Interference effect of photoionization of hydrogen atoms by ultra-short and ultra-fast high-frequency chirped pulses

The photoionization of a hydrogen atom from its ground state with ultra-fast chirped pulses is investigated by numerically solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation within length,velocity,and Kramers-Henneberger gauges.Converged results for all gauges for chirp-free pulses agree with the prediction of dynamic interference for ground state hydrogen atoms predicted recently by Jiang and Burgdorfer[Opt.Express 26,19921(2018)].In addition,we investigated photoelectron spectra of hydrogen atoms by chirped laser pulses,and showed that dynamic interference effect will be weaken for pulses with increasing linear chirp.Our numerical results can be understood and discussed in terms of an interplay of photoelectron wavepackets from first and second halves of laser enevelop,including the ac Stark energy level shift of the photoelectron final state and atomic stabilization effect at ultra-high intensities.

Extension of high-order harmonics and generation of an isolated attosecond pulse in the chirped laser field

This paper theoretically investigates the high-order harmonic generation cutoff extension using intense few-cycle linearly chirped laser pulses. It shows that the cutoff of the harmonic can be extended remarkably by optimising the chirping parameters. The time-frequency characteristics of high-order harmonics with different chirping parameters are analysed by means of wavelet transform of the dipole acceleration. It also gives out the classical three-step model pictures of electron. By superposing a properly selected range of the harmonic spectrum, it obtains an isolated 65as pulse.

Ionization of atoms by chirped attosecond pulses

We investigate the ionization dynamics of atoms by chirped attosecond pulses using the strong field approximation method. The pulse parameters are carefully chosen in the regime where the strong field approximation method is valid. We analyse the effects of the chirp of attosecond pulses on the energy distributions and the corresponding left-right asymmetry of the ionized electrons. For a single chirped attosecond pulse, the ionized electrons can be redistributed and the left-right asymmetry shows oscillations because of the introduction of the chirp. For time-delayed double attosecond pulses at different intensities with the weaker one chirped, exchanging the order of the two pulses shows a relative shift of the energy spectra, which can be explained by the different effective time delays of different frequency components because of the chirp.

Wavefront evolution of the signal beam in Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplifier

We studied the evolution of wavefront aberration(WFA) of a signal beam during amplification in a Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplification(CPA) system. The results verified that the WFA of the amplified laser beam has little relation with the change of the pump beam energies. Transverse parasitic lasing that might occur in CPA hardly affects the wavefront of the signal beam. Thermal effects were also considered in this study, and the results show that the thermal effect cumulated in multiple amplification processes also has no obvious influence on the wavefront of the signal beam for a single-shot frequency. The results presented in this paper confirmed experimentally that the amplification in a Ti:sapphire CPA system has little impact on the WFA of the signal beam and it is very helpful for wavefront correction of single-shot PW and multi-PW laser systems based on Ti:sapphire.

Lithium atom population transfer by population trapping in a chirped microwave pulse

Using a time-dependent multilevel approach, we demonstrate that lithium atoms can be transferred to states of lower principle quantum number by exposing them to a frequency chirped microwave pulse. The population transfer from n = 79 to n = 70 states of lithium atoms with more than 80% efficiency is achieved by means of the sequential two-photon △n=-1 transitions. It is shown that the coherent control of the population transfer can be accomplished by the optimization of the chirping parameters and microwave field strength. The calculation results agree well with the experimental ones and novel explanations have been given to understand the experimental results.

High-Stability High-Energy Picosecond Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplifier as a Preamplifier in Nd：Glass Petawatt System for Contrast Enhancement

We demonstrate a novel picosecond optical parametric preamplification to generate high-stability, high-energy and high-contrast seed pulses. The 5ps seed pulse is amplified from 60pJ to 300μJ with an 8.6ps/ 3mJ pump laser in a signal stage of short pulse non-collinear optical parametric chirped pulse amplification. The total gain is more than 106 and the rms energy stability is under 1.35%. The contrast ratio is higher than 10s within a scale of 20ps before the main pulse. Consequently, the improvement factor of the signal contrast is approximately equal to the gain 106 outside the pump window.

