Development of high-throughput, high-damage-threshold beam separator for 13 nm high-order harmonics

We demonstrate a high-throughput, high-damage-threshold beam separator for wavelengths shorter than 30 nm, which uses a 10 nm thick niobium nitrogen film prepared on a Si substrate, set at the Brewster angle relative to the pump wavelength. The film was deposited by rf reactive magnetron sputtering on a Si substrate. The beam separator has an attenuation ratio of 0.01 and a damage-threshold intensity of at least 0.8 TW/cm2 for a 26 fs pump pulse. The measured reflectivity of the beam separator exceeded 70% in a wavelength range of 13-18 nm. This broadband beam separator may be used to eliminate energetic laser pulses from longitudinally pumped x ray lasers as well as from high-order harmonics.     

Time-compensated grazing-incidence monochromator for extreme-ultraviolet and soft X-ray high-order harmonics

The use of a grating monochromator for the selection of one or more high-order laser harmonics produced by a femtosecond pulse interacting with a gas jet may alter the duration of the pulse itself. This is due to the differences in the optical paths of the rays caused by ordinary diffraction when a grating is used. The time stretching can be almost eliminated by using two gratings in time-compensated configurations. Unfortunately, the classical diffraction mounting has low efficiency, overall in the extreme-ultraviolet region. High broadband efficiency can be obtained by using the conical diffraction mounting. A time-compensated monochromator with toroidal gratings used in conical diffraction is here presented. It is shown that the time compensation is very effective in a broad spectral region, ranging from VUV to soft X-rays, with much higher efficiency than the classical diffraction mounting. PACS 42.65.Ky; 42.79.Dj; 42.65.Re; 41.85.Si     

Phase characteristics of high-order harmonics in the cut-off region

The behavior of the phases of high-order harmonics generated upon interaction of intense laser radiation with matter is investigated. Some specific features typical of the harmonic phases in the high-frequency part of plateau (cut-off harmonic phases) are found. First, the phase difference between neighboring harmonics is a constant value. The width of the spectral range in which this regularity occurs determines the minimum duration of the attosecond pulse obtained from these harmonics by the so-called amplitude gating technique. Second, it is shown that the phase of each harmonic in the cut-off region depends linearly on the laser intensity. The proportionality coefficient is the same for all harmonics in this region and proportional to the cube of laser wavelength. Thus, this dependence is especially important for generating high-order harmonics by lasers with a wavelength of few micrometers.     

Generation of 10- microJ coherent extreme-ultraviolet light by use of high-order harmonics

We demonstrate the generation of 10-microJ coherent extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) light at wavelengths from 73.6 to 42.6 nm, using high-order harmonics. The peak power of this coherent XUV light is estimated to be 0.13 GW at 62.3 nm, and the peak brightness achieved was 3x10(28) photons/(mm(2)mrad(2)s) . To our knowledge, this XUV energy is the highest value achieved with high-order harmonics.     

Ultrashort broadband polarization beam splitter based on an asymmetrical directional coupler

An ultrashort polarization beam splitter (PBS) based on an asymmetrical directional coupler is proposed by utilizing the evanescent coupling between a strip-nanowire and a nanoslot waveguide. In order to be convenient for integration with other components, mode converters between the nanoslot waveguide and the strip-nanowire are introduced and merged into S-bends to achieve an ultracompact PBS. As an example a 6.9 μm long PBS based on a silicon-on-insulator platform is designed, and the length of the coupling region is as small as 1.3 μm. Numerical simulations show that the present PBS has a very broad band (>160 nm) for an extinction ratio of >10 dB.     

Design and characterization of extreme-ultraviolet broadband mirrors for attosecond science

A novel multilayer mirror was designed and fabricated based on a recently developed three-material technology aimed both at reaching reflectivities of about 20% and at controlling dispersion over a bandwidth covering photon energies between 35 and 50 eV. The spectral phase upon reflection was retrieved by measuring interferences in a two-color ionization process using high-order harmonics produced from a titanium: sapphire laser. We demonstrate the feasibility of designing and characterizing phase-controlled broadband optics in the extreme-ultraviolet domain, which should facilitate the manipulation of attosecond pulses for applications.     

