Propagation-invariant vortex Airy beam whose singular point follows its main lobe

We propose and demonstrate a novel vortex Airy beam which is a superposition of an Airy beam and its laterally sheared beam with a $\pi/2$ phase shift. This new-type of vortex Airy beam exhibits stable propagation dynamics, wherein its singular point closely follows its main lobe, unlike conventional vortex Airy beams. Notably, the orbital angular mode purity of this new vortex Airy beam is up to 10% better than that of a conventional vortex Airy beam. We anticipate that this new type of vortex Airy beam, which combines the characteristics of an optical vortex and a diffraction-free Airy beam, will facilitate new directions in applications such as microscopy, material processing and nonlinear optics

Ultrashort optical-vortex pulse generation in few-cycle regime

We generated a 2.3-cycle, 5.9-fs, 56-μJ ultrashort optical-vortex pulse (ranging from ～650 to ～950 nm) in few-cycle regime, by optical parametric amplification. It was performed even by using passive elements (a pair of prisms and chirped mirrors) for chirp compensation. Spectrally-resolved interferograms and intensity profiles showed that the obtained pulses have no spatial or topological-charge dispersion during the amplification process. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first generation of optical-vortex pulses in few-cycle regime. They can be powerful tools for ultrabroadband and/or ultrafast spectroscopy and experiments of high-intensity field physics

Quasi-automatic phase-control technique for chirp compensation of pulses with over-one-octave bandwidth-generation of few- to mono-cycle optical pulses

This paper introduces our self-recognition type of the computer-controlled spectral phase compensator (SRCSC), which consists of a greatly accurate phase manipulator with a spatial light modulator (SLM), a highly sensitive phase characterizer using a modified spectral phase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction (M-SPIDER), and a computer for phase analysis and SLM control operating in the immediate feedback (FB) mode. The application of the SRCSC to adaptive compensation of various kinds of complicated spectral phases such as nonlinear chirped pulses with a weak intensity, induced-phase modulated pulses, photonic-crystal-fiber (PCF) output pulses, and nonlinear chirped pulses exceeding a 500-rad phase variation over-one-octave bandwidth demonstrated that the SRCSC is significantly useful for compensation of arbitrary nonlinear chirp and hence enables us to generate quasi-monocycle transform-limited (TL) pulses with a 2.8-fs duration. To the best of our knowledge, this 1.5-cycle pulse is the shortest single pulse with a clean temporal profile in the visible to near-infrared region

Frequency-resolved measurement of the orbital angular momentum spectrum of femtosecond ultra-broadband optical-vortex pulses based on field reconstruction

We propose a high-precision method for measuring the orbital angular momentum (OAM) spectrum of ultra-broadband optical-vortex (OV) pulses from fork-like interferograms between OV pulses and a reference plane-wave pulse. It is based on spatial reconstruction of the electric fields of the pulses to be measured from the frequency-resolved interference pattern. Our method is demonstrated experimentally by obtaining the OAM spectra for different spectral components of the OV pulses, enabling us to characterize the frequency dispersion of the topological charge of the OAM spectrum by a simple experimental setup. Retrieval is carried out in quasi-real time, allowing us to investigate OAM spectra dynamically. Furthermore, we determine the relative phases (including the sign) of the topological-charge-resolved electric-field amplitudes, which are significant for evaluating OVs or OV pulses with arbitrarily superposed modes

Pulse compression using direct feedback of the spectral phase from photonic crystal fiber output without the need for the Taylor expansion method

Characterization and compensation of the complex spectral phase and the temporal profile of output pulses from a photonic crystal fiber (620-945-nm spectral broadening) were performed using a computer-controlled feedback system that combines a modified spectral-phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction apparatus and only a 4-f chirp compensator having a spatial light modulator. These pulses were adaptively compressed from 12-fs input pulses to 6.8-fs. In addition, the compressed pulse profile showed excellent agreement with results measured independently with fringe-resolved auto-correlation

