Laser Wakefield Acceleration Using Mid-Infrared Laser Pulses

We study a laser wakefield acceleration driven by mid-infrared （mid-IR） laser pulses through two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Since a mid-IR laser pulse can deliver a larger ponderomotive force as compared with the usual 0.8 μm wavelength laser pulse, it is found that electron self-injection into the wake wave occurs at an earlier time, the plasma density threshold for injection becomes lower, and the electron beam charge is substantially enhanced. Meanwhile, our study also shows that quasimonoenergetic electron beams with a narrow energy-spread can be generated by using mid-IR laser pulses. Such a mid-IR laser pulse can provide a feasible method for obtaining a high quality and high charge electron beam. Therefore, the current efforts on constructing mid-IR terawatt laser systems can greatly benefit the laser wakefield acceleration research.

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.

Optical power limiting of ultrashort hyper-Gaussian pulses in cascade three-level system

Propagation of strong femtosecond hyper-Gaussian pulses in a cascade three-level molecular system is studied by solving numerically the Maxwell–Bloch equations by the iterative predictor-corrector finite-difference time-domain method.Optical power limiting behavior induced by strong nonlinear two-photon absorption is observed for different orders of the femtosecond hyper-Gaussian pulses. Pulses of a higher order temporal profile are found to have a wider power range of optical limiting but a larger output saturation intensity. Both the output saturation value and the damage threshold of optical power limiting decrease with pulse duration increasing. The decrease of the pulse area along the pulse propagation is much slower than that obtained from the two-photon area theorem due to invalidity of the slowly varying amplitude approximation and the monochromatic field hypothesis.

A global model of intensity autocorrelation to determine laser pulse duration

We present a new global model of collinear autocorrelation based on second harmonic generation nonlinearity.The model is rigorously derived from the nonlinear coupled wave equation specific to the autocorrelation measurement configuration,without requiring a specific form of the incident pulse function.A rigorous solution of the nonlinear coupled wave equation is obtained in the time domain and expressed in a general analytical form.The global model fully accounts for the nonlinear interaction and propagation effects within nonlinear crystals,which are not captured by the classical local model.To assess the performance of the global model compared to the classic local model,we investigate the autocorrelation signals obtained from both models for different incident pulse waveforms and different full-widthes at half-maximum(FWHMs).When the incident pulse waveform is Lorentzian with an FWHM of 200 fs,the global model predicts an autocorrelation signal FWHM of 399.9 fs,while the classic local model predicts an FWHM of 331.4 fs.The difference between the two models is 68.6 fs,corresponding to an error of 17.2%.Similarly,for a sech-type incident pulse with an FWHM of 200 fs,the global model predicts an autocorrelation signal FWHM of 343.9 fs,while the local model predicts an FWHM of 308.8 fs.The difference between the two models is 35.1 fs,with an error of 10.2%.We further examine the behavior of the models for Lorentzian pulses with FWHMs of 100 fs,200 fs and 500 fs.The differences between the global and local models are 17.1 fs,68.6 fs and 86.0 fs,respectively,with errors approximately around 17%.These comparative analyses clearly demonstrate the superior accuracy of the global model in intensity autocorrelation modeling.

Describing spatiotemporal couplings in ultrashort pulses using coupling coefficients

Three coupling coefficients are defined to describe spatiotemporal coupling in ultrashort pulses. With these coupling coefficients, the first-order spatiotemporal couplings of Gaussian pulse and beam are described analytically. Also, the first-order and the second-order spatiotemporal couplings caused by angular dispersion elements are studied using these coupling coefficients. It can be shown that these coupling coefficients are dimensionless and normalized, and readily indicate the severity of spatiotemporal coupling.

Properties of periodic multicrystal configurations in walk-off-compensating second harmonic generation of ultrashort pulses

This work designs a four-platelet periodic multicrystal configuration in the second harmonic generation of ultra- short pulses as a new walk-off-compensating device. It theoretically investigates a proposed active and a typical passive compensating scheme with the undepleted-pump approximation. The result shows that the angular and spectral band- widths are proportional to the number of crystal pairs as expected, but the temperature tunability is basically unaltered owing to inter-plate pulse interference. At the same time, an analysis reveals that a misuse of the phase mismatch factor is responsible for a historic controversy about pulse interference. A real design of an ultraviolet second harmonic generation （262.5 nm） is considered in a passive periodic [3-Barium Borate-calcite configuration, where the inter-plate pulse interference is found to form an azimuthal tuning restriction and to lower plate length tolerance. A subsequent numerical simulation with pump depletion is in good accordance with theoretical prediction.

