Self-compression of femtosecond pulses in argon with a power close to the self-focusing threshold

Self-compression of femtosecond pulses in noble gases with an input power close to the self-focusing threshold has been investigated experimentally and theoretically. It is demonstrated that either multiphoton ionization (MPI) or space time focusing and self-steepening effects can induce pulse shortening, but they predominate at different beam intensities during the propagation. The latter effects play a key role in the final pulse self-compression. By choosing an appropriate focusing parameter, action distance of the space time focusing and self-steepening effects can be lengthened, which can promote a shock pulse structure with a duration as short as two optical cycles. It is also found that, for our calculation cases in which an input pulse power is close to the self-focusing threshold, either group velocity dispersion (GVD) or multiphoton absorption (MPA) has a negligible influence on pulse characteristics in the propagation process.

Standing ultrashort relativistic solitons in overdense plasmas

By using a one-dimensional self-consistent relativistic fluid model, an investigation is made numerically on relativistic electromagnetic solitons with a high intensity in cold overdense plasmas with an electrons' initial velocity opposite to the laser propagating direction. Two types of standing solitons with zero group velocity are found at the given electrons' initial velocities. One is single-humped with a weakly relativistic intensity; the another is multi-humped with a strong relativistic amplitude. The properties of these two types of solitons are presented in detail.

Nonlinear X-wave formation and conical emission at different powers of a femtosecond laser pulse in water

Nonlinear X-wave formation at different pulse powers in water is simulated using the standard model of nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE). It is shown that in near field X-shape originally emerges from the interplay between radial diffraction and optical Kerr effect. At relatively low power group-velocity dispersion (GVD) arrests the collapse and leads to pulse splitting on axis. With high enough power, multi-photon ionization (NIPI) and multi-photon absorption (MPA) play great importance in arresting the collapse. The tailing part of pulse is first defocused by MPI and then refocuses. Pulse splitting on axis is a manifestation of this process. Double X-wave forms when the split sub-pulses are self-focusing. In the far field, the character of the central X structure of conical emission (CE) is directly related to the single or double X-shape in the near field. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Microstructure control and iodine doping of bismuth telluride

On the materials scale, thermoelectric efficiency is defined by the dimensionless figure of merit zT. This value is made up of three material components in the form zT = Tα²/ρκ, where α is the Seebeck coefficient, ρ is the electrical resistivity, and κ is the total thermal conductivity. Therefore, in order to improve zT would require the reduction of κ and ρ while increasing α. However due to the inter-relation of the electrical and thermal properties of materials, typical routes to thermoelectric enhancement come in one of two forms. The first is to isolate the electronic properties and increase α without negatively affecting ρ. Techniques like electron filtering, quantum confinement, and density of states distortions have been proposed to enhance the Seebeck coefficient in thermoelectric materials. However, it has been difficult to prove the efficacy of these techniques. More recently efforts to manipulate the band degeneracy in semiconductors has been explored as a means to enhance α.

The other route to thermoelectric enhancement is through minimizing the thermal conductivity, κ. More specifically, thermal conductivity can be broken into two parts, an electronic and lattice term, κ_e and κ_l respectively. From a functional materials standpoint, the reduction in lattice thermal conductivity should have a minimal effect on the electronic properties. Most routes incorporate techniques that focus on the reduction of the lattice thermal conductivity. The components that make up κ_l (κ_l = 1/3Cνl) are the heat capacity (C), phonon group velocity (ν), and phonon mean free path (l). Since the difficulty is extreme in altering the heat capacity and group velocity, the phonon mean free path is most often the source of reduction.

Past routes to decreasing the phonon mean free path has been by alloying and grain size reduction. However, in these techniques the electron mobility is often negatively affected because in alloying any perturbation to the periodic potential can cause additional adverse carrier scattering. Grain size reduction has been another successful route to enhancing zT because of the significant difference in electron and phonon mean free paths. However, grain size reduction is erratic in anisotropic materials due to the orientation dependent transport properties. However, microstructure formation in both equilibrium and nonequilibrium processing routines can be used to effectively reduce the phonon mean free path as a route to enhance the figure of merit.

