Coherent transport of matter waves

A transport theory for atomic matter waves in low-dimensional waveguides is outlined. The thermal fluctuation spectrum of magnetic near fields leaking out of metallic microstructures is estimated. The corresponding scattering rate for paramagnetic atoms turns out to be quite large in micrometer-sized waveguides (approx. 100 /s). Analytical estimates for the heating and decoherence of a cold atom cloud are given. We finally discuss numerical and analytical results for the scattering from static potential imperfections and the ensuing spatial diffusion process. Received: 17 July 2000 / Published online: 30 November 2000     

Sub-microdrilling with ultrafast pulse laser interference

A novel sub-microdrilling technique utilising the phenomenon of ultrafast pulse laser interference is reported. This technique overcomes the feature size limit of conventional laser micromachining. The method of first interfering with the laser light, and then using the central bright fringe of the interfered beam to machine has been proven to effectively reduce the effective ablation spot size and, subsequently, to reduce the size of the drilled features. Preliminary results show a 300% reduction in drilled feature size with the interfered laser beam compared with the conventional non-interfered laser beam. 300 nm holes were successfully drilled on a 1000 Å thick Gold film using the interfered laser beam compared to 1 m holes ablated using the conventional non-interfered laser beam at the same pulse energy. PACS 42.62.Cf; 42.15.Eq; 42.25.Hz     

Scanning the laser beam for ultrafast pulse laser cleaning of paint

Aligned arrays of N₂-encapsulated multilevel branched carbon nanotubes were synthesized using a simple one step CVD method by pyrolysis of ferrocene and acetonitrile. Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and elemental mapping studies reveal that gaseous nitrogen was encapsulated in the carbon nanotubes. Batch-type pyrolysis of catalysts induced flow fluctuation of the reaction gases, resulting in the growth of branched junctions. Molecular nitrogen extruded rapidly along conical catalyst particles inducing N₂ encapsulation inside the branched nanotubes. PACS 07.78.+s; 61.46.+w; 81.07.De; 81.15.Gh     

Embedded dots inside glass for optical film using UV laser of ultrafast laser pulse

Microstructures are usually fabricated on the surface of optical sheets to improve the optical characteristics. In this study, a new fabrication process with UV (ultraviolet) laser direct writing method is developed to embed microstructures inside the glass. Then the optical properties of glass such as reflection and refraction indexes can be modified. Single- and multi-layer microstructures are designed and embedded inside glass substrate to modify the optical characteristics. Both luminance and uniformity can be controlled with the embedded microstructures. Thus, the glass with inside pattern can be used as a light guide plate to increase optical performance. First, an optical commercial software, FRED, is applied to design the microstructure configuration. Then, UV laser direct writing with output power 2.5-2.6 W, repetition rate 30 kHz, wave length: 355 nm, and pulse duration 15 ns is used to fabricate the microstructures inside the glass. The effect of dot pattern in the glass such as the dot pitch, the layer gap, and the number of layer on the optical performance is discussed. Machining capacity of UV laser ranges from micron to submicrometer; hence with this ultrafast laser pulse, objectives of various dimensions such as dot, line width, and layers can be easily embedded in the glass by one simple process. In addition, the embedded microstructures can be made with less contamination. Finally, the optical performance of the glasses with various configurations is measured using a Spectra Colorometer (Photo Research PR650) and compared with the simulated results.     

Induced supercontinuum and steepening of an ultrafast laser pulse

The problem of the propagation of an intense ultrashort pulse in a cubic (χ³) nonlinear medium is generalized to include coupling between the primary and second harmonics signals. It is shown that the presence of a strong primary signal induces the superbroadening of the spectrum of a weak second harmonic signal and the deformation of its pulse shape.     

Spatial and temporal laser pulse design for material processing on ultrafast scales

The spatio-temporal design of ultrafast laser excitation can have a determinant influence on the physical and engineering aspects of laser–matter interactions, with the potential of upgrading laser processing effects. Energy relaxation channels can be synergetically stimulated as the energy delivery rate is synchronized with the material response on ps timescales. Experimental and theoretical loops based on the temporal design of laser irradiation and rapid monitoring of irradiation effects are, therefore, able to predict and determine ideal optimal laser pulse forms for specific ablation objectives. We illustrate this with examples on manipulating the thermodynamic relaxation pathways impacting the ablation products and nanostructuring of bulk and surfaces using longer pulse envelopes. Some of the potential control factors will be pointed out. At the same time the spatial character can dramatically influence the development of laser interaction. We discuss spatial beam engineering examples such as parallel and non-diffractive approaches designed for high-throughput, high-accuracy processing events.     

Correlated multielectron dynamics in ultrafast laser pulse interactions with atoms

We present the results of the detailed experimental study of multiple ionization of Ne and Ar by 25 and 7 fs laser pulses. Whereas in multiple ionization of Ar different mechanisms, involving field ionization steps and recollision-induced excitations, play a role, for Ne only one channel, where the highly correlated instantaneous emission of up to four electrons is triggered by a recollisional electron impact, is found to be important. Using few-cycle pulses we are able to suppress those processes that occur on time scales longer than one laser cycle.     

