9,484 research outputs found
Influence of Phase Matching on the Cooper Minimum in Ar High Harmonic Spectra
We study the influence of phase matching on interference minima in high
harmonic spectra. We concentrate on structures in atoms due to interference of
different angular momentum channels during recombination. We use the Cooper
minimum (CM) in argon at 47 eV as a marker in the harmonic spectrum. We measure
2d harmonic spectra in argon as a function of wavelength and angular
divergence. While we identify a clear CM in the spectrum when the target gas
jet is placed after the laser focus, we find that the appearance of the CM
varies with angular divergence and can even be completely washed out when the
gas jet is placed closer to the focus. We also show that the argon CM appears
at different wavelengths in harmonic and photo-absorption spectra measured
under conditions independent of any wavelength calibration. We model the
experiment with a simulation based on coupled solutions of the time-dependent
Schr\"odinger equation and the Maxwell wave equation, including both the single
atom response and macroscopic effects of propagation. The single atom
calculations confirm that the ground state of argon can be represented by its
field free symmetry, despite the strong laser field used in high harmonic
generation. Because of this, the CM structure in the harmonic spectrum can be
described as the interference of continuum and channels, whose relative
phase jumps by at the CM energy, resulting in a minimum shifted from the
photoionization result. We also show that the full calculations reproduce the
dependence of the CM on the macroscopic conditions. We calculate simple phase
matching factors as a function of harmonic order and explain our experimental
and theoretical observation in terms of the effect of phase matching on the
shape of the harmonic spectrum. Phase matching must be taken into account to
fully understand spectral features related to HHG spectroscopy
Attosecond Control of Ionization Dynamics
Attosecond pulses can be used to initiate and control electron dynamics on a
sub-femtosecond time scale. The first step in this process occurs when an atom
absorbs an ultraviolet photon leading to the formation of an attosecond
electron wave packet (EWP). Until now, attosecond pulses have been used to
create free EWPs in the continuum, where they quickly disperse. In this paper
we use a train of attosecond pulses, synchronized to an infrared (IR) laser
field, to create a series of EWPs that are below the ionization threshold in
helium. We show that the ionization probability then becomes a function of the
delay between the IR and attosecond fields. Calculations that reproduce the
experimental results demonstrate that this ionization control results from
interference between transiently bound EWPs created by different pulses in the
train. In this way, we are able to observe, for the first time, wave packet
interference in a strongly driven atomic system.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Effective Gap Equation for the Inhomogeneous LOFF Superconductive Phase
We present an approximate gap equation for different crystalline structures
of the LOFF phase of high density QCD at T=0. This equation is derived by using
an effective condensate term obtained by averaging the inhomogeneous condensate
over distances of the order of the crystal lattice size. The approximation is
expected to work better far off any second order phase transition. As a
function of the difference of the chemical potentials of the up and down
quarks, , we get that the octahedron is energetically favored from
to , where is the gap for
the homogeneous phase, while in the range the face
centered cube prevails. At a first order phase
transition to the normal phase occurs.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Phase Measurement of Resonant Two-Photon Ionization in Helium
We study resonant two-color two-photon ionization of Helium via the 1s3p 1P1
state. The first color is the 15th harmonic of a tunable titanium sapphire
laser, while the second color is the fundamental laser radiation. Our method
uses phase-locked high-order harmonics to determine the {\it phase} of the
two-photon process by interferometry. The measurement of the two-photon
ionization phase variation as a function of detuning from the resonance and
intensity of the dressing field allows us to determine the intensity dependence
of the transition energy.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, under consideratio
Attosecond pulse shaping around a Cooper minimum
High harmonic generation (HHG) is used to measure the spectral phase of the
recombination dipole matrix element (RDM) in argon over a broad frequency range
that includes the 3p Cooper minimum (CM). The measured RDM phase agrees well
with predictions based on the scattering phases and amplitudes of the
interfering s- and d-channel contributions to the complementary photoionization
process. The reconstructed attosecond bursts that underlie the HHG process show
that the derivative of the RDM spectral phase, the group delay, does not have a
straight-forward interpretation as an emission time, in contrast to the usual
attochirp group delay. Instead, the rapid RDM phase variation caused by the CM
reshapes the attosecond bursts.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Above threshold ionization by few-cycle spatially inhomogeneous fields
We present theoretical studies of above threshold ionization (ATI) produced
by spatially inhomogeneous fields. This kind of field appears as a result of
the illumination of plasmonic nanostructures and metal nanoparticles with a
short laser pulse. We use the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation (TDSE) in
reduced dimensions to understand and characterize the ATI features in these
fields. It is demonstrated that the inhomogeneity of the laser electric field
plays an important role in the ATI process and it produces appreciable
modifications to the energy-resolved photoelectron spectra. In fact, our
numerical simulations reveal that high energy electrons can be generated.
