Quantum-mechanical analysis of pulse reconstruction for a narrow bandwidth attosecond x-ray pulse

The photoelectron energy spectra （PESs） excited by narrow bandwidth attosecond x-ray pulses in the presence of a few-cycle laser are quantum-mechanically calculated. Transfer equations are used to reconstruct the detailed temporal structure of an attosecond x-ray pulse directly from a measured PES. Theoretical analysis shows that the temporal uncertainties of the pulse reconstruction depend on the x-ray bandwidth. The procedure of pulse reconstruction is direct and simple without making any previous pulse assumption, data fitting analysis and time-resolved measurement of PESs. The temporal measurement range is half of a laser optical cycle.

Attosecond x-Ray Pulse Generation by Linear Thomson Scattering of Intense Laser Beam with Relativistic Electron

Abstract Linear Thomson scattering of a short pulse laser by relativistic electron has been investigated using computer simulations. It is shown that scattering of an intense laser pulse of -33 fs full width at half maximum, with an electron of γ0 = 10 initial energy, generates an ultrashort, pulsed radiation of 76 attoseconds with a photon wavelength of 2.5 nm in the backward direction. The scattered radiation generated by a highly relativistic electron has superior quality in terms of its pulse width and angular distribution in comparison to the one generated by lower relativistic energy electron.

Electron vortices generation of photoelectron of H_(2)^(+) by counter-rotating circularly polarized attosecond pulses

Molecular-frame photoelectron momentum distributions(MF-PMDs) of an H_(2)^(+) molecule ion in the presence of a pair of counter-rotating circularly polarized attosecond extreme ultraviolet laser pulses is studied by numerically solving the two-dimensional time-dependent Schrodinger equation within the frozen-nuclei approximation. At small time delay, our simulations show that the electron vortex structure is sensitive to the time delay and relative phase between the counterrotating pulses when they are partially overlapped. By adjusting time delay and relative phase, we have the ability to manipulate the MF-PMDs and the appearance of spiral arms. We further show that the internuclear distance can affect the spiral vortices due to its different transition cross sections in the parallel and perpendicular geometries. The lowest-order perturbation theory is employed to interpret these phenomena qualitatively. It is concluded that the internuclear distancedependent transition cross sections and the confinement effect in diatomic molecules are responsible for the variation of vortex structures in the MF-PMDs.

Generating attosecond pulses with controllable polarization from cyclic H_(3)^(2+) molecules by bichromatic circular fields

We investigate the polarization properties of harmonics from the cyclic H_(3)^(2+) molecular ions in tailored bichromatic counter-rotating circularly polarized(BCCP)fields by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation.The allowed harmonics and their helicities are associated with the symmetry compatibility of the field-target systems,and large intensity difference between adjacent harmonics with opposite helicities appears in a wide spectral range when the BCCP field is at certain rotation angles.We try to explain the intensity difference by using a recombination model based on the quantum-orbit theory and by analyzing the ionization pathways.Moreover,to synthesize attosecond pulse trains with tunable polarization,the intensity difference is manipulated by introducing a seed XUV field,and by changing the relative amplitude ratio as well as the helicity of BCCP fields.

Atmospheric transmission algorithm for pulsed X-rays from high-altitude nuclear detonations based on scattering correction

In high-altitude nuclear detonations,the proportion of pulsed X-ray energy can exceed 70%,making it a specific monitoring signal for such events.These pulsed X-rays can be captured using a satellite-borne X-ray detector following atmospheric transmission.To quantitatively analyze the effects of different satellite detection altitudes,burst heights,and transmission angles on the physical processes of X-ray transport and energy fluence,we developed an atmospheric transmission algorithm for pulsed X-rays from high-altitude nuclear detonations based on scattering correction.The proposed method is an improvement over the traditional analytical method that only computes direct-transmission X-rays.The traditional analytical method exhibits a maximum relative error of 67.79% compared with the Monte Carlo method.Our improved method reduces this error to within 10% under the same conditions,even reaching 1% in certain scenarios.Moreover,its computation time is 48,000 times faster than that of the Monte Carlo method.These results have important theoretical significance and engineering application value for designing satellite-borne nuclear detonation pulsed X-ray detectors,inverting nuclear detonation source terms,and assessing ionospheric effects.

Generation of isolated attosecond pulses in bowtie-shaped nanostructure with three-color spatially inhomogeneous fields

We theoretically investigate high-order harmonic generation in a two-color multi-cycle inhomogeneous field combined with a 27th harmonic pulse. By considering a bowtie-shaped gold nanostructure, the spatiotemporal profiles of enhanced plasmonic fields are obtained by solving the Maxwell equation using finite-domain time-difference method. Based on quantum-mechanical and classical models, the effect of 27th harmonic pulse, temporal profile of enhanced plasmonic field and inhomogeneity on supercontinuum generation are analyzed and discussed. As a result, broadband supercontinuum can be generated from our approach with optimized gap size of nanostructure. Moreover, these results are not sensitively dependent on the relative phase in the two-color field.

