Measurement of spatiotemporal characteristics of femtosecond laser pulses by a modified single-shot autocorrelation

To overcome the shortcomings of the single-shot autocorrelation SSA where only one pulse width is obtained when the SSA is applied to measure the pulse width of ultrashort laser pulses a modified SSA for measuring the spatiotemporal characteristics of ultrashort laser pulses at different spatial positions is proposed. The spatiotemporal characteristics of femtosecond laser pulses output from the Ti sapphire regenerative amplifier system are experimentally measured by the proposed method. It was found that the complex spatial characteristics are measured accurately.The pulse widths at different spatial positions are various which obey the Gaussian distribution.The pulse width at the same spatial position becomes narrow with the increase in input average power when femtosecond laser pulses pass through a carbon disulfide CS2 nonlinear medium.The experimental results verify that the proposed method is valid for measuring the spatiotemporal characteristics of ultrashort laser pulses at different spatial positions.

Study on the interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with nanometre-sized hydrogen clusters

The interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with hydrogen clusters has been experimentally studied. The hydrogen clusters were produced from expansion of high-pressure hydrogen gas （backed up to 8×10^6Pa） into vacuum through a conical nozzle cryogenically cooled by liquid nitrogen. The average size of hydrogen clusters was estimated by Rayleigh scattering measurement and the maximum proton energy of up to 4.2keV has been obtained from the Coulomb explosion of hydrogen clusters under 2 × 10^16W/cm^2 laser irradiation. Dependence of the maximum proton energy on cluster size and laser intensity was investigated, indicating the correlation between the laser intensity and the cluster size. The maximum proton energy is found to be directly proportional to the laser intensity, which is consistent with the theoretical prediction.

Transmission Degradation of Femtosecond Laser Pulses in Opened Cone Targets

Irradiated by femtosecond laser pulses with different energies, opened cone targets behave very differently in the transmission of incident laser pulses. The targets, each with an opening angle of 71° and an opening of 5 μm, are fabricated using standard semiconductor technology. When the incident laser energy is low and no pre-plasma is generated on the side walls of the cones, the cone target acts like an optical device to reflect the laser pulse, and 15% of the laser energy can be transmitted through the cones. In contrast, when the incident laser energy is high enough to generate pre-plasmas by the pre-pulse of the main pulse that fills the inner cone, the cone with the plasmas will block the transmission of the laser, which leads to a decrease in laser transmission compared with the low-energy case with no plasma. Simulation results using optical software in the low-energy case, and using the particle-in-cell code in the high-energy case, are primarily in agreement with the experimental results.

Impact of substrate on opto-thermal response of thin metallic targets under irradiation with femtosecond laser pulses

Femtosecond pulsed lasers have been widely used over the past decades due to their capability to fabricate precise patterns at the micro-and nano-lengths scales. A key issue for efficient material processing is the determination of the laser parameters used in the experimental set ups. Despite a systematic investigation that has been performed to highlight the impact of every parameter independently, little attention has been drawn on the role of the substrate material on which the irradiated solid is placed. In this work, the influence of the substrate is emphasised for films of various thicknesses, which demonstrates that both the optical and thermophysical properties of the substrate affect the thermal fingerprint on the irradiated film while the impact is manifested to be higher at smaller film sizes. Two representative materials, silicon and fused silica, have been selected as typical substrates for thin films(gold and nickel) of different optical and thermophysical behaviour and the thermal response and damage thresholds are evaluated for the irradiated solids. The pronounced influence of the substrate is aimed to pave the way for new and more optimised designs of laserbased fabrication set ups and processing schemes.

Determination of the temporal structure of femtosecond laser pulses by means of laser-induced air plasma

A new approach is presented to reveal the temporal structure of femtosecond laser pulses by recording the correspond- ing time-resolved shadowgraphs of the laser-induced air plasma. It is shown that the temporal structures of femtosecond laser pulses, normally not observable by the ordinary intensity autocorrelator, can be detected through intuitively analyz- ing the ultrafast evolution process of the air plasma induced by the femtosecond laser pulses under examination. With this method, existence of pre- and post-pulses has been clearly unveiled within the time window of 4-150 fs in reference with the main 50-fs laser pulses output from a commercial 1-kHz femtosecond laser amplifier. The unique advantage of the proposed method is that it can directly provide valuable information about the pulse temporal structures＇ effect on the laser-induced ionization or material ablation.