This work starts with a discussion of several different deliberate microstructure varieties. Control of the morphology and finally structure size and spacing is discussed at length. Since the material example used throughout this thesis is anisotropic a short primer on zone melting is presented as an effective route to growing homogeneous and oriented polycrystalline material. The resulting microstructure formation and control is presented specifically in the case of In₂Te₃-Bi₂Te₃ composites and the transport properties pertinent to thermoelectric materials is presented. Finally, the transport and discussion of iodine doped Bi₂Te₃ is presented as a re-evaluation of the literature data and what is known today.

Superluminal optical solitons in a four-level tripod atomic system

With one weak probe field and two strong pumping fields, superluminal optical solitons are formed in a lifetime-broadened four-level tripod atomic medium. With proper parameters, both dark and bright solitons can occur in the highly resonant medium. The corresponding group velocity of the solitons can be superluminal. Meanwhile, the conditions for superluminal solitons occurrence are given.

Optical solitons in a four-level inverted-Y system

With one weak probe field and two strong pumping fields, the possibility of producing superluminal optical solitons is discussed in a lifetime-broadened inverted-Y atomic medium with proper parameters. As the group velocity of the solitons is larger than c, its occurrence can be controlled by modulating the intensities and the detunings of lasers.

高阶群速度色散引起的高斯超短脉冲宽度的展宽和形变

基于动量守恒和光参变过程中的三波耦合波方程, 和负单轴非线性光学晶体CsLiB6O10的色散方程, 研究了在光参变效应中超短激光脉冲由于群速度色散引起的展宽和形变。数值模拟显示, 在超短脉冲波形为双曲正割形和无啁啾调制时, 高阶群速度色散引起的超短脉冲为50 fs时, 晶体长度为10 mm, 紫外光213 nm作为基波入射时的脉冲展宽是波长为532 nm绿光在同等条件下的1.6倍。脉冲展宽程度与入射波长和晶体长度有关, 波长越短和晶体长度越长则脉冲展宽和波形变化越严重,高阶色散引起的超短高斯脉冲展宽, 将

基于多台阶反射光栅的飞秒脉冲压缩装置

反射式光栅对是一种具有负色散性质的器件,可用于飞秒激光脉冲的压缩和展宽,具有无材料色散的优点。给出了一种基于多台阶反射光栅的脉冲压缩装置。该装置为倍密度光栅结构,由两个周期分别为40μm和20μm的四台阶反射式光栅组成。实验得到的衍射效率可以达到70%以上,输入脉冲经过两个光栅的衍射后会按原路返回,从而达到色散补偿的效果。利用此压缩装置,脉冲宽度为66.8 fs的输入脉冲压缩至接近傅里叶变换极限脉冲,即46.6 fs,由此证明只要多台阶光栅效率足够高,此装置就有可能成为不同于棱镜对进行飞秒脉冲腔内和腔外压缩的另一种途径。

参变过程中的群速延迟对晶体匹配长度的影响

基于能量守恒和三波耦合波方程, 建立了超短脉冲在参变过程中二次谐波产生时的I类和II类相位匹配条件、基波与谐波之间的群速延迟时间、以及群速失配对晶体长度限制的理论基础。以负单轴非线性光学晶体CsLiB6O10为例, 分析和数值计算了超短脉冲宽度为100 fs时, 谐波的群速匹配长度随基波波长变化的规律。研究结果表明在I类相位匹配条件下, 基波波长为642 nm时, 群速延迟最小, 相应的群速匹配晶体长度最长为19.1 mm;在II类相位匹配条件下, 基波波长为767 nm, 群速延迟最小, 群速匹配长度最

