Generation of 88 as Isolated Attosecond Pulses with Double Optical Gating

Isolated attosecond pulses with a duration of 88 as are generated in the spectral range of 29-72 eV using double optical gating technique.The gate width is set to be shorter than half the optical cycle to avoid carrier envelop phase stabilization of the 4.2 fs driving laser pulses centered at 800 nm.The attosecond pulse duration is measured with the technique of frequency resolved optical gating for complete reconstruction of attosecond bursts.     

Inhomogeneous Double Optical Gating of High-Intensity Isolated Attosecond Pulse Generation in Crossed Metal Nanostructures

We propose and investigate an effective method for obtaining high-energy and high-intensity isolated attosecond pulses (IAPs) using the inhomogeneous double optical gating (DOG) technology in specifically designed metal nanostructures. First, using the homogeneous mid-infrared DOG technology modulated by a linearly near-infrared field, we obtain a harmonic yield of 2.5 orders of magnitudes higher than that from the single polarization gating (PG) technology. Further, introducing the crossed metal nanostructures along the driven and gating components, we can extend not only the harmonic cutoff but also enhance the harmonic yield attributed to the plasmonic field enhancement near the vicinity of metal nanostructures. As a result, we find a single harmonic plateau with smaller modulations. The supercontinuum is not very sensitive to the pulse duration of the near-infrared field, and the harmonic yields can be further enhanced with increase in the pulse intensity of the near-infrared field, showing a 108 eV supercontinuum with an intensity enhancement of 4 orders of magnitudes. Finally, by superposing the selected harmonics from the inhomogeneous DOG scheme, we obtain a 33 as SAP with an intensity increase of 4 orders of magnitudes.     

Single attosecond pulse generation with intense mid-infrared elliptically polarized laser pulses

We have studied theoretically high-harmonic-order and single attosecond pulse generation with elliptically polarized laser pulses at wavelengths ranging from the visible to the mid-infrared. Results of ab initio simulations of the time-dependent Schr?dinger equation show that the ellipticity dependence of the high-harmonic signal intensifies with increasing wavelength of the driving pulse and saturates in the mid-infrared. The isolation of single attosecond pulses using the polarization gating method in the mid-infrared is due to an effective suppression of side pulses as compared with an operation at Ti:sapphire wavelengths.     

Frequency-resolved optical gating of isolated attosecond pulses in the extreme ultraviolet

The pulse shape and phase of isolated attosecond extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulses with a duration of 860 asec have been determined simultaneously by using frequency-resolved optical gating based on two-photon above-threshold ionization with 28-eV photons in He. From the detailed characterization, we succeeded in shaping isolated XUV pulses on an attosecond time scale by precise dispersion control with Ar gas density or by changing the driving pulse width. These results offer a novel way to excite and observe an electron motion in atoms and molecules.     

脉冲啁啾对于阿秒脉冲的影响

采用单电子近似和软核势模型, 通过数值求解一维含时薛定谔方程, 理论研究了当脉冲分别带有正、负啁啾的情况下所产生的阿秒脉冲.分析了不同脉冲啁啾特性对阿秒脉冲的强度和宽度的影响. 研究结果表明, 无论是正啁啾还是负啁啾, 随着啁啾量的增加, 都将使激光脉冲由产生单个阿秒脉冲趋向于产生阿秒脉冲链. 正啁啾和负啁啾对于阿秒脉冲宽度的影响是不同的, 负啁啾对于阿秒脉冲宽度影响很小, 适当的负啁啾有利于缩小阿秒脉冲的宽度; 而正啁啾脉冲产生的阿秒脉冲较无啁啾时展宽, 且随着啁啾量的增加, 其阿秒脉冲宽度迅速增大.     

Single attosecond pulse generation from asymmetric molecules with a multicycle laser pulse

A new scheme for single attosecond pulse generation from asymmetric molecules with a multicycle laser pulse is proposed. It is shown that both even and odd harmonics are generated from the asymmetric molecules, and the attosecond pulses are produced every full cycle of the driving laser field rather than each half-cycle. By filtering the harmonics in the cutoff of the spectrum, a single attosecond pulse can be obtained with a multicycle laser pulse with a duration of 2 times longer than the few-cycle pulse conventionally used.     