Interactions of chirped femtosecond soliton-like pulses

This paper studies the interactions between two and more adjacent chirped soliton-like pulses, respectively. The results show that the pulses present strong interactions when the separations between them are smaller than a certain value,and their behaviour is very distinct under different conditions,such as a different number of pulses or different initial separations between them.Furthermore,we also study the suppression of these interactions and obtain very good effects by using different initial amplitude ratios.

Trends in ultrashort and ultrahigh power laser pulses based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification

Since the proof-of-principle demonstration of optical parametric amplification to efficiently amplify chirped laser pulses in 1992, optical parametric chirped pulse amplification（OPCPA） became the most promising method for the amplification of broadband optical pulses. In the meantime, we are witnessing an exciting progress in the development of powerful and ultrashort pulse laser systems that employ chirped pulse parametric amplifiers. The output power and pulse duration of these systems have ranged from a few gigawatts to hundreds of terawatts with a potential of tens of petawatts power level. Meanwhile, the output pulse duration based on optical parametric amplification has entered the range of fewoptical-cycle field. In this paper, we overview the basic principles, trends in development, and current state of the ultrashort and laser systems based on OPCPA, respectively.

Direct electron acceleration by chirped laser pulse in a cylindrical plasma channel

We study the dynamics of single electron in an inhomogeneous cylindrical plasma channel during the direct acceleration by linearly polarized chirped laser pulse.By adjusting the parameters of the chirped laser pulse and the plasma channel,we obtain the energy gain,trajectory,dephasing rate and unstable threshold of electron oscillation in the channel.The influences of the chirped factor and inhomogeneous plasma density distribution on the electron dynamics are discussed in depth.We find that the nonlinearly chirped laser pulse and the inhomogeneous plasma channel have strong coupled influence on the electron dynamics.The electron energy gain can be enhanced,the instability threshold of the electron oscillation can be lowered,and the acceleration length can be shortened by chirped laser,while the inhomogeneity of the plasma channel can reduce the amplitude of the chirped laser.

Phase matched scanning optical parametric chirped pulse amplification based on pump beam deflection

Combined with the optical beam deflection,a novel approach of phase matched broadband scanning optical parametric chirped pulse amplification(OPCPA)was proposed.For this scheme,there was no superfluous operations to the chirped signal pulse which propagated in a changeless direction straightforward,but the pump beam were deflected in space with time by passing through a KTN crystal,which was applied with varied driving voltage.The theories of phase matching of each chirped signal frequency based on pump beam deflection was analyzed detailedly.And the type-I amplification of chirped signal with 800 nm central wavelength and 20 nm bandwidth pumped by 532 nm in BBO crystal was simulated as a case in point.The simulation results showed that the spectral distribution of chirped signal pulse was almost the same as the initial form,i.e.,there was nearly no narrowing on the amplified spectrum by using of the scanning OPCPA based on pump beam deflection.In addition,the simulations demonstrated that it was worth minimizing the voltage deviation applied to KTN crystal as much as possible for the sake of better waveform,larger bandwidth and higher conversion efficiency of amplified signal pulse in the proposed scanning OPCPA.

Spectral-Phase-Modulated Cross-Polarized Wave for Chirped Pulse Amplifier with High Contrast Ratio

We demonstrate a high-quality cross-polarized-wave filter based on spectral phase modulation. Driven by Well- eompressed spectral-phase fully-compensated fundamental laser lmlses, the filter stretches the pulse bandwidth from 35 nm to 7Ohm with a conversion efficeiency of 20%.

Coherent population transfer in Rydberg potassium atom by a single frequency-chirped laser pulse

By using the time-dependent multilevel approach, we have calculated the coherent population transfer among the quantum states of potassium atom by a single frequency-chirped laser pulse. The results show that the population can be efficiently transferred to a target state and be trapped there by using an ＇intuitive＇ or a ＇counter-intuitive＇ frequency sweep laser pulse in the case of ＇narrowband＇ frequency-chirped laser pulse. It is also found that a pair of sequential ＇broadband＇ frequency-chirped laser pulses can efficiently transfer population from one ground state of the A atom to the other one.

