20 research outputs found
\u3ci\u3eIn Situ\u3c/i\u3e Measurement of Three-Dimensional Ion Densities in Focused Femtosecond Pulses
We image spatial distributions of Xeq+ ions in the focus of a laser beam of ultrashort, intense pulses in all three dimensions, with a resolution of ~3μm and ~12 μm in the two transverse directions. This allows for studying ionization processes without spatially averaging ion yields. Our in situ ion imaging is also useful to analyze focal intensity profiles and to investigate the transverse modal purity of tightly focused beams of complex light. As an example, the intensity profile of a Hermite-Gaussian beam mode HG1,0 recorded with ions is found to be in good agreement with optical images
High-power mid-infrared frequency comb source based on a femtosecond Er:fiber oscillator
We report on a high-power mid-infrared frequency comb source based on a
femtosecond Er:fiber oscillator with a stabilized repetition rate at 250 MHz.
The mid-infrared frequency comb is produced through difference frequency
generation in a periodically poled MgO-doped lithium niobate crystal. The
output power is about 120 mW with a pulse duration of about 80 fs, and spectrum
coverage from 2.9 to 3.6 um. The coherence properties of the produced
high-power broadband mid-infrared frequency comb are maintained, which was
verified by heterodyne measurements. As the first application, the spectrum of
a ~200 ppm methane-air mixture in a short 20 cm glass cell at ambient
atmospheric pressure and temperature was measured.Comment: 3 pages, 5 figure
Creation of optical vortices in femtosecond pulses
We experimentally created a femtosecond optical vortex using a pair of computer-synthesized holographic gratings arranged in a 2f - 2f optical setup. We present measurements showing that the resulting donut mode is free of spatial chirp, and support this finding with an analysis of the optical wave propagation through our system based on the Kirchhoff- Fresnel diffraction integral. An interferogram confirms that our ultrashort vortex has topological charge 1, and a conservative experimental estimation of its duration is 280 fs. We used 25-fs radiation pulses (bandwidth approximately 40 nm) produced by a Ti:sapphire laser oscillator
Intensity-Resolved Above Threshold Ionization of Xenon with Short Laser Pulses
We present intensity-resolved above threshold ionization (ATI) spectra of
xenon using an intensity scanning and deconvolution technique. Experimental
data were obtained with laser pulses of 58 fs and central wavelength of 800 nm
from a chirped-pulse amplifier. Applying a deconvolution algorithm, we obtained
spectra that have higher contrast and are in excellent agreement with
characteristic 2 and 10 cutoff energies contrary to that found for
raw data. The retrieved electron ionization probability is consistent with the
presence of a second electron from double ionization. This recovered ionization
probability is confirmed with a calculation based on the PPT tunneling
ionization model [Perelomov, Popov, and Terent'ev, Sov. Phys. JETP 23, 924
(1966)]. Thus, the measurements of photoelectron yields and the proposed
deconvolution technique allowed retrieval of more accurate spectroscopic
information from the ATI spectra and ionization probability features that are
usually concealed by volume averaging.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure
Real-time dual frequency comb spectroscopy in the near infrared
We use two femtosecond Erbium-doped fiber lasers with slightly different
repetition rates to perform a modern type of Fourier transform spectroscopy
without moving parts. The measurements are done in real time, and it takes less
than 50 microseconds. We work with somewhat different spectral outputs from two
Erbium-doped fiber lasers and employ spectral filtering based on a 2f-2f
grating setup to select the common spectral region of interest, thereby
increasing the signal-to-noise ratio. The interferogram is taken with a 20 cm
long gas cell, containing a mixture of acetylene and air at atmospheric
pressure, and is fast-Fourier-transformed to obtain the broadband spectral
fingerprint of the gas.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Ultrafast REMPI in benzene and the monohalobenzenes without the focal volume effect
We report on the photoionization and photofragmentation of benzene (C6H6) and of the monohalobenzenes C6H5–X (X = F, Cl, Br, I) under intense-field, single-molecule conditions. We focus 50-fs, 804-nm pulses from a Ti:sapphire laser source, and record ion mass spectra as a function of intensity in the range ~1013 W/cm2 to ~1015 W/cm2. We count ions that were created in the central, most intense part of the focal area; ions from other regions are rejected. For all targets, stable parent ions (C6H5X+) are observed. Our data is consistent with resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) involving the neutral 1ππ* excited state (primarily a phenyl excitation): all of our plots of parent ion yield versus intensity display a kink when this excitation saturates. From the intensity dependence of the ion yield we infer that both the HOMO and the HOMO-1 contribute to ionization in C6H5F and C6H5Cl. The proportion of phenyl (C6H5) fragments in the mass spectra increases in the order X = F, Cl, Br, I. We ascribe these substituent-dependent observations to the different lifetimes of the C6H5X 1ππ* states. In X = I the heavy-atom effect leads to ultrafast intersystem crossing to a dissociative 3nσ* state. This breaks the C–I bond in an early stage of the ultrashort pulse, which explains the abundance of fragments that we find in the iodobenzene mass spectrum. For the lighter X = F, Cl, and Br this dissociation is much slower, which explains the lesser degree of fragmentation observed for these three molecules
Laser-induced ultrafast electron emission from a field emission tip
We show that a field emission tip electron source that is triggered with a femtosecond laser pulse can generate electron pulses shorter than the laser pulse duration (100&#; fs). The emission process is sensitive to a power law of the laser intensity, which supports an emission mechanism based on multiphoton absorption followed by over-the-barrier emission. Observed continuous transitions between power laws of different orders are indicative of field emission processes. We show that the source can also be operated so that thermionic emission processes become significant. Understanding these different emission processes is relevant for the production of sub-cycle electron pulses
In situ tomography of femtosecond optical beams with a holographic knife-edge
We present an in situ beam characterization technique to analyze
femtosecond optical beams in a folded version of a 2f-2f setup. This
technique makes use of a two-dimensional spatial light modulator (SLM) to
holographically redirect radiation between different diffraction orders. This
manipulation of light between diffraction orders is carried out locally within
the beam. Because SLMs can withstand intensities of up to I~10^11 W/cm,
this makes them suitable for amplified femtosecond radiation. The flexibility of the SLM was demonstrated by producing a diverse assortment of "soft apertures" that are mechanically difficult or impossible to
reproduce. We test our method by holographically knife-edging and
tomographically reconstructing both continuous wave and broadband
radiation in transverse optical modes.This work was partially supported by the Robert A. Welch Foundation (grant No. A1546), the National Science Foundation (NSF) (grants Nos. 0722800 and 0555568), the Qatar National Research Fund (grant NPRP30-6-7-35), and the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research (USAFOSR) (grant FA9550-07-1-0069)