Measuring Carrier-Envelope Phase of Few-Cycle Laser Pulses Using High-Order Above-Threshold Ionization Photoelectrons

We experimentally demonstrate the measurement of carrier-envelope phase of few-cycle laser pulses. We have built a stereo above-threshold ionization setup. The photoelectron energy spectra of high-order above-threshold ionization are measured in both the left and right directions in the linearly polarized laser fields. It is shown that the left-right asymmetry of the spectra is dependent on carrier-envelope phase of few-cycle laser pulses. Two asymmetry parameters from the low-energy and high-energy regions at the above-threshold ionization plateau map a phase ellipse, in which the points indicate the absolute value of carrier-envelope phase. We have calibrated the phase ellipse by comparison with the semiclassical calculation. This setup allows us to determine the value of the absolute phase of few-cycle laser pulses.     

Terahertz emission by balanced nonlinear effects in air plasma

The evolution of terahertz （THz） waveform in air plasma driven by low-energy few-cycle laser pulses is investigated to improve the accuracy of the carrier envelope phase （CEP） determination. Based on the transient photocurrent model, a balanced spatial distribution of the Kerr and free-electron effects in the plasma is found at 109 μJ input energy. THz inversion occurs only once at the initial CEP of 0.5π, in which high-precision measurement of the CEP of few-cycle laser pulses is achieved.     

Studies on the mechanisms of powerful terahertz radiations from laser plasmas

A survey on the mechanisms of powerful terahertz (THz) radiation from laser plasmas is presented.Firstly,an analytical model is described,showing that a transverse net current formed in a plasma can be converted into THz radiations at the plasma oscillation frequency.This theory is applied to explain THz generation in a gas driven by two-color laser pulses.It is also applied to THz generation in a tenuous plasma driven by a chirped laser pulse,a few-cycle laser pulse,a DC/AC bias electric field.These are well verified by particle-in-cell simulations,demonstrating that THz radiations produced in these approaches are nearly single-cycles and linear polarized.In the chirped laser scheme and the few-cycle laser scheme,THz radiations with the peak field strength of tens of MV/cm and the peak power of gigawatt can be achieved with the incident laser intensity less than 10 17 W/cm 2.     

Femtosecond Laser Induced Optical Waveguides and Micro—mirrors Inside Glasses

Optical Waveguides and micro-mirrors have been successfully induced inside fused silica glass and k9 glass,respectively,by focusing a 800nm femtosecond(fs)pulsed laser with a repetition rate of 1kHz,The change of refractive index was determined to be 0.001-0.008 in the fused silica glass and 0.006 in the k9 glass.The refractive index change is dependent on both the dose of irradiation and the power density of the fs pulsed laser,Photoluminescence was observed in the irradiated region,and was attributed to the defects induced by fs laser irradiation.We discuss the relationship between the optical property and the luminescent propert property of the irradiated region.     

Experimental study of electro-optical-switched pulsed Nd:YAG laser

We report the specification of a compact and stable side diode-pumped Q-switched pulsed Nd:YAG laser. We experimentally study and compare the performance of the pulsed Nd:YAG laser in the free-running and Q-switched modes at different pulse repetition rates from 1 Hz to 100 Hz. The laser output energy is stabilized by using a special configuration of the optical resonator. In this laser, an unsymmetrical concave–concave resonator is used and this structure helps the mode volume to be nearly fixed when the pulse repetition rate is increased. According to the experimental results in the Q-switched operation, the laser output energy is nearly constant around 70 m J with an FWHM pulse width of 7 ns at100 Hz. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency in the Q-switched regime is 17.5%.     

Three-dimensional numerical investigations of the laser-beam interactions in an undulator

Laser-beam interaction in an undulator is commonly suggested in the development of free electron laser (FEL) schemes. In this paper, a three-dimensional algorithm is developed to assist in laser-beam interaction simulation in an undulator, which is built on the basis of the fundamentals of electrodynamics, i.e. the electron's behavior is determined by the magnetic field and the laser electric field in the time domain. On the basis of the algorithm, the detuning effect in a laser heater, the carrier envelope phase effect of a few-cycle laser in attosecond X-ray FEL schemes and output wavelength tuning in a high gain harmonic generation FEL are numerically discussed.     

A Novel Method for Measuring the Absolute Phase of a Few—Cycle High Intensity Laser

The effect of the absolute phase of the few-cycle driving laser field on the generation and measurement of highorder harmonic attosecond pulses is investigated theoretically.We find that the generated attosecond soft-x-ray pulse is locked to the oscillations of the driving laser field,but not to the envelope of the laser pulse,and the intensity ratio of two adjacent attosenond pulses is exponential as a function of the absolute phase.Based on these results,we propose a novel method to detect the absolute phase of the driving laser field by measuring the spatial distribution of the photoelectrons induced by the attosecond soft-x-ray pulse and the driving laser field.     

