Structural Modification of PECVD As50S50 Chalcogenide-Glass Films by Femtosecond Laser Radiation

A thin film of As₅₀S₅₀ chalcogenide glass modified by femtosecond laser radiation at a wavelength of 800 nm has been studied. The character of the modification has been analyzed by interferometry, atomic-force microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. The relationship between a change in the refractive index upon the sample modification and structural changes in the glass network is determined.

     

Dissipative Solitons in the Complex Ginzburg-Landau Equation for Femtosecond Lasers

We consider the models of generating femtosecond radiation in solid-state lasers with passive mode locking. An approach in which ultrashort laser pulses (USPs) are associated with the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation (GLE) is developed. The structure of solitons and the range of parameters of their existence are analytically determined and the stability criteria of those solitons are formulated for a number of limiting cases. The scenarios of the cyclic spectral and temporal dynamics of dissipative solitons due to the instability of the background field are studied.     

New scheme of a petawatt laser based on nondegenerate parametric amplification of chirped pulses in DKDP crystals

The ultra-broadband phase matching was experimentally observed in a DKDP crystal upon parametric amplification of signal radiation with a wavelength of 911 nm in a pump field with a wavelength of 527 nm. The original scheme was used to excite the first parametric amplification stage by chirped pulses of idler radiation with a wavelength of 1250 nm. The saturated gain of a three-stage parametric amplifier was equal to 10⁸.     

New method of control over the phase of an ultrashort electromagnetic pulse under frustrated total internal reflection conditions

A new method of operational control over the phase of an ultrashort pulse in the range from 0 to π with insignificant phase distortions is proposed. The results of the experiment on control within 0.7 π over the phase of a terahertz pulse with a relative spectral width exceeding an octave are presented.     

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.     

An Analogue of the Magnus Problem for Associative Algebras

We prove an analogue of the Magnus theorem for associative algebras without unity over arbitrary fields. Namely, if an algebra is given by n + k generators and k relations and has an n-element system of generators, then this algebra is a free algebra of rank n. __________ Translated from Sovremennaya Matematika i Ee Prilozheniya (Contemporary Mathematics and Its Applications), Vol. 14, Algebra, 2004.     

Generation and detection of ultrashort pulses of electromagnetic field in the terahertz range and their application for spectroscopy

We present experimental results on generation of pulsed terahertz radiation in a ZnTe crystal using nonlinear optical rectification of high-power femtosecond laser pulses. The use of terahertz pulses for spectroscopy is tested in the rotational lines of absorption of water vapors in the atmosphere. Panoramic spectra of absorption of a number of solvents and protein solutions are measured in the range from 0.2 to 2 THz.     

Features of the generation of a collisionless electrostatic shock wave in a laser-ablation plasma

The appearance of a density bump is experimentally revealed in an electrostatic shock wave during the ablation of an aluminum foil by a femtosecond laser pulse. The numerical simulation shows that this phenomenon can be explained by the generation of a packet of ion acoustic waves under the action of high-energy electron flows in a collisionless plasma. It is found that, for the formation and maintenance of the dense plasma layer in the shock wave, the contributions of accelerated ions overtaking it and wave-captured ions of the background plasma formed by a nanosecond laser prepulse in the process of ablation are significant.