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.

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.

Field-free molecular orientation steered by combination of super-Gaussian and THz half-cycle laser pulses

The molecular orientation created by laser fields is important for steering chemical reactions. In this paper, we propose a theoretical scheme to manipulate field-free molecular orientation by using an intense super-Gaussian laser pulse and a time-delayed terahertz half-cycle pulse(THz HCP). It is shown that the degree of field-free orientation can be doubled by the combined pulse with respect to the super-Gaussian pulse or THz HCP alone. Moreover, different laser intensities, carrier envelop phases, shape parameters, and time delays have great influence on the positive and negative orientations, with other conditions unchanged. Furthermore, it is indicated that the maximum degree and direction of molecular orientation can be precisely controlled by half of the duration of the super-Gaussian pulse. Finally, by adjusting the laser parameters of the super-Gaussian laser pulse and THz HCP, the optimal results of negative orientation and corresponding rotational populations are obtained at different temperatures of the molecular system.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Single-pinhole diffraction of few-cycle isolated attosecond pulses with a two-color field

The spatio-temporal characterization of an isolated attosecond pulse is investigated theoretically in a two-color field. Our results show that a few-cycle isolated attosecond pulse With the center wavelength of 16 nm can be generated effectively by adding a weak controlling field. Using the split and delay units, the isolated attosecond pulse can be split to the two same ones, and then single-pinhole diffractive patterns of the two pulses with different delays can be achieved. The diffractive patterns depend severely on the periods of the attosecond pulses, which can be helpful to obtain temporal information of the coherent sources.

Quantum path control and isolated attosecond pulse generation in the combination of near-infrared and terahertz pulses

We present an efficient and realizable scheme for the generation of an ultrashort single attosecond（as） pulse from H atom with a 800-nm fundamental laser field combined with a terahertz（THz） field. The high-order harmonic generation（HHG） can be obtained by solving the time-dependent Schr dinger equation accurately and efficiently with time-dependent generalized pseudo-spectral（TDGPS） method. The result shows that the plateau of high-order harmonics is extended and the broadband spectra can be produced by the combined laser pulse, which can be explained by the corresponding ionization probability. The time–frequency analysis and semi-classical three-step model are also presented to further investigate this mechanism. Besides, by the superposition of the harmonics near the cutoff region, an isolated 133-as pulse can be obtained.

Attosecond pulse trains driven by IR pulses spectrally broadened via supercontinuum generation in solid thin plates

We utilized a set of fused silica thin plates to broaden the spectrum of 1kHz,30 fs Ti:sapphire amplified laser pulses to an octave.Following the compression by chirped mirror pairs,the generated few-cycle pulses were focused onto an argon filled gas cell.We detected high order harmonics corresponding to a train of 209 as pulses,characterized by the reconstruction of attosecond beating by interference of two-photon transition(RABITT)technique.Compared with the conventional attosecond pulse trains,the broad harmonics in such pulse trains cover more energy range,so it is more efficient in studying some typical cases,such as resonances,with frequency resolved RABITT.As the solid thin plates can support high power supercontinuum generation,it is feasible to tailor the spectrum to have different central wavelength and spectral width,which will make the RABITT source work in different applications.

Controls for the generation of high-order harmonics and attosecond pulses by an infrared laser field combined with a low-frequency pulse

We investigate high-order harmonic generations by controlling various quantum paths of harmonics in an infrared laser field which combines a low-frequency pulse. Both classical theory and the quantum wavelet transform method are used to understand the physics of harmonics. By adjusting the carrier envelope phase of the fundamental field, the intensities of harmonic spectra increase and the harmonics in the plateau become regular. Attosecond pulses each with a duration of 58 as are obtained directly by compressing the harmonics, and with phase compensation an isolated attosecond pulse less than 30 as can be generated.

