Fs Laser Pulses Research Articles

X-ray detection of ultrashort spin current pulses in synthetic antiferromagnets

We explore the ultrafast generation of spin currents in magnetic multilayer samples by applying fs laser pulses to one layer and measuring the magnetic response in the other layer by element-resolved x-ray spectroscopy. In Ni(5 nm)/Ru(2 nm)/Fe(4 nm), the Ni and Fe magnetization directions couple antiferromagnetically due to the Ruderman–Kittel–Kasuya–Yosida interaction but may be oriented parallel through an applied magnetic field. After exciting the top Ni layer with a fs laser pulse, we also find that the Fe layer underneath demagnetizes, with a 4.1±1.9% amplitude difference between parallel and antiparallel orientation of the Ni and Fe magnetizations. We attribute this difference to the influence of a spin current generated by the fs laser pulse that transfers angular momentum from the Ni into the Fe layer. Our results confirm that superdiffusive spin transport plays a role in determining the sub-ps demagnetization dynamics of synthetic antiferromagnetic layers, but also evidence large depolarization effects due to hot electron dynamics, which are independent of the relative alignment of the magnetization in Ni and Fe.

Dependence of high-energy proton acceleration in TNSA regime by fs laser on the laser pulse shape

TNSA regime is employed to accelerate protons from gold foils up to 20 MeV. Measurements were performed using a fs-pulsed laser at about 4× 1018 W/cm2. The laser source is characterized by a low contrast, high pre-pulse duration, main pulse within 40÷120 fs and presence of a second main pulse. The proton energy appears high compared to the values reported in the literature under similar experimental conditions, but the results can be explained by taking into account different mechanisms. The self-focusing effect, for instance, can produce increases in intensity of the main pulse. PIC simulations are used to account for these effects. The maximum electric field of ion acceleration, electron density as a function of space and time, and plasma temperature, are evaluated. The theoretical calculation is compared with the experimental measurements, confirming the very high proton acceleration under particular conditions of the laser parameters, irradiation conditions and target properties.

Laser Guiding of Three Phase Tesla Coil High Voltage Discharges

Guiding and triggering of discharges from a three phase Tesla coil type 280 kHz AC high voltage source using filaments created by a femtosecond Terawatt laser pulse. Without the laser the discharges were maximum 30 cm long. With the laser straight, guided discharges up to 110 cm length were detected. The discharge length was limited by the voltage amplitude of the Tesla coil. A significant reduction of the breakdown voltage threshold due to the pre-ionization of the air gap by laser pulse filamentation was observed. The lifetime of filaments is measured by using time-resolved fluorescence spectrum, and the lifetime of filaments generated by dual fs laser pulses was doubled due to the re-ionization by the succeeding pulse

Surface ablation of poly allyl diglycol carbonate polymer using high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser

Laser ablation (LA) has been acknowledged as a universal laser processing tool to develop new devices. Typically, LA involves removal of material with a high energy femtosecond (fs) laser, which has a relatively low-pulse repetition rate (kHz). This constricts the processing speed to avoid separation between successive pulses during the device patterning. Hence, it is reasonable to use a high-repetition-rate laser as an alternative approach to enable high-speed laser processing. We experimented on the surface ablation of poly allyl diglycol carbonate (PADC) using a high-repetition-rate (MHz) fs laser. The objective of this study is to investigate the laser-ablated pattern on PADC and the effect of the number of laser pulses on the ablation rate. For the purpose of this experiment, straight trenches were formed directly on the PADC surface with 800-nm fs-pulsed laser writing. It was found that the ablation mechanism in the high-repetition-rate regime was primarily controlled by the number of irradiated pulses. At a fixed pulse energy, the ablation rate dropped from 9.6 to 3.4 pm / pulse for 1 × 105 and 8 × 105 pulses, respectively. This outcome stemmed from the disruption of laser focusing via thermally induced surface morphology changes due to excessive energy accumulation.