Specifically, using a linear approximation for the spatial dependence of the
enhanced plasmonic field and with a near infrared laser with intensities in the
mid- 10^{14} W/cm^{2} range, we show it is possible to drive electrons with
energies in the near-keV regime. Furthermore, we study how the carrier envelope
phase influences the emission of ATI photoelectrons for few-cycle pulses. Our
quantum mechanical calculations are supported by their classical counterparts
Transient absorption and reshaping of ultrafast XUV light by laser-dressed helium
We present a theoretical study of transient absorption and reshaping of
extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulses by helium atoms dressed with a moderately
strong infrared (IR) laser field. We formulate the atomic response using both
the frequency-dependent absorption cross section and a time-frequency approach
based on the time-dependent dipole induced by the light fields. The latter
approach can be used in cases when an ultrafast dressing pulse induces
transient effects, and/or when the atom exchanges energy with multiple
frequency components of the XUV field. We first characterize the dressed atom
response by calculating the frequency-dependent absorption cross section for
XUV energies between 20 and 24 eV for several dressing wavelengths between 400
and 2000 nm and intensities up to 10^12 W/cm^2. We find that for dressing
wavelengths near 1600 nm, there is an Autler-Townes splitting of the 1s ---> 2p
transition that can potentially lead to transparency for absorption of XUV
light tuned to this transition. We study the effect of this XUV transparency in
a macroscopic helium gas by incorporating the time-frequency approach into a
solution of the coupled Maxwell-Schr\"odinger equations. We find rich temporal
reshaping dynamics when a 61 fs XUV pulse resonant with the 1s ---> 2p
transition propagates through a helium gas dressed by an 11 fs, 1600 nm laser
pulse.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, RevTeX4, revise
Constrained Shape Optimization of Cold-formed Steel Columns
The objective of this paper is to introduce appropriate constraints in the shape optimization of a cold- formed steel column such that the resulting optimized shapes retain the strength benefits of unconstrained optimal solutions combined with practical manufacturing and constructional needs. Unconstrained shape optimization of cold-formed steel columns, where the cross-section that maximizes axial capacity is found, has previously been performed. Here, practical manufacturing and construction constraints are introduced into the optimization algorithm. Members with three lengths: 2 ft, 4 ft, and 16 ft, are considered. Optimized sections from multiple runs show uniformity and bear a close resemblance to unconstrained results. A point-symmetric ‘S’-shaped section has maximum capacity for long columns and a singly-symmetric ‘∑’-shaped section with complex lips performs best for shorter columns. The observed strength loss from the unconstrained optimal design, to the constrained optimal design, is within ten percent. A simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation algorithm, with the idea of injecting randomness in the gradient approximation to save computational cost, is adopted as the local optimizer. A systematic survey on a family of lipped channel cross-sections using the same amount of material was carried out. Comparison reveals that the optimized shapes have much larger capacities and exhibit the potential to seed a new generation of commercial products
Electron angular distributions in near-threshold atomic ionization
International audienceWe present angle- and energy-resolved measurements of photoelectrons produced in strongfield ionisation of Xe using a tunable femtosecond laser. An occurrence of highly oscillatory patterns in the angular distribution at low photoelectron kinetic energy is observed that correlates with channel closing/opening over a wide range of laser parameters. The correlation is investigated both experimentally and by means of systematic analysis of numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE). Our experimental and numerical results are in quantitative agreement with the semi-classical model introduced by Arbó et al. (Phys. Rev. A 78, 013406 (2008)), which relates the oscillatory patterns to interference between photoelectrons produced during different cycles of the laser pulse in the course of non-resonant ionisation of the atom. We observe that an increase of the laser intensity eventually leads to qualitative invariance of the pattern, defining a limit on the applicability of the semi-classical model
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