Electric-field reconstruction of femtosecond laser pulses from interferometric autocorrelation using an evolutionary algorithm

We present an evolutionary algorithm for reconstructing a femtosecond laser pulse from its interferometric autocorrelation trace and laser spectrum. The algorithm is optimized for the intensity and phase characterization of several-cycle optical pulses. We tested this algorithm with numerically-generated femtosecond pulses and then applied it to experimental data. In the experiment, a negatively chirped 31-fs pulse and a sub-10-fs pulse containing high-order phase distortion were characterized. Frequency-resolved optical gating measurements, performed for comparison, confirm the reliability of our technique.     

Optimization of ultra-fast interactions using laser pulse temporal shaping controlled by a deterministic algorithm

Femtosecond laser pulse temporal shaping techniques have led to important advances in different research fields like photochemistry, laser physics, non-linear optics, biology, or materials processing. This success is partly related to the use of optimal control algorithms. Due to the high dimensionality of the solution and control spaces, evolutionary algorithms are extensively applied and, among them, genetic ones have reached the status of a standard adaptive strategy. Still, their use is normally accompanied by a reduction of the problem complexity by different modalities of parameterization of the spectral phase. Exploiting Rabitz and co-authors’ ideas about the topology of quantum landscapes, in this work we analyze the optimization of two different problems under a deterministic approach, using a multiple one-dimensional search (MODS) algorithm. In the first case we explore the determination of the optimal phase mask required for generating arbitrary temporal pulse shapes and compare the performance of the MODS algorithm to the standard iterative Gerchberg–Saxton algorithm. Based on the good performance achieved, the same method has been applied for optimizing two-photon absorption starting from temporally broadened laser pulses, or from laser pulses temporally and spectrally distorted by non-linear absorption in air, obtaining similarly good results which confirm the validity of the deterministic search approach.     

Coherent enhancement of broadband frequency up-conversion in BBO crystal by shaping femtosecond laser pulses

An optimal feedback control of broadband frequency up-conversion in BBO crystal is experimentally demonstrated by shaping femtosecond laser pulses based on genetic algorithm, and the frequency up-conversion efficiency can be enhanced by ∼16%. SPIDER results show that the optimal laser pulses have shorter pulse-width with the little negative chirp than the original pulse with the little positive chirp. By modulating the fundamental spectral phase with periodic square distribution on SLM-256, the frequency up-conversion can be effectively controlled by the factor of about 17%. The experimental results indicate that the broadband frequency up-conversion efficiency is related to both of second harmonic generation (SHG) and sum frequency generation (SFG), where the former depends on the fundamental pulse intensity, and the latter depends on not only the fundamental pulse intensity but also the fundamental pulse spectral phase.     

Characterization of a broadband pulse for phase controlled multiphoton microscopy by single beam SPIDER

We present what we believe to be a new version of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction (SPIDER) using only a single-phase and polarization controlled laser beam. Two narrow pulses and one broadband pulse are selected out of an ultrafast laser pulse by a polarization and phase control technique to generate second harmonic generation (SHG) signals, which are equivalent to a spectral shear interferogram in the conventional SPIDER method. The spectral phase of the broadband laser pulse is extracted analytically with double quadrature spectral interferometry (DQSI). An arbitrary spectral phase can be retrieved with great precision and compensated in situ at the sample position of a microscope. This new method requires no separate reference beam and is suitable for nonlinear optical microscopy with a phase controlled laser pulse.     

Characterization of sub-6-fs optical pulses with spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction

We demonstrate spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER) as a novel method to characterize sub-6-fs pulses with nanojoule pulse energy. SPIDER reconstructs pulse phase and amplitude from a measurement of only two optical spectra by use of a fast noniterative algorithm. SPIDER is well suited to the measurement of ultrabroadband pulses because it is quite insensitive to crystal phase-matching bandwidth and to unknown detector spectral responsivity. Moreover, it combines highly accurate pulse-shape measurement with the potential for online laser system diagnostics at video refresh rates.     

