We report on the experimental observation of the airflow motion induced by an 800 nm, 1 kHz femtosecond filament in a cloud chamber filled with air and helium. It is found that vortex pairs with opposite rotation directions always form both below and above the filaments. We do not observe that the vortices clearly formed, above the filament in air just because of the formation of smaller particles with weaker Mie scattering. Simulations of the airflow motion in helium are conducted by using the laser filament as a heat source, and the simulated pattern of vortices and airflow velocity agree well with the experimental results.
We report the experimental demonstration of transform-limited sub-6 fs pulses at an optimal central wavelength by a tunable noncollinear optical parametric amplification（NOPA） source. Meanwhile, a white light continuum in the near-infrared（NIR） range from 900 to 1100 nm is also successfully generated by focusing the unconverted800 nm beam during NOPA generation on a sapphire rod. Both visible-pump/visible-probe and visible-pump/NIR-probe experiments are realized using the same laser system. As examples, ultrafast photo-induced exciton dynamics inside two kinds of materials are investigated by the visible-pump/visible-probe and visible-pump/NIR-probe spectroscopy, respectively.
Sub-picosecond chirped laser pulse-induced airflow and water condensation were investigated in a cloud chamber.The results indicate that the positively chirped sub-picosecond laser pulses generate a more uniform intensity distribution inside the plasma column, leading to a weaker airflow and an elliptic-shaped snow pile. The negatively chirped sub-picosecond laser pulses generate a spark-like intensity distribution inside the plasma column, which produces a wider range of airflow and a round snow pile. The amount of snow weight and the concentration of NO3-- are found to be dependent on the intensity distribution inside the plasma column. The visibly stronger plasma column generates much more snow and a higher concentration of NO3--. These experimental results provide a reference for sub-picosecond laser-induced water condensation in realistic atmospheric conditions.
We theoretically study the field-free molecular orientation induced by a three-color laser field. The three-color laser field with a large asymmetric degree can effectively enhance the molecular orientation. In particular, when the intensity ratio of the three-color laser field is tuned to a proper value of I3： I2： I1= 0.09 ： 0.5 ： 1, the molecular orientation can be improved by - 20% compared with that of the two-color laser field at intensity ratio I2： I1= 1 ： 1 for the same total laser intensity of 2×10^13W/cm^2. Moreover, we investigate the effect of the carrier-envelope phase（CEP） on the molecular orientation and use the asymmetric degree of the laser field to explain the result. We also show the influences of the laser intensity, rotational temperature, and pulse duration on the molecular orientation. These results are meaningful for the theoretical and experimental studies on the molecular orientation.
The influence of the carrier-envelope phase on high-harmonic generation is investigated, both experimentally and theoretically, for three different interaction gas media, driven by mid-infrared, few-cycle and CEP-stabiUzed laser pulses. Different patterns of harmonic spectra with varying CEP for the three interaction gas media are observed. Furthermore, in comparing our experiment results to the previous works driven by near-infrared laser pulses, different phenomena are found. Through numerical simulation, we find that for the two different kinds of driving fields, i.e. mid-infrared and near-infrared laser pulses, different kinds of electron trajectories contribute to the generation of high harmonics.
A geometry of transient-grating self-referenced spectral interferometry （TG-SRSI） is proposed for weak femtosecond pulse characterization. By using a reflective microscope objective （RMO）, we build a compact, robust, and easy to adjust device with a higher sensitivity to pulse energy in comparison to all previous SRSI methods. A 65 n J/- 40 fs/1 kHz pulse at 800 nm is successfully characterized, which speaks to the capability of our device to characterize a weak pulse. It is expected to extend the TG-SRSI method to the characterization of femtosecond pulses from oscillators in the near future.
We numerically study the pulse compression approaches based on atomic or molecular gases in a hollow-core fiber.From the perspective of self-phase modulation（SPM）, we give the extensive study of the SPM influence on a probe pulse with molecular phase modulation（MPM） effect. By comparing the two compression methods, we summarize their advantages and drawbacks to obtain the few-cycle pulses with micro- or millijoule energies. It is also shown that the double pump-probe approach can be used as a tunable dual-color source by adjusting the time delay between pump and probe pulses to proper values.
Laser wakefield accelerators（LWFAs） are compact accelerators which can produce femtosecond high-energy electron beams on a much smaller scale than the conventional radiofrequency accelerators. It is attributed to their high acceleration gradient which is about 3 orders of magnitude larger than the traditional ones. The past decade has witnessed the major breakthroughs and progress in developing the laser wakfield accelerators. To achieve the LWFAs suitable for applications,more and more attention has been paid to optimize the LWFAs for high-quality electron beams. A single-staged LWFA does not favor generating controllable electron beams beyond 1 Ge V since electron injection and acceleration are coupled and cannot be independently controlled. Staged LWFAs provide a promising route to overcome this disadvantage by decoupling injection from acceleration and thus the electron-beam quality as well as the stability can be greatly improved.This paper provides an overview of the physical conceptions of the LWFA, as well as the major breakthroughs and progress in developing LWFAs from single-stage to two-stage LWFAs.
A mode-locked（ML）picosecond ytterbium-doped thin disk laser using a monolayer Mo S2as the saturable absorber（SA）is demonstrated.The monolayer MoS2 is fabricated through the method of low-pressure chemical vapor deposition.The laser directly produces stable ML picosecond pulses at a slope efficiency of 9.71%.The maximum output power is approximately 890 mW,while the corresponding repetition,pulse energy,and pulse duration are 48.6 MHz,18.3 nJ,and 13.1 ps,respectively.Results suggest that the monolayer MoS2 is a promising SA for ultrafast lasers system.
We present a velocity-gauge model for the generation of even-order high harmonics, and reveal that the even-order harmonics originate from the multiple-step transitions among the energy bands in momentum space, while the odd-order harmonics are mainly from direct transitions. The lower valence band is found vital for the generation of even harmonics. Relative intensity of even-order harmonics versus the odd orders is calculated and shows a growing trend as the laser field amplitude increases.
