Generation of isolated attosecond pulses with a specific waveform two-color laser field

We theoretically propose a new method for generating intense isolated attosecond pulses during high-order harmonic generation (HHG) process by accurately controlling electron motion with a two-color laser field,which consists of an 800-nm,4-fs elliptically polarized laser field and a 1400-nm,～43-fs linearly polarized laser field.With this method,the supercontinua with a spectral width above 200 eV are obtained,which can support a ～15-as isolated pulse after phase compensation.Classical and quantum analyses explain the controlling effects well.In particular,when the pulse duration of the 800-nm laser field increases to 20-fs,sub-100-as isolated pulses can be obtained even without any phase compensation.     

Generation of an isolated sub-30 attosecond pulse in a two-color laser field and a static electric field

We theoretically investigate high-order harmonic generation(HHG) from a helium ion model in a two-color laser field,which is synthesized by a fundamental pulse and its second harmonic pulse.It is shown that a supercontinuum spectrum can be generated in the two-color field.However,the spectral intensity is very low,limiting the application of the generated attosecond(as) pulse.By adding a static electric field to the synthesized two-color field,not only is the ionization yield of electrons contributing to the harmonic emission remarkably increased,but also the quantum paths of the HHG can be significantly modulated.As a result,the extension and enhancement of the supercontinuum spectrum are achieved,producing an intense isolated 26-as pulse with a bandwidth of about 170.5 eV.In particular,we also analyse the influence of the laser parameters on the ultrabroad supercontinuum spectrum and isolated sub-30-as pulse generation.     

Asymmetric molecular harmonic assisted generation of the attosecond X-ray pulse

In this paper, we theoretically investigate the asymmetric molecular high-order harmonic emission and the attosecond X-ray pulse generation when the asymmetric molecular HeH²⁺ ion is exposed to an intense chirped pulse. It is found that the molecular harmonics are strongly dependent on the internuclear distance R as well as the chirp parameter, showing a smooth and intense harmonic plateau at R = 8.0 a.u. and β = 0.4. Further, by adding a subharmonic controlling pulse with the optimised conditions, a supercontinuum with a bandwidth of 602 eV can be obtained. Finally, by properly superposing the selected harmonics in the supercontinuum region, a series of isolated X-ray pulses with durations of sub-80 as are directly generated.     

Extending the High-Order Harmonics Plateau and Isolated Attosecond Pulse Generation in an Intense Three-Color Laser Field

We propose a method to extend the high-order harmonics plateau and generate an isolated sub-10-as pulse by adding a weak control pulse (10 fs, 1600 nm) to modify a two-color laser field (5 fs, 800 nm; 10 fs, 400 nm). The numerical results show that the plateau is extended obviously in the three-color laser field regime. Additionally, the ionization rate and classical returning kinetic-energy maps are calculated to better understand the physical origin of the high-order harmonics generation (HHG). By means of the ionization probability and the time-frequency distributions, more features of the HHG are revealed. Furthermore, our simulations show that the width of the plateau and the relative conversion efficiency of the harmonic spectra are highly dependent on the relative phase. Finally, by adjusting the relative phase and superposing a properly selected range of the HHG spectrum, an isolated attosecond pulse with a duration of 7 as is obtained.     

Characterization of high-order harmonic radiation on femtosecond and attosecond time scales

We characterize the temporal structure of high-order harmonic radiation on both the femtosecond and attosecond time scales. The harmonic emission is characterized by mixed-color two-photon ionization with an infrared femtosecond laser using a Mach–Zehnder interferometer where both pump and probe arms travel completely separate paths. In a first experiment, we measure the duration and chirp of individual harmonics. In a second experiment, we resolve, for the first time with this type of setup, the attosecond beating of several harmonics generated under conditions similar to the first experiment. We suggest that the results of both measurements can be combined to determine the full attosecond time structure of the harmonic emission. PACS 32.80.Rm; 42.65.Ky     

Self-compression of attosecond high-order harmonic pulses

Self-compression of attosecond high-order harmonic pulses in the harmonic generation medium itself has been demonstrated. The attosecond pulses were generated in an argon-filled gas cell and compressed by exploiting the dispersion characteristics of argon. Since the harmonic generation medium itself was used as the compression medium, continuous chirp control was easily achieved by adjusting the gas pressure. The optimized attosecond pulse was also the most intense, and its duration of 206 as was very close to the transform-limited value of 200 as.     

