Single 10-fs deep-ultraviolet pulses generated by broadband four-wave mixing and high-order dispersion compensation

Broadband chirped-pulse four-wave mixing and a pulse compressor consisting of a prism pair and a grating pair are used to generate 10.3-fs deep-ultraviolet pulses. A large proportion of the dispersion up to 1000 fs² is compensated without inducing third-order dispersion, which together with the smooth spectral and temporal profiles of the pulses makes them suitable for ultrafast spectroscopy. Unexpected spectral narrowing is observed when short input pulses were used for four-wave mixing. This narrowing is explained in terms of other third-order nonlinear phenomena, namely self-phase and cross-phase modulations, which occur simultaneously with four-wave mixing.     

Generation of 12 fs deep-ultraviolet pulses by four-wave mixing through filamentation in neon gas

Generation of deep-ultraviolet femtosecond pulses by four-wave mixing through filamentation in neon gas was demonstrated. Fundamental (omega) and second-harmonic (2omega) pulses of 25 fs Ti:sapphire amplifier output were focused into neon gas, and 20 microJ pulses with the center wavelength of 260 nm were produced by a four-wave mixing process, 2omega+2omega-omega?3omega through an ~15 cm filament. Additionally, pulses with an energy of 2 microJ at 200 nm were generated, probably by a cascaded process, 3omega+2omega-omega?4omega. The 260 nm pulses were compressed by a grating-based compressor and characterized by a dispersion-free transient grating frequency-resolved optical gating. The estimated pulse width was 12 fs.     

在固体透明材料中利用级联四波混频方法获得宽带多色飞秒激光脉冲的研究

飞秒激光光谱学实验研究的深入与拓展对飞秒激光脉冲的要求也越来越高.比如多色抽运探测实验需要同时用到多个不同频率的超短飞秒激光脉冲.本文设计了一个更加简单紧凑的实验装置,对两束不同中心频率的入射光引入相反啁啾,在厚度为0.5 mm的CaF2晶体中利用级联四波混频获得了光谱半高全宽近100nm,支持傅里叶转换极限脉宽小于10 fs的多色飞秒激光脉冲.这一结果将为拓展飞秒激光光谱学研究和应用发挥重要作用.     

Generation of femtosecond anti-stokes pulses through phase-matched parametric four-wave mixing in a photonic crystal fiber

Phase-matched parametric four-wave mixing in higher-order guided modes of a photonic crystal fiber is shown to result in an efficient decay of 40-fs 800-nm Ti:sapphire laser pump pulses into an anti-Stokes signal with a central wavelength around 590-600 nm and a Stokes signal centered at 1.25 microm. The photonic crystal fiber is designed in such a way as to minimize the group-velocity dispersion at the pump wavelength, phase match the parametric four-wave-mixing process, and reduce the group delay between the pump and the anti-Stokes pulses. The duration of the anti-Stokes pulse under these conditions, as shown by cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating measurements, is less than 200 fs.     

Controllable cascaded four-wave mixing by two chirped femtosecond laser pulses

We investigated the generation of cascaded four-wave mixing (CFWM) sidebands by using two crossing chirped femtosecond pulses with the same central wavelength in tellurite glass (Te glass). Sidebands of broadband spectra, which contained non-degenerate and degenerate CFWM signals, were obtained at different delay time between two input pulses. The CFWM sidebands observed on different sides of input beams were flexibly controlled by adjusting the delay time.     

Collinear nondegenerate four-wave mixing by a three-level system

Four-wave mixing in the vicinity of a sodium doublet is reported. The three-level system allows collinear phase-matching. The FWM is resonantly enhanced by a high gain on the blue side of the D₁ transition.Present address: LROL, Physics Department, Laval University, Quebec, Canada, G1K 7P4To whom correspondence should be addressed     

Conical four-wave mixing in sodium vapour excited by femtosecond laser pulses

Broadband (sometimes exceeding 1500 cm^-1) red-shifted (with respect to the sodium 3S–3P transition frequency) conical emission has been observed with the pump wavelength tuned in the range between 540 and 589 nm. Such broadband emission was attributed to the generation and amplification of light at the Rabi sideband frequencies in the field of intense femtosecond laser pulses. It has been shown that the cone angle of the emitted radiation is determined by the process of four-wave mixing under the conditions of longitudinal (Cherenkov-type) phase matching. PACS 42.65.Ky; 42.65.Re; 42.50.Hz     

Generation of monochromatic visible light in microstructured optical fiber by nondegenerate four-wave mixing

We exploit nondegenerate four-wave mixing to generate narrow-bandwidth visible light from blue to orange in microstructured optical fiber. The process is excited by nanosecond dual-wavelength pump pulses (532/1064 nm) produced by a frequency-doubled passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. A linearly polarized, fundamental mode signal wave is generated in the visible, accompanied by an idler wave in the near-infrared. The signal and idler wavelengths are adjustable by the design of the microstructure.     

Generation and amplification of dual-color femtosecond pulses by a noncollinear optical parametric up-conversion process

Noncollinear optical parametric up-conversion generation and amplification are realized in a thick β-barium borate (BBO) crystal, and a couple of visible femtosecond up-conversion laser pulses can be achieved by a femtosecond pulse at 800 nm as the pump sources. The theoretical and experimental results indicate that there exist phase-matching conditions for dual-color noncollinear parametric up-conversion generation and amplification, and their wavelengths can be tuned by rotating the BBO crystal. This parametric up-conversion generation and amplification can be attributed to three and five-wave mixing in a thick BBO crystal, and it shows the potential application on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) to generate multi-color ultraviolet or visible femtosecond laser pulses pumped directly by femtosecond fundamental laser pulses without frequency-doubling or tripling.     