Carrier shock and frequency conversion of a few—cycle pulse laser propagating in a non—resonant two—level atom medium

We have studied the spectral behaviour of few-cycle soliton pulses in a non-resonant two-level atom medium by solving the full Maxwell－Bloch equations. It is demonstrated further that the carrier effects play an important role in the propagation of the few-cycle pulse laser. When the frequency detuning is not very large, both the population distribution and the refractive index of the medium follow the oscillatory carrier field instantaneously; in this case, carrier-wave compression or carrier shock occurs, and a supercontinuum broader than that in the resonant medium may be generated. When the frequency detuning is large, the carrier shock is weak and the spectrum is not continuous, only showing an odd harmonic radiation.     

A Formula of Propagating Beams Driven by Few-Cycle Gaussian Pulse in Dispersive Media

A formula is developed to describe the propagation of beams driven by few-cycle Gaussian pulse in a media with group velocity dispersion （GVD）. With the method, the spatiotemporal evolution of the pulsed beam can be straightforwardly quantified as long as the monochromatic beam solutions in free space, which have been widely investigated in previous works, are known. The method makes it possible to analytically deal with the few-cycle pulsed beams with transverse profiles other than the Gaussian one, which is, to our knowledge, the one mainly investigated previously, in GVD media.     

The nonparaxial property of chirped pulsed beam

The nonparaxial property of the chirped pulsed beam is analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Through the qualitative investigation of the paraxial approximation condition, we show there are chirp-induced changes in the nonparaxial propagation of the chirped pulsed beam. A quantitative nonparaxial correction was developed by use of the perturbational technic and the Fourier transform for a few-cycle chirped pulsed beam with relative small chirp parameter. It was shown that the nonparaxial corrections were enhanced near the leading or trailing edge of pulse depending on weather the chirp parameter is positive or negative. An example for pulsed Gaussian beam driven by a chirped Gaussian pulse is shown in the numerical result to confirm our analysis.     

A novel 2-μm pulsed fiber laser based on a supercontinuum source and its application to mid-infrared supercontinuum generation

A new method to achieve 2-μm pulsed fiber lasers based on a supercontinuum(SC) is demonstrated. The incident pump light is a pulsed SC which contains a pump light and a signal light at the same time. The initial signal of the seed laser is provided by the incident pump light and amplified in the cavity. Based on this, we obtain a 2-μm pulsed laser with pulse repetition rate of 50 kHz and pulse width of 2 ns from the Tm-doped fiber laser. This 2-μm pulsed laser is amplified by two stages of fiber amplifiers, then the amplified laser is used for mid-infrared(mid-IR) SC generation in a 10-m length of ZrF4–BaF2–LaF3–AlF3–NaF(ZBLAN) fiber. An all-fiber-integrated mid-IR SC with spectrum ranging from 1.8 μm to4.3 μm is achieved. The maximal average output power of the mid-IR SC from the ZBLAN fiber is 1.24 W(average output power beyond 2.5 μm is 340 mW), corresponding to an output efficiency of 6.6% with respect to the 790-nm pump power.     

Measurement of Carrier-Envelope Phase and Field Strength of a Few-Cycle Pulse by Non-sequential Double Ionization

We propose a method to measure the carrier-envelop phase （CEP） and the intensity of a few-cycle pulse by controlling the non-sequentiai double ionization （NSDI） process. By using an additional static electric field, we can change the momentum distribution of the double-charged ions parallel to the laser polarization from an asymmetrical double-hump structure to a nearly symmetrical one. It is found that the ratio between the strength of the static electric field and that of the laser field is sensitive to the CEP but robust against the intensity fluctuation. Therefore we can determine the OEP of a few-cycle pulse precisely by measuring the static electric field. Fhrthermore, if the CEP of the few-cycle pulse is fixed at a certain value, we can also calibrate the intensity of the laser pulse by the static electric field.     

Bragg reflection in a quantum periodic structure

We investigate the reflected field for few-cycle ultra-short laser pulses propagating through resonant media embedded within wavelength-scale structures. Full-wave Maxwell–Bloch equations are solved numerically by using the finite-difference time-domain method. The results show that the spectral feature of the reflected spectrum is determined by the Bragg reflection condition, and that the periodic structure of a dense atomic system can be regarded as a one-dimensional photonic crystal and even as a highly reflective multilayer film. Our study explains the suppression of the frequency shifts in the reflected spectrum based on the Bragg reflection theory and provides a method to control the frequency and frequency intervals of the spectral spikes in the reflected spectrum.     