Single attosecond pulse generation in the multicycle-driver regime by adding a weak second-harmonic field

We present a method of producing single attosecond pulses by high-harmonic generation with multicycle driver laser pulses. This can be achieved by tailoring the driving pulse so that attosecond pulses are produced only every full cycle of the oscillating laser field rather than every half-cycle. It is shown by classical and quantum-mechanical model calculations that even a minor addition (1%) of phase-locked second-harmonic light to the 800 nm fundamental driver pulse for high-harmonic generation leads to a major (15%) difference in the maximum kinetic energies of the recombining electrons in adjacent half-cycles.     

60 fs长脉宽双色场作用下孤立阿秒脉冲的产生

通过数值求解一维含时Schrödinger方程,研究了具有较长脉宽双色激光脉冲与氢原子相互作用产生的高次谐波和阿秒(as)脉冲.这里的双色激光脉冲由一束基频钛宝石主脉冲与另一束红外附加脉冲构成.研究发现,当合成脉冲的脉宽选为12 fs时, 选取合适的附加脉冲波长,合成电场的振幅在始末端时间段能被大幅抑制, 仅中间部分的电场对谐波谱平台区和截止位置起主要贡献. 通过分析合成脉冲电场始末端时间段抑制的机理,进一步扩展了合成脉冲脉宽到60 as, 并得到160 as的孤立短脉冲.这是迄今为止在孤立阿秒脉冲产生研究中所采用的最长脉宽. 该方案中的合成脉冲等效于单一5 fs短脉冲的作用, 却克服了5 fs脉冲低输出能量导致的阿秒脉冲能量低的困难.     

Double optical gating of high-order harmonic generation with carrier-envelope phase stabilized lasers

We demonstrated a novel optical switch to control the high-order harmonic generation process so that single attosecond pulses can be generated with multiple-cycle pulses. The technique combines two powerful optical gating methods: polarization gating and two-color gating. An extreme ultraviolet supercontinuum supporting 130 as was generated with neon gas using 9 fs laser pulses. We discovered a unique dependence of the harmonic spectra on the carrier-envelope phase of the laser fields, which repeats every 2 pi radians.     

Temporal confinement of the harmonic emission through polarization gating

We show experimentally that a simple optical setup is able to reduce the duration of the harmonic emission generated by long (many optical cycles) laser pulses. By controlling the time-dependent ellipticity during the laser pulse, one can confine the harmonic emission to a narrow temporal window where the polarization is quasi-linear. The results obtained and their comparison with a simple model show a shortening of a factor 2 for harmonics located in the plateau region. Using shorter laser pulses of 15-20 fs duration should make it possible to isolate a single attosecond pulse.Received: 25 November 2002, Published online: 8 July 2003PACS: 42.65.Ky Frequency conversion; harmonic generation, including higher-order harmonic generation - 32.80.Wr Other multiphoton processes     

Harmonic spectra bandwidth broadening with a new polarization gating

A new polarization gating is demonstrated by our principle-of-proof experiment, which is theoretically proposed to generate the isolated or double attosecond pulses with the multi-cycle driving laser pulse in the previous work [Optics Express. 20, 5196 （2012）]. In the experiment, the polarization gating is formed by two orthogonally-polarized linearly chirped multi-cycle laser pulses, and the spectral bandwidths of tile harmonics are broadened by more than two times, which agree with the previous theoretical work.     

High-order harmonics generation by few-cycle and multi-cycle femtosecond laser pulses

This paper investigates experimentally high-order harmonic generation(HHG) of neon gas with 5-fs and 25-fs driving laser pulses.It has been demonstrated that the cutoff energy of the harmonic extreme ultraviolet photons is extended to 131 eV and the HHG spectrum near the cutoff region becomes continuum as the driving laser pulse duration is 5 fs;whereas much lower cutoff photon energy and discrete harmonic spectrum near the cutoff region are presented as the laser pulse duration is 25 fs.The results can be explained by the fact that neutral atoms can be exposed to more intense laser field before they are depleted by ionization because of the extremely short rising time of the few-cycle pulse.The 5-fs driving laser pulse paves the way of generation of coherent x-ray in the water window and single attosecond pulse.     

Generation of an isolated sub-100 attosecond pulse in the water-window spectral region

We propose a scheme to generate isolated attosecond pulses in the water-window spectral region. Based on the numerical solutions of the single active electron model, we investigate high-order harmonic generation in helium atoms driven by a multi-cycle two-colour optical field synthesized by an intense 2000 nm, 20 fs pulse and its frequency-doubled pulse. When the latter is slightly detuned and properly phase shifted with respect to the fundamental laser pulse, an ultra-broad extreme ultraviolet supercontinuum with a spectral width of 130~eV can be generated in the 270--400~eV spectral regions. A supercontinuum from 280--340~eV in the water window can be selected to yield an isolated 67 attosecond pulse without employing any phase compensation. This water window coherent x-ray pulse with less than 100 attosecond duration is a potential tool for studying the ultrafast electronic dynamics of biological samples in water.     