Microscopic Mechanisms of Femtosecond Laser Ablation of HMX from Reactive Molecular Dynamics Simulations

With ultrashort duration and ultrahigh energy, femtosecond laser (fs-laser) pulses are very promising for the precision machining of energetic materials. Compared with the mechanical machining meth...

Qualitative and Quantitative Distinction of ortho-, meta-, and para-Fluorotoluene by Means of Chirped Femtosecond Laser Ionization.

Femtosecond-laser ionization mass spectrometry (fs-LIMS) is demonstrated to be a powerful analytical method providing access to the qualitative distinction of structural isomers of ortho-, meta-, and para-fluorotoluene. The key point of the approach presented is a systematic variation of the spectral phase of the fs-laser pulses, which characteristically affects the fragmentation pattern observed in the mass spectra. Variation of the linear chirp parameter is also helpful for rationalizing the fragmentation mechanism. Ultimately two ternary mixtures of the three title isomers are quantitatively analyzed in situ with an accuracy of 5% for the molar fractions.

Coherent Exciton Dynamics in Ensembles of Size-Dispersed CdSe Quantum Dot Dimers Probed via Ultrafast Spectroscopy: A Quantum Computational Study

Interdot coherent excitonic dynamics in nanometric colloidal CdSe quantum dots (QD) dimers lead to interdot charge migration and energy transfer. We show by electronic quantum dynamical simulations that the interdot coherent response to ultrashort fs laser pulses can be characterized by pump-probe transient absorption spectroscopy in spite of the inevitable inherent size dispersion of colloidal QDs. The latter, leading to a broadening of the excitonic bands, induce accidental resonances that actually increase the efficiency of the interdot coupling. The optical electronic response is computed by solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation including the interaction with the oscillating electric field of the pulses for an ensemble of dimers that differ by their size. The excitonic Hamiltonian of each dimer is parameterized by the QD size and interdot distance, using an effective mass approximation. Local and charge transfer excitons are included in the dimer basis set. By tailoring the QD size, the excitonic bands can be tuned to overlap and thus favor interdot coupling. Computed pump-probe transient absorption maps averaged over the ensemble show that the coherence of excitons in QD dimers that lead to interdot charge migration can survive size disorder and could be observed in fs pump-probe, four-wave mixing, or covariance spectroscopy.

Ultrafast temporal-spatial dynamics of amorphous-to-crystalline phase transition in Ge2Sb2Te5 thin film triggered by multiple femtosecond laser pulses irradiation

Studies have shown that the crystallization phase state of Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) can be reversibly modulated by femtosecond (fs) laser multiple pulses, which have excellent applications in reconfigurable multi-level operation fields. In this study, the temporal-spatial crystalline evolution dynamics of amorphous GST film is investigated during two fs laser pulses excitation through a pump-probe shadowgraph imaging technique. A quasi-amorphous phase state, which is different from that in the initial as-deposited amorphous GST, is emerged through the first fs laser pulse excitation with a pulse energy lower than crystallization threshold. The experimental results reveal that a crystallization enhancement effect can be induced through the second pulse excitation based on this quasi-amorphous surface structure. The stimulative cluster generated in the quasi-amorphous reduces the amorphous-to-crystalline phase transition threshold for the second fs laser pulse irradiation. The spatially-resolved phase-transition threshold extension effect in a horizontal direction is proposed with the increasing pulse number to summarize the mechanism of the crystallization enhancement effect. The specific-grain-appearance (coarse grains and fine grains representing different phase transition approach) distributed area induced by single and double fs laser pulses irradiation are experimentally demonstrated corresponding to threshold extension theory.

High-power 2 GHz fs pulsed all-fiber amplified laser system at 2.0 µm.