High conversion efficiency,high power density Q-switched fiber laser

An acoustic-optic Q-switched all-fiber laser With a high-repetition-rate, a short pulse width, a wide spectrum, and a high conversion efficiency is experimentally demonstrated. In the laser configuration, a （1＋1）x 1 side-pumping coupler is introduced to perform backward pumping, and a 10/130%tm Yb fiber is adopted. The acoustic-optic component operates in the first direction, achieving a Q-switched pulse with a repetition rate adjustable in the range of 20 kHz-80 kHz. Under a repetition rate of 20 kHz and a pump power of 6.76 W, the fiber laser obtains a highly efficient and stable pulse output, with an average power of 4.3 W, a pulse width of 56 ns, a peak power of 3.83 kW, and a power density of 1.39x 101~ W/cm2. Particularly, the optic-optic conversion efficiency of the laser reaches as high as 64%. Another feature of the pulsed laser is that the high reflection mirror reflects the pump light as well, which brings the secondary absorption of the pump power into the gain fiber.     

Shaping of few-cycle laser pulses via a subwavelength structure

We theoretically investigate the propagation of few-cycle laser pulses in resonant two-level dense media with a sub- wavelength structure, which is described by the full Maxwell-Bloch equations without the frame of slowly varying envelope and rotating wave approximations. The input pulses can be shaped into shorter ones with a single or less than one optical cycle. The effect of the parameters of the subwavelength structure and laser pulses is studied. Our study shows that the media with a subwavelength structure can significantly shape the few-cycle pulses into a subcycle pulse, even for the case of chirp pulses as input fields. This suggests that such subwavelength structures have potential application in the shaping of few-cycle laser pulses.     

Fenestration operation in middle ear bone with pulsed infrared lasers: an in-vivo study

The feasibility of fenestration operation in middle ear bone with pulsed infrared laser is evaluated. Healthy male New Zealand rabbits in vivo are used in the experiment. Middle ear mastoid bone of animal model is completely exposed with conventional methods, and then a pulsed CO2 laser （10.6 μm） and an Er：YAG laser （2.94 μm） are used to perform the fenestration operation. Diamond drill is also used as a control group. The total operation time and light irradiation time are recorded and the opening efficiency is assessed. The morphological changes and thermal damage around the opening window on the middle ear bone are examined. It is shown that both laser systems are suitable for the fenestration operation in middle ear bone, and this no-touch technique has a lot of benefits compared with traditional methods. The bleeding during operation has an important effect on operation time and thermal injury and needs to be controlled efficiently in further study.     

Low temperature enhancement of alignment-induced spectral broadening of femtosecond laser pulses

The propagation of femtosecond laser pulses in N2-filled hollow fibers is studied both theoretically and experimentally. The laser pulse aligns the N2 molecules and changes the refractive index, which meanwhile modulates the spectrum of the pulse in turn. The dependence of the spectral modulation on the gas temperature is investigated. We find that both spectral broadening and frequency red-shift are enhanced at low temperature. The degree of enhancement is found to be dependent on the pulse duration. Based on our findings, we propose a method for femtosecond pulse spectral broadening and few-cycle pulse generation via the molecular alignment.     

Accurate determination of the absolute phase and temporal-pulse phase of few-cycle laser pulses

A Fourier analysis method is used to accurately determine not only the absolute phase but also the temporal-pulse phase of an isolated few-cycle (chirped) laser pulse. This method is independent of the pulse shape and can fully characterize the light wave even though only a few samples per optical cycle are available. It paves the way for investigating the absolute phase-dependent extreme nonlinear optics, and the evolutions of the absolute phase and the temporal-pulse phase of few-cycle laser pulses.     

Effect of Time-Dependent Ionization on Propagation of a Few-Cycle Circularly Polarized Laser Pulse in Two-Level Medium

Influence of multiphoton ionization on the propagation and spectrum of few-cycle circularly （elliptically） polarized laser pulses in an open two-level medium （two-level plus continuum model） is investigated based on the conventional two-level model proposed by Slavcheva and Hess （Phys. Rev. A 72 （2005） 053804）, and the propagation dynamics of an arbitrary elliptically polarized laser pulse is reduced into that of right and left circularly polarized laser pulses. When the laser intensity is high enough to cause ionization, there are significant impacts of ionization on the pulse reshaping and on the higher order spectral components, and the impacts for the open two-level model are different from those for the dosed two-level model.     

Study of laser-induced plasma shock waves by the probe beam deflection technique

Laser probe beam deflection technique is used for the analysis of laser-induced plasma shock waves in air and distilled water. The temporal and spatial variations of the parameters on shock fronts are studied as functions of focal lens position and laser energy. The influences of the characteristics of media are investigated on the well-designed experimental setup. It is found that the shock wave in distilled water attenuates to an acoustic wave faster than in air under the same laser energy. Good agreement is obtained between our experimental results and those attained with other techniques. This technique is versatile, economic, and simple to implement, being a promising diagnostic tool for pulsed laser processing.