充气毛细管中飞秒激光四波混频的理论描述

建立了一个描写充气毛细管中飞秒激光四波混频过程的理论框架.在 这个理论框架的基础上，对最近得到的充气毛细管中飞秒激光四波混频过程的信号强度气 压实验曲线给出了初步的理论说明．发现考虑走离效应和相调制效应对充气毛细管中飞秒激 光四波混频过程有重要的作用．同时还发现在一定的条件下，考虑直接的三次谐波过程对实 验曲线的影响是必要的. 关键词： 四波混频 飞秒激光 充气毛细管     

Generation of sub-two-cycle mid-infrared pulses by four-wave mixing through filamentation in air

Generation of sub-two-cycle, microjoule pulses in the mid-infrared region is demonstrated. Fundamental and second-harmonic pulses of 25 fs Ti:sapphire amplifier output were focused into the air to produce extremely broadband mid-infrared pulses by four-wave difference-frequency generation through the filamentation. The full width at half-maximum of the spectral bandwidth reaches one octave (2.5-5.5 microm), which is sufficiently broad for sub-single-cycle pulse generation. The pulse width was estimated to be 13 fs, without any compressors, by cross-correlation frequency resolved optical gating. The output energy of more than a few microjoule is sufficient for spectroscopy.     

Deflection of a phase-conjugate wave in nondegenerate four-wave mixing

The boundary problem for signal phase conjugation at nondegenerated four-wave mixing (FWM) is considered. In contrast to the statements of some authors it is shown that noncollinearity of the incident and the phase-conjugate waves occur. Expressions have been obtained for the deflection angle for a number of configurations of practical importance. Useful analogy between linear and nonlinear reflection at the FWM is noted.     

Generation of broadband femtosecond visible pulses in dispersion-micromanaged holey fibers

Submillimeter-scale dispersion micromanagement (DMM) is used to generate coherent and stable femtosecond visible pulses in holey fibers as short as 10 mm. The longitudinal variation of the phase-matching conditions for Cerenkov radiation and four-wave mixing explains the results well. We have converted up to 20% of the total input energy to a low-noise solitary wave with a bandwidth up to 50 nm in the range 385-625 nm by using holey fibers with various DMM designs.     

Generation of broadband similaritons for complete characterization of femtosecond pulses

Broadband nonlinear-dispersive similariton (50 THz bandwidth; > 100 nm at 800 nm central wavelength) is generated in passive uniform fiber and characterized experimentally through the chirp measurement technique of spectral compression and frequency tuning in the sum-frequency generation process. The potential of similariton applications to the signal synthesis and analysis problems on the femtosecond time scale, especially for similariton-induced temporal lensing and similariton-based spectral interferometry, is discussed on the basis of our experiments.     

Generation of high-energy femtosecond pulses in multimode-core Yb-fiber chirped-pulse amplification systems

220-fs pulses with energies of ~100microJ have been generated by use of two different configurations of diode-pumped Yb-fiber chirped-pulse amplification systems. Energy scaling was demonstrated with 25-microm -core diameter fibers, in which stable diffraction-limited output (M(2)~1.1) was achieved. A two-stage fiber-amplifier system produced average powers of up to 5.5 W at ~1- MHz pulse-repetition rate. A double-pass configuration provided 53-dB gain in a single Yb-fiber amplifier stage, thus eliminating the necessity for multiple amplification stages as well as the need for using polarization-preserving fibers.     

Phase-matched four-wave mixing of isolated waveguide modes of high-intensity femtosecond pulses in a hollow photonic-crystal fiber

Hollow-core photonic-crystal fibers with a special dispersion profile are shown to allow phase-matched nonlinear optical interactions of isolated air-guided modes of high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses confined in the hollow fiber core. We present theoretical and experimental studies of the four-wave mixing of fundamental and second-harmonic pulses of a Cr:forsterite laser with an initial pulse duration of about 50 fs and an intensity on the order of 10¹⁴ W/cm² in waveguide modes of a hollow photonic-crystal fiber with a core diameter of about 13μm.     

Excitation of surface polaritons by nondegenerate four-wave mixing of evanescent waves

We propose a method for exciting a surface polariton wave by nonlinear mixing of three evanescent waves. The nonlinear polarization and phase matching conditions are analyzed for diatomic cubic crystals and a numerical example is given for GaP showing that this scheme is possible. Furthermore, by consideration of the energy balance in the crystal, the gain coefficient for the surface wave and the intensity of the wave coupled to the vacuum are also calculated.     

Production of narrowband tunable extreme-ultraviolet radiation by noncollinear resonance-enhanced four-wave mixing

Fourier-transform-limited extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) radiation (bandwidth approximately < 300 MHz) tunable around 91 nm is produced by use of two-photon resonance-enhanced four-wave mixing on the Kr resonance at 94 093 cm(-1). Noncollinear phase matching ensures the generation of an XUV sum frequency 2 omega1 + omega2 that can be filtered from auxiliary laser beams and harmonics by an adjustable slit. Application of the generated XUV light is demonstrated in spectroscopic investigations of highly excited states in H2 and N2.     

Cherenkov phase-matching in Raman-seeded four-wave mixing by a femtosecond Bessel beam

It is demonstrated experimentally that the angle vs. wavelength dependence of the emission generated by multi-step four-wave mixing process seeded by stimulated Raman scattering in water under femtosecond Bessel beam excitation is determined by the longitudinal phase-matching from IR to near UV. It is shown that if on-axis phase velocity of the pump Bessel beam is equal to the phase velocity of the Stokes axial wave, then, similar to Cherenkov radiation, all the other anti-Stokes beams too acquire that axial velocity.