Dynamic temporal pulse shaping in advanced ultrafast laser material processing

Phase-manipulated ultrafast laser pulses and temporally tailored pulse trains with THz repetition rates are promising new tools for quality micromachining of brittle dielectrics, allowing to adapt the laser energy delivery rate to the material properties for optimal processing. Different materials respond with specific reaction pathways to the sudden energy input depending on the efficiency of electron generation and on the ability to release the energy into the lattice. The sequential energy delivery with judiciously chosen pulse trains may induce softening of the material during the initial steps of excitation and change the energy coupling for the subsequent steps. We show that this can result in lower stress, cleaner structures, and allow for a material-dependent optimization process. Received: 7 October 2002 / Accepted: 20 January 2003 / Published online: 28 May 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +49-30/6392-1229, E-mail: stoian@mbi-berlin.de RID="**" ID="**"Now at Katana Technologies GmbH, Albert-Einstein-Ring 7, 14532 Kleinmachnow, Germany     

超快激光抽运-探测中探针光时间延迟量的 实时测量原理与光学设计

为了在飞秒激光抽运-探测(pump-probe)的超快测量中对探针光时间延迟量进行实时检测与有效控制,提出了一种四路同步移相干涉的光学测量系统.应用琼斯理论对该光学测量系统进行了优化设计与计算,推导出同步移相干涉系统各帧干涉图相应点的光强表达式,确定了相邻干涉图之间的相移步长,并给出了相位延迟量测量的解析表达式.最后,对光学系统在检测中可能存在的误差进行了计算分析,结果表明,系统的设计不仅能满足超快pump-probe精度的基本要求,而且优于目前同步移相干涉测量的光学设计,对于800 nm中心波长的探针光在理论上可达阿秒级的时间分辨率. 关键词： 超快抽运-探测 时间延迟量 同步移相干涉 琼斯矩阵     

Surface pattern formation on Cr thin film with ultrafast laser pulse

Laser irradiation of a metal surface with multiple pulses just below the ablation threshold generates a periodic surface pattern known as the laser-induced periodic surface structure. The aim of this study is to characterize these periodic structures by analyzing the electric field distribution at the metal surface. The analysis was conducted using a modified Debye model for the permittivity of the metal and the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) software package XFDTD. Spatial periodic variation in the electric field distribution formed perpendicularly to the direction of polarization of the laser light, with a period of approximately half the wavelength of the light. This is similar to the period and direction observed experimentally in some studies, and the periodic distribution of the irradiance on the surface would be one of many causes of these structures.     

Tomographic retrieval of the polarization state of an ultrafast laser pulse

We introduce a self-referenced method for determining the complete polarization state of an ultrafast pulse field. The algorithm is based on any well-established technique that measures both the intensity and phase of a single polarization, such as frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG). We demonstrate the retrieval of nontrivial fields generated using a polarization-amplitude-phase ultrafast pulse shaper using four standard FROG measurements.     

Coherent acceleration by laser pulse echelons in periodic plasma structures

We consider a possibilty to use an echelon of mutually coherent laser pulses generated by the emerging CAN (Coherent Amplification Network) technology for direct particle acceleration in periodic plasma structures. We discuss resonant and free streaming configurations. The resonant plasma structures can trap energy of longer laser pulses but are limited to moderate laser intensities of about 10¹⁴?W/cm² and are very sensitive to the structure quality. The free streaming configurations can survive laser intensities above 10¹⁸?W/cm² for several tens of femtoseconds so that sustained accelerating rates well above TeV/m are feasible. In our full electromagnetic relativistic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations we show a test electron bunch gaining up to 200?GeV over a distance of 10.2?cm only.     

High-power ultrafast thin disk laser oscillators and their potential for sub-100-femtosecond pulse generation

Ultrafast thin disk laser oscillators achieve the highest average output powers and pulse energies of any mode-locked laser oscillator technology. The thin disk concept avoids thermal problems occurring in conventional high-power rod or slab lasers and enables high-power TEM₀₀ operation with broadband gain materials. Stable and self-starting passive pulse formation is achieved with semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs). The key components of ultrafast thin disk lasers, such as gain material, SESAM, and dispersive cavity mirrors, are all used in reflection. This is an advantage for the generation of ultrashort pulses with excellent temporal, spectral, and spatial properties because the pulses are not affected by large nonlinearities in the oscillator. Output powers close to 100 W and pulse energies above 10 μJ are directly obtained without any additional amplification, which makes these lasers interesting for a growing number of industrial and scientific applications such as material processing or driving experiments in high-field science. Ultrafast thin disk lasers are based on a power-scalable concept, and substantially higher power levels appear feasible. However, both the highest power levels and pulse energies are currently only achieved with Yb:YAG as the gain material, which limits the gain bandwidth and therefore the achievable pulse duration to 700 to 800 fs in efficient thin disk operation. Other Yb-doped gain materials exhibit a larger gain bandwidth and support shorter pulse durations. It is important to evaluate their suitability for power scaling in the thin disk laser geometry. In this paper, we review the development of ultrafast thin disk lasers with shorter pulse durations. We discuss the requirements on the gain materials and compare different Yb-doped host materials. The recently developed sesquioxide materials are particularly promising as they enabled the highest optical-to-optical efficiency (43%) and shortest pulse duration (227 fs) ever achieved with a mode-locked thin disk laser.     

