Polarization control of above-threshold ionization spectrum in elliptically polarized two-color laser fields

We study the above-threshold ionization(ATI)process of atoms exposed to fundamental and high-frequency lasers with arbitrary ellipticity by applying the frequency-domain theory.It is found that the angular-resolved ATI spectrum is sensitive to ellipticities of two lasers and emitted angles of the photoelectron.Particularly for the photon energy of the highfrequency laser more than atomic ionization potential,the width of plateau tends to a constant with increasing ellipticity of fundamental field,the dip structure disappears with increasing ellipticity of the high-frequency field.With the help of the quantum channel analysis,it is shown that the angular distribution depends mainly on the ellipticity of high-frequency field in the case that its frequency is high.Moreover,one can see that the maximal and minimal energies in quantum numerical results are in good agreement with the classical prediction.Our investigation may provide theoretical support for experimental research on polarization control of ionization in elliptically polarized two-color laser fields.

Manipulating the electron dynamics in the non-sequential double ionization process of Ar atoms by an orthogonal two-color laser field

Electron dynamics during non-sequential double ionization(NSDI) is one of the most attractive areas of research in the field of laser–atom or laser–molecule interaction. Based on the classic two-dimensional model, we study the process of NSDI of argon atoms driven by a few-cycle orthogonal two-color laser field composed of 800 nm and 400 nm laser pulses. By changing the relative phase of the two laser pulses, a localized enhancement of NSDI yield is observed at 0.5πand 1.5π, which could be attributed to a rapid and substantial increase in the number of electrons returning to the parent ion within extremely short time intervals at these specific phases. Through the analysis of the electron–electron momentum correlations within different time windows of NSDI events and the angular distributions of emitted electrons in different channels, we observe a more pronounced electron–electron correlation phenomenon in the recollision-induced ionization(RII) channel. This is attributed to the shorter delay time in the RII channel.

Effect of laser focus in two-color synthesized waveform on generation of soft x-ray high harmonics

Synthesis of multi-color laser pulses has been developed as a promising way to improve low conversion efficiency of high-order harmonic generation(HHG). Here we systematically study the effect of laser focus in a two-color waveform on generation of macroscopic HHG in soft x-rays. We find that the dependence of HHG yields on laser focus at low or high gas pressure is sensitive to the characteristics of single-atom harmonic response, in which “short”-or “long”-trajectory emissions can be selectively controlled by changing the waveform of two-color synthesized laser pulse. We uncover the phase-matching mechanism of HHG in the gas medium by examining the propagation of the two-color waveform and the evolution of time-frequency emissions of high-harmonic field. We further reveal that the nonlinear effects, such as geometric phase, atomic dispersion, and plasma defocusing, are responsible for modification of two-color waveform upon propagation. This work can be used to find better macroscopic conditions for generating soft x-ray HHG by employing two-color optimized waveforms.

High-throughput sorting of two-color fluorescent-labeled zebrafish embryos

The zebrafish embryos were widely employed in genetics,development and drug discovery studies as miniatured animal models.Sorting of two-color fluorescent embryos is often required in large-scale experiments but it is challenging to manually sort with high efficiency.Here,we reported a high-throughput sorting system for two-color fluorescent zebraflsh embryos.The embryos can be automatically loaded from a sample pool and sorted based on the average fluorescent intensity.The two-color fluorescent signals were split into two lines and detected by an area array camera.The system achieves the sorting of 100 embryos in less than 10 min with an accuracy of greater than 95%.

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.

Explosion temperature mapping of emulsion explosives containing TiH_(2)powders with the two-color pyrometer technique

In the study,the two-color pyrometer technique was used to measure the transient temperature field of emulsion explosives with different contents of TiH_(2)powders.The experimental results showed that the introduction of TiH_(2)powders could significantly increase the explosion temperature and fireball duration of emulsion explosive.When emulsion explosives were ignited,the average explosion temperature of pure emulsion explosive continuously decreased while emulsion explosives added with TiH_(2)powders increased at first and then decreased.When the content of TiH_(2)powders was 6 mass%,the explosion average temperature reached its maximum value of 3095 K,increasing by 43.7%as compared with that of pure emulsion explosive.In addition,the results of air blast experiment and explosion heat test showed that the variation trends of shock wave parameters,explosion heat and theoretical explosion temperature of emulsion explosives with different contents of TiH_(2)powders were basically consistent with that of explosion temperature measured by the two-color pyrometer technique.In conclusion,the two-color pyrometer technique would be conducive to the formula design of emulsion explosive by understanding the explosion temperature characteristics.

Generation of two-color polarization-adjustable radiation pulses for storage ring light source

To date, two-color pulses are widely used in pump–probe experiments. For a ring-based light source, the power of the spontaneous radiation fluctuates randomly in the longitudinal direction. It is difficult to produce twocolor double pulses by optical methods. In this paper, we introduce a method based on the echo-enabled harmonic generation scheme that generates two-color pulses in a storage ring light source. By adopting crossed undulators and a phase shifter, the polarization of the two-color pulses can be easily switched. A numerical simulation based on a diffraction-limited storage ring, the Hefei Advanced Light Source, suggests that the time delay and spectral separation of the two pulses can be adjusted linearly by changing the pulse duration and chirp parameters of the seed laser. A circular polarization degree above 80% could be achieved.