基于耗散孤子种子的啁啾脉冲光纤放大系统输出特性

以不同滤波器带宽下获得的全正色散光纤激光器耗散孤子作为啁啾脉冲放大(CPA)系统的种子脉冲, 研究了光栅对和光纤展宽器CPA系统输出脉冲的可压缩性. 结果表明, 对于大能量耗散孤子种子脉冲, 当CPA系统采用正色散光纤展宽器时, 光纤群速色散与自相位调制之间的相互作用不仅可抑制耗散孤子脉冲光谱调制的影响, 还可使脉冲在光纤展宽器中自相似演化, 从而可提高CPA输出脉冲的可压缩性. 通过优化光纤展宽器长度, 对于耗散孤子种子源, 采用光纤展宽器的CPA系统输出脉冲可压缩性与主脉冲所占脉冲总能量之比均优于采用光栅对展宽器时的情况.     

Relative carrier-envelope phase dependence of resonant propagation of two-colour femtosecond pulses in V-type atomic medium

Using numerical solution of the full Maxwell--Bloch equations, which is obtained by the finite-difference time-domain method and the iterative predictor--corrector method, we investigate the modulation effect of relative carrier--envelope phase (hereinafter referred to as the relative phase) on resonant propagation of two-colour femtosecond ultrashort laser pulses in a V-type three-level atomic medium. It is found that the pulse splitting occurs for a smaller value of relative phase; when the value of relative phase increases to a certain value, only the variation of pulse shape is present and the pulse splitting does not occur any more; moreover, when the value of relative phase is smaller, the pulse group velocity is larger. The relative phase also has an obvious effect on population and spectral property. Different population transfers can be realized by adjusting the value of relative phase. Generally speaking, for the pulses with smaller areas their spectral strengths and frequency ranges decrease obviously with the value of relative phase increasing; for the pulses with larger areas, with value of the relative phase increasing, their spectral strengths decrease remarkably but the relative strengths of the higher frequency components increase significantly, while the spectral frequency range is not varied evidently.     

Spatial optimization of filaments

We demonstrate the spatial homogenization of intense laser pulses by adaptive minimization of spatial chirp of the spectrally broadened output pulses of a filament. A liquid-crystal-based two-dimensional spatial light modulator is used to control the spatial phase of the driver pulse. An evolutionary algorithm finds the optimal spatial laser phase distribution that introduces minimal distortions during filamentation and enhances the beam quality of the output pulse. A homogeneous intensity distribution favours efficient temporal compression close to the bandwidth limit without the need for spatial filtering after the filament. PACS 42.65.-k; 42.65.Re; 41.85.Ct     

All-normal-dispersion femtosecond fiber laser with pulse energy above 20 nJ

We report a study of the scaling and limits to pulse energy in an all-normal-dispersion femtosecond fiber laser. Theoretical calculations show that operation at large normal cavity dispersion is possible in the presence of large nonlinear phase shifts, owing to strong pulse shaping by spectral filtering of the chirped pulse in the laser. Stable pulses are possible with energies of tens of nanojoules. Experimental results from Yb-doped fiber lasers agree with the trends of numerical simulations. Stable and self-starting pulses are generated with energies above 20 nJ, and these can be dechirped to <200 fs duration. Femtosecond pulses with peak powers near 100 kW are thus available from this simple and practical design.     

Conical emission by femtosecond pulses with different spectral bandwidths

Conical emission (CE) has been investigated experimentally by laser pulses with different pulse durations and spectral bandwidths. The results show that the overall CE curve will shift as the varying of spectral bandwidth of pump laser pulse. But for pump laser pulses which have same spectral bandwidth but different pulse duration, the CE angles will be same at the spectral region close to the pump wavelength while will be different at the spectral region far away from the pump wavelength. We have also fitted the measured CE angles with X-wave model. The calculated curves and the measured CE curves match reasonably well. The best fits indicate that the group velocity of the filament pulse may be greatly controlled by controlling the spectral bandwidth of pump laser pulse.     

