Ultra-short pulse laser interaction with transparent dielectrics

The interaction of intense, ultra-short laser pulses (USLP) with a surface of transparent dielectrics is considered. The combination of multi-photon absorption and impact ionization generates a plasma layer at the dielectric boundary. Interaction with the plasma self-consistently determines the amount of reflected, transmitted and absorbed light, and the spatial distribution of electron density. In the present paper, we model the interaction of USLP with transparent dielectrics. We calculate the evolution of electron density profiles and the variation of reflection, transmission and absorption of laser radiation during the pulse. We show that the laser-created surface plasma acts as a filter transmitting only the leading edge of the laser pulse. The transmitted energy is approximately fixed, nearly independent of input pulse energy. The transmitted energy increases with pulse duration. This increased energy is manifested in the formation of cylindrical shock waves directly applicable to recent experiments investigating absorption and shock generation in water. PACS 79.20.Ds; 81.15.Fg; 05.45.Pg     

Reflection of a Gaussian laser pulse by an active medium

The reflected laser pulse is both temporally and spatially displaced due to spatial and chromatic dispersions when a Gaussian laser pulse is incident onto an active medium. In the case of no chromatic dispersion, the temporal shift is linearly related to the spatial Goos-Hänchen shift. Furthermore, for an incident TE-mode laser pulse, the transmitted laser pulse shifts spatially and temporally by exactly a half of that of the reflected laser pulse. We further point out that, compared to the Goos-Hänchen shift at the critical angle which was conventionally considered the maximum, the Goos-Hänchen shift for the grazing incidence is bigger by one order of magnitude. This can greatly ease the direct experimental study of the Goos-Hänchen shift.     

超相对论激光和稠密等离子体作用产生阿秒脉冲的优化

利用一维粒子模拟程序研究了超相对论激光脉冲与稠密等离子体相互作用得到的阿秒脉冲.从超相对论近似的角度分析了电子运动行为和高次谐波的产生,发现当等离子体密度一定时,随着无量纲相似参数S的减小,阿秒脉冲的转换效率呈先增大后减小的趋势,因此选择适当的光强就可以得到转换效率较高的阿秒脉冲.当S一定时,随着等离子体密度的增加,阿秒脉冲转换效率有增大的趋势.这说明用适当的光强照射更稠密度的等离子体靶面,可以产生更强的阿秒脉冲.     

双波长双脉冲激光三次谐波的产生方法

提出双波长双脉冲激光产生三次谐波的方法。波长不同的两脉冲激光束由反射使它们合拢后通过两块非线性的BBO晶体 ,激光脉冲第一次通过BBO晶体产生两波长的二次谐波 (SHG) ,它们由各自的反射镜反射再次通过BBO又产生了二次谐波 ,这两次产生的二次谐波和基波通过用于产生三次谐波的BBO晶体可产生双波长的三次谐波 ,它们由 45°斜置的耦合镜输出。文中分析了满足二次谐波和三次谐波的四个相位匹配的条件 ,该方法也可用于腔内双波长双脉冲的三次谐波激光的产生 ,给出了相应的实验结果。     

Second harmonic generation accompanying linear mode conversion in a laser-produced plasma

Second harmonic (SH) generation in a laser produced plasma (NdYAG laser with wavelength 1.06 μm, pulse duration 30 ps, intensity 10¹³Wcm^-2) was investigated experimentally as a function of polarization and angle of incidence of the laser beam. The results are in agreement with theoretical predictions for SH generation in the presence of linear mode conversion in the plasma.     

Generation of lower and higher harmonics in different plasma media with small <Emphasis Type="Italic">Z</Emphasis>

The generation of lower (third) and higher harmonics of femtosecond laser radiation in plasmas produced by laser ablation of different targets with a small atomic number Z (B, Be, Li) has been investigated. The high (10⁻³) efficiency of third-harmonic generation was observed in plasma produced on the boron surface. Efficient third-harmonic generation was also observed in beryllium plasma using femtosecond pulses of Ti:sapphire laser radiation (λ = 790 nm) and its second harmonic (395 nm). We could tune the higher harmonics generation spectrum by tuning the crystal converter when using 395-nm radiation to be converted. It is shown that, in plasmas formed on targets with small Z, the conversion efficiency and limiting generated harmonic order depend on the delay between the ablation pulse and the pulse to be converted.     

Fast Soliton Scattering by Delta Impurities

We study the Gross-Pitaevskii equation with a repulsive delta function potential. We show that a high velocity incoming soliton is split into a transmitted component and a reflected component. The transmitted mass (L ² norm squared) is shown to be in good agreement with the quantum transmission rate of the delta function potential. We further show that the transmitted and reflected components resolve into solitons plus dispersive radiation, and quantify the mass and phase of these solitons.     

