Supercontinuum generation under filamentation driven by intense femtosecond pulses in supercritical xenon and carbon dioxide

It is found that supercritical fluids are a unique source of multioctave supercontinuum radiation, which is generated upon filamentation of an intense femtosecond laser pulse. If the laser pulse power significantly exceeds the critical power of self-focusing, then a supercontinuum with a width of three and a half spectral octaves (from 350 to 2000 nm) is generated in supercritical xenon. The red wing of supercontinuum generated in supercritical carbon dioxide has the form of a plateau in the range from 1400 to 1900 nm, while the blue wing of the spectrum is almost completely attenuated.     

Microspectral analysis of dentine with femtosecond laser induced plasma

Microspectral analysis of dentine plasma produced by femtosecond laser radiation with intensities of I ～ 10¹³?10¹⁵ W/cm² in ambient atmosphere has been measured. C, O, Ca, Zn, Na, and Cu spectral lines were identified. The X-ray radiation with energies E > 30 keV has been observed upon laser beam intensities of I ～ 5 × 10¹⁵ W/cm².     

Generation of high-energy negative hydrogen ions upon the interaction of superintense femtosecond laser radiation with a solid target

The formation of a high-energy (～35 keV) beam of negative hydrogen ions was observed in the expanding femtosecond laser plasma produced at the surface of a solid target by radiation with an intensity of up to 2× 10¹⁶ W/cm². The energy spectra of the H⁺ and H^?-ions show a high degree of correlation.     

Femtosecond laser plasma in CaF<Subscript>2</Subscript> crystal microchannel and effective generation of characteristic X-ray radiation

The dependence of the characteristic X-ray radiation yield from CaF₂ crystal on the formed microchannel depth under highly intensive (I ∼ 3 × 10¹⁵ W/cm²) laser pulses with different contrast was obtained. The maximum of the characteristic X-ray radiation yield at these experimental conditions corresponded to the microchannel depth of 30–50 μm. The efficiency of the laser radiation conversion to the characteristic X-ray radiation increased from 6 × 10⁻⁸ for the surface up to 10⁻⁷ in the microchannel. The dependence of the characteristic X-ray radiation yield on the viewing angle showed that the source of X-ray radiation was located near the surface inside the microchannel.     

Disorder-correlated enhancement of second-harmonic generation in strongly photonic porous gallium phosphide

We report an order of magnitude enhancement of second-harmonic generation (SHG) from porous gallium phosphide relative to SHG in crystalline gallium phosphide. Optical heterodyning measurements of photon free-path length reveal a correlation between SHG enhancement and disorder of the porous material.     

Coherent focusing of high harmonics: a new way towards the extreme intensities

We demonstrate analytically and numerically that focusing of high harmonics produced by the reflection of a few-femtosecond laser pulse from a concave plasma surface opens a new way to unprecedentally high intensities. The key features allowing the boosting of the focal intensity are the harmonics coherency and the small exponent of the power-law decay of the harmonics spectrum. Using similarity theory and direct particle-in-cell simulations, we find that the intensity at the focus scales as I(CHF) alpha a(3)(0)I(0), where a(0) and I(0) alpha a(2)(0) are the dimensionless relativistic amplitude and the intensity of the incident laser pulse. The scaling suggests that due to the coherent harmonic focusing (CHF), the Schwinger intensity limit can be reached using lasers with I(0) approximately 10(22) W/cm(2). The pulse duration at the focus scales as tau(CHF) alpha 1/a(2)(0) and reaches the subattosecond range.     

Relativistic Doppler effect: universal spectra and zeptosecond pulses

We report on a numerical observation of the train of zeptosecond pulses produced by the reflection of a relativistically intense femtosecond laser pulse from the oscillating boundary of an overdense plasma because of the Doppler effect. These pulses promise to become unique experimental and technological tools since their length is of the order of the Bohr radius and the intensity is extremely high proportional, variant 10(19) W/cm(2). We present the physical mechanism, analytical theory, and direct particle-in-cell simulations. We show that the harmonic spectrum is universal: the intensity of nth harmonic scales as 1/n(p) for n<4gamma(2), where gamma is the largest gamma factor of the electron fluid boundary, and p=3 and p=5/2 for the broadband and quasimonochromatic laser pulses, respectively.     

Excitation of low-lying nuclear states by the ion line emission in femtosecond laser plasma

A scheme of nuclear excitation by the ionic X-ray lines in laser plasma using two femtosecond laser pulses is proposed. The first pulse produces plasma with a given degree of ionization, allowing the X-ray line energies of the target ions to be tuned to resonance with the nuclear transition, while the second pulse generates hot electrons that are necessary for X-ray generation.     

Kerr-Assisted Self-Compression of Mid-IR Femtosecond Laser Pulse in Dielectrics: Nonlinear-Medium Choice

We demonstrate an efficient method of mid-IR femtosecond-laser-pulse self-compression in transparent dielectrics based on a suitable selection of the parameters of the medium and laser radiation. We discuss the principle of selection of the nonlinear medium for ultrashort-pulse self-compression. We show that the proposed combination of the Kerr nonlinearity and negative group-velocity dispersion in a set of transparent dielectric crystals (CaF₂, BaF₂, YAG, etc.) provides a compression of the incident laser pulse to a 1–2 cycle pulse width.