Coherent control of laser pulse temporal duration: An experimental proposal

We present a study of temporal compression resulting from the coherent control peculiarities of electromagnetically induced transparency propagation dynamics. We discuss the crucial conditions required to accomplish temporal compression in an experiment with a sample of hot atoms.     

Expansion of matter heated by an ultrashort laser pulse

Recent experiments have utilizied high-power subpicosecond laser pulses to effect the ultrafast heating of a condensed material to temperatures far above the critical temperature. Using optical diagnostics it was established that a complicated density profile with sharp gradients, differing substantially from an ordinary rarefaction wave, forms in the expanding heated matter. The present letter is devoted to the analysis of the expansion of matter under the conditions of the experiments reported by D. von der Linde, K. Sokolowski-Tinten, and J. Bialkowski, Appl. Surf. Science 109/110, 1 (1996); K. Sokolowski-Tinten, J. Bialkowski, A. Cavalleri et al., Proc. Soc. Photo-Opt. Instum. Eng. 3343, 46 (1998); and, K. Sokolowski-Tinten, J. Bialkowski, A. Cavalleri et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 224 (1998). It is shown that if the unloading adiabat passes through the two-phase region, a thin liquid shell filled with low-density two-phase matter forms in the expanding material. The shell moves with a constant velocity. The velocity in the two-phase material is a linear function of the coordinate (flow with uniform deformation), and the density is independent of the coordinate and decreases with time as t ⁻¹. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 69, No. 4, 284–289 (25 February 1999)     

Pulse shaper assisted short laser pulse characterization

We demonstrate that a pulse shaper is able to simultaneously act as an optical waveform generator and a short pulse characterization device when combined with an appropriate nonlinear element. We present autocorrelation measurements and their frequency resolved counterparts. We show that control over the carrier envelope phase allows continuous tuning between an intensity-like and an interferometric autocorrelation. By changing the transfer function other measurement techniques, for example STRUT, are easily realized without any modification of the optical setup. PACS 42.65.Re; 42.30.Lr; 42.30.Rx     

Generation and stabilization of ultrafast optical pulse trains with monolithic mode-locked laser diodes

In this paper, we report on the generation and the stabilization of ultrafast optical pulse trains exceeding 100 GHz from monolithic mode-locked laser diodes (MLLDs) combined with some new techniques such as subharmonic synchronous mode-locking (SSML) and repetition-frequency multiplication (RFM) method. Key subjects to increase the pulse repetition frequencies of the MLLDs such as fast absorption recovery and harmonic mode-locking operation are discussed. 500 GHz optical pulse generation from a short-cavity, graded-index separated confinement heterostructure MLLD and THz-rate pulse generation by harmonic mode-locking are reported. We also demonstrate the stabilization of a 160 GHz MLLD by the SSML with subharmonic-frequency optical pulse injection and reveal that the SSML is very promising as a stabilization technique of the ultrafast MLLD beyond the limitations by the electronic device speed. A method to accurately measure the timing jitter of such ultrafast optical pulse train, all-optical down converting using a nonlinear optical device, is also presented. We also mention another choice for ultrafast optical pulse generation using the MLLD combined with a dispersive medium such as an optical fiber. We demonstrate here the generations of stable 84–256 GHz optical pulse trains by the RFM method of the MLLD stabilized by the SSML.     

Black phosphorus saturable absorber for ultrafast mode‐locked pulse laser via evanescent field interaction

Black phosphorus, or BP, has found a lot of applications in recent years including photonics. The most recent studies have shown that the material has an excellent optical nonlinearity useful in many areas, one of which is in saturable absorption for passive mode‐locking. A direct interaction scheme for mode‐locking, however, has a potential to optically cause permanent damage to the already delicate material. Evanescent field interaction scheme has already been proven to be a useful method to prevent such danger for other 2‐dimensional nanomaterials. In this report, we have utilized the evanescent field interaction to demonstrate that the optical nonlinear characteristics of BP is sufficiently strong to use in such an indirect interaction method. The successful demonstration of the passive mode‐locking operation has generated pulses with the pulse duration, repetition rate, and time bandwidth product of 2.18 ps, 15.59 MHz, and 0.336, respectively.