采用光栅角色散的宽带二倍频及聚焦特性分析

针对带宽为20 nm左右、中心波长为1 053 nm的线性啁啾宽带激光,分析了采用光栅角色散方式宽带二倍频的原理,讨论了光栅角色散性能及光栅加工误差引入的基频光位相扰动对二倍频光转换效率及聚焦特性的影响.研究结果表明:采用光栅角色散方式的宽带二倍频光的转换效率、脉冲宽度和带宽均明显增大;在0～22 nm基频光带宽范围内,二倍频光均可保持80％左右的转换效率;对于入射基频光带宽为22 nm的情况,光栅角色散率在30～80 μrad/nm范围内变化时,宽带二倍频转换效率均可保持在70％以上;基频光有位相扰动时,二倍频光带宽对二倍频聚焦光斑的主瓣影响不大,但对旁瓣有一定的匀滑作用,采用光栅角色散方式宽带二倍频的聚焦光斑旁瓣的匀滑效果更为明显.     

Generation of femtosecond laser pulses at 396 nm in K_3B_6O_(10)Cl crystal

K_3B_6O_(10)Cl(KBOC), a new nonlinear optical crystal, shows potential advantages for the generation of deep ultraviolet(UV) light compared with other borate crystals. In this paper we study for the first time the second harmonic generation(SHG) of a femtosecond Ti:sapphire amplifier with this crystal. Laser power is obtained to be as high as 220 m W at the central wavelength of 396 nm with a 1-mm-long crystal, and the maximum SHG conversion efficiency reaches 39.3%. The typical pulse duration is 83 fs. The results show that second harmonic(SH) conversion efficiency has the room to be further improved and that the new nonlinear crystal is very suited to generate the high efficiency deep ultraviolet laser radiation below 266 nm.     

Multipole interference in the second-harmonic optical radiation from gold nanoparticles

We provide experimental evidence of higher multipole (magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole) radiation in second-harmonic (SH) generation from arrays of metal nanoparticles. Fundamental differences in the radiative properties of electric dipoles and higher multipoles yield opposite interference effects observed in the SH intensities measured in the reflected and transmitted directions. These interference effects clearly depend on the polarization of the fundamental field, directly indicating the importance of multipole effects in the nonlinear response. We estimate that higher multipoles contribute up to 20% of the total emitted SH field amplitude for certain polarization configurations.     

Generation of an attosecond X-ray pulse in a thin film irradiated by an ultrashort ultrarelativistic laser pulse

The possibility of generating an attosecond x-ray pulse in a thin solid-density plasma layer irradiated by a femtosecond laser pulse of ultrarelativistic intensity has been demonstrated in numerical simulation. Changes in the plasma layer parameters during the light pulse result in the generation of a wide, partly continuous radiation spectrum in the layer. The separation of limited parts in the reflected or transmitted light spectrum makes it possible to obtain isolated short electromagnetic pulses with an intensity reaching 1% of the exciting light intensity.     

在不同激光脉宽下的高次谐波

用数值计算方法计算了不同强激光脉冲宽度下高次谐波的产生.我们发现对于激光场强度不高,不能有效电离初态的激光场,长脉冲宽度可以更有效产生高次谐波;而对于高场强的激光场,由于它能够在几个光学周期之内把原子的初态全部电离,所以短脉冲的激光场能够更有效产生高次谐波.     

Ultrashort pulse propagation and nonlinear frequency conversion in superconducting and magnetic photonic crystal

We study the propagation and second harmonic generation of ultrashort pulse in nonlinear photonic crystal using a combination of Fourier transform and transfer matrix method. The focus is on the reflected and transmitted output of fundamental pump pulse and second harmonic pulse in frequency and time domains, the temperature dependence of the reflection and transmission spectra where the superconducting transition frequency is close to the magnetic resonance. Interesting features include output pump and second harmonic pulses that can be strongly modulated with the transmitted pulses being delayed by slow light effect.     

Theoretical and experimental study of blurring of a femtosecond laser pulse in a turbid medium

We propose an analytical model of the spatio-temporal structure of a short laser pulse transmitted through a layer of an optically inhomogeneous medium with high anisotropy of scattering. The light-field brightness in the medium is represented as a finite series in terms of multiplicities of the small-angle scattering, while the contribution from the higher-order scattering is allowed for as a quasi-diffuse component. The scattered-pulse structure is calculated on the basis of solving the radiative-transfer equation in the small-angle approximation with allowance for the effect of multipath light propagation. Compared with the first approximation of the multiple-scattering theory (attenuated nonscattered light plus the diffuse component), this approach makes it possible to describe more correctly the transformation of the spatio-angular distribution of light in the medium when passing from the single-scattering to multiple-scattering regime, as well as specify the temporal profile of the scattered pulse. The temporal profile of the femtosecond pulse transmitted through a layer of model scattering medium with various concentrations of scatterers is studied experimentally. The blurred-pulse structure is studied with the help of nonlinear optical gating in the case of noncollinear generation of the second harmonic. Good agreement between the theoretical and experimental time profiles of the scattered pulse is shown for the optical-thickness intervals corresponding to both the predominantly low multiplicity scattering and multiple small-angle scattering, which allows us to use the proposed analytical model for solving the inverse problem of the pulse sounding of a homogeneous turbid medium. __________ Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 333–348, April 2008.     

