Conical emission by femtosecond pulses with different spectral bandwidths

Conical emission (CE) has been investigated experimentally by laser pulses with different pulse durations and spectral bandwidths. The results show that the overall CE curve will shift as the varying of spectral bandwidth of pump laser pulse. But for pump laser pulses which have same spectral bandwidth but different pulse duration, the CE angles will be same at the spectral region close to the pump wavelength while will be different at the spectral region far away from the pump wavelength. We have also fitted the measured CE angles with X-wave model. The calculated curves and the measured CE curves match reasonably well. The best fits indicate that the group velocity of the filament pulse may be greatly controlled by controlling the spectral bandwidth of pump laser pulse.     

Accurate characterization of complex pulses by delay-controlled fringe-free interferometry of spectral high-resolution technique

We discuss the disadvantage in conventional Spectral Phase Interferometry for Direct Electric-field Reconstruction (SPIDER) technology in complex femtosecond pulse measurement. An improved version of conventional technology named DC-FISH is presented, where single replica of the unknown pulse upconverts synchronously with two frequency-shifted narrow-banded long pulses. The spectral phase of the unknown pulse can be directly calculated from the fringe-free spectra with the introduction of a suitable small delay between the upconverted pulses. The numerical simulation results are achieved to identify a higher efficiency and lower requirements on measurement in novel approach.     

Colored conical emission in BBO crystal induced by intense femtosecond pulses

We present the experimental and theoretical study of colored conical emission (CCE) during intense femtosecond pulses propagating in a β-barium borate (BBO) crystal. CCE revealed special nonlinear dynamics of the strong coupling between the fundamental and second harmonic pulses due to the spatiotemporal modulation instability (MI). The underlying physics of CCE involve three three-photon processes, according to which the beam angular spectra was calculated on the phase-matching conditions and accords with the experimental observation.     

Selective excitation and suppression of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering by shaping femtosecond pulses

Femtosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) suffers from poor selectivity between neighbouring Raman levels due to the large bandwidth of the femtosecond pulses. This paper provides a new method to realize the selective excitation and suppression of femtosecond CARS by manipulating both the probe and pump (or Stokes) spectra. These theoretical results indicate that the CARS signals between neighbouring Raman levels are differentiated from their indistinguishable femtosecond CARS spectra by tailoring the probe spectrum, and then their selective excitation and suppression can be realized by supplementally manipulating the pump (or Stokes) spectrum with the $\pi $ spectral phase step.     

Pulse shaping and its characterization of mid-infrared femtosecond pulses: Toward coherent control of molecules in the ground electronic states

We have examined a technique of complex shaping of mid-infrared femtosecond laser pulses towards accurate and precise control of rovibrational wave packets of molecules in the ground electronic state. A Germanium acousto-optics modulator was used as a device for the pulse shaping. In order to characterize the shaped pulses precisely, sum-frequency cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating was introduced for the analysis of both amplitude and phase of the electric fields. The mid-infrared pulses were shaped and characterized with a frequency resolution better than 4.5 cm⁻¹. Such a resolution is supposed to be sufficient for the realization of quantum gate operations with high fidelity, which is one of the most challenging applications of rovibrational wave packet manipulation of molecules. In order to demonstrate the precision of our method of shaping and its characterization, we have generated shaped pulses that will realize Hadamard and NOT quantum gates with rovibrational states of a CO molecule.     

Temporal contrast improvement in chirped pulse amplification systems by a four-grating compressor and by spectral modifications

The quest for higher peak focused intensities and better temporal contrast drives one to improve the design of all possible stages of the chirped pulse amplification (CPA) system. In this paper, we have analyzed the role of dispersion and spectral profile on the temporal shape and contrast ratio of the output pulse of a CPA system. The simulations indicate that an initial sech² or a Gaussian pulse in the CPA system is best for a good contrast ratio. Incorporating a four-grating based pulse compressor in the CPA system improves the contrast as well as provides the flexibility to compensate the dispersion upto the fourth order. The simulations also detail the effect of spectral profile tailoring on the contrast ratio and peak power.     

Deep subsurface optical waveguides produced by direct writing with femtosecond laser pulses in fused silica and phosphate glass

In the present work, we have analyzed the use of elliptical beam shaping along with low numerical aperture focusing optics in order to produce circular cross-section waveguides in different materials at large processing depths by direct femtosecond laser writing (100 fs, 800 nm, 1 kHz). A variable slit located before the focusing optics allows to generate a nearly elliptical beam shape and also to reduce the effective numerical aperture of the beam along the shat axis of the ellipse. The focusing optics allows to focus the beam deep inside the sample, which is translated at a constant speed transversely to the writing beam direction. The influence of several experimental parameters (energy per pulse, slit width, processing depth) on the properties of the produced waveguides has been analyzed. The influence of the intrinsic properties of the material (refractive index, composition) has been analyzed by comparing results obtained in fused silica and Er:Yb co-doped phosphate glass. The results obtained show that this approach leads to the successful production of deep subsurface (up to 7 mm) waveguides with circular cross-sections. Preliminary results using chirped pulses in the phosphate glass suggest that temporal pulse shaping can be used as an additional parameter to optimize the guided mode symmetry.     

Control of condensation and evaporation of electron–hole liquid in diamond by femtosecond laser pulses

We demonstrate the ultrafast control of condensation and evaporation of an electron–hole liquid in diamond prepared by chemical vapor deposition. The electron–hole liquid dynamics was measured using a three‐pulse pump and probe experiment. The transient transmission changes in the presence of electron–hole drops were assigned to the increase in the Drude scattering rate in the model of free carrier absorption due to a high carrier density. The fast (～1 ps) liquid evaporation was induced by infrared femtosecond pulses and its dynamics was investigated under different photon energies and fluences. The value of the electron–hole liquid binding energy per electron–hole pair 80 ± 40 meV determined from the measured transient transmission signal agrees well with previously published values. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Generation and controlling of the dispersive wave by femtosecond pulses propagating in the normal dispersion regimes of the birefringent photonic crystal fiber

This paper studies the generation of the dispersive wave (DW) in the normal dispersion regimes of the birefringent photonic crystal fiber (BPCF) fabricated in this work. The remarkable blue-shifted radiation is found to be generated when 30 fs pulses are input in the normal dispersion regime of the BPCF for the first time. The characteristics of the blue-shifted DW strongly depend on the polarization of the input pulse. As a result, two peaks appear in the blue-shifted region of the spectrum when the input pulses polarize along the slow axis of the BPCF. With the increase of the center wavelength of the initial input pulse, the difference between the wavelengths of the two peaks widens. The peak location in the spectrum can be explained by the phase matching condition between the DW and the input pulse. In addition, when the input polarization is set to an angle of 45° with respect to the principal axes of the BPCF, the cross-phase modulation and coherent coupling between two orthogonally polarized modes would result in pulse trapping in the BPCF. Accordingly, the DW shift toward short wavelength is restrained. The DW generation in the normal-dispersion regimes of BPCF can be controlled by the phase matching condition and polarization of the input pulse.     

对超短脉冲强激光在大气通道中产生的三次谐波偏振特性及白光光谱调制特性的研究

研究了超短脉冲强激光在大气中传输产生电离通道后辐射的三次谐波强度随激光偏振的变化.此外，还研究了产生的白光辐射在短波长上的有规律的谱调制，分析了白光谱调制的产生机理. 关键词： 超短脉冲激光 大气通道 超连续辐射 三次谐波