Population transfer by femtosecond laser pulses in a ladder-type atomic system

The population transfer in a ladder-type atomic system driven by linearly polarized sech-shape femtosecond laser pulses is investigated by numerically solving Schr6dinger equation without including the rotating wave approximation （RWA）. It is shown that population transfer is mainly determined by the Rabi frequency （strength） of the driving laser field and the chirp rate, and that the ratio of the dipole moments and the pulse width also have a prominent effect on the population transfer. By choosing appropriate values of the above parameters, complete population transfer can be realized.

Propagation of Intense Femtosecond Laser Pulses in Deuterated Methane and Deuterium Cluster Jets

Propagation of intense femtosecond laser pulses （60 fs, 800 nm, 120 m J, 6 × 10^17 W/cm^2 in vacuum） in supersonic （CD4）N and （D2）N cluster jets at different backing pressures was studied. Pump-probe interferometry is employed to investigate the propagation of laser beams in dense cluster jets by examining the electron density distribution of plasma chan- nels. It was found that propagation effects, including ionization-induced defocusing and laser attenuation of incident pulses, are very different in the （CD4）N and （D2）N cluster jets. Different ionization states of CD4 and D2 molecules were observed by analyzing the transverse electron density profiles of the plasma channels and should be considered as a major reason for the differences in the propagation effects. Numerical simulations of the nonlinear propagation of femtosecond laser pulses in （CD4）N and （D2）N cluster jets were performed, and the results indicated a good reproduction of the experimental data.

The Electron Trajectory in a Relativistic Femtosecond Laser Pulse

In this report,we start from Lagrange equation and analyze theoretically the electron dynamics in electromagnetic field.By solving the relativistic government equations of electron,the trajectories of an electron in plane laser pulse,focused laser pulse have been given for different initial conditions.The electron trajectory is determined by its initial momentum,the amplitude,spot size and polarization of the laser pulse.The optimum initial momentum of the electron for LSS(laser synchrotron source)is obtained.Linear polarized laser is more advantaged than circular polarized laser for generating harmonic radiation.

Field-free molecular orientation induced by combined femtosecond single-and dual-color laser pulses: The role of delay time and quantum interference

The coherent control of field-free molecular orientation of CO with combined femtosecond single- and dual-color laser pulses has been theoretically studied. The effect of the delay time between the femtosecond single- and dual-color laser pulses is discussed, and the physical mechanism of the enhancement of molecular orientation with pre-alignment of the molecule is investigated. It is found that the basic mechanism is based on the creation of a rotational wave packet by the femtosecond single-color laser pulse. Furthermore, we investigate the interference between multiple rotational excitation pathways following pre-alignment with femtosecond single-color laser pulse. It is shown that such interference can lead to an enhancement of the orientation of CO molecule by a factor of 1.6.

Time-dependent density functional theoretical studies on the photo-induced dynamics of an HCI molecule encapsulated in C60 under femtosecond laser pulses

By using first-principles simulations based on time-dependent density functional theory, the chemical reaction of an HCl molecule encapsulated in C60 induced by femtosecond laser pulses is observed. The H atom starts to leave the Cl atom and is reflected by the C60 wall. The coherent nuclear dynamic behaviors of bond breakage and recombination of the HCl molecule occurring in both polarized parallel and perpendicular to the H-Cl bond axis are investigated. The radial oscillation is also found in the two polarization directions of the laser pulse. The relaxation time of the H-Cl bond lengths in transverse polarization is slow in comparison with that in longitudinal polarization. Those results are important for studying the dynamics of the chemical bond at an atomic level.