Simulation of Chirped Pulse Propagation in Silicon Nanowires: Shape and Spectrum Analysis

In this paper, we simulate the propagation of chirped pulses in silicon nanowires by solving the nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE) using the split-step Fourier (SSF) method. The simulations are performed both for the pulse shape (time domain) and for the pulse spectrum (frequency domain), and various linear and nonlinear effects changing the shape and the spectrum of the pulse are analyzed. Owing to the high nonlinear coefficient and a very small effective-mode area, the required length for observing nonlinear effects in nanowires is much shorter than that of conventional optical fibers. The impacts of loss, nonlinear effects, second- and third-order dispersion coefficients and the chirp parameter on pulse propagation along the nanowire are investigated. The results show that the sign and the value of the chirp parameter have important role in pulse propagation so that in the anomalous dispersion regime, the compression occurs for the up- chirped pulses, whereas the broadening takes place for the down-chirped pulses. The opposite situation happens for up- and down-chirped pulses propagating in the normal dispersion regime.

High-energy femtosecond Yb-doped all-fiber monolithic chirped-pulse amplifier at repetition rate of 1 MHz

A high-energy femtosecond all ytterbium fiber amplifier based on a chirped-pulse amplification（CPA） technique at a repetition rate of 1 MHz seeded by a dispersion-management mode-locked picosecond broadband oscillator is studied.We find that the compressed pulse duration is dependent on the amplified energy,the pulse duration of 804 fs corresponds to the maximum amplified energy of 10.5 μJ,while the shortest pulse duration of 424 fs corresponds to the amplified energy of 6.75 μJ.The measured energy fluctuation is approximately 0.46% root mean square（RMS） over 2 h.The low-cost femtosecond fiber laser source with super-stability will be widely used in industrial micromachines,medical therapy,and scientific studies.

Theoretical analysis of ultra-short pulsed laser ablation of SiO_2 material based on a Coulomb explosion model

Based on the kinetic theoretical Vlasov-Poisson equation, a surface Coulomb explosion model of SiO2 material induced by ultra-short pulsed laser radiation is established. The non-equilibrium free electron distribution resulting from the two mechanisms of multi-photon ionization and avalanche ionization is computed. A quantitative analysis is given to describe the Coulomb explosion induced by the self-consistent electric field, and the impact of the parameters of laser pulses on the surface ablation is also discussed. The results show that the electron relaxation time is not constant, but it is related to the microscopic state of the electrons, so the relaxation time approximation is not available on the femtosecond time scale. The ablation depths computed by the theoretical model are in good agreement with the experimental results in the range of pulse durations from 0 to 1 ps.

Effects of initial frequency chirp on the linear propagation characteristics of the exponential optical pulse

In this paper, the linear propagation characteristics of the exponential optical pulse with initial linear and nonlinear frequency chirp are numerically studied in a single mode fibre for β2 〈 0. It can be found that the temporal full width at half maximum and time-bandwidth product of exponential pulse monotonically increase with the increase of propagation distance and decrease with the increase of linear chirp C for C 〈 0.5, go through an initial decreasing stage near ζ= 1, then increase with the increase of propagation distance and linear chirp C for C 〉 0.5. The broadening of pulses with negative chirp is faster than that with positive chirp. The exponential pulse with linear chirp gradually evolves into a near-Gaussian pulse. The effect of nonlinear chirp on waveform of the pulse is much greater than that of linear chirp. The temporal waveform breaking of exponential pulse with nonlinear chirp is first observed in linear propagation. Furthermore, the expressions of the spectral width and time-bandwidth product of the exponential optical pulse with the frequency chirp are given by use of the numerical analysis method.