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.

Generating femtosecond coherent X-ray pulses in a diffractionlimited storage ring with the echo-enabled harmonic generation scheme

To study ultrafast processes at the sub-picosecond level, novel methods based on coherent harmonic generation technologies have been proposed to generate ultrashort radiation pulses in existing ring-based light sources. Using the High Energy Photon Source as an example, we numerically test the feasibility of implementing one coherent harmonic generation technology, i.e.,the echo-enabled harmonic generation(EEHG) scheme, in a diffraction-limited storage ring(DLSR). Two different EEHG element layouts are considered, and the effect of the EEHG process on the electron beam quality is also analyzed. Studies suggest that soft X-ray pulses, with pulse lengths of a few femtoseconds and peak powers of up to1 MW, can be generated by using the EEHG scheme, while causing little perturbation to the regular operation of a DLSR.

Generation of an isolated sub-30 attosecond pulse in a two-color laser field and a static electric field

We theoretically investigate high-order harmonic generation（HHG） from a helium ion model in a two-color laser field,which is synthesized by a fundamental pulse and its second harmonic pulse.It is shown that a supercontinuum spectrum can be generated in the two-color field.However,the spectral intensity is very low,limiting the application of the generated attosecond（as） pulse.By adding a static electric field to the synthesized two-color field,not only is the ionization yield of electrons contributing to the harmonic emission remarkably increased,but also the quantum paths of the HHG can be significantly modulated.As a result,the extension and enhancement of the supercontinuum spectrum are achieved,producing an intense isolated 26-as pulse with a bandwidth of about 170.5 eV.In particular,we also analyse the influence of the laser parameters on the ultrabroad supercontinuum spectrum and isolated sub-30-as pulse generation.

Isolated sub-30-attosecond pulse generation using a multicycle two-color chirped laser and a static electric field

We present a theoretical investigation of high-order harmonic generation in a chirped two-color laser field, which is synthesized by a 10-fs/800-nm fundamental chirped pulse and a 10-fs/1760-nm subharmonic pulse. It is shown that a supercontinuum can be produced using the multicycle two-color chirped field. However, the supercontinuum reveals a strong modulation structure, which is not good for the generation of an isolated attosecond pulse. By adding a static electric field to the multicycle two-color chirped field, not only the harmonic cutoff is extended remarkably, but also the quantum paths of the high-order harmonic generation （HHG） are modified significantly. As a result, both the extension of the supercontinuum and the selection of a single quantum path are achieved, producing an isolated 23-as pulse with a bandwidth of about 170.6 eV. Furthermore, the influences of the laser intensities on the supercontinuum and isolated attosecond pulse generation are investigated.

Harmonic and attosecond pulse enhancement in the presence of noise

In this paper, we theoretically investigate the effect of noise on the photoionization, the generation of the high-order harmonic and the attosecond pulse irradiated from a model He＋ ion. It shows that by properly adding noise fields, such as Gaussian white noise, random light or colored noise, both the ionization probabilities （IPs） and the harmonic yields can be enhanced by several orders of magnitude. Further, by tuning the noise intensity, a stochastic resonance-like curve is observed, showing the existence of an optimal noise in the ionization enhancement process. Finally, by superposing a properly selected harmonic, an intense attosecond pulse with a duration of 67 as is directly generated.

Attosecond pulse generation from two-electron harmonic emission spectrum

In this paper, we theoretically investigate the high-order harmonic generation and attosecond pulse generation when a two-electron He atom is exposed to the intense laser pulse. It shows that due to the two-electron double recombination mechanism, an extended plateau beyond the classical single-electron harmonic has been obtained on the two-electron harmonic spectrum. Further by using this two-electron harmonic extension scheme combined with the two-color field, two supercontinuum bandwidths with 200 e V have been obtained. As a result, a series of sub-60 as extreme ultraviolet（XUV）pulses have been directly generated.

Carrier Envelope Phase Description for an Isolated Attosecond Pulse by Momentum Vortices

As a crucial parameter for a few-cycle laser pulse, the carrier envelope phase(CEP) substantially determines the laser waveform. We propose a method to directly describe the CEP of an isolated attosecond pulse(IAP) by the vortex-shaped momentum pattern, which is generated from the tunneling ionization of a hydrogen atom by a pair of time-delayed, oppositely and circularly polarized IAP-IR pulses. Superior to the angular streaking method that characterizes the CEP in terms of only one streak, our method describes the CEP of an IAP by the features of multiple streaks in the vortex pattern. The proposed method may open the possibility of capturing sub-cycle extreme ultraviolet dynamics.

