Femtosecond electron pulse compression by using the time focusing technique in ultrafast electron diffraction

We present a new model of an electron gun for generating subrelativistic femtosecond （fs） electron pulses. The basic idea is to utilize a dc acceleration stage combined with a time focusing region, the time focusing electrode generates an electron energy chirp for bunching at the target. Without considering the space charge effects, simulations of the electron gun were carried out under the conditions of different dc voltages and various slopes of the voltage added on the time focusing electrode. Tracing and simulating large numbers of photoelectrons through Monte-Carlo and finite difference methods, the electron pulses with 1 ps can be compressed to 55 fs, which will allow significant advances in the field of ultrafast diagnosis.

Resolution Enhancement in Ultrasonic TOFD Imaging by Combining Sparse Deconvolution and Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique(Sparse-SAFT)

The shallow subsurface defects are difficult to be identified and quantified by ultrasonic time-of-flight diffraction(TOFD)due to the low resolution induced by pulse width and beam spreading.In this paper,Sparse-SAFT is proposed to improve the time resolution and lateral resolution in TOFD imaging by combining sparse deconvolution and synthetic aperture focusing technique(SAFT).The mathematical model in the frequency domain is established based on the l1 and l2 norm constraints,and the optimization problem is solved for enhancing time resolution.On this basis,SAFT is employed to improve lateral resolution by delay-and-sum beamforming.The simulated and experimental results indicate that the lateral wave and tip-diffracted waves can be decoupled with Sparse-SAFT.The shallow subsurface defects with a height of 3.0 mm at the depth of 3.0 mm were detected quantitatively,and the relative measurement errors of flaw heights and depths were no more than 10.3%.Compared to conventional SAFT,the time resolution and lateral resolution are enhanced by 72.5 and 56%with Sparse-SAFT,respectively.Finally,the proposed method is also suitable for improving resolution to detect the defects beyond dead zone.

Three-dimensional isotropic microfabrication in glass using spatiotemporal focusing of high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser pulses

To improve the processing efficiency and extend the tuning range of 3D isotropic fabrication,we apply the simultaneous spatiotemporal focusing(SSTF)technique to a high-repetition-rate femtosecond(fs)fiber laser system.In the SSTF scheme,we propose a pulse compensation scheme for the fiber laser with a narrow spectral bandwidth by building an extra-cavity pulse stretcher.We further demonstrate truly 3D isotropic microfabrication in photosensitive glass with a tunable resolution ranging from 8μm to 22μm using the SSTF of fs laser pulses.Moreover,we systematically investigate the influences of pulse energy,writing speed,processing depth,and spherical aberration on the fabrication resolution.As a proof-of-concept demonstration,the SSTF scheme was further employed for the fs laser-assisted etching of complicated glass microfluidic structures with 3D uniform sizes.The developed technique can be extended to many applications such as advanced photonics,3D biomimetic printing,micro-electromechanical systems,and lab-on-a-chips.