Exact Evolution of Ultrashort Hollow-Airy Pulses in the Spatiotemporal Domain

An exact analytic expression for an ultrashort hollow-Airy wave packet is presented beyond the slowly varying envelope approximation. The hollow-Airy wave packet combines the hollow-Gaussian beam in the spatial domain and the Airy pulse in the temporal domain. The spatiotemporal propagation dynamics of the ultrashort hollow- Airy pulse are analyzed by the numerical simulations. During the propagation in free space, the spatial intensity profile evolves from hollow-Gaussian to Gaussian shape; the temporal intensity profile retains Airy shape over several Rayleigh ranges. The acceleration property of the ultrashort Airy pulse is also demonstrated.

Adaptive split-step Fourier method for simulating ultrashort laser pulse propagation in photonic crystal fibres

In this paper, the generalized nonlinear Schrodinger equation （GNLSE） is solved by an adaptive split-step Fourier method （ASSFM）. It is found that ASSFM must be used to solve GNLSE to ensure precision when the soliton selffrequency shift is remarkable and the photonic crystal fibre （PCF） parameters vary with the frequency considerably. The precision of numerical simulation by using ASSFM is higher than that by using split-step Fourier method in the process of laser pulse propagation in PCFs due to the fact that the variation of fibre parameters with the peak frequency in the pulse spectrum can be taken into account fully.

Backward Raman amplification in plasmas with chirped wideband pump and seed pulses

Chirped wideband pump and seed pulses are usually considered for backward Raman amplification（BRA） in plasmas to achieve an extremely high-power laser pulse. However, current theoretical models only contain either a chirped pump or a chirped seed. In this paper, modified three-wave coupling equations are proposed for the BRA in the plasmas with both chirped wideband pump and seed. The simulation results can more precisely describe the experiments, such as the Princeton University experiment. The optimized chirp and bandwidth are determined based on the simulation to enhance the output intensity and efficiency.

（3＋1）-dimensional nonlinear propagation equation for ultrashort pulsed beam in left-handed material

In this paper a comprehensive framework for treating the nonlinear propagation of ultrashort pulse in metamaterial with dispersive dielectric susceptibility and magnetic permeability is presented. Under the slowly-evolving-wave approximation, a generalized （3＋1）-dimensional wave equation first order in the propagation coordinate and suitable for both right-handed material （I^HM） and left-handed material （LHM） is derived. By the commonly used Drude dispersive model for LHM, a （3＋1）-dimensional nonlinear Schrodinger equation describing ultrashort pulsed beam propagation in LHM is obtained, and its difference from that for conventional RHM is discussed. Particularly, the self-steeping effect of ultrashort pulse is found to be anomalous in LHM.

Relative carrier-envelope phase dependence of resonant propagation of two-colour femtosecond pulses in V-type atomic medium

Using numerical solution of the full Maxwell-Bloch equations, which is obtained by the finite-difference time-domain method and the iterative predictor-orrector method, we investigate the modulation effect of relative carrierenvelope phase （hereinafter referred to as the relative phase） on resonant propagation of two-colour femtosecond ultrashort laser pulses in a V-type three-level atomic medium. It is found that the pulse splitting occurs for a smaller value of relative phase; when the value of relative phase increases to a certain value, only the variation of pulse shape is present and the pulse splitting does not occur any more; moreover, when the value of relative phase is smaller, the pulse group velocity is larger. The relative phase also has an obvious effect on population and spectral property. Different population transfers can be realized by adjusting the value of relative phase. Generally speaking, for the pulses with smaller areas their spectral strengths and frequency ranges decrease obviously with the value of relative phase increasing; for the pulses with larger areas, with value of the relative phase increasing, their spectral strengths decrease remarkably but the relative strengths of the higher frequency components increase significantly, while the spectral frequency range is not varied evidently.

Influence of spatiotemporal coupling on the capture-and-acceleration-scenario vacuum electron acceleration by ultrashort pulsed laser beam

This paper investigates the properties of the ultrashort pulsed beam aimed to the capture-and-acceleration-scenario （CAS） vacuum electron acceleration. The result shows that the spatiotemporal distribution of the phase velocity, the longitudinal component of the electric field and the acceleration quality factor are qualitatively similar to that of the continuous-wave Gaussian beam, and are slightly influenced by the spatiotemporal coupling of the ultrashort pulsed beam. When the pulse is compressed to an ultrashort one in which the pulse duration TFWHM 〈 5T0, the variation of the maximum net energy gain due to the carrier-envelope phase is a crucial disadvantage in the CAS acceleration process.

Quasistatic Magnetic Field Generation by an Intense Ultrashort Laser Pulse in Underdense Plasma

The quasistatic magnetic field created in the interaction of intense ultrashort laser pulses with underdense plasmas has been investigated by two-dimensional particle simulation.The relativistic ponderomotive force and plasma wave excited in self-modulation processes can drive intense electron current mainly in the propagation direction.As a result,an azimuthal,multi-mega Gauss order quasi-static magnetic field can be generated around the laserbeam.