High-power femtosecond (fs)-pulsed all-fiber lasers operating at high repetition rates are highly demanded for various applications, including laser micromachining, nonlinear optical imaging, high-speed optical sampling, arbitrary waveform generation, and frequency metrology. However, their performance has long been limited by either the average power, repetition rate, pulse width, or compactness, which prevent practical applications. In this work, we report a high repetition rate fs-pulsed all-fiber laser at 2.0 µm that so far provides the best performance metrics, to the best of our knowledge, i.e., ∼2GHz fundamental repetition rate, 126 fs pulse width, ∼8W average power, and all-fiber configuration. We anticipate that this laser can be a promising fs-pulsed fiber laser source for applications requiring a GHz repetition rate.

Particle-in-cell simulation for experimental ion acceleration by fs laser-generated plasma

ABSTRACTParticle in cell simulation was applied to fit the measurements of protons and ions acceleration obtained using an fs laser pulse irradiating a thin foil in target-normal-sheath-acceleration regime. The simulation code calculates the maximum electrical field generated in the rear side of the target driving the forward ions acceleration. The electron density versus time and space, and the plasma temperatures are evaluated using a medium contrast laser at an intensity of about 1019 Wcm−2. Proton acceleration above 10 MeV was experimentally measured using SiC detectors connected in time-of-flight configuration. A comparison between theoretical aspects and experimental data is reported and discussed.

Enhancement of target normal sheath acceleration in laser multi-channel target interaction

Target-normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) of ions by >100-fs relativistic laser pulses irradiating a multichannel target consisting of a row of parallel long wires and a plane back foil is studied. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that the laser light pulls out from the wires a large number of dense hot attosecond electron bunches, which are synergetically accelerated forward by the relativistic ponderomotive force of the laser as well as the longitudinal electric field of a transverse magnetic mode that is excited in the vacuum channels between the wires. These electrons are characterized by a distinct two-temperature energy spectrum, with the temperature of the more energetic electrons close to twice the ponderomotive potential energy. After penetrating through the foil, they induce behind its rear surface a sheath electric field that is both stronger and frontally more extended than that without the channels. As a result, the TNSA ions have much higher maximum energy and the laser-to-ion energy conversion efficiency is also much higher. It is found that a laser of intensity 1.37 × 1020 W/cm2, duration 165 fs, and energy 25.6 J can produce 85 MeV protons and 31 MeV/u carbon ions, at 30% laser-to-ion energy conversion efficiency. The effects of the channel size and laser polarization on the TNSA ions are also investigated.

Wettability Analysis of Water on Metal/Semiconductor Phases Selectively Structured with Femtosecond Laser-Induced Periodic Surface Structures

Femtosecond (fs) laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) were selectively generated on the surface of an Ag-Si alloy consisting of a metallic and a semiconducting phase. For this purpose, the alloy was irradiated with linearly polarized fs-laser pulses (τ = 300 fs, λ = 1025 nm, frep = 100 kHz) using a laser peak fluence F = 0.30 J/cm2. Due to the different light absorption behaviors of the semiconductor (Si) and the metal (Ag) phases that result in different ablation thresholds of the respective phases, pronounced LIPSS with a period of Λ ≈ 950 nm and a modulation depth of h ≈ 220 nm were generated solely on the Si phase. The alloy surface was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopy, white-light interference microscopy, and atomic force microscopy before and after laser irradiation. The chemical analysis was carried out by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, revealing surface oxidation of the Si phase and no laser-induced chemical modification of the Ag phase. The surface wettability of the alloy was evaluated with distilled water and compared to those of the single constituents of the composites. After fs-laser irradiation, the surface is characterized by a reduced hydrophilic water contact angle. Furthermore, the alloy selectively structured with LIPSS revealed a droplet shape change due to the distinctly different contact angles on the Si (θ = 5°) and Ag (θ = 74°) phases. This phenomenon was evaluated and discussed by local contact angle analyses using a confocal laser scanning microscope and Rhodamine B dye. In addition, it was shown that the shape change due to different contact angles of the components allowed a targeted droplet movement on a macroscopic material boundary (Ag/Si) of the alloy. Selectively structured metal/semiconductor surfaces might be of particular interest for microfluidic devices with a directional droplet movement and for the fundamental research of wettability.

