Control and coherence of the optical transition of single nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond

We demonstrate coherent control of the optical transition of single nitrogen-vacancy defect centers in diamond. On applying short resonant laser pulses, we observe optical Rabi oscillations with a half period as short as 1 ns, an order of magnitude shorter than the spontaneous emission time. By studying the decay of Rabi oscillations, we find that the decoherence is dominated by laser-induced spectral jumps. By using a low-power probe pulse as a detuning sensor and applying postselection, we demonstrate that spectral diffusion can be overcome in this system to generate coherent photons.     

Broadly wavelength- and pulse width-tunable high-repetition rate light pulses from soliton self-frequency shifting photonic crystal fiber integrated with a frequency doubling crystal

Soliton self-frequency shift (SSFS) in a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) pumped by a long-cavity mode-locked Cr:forsterite laser is integrated with second harmonic generation (SHG) in a nonlinear crystal to generate ultrashort light pulses tunable within the range of wavelengths from 680 to 1800?nm at a repetition rate of 20?MHz. The pulse width of the second harmonic output is tuned from 70 to 600?fs by varying the thickness of the nonlinear crystal, beam-focusing geometry, and the wavelength of the soliton PCF output. Wavelength-tunable pulses generated through a combination of SSFS and SHG are ideally suited for coherent Raman microspectroscopy at high repetition rates, as verified by experiments on synthetic diamond and polystyrene films.     

Research on tunable local laser used in ground-to-satellite coherent laser communication

In order to realize homodyne reception and Doppler frequency shift tracking in ground-to-satellite coherent laser communication, a local laser is experimentally demonstrated in this Letter. It is realized based on modulationsideband injection locking, and has a 10 GHz tuning range, a 1 THz/s tuning rate, a 5 k Hz linewidth, and 16 m W of output power. When applied to a Costas loop in a coherent laser communication system, the local laser can achieve ?5 GHz Doppler frequency shift tracking with a 20 MHz/s frequency shift rate, which is sufficient for the ground-to-satellite coherent laser communication.     

Double-sided laser heating system at HPCAT for in situ x-ray diffraction at high pressures and high temperatures

An overview of a YLF:Nd laser heating system at the undulator x-ray diffraction station (16ID-B) of the high-pressure collaborative access team (HPCAT) of the Advanced Photon Source is presented. Based on the double-sided laser heating technique, the system is designed with considerable effort on the mechanical and optical stabilities, features for user-friendly operation, and the capability of accommodating diamond anvil cells of various heights up to 68?mm. This system has been used for x-ray diffraction studies of a wide range of materials to over 150?GPa and above 3000?K. Applying the laser heating technique to radial x-ray diffraction studies at simultaneous high-pressure and high-temperature (PT) conditions requires heating to be conducted at variable angles relative to the x-ray direction. A rotation laser heating design is discussed.     

Three-dimensional laser-induced thermal and stress analyses in diamond/ZnSe system

Thermal and stress responses of diamond/ZnSe system working as a IR window illuminated by a continue-wave (CW) laser have been investigated by means of finite element method (FEM). We find that the temperature and stress fields have a significant dependence on thickness of the diamond coating. If the increase of the diamond thickness, the laser-induced steady state temperature increases dramatically due to more laser power absorbed, which induces high stress in the interface between diamond and ZnSe. We further calculate the variation of the temperature and stress fields with changing the structural parameters in diamond/ZnSe system.     

Pulse synthesis in the single-cycle regime from independent mode-locked lasers using attosecond-precision feedback

We report the synthesis of a nearly single-cycle (3.7?fs), ultrafast optical pulse train at 78?MHz from the coherent combination of a passively mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser (6?fs pulses) and a fiber supercontinuum (1-1.4?μm, with 8?fs pulses). The coherent combination is achieved via orthogonal, attosecond-precision synchronization of both pulse envelope timing and carrier envelope phase using balanced optical cross-correlation and balanced homodyne detection, respectively. The resulting pulse envelope, which is only 1.1 optical cycles in duration, is retrieved with two-dimensional spectral shearing interferometry (2DSI). To our knowledge, this work represents the first stable synthesis of few-cycle pulses from independent laser sources.     

Measurement of the temperature distribution on the surface of the laser heated specimen in a diamond anvil cell system by the tandem imaging acousto-optical filter

We demonstrate that combining the laser heating (LH) system in a diamond anvil cell (DAC) with a tandem acousto-optical tunable filter (TAOTF) allows measurement of the temperature distribution (TD) under infrared (IR, 1064?nm) LH of a specimen under high pressure in a DAC. The main component of the system is a TAOTF synchronized with a video camera. The system allows TD mapping within a temperature range of approximately 1000–2000?K on the surface of a laser-heated object (Fe plates) at high pressure in a DAC with a spatial resolution 2?µm by fitting the actual signal to Planck’s equation at each point.     

