High-power Femtosecond Laser Pulses Research Articles

Dynamics of a Discharge Initiated by a Powerful Femtosecond Laser Pulse in Atmospheric Pressure Air in Pre-Breakdown Electrical Fields

Numerical modeling of the dynamics of a discharge initiated by a high-power femtosecond laser pulse in air at atmospheric pressure in pre-breakdown fields was carried out. Calculations were conducted within the framework of a 1D-axisymmetric model that describes the evolution of the radial profiles of the main parameters of the discharge under study. The model includes a system of reaction that determine gas heating and a detailed description of the kinetic processes in a given discharge, as well as a system of gas-dynamic equations to describe the expansions of the heated channel. The results of calculations of the breakdown time of the discharge gap are conсistent with the measurement data over the entire studied range of electric field strengths, E = 9–17 kV/cm. It is shown that one of the key factors determining the evolution of the parameters of a given discharge is the rate of gas heating.

Postfilament-Induced Two-Photon Fluorescence of Dyed Liquid Aerosol Enhanced by Structured Femtosecond Laser Pulse

Laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy (LIFS) is actively used for remote sensing of atmospheric aerosols and is currently one of the most sensitive and selective techniques for determining small concentrations of substances inside particles. The use of high-power femtosecond laser sources for LIFS-based remote sensing of aerosols contributes to the development of new-generation fluorescence atmospheric lidars since it makes it possible to overcome the energy threshold for the nonlinear-optical effects of multiphoton absorption in particles and receive the emission signal at long distances in the atmosphere. Our study is aimed at the development and experimental demonstration of the technique of nonlinear laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy (NLIFS) based on the remote excitation of aerosol fluorescent emission stimulated by a spatially structured high-power femtosecond laser pulse. Importantly, for the first time to our knowledge, we demonstrate the advances in using stochastically structured plasma-free intense light channels (postfilaments) specially formed by the propagation of femtosecond laser radiation through a turbulent air layer to improve NLIFS efficiency. A multiple increase in the received signal of two-photon-excited fluorescence of polydisperse-dyed aqueous aerosols by the structured postfilaments is reported.

Turbulence-enhanced THz generation by multiple chaotically-distributed femtosecond filaments in air

Remote generation of electromagnetic waves in the terahertz (THz) by the volume of air medium gains increasing scientific interest due to the demand for this spectral range in solving various practical problems including those belonging to the nonlinear atmospheric optics. During self-focusing and filamentation of high-power femtosecond laser pulses in air, the source of THz radiation is the plasma of laser filaments. One of the main challenges of THz generation by a laser filament is increasing the value of optical energy conversion to the long-wavelength band. In this paper, we present the results of our studies on DC-biased THz generation during single-color filamentation in air of focused femtosecond Ti:Sapphire-laser pulses (800 nm, pulse energy up to 40 mJ). The distinctive feature of our study is that a femtosecond optical pulse propagates through a spatially-localized heated air layer containing randomly inhomogeneous refractive index perturbations, which mimics strong air turbulence. For the first time to our knowledge, we show, that the turbulent air layer formed at the beginning of the optical path allows increasing the yield of THz radiation up to 1.5 times due to the formation of multiple chaotically-arranged filaments resulting from random perturbations of the optical beam energy profile that reduces the subsequent THz (re)absorption in the filament plasma.

Effect of wavelength on propagation of high-power femtosecond laser pulses in diamond

Numerical modeling of the propagation of high-power femtosecond laser beams in a diamond crystal in the self-focusing mode is carried out. The wavelength of the modeled beams is varied in a wide range (400 nm, 532 nm, 800 nm, and 1064 nm), which covers the most common ultrashort laser systems. For all the wavelengths analyzed, a limitation in the growth of laser energy density inside the diamond crystal with increasing pulse energy is found. This effect has a certain similarity to the effect of optical limitation in laser filaments, but manifests itself outside the filament formation zone and is capable of equalizing the laser energy density, as well as the electron density, inside the extensive pre-focal region.

Fluorescence and lasing of neutral nitrogen molecules inside femtosecond laser filaments in air: mechanism and applications.

