Control of femtosecond filamentation by field-free revivals of molecular alignment

We show that the filamentation dynamics of a femtosecond laser probe pulse can be readily controlled by properly matching it to the quantum revivals of pre-aligned molecules prepared through impulsive rotational Raman excitation with an advancing ultrashort pump pulse. Several features of the filamentation process including supercontinuum generation, the length of the plasma channel generated in the wake of the filament, the associated secondary radiations and the multiple filamentation pattern are all easily modified by tuning the cross phase modulation induced by the field-free revivals of molecular alignment, through the delay between the pump and the probe pulses. We show that molecular alignment can also be used to generate conical waves with extremely short intensity spike called shocked X-waves and to further tune the frequency of a few-cycle laser pulse in the wake of a self-guided intense filament.     

激光大气成丝中的非线性光频转换

超快强激光在光学介质（如空气）中传播时由于克尔自聚焦效应和等离体散焦效应动态平 衡会发生一种独特的非线性激光成丝现象。激光成丝过程会诱导一些独特的物理现象,如非线性 光频转换产生超连续光谱、等离子体诱导高压放电、锥形辐射等,在大气传感、天气控制等研究 领域具有重要的应用前景。本文针对飞秒激光大气成丝过程中与传输介质相互作用所诱导的非线 性发光过程,介绍了激光大气成丝所产生的超连续光谱（白光）激光、谐波产生和太赫兹波辐射 三种非线性光频转换现象,并着重探讨了太赫兹波辐射的物理机理、研究现状和应用前景。     

Research on target uniform irradiation method using linearly modulated light and special grating dispersion

In indirect-drive laser fusion research, filamentation instability (FI) severely influences laser injection efficiency and beam pointing accuracy in hohlraum. Experiments indicate that high frequency modulations on the far field of the laser driver are responsible for the filamentation. To solve this problem, a new smoothing technique is proposed using linear modulation and special grating dispersion. The linear modulation was realized by stacking a series of 100 ps chirped pulses in fiber delay lines. The temporal smoothing characteristics of the focal spot adopting star and circular grating dispersion were studied. Simulation results indicate that both kinds of grating investigated restrained the high frequency modulations. The star grating has a better smoothing effect when compared to circular grating. The insertion of the star grating could realize “color” variation across the beam in the azimuthal direction and make the far-field pattern rotate with time. Therefore, the time-integrated focal spot would be smoothed in a more comprehensive way. This smoothing method bears the advantage of simple configuration, two-dimensional angular spectral dispersion and not enlarging the far field too much.     

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.     

Low frequency resonant dispersion of sound in bubble media

Presented is a theory of a new type of resonant dispersion of sound in a gas-liquid bubble media based on the use of effective dynamic density. We show that because of spheroidal-translational oscillations of the bubbles the dynamic density of the gas-liquid media has a resonance dependence on the frequency, which is manifested in wave process as a low-frequency resonant dispersion of sound. This dispersion is significantly different from the known high-frequency resonant dispersion, which is due to resonance in the volume oscillations of the bubbles. The results of the experiments confirming the existence of the resonant dispersion of sound at a frequency equal to half the natural frequency of the spheroidal oscillations of bubbles are provided.     

FILAMENTATION INSTABILITY OF LASER BEAMS IN NONLOCAL NONLINEAR MEDIA

The filamentation instability of laser beams propagating in nonlocal nonlinear media is investigated. It is shown that the filamentation instability can occur in weakly nonlocal self-focusing media for any degree of nonlocality, and in defocusing media for the input light intensity exceeding a threshold related to the degree of nonlocality. A linear stability analysis is used to predict the initial growth rate of the instability. It is found that the nonlocality tends to suppress filamentation instability in self-focusing media and to stimulate filamentation instability in self-defocusing media. Numerical simulations confirm the results of the linear stability analysis and disclose a recurrence phenomenon in nonlocal self-focusing media analogous to the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem.     