Optical phase locking of two extended-cavity diode lasers with ultra-low phase noise for atom interferometry

We present a phase coherent laser system with ultra-low phase noise with a frequency difference of 6.9 GHz. The laser system consists of two extended-cavity diode lasers that are optically phase-locked with electrical feedback to the injection current of a slave laser. The bandwidth of the optical phase-locking loop is extended up to 8 MHz. We achieve the residual phase noise of two phase-locked lasers of below ?120 dBrad²/Hz in the offset frequency range of 100 Hz–350 kHz and a flat phase noise of ?127 dBrad²/Hz from 700 Hz to 20 kHz. These results are, to the best of our knowledge, the lowest phase noise level ever reported with two extended-cavity diode lasers.     

88 W 0.5 mJ femtosecond laser pulses from two coherently combined fiber amplifiers

The generation of 0.5 mJ femtosecond laser pulses by coherent combining of two high power high energy fiber chirped-pulse amplifiers is reported. The system is running at a repetition frequency of 175 kHz producing 88 W of average power after the compressor unit. Polarizing beam splitters have been used to realize an amplifying Mach-Zehnder interferometer, which has been stabilized with a H?nsch-Couillaud measurement system. The stabilized system possesses a measured residual rms phase difference fluctuation between the two branches as low as λ/70 rad at the maximum power level. The experiment proves that coherent addition of femtosecond fiber lasers can be efficiently and reliably performed at high B-integral and considerable thermal load in the individual amplifiers.     

Control of four-level quantum coherence via discrete spectral shaping of an optical frequency comb

We present experiments demonstrating high-resolution and wide-bandwidth coherent control of a four-level atomic system in a diamond configuration. A femtosecond frequency comb is used to excite a specific pair of two-photon transitions in cold 87Rb. The optical-phase-sensitive response of the closed-loop diamond system is studied by controlling the phase of the comb modes with a pulse shaper. Finally, the pulse shape is optimized resulting in a 256% increase in the two-photon transition rate by forcing constructive interference between the mode pairs detuned from an intermediate resonance.     

Propagation of high-power partially coherent fibre laser beams in a real environment

The propagation performance of high-power partially coherent fibre laser beams in a real environment is investigated and the theoretical model of a high-power fibre laser propagating in a real environment is established. The influence of a collimating system and thermal blooming is considered together with atmospheric turbulence and mechanical jitter. The laser energy concentration of partially coherent beams in the far field is calculated and analysed based on the theoretical model. It is shown that the propagation performance of partially coherent beams depends on the collimating system, atmospheric turbulence, mechanical jitter and thermal blooming. The propagation performance of partially coherent beams and fully coherent beams is studied and the results show that partially coherent beams are less sensitive to the influence of thermal blooming, which results in that the energy degeneration for partially coherent beams is only 50% of that for fully coherent beams. Both partially coherent beams and fully coherent beams become less sensitive to thermal blooming when the average structural constant of the refraction index fluctuations increases to 1.7 × 10^-14 m^-2/3. The investigation presents a reference for applications of a high-power fibre laser system.     

Pulse-shaper-assisted phase control of a coherent broadband spectrum of Raman sidebands

We report pulse-shaper-assisted phase control of a broad spectrum, aiming to synthesize nonsinusoidal waveforms. We first generate multiple-order coherent Raman sidebands by focusing two laser beams into a piece of diamond. Then we combine five sidebands into a single beam by using a prism. Our setup allows for both coarse, manual phase adjustments and fine tuning of the spectral phases. A flat spectral phase across these five frequency-separated sub-bands is achieved, which implies generation of two to three optical-cycle pulses.     

High pressure studies using two-stage diamond micro-anvils grown by chemical vapor deposition

Ultra-high static pressures have been achieved in the laboratory using a two-stage micro-ball nanodiamond anvils as well as a two-stage micro-paired diamond anvils machined using a focused ion-beam system. The two-stage diamond anvils’ designs implemented thus far suffer from a limitation of one diamond anvil sliding past another anvil at extreme conditions. We describe a new method of fabricating two-stage diamond micro-anvils using a tungsten mask on a standard diamond anvil followed by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) homoepitaxial diamond growth. A prototype two-stage diamond anvil with 300?µm culet and with a CVD diamond second stage of 50?µm in diameter was fabricated. We have carried out preliminary high pressure X-ray diffraction studies on a sample of rare-earth metal lutetium sample with a copper pressure standard to 86?GPa. The micro-anvil grown by CVD remained intact during indentation of gasket as well as on decompression from the highest pressure of 86?GPa.     