High power femtosecond laser pulses launched in air undergo nonlinear filamentary propagation, featuring a bright and thin plasma channel in air with its length much longer than the Rayleigh length of the laser beam. During this nonlinear propagation process, the laser pulses experience rich and complex spatial and temporal transformations. With its applications ranging from supercontinuum generation, laser pulse compression, remote sensing to triggering of lightning, the underlying physical mechanism of filamentation has been intensively studied. In this review, we will focus on the fluorescence and cavity-free lasing effect of the plasma filaments in air. The different mechanisms underlying the fluorescence of the excited neutral nitrogen molecules will be throughly examined and it is concluded that the electron collision excitation is the dominant channel for the formation of the excited nitrogen molecules. The recently discovered "air lasing" effect, a cavity-free bidirectional lasing emission emitted by the filaments, will be introduced and its main properties will be emphasized. The applications of the fluorescence and lasing effect of the neutral nitrogen molecules will be introduced, with two examples on spectroscopy and detection of electric field. Finally, we discuss the quenching effect of the lasing effect in atmosphere and the mechanisms responsible will be analyzed. An outlook for the achievement of backward lasing in air will be briefly presented.

Condition for Stopping the Collapse of High-Power Femtosecond Laser Pulses during Propagation through an Optical Medium

Condition for Stopping the Collapse of High-Power Femtosecond Laser Pulses during Propagation through an Optical Medium

Manipulation of femtosecond laser filamentation by wire mesh amplitude mask

The results of numerical simulation on the propagation of high-power femtosecond laser pulses in air under conditions of the amplitude modulation are presented. Laser pulse amplitude modulation is realized by using the metal mesh-masks, which divide the initial laser beam into lower-energy parts (subbeams). We show that, in general, the beam energy partitioning by metal meshes reduces the total length of beam filamentation region in air, whereas the longitudinal continuity of the laser plasma distribution in the filaments is considerably improved. A strong dependence of the filamentation region parameters (starting coordinate, length, longitudinal continuity) on the position of the mesh-mask relative to the laser beam axis is also revealed. It turns out that under certain conditions, when the beam axis points to the mesh crossing, the spatial position of the filaments can be shifted further along the propagation path by increasing the size of the mesh cells. Alternatively, if the beam center exposes the mesh cell opening, the filamentation start coordinate decreases monotonically when the mesh becomes sparser. Additionally, the parameters of the filamentation region exhibit high sensitivity to the mesh wire thickness that can dominate the influence of mesh position and cell size.

Effect of a High-Power Light Pulse on the Trajectory of Magnetostatic Waves in the Presence of a Linearly Nonuniform Field

The transformation of the trajectories of surface magnetostatic waves propagating in a ferrite film magnetized by a linearly nonuniform field caused by a high-power femtosecond laser pulse is considered. A decrease in the magnetization of the film due to an increase in its temperature can be used to account for the effect of light on wave propagation. The stepwise transformation of the trajectories of propagating waves that is synchronous with the time parameters of the femtosecond pulse is revealed. The transformation of trajectories is interpreted using the method of isofrequency curves and the Hamilton–Auld method.

Feasibility of a pulsed ponderomotive phase plate for electron beams

We propose a scheme for constructing a phase plate for use in an ultrafast Zernike-type phase contrast electron microscope, based on the interaction of the electron beam with a strongly focused, high-power femtosecond laser pulse and a pulsed electron beam. Analytical expressions for the phase shift using the time-averaged ponderomotive potential and a paraxial approximation for the focused laser beam are presented, as well as more rigorous quasiclassical simulations based on the quantum phase integral along classical, relativistic electron trajectories in an accurate, non-paraxial description of the laser beam. The results are shown to agree well unless the laser beam is focused to a waist size below a wavelength. For realistic (off-the-shelf) laser parameters the optimum phase shift of is shown to be achievable. When combined with RF-cavity based electron chopping and compression techniques to produce electron pulses, a femtosecond regime pulsed phase contrast microscope can be constructed. The feasibility and robustness of the scheme are further investigated using the simulations, leading to motivated choices for design parameters such as wavelength, focus size and polarization.

