Imaging with short optical pulses

A new method of three-dimensional optical imaging based on range gating with subpicosecond pulses is being developed. As opposed to other techniques of medical imaging, this new method is characterized by both high contrast and resolution. Preliminary tests demonstrate a longitudinal resolution better than 10 μm. The computer algorithm needed to reconstruct the image from the attenuated backscattering and to extend to three dimensions the one-dimensional depth resolution, is discussed.     

Multifrequency photon echo generated by extremely short pulses

A photon echo in a multilevel quantum medium excited by two extremely short pulses with durations of less than one period of oscillation of the light is investigated theoretically. It is shown thatQ echo signals (Q is the number of allowed transitions) can form at each frequency of the allowed transitions, and the number of echo responses for all the allowed transitions equalsQ ². Of these,Q(Q?1) signals are separated in both time and space. The otherQ echo signals of all the allowed frequencies all arise at the time 2τ ₂₁ (τ ₂₁ is the time interval between application of the first and second pulses to the medium) and are collinear with one another.     

Self-induced transparency of very short optical pulses

Solutions to a first order wave equation, appropriate to ultrashort optical pulse theory and to the optical undamped Bloch equations are presented. Detuning is shown to play essential role in the physical interpretation of these solutions. Related cases have been discussed by Courtens and by Lee. It is noted that the rotating wave approximation introduces strong restrictions on the range of validity of possible solutions. Pulses with Lorentzian shapes, while implied by the equations, appear to be without physical significance.     

On diagnostics of media using extremely short terahertz radiation pulses

The possibility of diagnosing the linear and nonlinear electrodynamic susceptibilities of media by examining the time profiles of extremely short terahertz radiation pulses (using pulsed terahertz spectroscopy methods) that are incident on a thin layer of a medium under study, are reflected from the layer, and are transmitted through it is shown theoretically. In the general case, the linear and nonlinear susceptibilities of different orders can be found by solving linear integral equations. Diagnostics is considerably simplified in the case of an isolated resonance of a medium with homogeneous spectral broadening, which is modeled by the response of an anharmonic oscillator.     

Cancellation of Raman self-frequency shift for compression of optical pulses

We study to which extent a fiber soliton can be manipulated by a specially chosen continuous pump wave. A group velocity matched pump scatters at the soliton, which is compressed due to the energy/momentum transfer. As the pump scattering is very sensitive to the velocity matching condition, soliton compression is quickly destroyed by the soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS). This is especially true for ultrashort pulses: SSFS inevitably impairs the degree of compression. We demonstrate numerically that soliton enhancement can be restored to some extent and the compressed soliton can be stabilized, provided that SSFS is canceled by a second pump wave. Still the available compression degree is considerably smaller than that in the Raman-free nonlinear fibers.     

Raman echo under medium excitation by extremely short pulses

A generalization of the Bloembergen-Shen model to Raman active molecules with an arbitrary number of normal modes was suggested. The generalized model was used to study Raman echo signal characteristics when a system of molecules was excited by pulses of widths up to one period of optical oscillations. It was shown that a large number of echo responses on Stokes and anti-Stokes components could arise even under a two-pulse action in a continuous monochromatic pumping field. The number of echo responses depended on the number of molecular normal modes and the geometry of measurements. At small exciting pulse “areas,” the echo responses whose Stokes and anti-Stokes components corresponded to normal vibrational modes of a molecule had the highest intensity, whereas the components formed by normal mode combinations were strongly suppressed.     

Amplification of extremely short pulses in optical media

The dynamics of pulses with durations comparable to the inverse transition frequency that propagate in an optical medium is studied in terms of two integrable systems of Maxwell-Bloch equations. The first model describes the field interaction with a nondegenerate medium with a permanent dipole moment and permanent external pumping. A general formula is derived for the N-soliton solution. Particular solutions are used as examples to investigate the effect of permanent dipole moment and pumping on the soliton dynamics. The second model describes the interaction between two-component electric-field pulses and a two-level degenerate medium with permanent upper-level pumping. For different initial magnetic-sublevel populations, soliton solutions are used as examples to show that pumping causes a change in polarization dynamics. A two-soliton solution is used to analyze the interaction of solitons in a two-level medium with external pumping.     

