On the nature of emissions of polymethyl methacrylate excited by an electron beam of subnanosecond or nanosecond duration

The results of studies of the physical nature of emissions produced in polymethyl methacrylate excited by electron beams of a subnanosecond or a nanosecond duration are presented. The spatial, amplitude, and spectral-kinetic properties of emissions have been examined under an electron beam energy density varying from 10^–4 to 4 × 10^–1 J/cm². It has been found that cathodoluminescence is the primary type of emission under low energy densities of the electron beam. When the energy density of a nanosecond electron beam and/or the number of pulses of excitation by a subnanosecond electron beam were increased, an electrical breakdown of polymethyl methacrylate occurred in the irradiated region. This process was accompanied by a burst of emission of dense, low-temperature plasma.     

High-order harmonic generation in nanoparticle-containing laser-produced plasmas

Nanoparticle-containing media can be used for the efficient high-order harmonic generation (HHG) of laser radiation in the extreme ultraviolet range. We review the results of recent studies of the HHG in laser-produced plasmas containing Ag, Au, Pd, Pt, Ru, GaN, BaTiO₃, and SrTiO₃ nanoparticles. The harmonics of femtosecond radiation up to the 55th order were achieved using the nanoparticle-containing plumes, when the femtosecond radiation propagated through the preformed plasma. These results are compared with the high-order harmonics generated from the plasma produced on the surface of bulk targets at different delays between the subnanosecond heating prepulse and femtosecond pulse. We discuss a six-fold enhancement of the HHG yield, which was achieved in the case of nanoparticle-containing plumes with regard to the monoparticle-containing plasmas.     

用于测量毫微秒脉冲电流的磁通计

磁通计是一个被低电感电阻短路的自积分单匝线圈。由于它具有时间响应快,抗干扰能力强,不影响束流传输等优点,主要用于测量脉冲电子束加速器的二极管发射电流。同时,也可做为电流探针,用来监测其它快速变化的电流。     

Toward passive mode locking by nonlinear polarization evolution in a cascaded Raman fiber ring laser

We demonstrate a cascaded Raman fiber ring laser delivering a pulsed fourth-order Stokes component. Periodic emission of subnanosecond pulses is achieved from the interplay between nonlinear polarization evolution and Raman cascade process.     

On a source of outgoing electrons in a pulsed gas discharge

It has been shown that explosive electron emission is delayed by 10^?10 s with respect to field emission in a pulsed subnanosecond discharge in atmospheric air. A pulse of outgoing electrons is observed for approximately the same time in air. Correspondingly, field emission is a source of these electrons. Owing to the sharp nonlinearity of the emission current density as a function of the electric field j(E), the real duration of the current pulse of the outgoing electrons is equal to about 10^?11 s.     

Generation of nearly transform-limited pulses in subnanosecond region with TEA nitrogen-laser-pumped dye laser

A dye laser is transversely pumped by a TEA nitrogen laser with 700 ps duration. The dye laser pulse has a spectral linewidth of 0.007 nm and a pulse width of ≈ 140 ps, giving a time-bandwidth product of 1.5. It is pointed out that the fluorescence lifetime of the laser dye plays an important role in generation of laser emission using a long laser cavity under subnanosecond pulse pumping.     

Emission induced by collision of two plumes during pulsed laser ablation

We observed plume expansion dynamics during pulsed laser ablation when two plumes collided head-on. Si and Ge targets were placed parallel each other, and they were irradiated simultaneously by two pulsed lasers. A new emission appeared near the center of the targets from 250 ns after the irradiation. However, the predominant ejected species is neutral SiI or GeI at this time region when an individual single target is irradiated, and the new emission emerged by collision is a mixture of ionized SiII and GeII. This indicates that the kinetic energy of the collision excites the species to an ionized state. The intensity of this new emission decreased by increasing the background gas pressure. This suggests that collision between two plumes induces a higher-temperature plasma. Since the new emission is composed of ionized Si and Ge species and remains a relatively long period after the collision, this technique will provide a new reactive field to prepare a new kind of alloy nanomaterials.     

Stable generation of high-order harmonics of femtosecond laser radiation from laser produced plasma plumes at 1 kHz pulse repetition rate

We present a method for the creation of stable weakly ionized plasmas from laser ablation of solid targets using a 1 kHz pulse repetition rate laser, which can be used for stable high-order harmonic generation from plasma plumes. The plasma plumes were generated from cylindrical rotating targets. Without target rotation the intensity of harmonics in the 40-80 nm range drops by more than one order of magnitude during less than 10(3) shots, while, with rotation of the target at typically 30 revolutions per minute, stable emission of high-order harmonics from aluminum plasma plumes with variation of less than 10% was maintained for >10(6) laser shots.     

