Enhanced optical reflection and multiple-peak transmission from a subwavelength slit with surface corrugations

We have observed a new phenomenon of the enhanced optical reflection and transmission from a subwavelength metallic slit with surface corrugations. The reflected energy is focused by the periodic structure and our experiment shows that it is more effective than a planar metal surface in real situations. The transmission spectrum performs the feature of a multipeak narrow-band transmission with a wavelength spacing of 1.4 nm resulting from the FP cavity resonance in the substrate film. Such optical response properties of our sample will be very useful for applications in many fields including wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) optical communications systems.     

Enhanced optical transmission through a silver plate with a slit array

The near- and far-field properties of a large-scale silver plate with a slit array are studied by applying the FDTD method. The far region scattering properties with different incident angles are also discussed. We find out that the silver plate with a suitable placed narrow slit array can excite the enhanced optical transmission (EOT) by the excitation of the surface plasmon polarition (SPP) and the Fabry-Perot resonance, and the cutoff angle is much larger than the ordinary LEDs. These unique properties suggest possible applications to the light-transparent metal contact.     

Control of atomic ionization by two-color few-cycle pulses

We have studied the ionization of Rydberg atoms by few-cycle radio-frequency pulses and used two-color fields to control the ionization dynamics. We show that the number of times that electrons are emitted during a pulse can be limited and that the duration of the electron emission can be shortened. These results, once they are transposed to the optical domain, may inspire new strategies for the production of single attosecond pulses.     

Enhanced optical transmission through double-layer gold slit arrays

We investigate the relationship between the transmission and the layer distance of double-layer gold slit arrays by using the finite-difference time-domain method.The results show that the transmission properties can be influenced strongly by layer distance.We attribute the two types of resonant modes to surface plasmon resonance and the localised waveguide resonance.We find that the localised waveguide transmission peak redshifts and becomes broader with increasing layer distance D.We also describe and explain the splitting,shift,and degeneration of the surface plasmon resonant transmission peak theoretically.In addition,to clarify the physical mechanism of the transmission behaviours,we analyse the distributions of electric field and total energy for the three transmission peaks with distance D=45 nm for the double-layer system.Light transporting behaviours are mostly concentrated in the region of the slits as well as the interspaces of the two layers,and for different resonant wavelengths the electric field and energy distributions are different.It is expected that the results obtained here will be helpful for designing subwavelength metallic grating devices.     

基于塔姆激元-表面等离极化激元混合模式的单缝加凹槽纳米结构的增强透射

金属单缝纳米结构因为结构简单、易于集成,常用在基于表面等离极化激元(surface plasmon polaritons,SPPs)的纳米结构中构建光源.但是,金属亚波长单缝结构一直存在透射率低的问题,如何提高其透射率一直是研究的重点.为了更好地提高金属亚波长单缝的透射率,本文对之前文献提出的分布式布拉格反射镜(distributed bragg reflector,DBR)和金属银薄膜纳米缝结构进行改进,在金属银薄膜两侧设计凹槽.当TM偏振光由DBR侧入射至DBR-银纳米缝结构时,DBR-银膜界面上和银膜入射侧凹槽一起激发的塔姆激元(Tamm plasmon polaritons,TPPs)和SPPs,以及纳米缝和银膜出射侧凹槽对的SPPs同时激发,利用凹槽激发的SPPs和银膜表面处的TPPs-SPPs混合模式的干涉相长耦合作用,通过塔姆激元的局域场增强效应和两侧凹槽与单纳米缝的干涉相长耦合作用进一步提高了表面等离极化激元模式的激发效率,再加上纳米缝中的类法布里-珀罗腔共振效应,使纳米缝的透射率得到增强.本文采用有限元方法研究了DBR-银纳米缝结构上单纳米缝加凹槽的透射特性.经过一系列参数优化,使DBR-银纳米缝凹槽结构的最大透射率增加到0.22,相对于TiO_2-银纳米缝结构的透射率(0.01)提高了22倍,比文献[23]得到的最大透射率0.166有所提高.研究结果在纳米光源设计、光子集成电路和光学信号传输等相关领域具有一定的应用价值.     

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.     

Multiple paths to enhance optical transmission through a single subwavelength slit

In this Letter, we explore transmission properties of a single subwavelength slit flanked by a finite array of grooves made on a thick metallic film. We identify three main mechanisms that can enhance optical transmission: groove cavity mode excitation (controlled by the depth of the grooves), in-phase groove reemission (controlled by the period of the groove array), and slit waveguide mode (controlled by the thickness of the metal film). By tuning these geometrical parameters, enhancements of transmission of light by up to 2 orders of magnitude can be achieved when all three mechanisms coincide. Experimental verification of these findings is also shown for structured silver films fabricated by focused-ion-beam milling.     

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.     

Remarkable zeroth-order resonant transmission of microwaves through a single subwavelength metal slit

A slit in a thick metal plate that is extremely subwavelength will not transmit microwaves polarized parallel to it. It is shown here that cuts perpendicular to the slit allow parallel polarized radiation to resonantly transmit. Furthermore, a zero-order mode may be excited within the slit, the frequency of which, to first order, is independent of the plate depth. Remarkably, for this novel type of resonance, the field in the slit oscillates with a constant phase and little amplitude variation throughout the plate depth, while the resonant wavelength tends to infinity as the slit width approaches zero.     

