Optical parametric amplification of a supercontinuum in a gas

Amplification of supercontinuum light via four-wave optical parametric amplification in a gas-filled hollow fiber is investigated. By pumping with a femtosecond pulse in the near-infrared, amplification was observed in the wavelength range 500–700 nm, with an amplification gain up to 100. The amplification bandwidth obtained here supports sub-10-fs pulse durations. The wavelength and gas-pressure dependence of the amplification gain in this regime significantly differ from those predicted from only the linear phase mismatch. The nonlinear phase mismatch, arising from nonlinear phase modulations induced by a pump pulse, dominates the features observed for the amplification, i.e., a low phase-matching pressure and an amplification gain depending on wavelength. To investigate the effect of phase modulations on the parametric amplification, numerical analysis and simulations are used to reproduce the measured wavelength dependence of the amplification gain.     

Amplification of picosecond pulses in a 140-GHz gyrotron-traveling wave tube

An experimental study of picosecond pulse amplification in a gyrotron-traveling wave tube (gyro-TWT) has been carried out. The gyro-TWT operates with 30 dB of small signal gain near 140 GHz in the HE?? mode of a confocal waveguide. Picosecond pulses show broadening and transit time delay due to two distinct effects: the frequency dependence of the group velocity near cutoff and gain narrowing by the finite gain bandwidth of 1.2 GHz. Experimental results taken over a wide range of parameters show good agreement with a theoretical model in the small signal gain regime. These results show that in order to limit the pulse broadening effect in gyrotron amplifiers, it is crucial to both choose an operating frequency at least several percent above the cutoff of the waveguide circuit and operate at the center of the gain spectrum with sufficient gain bandwidth.     

Photonic ultrawideband monocycle pulse generation using a single electro-optic modulator

A compact approach to photonic-assisted ultrawideband (UWB) monocycle pulse generation is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on the wavelength dependence of the half-wave voltage of a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM). By employing a single MZM with dual-wavelength injection at around 1310 and 1550 nm, a pair of polarity-reversed monocycle pulses with the full width at half-maximum of about 80 ps and the fractional bandwidth of greater than 160% can be generated. The experiment results agree well with the theoretical prediction. The simple setup and the convenience to control the monocycle pulse polarity are favorable for future applications.     

UWB monocycle pulse generation using two-photon absorption in a silicon waveguide

We propose and experimentally demonstrate ultrawideband monocycle pulse generation using nondegenerate two-photon absorption in a silicon waveguide. The free-carrier absorption induced pulse tail at the rising edge of inverted probe pulse is largely compensated by the overlapped pump pulse and results in a symmetric negative monocycle pulse. A 143 ps Gaussian monocycle pulse is successfully obtained with a 131.7% fractional 10 dB bandwidth using a 68 ps pulsed pump. The 10 dB bandwidth and center frequency of the RF spectrum for the generated monocycle pulse can be largely tuned using an optical delay line. An operational bandwidth of 30 nm is demonstrated experimentally with stable performance, and larger optical bandwidth is expected.     

Time-resolved current response of a nanosecond laser pulse illuminated STM tip

Time-resolved dependence of the transient current through a ns laser pulse illuminated scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip/sample gap in tunneling mode and out of tunneling range is presented. A self-designed fast STM-preamplifier (bandwidth 35 MHz) allows one to resolve the fine structure of the transient signal as well as the observation of some effects that are undetectable by using conventional low-band preamplifiers. The dependence of the threshold laser pulse intensity, which corresponds to the beginning of electron emission from tip (in non-tunneling mode), as a function of the tip/sample distance was investigated. At tip/sample distances from tunnel contact up to approximately 1 μm a linear dependence is found. This behavior is in good agreement with the theory for field enhancement in a STM tip/sample system. In tunneling mode a ns (fast component) as well as a μs (slow component) current response was found as a result of the laser pulse illumination. These data suggest the tip bending to be an important factor in clarifying the thermal/mechanical mechanism of laser-assisted surface nanomodification. Received: 4 May 1998 / Accepted: 29 January 1999 / Published online: 28 April 1999     

Time-energy properties of an attosecond extreme ultra-violet pulse

The time-energy properties of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) are calculated for a linearly polarized 7-fs laser pulse with different carrier-envelope phases (CEPs). The quantum trajectory paths that contribute to an as (1 as=10-18 s) pulse in HHG are identified. The laser-duration dependence and the CEP dependence of HHG energy property are investigated. The study shows that an as extreme ultra-violet (XUV) pulse can be selected from HHG spectrum near cut-off energy with a bandpass optical filter. The theoretical prediction of the pulse duration is proportional to bandwidth. Analysis suggests that a measured narrowband as XUV pulse may consist of instantaneous shorter pulses each dependent on laser pulse duration, intensity, and CEP. These information can be used as references for producing, selecting, improving and manipulating (timing) as pulses.     