Generation of quasi-chirp-free isolated attosecond pulses from atoms under the action of orthogonal two-color combined pulse of fundamental frequency and higher intensity second harmonic fields

The intrinsic chirp of high-order harmonic generation is an important factor limiting the production of ultrashort attosecond pulses.Based on numerically solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation,the generation process of highorder harmonic from the He atom under the action of orthogonal two-color combined pulse of fundamental frequency and higher intensity second harmonic fields is studied.In this paper,we propose to achieve quasi-chirp-free isolated attosecond pulses by superimposing a higher second-harmonic field on the orthogonal direction of the fundamental frequency field.It is found that the high-energy part of its harmonic emission exhibits small chirp characteristics,which can be used to synthesize isolated attosecond pulses.Through the analysis of the wave packets evolution and the classical motion trajectories of the electron,it is demonstrated that the quasi-chirp-free harmonic can be attributed to the simultaneous return of electrons ionized at different times to the parent particle.The influence of the relative phase of the two pulses on the harmonics is further analyzed,and it is observed that this phenomenon is sensitive to the relative phase,but it can still generate isolated attosecond pulses within a certain phase.

Role of quantum paths in generation of attosecond pulses

We investigate the role of core potential in high ionization potential systems on high harmonic generation (HHG) spectra and obtain attosecond pulses. In our scheme, we use a standard soft core potential to model high ionization potential systems and irradiated these systems with fixed laser parameters. We observe the role of these systems on all the three steps involved in HHG process including ionization, propagation and recombination. In our study, the results illustrate that for high ionization potential systems, the HHG process is more sensitive to the ionization probability compared to the recombination amplitude. We also observe that due to the stronger core potential, small oscillations of the electrons during the propagation do not contribute to the HHG spectrum, which implies the dominance of only long quantum paths in the HHG spectrum. Our results, for attosecond pulse generation, show that long quantum path electrons are responsible for the supercontinuum region near the cutoff, which is suitable for the extraction of a single attosecond pulse in this region.

Effects of initial electronic state on vortex patterns in counter-rotating circularly polarized attosecond pulses

We theoretically investigate the effects of different electronic states as the initial state on the vortex patterns in photoelectron momentum distributions(PMDs)from numerical solutions of the two-dimensional(2D)time-dependent Schrodinger equation(TDSE)of He^(+)with a pair of counter-rotating circularly polarized attosecond pulses.It is found that the number of spiral arms in vortex patterns is equal to the number of the absorbed photons when the initial state is the ground state.However,the number of spiral arms in vortex patterns is always two more than the number of the absorbed photons when the initial state is the excited state.This sensitivity is attributed to the initial electron density distribution.In addition,we have demonstrated the PMDs for different initial electronic states with the same wavelengths and analyzed their corresponding physical mechanisms.It is illustrated that the method presented can be employed to effectively control the distribution of the electron vortices.

Effects of dispersion and filtering induced by periodic multilayer mirrors reflection on attosecond pulses

Using temporal and spectral methods,the effects of dispersion and filtering induced by Mo/Si multilayer mirrors reflection on incident attosecond pulses were studied.First,two temporal parameters,the pulse broadening factor,and the energy loss factor,were defined to evaluate the effects of dispersion and filtering.Then,by analyzing these temporal parameters,we investigated and compared the dispersion and filtering effects on attosecond pulses.In addition,we explored the origins of pulse broadening and energy loss by analyzing the spectral and temporal characteristics of periodic Mo/Si multilayer mirrors.The results indicate that the filtering effect induced by Mo/Si multilayer mirrors reflection is the dominant reason for pulse broadening and energy loss.

Photoelectron momentum distributions of single-photon ionization under a pair of elliptically polarized attosecond laser pulses

The attosecond ionization dynamics of atoms has attracted extensive attention in these days.However,the role of the initial state is not clearly understood.To address this question,we perform simulations on the neon atom and its model atom with different initial states by numerically solving the corresponding two-dimensional time-dependent Schrodinger¨equations.We theoretically investigate atomic photoelectron momentum distributions(PMDs)by a pair of elliptically polarized attosecond laser pulses.We find that the PMD is sensitive not only to the ellipticities of the pulses,the relative helicity,and time delay of the pulses,but also to the symmetry of the initial electronic states.Results are analyzed by the first-order time-dependent perturbation theory(TDPT)and offer a new tool for detecting the rotation direction of the ring currents.

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.

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.