格加热过程的理论模型拟合实验数据, 二者符合得很好. 拟合得到10 ps以内影响掺氮多晶ZnTe薄膜表面超快反射率变化的三个弛豫过程的时间常数均为亚皮秒量级. 其中, 正振幅电子弛豫过程是由电子-光子相互作用引起的载流子扩散和带间载流子冷却过程, 负振幅电子弛豫过程是由缺陷造成的光激载能子的俘获效应引起的, 晶格加热过程主要通过电子-声子耦合过程进行的.     

Spatial weak-light solitons in an electromagnetically induced nonlinear waveguide

We show that a weak probe light beam can form spatial solitons in an electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) medium composed of four-level atoms and a coupling light field. We find that the coupling light beam can induce a highly controllable nonlinear waveguide and exert very strong effects on the dynamical behavior of the solitons. Hence, in the EIT medium, it is not only possible to produce spatial solitons at very low light intensities but also simultaneously control these solitons by using the coupling-light-induced nonlinear waveguide.     

Imaging an atomic beam using fluorescence

A fluorescence detection scheme is applied to image an atomic beam. Using two laser diodes as the sources of detection light and pumping light respectively, the fluorescence image of the atomic beam is then observed by a commercial CCD-camera, which is corresponding to the atomic state and velocity distribution. The detection scheme has a great utilization in the experiments of cold atoms and atomic optics.     

Ultrasonic resonance regulated near-field scanning optical microscope and laser induced near-field optical-force interaction

We have developed a novel sample-tip regulation for a near-field optical microscope: an ultrasonic resonance regulation method. The regulation range is from 0 to 50 nm. It shows not only stability, simplicity in construction, but also versatility in vacuum, magnetic field, and low temperature environments. The main advantage of this technique is that it is a non-optical detecting scheme, which is very important for near-field spectroscopy. Such construction can also be used as a force microscope to study the topography of insulating samples. The laser light induced force interaction in the near-field range has been observed for the first time, showing that aided by laser radiation, the shear force between sample and tip can be changed depending on the type of sample. This can be interpreted as the light induced optical tip-sample interaction of light pressure effect. The van der Waals dispersion energy and the optical binding energy induced by laser beam between dielectric tip and samples play important role. The effect confirms a theoretical prediction. This new technique and phenomenon will add new aspects to near-field optics.     

Effect of counterintuitive time delays in nonlinear mixing

The effect of varying the relative arrival time of the two laser pulses employed in doubly resonant four-wave sum mixing, enhanced by induced transparency, is studied with the aim of optimizing the efficiency of vacuum-ultraviolet generation. With atomic hydrogen as the nonlinear medium, pulsed radiation with wavelengths of 243 and 656 nm and durations of 8 and 14 ns, respectively, is mixed to generate 103-nm coherent radiation. It is shown that by delaying the arrival time of the ground-state pump beam (243 nm) by 2.5-3.5 ns relative to the arrival of the upper-state coupling beam (656 nm), it is possible to enhance the generated intensity by a factor of 2 or more.