Two-color laser PEEM imaging of horizontal and vertical components of femtosecond surface plasmon polaritons

Explicit visualization of different components of surface plasmon polaritons(SPPs) propagating at dielectric/metal interfaces is crucial in offering chances for the detailed design and control of the functionalities of plasmonic nanodevices in the future. Here, we reported independent imaging of the vertical and horizontal components of SPPs launched from a rectangular trench in the gold film by a 400-nm laser-assisted near-infrared(NIR) femtosecond laser time-resolved photoemission electron microscopy(TR-PEEM). The experiments demonstrate that distinct imaging of different components of SPPs field can be easily achieved by introducing the 400-nm laser. It can circumvent the risk of sample damage and information loss of excited SPPs field that is generally confronted in the usual NIR laser TR-PEEM scheme. The underlying mechanism for realizing distinct imaging of different components of the SPPs field with two-color PEEM is revealed via measuring the double logarithmic dependence of photoemission yield with the 800-nm and 400-nm pulse powers of different polarizations. Moreover, it is found that the PEEM image quality of the vertical and horizontal components of the SPPs field is nearly independent of the 400-nm pulse polarization. These results pave a way for SPPs-based applications and offer a possible solution for drawing a space-time field of SPPs in three dimensions.

Effect of elliptical polarizations on nonsequential double ionization in two-color elliptically polarized laser fields

Using the classical ensemble model, we investigate the nonsequential double ionization（NSDI） of Ar and Mg in the two-color elliptically polarized laser pulse for different elliptical polarizations. Numerical results show that for Ar atoms the NSDI yield increases as the ellipticity increases, which is different from the case of Mg atoms. Moreover, the correlated behavior in the correlated electron momentum along the x direction and ion momentum distributions of Ar atoms are influenced by the ellipticity. By statistical analysis of different times, we can conclude that the ellipticity may be responsible for the NSDI processes. The correlated momenta distributions along the x direction at the recollision time are demonstrated and the results show that the travelling time and ellipticity can affect the emitted directions of both electrons.

Dependence of above-threshold ionization spectrum on polarization directions of two-color laser fields

Using the frequency-domain theory, we investigate the above-threshold ionization（ATI） process of an atom in twocolor laser fields. When both photon energies of the two-color laser fields are much smaller than the atomic ionization threshold, the ATI spectrum depends on the angle between the two lasers＇ polarization directions. While when the photon energy of one laser is comparable with or larger than the atomic ionization threshold, the ATI spectrum is independent of the angle, and only several dips appear at certain angles. By analyzing the contributions of different quantum channels, we find that, for the case that both frequencies of the two color lasers are low, the quantum interferences between the channels are strong, and hence the spectrum changes with the angle between the two lasers＇ polarization directions. While for the case that the frequency of one of the two color lasers is high, the contributions of the channels to the ATI spectrum decrease dramatically with increasing channel order, hence the interferences between the channels disappear, and the ATI spectrum has a step-like structure, which is independent of the angle between the two lasers＇ polarizations. These results can shed light on the study of the corresponding relation between classical and quantum mechanisms of the matter–laser interaction in high-frequency laser fields.

High-order harmonic generation of N2molecule in two-color circularly polarized laser fields

The generation of high-order harmonics and the attosecond pulse of the N2 molecule in two-color circularly polarized laser fields are investigated by the strong-field Lewenstein model. We show that the plateau of spectra is dramatically extended and a continuous harmonic spectrum with the bandwidth of 113 eV is obtained. When a static field is added to the x direction, the quantum path control is realized and a supercontinuum spectrum can be obtained, which is beneficial to obtain a shorter attosecond pulse. The underlying physical mechanism is well explained by the time-frequency analysis and the semi-classical three-step model with a finite initial transverse velocity. By superposing several orders of harmonics in the combination of two-color circularly polarized laser fields and a static field, an isolated attosecond pulse with a duration of 30 as can be generated.

Lensless two-color ghost imaging from the perspective of coherent-mode representation

The coherent-mode representation theory is firstly used to analyze lensless two-color ghost imaging. A quite complicated expression about the point-spread function（PSF） needs to be given to analyze which wavelength has a stronger affect on imaging quality when the usual integral representation theory is used to ghost imaging. Unlike this theory, the coherent-mode representation theory shows that imaging quality depends crucially on the distribution of the decomposition coefficients of the object imaged in a two-color ghost imaging. The analytical expression of the decomposition coefficients of the object is unconcerned with the wavelength of the light used in the reference arm, but has relevance with the wavelength in the object arm. In other words, imaging quality of two-color ghost imaging depends primarily on the wavelength of the light illuminating the object. Our simulation results also demonstrate this conclusion.