超强线极化激光在e-p等离子体中传播的成丝不稳定性

基于超强线极化激光在正负电子对(e-p)等离子体中的传播方程,讨论了相互作用过程中的成丝不稳定性。得到了电磁波的非线性色散关系和不稳定性增长率,并讨论了传播过程中激光强度和等离子体温度对成丝不稳定性的影响。结果表明,成丝不稳定性的强弱主要由相互作用的非线性效应与受有质动力作用后等离子体密度的减小之间的竞争所决定。     

飞秒脉冲激光1维强度调制的传输特性

实验研究了飞秒激光干涉条纹在CS2介质中传输的增长率与条纹间隔以及增长率与中心峰值强度的关系。结果发现,在非线性介质中传输的1维干涉调制特别是当其调制频率位于中心光强对应的最快增长频率附近时,随着传输距离的增加调制场迅速获得增长,将高斯光束分裂成多根峰值强度很高的带状细丝。相应的数值模拟与实验结果具有较好的一致性。     

Further Theoretical Investigations for Laser Relative Intensity Noise with Fiber Nonlinearities and Higher Order Dispersion

In this article, we theoretically investigate relative intensity noise (RIN) in optical communication systems with fiber nonlinearities due to optical Kerr effects and higher order dispersion. The impact of modulation frequencies, launch power, and laser bias current on RIN has been illustrated. We show that RIN increases with modulating frequencies up to the resonance frequency and launch power, and decreases in the laser bias current. We also show that higher order dispersion terms have no impact on the RIN, but with first order dispersion compensation the higher order dispersion terms have significant impact at high modulating frequencies. The RIN with and without fiber nonlinearities is further investigated. It has been shown that the RIN with fiber nonlinearity is more than the RIN without nonlinearity and the effect of nonlinearity appears at higher modulation frequencies only.     

Further Theoretical Investigations for Laser Relative Intensity Noise with Fiber Nonlinearities and Higher-Order Dispersion

In this article, we theoretically investigate relative intensity noise (RIN) in optical communication systems with fiber nonlinearities due to optical Kerr effects and higher-order dispersion. The impact of modulation frequencies, launch power, and laser bias current on RIN has been illustrated. We show that RIN increases with modulating frequencies up to the resonance frequency, launch power, and decrease in the laser bias current. We also show that higher-order dispersion terms have no impact on the RIN, but with first-order dispersion compensation the higher-order dispersion terms have significant impact at high modulating frequencies. The RIN with and without fiber nonlinearities is further investigated. It has been shown that the RIN with fiber nonlinearity is more than the RIN without nonlinearity and the effect of nonlinearity appears at higher modulation frequencies only.     

Further Theoretical Investigations for Laser Relative Intensity Noise with Fiber Nonlinearities and Higher Order Dispersion

In this article, we theoretically investigate relative intensity noise (RIN) in optical communication systems with fiber nonlinearities due to optical Kerr effects and higher order dispersion. The impact of modulation frequencies, launch power, and laser bias current on RIN has been illustrated. We show that RIN increases with modulating frequencies up to the resonance frequency and launch power, and decreases in the laser bias current. We also show that higher order dispersion terms have no impact on the RIN, but with first order dispersion compensation the higher order dispersion terms have significant impact at high modulating frequencies. The RIN with and without fiber nonlinearities is further investigated. It has been shown that the RIN with fiber nonlinearity is more than the RIN without nonlinearity and the effect of nonlinearity appears at higher modulation frequencies only.     

Optical cavity resonance with magnetized plasma

Indefinite media with mixed signs of dielectric tensor elements possess unbounded equifrequency surfaces that have been utilized for diverse applications such as superimaging, enhanced spontaneous emission, and thermal radiation. One particularly interesting application of indefinite media is an optical cavity supporting anomalous scaling laws. In this Letter, we show that by replacing an indefinite medium with magnetized plasma one can construct a tunable indefinite cavity. The magnetized plasma model is based on realistic semiconductor material properties at terahertz frequencies that show hyperbolic dispersion in a certain frequency regime. The hyperbolic dispersion features are utilized for the design of optical cavities. Dramatically different sizes of cavities can support the same resonance mode at the same frequency. For a cavity of fixed size, the anomalous scaling law between the resonance frequency and mode number is confirmed. The resonance frequency can be strongly modulated by changing the strength of the applied magnetic field. The proposed model provides active controllability of terahertz resonances on the deep subwavelength scale with realistic semiconductor materials.     

Saturation of the all-optical Kerr effect

Saturation of the intensity dependence of the refractive index is directly computed from ionization rates via a Kramers-Kronig transform. The linear intensity dependence and its dispersion are found to be in excellent agreement with complete quantum mechanical orbital computations. Higher-order terms concur with solutions of the time-dependent Schr?dinger equation. Expanding the formalism to all orders up to the ionization potential of the atom, we derive a model for saturation of the Kerr effect. This model widely confirms recently published and controversially discussed experimental data and corroborates the importance of higher-order Kerr terms for filamentation.     