Ultra-Short Pulsed Laser Manufacturing and Surface Processing of Microdevices

Ultra-short laser pulses possess many advantages for materials processing.Ultrafast laser has a significantly low thermal effect on the areas surrounding the focal point;therefore,it is a promising tool for micro-and submicro-sized precision processing.In addition,the nonlinear multiphoton absorption phenomenon of focused ultra-short pulses provides a promising method for the fabrication of various structures on transparent material,such as glass and transparent polymers.A laser direct writing process was applied in the fabrication of high-performance three-dimensional(3D)structured multilayer microsupercapacitors(MSCs)on polymer substrates exhibiting a peak specific capacitance of 42.6 mF·cm^-2 at a current density of 0.1 mA·cm^-12.Furthermore,a flexible smart sensor array on a polymer substrate was fabricated for multi-flavor detection.Different surface treatments such as gold plating,reducedgraphene oxide(rGO)coating,and polyaniline(PANI)coating were accomplished for different measurement units.By applying principal component analysis(PCA),this sensing system showed a promising result for flavor detection.In addition,two-dimensional(2D)periodic metal nanostructures inside 3D glass microfluidic channels were developed by all-femtosecond-laser processing for real-time surfaceenhanced Raman spectroscopy(SERS).The processing mechanisms included laser ablation,laser reduction,and laser-induced surface nano-engineering.These works demonstrate the attractive potential of ultra-short pulsed laser for surface precision manufacturing.

Wavelength tunable ultra-short pulses based on a flat broadband spectrum generated in a nonlinear ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier

We present a nonlinear ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier based on enhanced nonlinear effects that can produce a flat broadband spectrum ranging from 1050–1225 nm with a maximum average output power of 7.8 W at 14 W pump power.Its repetition rate is 89 MHz. Using a pair of gratings and two knife edges as a filter, wavelength tunable picosecond pulses of tens to hundreds of milliwatts can be obtained in the broadband spectrum range. The output power, pulse width, and spectrum（center wavelength and linewidth） are adjusted by tuning the distance of the grating pair and/or the knife edges.Fixing the distance between the two gratings at 15 mm and keeping the output spectrum linewidth at approximately 20 nm,the shortest pulse width obtained is less than 1 ps centered at 1080 nm. The longest wavelength of the short pulses is around1200 nm, and its output power and pulse width are 40 m W and 5.79 ps, respectively. The generation of a flat broadband spectrum is also discussed in this paper.

Influence of Initial Chirp on Propagation of Super-Gaussian Pulse inside Fiber

Under the condition of combined effects of group--velocitydispersion and self- phase modulation, the step Fourier method isused to simulate the propagation of initial chirped super-Gaussianpulses inside fiber. The initial chirp influences the shapes of superGaussian pulses in propagation process, and positive and negativechirps have different effects. For the existing of initial chirp, thesplits of pulses and the spreading speed move ahead and increase.When the amplitude of super-Gaussian pulses increases by 1.4 times,in the range of │C│<1.5, pulses can keep good shapes along theirpropagation distance.

Generation of time-dependent ultra-short optical pulse trains in the presence of self-steepening effect

Starting from the extended nonlinear Schrodinger equation in which the self-steepening effect is included, the evolution and the splitting processes of continuous optical wave whose amplitude is perturbed into time related ultra-short optical pulse trains in an optical fibre are numerically simulated by adopting the split-step Fourier algorithm. The results show that the self-steepening effect can cause the characteristic of the pulse trains to vary with time, which is different from the self-steepening-free case where the generated pulse trains consist of single pulses which are identical in width, intensity, and interval, namely when pulses move a certain distance, they turn into the pulse trains within a certain time range. Moreover, each single pulse may split into several sub-pulses. And as time goes on, the number of the sub-pulses will decrease gradually and the pulse width and the pulse intensity will change too. With the increase of the self-steepening parameter, the distance needed to generate time-dependent pulse trains will shorten. In addition, for a large self-steepening parameter and at the distance where more sub-pulses appear, the corresponding frequency spectra of pulse trains are also wider.