High-order harmonic generation in a two-color strong laser field with Bohmian trajectory theory

We theoretically study the high-order harmonic generation （HHG） in a two-color laser field using the Bohmian mechanics. Our results show that, for tile case of a weak second-color laser field, the simulation of the HHG with only one central Bohmian trajectory is in a good agreement with the ab initio time-dependent Schrodinger equation （TDSE） results. In contrast, with the increase of the amplitude of the second-color laser field, the HHG spectra from the single central Bohmian trajectory deviate from the TDSE results more and more significantly. By analyzing the Bohmian trajectories, we find that the significant deviation is due to the fact that the central Bohmian trajectory leaves the core quickly in the two-color laser field with the breaking of inversion symmetry. Interestingly, we find that another Bohmian trajectory with different initial position, which keeps oscillating around the core, could qualitatively well reproduce the TDSE results. Furthermore, we study the HHG spectrum in a two-color laser field with inversion symmetry and find that the HHG spectrum in TDSE can be still well simulated with the central Bohmian trajectory. These results indicate that, similar to the case of one color laser field, the HHG spectra in a two-color laser field can be also reproduced with a single Bohmian trajectory, although the initial position of the trajectory is dependent on the symmetry of the laser field. Our work thus demonstrates that Bohmian trajectory theory can be used as a promising tool in investigating the HHG process in a two-color laser field.

Controlling the contributions to high-order harmonic generation from different nuclei of N_2 with an orthogonally polarized two-color laser field

The generation of high-order harmonic and the attosecond pulse of the N2 molecule with an orthogonally polarized two-color laser field are investigated by the strong-field Lewenstein model.We show that the control of contributions to high-order harmonic generation（HHG） from different nuclei is realized by properly selecting the relative phase.When the relative phase is chosen to be φ= 0.4π,the contribution to HHG from one nucleus is much more than that from another.Interference between two nuclei can be suppressed greatly; a supercontinuum spectrum of HHG appears from 40 e V to125 e V.The underlying physical mechanism is well explained by the time–frequency analysis and the semi-classical threestep model with a finite initial transverse velocity.By superposing several orders of harmonics,an isolated attosecond pulse with a duration of 80 as can be generated.

Two-color laser wavelength effect on intense terahertz generation in air

Near-IR femtosecond lasers have been proposed to produce high-field terahertz radiation in the air via the laser-plasma interaction, but the physical mechanism still needs to be further explored. In this work, we theoretically investigate the effect of the two-color laser wavelength on the terahertz generation in the air based on a transient photocurrent model.We show that the long wavelength laser excitation can greatly enhance the terahertz amplitude for a given total laser intensity. Furthermore, we utilize a local current model to illustrate the enhancement mechanism. Our analysis shows that the terahertz amplitude is determined by the superposition of contributions from individual ionization events, and for the long wavelength laser excitation, the electron production concentrates in a few ionization events and acquires the larger drift velocities, which results in the stronger terahertz radiation generation. These results will be very helpful for understanding the terahertz generation process and optimizing the terahertz output.

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.

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.

Controlling electron collision by counterrotating circular two-color laser fields

Electron collision as well as its controlling lies in the core of study on nonsequential double ionization(NSDI).A single collision occurred in a convergent time is important to disclose the essential features of the electron correlation.However,it is difficult to form such a collision.By using counterrotating circular two-color(CRTC)laser fields,we show that a single electron collision can be achieved in a convergent time and a net electron correlation is set up within the sub-femtosecond time scale in the NSDI process of Ar atoms.The proposed method is also valid for other atoms,provided that one chooses the frequency and intensity of the CRTC field according to a scaling law.

THz wave emission from argon in two-color laser field

Terahertz （THz） wave emission from argon atom in a two-color laser pulses is studied numerically by solving the one-dimensional （1D） time-dependent Schr6dinger equation. The THz spectra we obtained include both discontinuous and continuum ones. By using the special basis functions that we previously proposed, our analysis points out that the discontinuous and continuum parts are contributed by bound-bound and continuum-continuum transition of atomic energy levels. Although the atomic wave function is strongly dressed during the interaction with laser fields, our identification for the discontinuous part of the THz wave shows that the transition between highly excited bound states can still be well described by the field-free basis function in the tunneling ionization regime.

Controlling paths of high-order harmonic generation by orthogonal two-color fields

Controlling paths of high-order harmonic generation from H^2+ is theoretically investigated by numerically solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation based on the Born-Oppenheimer approximation in orthogonal two-color fields.Our simulations show that the change of harmonic emission paths is dependent on time-dependent distribution of electrons.Compared with one-dimensional linearly polarized long wavelength laser,multiple returns are suppressed and short paths are dominant in the process of harmonic emission by two-dimensional orthogonal ω/2ω laser fields.Furthermore,not only are multiple returns weaken,but also the harmonic emission varies from twice to once in an optical cycle by orthogonalω/1.5ωlaser fields.Combining the time-frequency distributions and the time-dependent electron wave packets probability density,the mechanism of controlling paths is further explained.As a result,a 68-as isolated attosecond pulse is obtained by superposing a proper range of the harmonics.