Interactions of a femtosecond intense laser with rare gas clusters in a dense jet\

A study on the interactions of high intensity (similar to 10(16) W/cm(2)) femtosecond laser pulses with rare gas clusters in a dense jet is performed. Energy absorption by Ar and Xe clusters is measured and it can be as high as 90%. Very energetic ions produced in the laser interaction with a dense cluster jet are detected by time-of-flight spectrometry and the maximum ion energy of Xe is up to 1.3 MeV. The average ion energies are found to increase with increasing cluster size and get saturated gradually. The average ion energies also show a strong directionality and the average ion energy in the direction parallel to the laser polarization vector is 40% higher than that perpendicular to it. The findings are discussed in terms of a model of charge-dependent ion acceleration.

Ablation and ultrafast dynamics of zinc selenide under femtosecond laser irradiation

The ablation in zinc selenide (ZnSe) crystal is studied by using 150-fs, 800-nm laser system. The images of the ablation pit measured by scanning electronic microscope (SEM) show no thermal stress and melting dynamics. The threshold fluence is measured to be 0.7 J/cm2. The ultrafast ablation dynamics is studied by using pump and probe method. The result suggests that optical breakdown and ultrafast melting take place in ZnSe irradiated under femtosecond laser pulses.

Phase dependence of electron acceleration in a tightly focused laser beam

Electron acceleration using a tightly focused ultraintensity laser beam is investigated numerically and strong phase dependence is found. The acceleration is periodic to the variety of the initial laser field phase, and the accelerated electrons are emitted in pulses of which the full width is the half period of the laser field. When a 10 PW intense laser beam is used, the electron with energy less than 1 Mev can be accelerated up to energies about 1.4 GeV. The optimal initial condition for electron acceleration is found. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

Ion acceleration in laser-excited plasma wake fields

The dynamics of the plasma ions in the wake fields of short, ultraintense laser pulses in underdense plasmas are investigated analytically and numerically. Owing to the large ion-to-electron mass ratio, the motion of plasma ions in-such wake fields has often been assumed to be neglectable. It is shown that when the laser intensity exceeds 10(20) W/cm(2), the ion motion can no longer be ignored. In this case, ion momentum peaks appear behind the laser pulse, which correspond with the ion density peaks. The laser-excited wake field appears to be effective for ion acceleration, in particular to ions with high-charge numbers. The dependence of ion acceleration on the laser intensity, pulse width, and background plasma density is discussed. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.

High and stable conversion efficiency obtaining in single-stage multi-crystal optical parametric chirped pulse amplification system

An optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification system is demonstrated to provide 32.9% pump-to-signal conversion efficiency . Special techniques are used to make the signal and pump pulses match with each other in both spectral and temporal domains. The broadband 9.5-mJ pulses are produced at the repetition rate of 1 Hz with the gain of over 1.9 x 10(8). The output energy fluctuation of 7.8% is achieved for the saturated amplification process against the pump fluctuation of 10%.

Mechanisms of femtosecond laser-induced breakdown and damage in MgO

Single-shot laser damage threshold of MgO for 40-986 fs, 800 nm laser pulses is reported. The pump-probe measurements with femtosecond pulses were carried out to investigate the time-resolved electronic excitation processes. A theoretical model including conduction band electrons (CBE) production and laser energy deposition was applied to discuss the roles of multiphoton ionization (MPI) and avalanche ionization in femtosecond laser-induced dielectric breakdown. The results indicate that avalanche ionization plays the dominant role in the femtosecond laser-induced breakdown in MgO near the damage threshold. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

飞秒双脉冲激光在硅和石英中的光学破坏

The optical breakdown thresholds (OBTs) of typical dielectric and semiconductor materials are measured using double 40-fs laser pulses. By measuring the OBTs with different laser energy and different time delays between the two pulses, we found that the total energy of breakdown decrease for silica and increase for silicon with the increase of the first pulse energy. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.