Tuning of localized plasmon resonance in colloidal gold nano-particles by ultrafast interband photoinjection of free carriers: Superplasmonic states?

Colloidal solutions of gold nanoparticles in water were pumped by filamentary 800-nm, 100-fs laser pulses at variable supercritical peak powers and probed by the accompanying ultrashort white-light supercontinuum pulses. Their broadband (UV-near-IR) spectra revealed the localized plasmon resonance blue-shifting, broadening, and intensity reduction vs the incident peak laser power as a result of the increasing concentration of s-band free carriers additionally photoinjected from high-density d-bands.

Laser-Inscribed Stress-Induced Birefringence of Sapphire.

Birefringence of is demonstrated inside cross-sectional regions of 100 m, inscribed by axially stretched Bessel-beam-like fs-laser pulses along the c-axis inside sapphire. A high birefringence and retardance of at mid-visible spectral range (green) can be achieved using stretched beams with axial extension of 30–40 m. Chosen conditions of laser-writing ensure that there are no formations of self-organized nano-gratings. This method can be adopted for creation of polarization optical elements and fabrication of spatially varying birefringent patterns for optical vortex generation.

Double line waveguide amplifiers written by femtosecond laser irradiation in rare-earth doped germanate glasses

We report the production of active double waveguides in Er/Yb doped GeO2-PbO glasses, by direct femtosecond laser writing. The glasses were produced using the melt-quenching technique and the active waveguides were written using 30 fs laser pulses, at 800 nm, with writing speed of 0.06 mm/s and pulse energy of 32 μJ. The photo-induced negative refractive index change was of −7.4 × 10−3. The Er/Yb doped sample showed a relative gain (signal enhancement of 7.5 dB/cm, for 105 mW of 980 nm pump power. The relative gain compensates both, the propagation losses and the absorption losses, and a positive maximum internal gain of 4.6 dB/cm can be obtained at the signal wavelength of 1550 nm. The results obtained in present work demonstrate that Er/Yb glasses are promising materials for the fabrication of integrated amplifiers, lossless components and lasers based on germanate glasses.

Fast repetition rate fs pulsed lasers for advanced PLIM microscopy

Simultaneous metabolic and oxygen imaging is promising to follow up therapy response, disease development and to determine prognostic factors. FLIM of metabolic coenzymes is now widely accepted to be the most reliable method to determine cellular bioenergetics. Also, oxygen consumption has to be taken into account to understand treatment responses. The phosphorescence lifetime of oxygen sensors is able to indicate local oxygen changes. For phosphorescence lifetime imaging (PLIM) dyes based on ruthenium (II) coordination complexes are useful, in detail TLD1433 which possesses a variety of different triplet states, enables complex photochemistry and redox reactions. PLIM is usually reached by two photon excitation of the drug with a femtosecond (fs) pulsed Ti:Sapphire laser working at 80[Formula: see text]MHz repetition rate and (time-correlated single photon counting) (TCSPC) detection electronics. The interesting question was whether it is possible to follow up PLIM using faster repetition rates. Faster repetition rates could be advantageous for the induction of specific photochemical reactions because of similar light doses used normally in standard CW light treatments. For this, a default 2[Formula: see text]-FLIM–PLIM system was expanded by adding a second fs pulsed laser (“helixx”) which provides 50[Formula: see text]fs pulses at a repetition rate of 250[Formula: see text]MHz, more than 2.3[Formula: see text]W average power and tunable from 720[Formula: see text]nm to 920[Formula: see text]nm. The laser beam was coupled into the AOM instead of the default 80[Formula: see text]MHz laser. We demonstrated successful applications of the 250[Formula: see text]MHz laser for PLIM which correlates well with measurements done by excitation with the conventional 80[Formula: see text]MHz laser source.