Flat-top phase-matched high-order harmonics in gas-filled cell

Phase-matched high-order harmonic generation in Ar gas-filled cell is investigated experimentally. We obtain phase-matched 27th order harmonic driven by a commercially available solid-state femtosecond laser system at 0.55 m J/pulse energy level and 1-kHz repetition rate. Moreover, we find that the spatial distribution of intensity of high-order harmonics is flat-top profile other than a Gaussian one under the condition of optimized conversion efficiency in the static gas cell.     

A broadband polarization-independent two-port beam splitter under normal incidence based on encapsulated metal-dielectric reflective grating

An encapsulated metal-dielectric reflective grating is presented for broadband polarization-independent twoport beam splitting under normal incidence at the central wavelength of 800 nm. Different from traditional two-port grating splitters in the resonant region, this grating splitter is capable of separating light energy into±1 storders with high efficiency in a broad waveband for both TE and TM polarizations. A unified method is proposed here for designing this grating splitter, which enables one to choose a grating structure quickly to realize an ultrabroad working waveband. The simulation results indicate that a bandwidth of 46.4 nm could be achieved for diffraction efficiency(defined as the ratio of the light energy diffracted only at the first order to the incident light energy) over 46% at the central wavelength of 800 nm. Moreover, the parameters of the grating structure can be flexibly adjusted with wavelengths using the unified method for various other applications, such as augmented reality, optical interconnections for computing, coherent beam combination, and complex vector beam shaping.     

Demonstration of a spatial filtering amplifier for high-order harmonics

We report what is to our knowledge the first demonstration of spatial filtering of a high-order harmonic beam into a soft-x-ray laser plasma amplifier at 32.8 nm. After amplification the seed energy is enhanced by a factor of 50, and the beam profile of the amplified beam exhibits an Airy-like shape due to the spatial filtering by the optical field ionized plasma. Moreover, the transverse coherence of the spatially filtered amplified beam is strongly enhanced, resulting in the generation of a peak coherent power of 0.9 x 10(5) to 1.8 x 10(5) W.     

Self-supporting thin-film beam splitter for far-infrared interferometers

Commercially available plastic films have been examined, in the spectral range up to 1200 cm⁻¹, for use as a beam splitter in far-infrared Michelson interferometers. The materials reported include polyethylene terephthalate, polycarbonate, polyvinylchloride, polypropylene, cellulose and polyethylene.     

Two-color pump-probe experiments in helium using high-order harmonics

A pump-probe technique has been applied for measuring the lifetimes and absolute photoionization cross-sections of excited He states. The 1s2p ¹P and 1s3p ¹P states of He are excited by using the 13th and the 14th harmonic, respectively, of a tunable 70 ps dye laser generated in a Kr gas jet. The states are ionized after a varying time delay, by absorption of probe photons with energies between 1.6 and 4.5 eV. Lifetimes of τ(1s2p) = 0.57 ns and τ(1s3p) = 1.76 ns are determined with a precision of about 15%. A significant enhancement of the number of ions present in the lifetime curves at zero time delay for pressures above 6×10^-5 mbar is attributed to direct two-photon ionization of He in combination with AC Stark broadening of the excited state and absorption of the XUV light in the medium. Absolute photoionization cross-sections from the He 1s2p ¹P and He 1s3p ¹P states in the threshold region are determined by measuring the saturation of the ionization process with a precision of ∼ 25%. In addition, the variation of the relative orientation between the polarization vectors of the pump and probe beams enables the determination of partial photoionization cross-sections. Received 3 June 2002 / Received in final form 14 August 2002 Published online 22 October 2002 RID="a" ID="a"Present address: Department of Biophysics, Leiden University, 2333 CA Leiden, The Netherlands. RID="b" ID="b"Present address: Continuum Electro-Optics Inc., 3150 Central Expressway, Santa Clara, CA 95051, USA. RID="c" ID="c"Present address: CEA/DRECAM/SPAM, CEN Saclay, 91105 Gif-sur-Yvette, France. RID="d" ID="d"Present address: Department of Physics, National University of Rwanda, Butare, Rwanda. RID="e" ID="e"Present address: CELIA, Université Bordeaux 1, 33405 Talence, France. RID="f" ID="f"Present address: MAX-Lab, Lund University, Box 118, 221 00 Lund, Sweden. RID="g" ID="g"e-mail: anne.lhuillier@fysik.lth.se     