Long-term carrier-envelope-phase-stable few-cycle pulses by use of the feed-forward method

The feed-forward technique has recently revolutionized carrier-envelope phase (CEP) stabilization, enabling unprecedented values of residual phase jitter. Nevertheless, its demonstrations have hitherto remained in a proof-of-principle state. Here we show that pulse quality and power issues can be solved, leading to few-cycle pulses with good beam quality. Making use of stable interferometers, we achieve day-long CEP-stable operation of the setup. Out-of-loop RMS phase noise amounts to less than 30 mrad in 20 s, with more than 24 h of CEP-locked operation being demonstrated.     

Scattering of a few-cycle laser pulse by a single relativistic electron

The scattering of a single relativistic electron with few-cycle plane wave laser pulse with intensity of about $I=1.38\times 10^{14}\,\text{ W/cm }^{2}$ is theoretically and numerically analyzed in the linear regime, and the radiated energy spectra of electron shows that zeptosecond X-ray pulses can be supported. The influences of the initial carrier-envelope phase offset $\varphi _0$ of the incident few-cycle laser pulses are studied, and the results demonstrate that a single zeptosecond pulse can be produced from scattering by using a single-cycle laser pulse with fixed initial carrier-envelope phase offset $\varphi _0 =\pi /2$ . It is discovered that the influence of the initial carrier-envelope phase $\varphi _0$ on the spectrum of the radiation is apparent for low and high frequency of the spectrum, but there is no influence of the central part of the spectrum.     

Four-wave mixing of quasi-monochromatic waves and few-cycle pulses

Four-wave coherent mixing models for two quasi-monochromatic pumping fields and pulses of a two-component Stokes field with an elliptic polarization and a duration on the order of the period of oscillations have been derived for a two-level medium with a forbidden dipole transition. It is shown that, under the unidirectional wave propagation conditions and in the absence of depletion of pumping, the system of Maxwell-Bloch equations can be reduced to a new completely integrable system of equations. Nonsoliton radiation dynamics of generation of Stokes field pulses is studied in the framework of the integrable reduction of this model. The apparatus for the inverse problem algorithm corresponding to the solvable problem is developed. An approximate asymptotic expression for the leading front of the pulse packet being generated is obtained for various initial and boundary conditions. The application of these results for describing parametric processes involving various types of waves is discussed.     

High harmonic imaging of few-cycle laser pulses

We show that the strength of the central electric field peaks in a few-cycle laser pulse can be recovered from a frequency-time image of the high harmonic spectrum generated in a gas volume. Pulse intensity, duration, and also the carrier-envelope phase phi(CE) can be determined. A simple and robust observable is defined that provides a gauge of phi(CE) for pulse durations up to three optical cycles, corresponding to 7.8 fs FWHM at the Ti:sapphire wavelength of 800 nm.     

Enhanced light transmission through a single subwavelength aperture

The optical transmission through a subwavelength aperture in a metal film is strongly enhanced when the incident light is resonant with surface plasmons at the corrugated metal surface surrounding the aperture. Conversely, the aperture acts as a novel probe of the surface plasmons, yielding useful insights for optimizing the transmission enhancement. For the optimal corrugation geometry, a set of concentric circular grooves, three times more light is transmitted through the central subwavelength aperture than directly impinges upon it. This effect is useful in the fabrication of near-field optical devices with extremely high optical throughput.     

Two-frequency correlation of photon echo signals in a medium excited by a few-cycle pulses

Two-frequency correlation between the profiles of signals of the primary and long-lived (stimulated) photon echos in a three-level medium excited by combined sequences of resonance quasimonochromatic (encoding) signals and femtosecond pulses consisting of a few optical oscillations (down to one) is predicted. It is shown that the profiles of echo responses of both frequencies correlate with each other and with the profiles of encoding pulses, copy them, and induce mirror rotations, as well as scaling transformations in time in dependence on the methods of forming exciting sequences.     

Multimillijoule chirped parametric amplification of few-cycle pulses

The concept of optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification is applied to attain pulses with energies up to 8 mJ and a bandwidth of more than 100 THz. Stretched broadband seed pulses from a Ti:sapphire oscillator are amplified in a multistage noncollinear type I phase-matched beta-barium borate parametric amplifier by use of an independent picosecond laser with lock-to-clock repetition rate synchronization. Partial compression of amplified pulses is demonstrated down to a 10-fs duration with a down-chirped pulse stretcher and a nearly lossless compressor comprising bulk material and positive-dispersion chirped mirrors.     

On the nonlinear optics of few-cycle pulses

A brief review of the development of the nonlinear optics of few-cycle optical laser pulses is presented. Emphasis is placed on analyzing the soliton propagation modes of such pulses in the context of possible applications in optical data transmission systems.     

Suppressed transmission of light through single slit in gold film

A new phenomenon of an obvious dip of the transmission from subwavelength slits can be obtained if we change the wavelength of the incident light in the visible regime is proposed. Theory shows that there exist maximum reflectivities if we change wavelengths for different slit widths. The theoretical results are consistent with both finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations and experiments.     

Propagation of few-cycle laser pulses through a linear gas medium

We investigate the ultrashort pulse propagation through a linear gas medium by direct solution of the wave equation beyond the often used lowest orders of the dispersion approximation and the assumption of a slowly varying envelope. The dispersion effects and the effective absorption of the pulse energy by the medium are shown to result in a strong dispersive broadening of the initial pulse in the time and space domains. New features of the polarization response of the medium resulting from essentially nonadiabatic ramps of the pulse envelope are found. The possibility of using the two-pulse experimental scheme to partly compensate for the dispersion is discussed.     

Structure of photon echo signals under excitation of a medium by few-cycle optical pulses

The results of original theoretical investigations of the primary and long-lived photon echo, generated by sequences of broadband and quasi-monochromatic pulses, are reported. Both echo responses and the effect of correlation of their profiles with the profiles of excitation pulses have a two-frequency character.