Generation of attosecond pulses with ellipticity-modulated fundamental

We have studied experimentally and theoretically high-order harmonic generation using a laser field with a time-dependent ellipticity. We show that the harmonic emission can be confined into a narrow temporal window, in which the fundamental polarization is quasi-linear. This allows a single attosecond pulse (200 as) with a fundamental field obtained from 10 fs pulse to be generated. PACS 42.65.Ky; 42.65.Re; 32.80.Wr     

Attosecond manipulation of ionization and efficient broadband supercontinuum generation in stretched molecules

<正>We theoretically investigate the high-order harmonic generation from stretched molecules in a linearly polarized intense field.By adopting an infrared pulse combined with an ultraviolet(UV) attosecond pulse,the ionization process can be controlled effectively.In this excitation scheme,the harmonic spectrum beyond I_p+3.17U_P is significantly enhanced by two orders,where I_p and U_p=e~2E_0~2/(4m_eω~2) are the ionization and ponderomotive potential,then smooth broadband supercontinuum with the bandwidth of about 120 eV is obtained,which leads to an isolated sub-60- as attosecond pulse with a high signal-noise ratio.Moreover,the bandwidth of the supercontinuum is weakly dependent on the location and pulse duration of the UV pulse.     

Ultra-broadband supercontinuum generation with a nonlinear chirped pulse for controlling quantum path

We theoretically investigate the high-order harmonic generation in helium atom driven by a nonlinear chirped laser pulse with few-cycle duration. By employing appropriate chirp to the driving pulse, an efficient electric field waveform of controlling quantum path for ultra-broadband supercontinuous harmonics is realized, and then an isolated sub-50 as pulse with bandwidth of 739 eV can be significantly obtained.     

Theoretical investigation of high-order harmonic generation from asymmetric molecular ions in the chirped laser field

High-order harmonic generation from the asymmetric helium hydrogen molecular ion exposed to a few-cycle chirped laser field is theoretically investigated by numerically solving the reduced one-dimension non-Born–Oppenheimer time dependent Schrödinger equation. The numerical results show that the plateau of the high-order harmonic spectrum is dramatically broadened and smoother with the introduction of the chirp. Further study presents that only the short quantum path contributes to harmonic emission and the long quantum path disappears in the chirped laser. In addition, an 80-as isolated attosecond pulse is obtained by superposing the harmonics from the 100th to the 130th order in the chirped field. The time-frequency distributions and the electronic probability distributions are presented to explain the underlying physical mechanism.     

Generation of tunable 7-fs ultraviolet pulses: achromatic phase matching and chirp management

Ultraviolet pulses with a duration of 7 fs are efficiently generated by frequency doubling the output of a noncollinear optical parametric amplifier. The ultraviolet pulses are tunable between 275 to 335 nm. The acceptance bandwidth of the doubling crystal is increased by a factor of 80 through high-order achromatic phase matching. The chirp of the visible pulses and the dispersion introduced along the beam path are compensated partially before and partially after the doubling crystal. For the design of the dispersion management, we investigate the second harmonic generation of pulses with mixed orders of chirp and explicitly discuss the transfer of the spectral phase in frequency doubling. A simple analytic theory is derived that correctly describes frequently observed spectral narrowing effects. We find that chirped SHG avoids spectral narrowing and allows for precompression of dispersion encountered in the ultraviolet beam path. We apply chirped SHG to generate 18.7 fs ultraviolet pulses in an extremely simple setup. PACS 42.65.Re; 42.65.Ky; 42.65.Yj     

Isolated sub-30-attosecond pulse generation using a multicycle two-color chirped laser and a static electric field

We present a theoretical investigation of high-order harmonic generation in a chirped two-color laser field, which is synthesized by a 10-fs/800-nm fundamental chirped pulse and a 10-fs/1760-nm subharmonic pulse. It is shown that a supercontinuum can be produced using the multicycle two-color chirped field. However, the supercontinuum reveals a strong modulation structure, which is not good for the generation of an isolated attosecond pulse. By adding a static electric field to the multicycle two-color chirped field, not only the harmonic cutoff is extended remarkably, but also the quantum paths of the high-order harmonic generation （HHG） are modified significantly. As a result, both the extension of the supercontinuum and the selection of a single quantum path are achieved, producing an isolated 23-as pulse with a bandwidth of about 170.6 eV. Furthermore, the influences of the laser intensities on the supercontinuum and isolated attosecond pulse generation are investigated.     