Dispersion-based beam splitter in photonic crystals

A novel implementation of a dispersion-based beam splitter in a photonic crystal (PhC) is proposed. The beam splitter consists of two periodic structures: a nonchannel dispersion-guiding region and a splitting structure operating inside the photonic bandgap. The dispersion-guiding PhC structure is used to route the optical wave by exploiting the dispersion properties of the lattice. An arbitrary power ratio between the output beams can be achieved by varying the parameters of the splitting structure. Within the studied range of splitting structures, high output power was observed and verified experimentally.     

倍频波长分离膜半波孔的消除

指出了膜料色散、膜层折射率非均匀性以及膜厚控制误差积累等是导致半波孔产生的几个因素,其中膜层厚度周期性误差积累和敏感层厚度误差是导致半波孔的主要因素,还指出了半波孔的大小与膜系结构有关.借助计算机做了相应的数值计算,并从理论上进行了深入分析.针对这些因素采取相应的措施,设计和制备了倍频波长分离膜,有效地消除了半波孔.并给出了理论和实验光谱曲线,二者有很好的一致性.     

光子晶体自准直光束偏振分束器

结合能带图和等频图分析,基于光子晶体自准直效应和光子带隙,设计了一种紧凑、高效的偏振分束器.时域有限差分法(FDTD)模拟表明,该设计可以在一个较大的频率范围f=0.268—0.278(c/a) 内实现TE模和TM模的高效(85%)、大角度(90°)分离.在光通讯波长λ=1.55 μm,该设计尺寸仅为9 μm×9 μm.这些特性使其在光通讯领域中具有重要的应用前景. 关键词： 光子晶体 偏振分束器 自准直     

A quantum description of the beam splitter

We derive the unitary transformation that embodies the action of a lossless plane-parallel beam splitter on an incident light beam. We use the transformation to illustrate with some examples how fluctuations and noise in one light mode may get coupled with those in another mode.     

Waveguide atom beam splitter for laser-cooled neutral atoms

A laser-cooled neutral-atom beam from a low-velocity intense source is split into two beams while it is guided by a magnetic-field potential. We generate our multimode beam-splitter potential with two current-carrying wires upon a glass substrate combined with an external transverse bias field. The atoms are guided around curves and a beam-splitter region within a 10-cm guide length. We achieve a maximum integrated flux of 1.5x10(5)atoms/s with a current density of 5x10(4)amp/cm (2) in the 100-microm -diameter wires. The initial beam can be split into two beams with a 50/50 splitting ratio.     

Optically guided beam splitter for propagating matter waves

We study experimentally and theoretically a beam splitter setup for guided atomic matter waves. The matter wave is a guided atom laser that can be tuned from quasimonomode to a regime where many transverse modes are populated, and propagates in a horizontal dipole beam until it crosses another horizontal beam at 45°. We show that depending on the parameters of this X configuration, the atoms can all end up in one of the two beams (the system behaves as a perfect guide switch), or be split between the four available channels (the system behaves as a beam splitter). The splitting regime results from a chaotic scattering dynamics. The existence of these different regimes turns out to be robust against small variations of the parameters of the system. From numerical studies, we also propose a scheme that provides a robust and controlled beam splitter in two channels only.     

Design technique for all-dielectric non-polarizing beam splitter plate

There are many situations when, for the proper working, an opto-electronic device requiring optical components does not change the polarization state of light after a reflection, splitting or filtering. In this paper, a design for a non-polarizing beam splitter plate is proposed. Based on certain optical properties of homogeneous dielectric materials we will establish a reliable thin film package formula, excellent for the start of optimization to obtain a 20-nm bandwidth non-polarizing beam splitter.