Plasma-based accelerator diagnostics based upon longitudinalinterferometry with ultrashort optical pulses

All-optical ultrafast time-resolved plasma diagnostics of plasma-based accelerators (PBA's) are described, with emphasis on the laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA). Specifically, the diagnostic techniques involve replacing the trailing particle bunch in the LWFA with a trailing photon bunch: a weak ultrashort laser pulse. Since this photon pulse is derived directly from the intense pump pulse, practical difficulties such as synchronization and dephasing are eliminated. The interaction of the photon bunch with the plasma wake is essentially a simple time-domain shift in optical phase, which can produce both “DC” phase shifts and frequency blue/red-shifting of the probe pulse spectrum. These phase/frequency shifts are recorded in frequency domain interferograms, which are formally equivalent to time-domain holograms. Experimental results of longitudinal plasma density profiling are presented in which plasma density oscillations (Langmuir waves) in the wake of an intense (I_peak~3×10 ¹⁷ W/cm²) laser pulse (~100 fs) were measured with ultrafast time resolution. Phase shifts consistent with large amplitude (~80%) density oscillations at the electron plasma frequency were observed in a fully tunnel-ionized He plasma, corresponding to longitudinal electric fields of ~10 GV/m. Strong radial ponderomotive forces enhance the density oscillations. Finally, proposed single-shot schemes for simultaneous transverse and longitudinal profiling are discussed     

Laser-cluster interaction: x-ray production by short laser pulses

We investigate the heating of the quasifree electrons in large rare-gas clusters (N exceeding 10(5) atoms) by short laser pulses at moderate intensities (I approximately = 10(15) W cm(-2)). We identify elastic large-angle backscattering of electrons at ionic cores in the presence of a laser field as an efficient heating mechanism. Its efficiency as well as the effect of collective electron motion, electron-impact ionization, and cluster charging are studied employing a mean-field classical transport simulation. Results for the absolute x-ray yields are in surprisingly good quantitative agreement with recent experimental results.     

Efficient generation of short terahertz pulses via stimulated Raman adiabatic passage

We have analyzed the efficiency of coherent scattering of infrared radiation in molecular gases for the production of intense, short terahertz (THz) pulses by using stimulated Raman adiabatic passage for the preparation of coherence. We show that coherently driven molecular media potentially yield strong, controllable, short pulses of THz radiation. The pulses have energies ranging from several nanojoules to microjoules and time durations from several femtoseconds to nanoseconds at room temperature.     

Amplification of short laser pulses by Raman backscattering in capillary plasmas

Short laser pulses can be significantly amplified in the process of Raman backscattering in plasma inside an oversized dielectric capillary. A dielectric capillary allows obtaining high intensities of the output radiation by sustaining efficient amplification at large distances compared to the diffraction length. The efficiency of the interaction between the pump wave and the amplified pulse is shown not to be critically sensitive to the transverse structure of the wave fields. For a quasi-single-mode initial seed pulse and a low pump intensity, the amplified pulse tends to preserve its transverse structure due to nonlinear competition of the capillary eigen-modes. At a high power of the pump wave, multimode amplification always takes place but the growth of the front peak of the pulse still follows the one-dimensional model. The Raman backscattering instability of the pump wave resulting in the noise amplification can be suppressed in detuned interaction by chirping the pump wave or arranging an inhomogeneous plasma density profile along the trace of amplification. The efficiency of the desired pulse amplification does not significantly depend on detuning in the case of a smooth detuning profile. Density inhomogeneities are shown to exert less influence on the amplification within a capillary than in the one-dimensional problem. Parameters of a future experiment on the Raman amplification of a short laser pulse inside a capillary are proposed.     