Subcycle dynamics of electron–hole pairs and high-harmonic generation in bulk diamond subjected to intense femtosecond laser pulse

We present calculation of photoexcitation and high-harmonic generation in bulk diamond induced by intense near-infrared laser pulse of photon energy 1.55 eV, time duration of 15 fs and peak field strength \(F= 0.4\) V/Å. Depending on the laser polarization direction, the pulsed irradiation creates electron–hole pairs and transient density fluctuations in a localized region of the crystal momentum space. As a consequence energetic inter- and intra-band harmonics are generated with alternating phase during each half-cycle of the driving pulse. The corresponding inter- and intra-band currents are in definite phase relation with the laser pulse, reflecting the build-up of coherent superposition of population between valence and conduction bands, and the accelerated motion of charge carriers in their respective bands.     

CO2相干激光轮廓成像研究

本文以自制CO_2相干激光成像的实验系统,成功地实现了相干激光的彩色轮廓成像。     

Condensation in disordered lasers: theory, 3D+1 simulations, and experiments

The complex processes underlying the generation of a coherent emission from the multiple scattering of photons and wave localization in the presence of structural disorder are still mostly unexplored. Here we show that a single nonlinear Schr?dinger equation, playing the role of the Schwalow-Townes law for standard lasers, quantitatively reproduces experimental results and three-dimensional time-domain parallel simulations of a colloidal laser system.     

激光相干场成像散斑噪声复合去噪方法

噪声是影响激光相干场高分辨成像系统像质的重要因素,激光相干场成像系统既受背景光加性噪声影响,又受激光乘性散斑噪声影响.为解决激光相干场成像系统受激光乘性散斑噪声和背景光加性噪声叠加引起的成像像质退化效应问题,从噪声抑制角度提高激光相干场系统高分辨成像像质,研究建立了激光散斑乘性噪声和背景光加性噪声对大气下行链路激光回波场信号影响干扰模型,并基于该模型提出了一种基于同态滤波和稀疏基追踪级联复合去噪算法.首先基于同态滤波理论将激光乘性散斑噪声转化为加性噪声,再由高通滤波器滤除散斑噪声,最后采用基追踪稀疏理论方法抑制背景光等加性噪声对像质的影响.研究表明,较现有单一去噪方法,该级联复合去噪方法可一次性消除激光乘性散斑噪声和背景加性噪声两种不同性质的噪声,有效改善了激光相干场成像质量.     

Effect of lattice structure on energetic electron transport in solids irradiated by ultraintense laser pulses

The effect of lattice structure on the transport of energetic (MeV) electrons in solids irradiated by ultraintense laser pulses is investigated using various allotropes of carbon. We observe smooth electron transport in diamond, whereas beam filamentation is observed with less ordered forms of carbon. The highly ordered lattice structure of diamond is shown to result in a transient state of warm dense carbon with metalliclike conductivity, at temperatures of the order of 1-100?eV, leading to suppression of electron beam filamentation.     

Synthesis of novel Ru(2)C under high pressure-high temperature conditions

We report here, for the first time, synthesis of the Fe(2)N type hexagonal phase of ruthenium carbide by a high pressure-high temperature technique using a laser heated diamond anvil cell (LHDAC). The synthesis is carried out by laser heating a mixture of pure elements, Ru and C, at very low 'pressure' of 5?GPa and T?～?2000?K. The structure of the temperature quenched high pressure phase is characterized by in situ high pressure x-ray diffraction (HPXRD) and is corroborated by ex situ TEM imaging and diffraction, carried out for the first time on the retrieved sample synthesized by LHDAC. The lattice parameters of Ru(2)C at ambient pressure are found to be a?=?2.534???and c?=?4.147??. In situ HPXRD studies up to 14.2?GPa yield a bulk modulus of 178(4)?GPa. Electronic structure calculations reveal the system to be metallic in nature with a degree of covalence along the Ru-C bond. As ruthenium is isoelectronic to osmium, this result for Ru(2)C has significant implications in the synthesis and study of osmium carbides.     

Raman heterodyne detected magnetic resonance: I. CW and coherent transient measurements

We report cw and coherent transient studies on electronic and nuclear magnetic transitions of the nitrogen-vacancy centre in diamond using an optical-rf double resonance technique: Raman heterodyne detection. Emphasis is placed on the coherent transient measurements to illustrate the versatility of the detection technique, which is not only very sensitive but is also ideal in this case since it is based on a coherent process. In this paper we show that Raman heterodyne detection can be used to obtain a wide range of signals including nutation, spin echo, rotary echo and spin locking in a single system. Finally an example of using coherent transients to test the validity of the Bloch equation is given.