基于频域相位共轭技术的交叉相位调制所致失真的复原

理论分析和讨论了基于频域相位共轭技术的交叉相位调制所致信号失真的复原和补偿机理，数值模拟了在交叉相位调制作用下，高斯脉冲在中距相位共轭光纤系统中的传输演化过程．结果表明，频域相位共轭技术能够抑制交叉相位调制对光纤系统中传输信号的损害，复原其所导致的信号失真，并能够同步补偿群速度色散和自相位调制非线性效应所导致的信号失真．合适的初始脉冲时延和初始脉冲啁啾有利于频域相位共轭技术对交叉相位调制所致信号失真的抑制．

Miniature pulse compressor of deep-etched gratings

We propose a miniature pulse compressor that can be used to compensate the group velocity dispersion that is produced by a commercial femtosecond laser cavity. The compressor is composed of two identical highly efficient deep-etched transmissive gratings. Compared with prism pairs, highly efficient deep-etched transmissive grating pairs are lightweight and small. With an optimized groove depth and a duty cycle, 98% diffraction efficiency of the -1 transmissive order can be achieved at a wavelength of 800 nm under Littrow conditions. The deep-etched gratings are fabricated in fused silica by inductively coupled plasma etching. With a pair of the fabricated gratings, the input positively chirped 73.9 fs pulses are neatly compressed into the nearly Fourier transform-limited 43.2 fs pulses. The miniature deep-etched grating-based pulse compressor should be of interest for practical applications. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America

超短光脉冲感应级联五阶非线性相移分析

由于群速度失配的影响,飞秒光脉冲在感应到FONPS（级联五阶非线性相移）的同时,将不可避免地发生脉冲畸变.通过理论分析及数值模拟,提出了使级联五阶非线性过程运行在较大相位失配条件下的解决方案,成功地消除了脉冲畸变.并且借助于该过程中倍频效率的提高,有效地补偿由于相位失配量的增大所造成的FONPS的下降,实现飞秒基频光脉冲在感应到大的FONPS的同时无脉冲畸变发生.

展宽器元件失调及带通分析

通过光线追迹法给设计的反射式单光栅展宽器建立了一个数学计算模型。利用这个数学模型计算和分析了元件失调对反射式单光栅展宽器二阶色散量和输出光束发散角的影响，并考虑了反射式单光栅展宽器中衍射光栅和球形凹面镜的尺寸与展宽器带通的关系。发现当平面反射镜M1的纵向偏离角为0．2°时．展宽器的二阶色散量最大，偏离角大于或小于0．2°时，展宽器的二阶色散量随之减小；得到了元件失调会增加输出光束发散角的结论；并发现展宽器中衍射光栅和球形凹面镜尺寸的有限大小对带通有限制作用。提出了利用反射镜M1纵向的适当偏离增大展宽器二阶

光谱相位相干技术测量飞秒脉冲的倍频误差

从理论上推导了第Ⅱ类相位匹配下宽带飞秒脉冲的二次谐波光场,分析输入飞秒脉冲的非共线相位匹配方式、脉冲带宽引起相位失配与群速失配对测量的影响。结果表明,为了消除飞秒脉冲的带宽影响,需要对测量记录的光强乘以一个调制因子;测量相位误差与非共线相位匹配的夹角和晶体长度成正比;相位失配与群速失配产生相位测量误差,且第Ⅱ类相位匹配方式下脉冲附加相位值较大;强度和相位误差需要在脉冲重建结果中补偿。

Diode-pumped Yb : GSO femtosecond laser

Compact femtosecond laser operation of Yb:Gd2SiO5 (Yb:GSO) crystal was demonstrated under high-brightness diode-end-pumping. A semiconductor saturable absorption mirror was used to start passive mode-locking. Stable mode-locking could be realized near the emission bands around 1031, 1048, and 1088 nm, respectively. The mode-locked Yb: GSO laser could be tuned from one stable mode-locking band to another with adjustable pulse durations in the range 1 similar to 100 ps by slightly aligning laser cavity to allow laser oscillations at different central wavelengths. A pair of SF10 prisms was inserted into the laser cavity to compensate for the group velocity dispersion. The mode-locked pulses centered at 1031 nm were compressed to 343 fs under a typical operation situation with a maximum output power of 396 mW. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.