Pulse nonlinear compression generated 71.3 W femtosecond laser

<sec>The power of femtosecond lasers based on Ti: sapphire or Yb-doped gain media has reached a high level by using chirped pulse amplification. The dispersive elements are normally employed in CPA devices, thereby increasing the complexity and cost of the laser system. However, for the Nd-doped laser, its power can be amplified to hundreds of microjoules or even several millijoules directly without CPA technology. So compressing the picosecond pulse to obtain femtosecond laser pulses with hundreds of microjoules pulse energy by post-compression technology becomes meaningful. The pulsed post-compression technology is the combination of nonlinear spectral broadening and dispersion compensation. Currently, the most effective method of nonlinear spectral broadening is achieved through self-phase modulation. The multi-pass cell (MPC) device based on self-phase modulation for broadening spectral bandwidth has been extensively studied, since it was demonstrated. The MPC concept demonstrates significant practical benefits. Essentially, it requires only two curved mirrors and a Kerr medium in between, making it a cost-effective and easily implementable method. Moreover, the MPCs are robust, quite insensitive to beam pointing, and can evendeal with small mode mismatch without transmission losses. These favorable characteristics make MPCs very attractive not only for scientific applications, but also for commercial and facility laser systems where reliability is crucial. The striking progress of the technique in the past six years has made it possible to obtain high average power femtosecond laser.</sec><sec>In this work, we demonstrate the generation of a high average power femtosecond laser pulse by nonlinearly compressing the picosecond pulse in the Herriott multi-pass cell device, and the distribution of eigenmode is analyzed. With this efficient and robust scheme, the spectrum is broadened from 0.20 nm to 2.75 nm, with a broadening ratio of 13.75, and the pulse duration of a picosecond amplifier is compressed from 1.25 ps to 780 fs, with a compression factor of 16. The average power before and after pulse compression are 100 W and 71.3 W respectively, so the overall transmission reaches 71.3%. The present scheme offers a viable route to low-cost and simple-configuration high-power femtosecond lasers driven by Nd-doped picosecond amplifiers.</sec>

The condition of collapse stopping during propagation of high-power femtosecond laser pulses in an optical medium

The condition of collapse stopping during propagation of high-power femtosecond laser pulses in an optical medium

Ultrafast serrodyne optical frequency translator

The serrodyne principle enables an electromagnetic signal to be frequency shifted by applying a linear phase ramp in the time domain. This phenomenon has been exploited to frequency shift signals in the radiofrequency, microwave and optical regions of the electromagnetic spectrum over ranges of up to a few gigahertz, for example, to analyse the Doppler shift of radiofrequency signals for noise suppression and frequency stabilization. Here we employ this principle to shift the centre frequency of high-power femtosecond laser pulses over a range of several terahertz with the help of a nonlinear multi-pass cell. We demonstrate our method experimentally by shifting the central wavelength of a state-of-the-art 75 W frequency comb laser from 1,030 nm to 1,060 nm and to 1,000 nm. Furthermore, we experimentally show that this wavelength-shifting technique supports coherence characteristics at the few hertz-level while improving the temporal pulse quality. The technique is generally applicable to wide parameter ranges and different laser systems, enabling efficient wavelength conversion of high-power lasers to spectral regions beyond the gain bandwidth of available laser platforms.

Propagation of High-Power Phase-Modulated Femtosecond Laser Pulses in Air in the Self-Channeling and Filamentation Modes

Propagation of High-Power Phase-Modulated Femtosecond Laser Pulses in Air in the Self-Channeling and Filamentation Modes

Using Relativistic Self-Trapping Regime of a High-Intensity Laser Pulse for High-Energy Electron Radiotherapy

—Full-3D particle-in-cell Monte Carlo simulation of a new scheme of electron radiotherapy based on electron acceleration by high-power femtosecond laser pulse propagating in plasma of sub-critical density in the relativistic self-trapping regime (V. Yu. Bychenkov et al., Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 61, 124004 (2019)) was carried out. Based on the results of simulation of distribution of energy deposited by electron bunches accelerated in such high-efficiency regime, it is demonstrated that a laser facility of gtrsim {kern 1pt} 100 TW class is capable of providing therapy of deep soft-tissue lesions in soft biotissue and this approach has a number of advantages relative to traditional methods of beam therapy.