Observation of the Askaryan effect: coherent microwave Cherenkov emission from charge asymmetry in high-energy particle cascades

We present the first direct experimental evidence for the charge excess in high-energy particle showers and corresponding radio emission predicted nearly 40 years ago by Askaryan. We directed picosecond pulses of GeV bremsstrahlung photons at the SLAC Final Focus Test Beam into a 3.5 ton silica sand target, producing electromagnetic showers several meters long. A series of antennas spanning 0.3 to 6 GHz detected strong, subnanosecond radio-frequency pulses produced by the showers. Measurements of the polarization, coherence, timing, field strength vs shower depth, and field strength vs frequency are completely consistent with predictions. These measurements thus provide strong support for experiments designed to detect high-energy cosmic rays such as neutrinos via coherent radio emission from their cascades.     

193-nm laser ablation of CVD diamond and graphite in vacuum: plume analysis and film properties

The pulsed laser ablation of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond and graphite samples in vacuum has been investigated by the use of an ArF excimer laser operating at 5=193 nm. The composition and propagation of both ablation plumes has been probed via wavelength and spatially and temporally resolved measurements of the plume emission and found to be very similar. Electronically excited C atoms and C⁺ and C²⁺ ions are identified among the ablated material. Plume expansion velocities are estimated from time-gated imaging of specific C and C⁺ emissions. Langmuir probe measurements provide further insight into the propagation of the charged components in both ablation plumes. Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films grown by 193-nm laser ablation of both target materials on Si substrates maintained at room temperature have been investigated by laser Raman spectroscopy (325 nm and 488 nm excitation) and by both optical and scanning electron microscopy, and their field emission characteristics investigated. Again, similarities outweigh the differences, but DLC films grown from ablation of the diamond target appear to show steeper I/V dependencies once above the threshold voltage for field emission.     

棒-环电极大气压等离子体射流的光谱特性

通过设计新型的交流电压激励的氩气等离子体射流,在棒电极的上游与下游区域均产生了大气压非平衡态等离子体羽。该射流与平行场射流和交叉场射流不同,它的电场与气流方向的夹角可以在一定范围内变化。结果表明,随着外加电压或夹角的增加,上游羽的长度增加而下游羽的长度减小。利用光学和电学的方法,研究发现随着外加电压的增加,上下游放电脉冲的个数均增加。利用放电的光学发射谱,发现上游羽有Ar和OH的谱线,而下游羽除了Ar和OH的谱线外,还可以观察到N₂的谱线。并且下游羽的谱线强度比上游羽的略高。基于碰撞辐射模型,通过谱线强度比的方法研究了上下游羽的电子密度和电子激发温度。结果表明上下游羽的电子密度随着外加电压的增加而增加。上下游羽的电子激发温度也随着外加电压的增加而增加。并且,在同一外加电压时下游羽的电子密度和电子激发温度均比上游羽的高。此外,利用OH发射光谱研究了上下游羽的气体温度,发现下游羽的气体温度也比上游羽的略高。     

Background gas collisional effects on expanding fs and ns laser ablation plumes

The collisional effects of a background gas on expanding ultrafast and short pulse laser ablation plumes were investigated by varying background pressure from vacuum to atmospheric pressure levels. For producing Cu ablation plumes, either 40 fs, 800 nm pulses from a Ti: Sapphire laser or 6 ns, 1,064 nm pulses from a Nd:YAG laser were used. The role of background pressure on plume hydrodynamics, spectral emission features, absolute line intensities, signal to background ratios and ablation craters was studied. Though the signal intensities were found to be maximum near to atmospheric pressure levels, the optimum signal to background ratios are observed ~20–50 Torr for both ns and fs laser ablation plumes. The differences in laser–target and laser–plasma couplings between ns and fs lasers were found to be more engraved in the crater morphologies and plasma hydrodynamic expansion features.     

Entanglement generation between two colliding particles

Harmonics with the photon energy of up to ~150 eV were studied using extended ablation plumes as the nonlinear media. The application of the ablation pulses of different duration covering the range between a few tens of femtoseconds and a few tens of nanoseconds revealed the advanced features of the extended plasmas produced by the subnanosecond pulses for efficient harmonic generation. The examples of the quasi-phase-matching of a group of harmonics in the plateau range and the advantages of using the two-color pump and cluster-containing plasmas are presented. We analyze the spatial and coherence characteristics of the high-order harmonics produced during propagation of the 64 fs pulse through the extended plasma plume produced by 370 ps pulses. It is shown that the divergence of plasma harmonics in the plateau range is 7 times smaller than the divergence of the driving radiation used for high-order harmonic generation. The measurements of the coherence properties of the lower-order harmonics showed that the visibility of interference fringes in the far field was in the range of 0.54–0.73.     