Effects of Parameters in Femtosecond Laser Micromachining on Ablation of Silicon

A series of ablation experiments on silicon surface by femtosecond laser system of 775 nm and 150 fs duration pulses were carried out.The morphological characteristics and the associated effect in the ablation were tested by atomic force microscope(AFM),scanning electron microscope(SEM),focused ion beam(FIB),and the optic microscope.The single pulse threshold can be obtained directly.For the multiple pulses,the ablation threshold varies with the number of pulses applied to the surface due to the incubation effect.By analyzing the experimental data,the thresholds of laser fluences under various laser pulse numbers were obtained,and the relationships between ablation area and laser energy and laser pulse number were concluded.Meanwhile,the periodic ripple structure on silicon surface was found.Under the condition of certain laser power,the number of laser pulse can influence the formation of ripples.

Dynamics simulation on the interaction of intense laser pulses with atomic clusters

Under classical particle dynamics, the interaction process between intense femtosecond laser pulses and icosahedral noble-gas atomic clusters was studied. Our calculated results show that ionization proceeds mainly through tunnel ionization in the combined field from ions, electrons and laser, rather than the electron-impact ionization. With increasing cluster size, the average and maximum kinetic energy of the product ion increases. According to our calculation, the expansion process of the clusters after laser irradiation is dominated by Coulomb explosion and the expansion scale increases with increasing cluster size. The dependence of average kinetic energy and average charge state of the product ions on laser wavelength is also presented and discussed. The dependence of average kinetic energy on the number of atoms inside the cluster was studied and compared with the experimental data. Our results agree with the experimental results reasonably well.

Enhancement of photocatalytic activity by femtosecond-laser induced periodic surface structures of Si

Laser induced periodic surface structures(LIPSS)represent a kind of top down approach to produce highly reproducible nano/microstructures without going for any sophisticated process of lithography.This method is much simpler and cost effective.In this work,LIPSS on Si surfaces were generated using femtosecond laser pulses of 800 nm wavelength.Photocatalytic substrates were prepared by depositing TiO2 thin films on top of the structured and unstructured Si wafer.The coatings were produced by sputtering from a Ti target in two different types of oxygen atmospheres.In first case,the oxygen pressure within the sputtering chamber was chosen to be high(3×10^–2 mbar)whereas it was one order of magnitude lower in second case(2.1×10^–3 mbar).In photocatalytic dye decomposition study of Methylene blue dye it was found that in the presence of LIPSS the activity can be enhanced by 2.1 and 3.3 times with high pressure and low pressure grown TiO2 thin films,respectively.The increase in photocatalytic activity is attributed to the enlargement of effective surface area.In comparative study,the dye decomposition rates of TiO2 thin films grown on LIPSS are found to be much higher than the value for standard reference thin film material Pilkington Activ^TM.

Interaction of intense laser pulses with hydrogen atomic clusters

The interaction between intense femtosecond laser pulses and hydrogen atomic clusters is studied by a simplified Coulomb explosion model. The dependences of average proton kinetic energy on cluster size, pulse duration, laser intensity and wavelength are studied respectively. The calculated results indicate that the irradiation of a femtosecond laser of longer wavelength on hydrogen atomic clusters may be a simple, economical way to produce highly kinetic hydrogen ions. The phenomenon suggests that the irradiation of femtosecond laser of longer wavelength on deuterium atomic clusters may be easier than that of shorter wavelength to drive nuclear fusion reactions. The product of the laser intensity and the squared laser wavelength needed to make proton energy saturated as a function of the squared cluster radius is also investigated. The proton energy distribution calculated is also shown and compared with the experimental data. Our results are in agreement with the experimental results fairly well.

Active manipulation of the selective alignment by two laser pulses

This paper solves numerically the full time-dependent Schrodinger equation based on the rigid rotor model, and proposes a novel strategy to determine the optimal time delay of the two laser pulses to manipulate the molecular selective alignment. The results illustrate that the molecular alignment generated by the first pulse can be suppressed or enhanced selectively, the relative populations of even and odd rotational states in the final rotational wave packet can be manipulated selectively by precisely inserting the peak of the second laser pulse at the time when the slope for the alignment parameter by the first laser locates a local maximum for the even rotational states and a local minimum for the odds, and vice versa. The selective alignment can be further optimised by selecting the intensity ratio of the two laser pulses on the condition that the total laser intensity and pulse duration are kept constant.

