Conversion of recoilless gamma-radiation into a periodic sequence of ultrashort pulses in a set of dispersive and absorptive resonant media

An efficient technique to produce a periodic sequence of ultrashort pulses of recoilless gamma-radiation via its transmission through the optically thick vibrating resonant absorber was demonstrated recently [Nature, 508, 80 (2014)]. In this work we extend the theoretical analysis to the case of a set of multiple absorbers. We consider an analytical model describing the control of spectral content of a frequency modulated gamma-radiation by selective correction of amplitudes and initial phases of some spectral components, using, respectively, the resonant absorption or dispersion of nuclei. On the basis of the analytical solutions we determine the ultimate possibilities of the proposed technique.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure

γ -ray-pulse formation in a vibrating recoilless resonant absorber

© 2015 American Physical Society. ©2015 American Physical Society. We study propagation of γ radiation from a Mössbauer radioactive source through a vibrating recoilless resonant absorber and find the optimal conditions to produce a periodic train of γ-ray pulses with maximum peak intensity, several times higher than the intensity from the source, and minimum duration, much shorter than the lifetime of the emitting nuclear state of the source. The shape, duration, and repetition rate of the pulses are tunable in a wide range. We propose modifications of the recently reported experiment [F. Vagizov, Nature (London) 508, 80 (2014)10.1038/nature13018] to produce pulses with higher peak intensity and shorter duration using absorbers enriched by the resonant nuclei and discuss possible applications of the generated pulses for the time-domain Mössbauer spectroscopy

Attosecond pulse formation via switching of resonant interaction by tunnel ionization

© 2015 American Physical Society. We derive an analytical solution uncovering the origin of few-cycle attosecond pulse formation from vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) radiation in an atomic gas simultaneously irradiated by a moderately strong infrared (IR) laser field, which does not perturb atoms in the ground state, but induces rapid quasistatic ionization from the excited states [Polovinkin, Opt. Lett. 36, 2296 (2011)10.1364/OL.36.002296]. The derived solution shows that the pulses are produced due to periodic switching of the resonant interaction between the incident VUV radiation and the atoms: turning it off near the crests of the IR-field strength and switching it back on near the IR-field zero crossings. We extend the method originally proposed by Polovinkin [Opt. Lett. 36, 2296 (2011)10.1364/OL.36.002296] to non-hydrogen-like media and show that the pulses can be produced from resonant VUV radiation in a variety of atomic gases. The pulses are nearly bandwidth limited without external adjustment of phases of the generated sidebands. Proximity of the carrier frequency of the produced pulses to intra-atomic resonances may allow their efficient utilization for nondestructive steering of ultrafast dynamics of the bound electrons. The experimental possibilities for attosecond pulse formation from 58.4 nm VUV radiation in helium and from 73.6 nm VUV radiation in neon dressed by the 3.9 μm laser field, as well as from 122 nm VUV radiation in atomic hydrogen dressed by CO2-laser field are discussed

Coherent control of the waveforms of recoilless γ 3-ray photons

The concepts and ideas of coherent, nonlinear and quantum optics have been extended to photon energies in the range of 10-100 kiloelectronvolts, corresponding to soft γ 3-ray radiation (the term used when the radiation is produced in nuclear transitions) or, equivalently, hard X-ray radiation (the term used when the radiation is produced by electron motion). The recent experimental achievements in this energy range include the demonstration of parametric down-conversion in the Langevin regime, electromagnetically induced transparency in a cavity, the collective Lamb shift, vacuum-assisted generation of atomic coherences and single-photon revival in nuclear absorbing multilayer structures. Also, realization of single-photon coherent storage and stimulated Raman adiabatic passage were recently proposed in this regime. More related work is discussed in a recent review. However, the number of tools for the coherent manipulation of interactions between γ 3-ray photons and nuclear ensembles remains limited. Here we suggest and implement an efficient method to control the waveforms of γ 3-ray photons coherently. In particular, we demonstrate the conversion of individual recoilless γ 3-ray photons into a coherent, ultrashort pulse train and into a double pulse. Our method is based on the resonant interaction of γ 3-ray photons with an ensemble of nuclei with a resonant transition frequency that is periodically modulated in time. The frequency modulation, which is achieved by a uniform vibration of the resonant absorber, owing to the Doppler effect, renders resonant absorption and dispersion both time dependent, allowing us to shape the waveforms of the incident γ 3-ray photons. We expect that this technique will lead to advances in the emerging fields of coherent and quantum γ 3-ray photon optics, providing a basis for the realization of γ 3-ray-photon/nuclear- ensemble interfaces and quantum interference effects at nuclear γ 3-ray transitions. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited

Conversion of recoilless γ radiation into a periodic sequence of short intense pulses in a set of several sequentially placed resonant absorbers

© 2015 American Physical Society. An efficient technique for producing a periodic sequence of short nearly bandwidth-limited pulses of recoilless γ radiation via its transmission through an optically thick vibrating resonant absorber was demonstrated recently [Nature (London) 508, 80 (2014)10.1038/nature13018]. In this paper we extend the theoretical analysis to a case of multiple absorbers. We analyze a simple physical model describing control of spectral content of a frequency modulated γ radiation by adjusting the amplitudes and initial phases of spectral components, using the resonant absorption and dispersion in a set of several sequentially placed resonant absorbers. On the basis of analytical solutions, we determine the ultimate possibilities of the proposed technique

Transformation of a single-photon field into bunches of pulses

© 2015 American Physical Society. We propose a method to transform a single-photon field into bunches of pulses with controllable timing and number of pulses in a bunch. The method is based on transmission of a photon through an optically thick single-line absorber vibrated with a frequency appreciably exceeding the width of the absorption line. The narrow spectrum of the incoming photon is "seen" by the vibrated absorber as a comb of equidistant spectral components separated by the vibration frequency. Tuning the absorber in resonance with mth spectral component transforms the output radiation into bunches of pulses with m pulses in each bunch. We provide a simple analytical solution clearly describing this effect and experimentally demonstrate the proposed technique with a single 14.4-keV photon and an ensemble of vibrated Fe57 nuclei. This method opens an alternate way to the production of time-bin qubits