Interference model of femtosecond laser pulse conical emission in dispersive medium

A simple interference model is proposed for conical emission frequency-angular spectrum formation during the filamentation of femtosecond laser pulse in a nonlinear dispersive medium. The model allows to obtain analytical expressions for frequency-angular distributions of the supercontinuum spectral components of pulses at different wavelengths in media with arbitrary material dispersion law. The model reproduces the supercontinuum frequency-angular spectrum transformation for the case of laser pulse splitting into several subpulses and for multiple refocusing of the light field in filament. Frequency-angular spectra analytically calculated from the proposed interference model are in good agreement with the results of numerical simulations performed for the filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses in fused silica.     

飞秒平顶光束经微透镜阵列在熔融石英中的成丝及其超连续辐射

实验研究了平顶激光光束经微透镜阵列在熔融石英中成丝的演化以及超连续辐射的产生,并进一步与高斯光束的成丝和超连续辐射进行了对比研究.分别对这两种光束的多丝传输进行了横向和纵向成像.结果表明,使用平顶光束可以获得更为均匀的多丝分布,成丝的起点也更为一致;尤其重要的是,相对于高斯光束,平顶光束可以使用更高的入射激光脉冲能量而不会造成介质的损伤,从而可以获得更高脉冲能量和更高转换效率的超连续辐射.     

飞秒脉冲在熔石英玻璃中超连续谱产生的研究

从非线性薛定谔方程出发,利用分步傅里叶方法,研究了时空耦合飞秒脉冲在熔石英玻璃中传输时,传输距离、入射激光脉冲峰值功率、衍射、色散和非线性等因素对超连续谱产生的影响。结果表明,飞秒脉冲在熔石英玻璃中传输时,超连续谱的产生主要分为两阶段：由材料的自聚焦等三阶非线性效应引起的脉冲压缩阶段及由自相位调制和材料群速度色散引起脉冲分裂阶段。当高峰值功率的飞秒脉冲在熔石英玻璃中传输时,材料的三阶非线性效应抑制衍射效应,引起脉冲压缩,从而产生子脉冲,由此引入新的频率成分。同时,还研究了同一脉冲不同横向空间位置处的超连续谱的变化规律,在中心频率两侧均有新频率产生。最后,通过实验证实了超连续谱的产生。     

Nutations of magnetizations of sublattices and their role in the formation of Mössbauer spectra of antiferromagnetic nanoparticles

A law determining the dispersion shift of the anti-Stokes band of the supercontinuum of a light bullet in a filament of a femtosecond laser pulse in transparent dielectrics has been established. The dispersion equation theoretically obtained for the anti-Stokes shift has been confirmed by spectroscopic studies of the filamentation of the near and middle infrared ranges in fused silica and fluorides.     

Interference effects in the conical emission of a femtosecond filament in fused silica

It is shown both experimentally and theoretically that interference effects play the key role in the formation of frequency-angular spectrum of the filament conical emission. For the first time, we investigated experimentally the transformation of the conical emission frequency-angular spectrum with an increase in the filament length inside fused silica. We discovered the appearance of fine structure of the conical emission rings produced by lengthy filament. It is shown that the conical emission frequency-angular spectrum is produced by interference of coherent radiation from one or several moving point sources in the filament. The shape of the conical emission spectrum depends on the medium material dispersion, the spectrum structure is determined by length and relative location of filament emitting regions.     

Ultraviolet conical emission produced by high-power femtosecond laser pulse in transparent media

In this work, supercontinuum conical emission (SC CE) accompanying the filamentation of powerful ultrashort laser pulse in BK₇ glass and fused silica is studied. The SC CE is controlled by the laser power density and the sample thickness, and the minimum SC CE cut-off wavelength is about 309?nm in the BK₇ glass and 237?nm in the fused silica. The angular distributions of the SC CE in the wavelength range less than 510?nm are measured by using a new method, and it cannot be explained by the Cerenkov emission theory but the unabridged X-Waves solution theory. Meanwhile numerical simulations of the propagation of femtosecond laser pulse in sample are performed to provide theoretical support to our results.     

Self-transformation of a powerful femtosecond laser pulse into a white-light laser pulse in bulk optical media (or supercontinuum generation)

We present experimental and theoretical results on white-light generation in the filamentation of a high-power femtosecond laser pulse in water and atmospheric air. We have shown that the high spatio-temporal localization of the light field in the filament, which enables the supercontinuum generation, is sustained due to the dynamic transformation of the light field on the whole transverse scale of the beam, including its edges. We found that the sources of the supercontinuum blue wing are in the rings, surrounding the filament, as well as at the back of the pulse, where shock-wave formation enhanced by self-steepening takes place. We report on the first observation and demonstration of the interference of the supercontinuum spectral components arising in the course of multiple filamentation in a terawatt laser pulse. We demonstrate that the conversion efficiency of an initially narrow laser pulse spectrum into the supercontinuum depends on the length of the filament with high intensity gradients and can be increased by introducing an initial chirp. PACS 42.65.Jx; 42.65.Re; 42.25.Bs; 42.50.Hz     

Direct observation of the space-time transformation of a femtosecond laser pulse in fused quartz

The transformation of a femtosecond laser pulse propagating in fused quartz before and after its transition to a filamentation regime has been investigated by femtosecond time-resolved optical polarigraphy. The spatial periodicity of a light field along and across the propagation axis has been detected and its nature has been attributed to the interference of the conical and plane components of the wave packet of the filament. The “supraluminal” motions of the observed filament intensity maximum are due to the longitudinal transformation of the pulse profile.     