Investigation of the Pancharatnam–Berry phase element for the generation of the top-hat beam

Within optics, the Pancharatnam–Berry phase enables the design and creation of various flat special optical elements such as top-hat converters. We present a study on engineering efficient vectorial top-hat converters inscribed in glass by high-power femtosecond laser pulses. We phase-encode a top-hat converter and demonstrate how its quality is influenced by various parameters. We investigate theoretically the generation of the top-hat beam under imperfect conditions such as the mismatch of the incident beam width or the misalignment of the center of the converter. Experimental verification of the concept is also presented.

Propagation of phase-modulated high-power femtosecond laser pulses in the self-channeling and filamentation mode in air

Propagation of phase-modulated high-power femtosecond laser pulses in the self-channeling and filamentation mode in air

Spatio-temporal characterization of attosecond pulses from plasma mirrors.

Reaching light intensities above 1025 W/cm2 and up to the Schwinger limit of the order of 1029 W/cm2 would enable testing fundamental predictions of quantum electrodynamics. A promising — yet challenging — approach to achieve such extreme fields consists in reflecting a high-power femtosecond laser pulse off a curved relativistic mirror. This enhances the intensity of the reflected beam by simultaneously compressing it in time down to the attosecond range, and focusing it to sub-micrometre focal spots. Here we show that such curved relativistic mirrors can be produced when an ultra-intense laser pulse ionizes a solid target and creates a dense plasma that specularly reflects the incident light. This is evidenced by measuring the temporal and spatial effects induced on the reflected beam by this so-called ʼplasma mirrorʼ. The all-optical measurement technique demonstrated here will be instrumental for the use of relativistic plasma mirrors with the upcoming generation of Petawatt lasers that recently reached intensities of 5 × 1022 W/cm2, and therefore constitutes a viable experimental path to the Schwinger limit.

X-ray production and charged-particle acceleration in the irradiation of micro- and nanorod arrays by high-power femtosecond laser pulses

The effect of the size of the rods at the structured silicon target surface on the parameters of the plasma produced when the target is exposed to a high-contrast femtosecond laser pulse with an intensity of 2 × 1018 W cm−2 is investigated. It is shown that irradiation of a target with subwavelength rods (∼ 100 nm in diameter) provides a significant (up to 250 keV) increase in the temperature of hot plasma electrons and their number in comparison with those obtained in the case of a plane target. It was found that in this case the yield of hard X-ray radiation increases several-fold. The observed effect can be attributed to increased absorption and particle motion in a complex field near plasma nonuniformities. It is shown that the presence of rods with a characteristic size of ∼ 1 μm promotes an increase in the production efficiency of multiply charged silicon ions. The result obtained is apparently associated with the radiation penetration between the rods and with collisional ionisation of particles as they fly into vacuum from deeper target layers.

Nonlinear polarization interferometer for enhancement of laser pulse contrast and power.

A method for enhancing the temporal contrast of high-power femtosecond laser pulses is proposed. The suppression of low-intensity radiation and the simultaneous 100% transmission of a pulse peak are attained due to the nonlinear phase difference π between the orthogonally polarized waves, leading to a 90-degree rotation of polarization. The polarization interferometer has an in-line geometry that does not demand spatial beam separation. The output pulse compression and power enhancement are implemented as a result of self-phase modulation in the interferometer and subsequent reflection from the chirping mirrors.

Spatially resolved single-shot absorption spectroscopy with x-ray free electron laser pulse.

A new method of spatially resolved single-shot absorption spectroscopy for an x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) pulse has been developed by using a dispersive spectrometer and an elliptical mirror to enhance the spatial resolution. As a demonstration, we performed x-ray absorption near-edge structure measurement of Cu with a pump-probe scheme combining an XFEL pulse and a high-power femtosecond laser pulse. In the experiment, changes of an absorption spectrum in a plasma generated with a laser shot were successfully observed. The method will be a powerful tool for experiments requiring a spatial resolution and/or a single-shot measurement, such as high energy density science using a high-power laser pulse.