铅原子非共振多光子电离过程的研究

在激光波长为1064nm、532nm和355nm下,研究了铅原子的非共振多光子过程.通过改变激光脉冲的线宽研究了铅原子非共振7-光子电离速率和激光统计性的依赖关系.     

Excess noise generation during spectral broadening in a microstructured fiber

We observe that nanojoule femtosecond pulses that are spectrally broadened in a microstructured fiber acquire excess noise. The excess noise is manifested as an increase in the noise floor of the rf spectrum of the photocurrent from a photodetector illuminated by the pulse train from the laser oscillator. Measurements are made of the intensity dependence of the excess noise for both 100 fs and sub-10 fs pulses. The excess noise is very strong for 100 fs pulses, but barely measurable for sub-10 fs pulses. A rigorous quantum treatment of the nonlinear propagation of ultrashort pulses predicts that, for a fixed generated bandwidth, the amount of excess noise decreases with pulse duration, in agreement with the experimental results.     

Broadband spectral shaping in a Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier

A birefringent crystal quartz plate of known thickness has been used as a spectral filter for spectral shaping in a Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier. The spectral profile of the amplified pulse ejected from the regenerative amplifier was observed while adjusting the birefringent crystal plate in the cavity. By altering the gain spectrum, the bandwidth of the regeneratively amplified pulse was increased from 18 to 35 nm by using a 0.34-mm thick birefringent plate. The output pulse spectrum from the regenerative amplifier neared the bandwidth of the seed pulse. As a comparison, we used a coated filter outside the regenerative amplifier cavity, and the bandwidth of the regeneratively amplified pulse was stretched to 28 nm. When the bandwidth was stretched to 35 nm, the pulse was compressed to 35 fs.     

Analysis of mode-locked internally frequency doubled broad-band continuous wave lasers

Closed-form analysis of pulse evolution in the transient regime in an actively modelocked internally frequency doubled broad-band continuous wave laser is presented. The analysis enables investigation of the effect of nonlinear crystal inside the laser cavity on mode-locked pulse parameters at the fundamental frequency. It is shown that the presence of internal second harmonic crystal broadens the fundamental mode-locked pulse while accelerating the approach of the system to steady-state. The dependence of pulse parameters on the bandwidth of the tuning element, modulation depth of the active mode-locker and conversion efficiency of the frequency doubler is presented in detailed graphical form.     

Cascaded four-wave mixing generation with pumping in the normal dispersion regime

we report on the generation of cascaded four-wave mixing （CFWM） in a photonic crystal fiber with a high peak power picosecond pulse pumping in the normal dispersion region and a weak continuous wave seeded. We also experimentally investigate the dependence of CFWM bandwidth on the seeding wavelengths. Experimental results demonstrate the existence of optimum seeding wavelengths for broadband CFWM even though the pulse wavelength is 50 nm shorter than the zero dispersion wavelength. And CFWM products spanning more than 300 nm are experimentally obtained.     

On the pulse width of synchronously pumped lasers

The pulse width of a synchronously pumped laser chiefly depends on the available cavity bandwidth and the pump-pulse duration. A functional form of this dependence was suggested in the literature. We present an alternate relation which is supported by analytical and numerical results, as well as by experimental results, obtained by us and by others.     

Diffraction properties of multi-layer volume holographic gratings under an ultrashort pulsed beam with arbitrary temporal profiles

The diffraction properties of a system of multi-layer volume holographic gratings under an ultrashort pulsed beam with arbitrary temporal profiles are investigated using the multi-layer coupled wave theory. The dependence of the pulse profiles of the diffracted beams, diffraction bandwidth and the total diffraction efficiency of the multi-layer system on the temporal profiles of the input ultrashort pulse are investigated. The calculated results indicate that the temporal shape of the input pulsed beams is an important factor in the analysis of the propagation characteristics. The analysis of this paper will be valuable for the applications of pulse shaping, processing and filter.     

Quantum-mechanical analysis of pulse reconstruction for a narrow bandwidth attosecond x-ray pulse

The photoelectron energy spectra (PESs) excited by narrow bandwidth attosecond x-ray pulses in the presence of a few-cycle laser are quantum-mechanically calculated. Transfer equations are used to reconstruct the detailed temporal structure of an attosecond x-ray pulse directly from a measured PES. Theoretical analysis shows that the temporal uncertainties of the pulse reconstruction depend on the x-ray bandwidth. The procedure of pulse reconstruction is direct and simple without making any previous pulse assumption, data fitting analysis and time-resolved measurement of PESs. The temporal measurement range is half of a laser optical cycle.     

