Control of soft X-ray high harmonic spectrum by using two-color laser pulses

We demonstrate the suppression of soft X-ray high harmonics generated by two-color laser pulses interacting with Ne gas in a gas cell. We show that harmonic suppression can occur at the proper combination of the propagation distance and gas pressure. The physical mechanism behind is the phase mismatch between ＂short＂-trajectory harmonics generated at the early and later times through the interplay of geo- metric phase, dispersion, and plasma effects. In addition, we demonstrate that the position and depth of harmonic suppression can be tuned by increasing the gas pressure. Furthermore, the suppression can be extended to other laser focusing configurations by properly scaling macroscopic parameters. Our investigation reveals a simple controlling soft X-ray Laser Press and novel experimental scheme purely relying on the phase mismatch for selectively tabletop light sources without adopting the filters for applications.

On the generation of high-quality Nyquist pulses in mode-locked fiber lasers

Nyquist pulses have wide applications in many areas,from electronics to optics.Mode-locked lasers are ideal platforms to generate such pulses.However,how to generate high-quality Nyquist pulses in mode-locked lasers remains elusive.We address this problem by managing different physical effects in mode-locked fiber lasers through extensive numerical simulations.We find that net dispersion,linear loss,gain and filter shaping can affect the quality of Nyquist pulses significantly.We also demonstrate that Nyquist pulses experience similariton shaping due to the nonlinear attractor effect in the gain medium.Our work may contribute to the design of Nyquist pulse sources and enrich the understanding of pulse shaping dynamics in mode-locked lasers.

Electromagnetic pulses produced by a picosecond laser interacting with solid targets

A high-power laser ablating solid targets induces giant electromagnetic pulses(EMPs),which are intimately pertinent to laser parameters,such as energy and pulse width.In this study,we reveal the features of EMPs generated from a picosecond(ps)laser irradiating solid targets at the SG-Ⅱpicosecond petawatt(PSPW)laser facility.The laser energy and pulse,as well as target material and thickness,show determinative effects on the EMPs’amplitude.More intense EMPs are detected behind targets compared to those at the other three positions,and the EMP amplitude decreases from 90.09 kV/m to 17.8 kV/m with the gold target thickness increasing from 10μm to 20μm,which is suppressed when the laser pulse width is enlarged.The results are expected to provide more insight into EMPs produced by ps lasers coupling with targets and lay the foundation for an effective EMP shielding design in high-power laser infrastructures.

Generation and regulation of electromagnetic pulses generated by femtosecond lasers interacting with multitargets

Ultrashort and powerful laser interactions with a target generate intense wideband electromagnetic pulses(EMPs).In this study,we report EMPs generated by the interactions between petawatt(30 fs,1.4×10^(20) W/cm^(2))femtosecond(fs)lasers with metal flat,plastic flat,and plastic nanowire-array(NWA)targets.Detailed analyses are conducted on the EMPs in terms of their spatial distribution,time and frequency domains,radiation energy,and protection.The results indicate that EMPs from metal targets exhibit larger amplitudes at varying angles than those generated by other types of targets and are enhanced significantly for NWA targets.Using a plastic target holder and increasing the laser focal spot can significantly decrease the radiation energy of the EMPs.Moreover,the composite shielding materials indicate an effective shielding effect against EMPs.The simulation results show that the NWA targets exert a collimating effect on thermal electrons,which directly affects the distribution of EMPs.This study provides guidance for regulating EMPs by controlling the laser focal spot,target parameters,and target rod material and is beneficial for electromagnetic-shielding design.

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.

Synthesis of Two-Color Laser Pulses for the Harmonic Cutoff Extension

Increasing simultaneously both the cutoff energy and efficiency is a big challenge to all applications of high-order harmonic generation(HHG).For this purpose,the shaping of the waveform of driving pulse is an alternative approach.Here,we show that the harmonic cutoff can be extended by about two times without reducing harmonic yield after considering macroscopic propagation effects,by adopting a practical way to synthesize two-color fields with fixed energy.Our results,combined with the experimental techniques,show the great potential of HHG as a tabletop light source.

The dependence on optical energy of terahertz emission from air plasma induced by two-color femtosecond laser-pulses

The generation of terahertz （THz） emission from air plasma induced by two-color femtosecond laser pulses is studied on the basis of a transient photocurrent model. While the gas is ionized by the two-color femtosecond laser-pulses com- posed of the fundamental and its second harmonic, a non-vanishing directional photoelectron current emerges, radiating a THz electromagnetic pulse. The gas ionization processes at three different laser-pulse energies are simulated, and the corresponding THz waveforms and spectra are plotted. The results demonstrate that, by keeping the laser-pulse width and the relative phase between two pulses invariant when the laser energy is at a moderate value, the emitted THz fields are significantly enhanced with a near-linear dependence on the optical energy.