Two-electron quantum ring in short pulses

The response of a two-electron quantum ring system to the short laser pulses of different shapes in the presence of external static electric field is studied.The variation of transition probabilities of the two-electron quantum ring from ground state to excited states with a number of parameters is shown and explained.The energy levels and wavefunctions of the system in the presence of static electric field are found by solving the time-independent Schrodinger equation numerically by the finite difference method.The shape of the pulse plays a dominant role on the dynamics.

Shaping of few-cycle laser pulses via a subwavelength structure

We theoretically investigate the propagation of few-cycle laser pulses in resonant two-level dense media with a sub- wavelength structure, which is described by the full Maxwell-Bloch equations without the frame of slowly varying envelope and rotating wave approximations. The input pulses can be shaped into shorter ones with a single or less than one optical cycle. The effect of the parameters of the subwavelength structure and laser pulses is studied. Our study shows that the media with a subwavelength structure can significantly shape the few-cycle pulses into a subcycle pulse, even for the case of chirp pulses as input fields. This suggests that such subwavelength structures have potential application in the shaping of few-cycle laser pulses.

Diffraction of an ultrashort pulsed beam with arbitrary polarization state from a volume holographic grating in LiNbO3 crystals

Based on a modified coupled wave theory of Kogelnik, we have studied the diffraction of an ultrashort pulsed beam with an arbitrary polarization state from a volume holographic grating in photorefractive LiNbO3 crystals. The results indicate that the diffracted intensity distributions in the spectral and temporal domains and the diffraction efficiency of the grating are both changed by the polarization state and spectral bandwidth of the input pulsed beam. A method is given of choosing the grating parameters and input conditions to obtain a large variation range of the spectral bandwidth of the diffracted pulsed beam with an appropriate diffraction efficiency. Our study presents a possibility of using a volume holographic grating recorded in anisotropic materials to shape a broadband ultrashort pulsed beam by modulating its polarization state.

Coulomb expansion of deuterated methane clusters irradiated by an ultrashort intense laser pulse

The simulations of three-dimensional particle dynamics show that when irradiated by an ultrashort intense laser pulse, the deuterated methane cluster expands and the majority of deuterons overrun the more slowly expanding carbon ions, resulting in the creation of two separated subelusters. The enhanced deuteron kinetic energy and a narrow peak around the energy maximum in the deuteron energy distribution make a considerable contribution to the efficiency of nuclear fusion compared with the ease of homonuelear deuterium clusters. With the intense laser irradiation, the nuclear fusion yield increases with the increase of the cluster size, so that deuterated heteronuelear clusters with larger sizes are required to achieve a greater neutron yield.

Control of photoassociation reaction F＋H →HF with ultrashort laser pulse

The laser-induced vibrational state-selectivity of product HF in photoassociation reaction H＋F→HF is theoret- ically investigated by using the time-dependent quantum wave packet method. The population transfer process from the continuum state down to the bound vibrational states can be controlled by the driving laser. The effects of laser pulse parameters and the initial momentum of the two collision atoms on the vibrational population of the product HF are discussed in detail. Photodissociation accompanied with the photoassociation process is also described.

Dynamics of Interaction of H2+ with Intense Ultrashort Laser Pulse

The dynamic process of H2+ in intense ultrashort laser pulses with intensities of 1014 ~ 1015 W/cm2, wavelength of 532nm and duration of 22fs is theoretically investigated by using collinear model and numerically solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. The results show that: (1) the dissociation and dissociative ionization compete each other in the case of intensities between 2.5 × 1014 and 4.0 × 1014 W/cm2;(2) both the dissociation and the dissociative ionization are much smaller and appear at about 5 cycles (≈9fs) later than the ionization. In addition, we estimate the spectrum of high harmonic generation and find that the well-known cutoff rule is invalid for the ultrashort laser pulse (e.g. the duration ~ 25fs), because the shorter pulse can produce higher order harmonics than the longer one.

Temporal Behaviour of Harmonics from One-Dimensional H+2 in an Ultrashort Laser Pulse

With the method of wavelet transform,we consider the temporal behaviour of high-order harmonic generation from one-dimensional H+2 exposed to an ultrashort laser pulse with a duration of tens of femtoseconds.The results,which are calculated by numerically solving the corresponding time-dependent Schrödinger equation with the split-operator method in the non-Born-Oppenheimer approach,show that:(1)The high-order harmonics in the cut-off range emitted as a train of pulses have better coherence than those in the plateau.(2)The harmonics are emitted early in time when the intensity of laser pulse increases.