Generation of a single attosecond pulse from an overdense plasma surface driven by a laser pulse with time-dependent polarization

The influence of time-dependent polarization on attosecond pulse generation from an overdense plasma surface driven by laser pulse is discussed analytically and numerically.The results show that the frequency of controlling pulse controls the number and interval of the generated attosecond pulse,that the generation moment of the attosecond pulse is dominated by the phase difference between the controlling and driving pulses,and that the amplitude of the controlling pulse affects the intensity of the attosecond pulse.Using the method of time-dependent polarization,a "single" ultra-strong attosecond pulse with duration τ≈ 8.6 as and intensity I ≈ 3.08 × 10 20 W·cm-2 can be generated.     

Attosecond angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy

We report experiments on the characterization of a train of attosecond pulses obtained by high-harmonic generation, using mixed-color (XUV+IR) atomic two-photon ionization and electron detection on a velocity map imaging detector. We demonstrate that the relative phase of the harmonics is encoded both in the photoelectron yield and the angular distribution as a function of XUV-IR time delay, thus making the technique suitable for the detection of single attosecond pulses. The timing of the attosecond pulse with respect to the field oscillation of the driving laser critically depends on the target gas used to generate the harmonics.     

采用较长脉宽双色场获得孤立阿秒脉冲（第15届全国原子与分子物理会议）

通过数值求解一维含时薛定谔方程,本文研究了具有较长脉宽双色激光脉冲与氢原子模型相互作用产生的谐波辐射谱。研究发现,当采用12个光学周期的特定组合脉冲时,孤立阿秒脉冲可以实现。这里特定组合脉冲由两束类似频率脉冲( )构成,附加脉冲的作用恰是调整基频光电场的形状。不同于入射基频光,整形后的基频光在时间始末端电场振幅被抑制,只有中间部分电场对谐波谱有贡献,它的作用等同于单一6飞秒超短脉冲的效果。从而扩展获得孤立阿秒脉冲所需脉宽从6飞秒到12飞秒。     

紧聚焦激光束作用于电子实现单个阿秒脉冲输出

研究了电子在聚焦的圆偏振高斯激光束中的非线性汤姆孙散射过程，在此基础上提出了实现单个阿秒脉冲输出的新机理.通过计算机模拟，发现利用紧聚焦的激光脉冲可以有效地增大辐射脉冲链的最高峰和次高峰的峰值强度比即信噪比，从而将阿秒脉冲链变为单个阿秒脉冲输出.紧聚焦情形下，随着驱动激光强度的增大，辐射信号的脉宽变短，信噪比变大；同时当减小激光束腰半径时，辐射信号信噪比也能得到有效改善.研究还发现，利用几个光周期的极短激光脉冲与电子的相互作用也能实现单个阿秒脉冲输出. 关键词： 阿秒脉冲 紧聚焦 信噪比     

采用较长脉宽双色场获得孤立阿秒脉冲

通过数值求解一维含时薛定谔方程,本文研究了具有较长脉宽双色激光脉冲与氢原子模型相互作用产生的谐波辐射谱.研究发现,当采用12个光学周期的特定组合脉冲时,孤立阿秒脉冲可以实现.这里特定组合脉冲由两束类似频率脉冲(ω,ω+δω)构成,附加脉冲的作用恰是调整基频光电场的形状.不同于入射基频光,整形后的基频光在时间始末端电场振幅被抑制,只有中间部分电场对谐波谱有贡献,它的作用等同于单一6飞秒超短脉冲的效果.从而扩展获得孤立阿秒脉冲所需脉宽从6飞秒到12飞秒.     

Blind frequency-resolved optical-gating pulse characterization for quantitative differential multiphoton microscopy

We use a unique multifocal multiphoton microscope to directly characterize the pulse in the focal plane of a high-NA objective using second-harmonic generation frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG). Because of the nature of the optical setup, femtosecond laser pulses of orthogonal polarization states are generated in the focal plane, each acquiring a different spectral dispersion. By applying an additional constraint on the phase extraction algorithm, we simultaneously extract both the gate and probe pulses from a single spectrogram with a FROG error of 0.016.