Measurement of spatiotemporal characteristics of femtosecond laser pulses by a modified single-shot autocorrelation

To overcome the shortcomings of the single-shot autocorrelation SSA where only one pulse width is obtained when the SSA is applied to measure the pulse width of ultrashort laser pulses a modified SSA for measuring the spatiotemporal characteristics of ultrashort laser pulses at different spatial positions is proposed. The spatiotemporal characteristics of femtosecond laser pulses output from the Ti sapphire regenerative amplifier system are experimentally measured by the proposed method. It was found that the complex spatial characteristics are measured accurately.The pulse widths at different spatial positions are various which obey the Gaussian distribution.The pulse width at the same spatial position becomes narrow with the increase in input average power when femtosecond laser pulses pass through a carbon disulfide CS2 nonlinear medium.The experimental results verify that the proposed method is valid for measuring the spatiotemporal characteristics of ultrashort laser pulses at different spatial positions.

Selective Alignment of D2 Induced by Two Ultrashort Laser Pulses

The dynamics of molecular rotational wave packets of D2 induced by ultrashort laser pulses was investigated numerically by solving the time-dependent SchrSdinger equation. Results show that an ultrashort pulse can manipulate a coherent rotational wave packet of D2 se- lectively. In the calculation, a first laser pulse was used to create a coherent rotational wave packet from an initial thermal ensemble of D2 at the temperature of 300 K. The second laser pulse was used to manipulate the rotational wave packet selectively around the first quarter and the three quarters revival. The alignment parameter and its Fourier transform amplitude both illustrate that the relative populations of even and odd rotational states in the final rotational wave packet of D2 can be manipulated by precisely selecting the time delay between the first and the second ultrashort pulse.

High harmonic generation driven by twocolor relativistic circularly polarized laser pulses at various frequency ratios

High harmonic generation(HHG)by two-color counter-rotating relativistic laser pulses with arbitrary frequency ratio is investigated through particle-in-cell simulations.It is shown that the dichromatic laser driver at various frequency ratios can effectively produce high-order harmonics with different spectral features.A general selection rule of this extended scheme can be obtained and the corresponding harmonic helicity can be identified through a simple analytical model based on a relativistic oscillating mirror.Thus,the results in this paper may offer new opportunities for arbitrary spectral control of generated harmonics,which is of significance for diverse potential applications in practice.

Electrokinetic-mechanism of water and furfural oxidation on pulsed laser-interlaced Cu_(2)O and CoO on nickel foam

The electrocatalytic oxidation of biomass-derived furfural(FF)feedstocks into 2-furoic acid(FA)holds immense industrial potential in optics,cosmetics,polymers,and food.Herein,we fabricated Co O/Ni O/nickel foam(NF)and Cu_(2)O/Ni O/NF electrodes via in situ pulsed laser irradiation in liquids(PLIL)for the bifunctional electrocatalysis of oxygen evolution reaction(OER)and furfural oxidation reaction(FOR),respectively.Simultaneous oxidation of NF surface to NiO and deposition of CoO and/or Cu_(2)O on NF during PLIL offer distinct advantages for enhancing both the OER and FOR.CoO/NiO/NF electrocatalyst provides a consistently low overpotential of~359 m V(OER)at 10 m A/cm^(2),achieving the maximum FA yield(~16.37 m M)with 61.5%selectivity,79.5%carbon balance,and a remarkable Faradaic efficiency of~90.1%during 2 h of FOR at 1.43 V(vs.reversible hydrogen electrode).Mechanistic pathway via in situ electrochemical-Raman spectroscopy on CoO/NiO/NF reveals the involvement of phase transition intermediates(NiOOH and CoOOH)as surface-active centers during electrochemical oxidation.The carbonyl carbon in FF is attacked by hydroxyl groups to form unstable hydrates that subsequently undergo further oxidation to yield FA products.This method holds promise for large-scale applications,enabling simultaneous production of renewable building materials and fuel.

Generation of double pulses at the Shanghai soft X-ray free electron laser facility

In this article, we present the promise of a new method generating double electron pulses in picosecondscale pulse length and tunable interpulse spacing at several picoseconds. This has witnessed an impressive potential of application in pump–probe techniques, two-color X-ray free electron laser, high-gradient witness bunch acceleration in a plasma, etc. Three-dimensional simulations are carried out to analyze the dynamic of the electron beam in a linear accelerator. Comparisons are made between the new method and existing ways.