Generation of 2.6 fs optical pulses using induced-phase modulation in a gas-filled hollow fiber

We report quasi-one-optical-cycle pulse compression of the ultrabroadband white-light continuum generated using both induced-phase modulation (IPM) and self-phase modulation (SPM) in a 3.0 atom Ar-gas-filled hollow fiber. Fundamental and second harmonic waves of amplified 30 fs Ti:sapphire laser pulses were irradiated into a 37 cm hollow fiber with an inner diameter of 140μm. When the two pulses were temporally overlapped in the hollow fiber, the white-light continuum with the wavelength range of 350-1050 nm was generated. The spectral phase of the white-light continuum was measured by a modified spectral interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction, and quasi-automatic feedback chirp compensation was carried out using a programmable liquid-crystal spatial light modulator placed on the Fourier plane of a 4-f system. As a result, 2.6 fs, 3.6μJ, 1.3 cycle transform-limited (TL) pulses with a peak power up to 1.4 GW at a 1 kHz repetition rate were generated in the visible to near-infrared region (the over-one-octave bandwidth of 450-975 nm). The fact that the IPM+SPM light was compressed to the TL duration is important toward the generation of a single, intense one-optical-cycle pulse in the visible region

Full Quantitative Analysis of Arbitrary Cylindrically Polarized Pulses by Using Extended Stokes Parameters

Cylindrically polarized (CP) modes are laser beam modes which have rotational symmetry of the polarization distribution around the beam axis. Considerable attention has been paid to CP modes for their various applications. In this paper, by using the extended Stokes parameters and the degree of polarization defined for the spatial distribution (DOP-SD), we fully-quantitatively characterize the spectrally-resolved polarization states of arbitrary CP (axisymmetrically polarized and higher-order cylindrically polarized) broadband pulses generated by coherent beam combining. All the generated pulse states were fully-quantitatively analyzed for the first time and proved to have high symmetry (DOP-SD greater than or similar to 0.95) and low spectral dependence of polarization states. Moreover, we show the DOP-SD, which cannot be defined by the conventional higher-order and hybrid Stokes parameters, enables us to make a quantitative evaluation of small degradation of rotational symmetry of polarization distribution. This quantitative characterization with high precision is significant for applications of precise material processing, quantum information processing, magneto-optical storage and nonlinear spectroscopic polarimetry

Picosecond rotation of a ring-shaped optical lattice by using a chirped vortex-pulse pair

A novel method of ultrafast rotation of ring-shaped op-tical lattice in the picosecond time region was proposed and demonstrated. Our ring-lattice generator was as-sembled by a pair of linearly chirped pulses with time delay, a high-order birefringent retarder, and an axially symmetric polarization element. Using a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser oscillator as a light source, stable two-, four-, and six-petaled ring-lattice rotations were respec-tively demonstrated with the rotation periods of 1.6 ps, 3.2 ps, and 4.8 ps. Our method has a potential to open up a new technique to resonantly excite propagating quasi-particles together with their coherent enhance-ment

Nonlinear coupling between axisymmetrically-polarized ultrashort optical pulses in a uniaxial crystal

Nonlinear propagation of focused axisymmetrically-polarized ultrashort optical pulses along the optic axis in a uniaxial crystal is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The energy transfer between an azimuthally-polarized pulse and a radially-polarized pulse is observed. To analyze the nonlinear propagation, a general paraxial equation with a third-order nonlinearity for axisymmetrically-polarized pulses in a uniaxial crystal is derived and the extended Stokes parameters (ESPs) based on cylindrical coordinates are newly-introduced. The simulation results by using this equation, providing the calculated ESPs, well explain our experimental observations: 1) the energy transfer is attributed to the four-wave-mixing effect, reflecting the overlapping between the axisymmetrically polarized modes, 2) the variations of the polarization defined from the ESPs are clarified to be affected by the self-and the cross-phase modulations, which make the effective propagation length long or short