分子发射光谱法测量微波等离子体气体温度

通过OH自由基A2Σ+→X2Π_r电子带系分子发射光谱测温法,实现了对氩气、氮气、空气三种大气压微波等离子体气体温度的测量。探究了不同微波功率、不同气体流量下气体温度的变化规律,测量了氮气、空气微波等离子体羽流的轴向温度分布。实验结果表明,不同工作条件下微波等离子体核心温度普遍超过2 000 K,空气微波等离子体可超过6 000 K;同样工作条件下三种微波等离子体气体温度满足：T_Ar<T_N2<T_Air;气体温度总体上随微波功率增加而小幅增加,随气体流量下降而小幅降低;氮气与空气等离子体羽流温度沿轴向迅速降低。为验证分子发射光谱测温法的准确性,以热电偶测温作为比对,对温度较低的介质阻挡放电氩气等离子体进行了温度测量,实验表明,分子发射光谱法与热电偶所测结果十分接近。     

Investigation of early stages of explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate crystal decomposition initiated by pulsed electron beams

The method of high-resolution pulsed optical spectroscopy is used to investigate the spectral-kinetic characteristics of explosive emission of pentaerythritol tetranitrate crystal excited by a pulsed electron beam (0.25 MeV, 35 ns, and 15 J/cm²). It is established that emission with the spectrum comprising three components with maxima at 3.1, 2.4, and 1.5 eV is initiated in the edge of the excitation pulse. Moreover, transformation of the emission spectrum is observed directly within the time over which the excitation pulse acts followed by the emission decay; however, emission develops again on the subnanosecond scale; moreover, its spectrum contains only the 1.5-eV band, which appears to be an indicator of the self-sustaining chemical reaction of explosive decomposition. The 3.1-and 2.4-eV bands are identified as emissions of an exciton and a primary NO ₂* radiative defect, and the 1.5-eV band is probably connected with the NO ₃ radical. __________ Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 2, pp. 3–9, February, 2007.     

Electron excitations in LiB3O5 crystals with defects: Low-temperature time-resolved luminescence VUV spectroscopy

The dynamics of electron excitations and luminescence of LiB₃O₅ (LBO) single crystals was studied using low-temperature luminescence vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy with a subnanosecond time resolution under photoexcitation with synchrotron radiation. The kinetics of the photoluminescence (PL) decay, the time-resolved PL emission spectra, and the time-resolved PL excitation spectra of LBO were measured at 7 and 290 K, respectively. The PL emission bands peaking at 2.7 eV and 3.3 eV were attributed to the radiative transitions of electronic excitations connected with lattice defects of LBO. The intrinsic PL emission bands at 3.6 and 4.2 eV were associated with the radiative annihilation of two kinds of self-trapped electron excitations in LBO. The processes responsible for the formation of localized electron excitations in LBO were discussed and compared with those taking place in wide-gap oxides.     

Picosecond spectroscopy of polaritons in anthracene crystals II. Luminescence

The low-temperature luminescence spectrum of anthracene crystals is investigated by applying simultaneous time and frequency resolution. The complicated kinetics of the emission in the polariton bottleneck region reflects directly the evolution and relaxation of the polariton distribution in the crystal. Three distinct relaxation stages are distinguished: (1) the ultrafast decay of initial vibronic excitations, mediated by optical phonons and resulting in a broad distribution of polaritons near the band bottom; (2) the formation of a narrow distribution of polaritons with a characteristic time of 30 ps, which is caused by scattering on acoustic phonons; (3) relaxation through the bottleneck region on a subnanosecond time scale. It is suggested that the polaritons immediately below the resonance frequency are responsible for the observed excitonic energy transfer in anthracene crystals.     

Luminescence of CsPbBr3-like quantum dots in CsBr single crystals

Luminescence and decay kinetics of the Pb²⁺ aggregates in CsBr host crystals were measured in the 4–300 K temperature interval and in 10⁻¹⁰–10⁻³ time scale. Their emission properties are similar to those of CsPbBr₃ bulk crystal showing a subnanosecond free exciton emission in the 520–540 nm spectral region and slower trapped exciton emission in the 530–580 nm spectral region. An efficient energy exchange between the free and trapped exciton states is shown by the temperature dependencies of emission spectra. The quantum size effect is demonstrated in the high energy shift and broadening of the absorption and emission spectra and an estimate of the size of the CsPbBr₃-like aggregates is provided. Independent evidence of the presence of the CsPbBr₃ and Cs₄PbBr₆ aggregated phases in the CsBr host was obtained by X-ray structural studies.     

Coherent oscillations of turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a thin vertical disk

A well-defined oscillation is observed in the power spectrum of several fluctuating signals in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection occurring in a thin vertical disk filled with water. The experiment reveals that the coherent oscillations are produced by periodic emission of thermal plumes, which gives rise to periodic pulses of forcing, resulting in a pulsed large-scale circulation in the thin cell. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical predictions made from two coupled nonlinear delayed equations.     

Generation of tunable subnanosecond laser pulses with a nitrogen laser pumped dye laser amplifier system

A simple method for generating single tunable subnanosecond dye laser pulses is described. A Rhodamin 6G dye laser is transversely pumped by a subnanosecond UV pulse of a TEA nitrogen laser. The narrowband output of the dye laser is amplified and shortened in a synchronously pumped amplifier. Narrowband pulses with a duration of 30–40 ps (fwhm) and a pulse power of 30 kW are obtained. They are tunable over the range of 580–600 nm.