Efficient frequency upshift of 10 fs laser pulses propagating in a 5-cm length birefringent photonic crystal fibre

This paper reports that a 5-cm length birefringent photonic crystal fibre is used to tune the output frequency of unamplified 10-fs Ti：sapphire pulses. The zero dispersion of the fibre is at 823 nm and 800 nm for slow and fast fundamental modes, respectively. It is demonstrated that efficient upshift of the output frequency can be achieved when the pumped radiation is polarized along the slow axis of the fibre. When the average input power reaches 320 mW, about 60% of the output energy is located in one peak at 600 nm and is accompanied by depletion of the pulse inside the anomalous dispersion region.

Terahertz shaping technology based on coherent beam combining

The generation of terahertz(THz) waves by focusing a femtosecond pulsed laser beam at a distance is able to overcome the strong absorption properties of air and has rapidly attracted the attention of industry. However, the poor directionality of the THz wave radiation generated by this method is not conducive to THz wave applications. By controlling the morphology of the ultrafast laser-excited plasma filament and its electron density distribution through coherent beam combining technology, we achieve direct THz beam shaping and are able to obtain THz wave radiation of Gaussian or arbitrary transverse distribution. The novel experimental approach proposed in this paper opens up the research field of direct THz wave shaping using plasma. Moreover, it innovates multi-parameter convergence algorithms and, by doing so, has the potential to find beam patterns with higher energy conversion efficiency and break the energy limit of THz waves emitted by lasers at high power.

Competition between multiphoton/tunnel ionization and filamentation induced by powerful femtosecond laser pulses in air

In this work we present experiments by focusing 42 femtosecond laser pulses in air using three differentfocal length lenses: f=100, 30 and 5 cm. For the longest focal length, only the filament, which is aweak plasma column,is observed. When the shorter focal length lens is used, a high density plasma isgenerated near the geometrical focus and coexists with a weak plasma channel of the filamemt. Under thetightest focusing condition, filamentation is prevented and only a strong plasma volume appears at tehgeometrical focus.

Generation of micro/nano hybrid surface structures on copper by femtosecond pulsed laser irradiation

The delamination of copper lead frames from epoxy molding compounds(EMC)is a severe problem for microelectronic devices,as it leads to reduced heat dissipation or circuit breakage.The micro/nanoscale surface structuring of copper is a promising method to improve the copper-EMC interfacial adhesion.In this study,the generation of micro/nano hybrid structures on copper surfaces through femtosecond pulsed laser irradiation is proposed to improve interfacial adhesion.The micro/nano hybrid structures were realized by generating nanoscale laser-induced periodic surface structures(LIPSS)on microscale parallel grooves.Several types of hybrid surface structures were generated by changing the laser polarization direction,fluence,and scanning speed.At a specific aspect ratio of microgrooves,a latticed structure was generated on the sides of microgrooves by combining LIPSS formation and direct laser interference patterning.This study provides an efficient method for the micro/nanoscale hybrid surface structure formation for interfacial adhesion improvement between copperand EMC.

Self-induced birefringence of white-light continuum generated by interaction of focused femtosecond laser pulses with fused silica

White-light continuum can be induced by the interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with condensed materials.By using two orthogonal polarizers,a self-induced birefringence of continuum is observed when focusing femtosecond laser pulses into bulk fused silica.That is,the generated white-light continuum is synchronously modulated anisotropically while propagating in fused silica.Time-resolved detection confirms that self-induced birefringence of continuum shows a growth and saturation feature with time evolution.By adjusting laser energy,the transmitted intensity of continuum modulated by self-induced birefringence also varies correspondingly.Morphology analysis with time evolution indicates that it is the focused femtosecond laser pulses that induce anisotropic microstructures in bulk fused silica,and the anisotropic structures at the same time modulate the generated continuum.