Effects of pressure and gas-jet thickness on the generation of attosecond pulse

We investigate how the intensity and duration of an attosecond pulse generated from high-order harmonic generation are affected by the pressure and thickness of the gas jet by taking into account the macroscopic propagation of both fun- damental and harmonic fields. Our simulations show that, limited by the propagation effects, especially the absorption of harmonics, the intensity of an attosecond pulse cannot be improved by just independently increasing the gas pressure or the medium length. On the other hand, due to good phase-matching conditions, the duration of a generated attosecond pulse can be improved by changing the gas pressure.

Generation of Broadband Attosecond Pulse via Controlling Quantum Path by Two Color Field in Long Wavelength Driving Regime

In this paper, we have investigated theoretically the high harmonic generation form helium atom in long wavelength driving regime at 2000 nm through solving time-dependent Schr6dinger equation. By adding a second harmonic pulse （1000 nm） and a UV attosecond pulse （200 nm） to the driving field, an efficient method for picking out and enhancing ionization path to generate high-yield supercontinuum harmonics is realized, and then an isolated sub-100 as pulse with a bandwidth of 190 eV is significantly obtained.

Isolated attosecond pulse generation with few-cycle two-color counter-rotating circularly polarized laser pulses

Most of the schemes for generating isolated attosecond pulses（IAP） are sensitive to the carrier-envelope phase（CEP）of the driving lasers. We propose a scheme for generating IAP using two-color counter-rotating circularly polarized（TCCRCP） laser pulses. The results demonstrate that the dependence of the IAP generation on CEP stability is largely reduced in this scheme. IAP can be generated at most of CEPs. Therefore, the experiment requirements become lower.

Core-Excited Molecules by Resonant Intense X-Ray Pulses Involving Electron-Rotation Coupling

It has been reported that electron-rotation coupling plays a significant role in diatomic nuclear dynamics induced by intense VUV pulses [Phys. Rev. A 102(2020) 033114;Phys. Rev. Res. 2(2020) 043348]. As a further step, we present here investigations of the electron-rotation coupling effect in the presence of Auger decay channel for core-excited molecules, based on theoretical modeling of the total electron yield(TEY), resonant Auger scattering(RAS) and x-ray absorption spectra(XAS) for two showcases of CO and CH^(+) molecules excited by resonant intense x-ray pulses. The Wigner D-functions and the universal transition dipole operators are introduced to include the electron-rotation coupling for the core-excitation process. It is shown that with the pulse intensity up to 10^(16) W/cm^(2), no sufficient influence of the electron-rotation coupling on the TEY and RAS spectra can be observed. This can be explained by a suppression of the induced electron-rotation dynamics due to the fast Auger decay channel, which does not allow for effective Rabi cycling even at extreme field intensities,contrary to transitions in optical or VUV range. For the case of XAS, however, relative errors of about 10% and 30% are observed for the case of CO and CH^(+), respectively, when the electron-rotation coupling is neglected.It is concluded that conventional treatment of the photoexcitation, neglecting the electron-rotation coupling,can be safely and efficiently employed to study dynamics at the x-ray transitions by means of electron emission spectroscopy, yet the approximation breaks down for nonlinear processes as stimulated emission, especially for systems with light atoms.

Generation of Linear Isolated Sub-60 Attosecond Pulses by Combining a Circularly Polarized Pulse with an Elliptically Polarized Pulse

The two-color circularly polarized pulses scheme was proposed to generate isolated attosecond pulses in our previous work [Phys. Rev. A 87 （2013） 043406], while the polarization of the attosecond pulse was not investigated. We show a supplementary explanation of this scheme and present another scheme to generate linear isolated attosecond pulses by combining a circularly polarized pulse with an elliptically polarized pulse. High-order harmonic generation and quantum path control are investigated to compare these two schemes. Both schemes can obtain supercontinuum spectra plateau from about 200eV to 550eV, which belong to the water window region. It is found that the latter scheme can clearly eliminate the short quantum path and extend the harmonic plateau. A linear isolated attosecond pulse with a duration of sub-6Oas can be generated by superposing a bandwidth of 70eV.

Generation of Isolated Attosecond Pulse from Asymmetric Molecular Ions by Introducing Half-Cycle-Like Laser Fields

We propose an efficient method for the generation of an isolated attosecond pulse from the asymmetric molecular ions HeH^2＋ by adding a half-cycle-like field （HCLF） to the fundamental driving laser field. The high-order harmonic generation （HHG） is investigated by numerically sowing the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. By performing the time-frequency distributions and the electronic wave packet probability densities, we find that the optimizing combined field is not only useful for extending the HHG cutoff, but also for simplifying the recombination channels through controlling the electron localization. In addition, by adjusting the intensity of the HCLF, a dominant short quantum path is selected to contribute the HHG spectrum. As a result, a 75-as isolated attosecond pulse is obtained by superposing a proper range of the harmonics.