弛豫媒质中有限束超声波的非线性传播畸变理论

文中提出弛豫媒质中有限束非线性声波方程,并采用微扰法求得由非线性传播畸变产生的高次谐波的一般解.研究表明,对高斯型声波,其谐波畸变解可以解析给出,而且其径向分布始终维持高斯函数.虽然其频散量大小会影响各次谐波的振幅,但其相速的变化却仍与对在频率的小振幅波相同.文中还用Blackstock算子将所得的结果应用于任何吸收-频散媒质,包括只能从经验得到其吸收与频率关系的一些生物媒质.     

Approximate and Exact Small Signal Analysis for Single-Mode Fiber Near Zero Dispersion Wavelength with Higher Order Dispersion

This article presents the comparison of approximate and exact small-signal theories for analyzing the influence of the higher-order dispersion terms on dispersive optical communication systems operating near zero dispersion wavelength for linear single-mode fiber. For the approximate theory, the generalized conversion matrix has been reported and gives the transfer function of intensity and phase from the fiber input to fiber output for a laser source including the influence of any higher-order dispersion term. In addition, expressions for the small-signal frequency response and the relative intensity noise (RIN) response of an ultrafast laser diode including noises are derived. However, it is observed that the approximation assumed for the second-order dispersion term for the approximate analysis is not valid. From the approximate theory, the exact generalized conversion matrix and exact expressions for small-signal frequency response and relative intensity noise (RIN) are obtained. We show that for the exact theory, the second-order dispersion term has no effect on intensity and frequency response even at large modulating frequencies and large propagation distances contrary to the approximate theory as reported by other authors. But we show that third-order dispersion term certainly has some minute impact on the frequency and RIN response for long distance links at high modulating frequencies.     

Approximate and Exact Small Signal Analysis for Single-Mode Fiber Near Zero Dispersion Wavelength with Higher Order Dispersion

This article presents the comparison of approximate and exact small-signal theories for analyzing the influence of the higher-order dispersion terms on dispersive optical communication systems operating near zero dispersion wavelength for linear single-mode fiber. For the approximate theory, the generalized conversion matrix has been reported and gives the transfer function of intensity and phase from the fiber input to fiber output for a laser source including the influence of any higher-order dispersion term. In addition, expressions for the small-signal frequency response and the relative intensity noise (RIN) response of an ultrafast laser diode including noises are derived. However, it is observed that the approximation assumed for the second-order dispersion term for the approximate analysis is not valid. From the approximate theory, the exact generalized conversion matrix and exact expressions for small-signal frequency response and relative intensity noise (RIN) are obtained. We show that for the exact theory, the second-order dispersion term has no effect on intensity and frequency response even at large modulating frequencies and large propagation distances contrary to the approximate theory as reported by other authors. But we show that third-order dispersion term certainly has some minute impact on the frequency and RIN response for long distance links at high modulating frequencies.     

Multifilamentation of femtosecond laser pulses induced by?small-scale air turbulence

We report on experimental and numerical investigations of femtosecond pulse propagation locally disturbed by the turbulent flow field of a hot-air blower. The experiments show that turbulence may shorten the collapse/filamentation distance and induce the onset of multiple filaments. This is supported by numerical simulations indicating that the high spatial frequency part of the turbulence spectrum plays a significant role.     

Chirp-induced dynamics of femtosecond filaments in air

We investigate the influence of a chirped phase on femtosecond pulses propagating in air. Pulses with an initially negative chirp are temporally compressed by compensation with group-velocity dispersion. We demonstrate that this property, combined with plasma defocusing, can be used to trigger filamentation at different foci, increase self-guiding ranges, or even shorten pulse duration.     

Characterization of the initial filamentation of a relativistic electron beam passing through a plasma

The linear instability that induces a relativistic electron beam passing through a plasma with return current to filament transversely is often related to some filamentation mode with the wave vector normal to the beam or confused with Weibel modes. We show that these modes may not be relevant in this matter and identify the most unstable mode on the two-stream or filamentation branch as the main trigger for filamentation. This sets both the characteristic transverse and longitudinal filamentation scales in the nonresistive initial stage.     

Passivation of n-GaAs (100) surface by a Langmuir-Blodgett film

We report the results of passivation of n-GaAs surface by Langmuir-Blodgett films. The capacitance-voltage and current-voltage characteristics in a metal-insulator-semiconductor configuration fabricated using films as insulators, show that the frequency dispersion of the accumulation capacitance is small, indicating that the high frequency capacitance under accumulation is due to the LB film. It has been shown that it reduces the surface barrier characteristic of GaAs surfaces, and may offer hope for unpinning the surface Fermi level. We offer a possible explanation for these findings in terms of the advanced unified defect and the effective work function models.