Analysis of Enhanced Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy with Double Femtosecond Laser Pulses

In this paper, an experimental study of collinear geometry double-pulse femtosecond LIBS was performed on a Ni sample in ambient air in an effort to clarify the contributing processes responsible for the signal enhancement observed in comparison with the single-pulse case. Doublepulse LIBS spectra show a very clear enhancement when an optimum inter-pulse delay was used. The influences of the inter-pulse delay between two pulses on the LIBS signal intensity, electron temperature and density were investigated. It is most remarkable that the evolutions of signal enhancement and electron temperature versus the inter-pulse delay showed the same behavior and revealed two main regimes of interaction. These results provide additional insight into the possible emission enhancement mechanisms in the double pulse configuration.

Electromagnetic Pulses Generated From Laser Target Interactions at Shenguang Ⅱ Laser Facility

Significant electromagnetic pulses （EMP） can be generated by the intensive laser irradiating solid targets in inertial confinement fusion （ICF）. To evaluate the EMP intensity and distribution in and outside the laser chamber, we designed and fabricated a discone antenna with ultra-wide bands of over 10 GHz. The return loss （Sn parameter） of this antenna was below -10 dB and could even achieve under -30 dB at 3.1 GHz. The EMP intensity in this study at 80 cm and 40 cm away from the target chamber center （TCC） reached 400 kV/m and 2000 kV/m. The current results are expected to offer preliminary information to study physics regarding laser plasma interactions and will also lay experimental foundation for EMI shielding design to protect various diagnostics.

Spectrum shuttle for producing spatially shapable GHz burst pulses

Spatiotemporal shaping of ultrashort pulses is pivotal for various technologies,such as burst laser ablation and ultrafast imaging.However,the difficulty of pulse stretching to subnanosecond intervals and independent control of the spatial profile for each pulse limit their advancement.We present a pulse manipulation technique for producing spectrally separated GHz burst pulses from a single ultrashort pulse,where each pulse is spatially shapable.We demonstrated the production of pulse trains at intervals of 0.1 to 3 ns in the 800-and 400-nm wavelength bands and applied them to ultrafast single-shot transmission spectroscopic imaging(4 Gfps)of laser ablation dynamics with two-color sequentially timed all-optical mapping photography.Furthermore,we demonstrated the production of pulse trains containing a shifted or dual-peak pulse as examples of individual spatial shaping of GHz burst pulses.Our proposed technique brings unprecedented spatiotemporal manipulation of GHz burst pulses,which can be useful for a wide range of laser applications.

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.

Efficient guiding and focusing of intense laser pulse using periodic thin slits

Slits have been widely used in laser-plasma interactions as plasma optical components for generating high-harmonic light and controlling laser-driven particle beams.Here,we propose and demonstrate that periodic thin slits can be regarded as a new breed of optical elements for efficient focusing and guiding of intense laser pulse.The fundamental physics of intense laser interaction with thin slits is studied,and it is revealed that relativistic effects can lead to enhanced laser focusing far beyond the pure diffractive focusing regime.In addition,the interaction of an intense laser pulse with periodic thin slits makes it feasible to achieve multifold enhancement in both laser intensity and energy transfer efficiency compared with conventional waveguides.These results provide a novel method for manipulating ultra-intense laser pulses and should be of interest for many laser-based applications.

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.

Spatial and temporal evolution of electromagnetic pulses generated at Shenguang-Ⅱseries laser facilities

The distribution and sources of EMPs produced at Shenguang-Ⅱ(SG-Ⅱ)series laser facilities are systematically investigated.The results indicate that the EMP amplitudes in the SG-Ⅱps PW laser are very strong,one order higher than those from the SG-Ⅱlaser facility.EMPs outside the target chamber decrease exponentially with the distance from the measuring points to the target chamber center at the two laser facilities.Moreover,EMPs can be remarkably reduced when the picosecond laser together with the nanosecond laser is incident to targets compared to the SG-Ⅱps PW laser alone.The resulting conclusions are expected to offer experimental supports for further effective EMPs shielding design and achievement in high-power laser facilities.

Dense pair plasma generation by two laser pulses colliding in a cylinder channel

An all-optical scheme for high-density pair plasmas generation is proposed by two laser pulses colliding in a cylinder channel. Two dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that, when the first laser pulse propagates in the cylinder, electrons are extracted out of the cylinder inner wall and accelerated to high energies. These energetic electrons later run into the second counter-propagating laser pulse, radiating a large amount of high-energy gamma photons via the Compton back-scattering process. The emitted gamma photons then collide with the second laser pulse to initiate the Breit-Wheeler process for pairs production. Due to the strong self-generated fields in the cylinder, positrons are confined in the channel to form dense pair plasmas. Totally, the maximum density of pair plasmas can be 4.60 × 10^27 m%-3, for lasers with an intensity of 4 × 10^22 W.cm^-2. Both the positron yield and density are tunable by changing the cylinder radius and the laser parameters. The generated dense pair plasmas can further facilitate investigations related to astrophysics and particle physics.