Catastrophic collapse of ultrashort pulses

We investigate theoretically the self-focusing dynamics of an ultrashort laser pulse both near and above the threshold at which the pulse effectively undergoes catastrophic collapse. We find that, as a result of space-time focusing and self-steepening, an "optical shock" wave forms inside the medium that gives rise to a broad blueshifted pedestal in the transmitted pulse spectrum. Our results are in good agreement with the primary features observed in experiments and thus provide a theoretical understanding for the underlying process that gives rise to "white-light" generation.     

Optical harmonic generation in amorphous silicon nitride microcavities

Second harmonic (SH) and third harmonic (TH) generation in amorphous silicon nitride microcavity are experimentally investigated. The transmitted SH and TH signals are measured in the 0.9-1.4 μm spectral range, showing enhanced nonlinear conversion efficiency corresponding to resonant wavelength and optical band edges. The efficiencies of the SH and TH generation processes are found to be enhanced by about two and one orders of magnitude, respectively, in comparison with the case of reference amorphous silicon nitride sample. The SH spectra can be reasonably interpreted as due to surface/interface harmonic generation, while the TH signal is related to bulk isotropic third-order polarization. The results obtained for the TH signal are discussed in terms of the linear optical properties of amorphous silicon nitride thin films.     

相匹配契伦可夫辐射式倍频

用波导产生倍频波时,如果倍频波进入辐射模区,仍然有相匹配问题。契伦可夫辐射式倍频不是自动地实现相匹配的。相匹配要求导波基波模式场,倍频传输场(自由波),倍频触发场,以及经多次反射透射后的辐射场的迭加形成的总辐射场处于同步的相匹配状态。根据这个相匹配的分析,提出波导契伦可夫相匹配的特有的方法,那就是对波导的模色散进行设计,并指出非对称波导的特有优点,是改变一个边界上的反射相变,即选择不同色散的线性材料作包层,由此可得到相匹配的高效契伦可夫倍频辐射。     

Interaction of ultrashort elliptically polarized laser pulses with nonlinear helical photonic metamaterial

The effect of nonlinear properties of a material with a periodic structural cell (three-dimensional spiral) on the specificity of transmission and reflection of elliptically polarized laser pulses normally incident on the metamaterial is studied using the finite-difference time-domain method. An analysis of the hodograph of electric-field strength vector showed that an increase in the peak intensity of a linearly polarized laser pulse incident on a sample leads to an increase in the orthogonal component of the electric-field strength vector in the pulse transmitted through the medium. When pulses containing few electric-field periods are incident on a metamaterial, the latter demonstrates radically different optical properties for right- and left-handed circularly polarized light passing through the medium. It was shown that an increase in the intensity of a right-handed (left-handed) circularly polarized ultrashort pulse, incident on a sample composed of a rather large number of right-handed (left-handed) spirals made of nonlinearmaterial, widens the frequency range within which the incident light is almost entirely reflected from the medium.     

Self-transformation of a powerful femtosecond laser pulse into a white-light laser pulse in bulk optical media (or supercontinuum generation)

We present experimental and theoretical results on white-light generation in the filamentation of a high-power femtosecond laser pulse in water and atmospheric air. We have shown that the high spatio-temporal localization of the light field in the filament, which enables the supercontinuum generation, is sustained due to the dynamic transformation of the light field on the whole transverse scale of the beam, including its edges. We found that the sources of the supercontinuum blue wing are in the rings, surrounding the filament, as well as at the back of the pulse, where shock-wave formation enhanced by self-steepening takes place. We report on the first observation and demonstration of the interference of the supercontinuum spectral components arising in the course of multiple filamentation in a terawatt laser pulse. We demonstrate that the conversion efficiency of an initially narrow laser pulse spectrum into the supercontinuum depends on the length of the filament with high intensity gradients and can be increased by introducing an initial chirp. PACS 42.65.Jx; 42.65.Re; 42.25.Bs; 42.50.Hz     

Entropy generation rate during laser pulse heating: Effect of laser pulse parameters on entropy generation rate

Laser pulse heating of solid surface and entropy generation during the heating process are considered. Time exponentially decaying pulse is accommodated in the analysis and the laser pulse parameter (β₁/β₂) resulting in minimum entropy generation rate is computed. Analytical solutions for temperature rise are presented and volumetric entropy generation rate is formulated. Two laser pulses resulting in low volumetric entropy generation rate are examined in detail and volumetric entropy generation rate is associated with the laser pulse parameter (β₁/β₂). It is found that volumetric entropy generation rate attains high values in the early heating period due to large (1/T²). Moreover, the laser pulse with high-peak intensity results in lower volumetric entropy generation rate than that corresponding to the low-intensity laser pulse with the same energy content.