Backward supercontinuum emission from a filament generated by ultrashort laser pulses in air

Backward emission of the supercontinuum from a light filament induced by high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses propagating in air has been observed to be enhanced compared with linear Rayleigh-Mie scattering. This enhancement is interpreted as a nonlinear scattering process onto longitudinal refractive-index changes induced by the laser pulse itself. The spectral dependence of the supercontinuum angular distribution is also investigated.     

1040nm泵浦的光子晶体光纤超连续光谱产生性能退化研究

光子晶体光纤已经被广泛应用于由飞秒脉冲激光源产生超连续光谱。当激光源的重复频率较低时,由光子晶体光纤产生的超连续光谱随时间的变化过程较为缓慢,通常不被注意到。而在天文光谱仪定标等应用中,需要使用GHz至几十GHz量级的高重复频率激光源。此时,可观察到光子晶体光纤的超连续光谱产生性能在有限时间内产生显著的退化。在1 040 nm飞秒激光泵浦条件下,通过测试三种不同气孔占空比的光子晶体光纤的超连续光谱产生性能演化,发现超连续光谱的退化进程随光纤气孔占空比的增大而加速。观察发生光谱退化后的光子晶体光纤样品,发现在光纤上超连续光被产生的区段出现多个不同颜色的亮点,呈现有方向性的光泄露现象。针对光泄露现象,通过测量光纤的吸收光谱线,证实了实验中超连续光谱退化的主因并非是光纤熔融石英材料中大量非桥氧色心产生。针对光泄露具有方向性这一特征,提出了经由多光子吸收作用在光纤纤芯中形成长周期光栅的理论。为探究影响光子晶体光纤超连续光谱产生性能的退化的因素,以达到光谱退化抑制的目的,首先通过改变了光纤的拉锥参数,期望增强光纤熔融石英材料的光子耐受性。实验结果证实了该方法的有效性较为有限。其次,从保持激光源的平均功率,降低激光脉冲的峰值功率和保持激光脉冲的峰值功率,降低激光源平均功率两个方面入手,对激光源进行调制。实验结果证明,光纤单位时间内接受的高峰值功率脉冲总量是影响其超连续光谱产生性能的最重要因素。在天文光谱仪定标的应用中,对超连续光谱光功率的需求并不高,使用斩波器降低光子晶体光纤入射光的平均功率是减缓超连续光谱产生性能退化过程的有效且简单可行的方法。     

飞秒激光离焦抽运熔融石英产生超连续白光的实验研究

利用飞秒激光在熔融石英介质中传输产生能量达数毫焦、波长范围覆盖400-900 nm 且光谱分布较为均匀的超连续白光,实验过程中将熔融石英介质离焦放置以避免被击穿. 研究了入射激光能量以及介质离焦距离对超连续白光特性的影响. 结果表明采用高能量的入射激光脉冲离焦抽运介质的方法能够有效避免介质 击穿损伤并提高超连续白光脉冲的能量输出.     

The mode structure and spectral properties of supercontinuum emission from microstructure fibers

The mode structure and spectral properties of supercontinuum emission generated by femtosecond pulses of Ti: sapphire laser radiation in microstructure fibers are studied. The long-wavelength (720–900 nm) and visible (400–600 nm) parts of supercontinuum emission are shown to be spatially separated in microstructure-fiber modes, which can be isolated with an appropriate spectral filtering. The spatial modes thus isolated in spectrally sliced supercontinuum emission possess a spatial quality sufficient for further efficient frequency conversion. The possibility of achieving a high spectral quality of supercontinuum emission is also demonstrated. We explore the ways to control the spectrum of supercontinuum emission by matching parameters of the pump pulse with the parameters of a microstructure fiber and by tuning the initial chirp of the pump pulse. The results of our studies show that supercontinua produced in microstructure fibers offer new approaches to designing a new generation of optical parametric amplifiers and broadband radiation sources for spectroscopic, metrological, and biomedical applications.     

Supercontinuum generation in visible to mid-infrared region in square-lattice photonic crystal fiber made from highly nonlinear glasses

Square-lattice microstructure geometry of photonic crystal fibers made with high nonlinearity non-silica glass composition material as well as fused silica glass are studied here for modal propagation, dispersion analysis and supercontinuum generation. Our investigation of nonlinear propagation of low threshold power femtosecond pulse aims at generating supercontinuum in the near and mid infrared region using these highly nonlinear fibers. We performed a series of analyses through varying parameters of square-lattice geometry to map a desired broadband window. We also demonstrate a compact high power broadband source in visible region generated within few centimeter length of the fused silica square-lattice microstructure.     

