Nonlinear copropagation of two optical pulses of different frequencies in photonic crystal fibers

A theoretical investigation of the nonlinear copropagation of two optical pulses of different frequencies in a photonic crystal fiber is presented. Different phenomena are observed depending on whether the wavelength of the signal pulse is located in the normal or the anomalous dispersion region. In particular, it is found that the phenomenon of pulse trapping occurs when the signal wavelength is located in the normal dispersion region while the pump wavelength is located in the anomalous dispersion region. The signal pulse suffers cross-phase modulation by the Raman shifted soliton pulse and it is trapped and copropagates with the Raman soliton pulse along the fiber. As the input peak power of the pump pulse is increased, the red-shift of the Raman soliton is considerably enhanced with the simultaneous further blue-shift of the trapped pulse to satisfy the condition of group velocity matching.

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%.

Long lifetime plasma channel in air generated by multiple femtosecond laser pulses and an external electrical field

The lifetime of a plasma channel produced by self-guiding intense femtosecond laser pulses in air is largely prolonged by adding a high voltage electrical field in the plasma and by introducing a series of femtosecond laser pulses. An optimal lifetime value is realized through adjusting the delay among these laser pulses. The lifetime of a plasma channel is greatly enhanced to 350 ns by using four sequential intense 100fs( FWHM) laser pulses with an external electrical field of about 350kV/m, which proves the feasibility of prolonging the lifetime of plasma by adding an external electrical field and employing multiple laser pulses. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.