皮秒光纤激光脉冲两个关键问题的研究

窄带耗散孤子锁模光纤激光器可以产生接近变换限制的皮秒脉冲,但受非线性相移的限制,输出脉冲重复频率不能通过增加腔长来降低,脉冲能量仅在0.1 nJ以下,严重制约着这类皮秒脉冲的实际应用。提出一种通过耦合器抽取腔内脉冲能量、抑制腔内非线性相移积累,进而允许增加腔长来降低窄带耗散孤子皮秒光纤激光脉冲重复频率的方法。运用该方法,成功地将激光器重复频率由35.2 MHz降低到了1.77 MHz,且脉冲时频特性保持不变。提出了一种基于级间FBG陷波滤波的抑制皮秒脉冲光纤放大中光谱展宽的方法。通过简单地使用级间陷波滤波器,既可窄化第一级光纤放大器后的输出脉冲谱宽,允许采用第二级光纤放大器进一步提升脉冲能量,而且,还可将脉冲重塑为近高斯形,利用高斯脉冲光谱展宽斜率小的特点,允许第二级光纤放大器将脉冲能量提升得更高。利用该方法,在RMS（均方值）谱宽保持0.4 nm以内的前提下,10 ps脉冲经标准单模光纤放大器后,能量可由0.2 nJ可提升到10 nJ以上。     

Generation of isolated attosecond pulses with a specific waveform two-color laser field

We theoretically propose a new method for generating intense isolated attosecond pulses during high-order harmonic generation (HHG) process by accurately controlling electron motion with a two-color laser field,which consists of an 800-nm,4-fs elliptically polarized laser field and a 1400-nm,～43-fs linearly polarized laser field.With this method,the supercontinua with a spectral width above 200 eV are obtained,which can support a ～15-as isolated pulse after phase compensation.Classical and quantum analyses explain the controlling effects well.In particular,when the pulse duration of the 800-nm laser field increases to 20-fs,sub-100-as isolated pulses can be obtained even without any phase compensation.     

Generation of an isolated sub-100 attosecond pulse in the water-window spectral region

We propose a scheme to generate isolated attosecond pulses in the water-window spectral region. Based on the numerical solutions of the single active electron model, we investigate high-order harmonic generation in helium atoms driven by a multi-cycle two-colour optical field synthesized by an intense 2000 nm, 20 fs pulse and its frequency-doubled pulse. When the latter is slightly detuned and properly phase shifted with respect to the fundamental laser pulse, an ultra-broad extreme ultraviolet supercontinuum with a spectral width of 130~eV can be generated in the 270--400~eV spectral regions. A supercontinuum from 280--340~eV in the water window can be selected to yield an isolated 67 attosecond pulse without employing any phase compensation. This water window coherent x-ray pulse with less than 100 attosecond duration is a potential tool for studying the ultrafast electronic dynamics of biological samples in water.     

Transform-Limited Pulses Are Not Optimal for Resonant Multiphoton Transitions

Maximizing nonlinear light-matter interactions is a primary motive for compressing laser pulses to achieve ultrashort transform limited pulses. Here we show how, by appropriately shaping the pulses, resonant multiphoton transitions can be enhanced significantly beyond the level achieved by maximizing the pulse's peak intensity. We demonstrate the counterintuitive nature of this effect with an experiment in a resonant two-photon absorption, in which, by selectively removing certain spectral bands, the peak intensity of the pulse is reduced by a factor of 40, yet the absorption rate is doubled. Furthermore, by suitably designing the spectral phase of the pulse, we increase the absorption rate by a factor of 7.     

Amplitude and phase control of ultrashort pulses by use of an acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter: pulse compression and shaping

We demonstrate experimentally that an arbitrary phase and amplitude profile can be applied to an ultrashort pulse by use of an acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter (AOPDF). Our filter has a large group-delay range that extends over 3 ps and a 30% diffraction efficiency over 150 THz. Experiments were conducted on a kilohertz chirped-pulse amplification laser chain capable of generating 30-fs pulses without additional pulse shaping. Compensating for gain narrowing and residual phase errors with an AOPDF in place of the stretcher results in 17-fs transform-limited pulses. Arbitrary shaping of these 17-fs pulses is also demonstrated in both the temporal and the spectral domains.     