超短脉冲强激光在空气中的传输

超短脉冲强激光在空气中传输时由于非线性克尔自聚焦效应会使激光光束聚焦，造成空气的离化而形成等离子体，等离子体对激光光束又会产生散焦作用，这两种过程的动态平衡可以形成很长的等离子体通道，从而产生一系列复杂而有趣的现象．文章对通道形成的机理、锥角辐射、超连续谱和三次谐波的产生进行了阐述，并介绍了目前等离子体通道形成的几种理论模型．文章还对通道内的各种复合和辐射机制进行了分析．     

Ultrafast time-resolved photography of femtosecond laser induced modifications in BK7 glass and fused silica

The dynamics of absorption after excitation of fused silica and BK7 glass with femtosecond laser radiation are visualized by transient absorption spectroscopy. Focusing laser radiation with pulse durations in the picosecond time regime in BK7 glass generates free electrons with relaxation by emission of radiation or by formation of defects. The temporal and spatial emission characteristics are observed by high-speed photography in the streak mode. The beam waist moves within the pulse duration towards the incoming laser radiation by self-focusing and with the laser radiation absorbed by multi-photon processes. The dynamics of the long lasting stress formation is visualized by time-resolved Nomarski-Photography. The modification of the glass is investigated during and after irradiation with ultra-short pulsed laser radiation (100 fs<t_p<3 ps) at the wavelength =810 nm. The formation of a sound wave in fused silica and BK7 glass is observed and the mechanical stress, depending on the excitation pulse duration, is measured. PACS 06.60.Jn; 42.50.Md; 78.47.-p; 81.16.-c; 82.53.-k     

All-optical stabilization of carrier-envelope phase by use of difference frequency generation with seeded amplification of colored conical emission

We stabilized the carrier-envelope phase of pulses emitted by a femtosecond regenerative amplifier through difference frequency generation between pump and seeded amplification of colored conical emission. Seeded amplification of colored conical emission was induced by modulational instability in the second harmonic generation with a supercontinuum injected and amplified. As a consequence, it inherited the origin phase of the pump pulse. After difference frequency with the pump pulses, the generated tunable idler pulses were carrier-envelope phase stabilized, which was verified with a simple and robust spectral interference setup. PACS 42.65.Re; 42.65.Yj; 42.25.Kb     

Femtosecond supercontinuum characteristics control

Supercontinuum generation in the spectral range 530–1100 nm in series of photonic-crystal fibers pumped by femtosecond Ti:S laser Mira Oprima 900-F is achieved. The evolution of spectral characteristics of femtosecond supercontinuum is proofed to be dependent on pump pulse wavelength and power radiation. Polarization characteristics of supercontinuum spectral components are analyzed. We demonstrated experimentally the possibility of control of femtosecond supercontinuum generation.     

Supercontinuum generation under filamentation driven by intense femtosecond pulses in supercritical xenon and carbon dioxide

It is found that supercritical fluids are a unique source of multioctave supercontinuum radiation, which is generated upon filamentation of an intense femtosecond laser pulse. If the laser pulse power significantly exceeds the critical power of self-focusing, then a supercontinuum with a width of three and a half spectral octaves (from 350 to 2000 nm) is generated in supercritical xenon. The red wing of supercontinuum generated in supercritical carbon dioxide has the form of a plateau in the range from 1400 to 1900 nm, while the blue wing of the spectrum is almost completely attenuated.     

Frequency conversion of subnanojoule femtosecond pulses in microstructure fibers

We experimentally demonstrate highly efficient multiplex frequency conversion of unamplified subnanojoule femtosecond pulses of Ti:sapphire laser radiation in fused silica microstructure fibers. Nonlinear optical spectral transformation of femtosecond pulses in an array of fused silica threadlike channels in these microstructure fibers results in the generation of isolated anti-Stokes spectral components within the wavelength range of 400–500 nm. An efficiency of frequency conversion of about 20% is achieved for 800-nm pump pulses with an energy of 0.7 nJ and a pulse duration of 70 fs.     

飞秒激光脉冲在正色散固体材料中的自压缩

实验研究了正色散固体介质中的激光脉冲自压缩现象,证明了无需任何外加色散补偿情况下，固体透明介质中的自聚焦传输过程可使高功率飞秒激光脉冲实现时域脉冲压缩，并详细研究了输出脉冲的时域和频域特性随入射脉冲强度的演化规律.实验结果表明脉冲自压缩量随入射脉冲强度的增加呈递增趋势，然而当入射光强增大到足以引起超连续谱及锥形辐射产生时，脉冲时域形状会发生分裂.此外还发现发散光束入射情况下同样可以观察到脉冲自压缩现象. 关键词： 超短激光脉冲 脉冲压缩 非线性传输