Amplitude to phase conversion of InGaAs pin photo-diodes for femtosecond lasers microwave signal generation

When a photo-diode is illuminated by a pulse train from a femtosecond laser, it generates microwaves components at the harmonics of the repetition rate within its bandwidth. The phase of these components (relative to the optical pulse train) is known to be dependent on the optical energy per pulse. We present an experimental study of this dependence in InGaAs pin photo-diodes illuminated with ultra-short pulses generated by an Erbium-doped fiber based femtosecond laser. The energy to phase dependence is measured over a large range of impinging pulse energies near and above saturation for two typical detectors, commonly used in optical frequency metrology with femtosecond laser based optical frequency combs. When scanning the optical pulse energy, the coefficient which relates phase variations to energy variations is found to alternate between positive and negative values, with many (for high harmonics of the repetition rate) vanishing points. By operating the system near one of these vanishing points, the typical amplitude noise level of commercial-core fiber-based femtosecond lasers is sufficiently low to generate state-of-the-art ultra-low phase noise microwave signals, virtually immune to amplitude to phase conversion related noise.     

Spectrally resolved coherent transient signal for ultracold rubidium molecules

We present spectrally resolved pump-probe experiments on the photoassociation of ultracold rubidium atoms with shaped ultrashort laser pulses. The pump pulse causes a free-bound transition leading to a coherent transient signal of rubidium molecules in the first excited state. In order to achieve a high frequency resolution the bandwidth of the pump pulse is reduced to a few wavenumbers. The frequency dependence of the transient signal close to the D1 atomic resonance is investigated for characteristic pump-probe delay times. The observed spectra, which show a pronounced dip for pump-probe coincidence, are interpreted using quantum dynamical calculations.     

Broadband non-collinear double QPM optical parametric amplification in mid-infrared wave

The properties of optical parametric amplification (OPA) based on non-collinear double quasi-phase matching (NDQPM) with single periodically poled KTP (PPKTP) have been investigated theoretically. The NDQPM includes two different non-linear processes: one is optical parametric generation (OPG) and the other is difference frequency generation (DFG). The investigation of our numerical simulation focuses on the gain bandwidth of dependence upon non-collinear angle, grating period and crystal temperature. At a certain non-collinear angle and grating period with fixed temperature, there exists a broadest gain bandwidths of output mid-infrared pulse at 526 nm pump wavelength and certain signal wavelength in PPKTP. These are an optimal values of non-collinear angles and grating period. By accurately tuning the non-collinear angle or temperature near the optimal non-collinear angle, broadband mid-infrared tuning is obtained and an optimal operation of NDQPM can be realized. In this paper, the solutions of the coupled equations of the cascaded processes were discussed, and the spatial-temporal frequency (STF) band of the output idler pulse is analyzed by taking angular dispersion of amplified pulse beam into account. The idler pulse with a certain angular dispersion can improve the OPA bandwidth significantly. So, optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification can be realized in this configuration. For a broadband NDQPM both the acceptance angles and the acceptance temperature are smaller and the gain bandwidth is sensitive to non-collinear angles and temperature, it is important to control the precision of the non-collinear angles and the temperature in experiment.     

Carrier-Envelope-Phase Dependence of Emission Properties of High-Order Harmonic Generation

The carrler-envelope-phase （CEP） dependence of the emission properties of high-order harmonic generation （HHG） are quantitatively investigated. Calculation shows that a two-cycle laser with CEP of 15° can produce a single energy distribution pulse peaked at 0.94 radian （tad） and spanned 1.29 tad with the cutoff energy 2.9Up ＋ Ip and a bandwidth 0.86Up （where Up is the ponderomotive potential of the laser field and Ip is the atomic ionization potential）. The CEP dependence of the energy and temporal localizations of the single distribution pulse show interesting 180° periodic structures. These characteristics may be useful in optimizing attosecond x-ray sources and measurements.     

双轴晶体光学参量放大的研究

介绍了新近提出的光学啁啾脉冲参量放大技术,并以高增益、宽谱带的双轴非线性晶体LBO为例,研究了抽运光和信号光的相位匹配的关系、增益、增益带宽、匹配角的选择,以及增益随晶体长度变化的趋势和双曲正割和高斯脉冲输入非线性晶体前后变化的情况。     

Extension of Harmonic Cutoff and Generation of Isolated Sub-30 as Pulse in a Two-Color Chirped Laser Field

We theoretically investigate high-order harmonic and isolated attosecond pulse generation in a two-color chirped laser field,which is synthesized by a 9 fs/800 nm fundamental chirped pulse and a 9 fs/1600 nm controlling chirped pulse.Our numerical results show that,by using this method,not only is the harmonic cutoff significantly extended to the 948th order harmonic,but also the bandwidth of the supercontinuum spectrum is effectively broadened to about 1342 eV.In addition,due to the introduction of the chirp,the long quantum path is suppressed and only the short one is selected,and then an isolated 28 as pulse with a bandwidth of 155 eV is obtained directly.