Generation of shaped ultraviolet pulses at the third harmonic of titanium-sapphire femtosecond laser radiation

We experimentally demonstrate a method to generate shaped femtosecond laser pulses in the ultraviolet at a central wavelength of 267 nm, the third harmonic of conventional titanium-sapphire femtosecond laser systems. Employing a 128-pixel liquid-crystal spatial light modulator, we impose variable spectral phase modulations upon the near-infrared laser pulses. By this, complex laser pulses can be shaped whose overall spectrum is still conserved. Our experiments show that it is possible to easily transfer these pulses into the ultraviolet at 267 nm via sum-frequency mixing in nonlinear crystals and to predictably generate multistructured ultraviolet femtosecond laser pulses. We analyze the temporal and spectral composition of these pulses after frequency conversion into the ultraviolet using difference-frequency cross-correlation and XFROG (cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating) techniques with an unmodulated fundamental laser pulse. The method can be employed to facilitate adaptive quantum control experiments in the ultraviolet wavelength regime, where the major absorption bands of many organic molecular systems are located. PACS 42.65.Re; 42.72.Bj; 32.80.Qk     

基于多光子脉冲内干涉相位扫描法对飞秒激光脉冲进行相位测量和补偿的研究

研制了一套基于多光子脉冲内干涉相位扫描方法的可以同时对飞秒激光脉冲进行相位测量和补偿的实验系统装置.实验中,通过自主研发的LabVIEW程序控制液晶空间光调制器和光纤光谱仪,对待测飞秒激光脉冲施加相位扫描,并同时记录受到调制的飞秒激光脉冲的倍频光谱,得到了多光子脉冲内干涉相位扫描(MIIPS)轨迹图.通过MIIPS轨迹图的三次测量和迭代运算,还原出了经过预先啁啾调制的中心波长约为810 nm、重复频率为1 kHz的飞秒激光脉冲的光谱相位,测量精度在0.1 rad以内.根据测量结果,利用液晶空间光调制器对该飞秒激光脉冲进行相位补偿,得到了近似傅里叶变换极限的飞秒激光脉冲.这一装置将在多光子显微成像、脉冲整形、飞秒激光光谱学等众多领域发挥重要作用.     

Attosecond spectral shearing interferometry

We show that the complete characterization of arbitrarily short isolated attosecond x-ray pulses can be achieved by applying spectral shearing interferometry to photoelectron wave packets. These wave packets are coherently produced through the photoionization of atoms by two time-delayed replicas of the x-ray pulse, and are shifted in energy with respect to each other by simultaneously applying a strong laser field. The x-ray pulse is reconstructed with the algorithm developed for optical pulses, which requires no knowledge of ionization physics. Using a 800-nm shearing field, x-ray pulses shorter than approximately 400 asec can be fully characterized.     

Investigation of parameters of terahertz pulses generated in single-domain LiNbO<Subscript>3</Subscript> crystal by step-wise phase mask

A new scheme for the efficient generation of broadband terahertz radiation via optical rectification of femtosecond laser pulses in the single-domain lithium niobate crystal equipped with the step-wise phase mask (SPM) is investigated. It is shown that using the SPM one can provide the phase matching for all the spectral components of a terahertz pulse by providing the effective conversion of laser radiation in the terahertz region. The angular distribution of spectral components, as well as the temporal shape of terahertz pulses in the wave zone is studied. These results can be applied in the time-domain spectroscopy, the imaging of hidden objects, and etc.     

Tuning of laser pulse shapes in grating-based compressors for optimal electron acceleration in plasmas

The temporal shape (rise time, fall time, skewness) of 50-200-fs Ti:sapphire laser pulses has been controlled by appropriate adjustment of a grating-pair compressor. It was found that the skewness of the laser pulse envelope is particularly sensitive to the third-order component of the spectral phase. Introducing such a third-order phase offset by detuning the grating pair relative to the optimum pulse compression settings allowed the generation of skewed pulses. As an example of an application, these skewed pulses were used to optimize a laser-plasma electron accelerator.