Femto- and nano-second laser-induced damages in chalcogenide glasses

We have studied damaging behaviors in bulk As2Se3, Se and As2S3 glasses using fs and ns laser pulses. Threshold fluence of laser damages markedly varies with excitations and materials. Under sub-gap fs pulses with photon-energy of ħω = 1.6 eV, the threshold in As2S3 is roughly twice that of the other two glasses, and photo-crystallization appears in Se. For ns pulses, all the glasses under bandgap (ħω = 2.3 eV) illumination possess higher thresholds than those under mid-gap (ħω = 1.2 eV) illumination. These observations are discussed, taking electronic and thermal effects into account.

Laser-enhanced drug delivery of antiretroviral drugs into human immunodeficiency virus-1 infected TZMbl cells.

The introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has significantly increased life expectancy and improved management of the human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) disease globally. This well-established treatment regime has shown to reduce viral capacity to undetectable limits when using traditional clinical assays. The establishment of viral reservoirs during the early stages of infection are the major contributors to failure of the current regimens to eradicate HIV-1 infection since the reservoirs are not affected by antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). Therefore, advanced modification of the present treatment and investigation of novel antiretroviral drug delivery system are needed. The aim of this study was to use femtosecond (fs) laser pulses to deliver ARVs into HIV-1 infected TZMbl cells. Different ARVs were translocated into TZMbl cells using fs pulsed laser (800 nm) with optimum power of 4 μW and 10 ms laser to cell exposure time. Changes in cellular processes were evaluated using cellular morphology, viability, cytotoxicity and luciferase activity assays. Cells treated with the laser in the presence of ARVs showed a significant reduction in viral infectivity, cell viability and an increase in cytotoxicity. This study demonstrated that fs laser pulses were highly effective in delivering ARVs into HIV-1 infected TZMbl cells, causing a significant reduction in HIV-1 infection.

Ultrafast excited state dynamics and femtosecond nonlinear optical properties of laser fabricated Au and Ag50Au50 nanoparticles

The localized surface plasmon dynamics of laser ablated gold and gold-silver alloy nanoparticles (NPs) near interband and intraband excitation wavelengths were investigated using femtosecond (fs) transient absorption spectroscopy. Interband excitation with 70 fs laser pulses at a wavelength of 400 nm demonstrated plasmon photo-bleach and a transient absorption in the wings of the bleach spectrum. With intraband excitation, Ag50Au50 alloy NPs depicted a fast electron thermalization time of ~180 fs. A slower decay of positive absorption from alloy NPs was observed when compared to pure Au NPs. These NPs demonstrated a rapid initial electron thermalization and exhibited similar electron-phonon relaxation times. The third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties were measured using the Z-scan technique with 1 kHz repetition rate fs pulses at 800 nm. It is observed that the alloy NPs possessed large value of the NLO susceptibility χ(3) (~10−13 esu) compared to pure gold NPs at 800 nm finding applications in different areas of photonics.

Antenna-coupled spintronic terahertz emitters driven by a 1550 nm femtosecond laser oscillator

We demonstrate antenna-coupled spintronic terahertz (THz) emitters excited by 1550 nm, 90 fs laser pulses. Antennas are employed to optimize THz outcoupling and frequency coverage of ferromagnetic/nonmagnetic metallic spintronic structures. We directly compare the antenna-coupled devices to those without antennas. Using a 200 μm H-dipole antenna and an ErAs:InGaAs photoconductive receiver, we obtain a 2.42-fold larger THz peak-peak signal, a bandwidth of 4.5 THz, and an increase in the peak dynamic range (DNR) from 53 dB to 65 dB. A 25 μm slotline antenna offered 5 dB larger peak DNR and a bandwidth of 5 THz. For all measurements, we use a comparatively low laser power of 45 mW from a commercial fiber-coupled system that is frequently employed in table-top THz time-domain systems.