周期量级超短激光脉冲作用下导带电子的光吸收与碰撞电离

激光照射下光学材料的损伤过程中，导带电子的加热和碰撞电离是非常重要的过程，影响着导带电子的产生、晶格能量的沉积和破坏．分析了Drude模型的局限性，从经典力学出发求解了周期量级激光场中导带电子的运动方程，计算了导带电子的光吸收和碰撞电离，分析了激光强度、载波相位等对碰撞电离的影响．

飞秒强激光场中大尺寸氩团簇爆炸机理的实验研究

By using time-of-flight spectroscopy, the ionization and explosion of large argon clusters ( (n) over bar = 3 x 10(3) - 3 x 10(6)) in the intense femtosecond pulsed laser field (60 fs,2 x 10(16) W/cm(2)) has been studied, and the dependence of average energy of ions emitted from argon clusters on the gas backing pressure has been measured. By comparing the average ion energies obtained with two different supersonic conical nozzles and considering the Hagena's scaling law of clusters, we have found that the average ion energy is determined by the cluster size when the laser parameters are kept unchanged. The experimental results indicated that when the cluster size is less than 3 x 10(5) atoms per cluster, the Coulomb repulsion force is the dominating factor in the expansion mechanism. Beyond this size, for 3 x 10(5) < (n) over barn < 3 x 10(6), the expansion is the result of the combined effect of both the Coulomb repulsion force and the hydrodynamic force, and the latter will play the dominating role for increasing cluster size.

飞秒激光脉冲在正色散固体材料中的自压缩

实验研究了正色散固体介质中的激光脉冲自压缩现象，证明了无需任何外加色散补偿情况下，固体透明介质中的自聚焦传输过程可使高功率飞秒激光脉冲实现时域脉冲压缩，并详细研究了输出脉冲的时域和频域特性随入射脉冲强度的演化规律．实验结果表明脉冲自压缩量随入射脉冲强度的增加呈递增趋势，然而当入射光强增大到足以引起超连续谱及锥形辐射产生时，脉冲时域形状会发生分裂．此外还发现发散光束入射情况下同样可以观察到脉冲自压缩现象．

高强度飞秒激光脉冲在空气中的自压缩

利用高重复频率(1kHz)、吉瓦级飞秒激光脉冲实验验证了高强度飞秒脉冲在空气中的自压缩现象，研究了入射脉冲在不同初始啁啾情况下经空气中聚焦成丝后，时域及频域特性随入射脉冲能量的变化规律．实验结果表明，在无需后继色散补偿情况下，高强度飞秒脉冲仅通过在空气中的非线性传输过程就可以实现脉冲压缩；在入射脉冲为负啁啾情况下，实验观察到脉冲光谱及时域宽度同时得到压缩，并可获得比激光源所能提供的更短的近双曲正割型变换限脉冲．

飞秒激光对氟化镁烧蚀机理研究

用扫描电镜（SEM）研究了氟化镁在800nm超短脉冲激光作用下的单枪表面烧蚀形貌．根据烧蚀斑面积与激光脉冲能量间的对数关系，测得烧蚀阈值与激光脉宽的关系曲线（55—750fs）．计算了导带电子的双光子吸收，改进了多速率方程模型．很好地解释了实验结果．

负啁啾高强度飞秒脉冲在正常色散材料中传输特性研究

利用块状正常色散材料作非线性介质，实验研究了负啁啾强激光飞秒脉冲在正常色散材料的传输过程中，脉冲波形及频谱随入射脉冲能量的变化特性．实验发现，负啁啾脉冲经过材料后激光光谱在被整形和压缩的同时，脉冲宽度也被压缩．实验获得的压缩脉冲宽度短于相等光谱宽度下的双曲正割转换极限脉冲宽度。数值模拟结果显示，在实验条件下模拟结果具有同样的变化特性．

利用整形激光脉冲压缩薄膜靶得到中子源

研究了整形激光脉冲对冰冻氘氚靶的压缩。通过数值分析，发现利用分步激光产生的系列激波压缩氘氚靶可以获得较高密度和较低温度的等离子体靶。初始激光强度的选取将影响到压缩后的等离子体密度，继而影响到产生中子的数量。通过调节初始激光强度可以使压缩后的氘氚靶温度处在反应率比较高的范围内，从而得到优化结果。当初始归一化激光振幅为0．5，最终为32时，压缩后的氘氚靶密度可达到18416倍的临界密度，温度达到16keV，每焦耳入射激光能量可得到10。个中子，这个中子产额比现有其他方法所得到的中子产额大4个数量级。

强激光在窄通道中传播的理论研究

在考虑相对论和有质动力非线性以及全局电量守衡的前提下，分析了强激光在冷等离子体窄通道中稳定传播的情况。采用较为简化的二维理论模型，给出了描述激光和通道横向结构的解，对不同通道宽度、通道密度、激光强度和电磁模式等进行了讨论，分析了其对激光在等离子体通道中传播的影响。分析发现，在存在预通道的情况下，当等离子体通道的密度大于临界密度很多时（例如20倍临界密度），即使是在激光波长量缴的通道中，激光仍然可以传播。通道越宽，等离子体密度越小；激光强度越大越容易传播。在同样的通道和传输情况下，TE0模传输所需要的激光强