Collision of extremely short optical pulses in semiconductor carbon nanotubes

The interaction of extremely short optical pulses in semiconductor carbon nanotubes is discussed. An equation is derived for the dynamics of the electromagnetic field in a system of semiconductor carbon nanotubes at low temperatures, whose solutions are analogs to the solitons of the sine-Gordon equation. The behavior of extremely short optical pulses in semiconductor carbon nanotubes on collision is analyzed.     

Coherence of supercontinua generated by ultrashort pulses compressed in optical fibers

Femtosecond fiber lasers together with nonlinear fibers are compact, reliable, all-fiber supercontinuum sources. Maintaining an all-fiber configuration, however, necessitates pulse compression in an optical fiber, which can lead to nonlinearities for subhundred femtosecond, nanojoule pulses. In this work we show that using large-mode-area fibers for pulse compression mitigates the nonlinearity, resulting in compressed pulses with significantly reduced satellite pulses. Consequently, supercontinua generated with these pulses are shown to have as much as a 10 dB increase in coherence fringe contrast. By using a hybrid highly nonlinear fiber-photonic crystal fiber, the continuum can be extended to visible wavelengths while still maintaining high coherence.     

Noise-like pulses generated at high harmonics in a partially-mode-locked km-long Raman fiber laser

We present a 5-km-long Raman fiber laser that delivers pulses at high harmonics of the fundamental cavity repetition rate, up to 1 GHz. The observed nanosecond pulses that propagate in an anomalous dispersion regime possess a complex noise-like structure with a coherence time of around 1 picosecond.     

Characteristics of wavelength conversion of short optical pulses in quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifiers

The characteristics of short optical pulse four-wave mixing (FWM) and amplification in quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifiers (QD-SOAs) are investigated taken into account the effect of the multi-discrete QD energy levels. Different saturation and recovery response for the electron and hole states are observed, which is attributed to different energy spacing between the energy states. We found that the 3 dB saturation energy of QD-SOA depends on the pulse width for short input pulses. Also, the optimum time delay between the probe and pump pulses in QD-SOAs, which provides maximum FWM efficiency in QD-SOAs, is smaller than the optimum delay in quantum well SOA.     

Complete temporal characterization of short optical pulses by simplified chronocyclic tomography

A new self-referencing technique to characterize the temporal electric field of a short optical pulse is presented. The group delay of the pulse is directly obtained from two projections of the Wigner-Ville function after rotation of the pulse in chronocyclic space. Implementation of the technique requires only quadratic temporal phase modulation and two spectrum measurements, from which the electric field is directly and unambiguously reconstructed without any assumption. A device based on these principles is used to characterize the electric field of a 2-ps optical pulse.     

High peak power optical pulses generated with a monolithic master-oscillator power amplifier

We present results on a monolithic semiconductor-based master-oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) combining a distributed-feedback (DFB) laser and a tapered amplifier on a single chip. The MOPA reaches an output power of almost 12 W at an emission wavelength around 1064 nm in continuous-wave operation. Pulses with a length of around 100 ps can be obtained either by injecting nanosecond current pulses into the tapered amplifier alone or into both the DFB laser and the tapered amplifier. In the latter case, pulses with a width of 84 ps, a peak power of 42 W, and a spectral width of 160 pm are generated.     

Depolarization of white light generated by ultrashort laser pulses in optical media

We report measurements of the extinction ratio (ER) of white light generated upon irradiation of BK7 glass by ultrashort (36 fs) laser pulses with incident power approximately 10(3) times larger than the critical power for self-focusing. At low incident powers, the continuum is symmetric about the incident laser wavelength; at high powers it becomes broader and distinctly asymmetric towards the blue side. We observe that ER degrades by 100-fold after the onset of multiphoton-induced free-electron generation (at incident intensity approximately 2 TW cm-2), which also corresponds to the onset of asymmetry in white-light spectra.