Coherent control of high-order harmonics generated with intense femtosecond laser pulses

Experimental results and theoretical analysis on the coherent control of high-order harmonics with chirped femtosecond laser pulses are presented. The coherent control of high-order harmonic generation resulted in sharp harmonic spectra by compensating for induced harmonic chirp with the control of applied laser chirp and it was found to be crucial also in producing sharp and bright harmonics.Received: 18 November 2002, Published online: 8 July 2003PACS: 42.65.Ky Frequency conversion; harmonic generation, including higher-order harmonic generation - 32.80.-t Photon interactions with atoms - 42.65.Re Ultrafast processes; optical pulse generation and pulse compression     

The direct evaluation of attosecond chirp from a streaking measurement

We derive an analytical expression that relates the breadth of a streaked photoelectron spectrum to the group-delay dispersion of an isolated attosecond pulse. Based on this analytical expression, we introduce a simple, efficient and robust procedure to instantly extract the attosecond pulse’s chirp from the streaking measurement. We show that our method is robust against experimental artifacts.     

Isolated ultrashort attosecond pulse generation from a coherent superposition state in a few-cycle chirped laser pulse

We theoretically demonstrate an efficient method for producing an isolated ultrashort attosecond pulse by high-order harmonic generation in an intense few-cycle chirped laser pulse. Our simulation calculations show that the harmonic spectrum reveals an ultrabroad extreme ultraviolet supercontinuum when the initial state is prepared in a coherent superposition of the ground and first excited states. It is also shown that the method can enhance the short quantum path and eliminate the long one, and then an isolated 23-attosecond pulse is produced. By properly adjusting the chirp parameter, a clean single attosecond pulse as short as 11 attoseconds is directly obtained.     

Reconstruction of attosecond pulse trains using an adiabatic phase expansion

We propose a new method to reconstruct the electric field of attosecond pulse trains. The phase of the high-order harmonic emission electric field is Taylor expanded around the maximum of the laser pulse envelope in the time domain and around the central harmonic in the frequency domain. Experimental measurements allow us to determine the coefficients of this expansion and to characterize the radiation with attosecond accuracy over a femtosecond time scale. The method gives access to pulse-to-pulse variations along the train, including the timing, the chirp, and the attosecond carrier envelope phase.     

Broadband attosecond pulse shaping

We use semiconductor (Si) and metallic (Al, Zr) transmission filters to shape, in amplitude and phase, high-order harmonics generated from the interaction of an intense titanium sapphire laser field with a pulsed neon gas target. Depending on the properties of the filter, the emitted attosecond pulses can be optimized in bandwidth and/or pulse length. We demonstrate the generation of attosecond pulses centered at energies from 50 to 80 eV, with bandwidths as large as 45 eV and with pulse durations compressed to 130 as.     

Generation of Near-Circularly Polarized Attosecond Pulse with Tunable Helicity by Unidirectionally Rotating Laser Field

A method to produce circularly polarized attosecond pulses with tunable helicity from CO molecule by using an unidirectionally rotating laser field is proposed. It is found that broadband harmonic supercontinuum with circular polarization can be generated from the oriented CO molecule. This enables the production sub-100 attosecond isolated pulse with the ellipticity as high as 0.9 at the macroscopic level. Moreover, the helicity of the generated high-order harmonics and the attosecond pulse can be tuned by adjusting the orientation of the CO molecule. This method will be beneficial for the studies on chiral-specific dynamics and magnetic circular dichroism on an attosecond time scale.     

Optical pulse compression using the combination of phase modulation and high-order dispersion compensation

Optical pulse compression using high-order dispersion compensation is proposed and theoretically analyzed. Firstly, the required dispersion profile for the high-order dispersion compensation is derived, according to the linear chirp and the nonlinear chirp of a phase-modulated continuous-wave (CW) laser source. With the use of the high-order dispersion compensation, such as the combination compensation of the second order dispersion (SOD) and the fourth order dispersion (FOD), an efficient pulse compression having a less time-bandwidth product and a greater peak power is realized. A sampled fiber Bragg grating (FBG) with both the SOD and the FOD is then designed using the equivalent chirp and the reconstruction algorithm. Finally, in the numerical simulation an optical pulse with a time-bandwidth product of 0.79 is generated via high-order dispersion compensation that is performed by using the sampled FBG.     

Femtosecond pulse enhancement in an external resonator: impact of dispersive and nonlinear effects

The effect of the high-order dispersions on a femtosecond pulse enhancement in an external resonator is analyzed. It is shown that the degradation of the enhancement factor can be partially compensated by adjustment of group-delay, dispersion and incident pulse width. Presence of a Kerr-medium inside an external resonator results in the stable quasi-soliton formation that improves the enhancement factor. This provides the enhancement factor growth as well as its robustness against the high-order dispersions, when the fourth-order dispersion is negative. PACS  42.65.Re; 42.65.Tg; 42.60.Da; 42.60.Lh